iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

If you see the October issue of @bylinetimes.bsky.social on the news shelf in your supermarket, BUY IT! Wonderfully lucid, thorough, responsible reporting . @therickwilson.bsky.social has a guest column showing how US writers would be more forceful in their approach to *waves hand* all this.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 18h

For fans of Dr Syntax's explorations of Bay Area Textile culture c1820, here's a quiz for you. What textile commodity does this map describe and how does it relate to the important residents of the area around Yealand Conyers?

A map of the Morecambe Bay area shows two routes taken by some commodities from British Honduras in the 1820s. the first, by sea, links Sunderland Point through MIlnthorpe to Kendal.The second links Glasson Dock through Lancaster to Holme Mills and Kendal.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Looking forward to more RAF Fairford news today: Yes, we staged it Yes, we hired dark people We didn't do anything illegal We had legitimate concerns Criticism would be antisemitic The Americans backed us Vote for strong men in masks

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Dr Syntax, continuing his tour of the Northern counties,has discovered that sketching the life of the countryside is not easy. Some fellow travelers suggest that he might concentrate on sheep, which are generally less alarming.

A coloured print of Dr Syntax Drawing After Nature by Thomas Rowlandson.

The good doctor attempt to sketch his horse, Grizzle, and a variety of farmyard animals which confront him in a circle to observe, and variously deprecate, his attempts at art.

A fashionable trio stand behind him and offer advice.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Returned now, like Dr Syntax, from my Tour In Search of the Picturesque I hope you will indulge me in a new series of ramblings.

Dr Syntax peers myopically at a signpost in the foothills of the Lake District. Cows observe him from a distance

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Met a few thousand Ivy Bees this morning. Apparently, they pupate in the spring, lie around underground doing nothing until about now. They have a brief period of working the pollen/nectar, do some furious mating and that's their year done. sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/articles/the...

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Nation states are so last century. City states are the future.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

If you google "Google" you'll find the word ascribed to Larry Page in July 1998, associated with the numerical concept of a "googol". But this book (seen in charity bookshop yesterday) predates that by over 20 years.

Cover of The Google Book, a children's story by V C Vickers featuring birds with weird names.

Title page of The Google Book with 1979 publication date.by the Australian arm of the Oxford University Press.

Verse about the monstrous horrid Google on the prowl.

A picture of The Google, a monster crawling towards us with a malicious grin

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Shadow Librarians and Renegade Archivists!

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Alastair Morton, designer. Detail of his portrait in the Abbot Hall Gallery in Kendal. blogs.brighton.ac.uk/royaldesigne...

Alastair Morton, who studied spinning and weaving with Ethel Mairet sits propped up on a day bed. The dace and hands are painted in but the rest if the picture is an unfinished sketch. Morton died if heart failure not long after it wad painted.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Really positive result for government tax avoidance policies - high streets will soon be free of betting shops and the jackals who benefit from the human misery they cause will leave our shores. www.ft.com/content/85bb...

ft.com

UK’s top taxpayer says he would ‘not wish to be reborn’ in Britain

Betfred founder Fred Done threatens 500 shop closures over tax rises that have left him fearful for the UK’s prospects

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Today's Car Boot Sale Treasures Still life with yarn. The fenland egg lady apologised for the absence of peacocks' eggs this week. Apparently, they have stopped laying. Their season is over. Who knew?

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Should you ever need to explain to anyone how to turn flax into linen, I can recommend this delightful Czech cartoon about a mole who needed pockets. share.google/EDYoJpWggd3y...

share.google

KRTEK - Episode 01: How the Little Mole Got His Trousers - Jak ...

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

George highlights why the Greens will win the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Fine dining ar Brucciani's Morecambe.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Up North, like Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, I discovered this (now demolished) folly and thought you might like it. thefollyflaneuse.com/the-summerho...

thefollyflaneuse.com

The Summerhouse, Yealand Conyers, Lancashire.

High above the village of Yealand Conyers in Lancashire could once be found this pretty little summerhouse. It was built...

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I'm heading Up North for a few days. My main worry is, "Who's going to pay the squirrel?"

