iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's #DigitalFriday ! This is my routine appeal to #skystorians and all other academics prepping for teaching to share any software, hardware, online resources (primary, secondary, teaching tools, blogs) tips and tricks that they've found useful this week! #AcademicSky 🗃️(pls boost to relevant feeds)

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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Tell us again how they won’t be needing the triple lock as they’ll have private pensions

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Frances right to call this out. It is the usual rhetorical shite from Labour to get the otherwise disengaged to switch their consciences off. 'But the ones that really deserve it will be OK!!!' Person who knows nothing about disability or welfare: sounds good

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Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Westminster scrambled to memory hole covid. There's something at the core of reactionary politics that's instinctually dismissive of illness and the debilitating effect it has on people's ability to work. It aligns perfectly with reactionary ideas of self-reliance, freedom and austerity.

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eilishgregory.bsky.social @eilishgregory.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As the new academic year begins, if anyone is in need of an academic researcher, tutor, proof-reader or similar, please do get in touch.

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The nurdles on our Tyneside coast are back with a vengeance today, both depressing in and of itself but also a clear indication of what will happen periodically over the coming months and years and tides and winds bring some of the many millions of plastic pellets still swirling around in our seas.

Thousands of white nurdles (plastic pellets) strewn across Whitley Bay beach, amidst seaweed and sand.

Thousands of white nurdles (plastic pellets) strewn across North Shields Fish Quay beach, amidst seaweed and sand.

Thousands of white nurdles (plastic pellets) strewn across a beach, amidst seaweed and sand.

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Richard Toye @richardtoye.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Launching 13 October. shows.acast.com/tales-from-t...

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Old British Telly @oldbritishtelly.co.uk · 27/09/2026

[1963] Snow – Hypnotic British Transport Film showing the efforts of railway workmen to keep trains running in hazardous snowy conditions.

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

So says his ghostwriter. I don't have anything against Thorp but this stuff does journalism no favours. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_No...

en.wikipedia.org

Head North - Wikipedia

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Andy Williams @llantwit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Cardiff Trans Pride is big and beautiful in the sun today. Get down to Central Square if you’re in town. #TransRightsAreHumanRights #BwiththeT

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Becca Harrison @beccaeharrison.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I may not have a job and everything is terrible BUT my book (which I nearly gave up on, see above) just went into production. Following a decade of work 'Uncovering the Star Wars World: The Land, Labour and Nature of a Media Empire' will be out in May 2027. Excitement! Relief! And... copy editing.

A screenshot of a contents page laid out over two columns. The headings read:

Introduction
Worldbuilding
The matter in hand
How Star Wars works
Reading the Star Wars world

Chapter One. Crew and Craft
Imperial exceptionalisms
Arts and crafts
Taxing issues
Extended family
Family affairs
The house always wins
Close Up: Original Trilogy Tea
Making the tea
Drinking the tea
Iced tea
Spilling the tea
Reading the leaves

Chapter Two. Material and Parts
Oily substances
Organic matters
Down the mine shaft
Scavenging parts
Trash, de-compacted
Close Up: Looking for Artoo
Designed for life
Metal heads
Over and over
Paranoid androids
Dirty computers
Short circuit

Chapter Three. Imperial Designs
Closing ranks
Cultural appropriation
Royal remixing
Defensive initiatives
Imperial legacies
Close Up: The Throne Room Gown as Orientalist Couture
Patchwork Padmé
Unpicking orientalism
Patterns of appropriation
Fitting for a queen
Imperial influencer

Chapter Four. Alien Lands
Real-world matters
Location, location, location
A whole new world
Just deserts
Re-worlding Star Wars
Close Up: Expanding and Enclosing Lands
The nature of things
Alienated landscapes
Facilitating shoots
Enclosing lands
Big trouble in Little Marlow
It’s just… people

Chapter Five. Creature Discomforts
Service animals
Creatures of habit
Animal matters
Meet the flockers
What is it like to be an orbak?
Wild irregularities
Close Up: No Birds Sing in Star Wars
And they said it was pretty here
Red in tooth, claw, and tape
Into the wild
Digging deeper
Animal instincts

