iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 18h

Surprising though that not even the results were shown live on TV. Maybe they just didn't have the facilities - when did the teleprinter come in? Yet the sports papers were out on the streets an hour after full time, which always struck me as a miracle of publishing.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 19h

Another good test would be to shout "Free British passports here!". Everyone who lines up in a queue gets one.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 19h

It's really very simple. If you say "Sorry" when someone bumps into you, you're English.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 19h

Lots of racing, but no sport (unspecified) results until 5.40 on either channel? Was there no footy that weekend, or did TV just not cover it?

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

None of whose batteries ever went flat.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"She has won three smartphones at various tournaments but she is still too young to be allowed to use them."

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I saw that lighthouse some years ago. Had no idea of its history though.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Promote the sense of shared values, and Europe as a reliable partner - will be hard if France and/or Germany falls to the far right. I'd like to think that post-war exceptionalism is waning - the sense that everyone else owes us something, and we don't really need them.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We have several William books in my local library (where I am a volunteer) and they survived a purge of "nobody borrows them" books. I suspect that Jennings has passed into history though, along with the Chalet School type books that my big sister loved (Elinor Brent-Dyer et al).

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Even after decades of EU membership, Britain never seemed to think of itself as a truly European country. The last few years have given us a cold dose of reality - when did anyone last talk about "global Britain"? It's time to get fully on board with Europe and its allies.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don’t think we could go with “whatever the commission recommends” without qualification. STV would be ideal and I expect most of us could live with AMS (which is probably the most likely outcome), but a closed list system would be pretty ghastly.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There isn’t a lid any more. Just a kind of cardboard flap. Avoids the use of plastic though so we shouldn’t complain.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Well, it is full of men of fighting age - and many speak with foreign accents

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“I’m sorry Mr Hodgkinson, you have not reached the standard required to pass a driving test on this occasion…”

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's getting like Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Interesting! Martin Bell also made the TV-politics switch but not really as a permanent career move. A certain US president did the same and maybe that didn't work out so well for the rest of us.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Relax - the market is extremely well organised!

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'm thinking of all those people who have checked out of Hotel Market Harborough but are still inexplicably overlooking the River Welland.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

We have something better than a serving hatch (no, not a servant) - an entire door through which one person can carry any amount of stuff back and forth. I’ve always managed without Look and Learn as well.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

When our boys were small one of them advanced the theory that the dinosaurs died out because there were no people for them to eat. Quite hard to disprove really.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I had no idea of Thorpe's previous career. Ahead of his time in terms of TV-savvy politicians?

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

As a freedom-loving Liberal I never thought I'd be so pleased to see the successors of the DDR dictatorship doing so well, but at least they are suppressing the AfD vote.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Also, having washing machines requires people to make, sell, maintain and dispose of them. For millions of people in the West the industrial revolution brought drudgery indoors, from the fields to the factories. Now we have exported the sweatshops to Asia and built "fulfilment centres" instead.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Well, we don't stand for any disorderliness here in Birmingham

Street sign "Matrons Walk" on a modern housing estate, which was built on the site of the former Selly Oak Hospital

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It was a strange experience seeing the towns and fields of Flevoland, knowing that it was all under the sea when I was born.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Freaky cloud formation spotted on the M6 approaching Birmingham (no, I wasn't driving)

Orange sunset light reflected on the underside of clouds, creating a ripple or wave effect, with an electricity pylon in the foreground and a few cars on the road

Cropped version of first photo, showing the heart of the clouds and base of the pylon

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I imagine that the Television book is now available in colour.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Gold medal in the coxless fours! We had a cox at the start of the race, but..."

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Probably surprised how I had changed but also relieved that I’d muddled through. In truth, previous me would not have wanted to see the future. I’ve always hated spoilers.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Was it a snap decision? (sorry)

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It's the most important news since, um, Sarah Ferguson did something or other.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Of course, if the Normans had won the Battle of Hastings, we'd all be speaking French now. Oh, hang on...

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In my former job I was involved in testing electronic components for susceptibility to cosmic radiation, such as is experienced at high altitudes, and even more so at high latitudes. It's possible to harden semiconductors against radiation; not so much with humans.

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Reposted by Phil Banting

Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I used the word “pernickety” in a message and had to resist autocorrect’s attempt to change it to “persnickety” which is apparently the more common US version. I’m really quite pernickety about this kind of thing.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Pirates classed as "business and industry". A possible snarky comment occurs to me but I'd better refrain since the people marked in yellow can afford good lawyers.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If you use a list as a feed (as I invariably do) reposts are off whether you like it or not.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Fez has the oldest university buildings in the world - or so I was told when I was a student at Durham, which has the second oldest (the Castle houses one of the colleges). But neither was a university at the time of construction.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Not necessarily answered correctly, but answered. Who needs AI when you've got BlueSky?

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'm puzzled by this. The biggest problem I've had using Lime bikes is convincing the app that I've parked it correctly at the end of the ride. Until the app is happy, the clock (hence the bill) keeps ticking up.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I never knew that. It still amazes me that the programme was launched on ITV.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Nice to see the B's topping the poll. The last time I stood in a multi-member election I did indeed get the most votes of any of my party's candidates. On every other occasion the electorate has been singularly unmoved by my position on the ballot paper. ☹️

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

And here's the other side of the signpost, in case anyone's wondering what that looks like (evidently it's not got any cleaner during the last 3 years)

Signpost at a road junction with signs pointing to Bishops Castle, Shrewsbury, Clun Castle and Free Car Park. In the background is the Sun Inn.

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If he's still presenting University Challenge, why isn't he subject to the same gagging order that the BBC tried to impose on Gary Lineker?

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Well, it’s correct if viewed from a line somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

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Phil Banting @philbanting.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Also, what if it’s delivered to the wrong house - in defiance of the number prominently displayed on the porch - because for a long time Google Maps, regarded by couriers as the source of all truth, incorrectly numbered the houses in our road.

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