iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Prof Laurie Stras

Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 10h

the self-inflicted assaults on the intellectual content of BBCRadio4 make it all the more important to highlight these jewels that never seem to make an 8.50 promo on Today. This BBCArchive on the tragi-comedy of Harvey Matusow & McCarthyism is absolutely gripping www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Harvey Matusow and the Birth of Fake News

The curious Cold War tale of America’s most notorious liar and his 21st Century legacy.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 10h

Sorry to hear that! Hope you are better today.

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Ashley Nova — Unfiltered, Unhinged, Uncaring @ashleynova.space · 10h

"Tax is Theft" sure whatever but a sexy cartoon fox taught me that stealing from rich people is the morally correct thing to do, and who am I to argue with a sexy cartoon fox?

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

@beaubaumann.bsky.social is right: everyday, until the supposed day of public execution, is a struggle over the message. I would add two things: First, when I say that the Civil War taught us No Kings, No Masters, this is what I mean. The master had sovereign authority over the plantation.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I was a stunt kite champion (team, not solo)

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

But the whole situation at Nottingham is disgraceful, don’t get me wrong.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

They weren’t at Southampton! They were run by SUSU - generally led by music students on the committees, but completely independent of the department. There was a lot of opportunity for collaboration, tho

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Alison Atkin @alisonatkin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Support @artsemergency.bsky.social A charity(!) that is widening access to the arts. That helps people, no matter their backgrounds, access an industry that is *world leading*. Humans began creating art while we were still struggling to survive. We will always choose to create and to seek out art.

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Kate Arnold @dulcimerkate.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Shocking and sad, shortsighted and stupid. The Nottingham music dept (where I had PhD supervision) has been vibrant and an important centre for Early Music. Music and languages are not dispensable. They're the lynchpins of humanity.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

'The University of Nottingham has confirmed that it will close its music and languages departments as it presses ahead with more than 500 job cuts despite widespread opposition from staff and students.' A blight on East Midlands and UK higher education.

timeshighereducation.com

Nottingham confirms course closures with hundreds of jobs affected

Languages and music departments to close despite strikes and protests but university insists it has addressed staff concerns in revised plans

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

love this, tho it's harder to put into practice with larger groups. I coached reading in my MA Research Skills class: giving them sample critical questions with an assigned reading, then asking them to formulate questions for new extracts in class. Not to have the answers, just questions raised.

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yes, of course a Reform or Conservative government would be worse for rights overall, but for marginalised groups currently facing the largest curtailment of human rights under Labour, you really are arguing that we are necessary casualties to ensure other people are okay. There's a poem about that.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Not me, trying to wrestle a conference paper into a chapter, battling with the theoretical/methodological exposition like a sodding salmon trying to reach the breeding grounds, or like my brain's wading through treacle.

static.klipy.com

Salmon Leaping Out of Rushing Water

Alt: Salmon Leaping Out of Rushing Water

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Elizabeth Taylor @elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I broadly agree with much of this thread but I will say - part of the challenge opponents of this motion had is that the proposers of the motion were completely intolerant, incapable of negotiation in a way that is very alien to Green culture.

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

one million, million percent. the current Israeli government are a disgrace to Judaism around the world, they have taken the most appalling extreme fringe elements of a millennia-old tradition of tolerance, generosity and education and used them to enact their horrific racism. there you go.

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Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Calling it a single "Palestinian" state is the tell. If @emi.ly can't see the problem there, or hasn't asked herself why even the Palestinian Authority doesn't think this is a realistic objective, then this isn't a serious discussion with serious people.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Those Croatian school kids are going to be scarred for life 😬 #CROENG

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

And some people are just ratfinks. There is that of God somewhere in them, but it's probably cowering in a cupboard.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Bot? In any case, I thought the same thing about the election bit 😂

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Abortion is reproductive healthcare, because sometimes having a child can literally kill you. And I cannot tell you how it angers me that at the same time, Black women like Tierra Walker dying, RFK cut funding for research into infant and mother mortality, to fund his security detail.

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Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever

A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is a not an accurate representation. Those mice are whole.

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Badge, medieval, "YI SIS MUS" S's reversed. "Behold the Mouse". (British Museum)

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CN Lester 🏳️‍⚧️ @cnlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I think a lot about the fact that mocking/refusing/throwing outrage at the idea of building resilience used to be an easy way of promoting yourself and growing your audience in certain online circles. What are the incentives for brand growth vs. community health?

