iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Brian Mackenwells

Rev. Poppy Haze 𓅋 @poppyhaze.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

every “ancient tradition” was invented between 1848-1870 and every “modern perversion” is so ancient as to predate writing

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Oh! Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffen. Absolute banger. I also always tell people to read The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton, a good book to chat about I think. I also read Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake recently and enjoyed it a lot

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's so great, all the cast love it too - you manged to capture all their charcters perfectly!

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Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"ALRIGHT MEN, LET'S STOP THIS FIRE!" #SciArt doodle of the @firebrigademusical.bsky.social performance we had this week at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, it was such a joy looking forward to see what the musical will look like once it is out of "early access" and out on the big stage!

drawing of 5 women in variations of white blouses and black pants holding red objects, first one is holding a fire blanket, the next 3 are holding 4 red buckets with the word FIRE on it, and the 5th one has a book saying MATH on the spine, they represent five scientists that were part of the Cambridge first all ladies fire brigade musical (and in real history), on a dark blue background and a light yellow glow around them.

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

5 potatoes cubed is still 5 potatoes because potatoes are root vegetables

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I mean, look at this absolute unit

A set of modern castrating tongs. They are hefty

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If you, like me, have time to kill before a vasectomy, I recommend @themerl.bsky.social ! Although maybe skip the section with the big clamps 😬

Brian in front of the museum of English Rural Life

An old castrating clamp. Best not to think about it

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I had cause to look up the @storycollider.bsky.social talk I did 10 (10!) years ago about the time I flew on the Vomit Comet, and I've enough distance from it to say that it's actually pretty good you guys - my own jokes caught me unawares, it's funny! www.storycollider.org/singles/2020...

storycollider.org

Singles — The Story Collider

Science communicator Brian Mackenwells tries to smuggle an unauthorized piece of whimsy onto a zero-gravity spaceflight.

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Herr Spooky Gunther Büergers @calamityjon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Wild thing I learned earlier today -- the phrase "This is a job for Superman" predates Superman. I found citations as early as 1909.

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Sam Logan @samandfuzzy.com · 21/09/2026

Skull Panda Solves a Murder

Skull Panda with a knife stuck in it. But when grabs the handle and pulls it out, he discovers that instead of a blade, it's a long string of handkerchiefs. Behind him, a magician looks nervous.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This Saturday, 6pm, Mayflower Studios in Southampton! Part of the British Science Festival! #BSF26 FREE: www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/bri...

mayflower.org.uk

British Science Festival | Mayflower

Free events, exhibitions, performances and installations that celebrate the people, stories and ideas at the heart of science.

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BSHS @bshsnews.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

🎭 Reminder! Don't miss your chance to see The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade—supported by a BSHS OEC Grant— at the British Science Festival on 19 Sept in Southampton. bshs.org.uk/cambridge-fi... firebrigademusical.com Free tickets: www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/bri...

Illustration of a woman climbing a ladder, a thick rope slung around her arm

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Absolutely incredible that all of this is being done under the narrative of "independent review of studies." The studies find significant benefits and no harms! Children are not being rushed into irreversible procedures! An entire government and media apparatus buying in an urban legend

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The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade @firebrigademusical.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Don't miss this first outing of The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade on Saturday 19th September! Part of the British Science Festival at Mayflower Studios, Southampton 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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Helen Arney @helenarney.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Another day, another @firebrigademusical.bsky.social cast announcement! This time our Solo Concert Crew: singer Noa Shakhar, and pianist Felix Elliott - who went to @girtoncollege.bsky.social just like Hertha Ayrton did 🔥💪 Join us on Sat 12th Sep at @whipplemuseum.bsky.social for Open Cambridge!

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Helen Arney @helenarney.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Our phenomenal cast for @firebrigademusical.bsky.social this Autumn! Come see us in Southampton at @mayflower.org.uk Studios on Saturday 19th September, as part of the British Science Festival ⚛️🔭🦠👩‍🔬🔥 Tickets are FREE! www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/bri...

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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Such a good question, what could scientists and poets EVER learn from each other???

Scientists and Gravediggers

By Jay Hulme From "The Vanishing Song

This is not my first time digging a grave,
he says, leaning on the spade,
arms bunched up, head slanted,
shovel planted deep into the earth.

In the Arctic there was a cliff,
collapsing into the sea
and below it, the scattered dead.

These centuries-old corpses
in the once-frozen ground
are pried free like oysters, winkles,
fossils from the face of the cliff;
the wind snatching at bones
hanging over the waves.

These scientists with no expectation
carried the bodies inland
and laid them back to their rest,

bursting open the permafrost
with practised strokes; no prayer
on their lips but this: that their
labour may be of service to another.

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Pile Of Garbage @pileofgarbage.net · 17/08/2026

How to win at most all things:

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I've been thinking about this, and Eternals is The Dead - family members get together for a special occasion and they all hang around having slightly strained conversations

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Jen Gupta @jengupta.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I'm barely on social media anymore but thought I should pop up on here to say that my first book is out today! Your Expert Guide: The Universe for Young Scientists is now available anywhere you buy books, illustrated by the wonderful Ola Szpunar and published by Wayland in collaboration with the IOP

A selfie of me smiling at the camera and holding up a copy of my book

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Day job news: less than five weeks until the British Science Festival in Southampton! We've got a live autopsy (on an actor, sorry), competitive litter picking, a musical about female Victorian firefighters, skateboarding, 80+ panels, talks, arts, activities! www.britishsciencefestival.org/events

a line-up of models styled by Ugandan fashion designers in outfits which promote vaccination

Zion Lights, Tori Stsui, Dominique Palmer

Rachael Kent, Kasim Ahmed, Milly Evans, Cecile Simmons

performers fly from a big sort of crane thing (gyroscopic flying machine) under stormy skies - CastAway by Highly Sprung

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Herr Spooky Gunther Büergers @calamityjon.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This weekend's Sunday Gordos are both really beautiful examples of what Arriola brought to the funny pages. Dig the music slowly turning to snoring, or Dog and Popo knocked out on the floor together, among a million other things.

