iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 10h

If you are an opposition leader who could be doing better in the polls, what better way to move those polling numbers than to be on the wrong side of emerging public opinion.

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Emily✨ @emilyoram.bsky.social · 12h

Liquid Bluesky

National Trust• @nationaltrust.org.uk
Nobody has ever regretted a scone after a long walk.

Except someone with ceoliac disease

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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 14h

“Tap, tap, tap at the window. Bloody AI Greta Garbo, trying to sell me ball bearings.”

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's tight at the top of the 2000s album-closers poll: Overnight ballots reshuffled the top three. 167 of 200 tracks now have votes, including Jay-Z. Still waiting: Bowie, The Streets, Beck, Nas, Tom Waits. Closes Mon 5 Oct therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-poll-lets-all-meet-up-in

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A clear leader has emerged in the 2000s album-closers poll. 157 of 200 tracks now have a vote. Still waiting: Jay-Z, Bowie, The Streets, Beck, Nas, Tom Waits. And 2008 is still at the bottom of the years. Closes Mon 5 Oct therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-poll-lets-all-meet-up-in

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Can the arts business model survive AI? Perhaps the best guide is to look at how the arts survived past tech revolutions Take music—internet piracy and then streaming killed the lucrative CD market, but musicians mostly saved their jobs by focusing much more on live concerts

a graph showing music as a % of consumer spending, with album sales rising through the 90s before crashing in the 2000s and being replaced with concert revenue

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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you claim to have never heard Crazy Frog’s “Axel F,” it says more about you than it does Mr. Frog. This about virtue signaling that you are better than entire genres of music, that your friends are not in the custom ringtone game.

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Gabby HC @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan!

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

132 of the 200 closers in the 2000s poll now have a vote. Coldplay and Britney are off the mark. Still waiting: Jay-Z, Bowie, Dylan, The Streets, Interpol, Beck, Nas, Tom Waits. And 2008 is still the decade's least-loved year. therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-poll-lets-all-meet-up-in

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 25/09/2026

“PUT THAT ICED COFFEE DOWN.”

Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, yelling about coffee

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

@tomewing.bsky.social just watching this and baffled that Le Tigre have almost as many streams as The Bad Touch. youtu.be/8_ZLlyBfZ_I?...

youtu.be

top 50 most streamed songs from 1999

YouTube video by boogiehead

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James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When was the last time our Secretary of State for Culture displayed anything approaching this degree of public enthusiasm for our world-class arts industry? Has she been seen anywhere? Given impending charter renewal... did she even bother to visit a single prom?

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

New leader overnight in the 2000s album-closers poll. 111 of 200 tracks now have a vote; still waiting: Coldplay, Jay-Z, Bowie, Dylan, The Streets, Interpol. Closes Sun 5 Oct therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-poll-lets-all-meet-up-in

therunoutgrooves.substack.com

Reader's Poll: Let’s all meet up in the year 2000

Have Your Say - Your best album closers of the 2000s

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

83 of the 200 closers in the 2000s poll now have at least one vote. Still waiting for their first: Kanye, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Jay-Z, Bowie, Dylan, Blur, The Streets and Portishead - last year's 1990s champions. Votes close Sunday 5 October: therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-po...

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YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 24/09/2026

YouGov's September 2026 MRP projects that Labour would be the largest party in a hung parliament, were an election held tomorrow Labour: 241 (-170 from 2024) Conservatives: 130 (+9) Reform UK: 123 (+118) Lib Dems: 71 (-1) SNP: 40 (+31) Plaid Cymru: 15 (+11) Greens: 9 (+5) Others: 3 (-3)

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social some folks may enjoy the poll Easter egg here therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/readers-po... and cast a vote for their favourite closing tracks of the 2000s.

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Andrew Beasley @andrewbeasleyfootball.com · 23/09/2026

Anfield is the best stadium in England. Not my words, Carol, the words of over 54,000 Google reviews. Where does your team's ground rank among the 92? Find out in the searchable table in here:

theguardian.com

Which football stadiums have the highest and lowest Google ratings? | The Knowledge

Plus: the longest waits for 0-0 draws, more early replica kits and champions with the smallest ground

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Significance magazine @significancemag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Exciting to hear our September cover feature on BBC Radio 4's More or Less this morning! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Thank you🙏 @timharford.ft.com @mitchellst.bsky.social Read the full article for free right here: academic.oup.com/jrssig/artic...

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm on the wireless in about ten mins. BBC Radio 4's More or Less, just after 0920, talking to Tim Harford about why albums end quietly, the physics of vinyl, and what happened when records weren’t limited by that physics. They've put me on last. Of course they have. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, Has the UK’s productivity puzzle been solved?

Tim Harford investigates bad productivity data, AI carbon, nuns and quiet album ends.