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Reposted by Prof Laurie Stras

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Hope you’re ok, Vole. As you know, been there and it’s horrible. Really rooting for you.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Goat, of course. #TeamGoat I can see the bird, I like birds, but I really want it to be a goat.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I saw this at a community screening last night (Penge Climate Collective) and I was blown away. See it, take it to heart, but use it to do something 1/ www.nebriefing.org/the-film

nebriefing.org

National Emergency Briefing

A 50-min film centred around the National Emergency Briefing. The frank facts, but also the huge opportunity if Government steps up and leads a WW2-scale response. Designed to be watched by communitie...

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Reposted by Prof Laurie Stras

Dr Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾 @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Now subscribe Lucy Powell to the UCU mailing list

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Reposted by Prof Laurie Stras

Dean Barker @deanbarker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Just as they do with temps, humidity, etc., weather stations should put out a Harpsichord Intensity number to help ppl sort out their day, ranging from "can barely tell the difference from piano hammer felt" to "sound of metal ripping apart." app.idagio.com/albums/domen...

app.idagio.com

Domenico Scarlatti: 14 Sonatas

Listen to Domenico Scarlatti: 14 Sonatas by Aapo Häkkinen, Domenico Scarlatti. Stream now on IDAGIO

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

HB Paddy!! Hope it’s splendid. 🥰

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We all need to do the thing and write our representatives, show up, and keep talking. It’s hard to meet the deniers and dismissers where they are and find the common ground that will allow them to release their disbelief, but we have to try. One person at a time 3/3

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Elizabethan playhouses were supplied by a network of tailors, merchants & craftswomen. Their names survive in records, but little is known about their lives. I’m working on new research that brings the stories of these makers & traders centre stage. Here is the project in biscuit (cookie) form. 🍪

A photograph of eight rectangular biscuits (cookies) arranged in two rows on a square white plate. The plate is framed on all sides by a trailing vine pattern in green with pops of red. The biscuits are mostly in shades of ivory, cream, yellow, and grey, with a burst of vivid red and blue in one corner of the arrangement. Moving across the top row of biscuits from left to right, the designs include: neat lines of handwritten names in an early modern parish register; a section of a hand-drawn map from 1561 featuring St Paul’s Cathedral, with street names like ‘Carter Lane’ visible in a tiny spiky font; an extract of text from a funerary monument printed in an early modern book, ending ‘So transitory is our glory’; a section of embroidery from a funeral pall featuring metallic silver armour, crossed gold keys, and two hands holding up a crown. The biscuit designs on the bottom row include: horses prancing past shopfronts on Cheapside in the mid-sixteenth century; a receipt written in early modern secretary hand, which is difficult to read; a portrait of a stern-looking women dressed in a ruff, pearls, and sober dark clothing; swirling calligraphy and dense secretary hand featuring on a will dating from 1638.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Together with historian Dr Anouska Lester, I’m trawling through documents like the ones biscuified here to show how integral tradespeople were to the early modern theatre industry. The project is titled ‘Shakespeare’s Makers’. Stay tuned for our findings!

A bullet-point list of the sources used to create this biscuit set. The text reads as follows:

The items depicted in this biscuit set include:

Top row (from left to right)
- The parish register for Saint Mary Magdalen, Milk Street (1559-1653)
- The Agas Map of London (1561)
- John Stow’s 'Survey of London' (1633)
- The Fishmongers’ Funeral Pall (c.1512-38), a richly embroidered textile piece used to adorn the coffins of members of the Fishmongers’ livery company

Bottom row (from left to right)
- An anonymous 1809 engraving depicting Cheapside c.1547
- A receipt documenting the sale of clothing to Elizabethan theatre impresario Philip Henslowe
- A portrait of Dame Barbara Stone (c.1605), wife of Sir William Stone, Clothworker
- The will of Jane Heath (1638), wife of Richard Heath, Mercer

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Writing up a paper that was already random sources strung together with gossamer threads of musicology. Realising I should do the time-honoured thing of starting at the end. Whereas a paper can be a detective story leading to a big reveal, it's rarely a good idea to write the chapter like that.

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Why EVER use AI for anything? A related question: did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We could have bridges, Ed. We could have windmills, and solar, and public transit across the entire goddamned country. Instead we’re doing this, and it’s driving me a little insane!

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