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Found a Slow Worm yesterday - not a snake, nor a worm, but a limbless lizard, I have since learned

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BSHS @bshsnews.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade, a new musical about Hertha Ayrton and pioneering women in science, supported by the BSHS OEC project grant, @ the britishsciencefestival.org on 19 Sept in Southampton. bshs.org.uk/cambridge-fi... Free tickets: www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/bri...

Illustration of a woman climbing a ladder with a rope over her shoulder

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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

You'll likely know @tomhumberstone.com from various things (his comic on the Luddites went large), but he's got a new one on the Gig Economy, couriers, the history of all that, specifics of exploitations and the fight against that. Read it, and spread it around. Strong. tomhumberstone.com/just-work

tomhumberstone.com

Just Work | Tom Humberstone

Just Work

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Oh! There's a AEOUD gig coming up soon, taking place in the Royal Institution - I can't make it, but there will be a performance of some of the songs from the musical I'm co-writing! There's a live-stream, which you can watch afterwards too www.rigb.org/whats-on/eve...

rigb.org

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail

They're back!

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

There isn't a recording, but there is a recording of another set I did all about Irish names, which includes one of my very favourite jokes youtu.be/Bzc3Olobbp4?...

youtu.be

Brian Mackenwells on Irish Names

YouTube video by Brian Mackenwells

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I can still clearly hear @helenarney.bsky.social's huge @xplainthexmen.bsky.social style "WHAT!!" when I got to the time loops

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

(for the sake of time I had to keep it to just 616 family members, meaning I lost Rachel Summers - and lost a great joke I had about the Summers Family Tree being so complicated it would have to be modelled in three dimensions, with an associated slide. Alas)

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Sidebar: I attempted this one time, sort of. There's a GREAT comedy night in London called "An Evening of Unnecessary Detail" that I've performed in a few times, and once I did an 11-minute speed-run through the Summer Family Tree. I still have my slides, which gives an idea.

An almost impossible to parse family tree, with numerous lines in different colours between all sorts of X-Men characters

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Louise @selkies.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Is this a good time to mention that in college my History of Translation lecturer (Michael Cronin) told us that one of the first vernacular translations of The Illiad was into Irish, and the translator had to give the main characters dogs because in Gaelic society a free man had a dog

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

And I got a nice shout-out on the show. www.xplainthexmen.com/2023/05/as-m... This is all to say, the podcast inspired people (and not just me, by a long shot) to make things. Which is a great thing to be able to say about something, I think.

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The reponse I got was all I hoped it would be.

A screenshot of an email from xplainthexmen@gmail.com saying "holy fuck, you beautiful monster"

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

When I finished it, literally the only people I could think to share it with was @xplainthexmen.bsky.social because it seemed like it lived in such a narrow venn diagram, but it felt like the listeners of the podcast would probably be in that bit of overlap.

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

A crown of sonnets is where you take the last line of one sonnet, and use it for the first of another, until it loops back around at the end. A HEROIC crown of sonnets is when all those travelling lines form their own meta-sonnet. When I heard of that, I instantly knew what I had to do

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

As @xplainthexmen.bsky.social draws to a close, it's probably a good moment to say how much I've loved listening to it (I think episode 6? was my first one?). It inspired the largest and maddest bit of poetry I've ever attempted - The Cyclops Cycle bmackenwells.wordpress.com/writing/the-...

bmackenwells.wordpress.com

The Cyclops Cycle

If you’ve ever wanted to read sonnets about comic book characters, then you are in luck. Brian wrote a Heroic Crown of Sonnets about the family tree of Cyclops (from the X-Men). It took a while, bu…

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

@unchcrosswords.com Hello! I've just found out about your lovely magazine, it seems right up my street. Is it safe to say that back issues are no longer available?

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Have you heard this one by The Divine Comedy? That rare father singing about his kids growing up youtu.be/5VXSQQ5YDIU?...

youtu.be

The Divine Comedy - Invisible Thread

YouTube video by The Divine Comedy (Official)

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 21/07/2026

Bí gé, do crimes.

Two geese in the back seat of a police car

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 19/07/2026

Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.

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Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🎸Here’s one of my favourite Looshkin comics. All three Looshkin books are available now! (Hoping to work on a fourth sooooon)

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Oh! Novelty Automation is a wonderful place www.novelty-automation.com

novelty-automation.com

novelty-automation-home-page

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

@darach.bsky.social I think you'd like this, it's a modern portrayal of the joys and challenges of the Gaeltacht

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Folk in Ireland - can I give my 100% rec to go see the unbeatable Shauna Carrick's new musical - it's in Irish, with English subtitles, and it's all about the Gaeltacht. You'll love it It's in Galway atm, and will be going to the Dublin Fringe too. Go see it! www.giaf.ie/festival/eve...

giaf.ie

SAOIRSE | Galway International Arts Festival

Tá samhradh na saoirse buailte linn. Tá scéitimíní san aer.

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Incredibly cool comics, for free? It's true! Sci-fi noir business! Get it!

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Brian Mackenwells @mackenwells.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I made a bunch of stuff from this great sandwich cookbook, but these two I still think about.

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