Conclusion. New Beginnings at the World’s End
Bigger or better?
Common goals
Worldmaking

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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I really hate the phrase “economically inactive” as if pensioners and others who can’t or don’t work aren’t literally contributing to the economy by buying stuff like food and goods and paying VAT on it etc

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 25/09/2026

They arrested a blind man in a wheelchair for supporting terrorism because he held a sign

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Cannot tell you how much I hate this & how ashamed & angry I am that @ukri.org have taken this step. We KNOW this sort of gAI is socially biased, we KNOW it favours slopAI output over human-written. Our research landscape is falling apart due to underfunding, & they do this? it's *appalling*

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Just so, so, so, so tired of having to spend so much of my time, effort and mental energy on thinking and talking about a theft-based ecocidal socially harmful technology whose core public face (the LLM-slop type) has zero - ZERO - proven use cases in education and academia.

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Ewan Gibbs @ewangibbs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

You can get 20% off my new book, An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class, from bookshop.org and help support independent bookshops!

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

Ill this morning. I know I'm always ill, but I've a bug on top of the MS and the kidney disease and when I get a bug it knocks me out given the state I am in now. Anyway, it meant an activity couldn't go ahead at the last minute and I feel shit tbh cos a colleague needed me to do that thing today.

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Gareth Watkins @garethwatkins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Also, I can't help but thinking about how the proliferation of 'useless eaters' after the Spanish Flu and WW1 pushed Europe towards exterminationism, and how that's mirrored in COVID leaving many people disabled so they are being 'exterminated' legally, with their disability being denied.

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A consistent thread through the evolution of the Lib Dems post-merger, as I wrote here. Orange Book often seen as a radical departure and was in sense of public perception, but Ashdown had spoken years previously of shifting the party to the right on economics. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

link.springer.com

The Promise of ‘Liberal Democracy’, c. 1981–2010

This chapter surveys the promise of ‘Liberal Democracy’ from the foundation of the Social Democratic Party to the arrival of the coalition government. In that period the Liberal Democrats ...

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Day 1 of teaching. I would have been running Round the Wrekin, an introductory module exploring the cultural history of the West Midlands across centuries and multiple media, plus academic skills. It’s been replaced by a generic skills module across multiple subjects to save money on staffing.

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Rod McMillan 🍉 🇸🇩 🇺🇦 📚 @morewretchthansage.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Far Right targeting of the RNLI speaks to a fundamentally different worldview of how societies should function: Kropotkin knew this, read my analysia in Freedom News : The journal he co-founded in 1886! @freedompress.bsky.social #Anarchy #RNLI #Kropotkin freedomnews.org.uk/2026/09/21/k...

freedomnews.org.uk

Kropotkin’s lifeboats: Mutual aid VS welfare chauvinism - Freedom News

The RNLI’s cosmopolitan philosophy undermines a cornerstone of the far right’s worldview ~ Roderick McMillan ~ Royal.

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Aurelien's point here - voting as a curtailment of democracy - is a really powerful one which when I used taugt pol scis who'd come out of A level, would sometimes shock. /1

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nicole froio @nicolefroio.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

every Sunday I wake up with the sunday scaries because i don't know what to do for money anymore. cold pitching doesn't work anymore, job applications go to die in a HR inbox, and I'm just sitting here not making money while being the most qualified I've ever been. soul-destroying.

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 18/09/2026

'Why Does Academic History Matter?' bit.ly/4yB8MYQ With contributions from historians Martha Vandrei, Susan-Mary Grant, Joy Porter and @davidandress.bsky.social Free to read for 7 days @historytoday.com #Skystorians

bit.ly

Why Does Academic History Matter?

The study of history at UK universities appears to be under existential threat. Should anyone care?

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

As former Labour minister Tom Watson joins Palantir, please read this devastating exposé by @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @lucasamin.bsky.social of how the company, with Peter Mandelson's help, wormed its way into the UK government to sell its dire & dangerous products. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS

A decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 18/09/2026

if you EVER get called for a meeting and they say “don’t bring a union rep” bring a union rep

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Anna Girling @annagirling.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

These cuts disproportionately target the arts & humanities: the Business School loses only three courses; the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures loses 48 – many of these are joint degrees, removing the optional breadth of study which has always been one of the appeals of a Scottish degree

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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 17/09/2026

We can't keep expecting those who have made clear they will do nothing to actually address the multiple crises we are facing to suddenly have a change of heart And yet, if you look at many with power to shape public discourse, there is a refusal to accept this obvious premise

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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 15/09/2026

Why the artist must take sides @saulwilliams.bsky.social

“Some artists believe they have no place discussing politics, or, at least, politics beyond their scope.

