iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Listening to the Survivors' Suite.. majestic.

Reposted by Roland Bates

Elisabeth Donnelly @heydonnelly.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Once I was sitting at the bar in Hudson’s bookstore/bar and an incredibly hot man in grandpa jeans was asking for Anne Carson’s then-new Nox (they did not have it), he was with a woman in big sunglasses and a tire jacket. It was, of course, Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I have that translation of Illuminations. Fantastic

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Reposted by Roland Bates

Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Some thoughts I shared while in the UK, where Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has acknowledged that anti-genocide protestors "were right" but activists are still serving long prison terms for stepping in where their government failed. @astra.bsky.social

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This also keys in to my problem with extreme rationalists/techbro solution obsessives. Actual real people aren't rational. They never have been! Study people in any depth at all, and you will see them in their polymorphously perverse glory.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Plus you would get links. So if you wanted to read the actual paper.... you could! And I often did.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

One bit of Thinking Allowed has always stayed with me. A paper about the children of parents who run "family-run hotels". Obviously this had NEVER ONCE crossed my mind. Taylor interviewed the writer and, I shit you not, it was gripping. This is how we all learn about OTHER PEOPLE.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

On the one hand you have hacks like Haidt blaming phones etc for young people's supposed cognitive decline (imaginary, in my opinion); then you have the BBC, the actual flipping BBC, removing your access to things you might otherwise never have known. Make it make sense!

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

On that occasion he was wearing a light brown trenchcoat and carrying a tiny red briefcase. I commented on the briefcase and he gave me a side-eye that I remember to this day. He denied being Bradbury's History Man. Deny it all you like, Taylor! We dig you.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My uncle Bob was a code-breaker at Bletchley Park and subsequently headed the maths department at Uppingham. I am his nephew and I failed Additional Maths.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thinking Allowed is brilliant and I once had the chance to say this to L Taylor, at the bar in the Yorkshire Grey where he suddenly appeared right next to me. I look back with fondness at people's concerns about "dumbing down", some years ago. This, by contrast, is obviously deliberate.

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Reposted by Roland Bates

Δύτης των νιπτήρων @dytistn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The past is a foreign country

https://x.com/KerryHowley/status/2108228193643884545?s=20

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

He's toast basically. Enter Rev. Shula Hebden (this obviously would NOT happen in real life)

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Did we already hear about the £6000 transfer before today? Or is this news to everybody?

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This Bluesky account is one which DELIVERS.

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Reposted by Roland Bates

Exploding Helicopter @chopperfireball.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Fun fact: Colonel Sanders (yes, that one) has appeared in more films with an exploding helicopter than Al Pacino. The fried chicken king briefly appeared in HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS (1970) which features a chopper fireball. Meanwhile, Al Pacino has yet to make a film to interest us...

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I were right about Anne Carson though

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A pagan friend A pagan friend He'll never let you down

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Reposted by Roland Bates

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

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Reposted by Roland Bates

Robert @robertd1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Yeah I had a similar thought earlier. The force feeding and valorisation of pre-approved, select dreams that have been institutionalised or scaled-up or invested in, and how prohibitive that is to what dreaming is.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Fucking hope not My daughter is 31 and she is still trying to open that can of beans. Her kids are famished

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

There has been a comprehensive, corporatised failure of imagination.

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Reposted by Roland Bates

AL Kennedy @writereralk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I was definitely hacked there. Think I'm okay now. Plus side - a scam designed in a way that would fool MAGA has simply irritated my contacts. But many apologies.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We had a DM from "you" and it was very funny (not for you, obviously). Consider it a feather in your cap

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Reposted by Roland Bates

David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The English/Greek names work phonetically, and my take on the two Biblical originals is that they were stroppy antagonists.

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Reposted by Roland Bates

David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Cissie and Ada?

Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough as Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebottom

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I am really excited about this. I don't even know why.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

NICE ROADS I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I have a Bible reading on Sunday. Two Greek names are in it. Women. Euodia and Syntyche. Please suggest English translations of these names!

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I come and go with church but the music doesn't let you down and the Bible is reliably nuts. Having a gospel to proclaim is a truly unusual enterprise

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I forgot she'd gone. Such a great character.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ha! I am just pleasantly surprised that she's got involved, it's good and she's really got the bit between her teeth on this one.

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Roland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The commas are there to HELP you. You just breathed in the wrong place. In fact it's like learning to play music. The unit to aim for is the phrase. Playing note by note is like reading word by word

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