iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 5h

They’re gonna ban me from this veterinary practice one day.

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Reposted by Graeme Strachan

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 6h

Glory to Ukraine

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 20h

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…

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Reposted by Graeme Strachan

Federation of Scottish Theatre @fedscottheatre.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

We're looking for someone with practical experience of day-to-day bookkeeping and administration who enjoys working accurately, keeping things organised & providing a helpful service to join the FST Team part-time as our Administration and Finance Assistant 💙 🧵1/2

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Alexander Sliwinski @sliwinski.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

And here we are! It's happened. (Starship Troopers nailing the future. We live in satire.)

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Worse still, it's a statement from Trump's government that "we will kill openly, as a spectacle, and we will make money from it" That's long before down a normalised road where the public become benumbed to it or worse... want more, and more.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The normalisation of cruelty is a hard line which cannot be allowed to roll back. One of the reasons that public executions were banned was that it was inhumane, but also bloodthirsty and an incitement to provoke spectacle from the bringing of death. Openly and widely.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

That there even is a death penalty is a bizarre and outdated concept, but the idea of using it as public exhibition is medieval, literally. Worse still, for profit. PROFIT. This is Murder for money, nothing else.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I don't want to hear people like @mrjamesob.bsky.social or @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social have their usual, "well, shall we discuss this? What are the pros and cons" No, this is just a flat outright disgrace, the latest in a long line of utter disgraces that we wink at with a sigh as a culture.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Seriously, this has to be where the line is drawn. If news outlets in America and the world have any grace and good sense, they will not run a second of the footage from this, or about this, other than to run condemnation of it. Every moment of coverage of this should be nothing other than that.

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Youth Theatre Arts Scotland @ytartsscot.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Scottish Youth Theatre are running a Young Artist Survey to understand what would be most beneficial and how they can best support and advocate buff.ly/RLgGKgG (deadline - 4 Nov 2026)

buff.ly

Scottish Youth Theatre: Young Artist Survey - YTAS

Take part in Scottish Youth Theatre's young artist survey and be in with the chance of winning a £50 voucher.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I hear they killed and ate the queen, and lord Ilay. It was a messy time for a while on the back of a tenner.

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Jay Annelli @vorthosjay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Reminder: If you haven't signed already, please sign.

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Reposted by Graeme Strachan

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This is absolutely damning. A must-read.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I just found 2 pages of a short story lying around that I thought I'd literally only written like 4 lines of notes for. Bizarre. It's alright as well. Nice.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Makes sense. Trump already thinks everyone else is either an idiot or an enemy.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I get the intent can be “pure” (laughable, but whatever, some folk are naive) and it comes from a position of “we can do effects and posters we could NEVER have afforded which will make our play great!” But honestly to me it’s as bitter as if they held up a sign saying “we didn’t pay our tech crew”

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

But it’s now cropping up in fully priced productions and there’s no mention of it in the PR or marketing anywhere. But it’s there, in the plays, often as part of video sequences or projected effects.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Similarly, a lot of Fringe shows had AI-generated posters art. And I won’t lie. I simply wouldn’t review a show that used AI to do their poster at the Fringe. I’m sorry, but I’d rather go you used MS Paint, or poster paints and crayon. I’d respect it more.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I saw a play (one I wasn’t reviewing) over the summer and I balked that it used AI generated posters. Which all had that shiny, swoopy look they have. It galled as did the animated images they used on background screens during the play. If I HAD reviewed it. I’d have had a lot to say.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Can we talk about… the use of AI generated imagery in modern theatre? Because it’s starting to piss me off. I see it more and more and it never gets any nicer or less jarring. (I am reposting this as I accidentally referred to it as ‘art’ which it decidedly is not)

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Reposted by Graeme Strachan

John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

🧵 Attention, Fellow SFF Artists and Authors -- here is my response to Must Read Magazines, after they presented an Asimov's art contract expecting me to waive all Moral Rights and Copyright to my art. And, I would strongly advise the following to my fellow pros…. 1/

John Picacio’s response to Must Read Magazine’s request for his waiver of all Moral Rights and Copyright of his commissioned art for an ASIMOV’S assignment. Short version — Picacio says a resounding NOPE.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Just realised I forgot the word “dog” in the first post which may have confused some people. Ha ha ha ha

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

But also, what an adorbs cutey of an old man he is.

An old golden doodle sleeping soundly on a green patterned blanket being the goodest cutest pupper boi.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Partner’s was up half the night, licking and chewing himself. Now it’s 7am and he’s sleeping like a baby. WHY?

