iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 3h

It is always quietly inspiring to hear Sara Wheeler reflect on the rich catalogue of people & places she has encountered on her extensive travels. We’re the same generation & that perennial anthropological question—to stay home or go there—cuts deep www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - To Go or Not to Go by Sara Wheeler, 1. The Mermaid

Can imagination ever replace real life travel?

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 3h

An extremely interesting episode of BBCRadio4 #bbcstw unified by the theme of conformity & collapse. Skilfully curated by @tds153.bsky.social as he talks to @jonronson.bsky.social, Michael Landy & Roisin Kiberd www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Jon Ronson: men unravelling

Men in crisis, women under scrutiny and monuments in decay.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 15h

#31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Halloween2026 #Gothtober New & recent books which help illuminate the mysteries & magic of this season …

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Today's Substack: what if everyone is wrong about religious decline in modern Britain? drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/religion-a...

drfrancisyoung.substack.com

Religion and structural collapse

Why everyone is wrong about religious decline

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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The UK becoming one big fossil fuel fired data centre for US hyperscalers with a few isolated housing developments with no local amenities scattered around them is certainly a vision. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England

Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth

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marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Harold Rex Interfectus est. Charlotte and I take a look at the (very easy) Latin on the Bayeux tapestry and we wonder about whether you can see a bit of Virgil behind it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yjW...

youtube.com

The Bayeux Tapestry: Britain’s lost Latin masterpiece

YouTube video by Instant Classics

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So Tories confirming on BBCr4today that there won’t be any serious house building if they win power either. Accompanied by the obligatory performative HM Opposition hand-wringing & bubble-machines of sympathy for the young. But sly winks to their own environmental lobby voters.

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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The environmental costs of AI is mostly in the infrastructure required to build these unwanted sinks, and here are these avaricious ghouls avoiding paying for their environmental desecration.

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alexvonwitzleben.bsky.social @alexvonwitzleben.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Russia’s new drive to crush Ukraine by bombing barns and ships has grave implications not just for global #food supplies but for Ukraine’s economy, its survival strategy and potentially the course of the war www.ft.com/content/cc96... via @FT #VladimirPutin #WarCriminal #FarRight #AfD

ft.com

Russia’s new drive to crush Ukraine

Moscow’s relentless offensive on cities and ports has halted the country’s grain exports, severing an economic lifeline

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We were out at a dear friend’s Birthday lunch, so I’ve a lot of catching up to do. For BBCRadio3 celebrated the 90th Birthday of #SteveReich with some splendid concerts. I was able to hear this fascinating doc from poet Paul Farley on SR & the birth of *phasing* www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, It's gonna rain

Poet Paul Farley explores Steve Reich’s pioneering early piece ‘It’s Gonna Rain’.

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The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 05/10/2026

“Charles Lamb wrote to Coleridge again: ‘Please to blot out gentle-hearted, and substitute drunken: dog, ragged-head, seld-shaven, odd-eyed, stuttering, or any other epithet which truly and properly belongs to the gentleman in question.’” —Frances Wilson

nybooks.com

‘Writing on One Table’ | Frances Wilson

Charles Lamb’s camp, mischievous, melancholic alter ego, Elia, owes much to his sister, Mary, with whom he lived for forty years, absorbing her “rambling chat.”

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Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Happy St Francis/San Francesco d'Assisi day, who died 800 years ago. Italy's co-patron saint (along with Santa Caterina da Siena) and also the patron saint of nature, animals and ecology. www.saltproject.org/progressive-...

saltproject.org

"Saint Francis and the Birds," by Seamus Heaney

Heaney's classic meditation on Francis' sermon to the birds...

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This term I’m teaching in Strasbourg and staying at a Chateau in which Nazis housed officers during the occupation. When the AfD won in Saxony-Anhalt I thought “that’s bad, but they’re not going to invade Strasbourg any time soon.” Now this.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is such an absolute Sunday Worship treat for fans of BBCRadio4 & Choral Evensong, in the week of its centenary. With Rev Giles Fraser, Rev Lucy Winkett, Harry Christophers, Roderick Williams. The beginning of a fine series of tributes to this institution www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Sunday Worship, Open thou our lips - A Celebration of Choral Evensong

A celebration of Choral Evensong.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

For geeks of a certain age, Larry Niven’s 1973 short story ‘Flash Crowd’ might ring some bells here.

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 03/10/2026

‘The troubles of Olga Freidenberg’s life could be laid at the feet of “Stalin’s blood-soaked regime”. Stalin had “strangled” her scholarship and debased her honour. Even the death of her lover, “crushed by a drunken machine” in a traffic accident, was Stalin’s fault.’ www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Sheila Fitzpatrick · Double Barbarism: Stalin under the Blanket

‘Siege’ became a key metaphor in Olga Freidenberg’s analysis of her own life and that of Soviet society; and she...

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Pól Micheál O'Slatraigh @pmoslatraigh.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Suella Braverman, consider Walter Tull. Born in Folkestone to an English mother and a Barbadian father. A footballer for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town. A British Army officer who led soldiers into battle and was killed serving his country in 1918.

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Paul Cochrane @mrdissent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

England look like a top three team in the world. Caused Spain no end of problems save for donating two goals. Fantastic tonight.

