iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 51m

Sometimes a school's firewall blocks our imascientist.org.uk site. It's annoying. Today, the teacher sent a screenshot and I noticed it said suspected "dating gambling". What? But our home page says: It connects school students with scientists through energetic real-time text-based Chats."

imascientist.org.uk

I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! – Science enrichment

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Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on

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Jo Hutchinson @jojohutchinson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Everything Peter Fonagy says here aligns with what I have learned in over a decade’s work on mental health and SEND, my personal experience + those of many families I have conversed with. We await the findings on ADHD and autism. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Young people are not snowflakes, head of mental health review says

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Prof Fonagy says being young is much harder now than it was.

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The hospitality industry are back lobbying for a VAT cut They don't mention the cost: £12bn They don't mention who gets the £: ❌ The smallest most vulnerable businesses? Get nothing ❌ Consumers? Prices won't fall ✅ McDonald's gets £400m. Big chains are big winners 🧵:

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 15/09/2026

Nice of @samfr.bsky.social to balance the threat of AI with this.

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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If an Irish newspaper doesn’t run a “Senior Orangeman Calls For A United Ireland” headline, then the newspapers are dead.

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David J @damjef.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Re: last RT, for the benefit of anyone without Instagram…

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Yet again, it’s the satirists I feel sorriest for…

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 09/09/2026

APOLOGIES FOR INTERRUPTING YOUR DOOM-SCROLLING Britain is not completely broken. My car went for an MOT and admittedly failed. I asked the mechanic to fix it. Yesterday he called to let me know it was done, A WHOLE DAY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. He underpromised and overdelivered. #BrilliantBritain

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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 07/09/2026

Big fan of how Russia can shut down a major UK port for half a day with just 5kg of cocaine and 100 severely divorced men.

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Jon Worth @jonworth.eu · 07/09/2026

Welcome to the #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail record breaking thread! This journey starts Kemijärvi 🇫🇮 and ends Lagos 🇵🇹 18 trains, 100 hours 9 minutes, 4008km as crow flies, 6281 route-km Project background: longestjourney.crossborderrail.eu Follow live: longestjourneylive.crossborderrail.eu

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Half-expecting government to announce VAT cut on balaclavas to help with cost of living.

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is the thing, I am happy to accept that I am wet, lefty liberal on immigration compared to the voting public, I'm not really prepared to accept the same on the topic of black masked militia men blocking infrastructure!

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The AfD and Reform immigration policies are almost identical. There is no plausible reason for considering one far right and the other not.

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Robert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 04/09/2026

One thing that I love about the film is how it captures a very distinct social setting and milieu. Lunch at Rules. G&Ts at Mark’s. A champagne reception at Oswald’s. Pints in a Shepherd Neame’s pub in Westminster. Discussion of Black Velvets over oysters by the sea.

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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 03/09/2026

This is racism, straight out of the Trump playbook. Reform are trying to turn our great country into a franchise of Trump's America. There are countless British patriots who came here from overseas, many of them refugees we proudly welcomed. That's the kind of country we are.

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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Parents! Carers! Anyone looking after children getting GCSE results today! Remember: your only job today is to be proud, supportive, and kind regardless of what grades your child gets. (Not so proud that you have to brag about it on here).

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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 19/08/2026

This stopped me in my tracks. An independent study by @qmul.bsky.social has found that after ULEZ was introduced, children’s lungs grew faster in Central London and have now caught up with children outside of the capital. Incredible.

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

MY MOST BAFFLINGLY LOCATED EVENT YET! I'm doing a tour of the Harwell Science Campus, then chatting about the new book afterwards. If you are some kind of Harwell-based scientist, well

harwellcampus.com

Engineering Modern Life: Jonn Elledge Q&A

Explore the ideas behind 31 Inventions That Built Our World with Jonn Elledge, uncovering the technology shaping modern life.

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

New: An "expert witness" in a $61 million lawsuit over an industrial explosion that killed three people and destroyed 200 homes used ChatGPT to write his report for the court. He prompted ChatGPT to "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding" www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...

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Stardust 🌏🎬 @stardustbluepr.com · 17/08/2026

Hopping into Monday.. Kangaroos on the sea at sunrise. Australia 📹 jeroen.fritz on IG

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

This is appalling and tragic. Cambridge University, the media, and those far right 'scholars' and hangers on who sought to capitalise on this case for social media clout surely bear responsibility for what feels like an entirely predictable outcome. www.lbc.co.uk/article/jaso...

lbc.co.uk

Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday found dead aged 41 | LBC

Mr Arday is understood to have been found "unresponsive" at an address in Battersea on Friday afternoon

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Very weird to be living for weeks through what has so far been the worst UK drought since records began and for the Prime Minister to have still said absolutely nothing about it

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 10/08/2026

Getting ready for Wednesday. 40 year refractor still doing the job despite sad neglect.

