iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This was sad news. Cyril Hilsum was one of the most extraordinary people I've been lucky to meet. Obituaries will praise his science achievements, but he was an incredible storyteller too. The 28 hour oral history we did is still the longest interview I've done. physicsworld.com/a/cyril-hils...

physicsworld.com

Cyril Hilsum, former GEC research boss and Institute of Physics president, dies aged 101 – Physics World

Hilsum helped develop commercial applications for liquid crystals

020

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

RIP Steve. One of the most extraordinary people I have ever spoken with. Her refugee to tech entrepreneur philanthropist life story is amazing, but it's her sense of decency that sticks most in my memory, deciding to live "a life that had been worth saving" www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Dame Stephanie Shirley obituary

Pioneering computer scientist, founder of her own software company, philanthropist and determined autism campaigner

020

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

I cannot recall a game of Arkham when I have rolled this hilariously and consistently badly.

010

Reposted by Tom Lean

The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

why in The Last of Us do they go on a first date to hunt zombies in the horrible supermarket, when they could instead hold hands at their local rural history museum?

1763743

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

In the queue for A Knight's Tale, one of our party has genuinely only just realised this isn't actually a faithful performance of Chaucer in the original Middle English

A theatre sign for a knights tale the musical

030

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Not the best day for a walk

A view of a rainy day looking out across a lake

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

This is all going a bit wrong....

An Arkham Horror board game, covered in doom tokens, which is not going the players' way.

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

You can use a ZX Spectrum to "do everything from run a business to study your biorhythms you can brush up your history, even land a plane!" A more innocent time for IT perhaps.

031

Reposted by Tom Lean

Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Historian from the future, readinge thrugh the March 2025 posts on thys site, Ich hope wyth all myne hearte that yower tyme ys bettir than these dayes we now endure.

221238

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Had a grand day out learning about the awesome work of the Avro Heritage Centre in sunny Stockport. Amazing to stand in the cockpit of a cold war era Vulcan bomber built to deter the USSR. Thank goodness those dark days of history are behind us.

A bloke standing in the cramped dark cockpit of a Vulcan bomber

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

When was the last time when Britain wasn't in crisis? I have a vague feeling there might have been a few months in the late 1990s, but that could just be nostalgia, otherwise it just seems like muddling through crisis (economic, social (real or imagined), the odd world war) seems to be the default?

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Good to see my weekend's reading materials arrived before the storm hit

010

Reposted by Tom Lean

Richard Carr @richardcarr.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

This is both an incredibly niche thing but I think it should be more of a thing. Caffè Nero subscribes to the British Newspaper Archive so it’s all free on their wifi. There. I said it.

461234440

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

What's the correct etiquette for when you kick someone's water bottle into the swimming pool, because, A:you're very short sighted, and B: it was in a silly place anyway? Am I right in thinking it's pretend it didn't happen and walk away to the showers without making eye contact with anyone? Right?

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Christmas tradition achievement unlocked. 🔓 🎄

140

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Finally! My loves of cheese and worker placement games are brought together in one place.

A board game about cheese. Small wooden wedges fill spaces in a quartered board

110

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Guess who didn't read the book but went to bookgroup anyway...

A boat made of tinfoil floating on a sea of the inside of a crisp packet, on a pub table

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Friday cat has had enough this week

041

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

This is the sort of cat poop naval history crossover I joined this platform for

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Have to love ̶M̶e̶d̶e̶a̶v̶a̶l̶ ̶M̶e̶d̶i̶a̶e̶v̶i̶l̶ Early Modern solutions for preventing book theft. Interesting morning at Chetham's delightfully atmospheric Library

A dark, wooden, very old looking library corridor lined with bookcases with grills covering them

010

Reposted by Tom Lean

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

This is HMS Fidelity. Built in Liverpool in 1920. Served as a Royal Navy commando and covert action ship during WW2. I think Fidelity might be unique among WW2 Royal Navy combat vessels. Her First Officer was a woman: the absolutely fascinating Lt Cdr (effective) Madeleine Barclay. /1

black and white photo of a single stack, run down naval vessel.

24649269

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 17/10/2024

Huzzah, the absolute unit has arrived.

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

Had a great time this week making friends with Sno-Cat and other objects at the Science Museum's incredible newly opened national collection centre. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Tom standing next to an orange sno cat Antarctic vehicle

021

Reposted by Tom Lean

Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

Such a wonderful resource - indispensable when writing Metropolitan Science or researching London's 18thC scientific instrument makers. I've dipped into the updated version and look forward to future explorations!

082

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

Those two years as an agricultural historian gave me an exaggerated sense of my gardening abilities. This is my *entire* beetroot crop.

020

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

On the day the UK finally phases coal out of the electricity supply system, it seems an opportune moment to flag a video I helped make a few years ago of what happens in a coal fired power station. I had forgetten just how HUGE that pile of coal outside was... Great explanation from Granville too

youtu.be

Granville Camsey: Rugeley Power Station

YouTube video by British Library

034

Reposted by Tom Lean

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 30/09/2024

UK Coal xkcd.com/2992

432814805

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

"Could the owner of the house door that has been left on platform one please return to your door and collect it immediately"

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 30/09/2024

Sad & strange that Port Talbot blast furnaces will soon be no more. Visiting my parents with someone not from PT years ago, they got out of the car, pointed to the horizon and yelped "my god it's on fire!" I was shocked to discover that this wasn't considered 'normal'. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Final days of Tata's Port Talbot steelworks captured in images

Photographers have documented the impact of the closure of the second blast furnace at Tata Steel.

000

Reposted by Tom Lean

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 09/09/2024

Town square marketplace of ideas

3740691082

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 07/09/2024

It's not looking good for us TBH

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 06/09/2024

Is it just me, or do Catseyes look a lot space invaders when they're not stuck in a road?

010

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 05/09/2024

It seems impossible to write about how jet engines work without using words that sound every so slightly rude. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow to provide thrust. Ooh matron. 😳🤭

000

Tom Lean @reggitsti.bsky.social · 06/08/2024

Well lets hope this new place is a bit nicer than the old place was.

4161