iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Indeed bsky.app/profile/work...

Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I feel Night's Dawn was a thing everyone read in the early 2000s but it's lapsed into semi-obscurity, maybe just because it's so incredibly long? I still think it had good ideas but it's a slog, I'm not sure I would recommend it even if you're being a space opera completist

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Purely for the title A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School by Kuzhali Manickavel. But I also fancy trying the entire Booker shortlist, maybe over the holidays I will manage it...

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ah, I only saw the FB Marketplace one and the follow-up where he says he clicked "Always Allow" messaging access, so it was pretty easy to explain

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

is this the one where it sold his stuff on Facebook marketplace, or are there two stories going around?

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Depends how much Osama Tezuka made from Astro Boy

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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 22/09/2026

London’s most expensive house, the Reform UK Treasurer, Holly Valance, one of Labour’s biggest donors, a £265m sale, and a curious loophole we’ve uncovered that could slash the taxes earned from elite London properties. London Centric x Dan Neidle collab. www.londoncentric.media/p/londons-mo...

londoncentric.media

London’s most expensive house, Reform UK’s treasurer, and a massively reduced tax bill

A £265m mansion in the heart of the Chelsea • Sold by billionaire Nick Candy and his ex-wife Holly Valance • Bought by a Labour-donating hedge fund boss • Why was the tax bill so small?

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Sometimes if you're in a long queue to get a ticket while people walk right in! But also it catches tourists from all backgrounds, plus long-term residents, spouses of Thai citizens, etc etc. So even if you agree in principle the implementation can give you problems.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Thailand has a lot of dual pricing of tourist attractions and it loses a lot of goodwill and leads to grumpy reviews, especially if you can't sort out a way to make it free to non-citizen long term residents.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Netflix's chocolate challenge show had a no-elimination format and it was great, in the end they had a top two face-off with the rest of the contestants as their teams but everyone was still there at the end

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Matt Round @mattround.com · 10/09/2026

IKEA’s made a Skyrim mod where you get a bookshelf companion voiced by Matt Berry www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tBl...

youtube.com

KALLAX STORAGEBORN, a free creation for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim™ from IKEA.

YouTube video by IKEA UK

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

great virtual panel about archiving African spec fic and more generally about approaches to libraries and archiving: guide.lacon.org/id/78ac4276-...

guide.lacon.org

LACon V Program Guide

LACon V Programme Guide

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Aussiecon5 @aussiecon5.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Our Guests of Honour at #AussieCon5....

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I have a feeling the Bennett might win - The Tainted Cup won very comfortably, it is more of the same but also very popular, and hard to dislike so I think it picks up second prefs. Let's see in 24 hours!

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Is it the heatwave that caused every pub to install a beer slushie machine, because I am 100% in favour of this development. And may be wondering how much it costs for a slushie machine

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Marvellous Ways @marvellousways.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Behold, our heat pump of joy! Made beautiful by local graffiti artist Binty Bint bintybint.com

Boring grey heat pump spray painted with fabulous flowers and bees

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Also Darcy Lever. I think the three Lever children are plucky youths who fight the local witch, Hag Fold

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Enjoying day 1 so far, let's see if you invent Comes of Dunshire by day 90

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Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I want to visit Japan for many reasons, but the current highest is the possibility of meeting Robin the island cat: www.instagram.com/p/DajMhZNk6t8/

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 16/07/2026

Anyone watching the Tour in Japan on J-Sports gets commentary from Osamu Kurimura (in yellow), Kiyoki Adachi... and Luke, the guitarist in heavy metal band Seikima II who is also a keen cycling fan when he's not devil-worshipping

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

now now you have to give the whole story that this race is scheduled against the sport's biggest event by far for some reason so the bear clip comes from a live stream run by a Youtuber who set up a team which has somehow become a top tier competitor, then it sounds like a nice normal sport

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I don't know what I did to end up on this mailing list but I don't like it

Screenshot from an email with the headline "Build a Precise Fear Conditioning Lab!". There is a wordcloud below with the word "FEAR" in the middle

