iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 22h

Note that the hands on the clock are painted not Black but Prussian Blue

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Ours will be mended by October. Believe that and I have a bridge to sell you.

There is more chance of me being No. 1 on Top of the Pops than there is of this proposal ever getting within spitting distance of reality

One day, and that day may never come….

Yes I agree that much/all comes down to definition of the threat you are guarding against. There is one price for guarding against an all-out multi-dimensional existential attack; and another to stop the occasional drone incursion. Former is way > £10 bln though and £10 bln is too much for latter

This is a bad idea because it’s impossible at any reasonable price and our best defence remains deterrence.

There are about ten billion better ways to spend this money on defence than on this nonsense

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Especially when he’d already been kicked out of the Commons for similar

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Don’t be silly. Anyone English and properly middle class went over to France to see it ages ago on their way down to the Dordogne

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

You would have made a very notable alumna of Eton

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

He just needs a good editor (so do we all). Felt the same about some of his other work before, too

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Saw this last night. Well acted, production fine. Did about as good a job as anyone could with a biography of a man who, although fascinating, spent his life writing books and in committee meetings. Graham’s attempt to cover the whole life flattened out too much of the drama for me, though.

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Reposted by Jonathan Boff

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

New post out from @ldfreedman.bsky.social "Operation Vivaldi: The Four Seasons" What have we learnt from Ukraine's successful counter-attack in Donetsk? Looks at command, use of drones, and the Russian's endless capacity for self-deception. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/operation-...

samf.substack.com

Operation Vivaldi: the four seasons

Surprise, deception, and operation security - lessons from Ukrainian success

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

One might think that an Ethics lecturer might detect ethical problems in accepting payment for work not done and in asking others to carry out work unpaid

International Society for First World War Studies @fwwsoc.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Reposted by Jonathan Boff

We are excited to announce that the call for papers for our 15th Conference is now live! It will take place on 29 Sep-1 Oct 2027 at the University of Kyoto, Japan. The theme is 'Observation'. The deadline for paper and panel proposals is 1 May. firstworldwarstudies.org/kyoto-2027/

The World Watches the European Conflagration, Itō Chūta, 13 September 1914

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Including also my review of ‘Napoleon and his Marshals’ by Andrew Roberts

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nothing droll about being taken in the rear by Marshal Ney

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Reposted by Jonathan Boff

Alan Owlport 🦉 🎃 @alanallport.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“For twenty years, these men marched and fought, plundered and shagged their way across Europe.” The ever droll @jfb1066.bsky.social on Andrew Roberts on Napoleon’s marshals in October’s Literary Review.

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Reposted by Jonathan Boff

Richard Dunley @redunley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My new book now has a cover - and I love it!

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Tour de France did same with Armstrong did it not?

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Strip them. No winners. Too bad. Serves us all right for letting a rigged game go ahead

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Oh yeah you are right let’s have a whip round to fund their fines and say thank you

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No need to bribe them to throw a game

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I think the Premier League might be painting itself into a very uncomfortable corner. Hard to see where the claims for compensation end: subscribers to Sky?

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The hypocrisy of those pretending a) to be surprised and b) that Man City is the only wrongdoer is breathtaking

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Great piece. Has me fundamentally rethinking the value of all those ‘we need to have a conversation about defence to make people realise the risks and costs’ conversations

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By the way, I suspect I will end up hating pretty much anything they are likely to do. But all the same I’d rather they did something because doing nothing clearly ain’t working.

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Arguing ‘our hands are tied and we can’t do anything’ when you have a majority on this scale is a large part of what got us here. Take action and live with the consequences: don’t die wondering.

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AI Regulation Made Simple: ‘If you develop an AI Model/agent/whatever that ever hurts one single person, you, everyone who works at your company down to the cleaners, and everyone who has ever funded you, is going to prison for e-v-e-r.’ There, that’s not so complicated, is it?

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The test - if it’s as dangerous as they claim - is to delete ‘AI’, insert ‘poison gas’, then see how you feel about investing

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‘We want you to give us $1 trn to make something that could kill us all’ is one of the silliest pitches ever. Best case: frame it as ‘someone is going to make this stuff and you want it to be us not the other guys’. Then it goes from investment pitch to blackmail. Either way: shut them down

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I would say ‘fly-tipping’ but they can’t have been because in that case the police could not have caught them

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Me to IT: ‘I can’t turn my PC on.’ IT: ‘please give us the computer’s ID number. You can find it by clicking on ‘About this PC’ in the Start menu.’ Some days, you’re the lamppost. Today is one of those days

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Reader: I wimped out. Didn’t go there. Too scared I might not like the answer.

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PS I could not sing you any FF song if my life depended on it. I have never consciously listened to a single one of their songs. But I do know that Baldrick and hungry ostriches definitely no longer flies.

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Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Origins of the First World War lecture to 2nd year undergrads today. Every year I wonder if my joke about the heir to the Habsburg throne and a Glasgow rock band will meet mass incomprehension from students who were not born when ‘Take me Out’ was released. So far, so good, but: is this the year?

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Rebranding HMS Belfast will take some creativity. Cruiser McCruiserFace?

Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Didn’t realise war was supposed to be appealing

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Don’t Start Wars You Can’t Win

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Good news. Is he still reading his emails?

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Reposted by Jonathan Boff

The Bournville Lantern Lectures - Disrupted. Immersive history coming to south Birmingham. Saturday 17 October. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

sellymanormuseum.org.uk

Bournville Lantern Lectures... Disrupted!

An immersive, family friendly production of an original Bournville Lecture, brought to life by The Rep.

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. Democratic Peace Theory says that it’s democracies that don’t want to go to war. That’s wrong: it’s seapowers that can’t afford to.