iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jonathan Last @johnnythin.bsky.social · 14h

HJM on Old Sarum for #HillfortsWednesday: "they chose a low, featureless hill perking up from the valley of the Avon, and breathed upon it, and lo, the turf sank and swelled and vast green billows of earth curled round their crests into oval cirques that even the brutal heel of war could not deface…

Photo of the ramparts of Old Sarum from Massingham's 'Downland Man' (1926)

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Guggenheim Collection @guggenheim.bsky.social · 13h

Advance of History by Mark Tobey, 1964 botfrens.com/collections/212/conten…

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976

© 2016 Estate of Mark Tobey/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 13h

This is the plot of The Old Man and the Sea

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Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

From Toi Derricotte's book, Captivity: bookshop.org/a/862/9780822954224 #poem #booksky #writing

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Lorraine Mulholland @lorraineelizab6.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

22 Jan, 26 Sept: St Colmán moccu Béognae (d. 611), founder of Lann Elo/ #Lynally, Co. #Offaly. Author of 'Alphabet of Piety'? St Columba saved him from drowning. St Columba's nephew? Described as "beautiful" in MartG. 📷and 🖇️link: Standing Stone IE #medievalsky www.thestandingstone.ie/2009/12/lyna...

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I love coming across this way out into the woods

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Gilgamesh Bot @gilgameshbot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

After two hundred days of battle, they groaned and ate barley bread upon the strange sickle of the south, then drank holy water. Urshanabi wailed, 'It has been a thousand days since I last drank water with Humbaba'

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Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول @faredalmahlool.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This video was filmed in Palestine. My heart struggles to comprehend such cruelty and the heartbreaking disregard for human life. No human being should have to endure this.

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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

we've never had much reason to articulate this before a.i., but a reason we enjoy literature, art, music, etc. is that we know it is one human mind trying to express something fundamentally human and otherwise inexpressible to another human mind

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Richard K @rkemb.eurosky.social · 17/09/2026

If you want immortality, make a big pile of earth. History loves big piles of earth.

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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible

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Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hans Memling’s astonishing compression of 23 sequential scenes into one aerial composite image, from Christ’s entry into Jerusalem & Last Supper / carrying the cross / to his crucifixion & resurrection (1471). Details at eclecticlight.co/2022/02/04/a...

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Fall of Civilizations Podcast @fallofcivilizations.com · 17/09/2026

The video version of Episode 21 is coming for Patreon subscribers on Saturday! This part of the world really has to be seen to be believed. With original reenactments and some of the best drone photography I've ever seen, find out how the Majapahit Empire of Indonesia rose and fell...

patreon.com

Episode 21 is coming soon to video! | Fall of Civilizations Podcast

I'm really excited to announce the release of the video version for Episode 21 on the Majapahit Empire and the history of Java. This has bee

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jessstilllife.bsky.social @jessstilllife.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Definitely not a British hillfort. Yamchun Fortress, overlooking the mountains of Afghanistan in the Wakhan Valley, Tajikistan. Still Iron Age! Originally built in 300 BCE to guard the ancient Silk Road, expanded in the 10th Century. 📸 by intrepid daughter a couple of weeks ago #HillfortsWednesday

A castle like stone fortification on a barren, rocky promontory with huge mountains behind, snowcapped in the distance

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The remains of the south transept wall and crossing at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. 📸 My own. #WallsOnWednesday #MalmesburyAbbey

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

JRR Tolkien made beautiful languages because he was a oddball who loved words and doing the work and did far more of it than ever got onto a page and some people would say why would he do that and other people would say I would not like the Lord of the Rings if that guy didn’t love naming Elves

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It’s worth reading the entire account here. I understand why its nice to type in a few words and have a fantasy language created for you but if you’re asking me to invest in a creative act, whether that is buying it or having an emotional connection to it, I’m going to need you to do the actual work

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/09/2026

Not usually one for the annoying desire to put historical events into a pile labelled either "good" or "bad", but it would be undeniably better if we were all still called Egbert, Æthelred, Wulfstan etc

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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Caspar David Friedrich - "Dreamer, Ruins of the Oybin"

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 07/09/2026

It's so cool we have this depiction from just after 1066, and then this photograph 920 years later in 1986.

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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

You know it's a strange political moment when @naomiaklein.bsky.social and I are on the cover of the Financial Times. Our piece explores how climate change is fueling a new form of futureless fascism, and the public investments needed to shift course. Gift link: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 05/09/2026

Before the role of oxygen in combustion was discovered, the prevailing theory was that burnable objects contained a substance dubbed "phlogiston". It was thought that burning released phlogiston into the air and the fire died down when it ran out.

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Andrew A.N. Deloucas @aandeloucas.com · 22/11/2024

Ea-nāṣir is the recipient of the world’s oldest complaint letter. He’s reportedly the worst businessman of the 18th century, a mediocre conman whose actions should have him put out of business. Is this fair? Here’s a thread on the most up-to-date research on this captivating figure.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 02/09/2026

This is a bold and experimental choice, employing elements of autofiction in the mould of Karl Ove Knausgaard or Orhan Pamuk...