Yet a live-streamed genocide should bring everything into question. A question that becomes: What role can you play? What is within your power to help bring it to an end?”
Saul Williams, Songs My Mother Taught Me: Why The Artist Must Take Sides

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The bit where Sheeran said he was doing this so the other musicians could still earn a living was so obviously bad faith, something confirmed when they decided pretty unanimously on their own account not to take the money.

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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Must be nice not to be political. My face is political. Turning up with my husband is political

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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

In times of duress some show courage, they step up and do what's right; most however retreat to the safety of gainful employment by keeping the bosses happy.

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Everton Women v Charlton 1-0 to us 💙 good to see @batley83.bsky.social as well #UTFT

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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

£72m to Reform isn’t a ‘show of force’. It’s a supermarket sweep of the UK electoral system. A healthy media environment wouldn’t simply raise its eyebrows and sigh.

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Anna H @athenepallas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

An RNLI lifeboatman is taking part in the Great North Run tomorrow, wearing his full kit. Please donate here if you can: fundraise.rnli.org/fundraisers/...

fundraise.rnli.org

James Waters

I'm taking on Great North Run 2026 - please help me reach my fundraising goal of £1000!

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Aurelien's point here - voting as a curtailment of democracy - is a really powerful one which when I used taugt pol scis who'd come out of A level, would sometimes shock. /1

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Anytime soon, I’m sure there’ll be a series of front page diatribes decrying the opaque hiring practices of LSE and Stewart’s lack of academic credentials. Anytime soon. www.lse.ac.uk/news/rory-st...

lse.ac.uk

Rory Stewart appointed Professor in Practice | LSE Department of International Relations

Professor Stewart will play a key role in connecting students' academic study of international relations with the realities of policy-making and global affairs.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 12/09/2026

You’ve got priests, pensioners and disabled people who’ve been arrested for terrorism charges for peaceful protest, while the national public broadcaster is glazing a uniformed paramilitary for launching a campaign of attacks on infrastructure. Forgive me for seeing a scale and a thumb.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 12/09/2026

I am personally shocked that after months of declaring Britain to be ungovernable because not possible on their terms and their terms only, the British political and media class now have little to offer against a far-right street movement with authoritarian and exterminationist aspirations.

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Elizabeth Taylor @elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I usually don't feel this way but feeling very doomer about the future of trans rights in this country (giving fair warning before reading on). If the Greens stall and Burnham calls an early election, we are in the soup whatever happens.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Honestly, this is so dumb as to seem like ministerial trolling. Chris McDonald doesn't know that his remit includes arts, humanities, and social sciences. Jacqui Smith implies that universities -- rather than government policies -- are responsible for the huge drop in international students. 😡

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Annalisa Nicholson @apuddleofmuddle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.

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Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

When did the UK decide it didn't need Higher Education? How did we move from deindustrialization, to a knowledge economy and then decide that we could do it all on vibes and 'entrepreneurial spirit'

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If you feel like donating to the RNLI, here’s a link. I just have. Their minimum donation is £2: I think it might be nice for them to receive a lot of donations this week, even if they’re mostly very modest. Just so they know a lot of people out here appreciate their work. rnli.org/support-us/g...

rnli.org

Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea

Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A bit tapping of the sign here, but when I did the British Universities in the Brexit Moment book, I talked a bit about how the Nurse Review etc represented a big shift in this direction, despite all the protests at the time that it didn't. It was blatantly obvious.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Could it really be that, this whole time, 'legitimate concerns' was simply a cipher for 'irrational panic'?

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Something about 'free and fair elections'

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punkacademic @punkacademic.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Spot on. I was a home student who attended my local university. The THE interviewed me about it over a quarter of a century ago.

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