iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Needle in a haystack territory, I fear...

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Good grief yes! I can imagine you feeling much healthier (if not happier) getting away from that

The Guardian article lists all the different risks from the PA ban that Sally Rooney was exposed to. So needlessly dunderheaded!

There must be some cracking stories in there! Why did you leave in the end? (It reminds me of me quite deliberately not coming home from the USA and definitely over staying my welcome for about the same amount of time in the early 90s, when you could get away with that kind of thing...)

I hope it goes without saying that I'm glad you were able to escape too!

I can relate to c)! I was working very happily in a relatively normal place - New Hampshire - when 9/11 happened and pretty much everything changed (in hindsight irrevocably) within the space of a few weeks. It was very sad, but fortunately we weren't too locked in to be able to leave.

Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Reposted by Nick Johnston

Still trying to understand how Napster got shut down, but Anthropic is going public and still hasn’t paid us authors yet after stealing our work.

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Another option with January closing date Hope these help! www.qub.ac.uk/schools/ael/...

Funding/Scholarships

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NI Department for the Economy Studentships (quite generous) - closing date in January 2-27 www.qub.ac.uk/schools/ael/...

Funding/Scholarships

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Right, back with more useful/relevant information (I think) www.qub.ac.uk/schools/ael/...

Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Funding/Scholarships

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Reposted by Nick Johnston

OK, there is something very, very weird going on in the press right now. It certainly appears, from the outside, as if certain people are being very much protected in a way that was not afforded to certain other people! Let's start with the facts around Lola Salem... 🧵1/

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It's nothing definite, but we have a good few supervisors who have fiction as a keyword (but not as many with contemporary fiction). Might be a little late in our funding cycle too. Sorry I can't be of more help www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post...

Find a PhD Supervisor

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Oh what a shame. I never get tired of the beautiful colours of those leaves though!

I was going to go with "I have become all things to all people" as not being much of a principle to guide us back to Europe - but Matthew (h/t google) wins

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You're not alone - it won't be the only question that historians will ask about this period (assuming we survive to have nice things like historians etc) but the fact that it didn't happen will be up there! (I want to ask more about if/why you left, but that's just being nosey.)

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Last night I was contemplating a competition for the best Alt Text essay on Bluesky and considering asking @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social to be head cheerleader and chief judge, but it seems unfair to ask him to play those roles when he is indisputably the master of the genre.

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Reposted by Nick Johnston

The problem is, and this isn't a new idea either, that we humans are very keen to impute sentience. We have done it to weather, death, strange noises, even the existence of the universe. No surprise we do it to software that actually manages to write coherent sentences. Doesn't mean that is correct!

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Nick Johnston @nifjnick.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It always elides with "myrrh" for me, which inevitably leads to me picturing one of the three kings standing in front of a mirror. ('Space station myrrh' is just the start of a(nother) crazy Trump/Hegseth/Musk initiative based on someone mishearing instructions!)

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Reposted by Nick Johnston

Today’s text: The Uberification of the University by Gary Hall (2017). It’s got loads worse since then but he was in the right lines.

Book: The Uberfication of the
University
Gary Hall
Forerunners: Ideas First from the University of Minnesota Press

The contemporary university's implications for the future organization of labor

Even after the 2008 financial crisis, neoliberalism has been able to advance its program of privatization and deregulation. The Uberfication of the University analyzes the emergence of the sharing economy-an economy that has little to do with sharing access to goods and services and everything to do with selling this access-and the companies behind it: LinkedIn, Uber, and Airbnb. In this society, we all are encouraged to become microentrepreneurs of the self, acting as if we are our own precarious freelance enterprises at a time when we are being steadily deprived of employment rights, public services, and welfare support. This book considers the contemporary university, itself subject to such entrepreneurial practices, as one polemical site for the affirmative disruption of this model.

Gary Hall is research professor of media and performing arts at Coventry University, United Kingdom. He is author of Culture in Bits (2002), Digitize This Book (Minnesota, 2008), and Pirate Philosophy (2016). In 1999, he cofounded the journal Culture Machine, and in 2006, he cofounded Open Humanities Press.
ISBN 978-1-5179-0212-4
90000
University of Minnesota Press

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Reposted by Nick Johnston

The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) @cast-centre.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Job alert: The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research are recruiting for a 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆, 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (University of East Anglia), where you will work closely with CAST 📣 Deadline: Monday 26 October 2026 Apply now: cast.ac.uk/cast-careers/

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John Barry @profjohnbarry.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

My annual White Poppy delivery has just arrived from the Peace Pledge Union. If anyone in the Belfast area would like one, please DM me.

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Counterpoint: AI is fully behind the idea that they should never have been together in the first place 🤢

$I asked Google "Michael Gove and Lola Salem half plus seven" The answer: "According to the half-plus-seven rule, the relationship between Michael Gove and Dr Lola Salem fell outside the rule's threshold for a socially acceptable age gap. The Math Based on Their Current Ages (as of 2026) • Michael Gove's Age: 58 (turns 59 in November 2026) • Lola Salem's Age: 33 • The Rule's Minimum for Gove: 36.5 (rounded to 37) • The Verdict: At 33, Salem is 3.5 years younger than the rule's calculated minimum. The Math When They Began Dating (in 2024) • Michael Gove's Age: 56 • Lola Salem's Age: 31 • The Rule's Minimum for Gove: 35 $\left(\frac{56}{2} + 7 = 35\right)$ • The Verdict: At 31, Salem was 4 years younger than the rule's minimum at the start of their relationship.$

Dr Heidi Colthup @heidi-colthup.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

What's your record? If I have more than 5 tabs open I start to sweat, but my wife can have 20+ open and doesn't bat an eyelid! 😱

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Reposted by Nick Johnston

30,000 job losses over 3 years.

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The truth is out there... ...and is recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Entertaining and educational(ish)!

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Great thread on solar here (apologies if you're aware) covering solar trends too bsky.app/profile/sola...

Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research @tyndallcentre.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Reposted by Nick Johnston

The elephant-in-the room Q 🐘 Why don't modern societies deeply + rapidly decarbonise? Dr Lucas Geese talks through his environmental politics findings, esp. knowledge gaps on climate urgency among MPs and the public. 💻️ Watch the seminar: buff.ly/fVDInaq #NetZero #Decarbonisation

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Dr. Helena Wright @hwright.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

If true, it would be terribly short-sighted for the UK to cut funding to key electrification infrastructure that let's us reduce our dependency on foreign gas. Let's hope this is just a rumor! @ed-miliband.bsky.social @lcefuk.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Ministers preparing to slash heat pump subsidies to fund defence spending

Exclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say

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European Commission @ec.europa.eu · 12/10/2026

Brought together by the European Citizens’ Panels, their ideas are already shaping Europe. And, yours can too! Share your ideas, join the debate, and help shape what comes next. Discover our Citizens’ Engagement Platform: citizens.ec.europa.eu/index_en

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