iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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gav @gavinmit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

this needs a push to help going through october if you can help our friend carry on getting the therapy they need. shares also appreciated, thanks 🙏 www.gofundme.com/f/vital-ther...

gofundme.com

Donate to Vital therapy for a much-loved comrade, organized by Friends Helping with Therapy

- Update added (21 Oct) We urgently need your help for vital t… Friends Helping with Therapy needs your support for Vital therapy for a much-loved comrade

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 10h

It's #NationalBadgerDay! If you are lucky enough to see Brock, leave him in peace, and wish him a bellyful of delicious worms.

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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 22h

Perjurer, racist, former politician and terrible novelist Jeffrey Archer has died. That he sold 300m copies of his books is testament to the limits of good taste.

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 22h

Massive Tory criminal down folks!

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When I was about 4, our school watched a Jim Henson film as an end of term treat. I expected Kermit and Miss Piggy. Instead I got Skekses and Garthim, followed by nightmares

static.klipy.com

The Dark Crystal Skektsi

Alt: The Dark Crystal Skeksis (a grotesque skeletal vulture creature). Definitely not Kermit the Frog

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frank n furter @mxfrankduffy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

just two left of this limited-edition linoprint, called "how many fears" shop.frankduffy.co.uk/product/how-... #artsky #art #printmaking

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My job for the weekend is to renew all of the kids' passports, and how is it that an Irish passport is €20 for a child, but a UK one (which is less useful) is £66.50 (nearly €80)??

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I love Þ, ſ, and Æ. I appreciate ð, and I am confused by ȝ, ƿ and ᵹ

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I’m nearly ten years older than him and I have infamously low self esteem, and even I think I look better than him

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

If you see this, post a vampire that isn't Dracula (this vamp is demonstrating his confusingly evil nature by wearing both a belt and braces/suspenders simultaneously)

Remmick from Sinners: a white man with brown hair wearing a cotton shirt and tweedy-looking trousers. There's a banjo slung over his shoulder on a piece of rope. He's also wearing both a belt and braces/suspenders, to show he's evil

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Hellebore @helleborezine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

⚡️IT’S HERE!⚡️ Ruined temples, living myths, riddles and enigmas, Medieval mystics, a gas-lit world of secret societies and energy grids, psychedelic revivals, and sonic experiments at the City of the Dead. 👉🏼 Gaze into the eyes of the sphinx and pre-order The Mystery Issue on helleborezine.com

A woman standing by a sphinx, the wind beating her cape

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James Alistair Henry @jamesbluecat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Waterstones have picked Pagans as one of their Paperbacks of the Year, so in all stores at 20% off!

Cover of Pagans, as one of Waterstones' Paperbacks of the Year

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Citrus medicka @bigwheel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

hey mufos. if you're into any occult studies and/or practices, imagine the perfect occult shop. what are some of the most important things it contains?

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

At the petrol station, the man filling his car next to me carefully clicks the filler trigger to land exactly on a whole number of pounds. He overshoots, and then lands perfectly on the next whole number. Me, doing the exact same thing at the next pump:

static.klipy.com

Pedro Approves Pedrorc Nod Meme

Alt: Robert Redford doing an approving nod meme

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Enormous news from Chez Lorna, where we had a visit from Lily the Jack Russell puppy. Lily is a very good girl, and she likes tummy tickles, hiding under sofas, and biting things

A rough coated Jack Russell puppy, mostly white but with one brown ear and some random black spots. She is being held on her owner’s lap, but is straining forward to have a good sniff and explore of the phone I’m using to take her picture

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When I was in an English-speaking primary school in Nordrhein-Westfalen, someone came in to teach us about St Martin, and how he'd leave gifts for us in our shoes on St Martin's Eve. We went home and proudly told our parents this, whereupon they had to scramble to the shop for sweets for the shoes

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👻 🎃 🦇 Bela Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A very dear friend and antifascist comrade is facing serious charges resulting from defending migrants housed in hotels in Bristol from a far right march in 2025. He's a father, has £11k in legal fees up front, and may be facing prison time if he doesn't win. Please dobate below.

chuffed.org

Support a Bristol antifascist on trial

Support a Bristol antifascist facing charges for resisting far right attacks

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👻 🎃 🦇 Bela Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I've known this dude for 20 years. One of the first friends I made in Bristol, he taught me what it means to be an antifascist. If there's dinner, he's cooking, if there's a benefit gig, he's flyposting, and if there's fash, he's first in, last out. I have literally bled alongside this man.

