iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I just watched my son tell the barber he wasn't mad keen on how his cut was going, and could he change it. The youth of today, hey, what's going on?

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I was vibe coding before AI did coding but even given that, it's a bit weird that PillowBot was down for six months and just decided to spring up again yesterday.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've never really clicked properly with Montaigne's essays, but the urge to lock myself in a tower and ignore the outside world? Increasingly on board with that.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Slightly chagrined to discover that my eight year old's best friend is better than me at bop it.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

NYT Categories, purple section: Things Sei Shonagon thinks are hateful

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Don't get sucked into list discourse again. This list is stupid, because all lists are stupid.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Like the look of this: edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni4... "The Fish Skin Road Mapping Indigenous Knowledge from the Lower Amur River to Sakhalin Island" by Elisa Palomino (& it's open access!)

edizionicafoscari.unive.it

Edizioni Ca' Foscari

Edizioni Ca' Foscari - Venice University Press

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

We are grateful for the time and effort you put into your application... ... But we couldn't be arsed to read it.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Undefeated political commentary.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Went to dinner at Oxford last week where, presumably due to some administrative snafu, I ended up at the top table in the following orientation: me, my more eminent friend, the rector of the college, the vice chancellor of the university, an Olympic gold medalist.

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Karl Johnson @karlpjohnson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

JFC Solidarity with staff & students at Edinburgh. We're living through such a devastating act of self-harm. I dread to think what this will inspire other HEIs to do next.

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Oleg Benesch @olegb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The Japan Foundation London has recently launched a new series of short essays introducing UK academics working on Japan. I enjoyed putting together a contribution on "The Enigma of Concrete Castles", about this phenomenon and how I came to research it. lo.jpf.go.jp/japanese-stu...

lo.jpf.go.jp

Japan Up Close Essay Series | Japan Foundation

Essays by researchers offering fresh perspectives on Japanese society, culture and everyday life. Read the full series, free online.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I'm going to be speaking in Oxford later on this autumn on my research on the history of the game of Go. #japan #boardgames #boardgamestudies #history

Details of the Nissan Institute seminar series. 12th November: "A way of play for the twentieth century: towards a modern history of the game of Go"

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

There's a direct Cardiff-Holyhead train. Also one to Fishguard. 🤔

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Turn on the TV too see Ben Duckett walking in the wrong direction. It's on! #cricket

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Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 07/09/2026

Weekend fun project: adding a feature to the restored Nagasaki Foreign Settlement website by Lane R. Earns and Brian Burke-Gaffney to allow direct browsing of the concession leaseholder lots over time thanks to the detailed leaseholder tables they created. froginawell.net/nagasaki/

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The Pillow Book, by Sei Shōnagon @thepillowbookbot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A woman of the lower classes dressed in a scarlet trouser-skirt. The sight it all too common these days.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I'm holding out for a translation that's word for word identical to the first one.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I'm not sure people really appreciate the size of an em dash. They're massive. I definitely overuse en dashes in my writing, but an em dash is truly extravagant.

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mcc @dryad.technology · 01/09/2026

This is the single biggest physics discovery of my entire lifetime. Or something's wrong with one of the cables. One of the two

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The one I can never remember is whether it's towing the line or toeing the line, and I have a workable mental image of both.

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sakura christmas @prof-christmas.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

My friend and classmate John Lee is on the BBC to talk about the Mongol invasion of Korea! #medievalsky #mongolsky *Unfortunately the full program (below) is only available in the UK without a VPN, but here is a clip on Facebook: www.facebook.com/reel/1374711...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - You're Dead to Me, Medieval Korea

Join Greg and his guests in medieval Korea to learn about the Goryeo and Joseon kingdoms.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office, and declining to complete any circuits of verificationist communication you may have set in motion.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Izzy and I went fossil hunting the other day, and got a classic haul: countless shellfish, one ammonite, a couple of rocks too big to carry, and then a curious cylindrical stone that's either an amazing plesiosaur (paddle?) bone, or a piece of man made concrete c. 2015.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It's the Scottish national texel sale from tomorrow (main sale on Thursday, I think). The biggest ram auction of the year. Want to know what a sheep worth £100 grand looks like? Livestream details here: lawriesymington.marteye.ie

lawriesymington.marteye.ie

MartEye

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I saw a big plume of smoke while I was dealing with the chickens. Guess it was this.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

With a side order of this.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The latest from one of our trail cams. I think Badgers might be my favourite UK mammal, but it's a weird place to capture. I've a real sense that creatures are having to go further afield in search of food this summer.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty British person in the kitchen: The cup is a mystifying unit of weight in recipes I have to look up every time.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I was once offered some chickens from the farm of the great historio-anthropologist James C Scott via social media. Unfortunately I'm in the UK, so it wasn't really a goer.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is just to say that I have bid on another #cricket bat on #eBay. Which I probably do not need. Forgive me, but the grains were clear and clean, and the postage very reasonable.

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Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Coming soon! 'Rogues, Rakes and Robbers: A True Crime History of Georgian Britain' by Angela Muir is publishing on 3 September! Pre-order your copy now from your favourite local bookshop 📚️

‘Muir is an exceptional guide to the underbelly of Georgian Britain; she tells this history with the precision of a blade.’

Dr Kate Lister

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Seeing whales and/or dolphins in the wild is right up there in my bucket list. Thinking about it, it might _be_ my bucket list.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

This Robinson chap is quite useful with the new ball, isn't he. #cricket

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Anna H @athenepallas.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Fred Uhlman • Welsh Cottages •

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

This is pretty much identical to the top of the ridge line between us and the Rhondda early last week (at a site that was had been downgrade in urgency, as I understand it).

An image from the quoted article, of a smoking field of ash.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I'm not sure which one of these gets to be Murasaki Chicken-bu II. It's a steep name to live up to: MCB I lived to a ripe age, seeing off two foxes and an eagle owl in the process.

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The Aussie mens cricket team are currently taking a historic beating at the hands of Bangladesh. At home, no less. Drop everything and rush to... ... Dazn?

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This is going back into mists of time, but "The owners of Full tilt poker have a very poor attitude towards their customers, I'm quitting the site" proved pretty solid.

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Rachel Herrmann @raherrmann.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Curious about food and history at Cardiff? In this post for our History blog, @historyeats.bsky.social, Helena Lopes, and I write about food "as a way of accessing cross-cultural encounters and cross-cultural identities." blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/history-at-c... #clearing

blogs.cardiff.ac.uk

History is delicious at Cardiff!

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I was up on the ridge line where this fire took place today. There are still firemen up there, and the top of the mountain is a black expanse of ash with smoke still rising in clouds from different patches of earth. It's maybe a couple of miles from our house as the crow flies?

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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I just discovered that the latest issue of The Journal of Japanese Studies says of my book, "[the] writing is excellent, if not captivating, making the book a joy to read from start to finish", so I'm mostly basking in self satisfaction this week.

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Amy Stanley @astanley711.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I did a podcast with @draftingthepast.bsky.social! I discussed my lifelong obsession with Emily of New Moon, being compulsive about revision, cutting strawberries into very small pieces, nursing babies, and what I learned in Japanese-style seminars, among other things!

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Tobias Harris @tobiasharris.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Phenomenal thread that adds friction and the fog of war to our understanding of the Nagasaki bomb

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