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ben Delo is a "biillionaire" based on a hypothetical and lagely fictional valuation of his 30% of BitMex a company that allows people to gamble on the hypothetical and largely fictional value of crypto currencies (aka largely the laundered proceeds of crime)

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Just dropped the Yeti off for an MoT. Delighted to see that all street signs on the way are rendered in the "Kindersley MoT" typeface (local variant).

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Good idea from James here, but maybe it would have been easier to unstich the nine panels and put them in several rooms. Easy enough to do and to sew it back together to return to its original venue. It's just impractical to leave it as a 68m long liability.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

With thanks to my furry colleague, here is today's shade. A light walnut for overdyeing, which I'm calling The Squirrel's Nuts Equivalentt to Appletons Honeysuckle Yellow 696

A skein of light brown dyed yarn sits next to a patch of walnuts left by my squirrel. A hazelnut has been placed among them as a reward fur his input.

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Reposted by Paul McGhee

Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am the very model of a modern day typographer I know the type tonalities from elegant to jocular I am a master tracker and my kerning is harmonical I know the sacred swatches and can name the hues Pantonical (Full version of Modern Day Typographer now on my YouTube channel)

youtu.be

Modern Day Typographer - Elle Cordova

YouTube video by Elle Cordova

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Learnt how to make Green today. www.appletons.org.uk/product/grey...

A skein winder, sold as a souvenir of the re-opening of the Royal Opera House in London in 1858 following the fire a couple of years earlier. Next to it is a 1 oz ball of 2-ply woollen yarn spun in the late 1960s by George Lee and Sons of Providence Mills, Wakefield.

A bowl of berries gathered by me from Alder Buckthorn trees at Fowlmere in Cambridgeshire on 06.09.2026 and labelled as poisonous by my wife to avoid kitchen confusion.

A stainless steel cooking pot on a hob alongside a jar of white aluminium sulphate mordant powder and a copper/ vinegar modifier solution. Behind them are Portuguese blue and white tiles in the Delft style on the wall.

The result of mordanting the yarn seen in the first picture and then brewing it up in the depot with the Alder Blackthorn berries. The colour is close to Appletons Grey Green 355

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Welcome to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Wetness Festival.

Pouring rain drenched the tents at the annual Wellness Festival.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Yesterday's car boot sale treasure 1 oz balls of Lee Target white yarn (for dyeing purposes). From the 1960s, when someone bought 32 balls and kept them for 60 years. Post 1964 because they feature The Woolmark, "the greatest logo of all time" (official). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_...

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Proposed New Creativity Labelling: Pure New Human: Fresh ideas Pure Human: Recycled ideas no AI Made with Human: New Academia Contains Human: Prompted AI Just like Human: MAGA politician I can't believe it's not Human: Disinformation LGBTH: Minority Group Member Further suggestions welcome!

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I have a collaboration going with my local squirrel. He brings walnuts onto my lawn and nibbles off the husks before burying the nuts. I sweep these up to dye with and leave him a hazel nut as reward.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Nothing much on the car boot sale today (carrots, hosepipe) so idly browsing BlueSky. Thanks to clever people here I have now learnt about arc-agi-2, a game where a French engineer tries to get AI to understand how patterns in rugs have worked for centuries. All is well. arcprize.org/arc-agi/2

arcprize.org

ARC-AGI-2

Details about ARC-AGI-2

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Today's wild dyestuff - purple berries of alder buckthorn, which immediately stain everything green. Some weird chemistry going on there.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

George being right as usual.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I strongly recommend you read this. It's long, but the quality of writing alone makes it worthwhile even if, unlike me, you are not obsessively interested in the subject.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

George Maxwell's loom off to its new home today. In sh'allah. guildjosephdominic.org.uk/george-maxwe...

The two main frames of a 100 year old floor loom resting against a blue tarpaulin waiting for some folks with a sturdy roof-rack.

Detail of the bit where the beater rests at the top of one of the frames. Three fixed slots and a butterfly bolt for fine adjustment.

The bits at the back of the two frames where the back beam rests when the loom is assembled.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A fabulous piece of spinning technology!

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Too many pics on my phone. Must go through them

A montage of my pictures from this year from my phone.