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frank n furter @mxfrankduffy.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

your yearly reminder that #Mabon is a Welsh word plucked out of Y Mabinogi by an American Wiccan in the 1970s for some bullshit reason (maybe bc Welsh sounds all Elvish to non-speakers), it has fuck-all to do with the autumn equinox, & the Welsh witches I know refuse to use it #witchsky

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oneoneoneone @oneoneoneone.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

this has reminded me of possibly the best book review I've ever seen, an anonymous marxist amazon review of the 1971 children's book "The Elephant and the Bad Baby"

This is in my opinion one of the finest pieces of prose ever written in the English language, a rich piece of surrealist art with a solid moral and a memorable refrain. However, a considerable sea of subtext roils beneath the apparently placid surface.

The richness of the text demands a deeper and fuller analysis, a broader and wider interrogation of its themes and ideas, than a mere surface reading would allow. In these days of Brexit and border walls, a fresh examination of this seminal work would, I believe, have significant value. On the surface it is a simple, albeit highly surreal, lesson on manners. In this study, I intend to show that The Elephant and the Bad Baby actually represents an incisive critique of the politics of division, and the establishment’s use of systematic othering as a method of deflecting criticism and defending the social and political structures that maintain a wealthy elite at the expense of the proletariat.

WARNING: IF YOU’VE NOT YET READ THE ELEPHANT AND THE BAD BABY, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW.

To summarise the story, an elephant one day decides to go for a walk through what appears to be an industrial town in the north of England in the 1950s or 60s. Soon after setting off, he meets a baby sitting by himself in the middle of the road. We are immediately informed that this is a Bad Baby, although as yet he has done nothing to deserve this epithet. Apparently Ms Vipont doesn’t follow the maxim of ‘show don’t tell’.

The elephant offers the baby a ride. The baby curtly accepts, the elephant picks him up, sets him on his back and they go rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta, all down the road. This is not the last time that they will do this.

They soon come across an ice cream stand, and the elephant asks if the baby would like an ice-cream. Again the baby offers a curt acceptance. The elephant takes an ice cream for himself, an ice-cream for the baby, and they go rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta, all down the road.

Eagle-eyed readers will have reali…

The scene repeats itself at a baker, snack bar, a grocer’s, a sweet shop, and a fruit barrow. Each time the elephant takes an item for himself, an item for the baby, and goes rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta, all down the road with an ever-growing posse of angry shopkeepers, some of them armed, chasing after.

We now learn why the baby is Bad. It is now that the elephant realises that throughout this whole process, the baby has not once said please. He stops so suddenly that the baby goes flying off his back onto the road, and the posse chasing close behind run straight into the back of the elephant and fall in a heap. By some miracle, none of them are hurt.

The elephant complains loudly at the baby’s lack of manners, and the posse pick themselves up and commiserate, expressing their shock at the baby’s rudeness. The baby asks (politely) to be taken home to his mummy. The elephant picks him up, puts him on his back and goes thrice rumpeta all down the road. The posse continue to chase them, some of them still brandishing weapons.

They get to the baby’s house, where his mummy offers everybody pancakes for tea. They politely accept, then everybody leaves. The elephant rumpetas all down the road, the shopkeepers run off (still waving weapons) and the baby, having learnt a salutary lesson in basic courtesy, goes to bed.

That’s the story as it first appears, but I believe a deeper analysis of the work is possible, nay desirable.