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 22/09/2026

Tyrannosaurus xkcd.com/3300/

Comic. [Person with long hair pointing to diagram with Tyrannosaurus Rex standing next to a person.] PERSON: We now believe the primary prey of Tyrannosaurus Rex was these humans who kept standing next to it for scale.

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

6. As far as we can see, the rescuer was okay - though this is bordering on attempted murder. RNLI then headed towards the Solent, AIS off and chased by the far-right. Authorities in Portsmouth likely were warned that people would be offloaded and processed at Gosport, so Thomas rallied activists.

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

MP Recall 🏛️ I named 32/649 current MPs in five minutes. 🟥 18/403 LAB 🟦 7/118 CON 🟧 3/71 LD 🩵 3/8 REF 🟪 1/2 YP Can you beat me? toys.jamesomalley.co.uk/mprecall/ Thwarted by the Minister for Women and Equalities and where the double letters are/aren't

toys.jamesomalley.co.uk

MP Recall — How many MPs can you remember?

Name as many current UK MPs as you can in five minutes.

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Why does he simply not sack the canteen staff?

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Jay Zedbee @jayzedbee.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

i genuinely think about this every time theres any mention of narnia. one of the funniest things that have ever happened

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If they replaced British citizens with "Alan Partridge in 1997" it still wouldn't be true.

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sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Asylum seeking people don’t have the freedom to work, they don’t even have the freedom to shop using cash or choose where to shop, in temp accommodation they don’t have the freedom to cook or choose their own food - honestly this headline is batshit

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Stephen Graham @stephengraham.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Who took this pic, Brooklyn Beckham?

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Stefan @zin5ki.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Lost in the moment of abandon therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/lost-in-th... Come and read about 'Shine Like Stars', but stay for the Screamdelica-inspired graph.

Line chart on a red background styled after the Screamadelica album cover. Eleven tracks in running order along the x-axis, from 'Movin' on Up' to 'Shine Like Stars'. Three data series on a 0 to 1 scale: valence (mood) in yellow, energy in blue, volume in black, indexed from the album's quietest track to its loudest. Individual tracks are dots; heavy lines show a centred three-track average. The valence line rises to a peak at 'Loaded', annotated as the album's joy summit, then falls steadily for the rest of the record. Energy and volume hold up longer and spike at the penultimate track, 'Higher Than the Sun (Dub Symphony)', annotated as the loudest track and almost joyless, before all three fall to the closer, 'Shine Like Stars', which sits low on every measure. Title: The joy ebbs out of Screamadelica before the volume and energy do. Source: Spotify, The Run Out Grooves

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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I think the prime minister should have said this

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Every year on 19 December, the famous Christmas lights at Mousehole in Cornwall are dimmed between 8 and 9pm, leaving just the Cross and Angels shining down across the village and out to sea.

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A blast as always. Like the World Cup, the business end finishes quickly after the early stages. Thanks KMB!

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There is literally no pressure group small or mad enough that the government won't indulge them if they oppose immigration.

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

One more time: Inheritance tax *is not unique or even uncommon* in being "double taxation". The coffee I just bought was paid for with wages on which income tax and NI had been levied, but was also subject to VAT. Just stop it.

elen Whately: “One of the problems with inheritance tax is that it's a form of double taxation.

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Pete Selby @peteselby.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

About fucking time

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The Best Album of 2001 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Best Album of 2001 Round 6 (Final Four) Match #125 #1 Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT VS. #5 Björk, VESPERTINE Go here to vote: forms.gle/Q1GZmxsACQzK...

First pic: A low angle photograph, tinted beige-brown, of the two towers of the Marina Complex building in Chicago. It is unsual-lookingin that every level consists of disc or clam-shaped balconies, just hundreds of them stacked on top of each other. Second pic: A black and white photo, tinted in a bluish-grey, of Björk, a white woman, laying on concrete in the sun, one arm over her face and casting it in shadow. Her eyes are closed and mouth is slightly open, intending a kind of sensual feeling. I believe she's naked, but her chest is obscured by a drawing of a goose or swan overlaying the image. The word VESPERTINE can just be made out in the bird's feathers.

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Give us a look at your mouth. Open up. Open up... Yeah, I can do that for a fiver. Bite on this rag

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Jack Bernhardt @jackbern.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

a real advert on UK TV currently: Oi! Grown ups! Save some water for us kids! ADULTS! stop having such long showers! GARDENERS! stop using so much water for your plants! WATER COMPANIES WHO HAVE DRIVEN RESERVOIR INFRASTRUCTURE INTO THE GROUND: Keep up the good work! PENSIONERS: stop drinking tea!

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Mitchell Stirling @mitchellst.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Imagine the suggestion of retrospectively changing the rules on something.

Tice says government trying to 'retrospectively change rules' after Reform's £72m in donations

Reform plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants

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