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Fun fact: I have unlocked 0 baguette outfits in-game because I would have to fight a mime and I don't wanna do that

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I think the con tries (and sometimes fails) to honour the finalists - eg, guarantee panels/readings/signings even after sign-up is closed, free day pass or virtual membership, a liaison to help you, sometimes reserving some hotel space. And if numbers get really big that is more difficult to offer.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Yes, I have gone back and forth on this but I think 'you get 3 rockets/10 ceremony invites/20 pins/200 names in the booklet/website but the award winner is officially <thing name>' would be my proposal.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Isn't this the idea of Rocket Stack Rank?

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I think my question is, can we acknowledge the work of many hands in an inclusive way but is more in line with the way we credit the big teams involved in game/dramatic presentation, where we have only the key names listed or none at all? Should we just award it to the item, maybe?

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I regret to inform you about ferret badgers

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I respect the absolute mastery of the click bait headline game while I deeply resent that I clicked and gave it thirty seconds of my eyeballs

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I think they will say they have found an inheritance from a distant relative and can connect you to it for a fee, seems like a reasonable business model

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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Whale Necropolis, and weird fishes. Glorious chewy carcasses, the real circle of life: ‘we report a vast whale necropolis extending 1,200 km along the floor of the Indian Ocean, comprising 5 modern whale-fall communities and 476 fossil cetaceans.’ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone - Nature

Researchers uncovered an enormous deep-sea accumulation of whale remains in the southeastern Indian Ocean, showing long-term, specialized ecosystems and an extensive fossil record that offers new insi...

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Molly McKew @mollymckew.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

It’s a pretty weird week when a guy who wants to be a trillionaire is simultaneously getting headlines for the economy-shattering IPO expected Friday and the racist pogroms he is accused of stoking — but these stories are viewed as separate and in no way connected or prescient of the future.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I think you would enjoy Cosmic Rewind at WDW for similar reasons - not room for drops as it's indoors but a lot of twists and spins and a fast start.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

My suspicion is that Antimemetics will work less well on a reread, it's a one trick pony but will the judges think the trick is still good enough for the win.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 05/06/2026

This is a really cool piece on how Alan Alda has funded an initiative to help researchers better communicate their findings to the public through learning improv skills.

wsj.com

Alan Alda’s Solution to Eroding Trust in Science: More Improv

The “M*A*S*H” star’s program to help researchers overcome their communication challenges now draws thousands. We sat in on a class.

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Unfortunately you are me in 2019, I tried plastic owls, shiny things, yelling at them, then I went on holiday for a week and came back to new friends.

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Steve Hayman 🇨🇦 @shayman.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Have you, like me, spent the last 26 years worrying if the Canadian Potato Museum STILL has the display of various potato diseases with potatoes in little coffins? Stop worrying. I checked today. Still there.

A display of diseased potatoes mounted in the wall, each in a little coffin

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Liz Batty @lizbatty.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Someone stole my card details and spent 700 Canadian dollars on Ontario tollway fees, one more example of the negative externalities of motor vehicles on non-drivers

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 26/05/2026

"Brace yourselves,” said Kenyan opposition politician Fred Matiang’i. “The worst is about to come.”

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Major Clanger @majorclanger.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

2026 me: Hi 1986 me! 1986 me: 2026! What bit of science fiction is coming true? 2026 me: Butlerian Jihad.

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Emily Herring @emilyherring.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

website that picks the Rothko closest to how the weather feels in your location (by Joonas Virtanen) rothko.joonas.wtf

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Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

There's been some high profile criticism of test-negative method for vaccine effectiveness, as well as counter-criticism. Yet remarkably little in media saying what the method actually does, why it's useful, what the limitations are, and how we can improve it. Great that John Drake wrote this:

forbes.com

Jay Bhattacharya Called Test-Negative Study Design ‘Crap.’ Here’s How We Know Whether Vaccines Measured With It Are Effective

Jay Bhattacharya dismissed the test-negative design as 'crap.' The biostatistics literature tells a different story.

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