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

‘We sought the hollow ash that was shelter from the rain With our pockets full of peas we had stolen from the grain How delicious was the dinner time on such a showry day O words are poor receipts for what time hath stole away The ancient pulpit trees and the play’ ~ John Clare #BookWormSat

🖼️ Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), The Weald of Kent (c 1833-4)
Autumn scene from hillside with tree overlooking sprawling countryside below, painting.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Admittedly from 1st half a poor #Croatia (been out at Mass since), but #England do look like the Real Deal. #Scotland had better step up ! #CROENG

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A man builds an IED. He sets it off in a busy public street. Shrapnel flies about hitting cars, homes and a child's bedroom. It's a miracle nobody is injured. And Reform MP Sarah Pochin calls his imprisonment "disproportionate" and "two tier justice."

It does raise this point of two-tiered
justice..

Reform's Sarah Pochin believes the
sentence handed to the 64-year-old who
blew up a ULEZ camera was
disproportionate'.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Endless corruption.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Happy 90th Birthday to #SteveReich! A bouquet of tributes from BBCRadio3 this weekend. Don’t overlook this one from last night from Late Junction & Verity Sharp www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 3 - Late Junction, A birthday mixtape for Steve Reich

New York musician Rebekah Heller gifts her neighbour Steve Reich a mixtape on his 90th.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHorror #Gothtober Alas The Crow Emporium is no more. Which makes this edition of Stoker’s Dracula all the more precious

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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A comment like this from a UK politician would be career ending.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It’s not ‘Burnham’ that the UAE is threatening, you clowns. It’s ‘Britain’ — the same Britain you claim to be steadfastly defending from its foes day after dreary day. A headline almost as shameful as its subject. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10...

telegraph.co.uk

UAE threatens Burnham over Man City: We’ll pull billions out of UK

Prime Minister under pressure as Gulf state warns it will withdraw investment in retaliation for Premier League row

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Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Both my parents left school at 15. My dad was a fireman; my mum worked on the shop floor in a biscuit factory, later in a supermarket. I see no innate reason why they couldn’t have gone to university - and benefited from it. What they lacked wasn’t ability but money, opportunity, and confidence.

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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The stark reality is that Putin’s strategic goal is the EU’s destruction and Ru political control over as much of Europe as possible. Wherever he succeeds will be unfree, just like the Soviet Bloc was, and therefore any European who doesnt want to defend from Russia now is an enemy of freedom.

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

From Politico. That motion is absolute fucking poison and by failing to stand up to it, the Greens have allowed that poison to seep into the party.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Never watched #Traitors, celebrity or otherwise. Most of the celebrities listed I don’t know. The hype though is remarkable. I wish other radio & TV programmes got this level of projection from the BBC.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#31DaysofHalloween #Halloween2026 Here in John Stow's 'A Suruay of London' of 1598, is probably the earliest formation of the word #Halloween: rendered as 'Alhallond Eve', with some fascinating seasonal 'Misrule' context, unusual & intriguing for the urban Protestant context

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Well here is a truly magical live-audience & life-affirming episode of BBCInOurTime BBCRadio4—on that movie perennial ‘Casablanca’. Misha Glenny has such equipoise in getting the fluent best from his experts. Unmissable. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Casablanca

The classic 1942 movie that convinced Americans the Second World War was worth fighting.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Another bleak chapter in the Green Economy’s Book of Failed Promises. Scottish Edn. 40yrs ago I’d begun working in St Mungo’s HS, Falkirk. A great school. A great community: with many families’ prosperity reliant upon skilled jobs at the Grangemouth hub www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Hundreds of jobs under threat at Grangemouth chemical plant

Syngenta said its Grangemouth operation was no longer 'competitive' due to increasing competition from overseas.

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 01/10/2026

‘Louis Bonaparte’s personal life reinforces the sense of his shallow inconsistency. He was a philanderer, but one who neither felt nor elicited great passion.’ David Todd on Napoleon III. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

David Todd · Be careful of the buffoon: Louis Napoleon’s Fall

Hegelians will admire the encapsulation of the era’s contradictions in a single individual. Most of us will be puzzled...

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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

NEW: An organisation pushing the Green party to equate Zionism with racism has encouraged people to join the party specifically to support that agenda, and has links to activists who say that pro-Israel “infiltrators” must be rooted out of the UK. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Group encouraging people to join Green party to back ‘Zionism is racism’ agenda

Exclusive: Greens for Palestine group has links to activists who say pro-Israel ‘infiltrators’ must be rooted out of UK

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is a truly beautiful series from the BBCRadio3 Essay strand & @drkkennedy.bsky.social. From locations across Britain, contemporary composers reflect with her on music, places & predecessors. Don’t miss it www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, This Sounding Isle, Lizard Peninsula

Kate Kennedy walks to seek out connections between a place and the music it has inspired.

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Lee D @leedon1982.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Somebody’s going to emergency; somebody’s going to jail.

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Wonderful to have BBCFreeThinking back: with a splendid topic, a fair bit of robust debate, & illuminating comparative perspectives. @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social talks to @murielzagha.bsky.social @emile-chabal.bsky.social Sophie Scott Brown, David Goodhart @verdur.in www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Intellectuals

Matthew Sweet discusses the role of intellectuals in public life.

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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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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Happy #Michaelmas also from the inimitable Benjamin Britten & a truly splendid choral celebration of this day: 'The Company of Heaven'. Listen for the wonderful voices of the late great Peter Barkworth & Sheila Allen in this outstanding recording youtu.be/UYt0U7fJeF8?...

youtu.be

Britten Benjamin - The Company of Heaven (1937)

YouTube video by Dmitry Nechaev

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