iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

On 'The Line of Beauty' by Alan Hollinghurst Times Chief Literary Critic Joanna Carr writes: 'No writer understands better the erotic pull of beauty, class and proximity to power, or how costly those attractions can become.' Right, so you haven't got round to reading Fitzgerald yet then?

thetimes.com

The nine best books to read before you graduate

The author David Nicholls, mathematician Hannah Fry and more share the texts that helped to shape their world view

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just read a CFP concerning ‘art music which includes classical music, its avant-garde and the ‘global’ music now infusing it. It’s distinguished from jazz. Re: Julian Stallabrass’ suggestion that 'Art' might just be what’s made by people from art school. Is this the same but w/r to conservatoires?

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

This, on the battle for Warner. It’s about business issues, but the politics are underneath the discussion and keep surfacing, with Galloway interesting on monopolisation in tech/media and Swisher on point about the depredations of Hollywood. Towards the end, they focus on other parties involved.

youtu.be

Netflix and Paramount Face Off for Warner Bros: Who Will Win the Bidding War? | Pivot

YouTube video by Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

‘In newspapers and on television, every reference to a council estate is prefixed with the word ‘tough’, as though bare knuckle boxing is the leisure activity of choice for every British person who doesn’t own their own home.’

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Well Boy George and Glenn Tilbrook attended and did pretty well, although of course they were both expelled.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

This is an excellent short Lankum performance IMO, in which they play three of their most powerful, dark and slightly manic rearrangements of traditional Irish songs: The Wild Rover/Rocky Road to Dublin/Bear Creek.

youtu.be

Lankum – Live at WGBH

YouTube video by GBH Music

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Astonishing figures. OAI might be worth $.5tn, but plans to invest that amount in US data centres alone. It will have to make even more to pay off investors. Only one example of a tech. company with a huge valuation financed by other tech. companies. Analysts predict a market correction - at least.

nytimes.com

Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Brexit has cost the UK creative sector an estimated €184 million.

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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Good. Defamatory lying on social media is the aggressive business model of the 21st Century - pioneered by Alex Jones and copied by Candace Owen. It’s like a hostile takeover bid on a personal level. Horrible, disturbed and disturbing.

theguardian.com

French president and wife sue rightwing US commentator Candace Owens for defamation

Owens has claimed that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, is a man, and that French president is controlled by CIA

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Estimates of amount lost annually due to decreased trade are £120-140bn.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

I’m quite ready to believe that a good LLM could imitate, say, Nietzsche and even offer Nietzschean interpretations of different phenomena (although the quality and accuracy of them would be variable). But one of my questions is this: if Nietzsche hadn’t existed, could AI have invented him?

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Really? Are the guardian blatantly pitching for the teen readership now?

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Glastonbury media coverage reveals more about media than Glastonbury.

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Jeff Bezos appears to be wearing the wrong waistcoat for his wedding. This is a dinner suit (aka a tuxedo) and thus requires a dress waistcoat, which is cut lower on the body. He's wearing a business vest, which is designed for business suits. Needs a formal waistcoat like the one on the right.

Jeff Bezos wears a black peak lapel tuxedo with a formal shirt, dress studs, black bow tie, and a black business waistcoat. He's standing on what appears to be a boat. He's also wearing sunglasses.

Andy wears a black shawl collar dinner suit with a white formal shirt, black dress waistcoat, and a black bow tie. Mountains appear behind him and he's holding a martini. His Instagram handle is styleafter50

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

‘It is in the nature of moral qualities that they are destroyed by deficiency or excess’ Aristotle, Ethics. This seems as true to me now as the first time I read it. Picture: Aristotle from the School of Athens fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, Rome.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

There's a fair bit of Mexican/Tejano/Tex-Mex being played in our house right now, including various versions of this song, which was written and first performed by Lydia Mendoza in 1934. We like both versions a lot.

youtu.be

Rhiannon Giddens - "Mal Hombre" // The Bluegrass Situation

YouTube video by The Bluegrass Situation [BGS]

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

People should make their own judgments about Digicorp politics, including what to boycott, if anything. But for anyone who knows and cares anything about how the music business currently manages streaming revenue, I'll leave this here.