Firstly then, what does the eponymous pachyderm represent? I would argue that the elephant represents the bourgeoisie, the establishment operated by a wealthy elite which includes high-level business people, press barons and financiers in addition to the traditional aristocracy and political classes. It might be going too far to suggest that Ms. Vipont was thinking of the traditional symbol of the Republican party in America when she wrote this work. Then again, it might not.

The elephant decides to take a stroll. However, unpleasant details immediat…

However, the elephant has not paid for any of these things, and has no intention of doing so. More, he takes two of each thing, suggesting that he only ever offers the baby things that he wants himself. An angry mob quickly builds. The various shopkeepers of course represent the native working class. They are butchers, bakers, grocers, market stall owners. Ordinary, decent, hard-working people. The elephant seizes the fruits of their labour and rushes away without a word. Understandably angry, opposition starts to grow.

Soon the elephant can’t ignore the growing, increasingly angry backlash to his repeated depredations, his stripping away of the working class’s hard-won but meagre wealth. He stops so suddenly that his pursuers run into the back of him, losing all organisation and direction in their surprise.

Now for a piece of masterful deflection. ‘He never once said please!’ the elephant cries, pointing accusingly at the fallen baby. The shopkeepers pick themselves up, and immediately fall for the elephant’s trick. ‘How terrible! He never once said please!’ Swept up with moral indignation, the thefts and the chase are already forgotten. The illustration on this page is particularly revealing. The baby sits huddled miserably on the ground. On one side of him is the elephant, frowning and pointing accusingly with his trunk. On the other are the assembled proletariat, all also frowning and pointing accusingly. The elephant has taken the anger of the mob and deftly turned it away from himself.

The people have, in a flash, forgotten that it was the elephant that stole their produce. They have forgotten that every time, the elephant kept half of the stolen goods for himself. All they are focused on now is this small, defenceless individual who has marked himself as an outsider by failing to follow cultural norms that he was in all likelihood honestly ignorant of. Apparently, the fact that the baby didn’t say please is of far greater weight in the minds of the shopkee…

The subtext is clear. ‘Ignore the misuse and misappropriation of public funds,’ the elephant cries. ‘Ignore the inflated salaries of CEOs, the off-shore tax havens, the legal loopholes that allow the rich to grow richer from the work of the ordinary person, while they struggle with rent increases, price inflation and stagnant wages. Look over there! Look at that person! They’re different to us! Their ways are not our ways, their customs are not our customs! They have benefitted from our generosity. They have eaten the food that you have made, and you have received nothing in return. Is this fair? Is this just? Will you accept this state of affairs for a second longer? No!’ And to their shame, the proletariat fall for the deception and turn their wrath on the minority. Regardless of the fact that the minority was invited here, regardless of the fact that they only took what they were offered, it is far easier to believe the elephant and take out their frustrations on a target that can’t fight back than to question him, and risk shaking the foundations of their world, no matter how badly they might need shaking.

Once the minority has suffered the misplaced wrath of the majority, the elephant gallops away without punishment, and the workers return to their businesses, temporarily sated and convinced that justice has been done. And, as the last line of the book goes, the Bad Baby went to bed.

Elfrida Vipont’s bitter satire is more relevant today than it was when it was written. A surface reading presents the elephant as the put-upon protagonist, and the baby as the ill-mannered antagonist. A more rigorous examination flips these roles around. The elephant is a cunning, silver-tongued rogue, using his benevolent public image and powers of persuasion and rhetoric to obfuscate his crimes and protect his vested interests. The baby becomes the innocent protagonist, as much a victim as the hard-working men and women whose goods the elephant steals, if not more so.

Unlike Y…

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Nicola Miller @nicmiller.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Come listen to me interview @meemalee.bsky.social and Tim Anderson in what promises to be a delicious conversation about the ever-evolving relationship between author & reader and the responsibilities, challenges and pleasures inherent in writing about food. www.burylitfest.co.uk/product-page...

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Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I'm gathering good roasts for a thing....what are the best clean/not punching down ones you know? Or your kids know? Kids often know best on these matters. Every joker who replies with a picture of some roast lamb will be stopped. Perhaps not today. But one day. I mean insults and you know that.