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Well, that’s my day wasted 🤣

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Also staggered by the idiocy of the “no inheritance tax on houses, no stamp duty, no mansion tax, and an EXTRA million before inheritance tax kicks in” If ever there was a question of who the Conservative Party works on behalf of, that’s it. If you don’t have MILLIONS in the bank. It ain’t you.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I also love how she talks about enforcing rules on what benefit money can be spent on one minute then later professes that “we are the party who doesn’t believe in telling people what to do with their money”

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“He who seeks peace should prepare for war” , is from Vegetius, De Rei Militaris, a Roman military tactics and ordering manual. It’s so utterly divorced from principles of politics as to be utterly defunct. But listening to this cockamamie speech, it’s barely surprising.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Did Kemi Badenoch seriously just quote Vegetius? Context…

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Writers' Guild of Great Britain @writersguildgb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Playwrights working under WGGB's collective agreement with UK Theatre will see an uplift of 3.5% to their minimum fees, thanks to the work of WGGB negotiators The uplift is backdated to 4 May 2026 Read the full story and view the new rate card 🔽 writersguild.org.uk/fee-rise-for...

writersguild.org.uk

Fee rise for UK Theatre playwrights - The Writers' Guild of Great Britain

Playwrights working under WGGB’s collective agreement with UK Theatre will see an uplift of 3.5% to their minimum fees, thanks to the work of WGGB negotiators. The uplift is backdated to …

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

But even with that in mind, I should have known better, and I’ve learned better. we were all new to social media then, but the world has had a decade to learn some etiquette, it’s amazing that we largely still haven’t.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

That said, in most situations I would have to note that it didn’t stop most of these people from instantly snapping into bully mode and usually pointing their followers at you. Not naming names, but online UK games journ in the 2010s was largely a swamp of hideously nasty pasty-white blokes.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

But I fully understand that if you see someone (particularly someone in a position of authority or importance) expounding on how great their work is, and you see flaws, it’s normal to say “errm what about how this doesn’t work”. Forgetting that all writers are fragile and riddled with insecurity.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I suppose, looking back if I had “autistic as all hell” in my bio it might have helped assuage people assuming I was just being an asshole rather than just not understanding why we couldn’t all just have frank and unfettered discussions of our work’s merit.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I definitely want as guilty of that back in the early Twitter days. Treating conversations with writers, journalists and game devs online as “pub chat” rather than a public conversation. In part because as a fellow writer and journo, I “foolishly” saw it as chatting with contemporaries and equals.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

That said, its also a social media problem. Because in terms of honest response online, I do understand that it sometimes might feel like a valid reaction against the belaboured marketing and promotion that writers often have to do, to promote things they worked on. But never to someone’s face.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This but also for video games. The X and YouTube pushed narrative that game & TV writers are just uncritical idiots doesn’t help at all and isn’t even vaguely accurate.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Some people here don't seem to have understood the purpose of a political party. It's not the same as a protest movement. It is a vehicle designed to get into government, to change legislation and make a material difference to the lives of people at home and abroad.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'd feel more disheartened if I didn't occasionally look on LinkedIn and see that the people who are trying to get ahead with all the schmooze and corporate bullshit are doing equally badly. At least I haven't gone down that route. *shivers*

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I know that sounds callous and unkind but that's how it FEELS in this industry more and more every day. There are literally hundreds of writers out of work, every one applying frantically for the same handfuls of jobs that sporadically pop up. But no-one is feeding back ANYTHING useful.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I mean, did anyone actually... read my application? Did they look at the resume and portfolio? Are they STILL working through the applications, or are they waiting and hoping for some special sauce people to get fired from a AAA Studio next week so they can scoop them up as a bargain?

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It's more than disheartening to see a job re-advertised that I applied for in July and never even got a polite rejection for. I'd have even accepted an impolite rejection. That might even have been funny. But it makes you feel like you're banging your head off a wall sometimes.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

That's something that always irks me, even though I understand the practicalities, but when games let you change literally every physical aspect of your character model, but then give you only 3 different pitches of the same Californian accent to choose from.

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

For me it often depends if its a game where I'm playing... "me" or "a character". So e.g. I feel like DA2, Hawke was very much their own person, while the Grey Waren in DAO was just me roleplaying as sort of me in fantasy-land. But it also helps if there are multiple voices to choose from.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Revealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires I discovered via an FOI request that DEFRA’s commitment in the National Adaptation Programme to run a “wildfire risk programme” since 2023 “was not brought into effect”. #ClimateCrisis www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

theguardian.com

Revealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires

FOI request shows wildfire risk scheme scrapped, as data highlights many fire services lack proper protective gear

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Graeme Strachan @gstrachan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I think to date a lot of people think writers only exist in video games to script cutscenes and write whatever was in the game’s manual back when that was a thing. They assume the rest of the text appears by magic.

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