faroutmagazine.co.uk

Spotify CEO becomes chairman of AI military business

The Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, is leading a €600 million investment into a start-up company specialising in AI military software. He has also been named chairman.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

The stats DON’T show that the white-collar jobs market is collapsing. My observation: Altman et al have stopped using the term AGI. They now say ‘super intelligence.’ This is because AGI is a key Silicon Valley myth (read hype). AI hype is like C20 scientism: it’s only part-true.

economist.com

Why AI hasn’t taken your job

And any jobs-pocalypse seems a long way off

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Nick Lowe and Rat Scabies at the Stiff Office, London 1977, by Vincent Mc Evoy. His advice to The Damned when producing their first album (*the* first London punk album) was ‘bash it out, we’ll tart it up later’. This, alongside his reputation for ‘bashing down’ drinks, explains his nickname Basher.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

According 404 Media, there are, on Meta, 1. therapy bots that when you ask, tell you that they’re licensed and 2. conspiracy bots that will improvise and extend conspiracies for you. Part of the reason why both types respond in these ways is because they’re trained to keep you on the platform.

podcasts.apple.com

Meta's AI Chatbots Are a Disaster

Podcast Episode · The 404 Media Podcast · 30/04/2025 · 55m

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

This post started from a sense of puzzlement. The US constitution expressly provides that it is for Congress not president to set trade policy. Yet Trump is setting not only US trade policy but recasting the entire international trade system, by executive order. How was this possible? My answer.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

'Derrida's concept the "metaphysics of presence" is explored in "Voice and Phenomenon" (also "Voice and Phenomenon"), which is part of his book De la grammatologie.' The (in)accuracy of LLMs: the sentence's first half is right, the first half of its second half is debatable, its last part is wrong.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Trump and Xi Jinping are now playing tariff poker. I reckon the CCCP’s calculation is that in the event of a global recession, they’d be better able to unite and control their population than the US Government could theirs. If that’s the case, my guess is they’d be right.

thetimes.com

Trump tariffs latest: US escalates trade war with China

Trump pledged to impose an additional 50 per cent levy on China as share prices in the US, Europe, Britain and Asia fell sharply today

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

These screenshots show US voters care about the economy, and that Trump ran on that ticket. Right now, the global economy - and hence the US economy - is heading towards recession. Another example of Trump offering a simple ‘solution’ to a complex problem where that has made the problem worse.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Enjoying the 1970s game show vibe. Authentic.

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Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Nous créons un gouvernement adapté à la situation actuelle. Les Canadiens et Canadiennes s’attendent à ce que nous agissions, et notre équipe le fera. Nous formons un Conseil des ministres plus petit, expérimenté, qui agira rapidement pour sécuriser notre économie et protéger l’avenir du Canada.

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Thanks to everyone who signed the petition. Spotify, this is only a shred of decency. Please take down Tate’s other vile podcasts and think about paying artists who aren’t already wealthy more than a pittance.

theguardian.com

Spotify takes down Andrew Tate ‘pimping’ podcast after complaints

Misogynist influencer’s content reportedly sparked objections from staff as well as a petition signed by 92,000

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Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade. (2/2)

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Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

President Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the US and minimal impact here in Canada, while supporting the workers impacted. (1/2)

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Martin Murray @drmartinmurray.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

…but unlike most high school graduates, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to her that the movies might have represented America as the good guy and that there might be some kind of problem with that.

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Will Hermes @willhermes.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

RIP David Johansen. I once interviewed him for the Times; very funny, smart, spiritual in his way (“a Catholic Taoist,” he told me w/a phlegmy chuckle). A carved-in-stone New Yorker. A damn shame the Dolls never made it into the Rock Hall of Fame, an honor that I believe would’ve meant a lot to him.

nytimes.com

Return of the New York Dolls, What’s Left of Them (Gift Article)

The East Village band credited with inspiring, if not inventing, punk rock has made its third studio album, 32 years after its second.

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

american masculinity is so amazing. caring about clothes as a man apparently makes you "gay" but our position on geopolitics totally depends on whether you wear a suit

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