iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I'm going to take a little break from here for the next couple of weeks. Wishing you all some time for rest and relaxation during the remaining summer (and some rain and milder weather)!

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A belief that it’s legitimate to take funding from anyone offering it is (or at least has been) surprisingly common in parts of the Sciences - I have myself heard it expressed unironically by senior PIs.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Wetherspoons is big enough that this has a chance of making an impact on broader society, so this is welcome.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The weather is really trolling us here this morning - thick, dark clouds glowering since 7am but not a drop of actual rain fallen yet...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Plenty of people fail the 11+ and go on to get top grades at A Level - I am one of them!

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Professor Jason Arday's former students want to "gather everything good about Jason Arday, in the words of the people who were there" to make their contribution to the public record about him (rather than to debate events + controversies of recent months) leilacancode.github.io/everythinggo...

leilacancode.github.io

Everything Good About Jason Arday

First-hand accounts from people who knew him. Collected by his students.

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Jewish Voice for Peace @jvp.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

During the peak of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the Israeli military was killing thirty-seven mothers every day. Earlier this month, Palestinian author Ahmad Ibsais published “Femigenocide: The Targeting of Women to Carry Out Genocide” in @pennlawjlasc.bsky.social.

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Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A preliminary list of closures of campus bookshops at universities in the UK: Leeds (2010) Northampton (2012) Leicester (2016) De Montfort (2017) Stirling (2019) Essex, Bradford, Hull, Leeds, St. Andrews (2020) LSE (2021) Sheffield, SOAS (2023) I'd be grateful for tips regarding missing entries!

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Penny taking new steps to make her way on to the candidate list.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Neither agreeing nor disagreeing with this, but I’d just say countering isolation isn’t all about direct socialising with strangers. It can also be about being in a third space where life is going on around you - still valuable.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

You can demand a return to "Christian values", or you can attack empathy as "suicidal". You cannot do both.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Recently saw an early 00s Ab Fab episode where they go to Patisserie Valerie as a decadent treat in line with their upmarket tastes; between this and all the Bridget Jones references to Cafe Rouge as a cool hangout for young metro types, struck by how relatively quickly brand signifiers change...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Currently working on a review of these recent contributions to Ishiguro studies; looking forward to sharing my thoughts in due course!

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A decade ago I did the Speed Awareness course and one thing they spent a *lot* of time on was simply getting the group to accept that speeding is a crime. Given some of this discourse, you can see why they feel the need to do so.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Must admit I am finding the more repugnant responses to the death of Jason Arday (may he rest in peace), and the waves of comment they are setting off, both radicalising and overwhelming. Sympathy to anyone who is feeling similarly.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The dirty window spoils it a bit but the Brighton ikea cafe has a really excellent sea view in person

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I do think that at some point during the HE crisis the dam on the issue of VC/senior pay will have to burst, and they will look foolish for not having got ahead of the issue for the sake of what could have been a (to them) token reduction with no meaningful impact on their personal finances.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Notable that 'the fundamental principles that undergird our country' come before the mention of religion in Barron's comments, and religion only appears as a facet of existing political and social order. Hmm.

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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Can the UK government now send an emergency alert to teenagers to tell them that they don’t have to squeeze onto an overcrowded course at a Russell Group university because there are lots of other good universities around the country just waiting for their call

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I mean yes they probably shouldn‘t use the alert for anything other than really imminent danger but on the other hand…

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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Andy DON’T Burnham amirite

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William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Honestly, does anyone want to commission me to write this?

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

No probs with criticising adequacy of government on climate crisis, but some reaction to the disposable bbq ban is a bit silly/bad-faith - surely no one is claiming it’s a meaningful response to the crisis per se, it’s clearly a measure to reduce immediate risk of fire, which is worthwhile. Come on.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Both West Sussex and the bit of Warwickshire I come from have had nasty grass fires in the past 48 hours, and the Lewes train derailment during the same period is likely heat-related. Not good times!

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Steve Jones @drstevejones.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Out now in paperback: The Postmodern Slasher Film Published by @edinburghup.bsky.social #horrorNU edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-pos...

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John C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Beyond all the obvious moral and legal obligations, why do we continue to arm a nation that clearly despises everything we hold dear

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Alongside the lack of AC in this country, I am also feeling grumpy about all those places that have a AC but keep it on a bizarrely moderate level - I could do with the full Dubai Mall-style artic blast right now...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I think it’s no bad thing for the government to be pro-active in consumer protections, as with subscriptions. Imo we haven’t seen enough of that in recent years. But it risks being made incoherent if the push for AI in customer service functions continues to get enthusiastic ministerial backing.

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dave @gloomfather.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

yeah man "woke 1" sucked ass. I "woke 1" morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed into a giant insect

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This must not be treated as a progressive fantasy, a side issue to serious policy, or a bit of rhetoric to indulge in. This is something that must happen.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It does feel like - while it's nowhere close to the urgency any of us would wish - the media are starting to properly register the crisis; the tone of the reporting is gradually going up a few notches...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Trump when Stephen Miller asks to get into the catering truck.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Very concerned to hear of train derailment near Lewes - hope everyone is safe.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Since my immediate environment is suburban streets + the pebble beach + the sea, I don't see many fields or even lawns until I venture further afield (so to speak), so the extent to which everything is dried-out and at least looks dead if not actually dead still comes as a shock when I do so...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Random speech change I noticed: Until, say, the 90s I'm sure more UK people pronounced 'restaurant' in the French style, leaving the final 't' unvocalised (I happened to see some 90s footage recently showing exactly this.) But nowadays that's rare; 'restaurant' with hard 't' is pretty universal.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Trump when Stephen Miller asks to get into the catering truck.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

So if the Sun decides just not to come back after tonight, I assume all of us in the UK will take a day or two to enjoy the cool before we start to panic?

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Personally, I think what needs reckoning with is how fake it all was. Centrists convinced themselves annoying leftists on twitter were an equivalent threat to Jan 6 insurrectionists. They wildly inflated the threat of left-wing authoritarianism while ignoring how it was taking hold on the right.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

There's an obvious risk for this sort of figure in the fact that a lot of their success is essentially built on public self-incrimination. There's a stupid trend among the sub-Tate manosphere accounts now to post about how much they enjoy tax fraud and oh boy, if they're ever in trouble for real...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Aside from dubious accuracy re Loach and Leigh, the UK’s working class is a vast category with disputed, shifting boundaries; unsurprisingly, parts of it have sometimes been v reactionary and parts have been progressive. We do not have to replace history with a binary choice of preferred propaganda!

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Heartened to see that my university is ending its contract with Turnitin before the next academic year, because Turnitin is going to use student submissions to train AI models. Institutions can and should resist this stuff!

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Out of interest, if you were reading an academic book and found a few instances where it directly repeats substantial chunks of text, and in a way that is unexplained and looks like a mistake, what would you suspect had gone on?

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Great to have some new followers here recently - if you're interested in my research, check out my book, available as an affordable paperback...

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Very Ishiguro-coded scenario here…

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Few incentives left for HE employers to invest in retaining people when a) for any post, there are 100s of overqualified people, more or less equally strong b) managements focus on survival, mostly lack resources to be strategic for long term; c) almost any departure often welcome to cut costs.

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Dominic Dean @drdominicdean.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My paper copy of the LRB just arrived, now to get a coffee and check out this niche article…

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Phil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It is an unfortunate fact about Britain that we are caught between several competing factions of conservative extremism whose only compatibility is the belief that The Left are the ones stopping them creating utopia.

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