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The man looks like Homer Simpson’s webpage

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Reading has been somewhat scuppered by the galloping lurgy, but I was feeling well enough to read several chapters of this today, and it is *fab*. Please do give it a read!

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Misread number 6 as Help! My Uncle’s In Love With The Domme Queen! and honestly it still works

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

NASA picture of the day today is a real 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿beauty! This is a composite image of the ~5000yo Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis. The amazing Giuseppe Petricca has only gone and photographed the Sun at noon there, every few days, for a whole year. #Dedication 🔭🧪👌 ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/image-articl...

The imposing Callanish Stones stand talk with their shadows spanning out across the glass. It's a super clear sky, but looks cold. Above the central stone is a strange figure-of-8 shape of dots. This is the location of the Sun, at noon, on various different days across the year.

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Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The autumnal equinox is only a few days away and here's what Stonehenge looked like in the 16th century. BL Add MS 28330; Lucas De Heere, Corte Beschryvinghe van Engheland, Schotland, ende Irland; 1573 CE-1575 CE; England (London); f.36r @blmedieval.bsky.social

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Disappointed I never made it in academia, probably, but surprised and impressed that I now work in IT given that 20YO me was not at all confident with computers

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“Well, ‘tis a fairly simple sport, like. Your man says go at the start, like, and then there’s a finish line and 500 crocodiles…”

The O’Donovan brothers, Irish rowers being interviewed on The Graham Norton Show after winning silver in the Rio Olympics. They gave a fabulously nonchalant interview which you can watch here https://youtu.be/vmrYlnE9GAI?is=dx0wAimpqZWdXcHJ

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The back-to-school lurgy has got me, but fortunately Mr Lorna has come to the rescue

A bottle of original flavour lucozade, the kind you drink when you’re sick

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Oh my god, this thread. I knew some of this stuff before, but very much not all of it.

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👻 🎃 🦇 Bela Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Macklemore is a real case study in how you can be Kind of a Dumb Guy but still end up broadly on the right side of most things merely by being generally quite good-natured, because questions like "should trans people exist?" and "is it bad to do a genocide?" are actually really uncomplicated.

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Pcunix @pcunix.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I wish I had 1 million people to share this with. medium.com/open-microph... by Mitch

medium.com

There’s a Rat in the Refrigerator!

My daughter will never let me forget what happened next

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I wish JK Rowling had never written that damn book. The world would be a better place

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

What’s wrong, babe? You’ve barely tasted your peachnis

A peach with an extra growth on it which looks like a penis

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Nicola Miller @nicmiller.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I've organised what I think is a great programme of food-related events for this year's @burylitfest.bsky.social. We have a special offer running on tickets right now and I'd so love you to attend. www.burylitfest.co.uk/food-programme

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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The RNLI have some of the best people in Britain volunteering for them. They put their lives on the line when they are called on and they will rescue anyone who needs them. Because every life matters, and offering help is the right thing to do. You can donate here: rnli.org

rnli.org

RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Saving Lives at Sea

The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. We do this through lifeboat search and rescue, lifeguards, water safety education and international interventions.

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big bleat from badsville @djepelgesh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

thank you The New York Post for what may be the funniest image of all time

a picture from the NY Post titled " today’s leftists are possessed by the spirit of France’s 18th-century guillotine-loving revolutionaries" (way too long) that shows Mamdani (the specter haunting Europe) smiling in the sky as a bunch of French people goof around

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☠️ Skulls and Sheets 👻 @skullsandsheets.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Hey everyone! If you enjoy ny artwork, you can support me on patreon: $5 gets you the monthly digital digest of undead horse ladies $10 gets you not only hot undead horse lady action BUT a bonus exclusive print! www.patreon.com/c/skullsands...

patreon.com

Skulls and Sheets — Creating mari lwyd inspired artwork

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Lorna @florilegia.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

This popped into my mind unbidden, and I’d like to point out that the bug is after buying 28 pints of the Guinness! What a generous chap he is, what a gentleman

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