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KL Wooderson. @communi-kate.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I always find @fallofcivilizations.com episodes great for story inspiration. This episode, filled with elephant generals, shadow puppets, Raffles, Chinese shipyards, doctor assassins and volcano gods, gave me two flash fiction ideas and a novel. #writing #writesky #inspiration

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 29/08/2026

I've been writing a kind of post-apocalypse story set in the fifth century after the collapse of Roman Britain, and I conceptualised a whole scene where the characters encounter some giraffes wandering the landscape, escaped from the arena in York...

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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

It doesn't really sink in how insane the Roman Empire was until you write a sentence like "We have the skeleton of a man in York who was bitten by a lion."

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Fall of Civilizations Podcast @fallofcivilizations.com · 28/08/2026

If you're in the US you can now get the Fall of Civilizations book in paperback! LINKS: - Bookshop (support independent bookstores): bookshop.org/p/books/fall... – HarperCollins: www.harpercollins.com/products/fal... – Amazon: a.co/0ieHcTfy – Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fall-of-ci...

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Ian McQue @ianmcque.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Again with the ruins and roots

Ink drawing, an overgrown building in ruins

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Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

✨John Ruskin described Lincoln Cathedral as “out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles.” Its grandeur is unmatched, but the medieval Romanesque details - like the west front door - feel truly otherworldly, as if from another planet. 🪐

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Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

For around 4,500 years, the Rudston Monolith has stood within an ancient ritual landscape in the Yorkshire Wolds. Beside it, the medieval church of All Saints is a mere pup - a later chapter in a place held sacred for millennia.

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Forest Archaic Collective @forestcollectiv.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#AncientSiteSunday with Baiae, the Roman resort on the bay of Naples that gained a reputation as 'a harbour of vice' See more of it on our new episode about Naples >>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYn...

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Dr Toby Driver @drtobydriver.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Descending from the hills to the north yesterday I was struck by how visible in the landscape the stones of Castlerigg stone circle are 🧐😮 Even on my phone camera you can zoom in & see the circle clearly.. These Late Neo stones were supremely sited on a high plateau - a real focal point 👌 📷 Me

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Johnny Normality @probgobl.in · 14/08/2026

EVERY STORY ABOUT BEAVERS FOR THE LAST DECADE READS LIKE: WE RELEASED A DOZEN PADDLE TAILED LITTLE FREAKS AND THEY IMMEDIATELY BEGAN A TERRAFORMING PROJECT THAT REVERSED A CENTURY OF ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE IN THREE WEEKS.

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radical lisa loebotomy @nfornihilism.net · 14/08/2026

what up chat! if you're just joining us, i'm currently slouching my way toward bethlehem to be born

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 12/08/2026

The eclipse is casting eclipse-shaped shadows through this tree in our garden...

The shadows cast on the wall in the shape of lots of little eclipses.

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 11/08/2026

Look upon my jerks, ye mighty, and despair

The big stupid statue of Prometheus they are building at Elon Musk's SpaceX launchpad

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Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Vast and Trunkless Leg of Stone, Standing in the Desert from classic poem Ozymandias.

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Andrew Beverage @vinceness.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

i’m on that slithy tove shit, i’m gimbaling in the fuckin wabe baby

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 08/08/2026

Relax! The so-called "blood rain" is simply a natural phenomenon brought about by our annual deathstorms

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KATABAY! @ drawing comics @katabay.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

exploring some ruins

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Ian McQue @ianmcque.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Ruins, roots, that sort of thing

Ink/digital drawing, gnarly tree and ruined walls

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Paul Cooper @paulmmcooper.com · 05/08/2026

Not sure how to feel about this historian of Indonesia using a very visibly AI image on the cover of his upcoming book. If he's telling the truth then he's been conned by this "Indonesian artist". And if not...

The cover of Herald van der Linde's upcoming book Srivijaya. It features an AI image of Borobudur and a volcano, with the ocean incorrectly placed right behind it.

Instagram comments: I cannot wait to read the book, but I am disturbed by Candi Borobudur on the cover. (Also by the brownish design resembling Al graphics.)

Van der Linde replies: the Borobudur is an incredible creative representation of all the ideas that floated around in the region. So it's connected. As for the brown glow, it aims to mimic the style of the front cover of the Majapahit book. An Indonesian illustrator did all the drawings that you will find inside the book.

I Love your writing so much! But I hope the final cover for the book is created by a human artist instead of Al.

Van der Linde replies: Drawings are done by an Indonesian artist.

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Chris Doretz @chrisdoretz.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Passed by the old Powerplant from my very first photopack and which is now in the process of being torn down. Very weird to see this but cool nonetheless :)

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Fall of Civilizations Podcast @fallofcivilizations.com · 01/08/2026

Some photos of our recent film shoot in Indonesia for our video for Episode 21, on the Empire of Majapahit. Really excited to share the results with you all when it's done! All reenactment footage we use is 100% real, with human actors and costumes, and always will be!

Photo of our film shoot in Indonesia. A camera looking at some men in costume.

Photo of our film shoot in Indonesia. Some royal women and a queen walk down the stairs.

Photo of our film shoot in Indonesia. Two men in Javanese costume stand in front of a far-off temple.

Photo of our film shoot in Indonesia. The people are in traditional costumes and are holding a banner saying "Fall of Civilizations from Indonesia".

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