iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The UK, man. Turns out media and elite led moral panics lead to changes in views, who knew? With trans people and now neurodiverse people, depressing to see that a small number of fixated obsessives can shift public opinion and public policy to the extreme detriment of the vulnerable.

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Don't you ever step foot in here again!

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History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Absolutely not lol. I hugely appreciate @henrycooke.bsky.social's work but the American - and quite clearly incorrect in NZ English - usage of "nonplussed" is beyond the pale. It means taken aback, not unbothered! (I'm not actually outraged. But the usage *is*wrong & it's a bugbear of mine.)

He met the usual variety of voters - although it being 11am on a weekday most of them were on the job. Two security guards he chatted to were fairly nonplussed about the experience, telling me he was a lovely guy but they had actually met him before. One table of cafe-goers turned out to feature several employees of a government relations firm, meaning they were able to chat very intelligently with the prime minister about various issues – but probably do already know who they are voting for.

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

To mark Black History Month, we are resharing @martinspychal.bsky.social's article series on Peter McLagan, Scotland's first Black MP. McLagan's life and career is both fascinating its own right and has wider significance for understanding Black participation in nineteenth-century politics. 🧵[1/3]

historyofparliament.com

Peter McLagan (1823-1900): Scotland’s first Black MP - The History of Parliament

This is the first article in a new series for the Victorian Commons on Peter McLagan (1823-1900), by Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

Dr Lucy Stewart @lcsnz.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I've been shocked by a lot of what's happened to our science system over the last three years but banning puns in proposal titles is a new low, surely.

Screencap of a section from MBIE's 'Programmes Proposal Template – 2027 Transition Research Fund' specifying that titles of proposals may not include acronyms, abbreviations, 'humorous "tabloid" style titles', or puns.

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Absolutely fascinating and meaningful, thank you! Can I ask if you collected any data on sexual orientation and gender identity as part of this? My anecdotal experience & that of colleagues is that queer men have rather different experiences that straight ones.

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Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

On the one hand I agree, on the other hand the discourse (as it always, always does) has elided out the existence of queer men and for me, personally, while many wonderful queermasc character are written by people who are not, there IS something different about books by, for, and about queer men.

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

When you consider the scale of the economics and social impact of this, it’s genuine serious Hard Journalism being done here.

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Stephen Hill @srhastraea.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Showing my age here but the Astarion book discourse is the unholy child of the bioware forums and tumblr c 2015 and is bad in exactly the ways the overlap of those two discourse venues would suggest. Embarrassing for those big mad on the internet about it.

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

Great piece - most fascinating bit for me is that teaching students to use AI in helpful ways simply brings them up to the same level as students that don’t use AI - i.e., even in best case scenario AI provides no net advantage.

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

Nerds of a Feather @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Book Review: The Only Way Out Is Up by Django Wexler Robot battles, class politics, and numbers going up @dreddieclark.bsky.social has a meaty review discussing the book, progression fantasy, LitRPG and more : www.nerds-feather.com/2026/10/book...

nerds-feather.com

Book Review: The Only Way Out Is Up by Django Wexler

Robot battles, class politics, and numbers going up Django Wexler has had an incredibly consistent career across a wide range of subgenres...

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Includes announcement of this year's judges!

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A.M. Tuomala @amtuomala.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

"The greens have always talked about social and environmental justice in both identity and material terms but I only deigned to notice the latter this week: The Bryce Edwards story"

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Reposted by Eddie Clark

(2) She could wield compassion like a knife, and so when she wielded a knife, it felt like compassion.

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Correct and necessary media analysis.

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If you want KPMG catharsis are you aware of their 90s corporate loyalty song?

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Well that's only if they are in fact more right wing than they appear. Still think more likely than not to head left if they hold the balance of power

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Looking at the backgrounds of most of their candidates, I think the NGO analogy is more apt than a corporate consulting one. Or at least an equal part of it.

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And *even if they are* a centre right cat's paw, then them replacing one of the existing coalition partners is a net less worse government.

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The secret about going bald, imo, is to just go bald. Embracing it is much less effort than trying to fight it and ultimately doesn't look any worse in my opinion! I haven't gone the full shave but I keep my hair very short. (Also: hat mandatory in summer. Sunburned head is *unpleasant*)

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(while unlikely to vote for them myself, I'm personally fine with OPP's rise for one very specific reason: around the world we've seen the insurgent vote rise & go to far right bigot parties. If our iteration here is a bunch of slightly flaky centrist technocrats we should *all* be grateful)

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(the actual MPs from Labour & the Greens have been dismissive in the way you'd generally expect during an election campaign fight for votes, but not at the relevant level of intensity I'm talking about here.)

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It strikes me that the two groups I see most angry about OPP's rise are the members of the current government and Green Party-and-leftier posters on social media. Obviously not a cast iron rule or anything, but worth a gut check to see if you think that's relevant.

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Welcome to the dark side (and it looks really good on you!).

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Convincing people that single propositions xyz, which contribute to overall thesis A, are correct, the organization of paragraph & section and integration into a whole, are distinct skills imo. I feel like that distinct skill also applies to fiction, slightly modified, on a scene-by-scene basis.

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I'm not a fiction writer. But I do write a lot of journal articles and read a lot of papers. It's absolutely a thing where people write well at a sentence level, have a good overall point they're making, but can't put together the sub-units of an argument together well if their life depended on it.

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Book Review: The Only Way Out Is Up by Django Wexler

My latest review is up at @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social: Django Wexler's enormously fun progression (science) fantasy, The Only Way Out is Up. Robot wars meets street toughs & class politics. Also has a brief discussion of what progression fantasy is & where it comes from as it enters the mainstream

nerds-feather.com

Robot battles, class politics, and numbers going up Django Wexler has had an incredibly consistent career across a wide range of subgenres...

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Do people really think it's current hard left voters driving OPP? No! It's soft centrists pissed at Labour and people who stayed at home or voted Nat last time. It's growing the non right wing vote in the centre without hiving off meaningful amounts of genuine left wing support. That's good!

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