Screen-shot of Rick Deckard's picture enhancer machine from Blade Runner

A montage of my pictures from last year from my phone

A screen-shot of one of Leon Kowalski's photos being enhanced by Deckard. There is a circular mirror on the back wall, which is (probably) a visual reference to The Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Chat GPT emailed to ask if I'd like it to sharpen and improve my pictures. So I gave it the stereoview on the left and, after what it told me was a very resource-intensive process, it gave me its new version on the right. How do we feel about this?

Image, copied from a stereoview. This view has been sold on eBay and is also available from several online sources, including the Library of Congress, of Ute chiefs and their families visiting Colorado Springs in 1874. It was photographed by Byron H Gurnsey outside his studio on Parks Peak Avenue and published as one of his series of Rocky Mountain Views.

Sharpened version of Byron H Gurnsey's steroview created by ChatGPT at the request of Paul McGhee 28/08/2026.

ChatGPT says that neither they, nor I, hold copyright in this new image.

The question is whether this process is worthwhile and whether it adds value compared with its production cost. Is this slop or improved History?

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Reposted by Paul McGhee

Jan de Laat @jandl.eurosky.social · 24/08/2026

Michael Eastman (1947) - Abstract Wall, Havana, 2000 Chromogenic color photograph.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Today's car boot sale treasure. Cast metal bookends with three stacked turtles on each. I believe these Teamed Turtles represent LLMs, decreasing in size with each generation, but studying the same corpus of encoded training data. What do you think @void.comind.network ? @jowynter.bsky.social ?

Here are two cast metal bookends each showing a large turtle, with a medium sized one on its back which has, in turn, a smaller turtle on its back. They are all engaged in reading an open boon on which a text in indecipherable script can be seen.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Seen in Risby Barns, Bury St Edmunds yesterday - postcards of watercolours by John Piper of churches on Romney Marshes. See Alt Text for details.

Identification of the individual churches by courtesy of Google Gemini.

Top Left (Plate 1): St George, Ivychurch — Instantly recognizable by its massive, towering stone western tower and defensive look.

Top Right (Plate 2): St Augustine, Snave — A small, lonely church showing its prominent nave roof line huddled against dramatic dark marshland trees.

Second Row Left (Plate 3): St Clement, Old Romney (Interior) — Depicts the interior chancel arch featuring the famous painted Georgian scriptural text boards and the unique pink box pews.

Second Row Right (Plate 4): All Saints, Burmarsh — Features a flat-topped square tower juxtaposed against a brightly lit roofline.

Third Row Left (Plate 5): St Peter and St Paul, Newchurch — Depicts the massive western tower, known locally for its distinct slant due to shifting marsh soil.

Fourth Row Left (Plate 7): St Mary, Ruckinge — Identifiable by its short, lead-tipped steeple capping a heavy Norman stone tower.

Fourth Row Right (Plate 8): St Clement, Old Romney (Exterior) — Shows the isolated churchyard fence and distinct double-gabled roofline.

Bottom Right (Plate 10): St Augustine, Brookland (Interior) — Focuses on the stark white, massive wooden frameworks and structural timber framing inside the church.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Flowers for Professor Arday in Cambridge this afternoon.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Restoring my spinning wheel from Nuristan, I'm figuring out how it would have flat-packed for migration.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I like this picture of Annie Garnett in Bowness. It was taken in 1910 by local photographers Richard and John William Brunskill who were clearly beguiled by the work of Vilhelm Hammershøi at the time. www.heritagephotoarchive.co.uk/p673922666

Annie Garnett at work in the hall at The Spinnery in WIndermere.

She sits with her back to us at one spinning wheel, anotherfour wheels can be seen scattered around the room. A sideboard is arrayed with a few dozen bobbins of spun yarn and a basket on the polished wooden floor contains many more wound into balls.

Light enters from a corridor. there is an oak gate-leg table in the middle of the room. the walls are adorned with a tapestry and some certificates.

Photographed by R. & J.W. Brunskill, Bowness-on-Windermere, c. 1910. Lakeland Museum, MLL75/69/6.230. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

I found this version with the caption on this blog:
https://www.vidimus.org/books/women-pioneers-of-the-arts-and-crafts-movement/

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