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Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

*this para is important. William O'Reilly, history don, was found to have plagiarised by the university, and has had sexual misconduct claims against him as well — but he remains in post at Cambridge, and the press/public barely noticed.

Allegations of plagiarism in a doctoral thesis do not usually make for riveting, front-page news. Indeed, in 2023, when the Cambridge history professor William O’Reilly faced allegations of plagiarising student essays, the press coverage consisted of barely half a dozen articles (a tribunal ruled the plagiarism was “the product of negligent acts but was not deliberate”). Few people could care less about what academics get up to.

But Arday could not expect to be similarly insulated by academia’s remoteness. This story has endured, stubbornly, because it is so perfectly calibrated for some of the most combustible charges of Britain’s culture wars: namely, that academic standards have been surrendered to a woke orthodoxy, and that minorities are unfairly advanced in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 04/08/2026

Close. So close. But not close enough.

Rain Radar showing heavy thunderstorms over Bristol, but sadly not over Bath.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 04/08/2026

@tonytoners.bsky.social We're currently doing a little bit of overdue data clear out and came across this gem. Are we OK to delete? Or is the research too important?

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

open.substack.com

Burnham's first mistake

The problem with his education plan

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Nick Hilton @nickfthilton.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I want to go back in time and tell the child version of Elliot Anderson that in like a decade he will be sold in the same year, and for the same fee, as Argos.

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Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The data report from the first three months of the Australian social media ban has now been released: www.esafety.gov.au/research/soc... Some thoughts:

esafety.gov.au

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

One of the things I find odd about UK skills and jobs policies over the last 10 years is the idea that - for young people - place is destiny. It's like we've taken the Brexit memo and double stamped it into meaning you need to stay put to be a success. The geographical footprint of the UK is *tiny*

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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We must remember the Utøya massacre, and remember it for what it was: a far-right attack specifically targeted against democratic socialist activists. Today, the ideologies of its perpetrator are openly espoused by a global network of nationalist oligarchs as they wage war on democratic societies.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 21/07/2026

Nice way to finish the school year.

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Ben Still @drbenstill.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Honoured to receive the Sir Colin Humphreys Education Award from @iom3.bsky.social Huge thanks to everyone who has helped make the Magic of Materials Summer School such a success. Together we've inspired more than 250 future scientists and engineers. www.iom3.org/events-award... #MaterialsScience

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 20/07/2026

And now Healey has to find the money for the defence budget. Nice move AB.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 19/06/2026

This appeared in my Basecamp notifications this morning. Boy o boy, @mark-carney.bsky.social is going to be annoyed. Or maybe he'll support the @imascientist.org.uk pilot we're planning for the autumn / fall?

Basecamp notification: Assigned you: Canada

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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 18/06/2026

Accurate.

Screenshot of a social media post by Angus McIntyre (@angusm@mastodon.social). The post humorously claims that the UK government's plan to teach 10 million British children how to use VPNs could become one of the largest IT education projects ever. It jokes that experts support the scheme because peer education and incentives will help it succeed, and includes a mock quote saying that, with the rise of autocratic governments worldwide, VPN literacy is more important than ever and that the project comes at the right time. The humour derives from the implication that government internet restrictions would encourage widespread VPN use among young people.

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National Centre for Computing Education @wearecomputing.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Right now, A level Computer Science students across the country are taking their paper 2 exam. We want to wish the best of luck to everyone, and congratulate students and teachers alike for their persistance and commitment to computing. Well done for making it to this wonderful milestone! 🎉

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 17/06/2026

It still feels rare to find senior ministers on BlueSky so am reposting @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social so it makes a move from the cxsspit easier

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 10/06/2026

Woo hoo. Waldegrave School has their first chat in imacomputerscientist.uk today. And it was also the 1,000th that we've run so far this academic year. Well done team @imascientist.org.uk

Graphic Shouting "Happy 1000th Chat!" with the five "I'm a..." programme project logos

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 10/06/2026

Karl, as expected, is dead on here.

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Rossa @rossac.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Big thanks to the DUP, Reform, Tories etc for stirring this up all day. Thugs are now attacking people's homes in Belfast, wrecking hostels, checking cars at roadblocks for 'immigrants', burning vehicles and generally scaring the shit out of people. Hope you're all proud of yourselves. #Belfast

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David Whitley @mrdavidwhitley.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Treating any communication platform that algorithmically selects which content to put in front of a user as a publisher, and legally responsible for that content, is the screamingly obvious solution that will deeply upset maybe seven companies and make life considerably better.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 06/06/2026

Do @moreincommonuk.bsky.social use swear word filters on their word clouds? I can't see the four letter word I normally associate with that

Word clouds describing Nigel Farage. Dangerous, Good, Racist stand out in Sept 2025. Racist is overwhelmingly dominant in May 2026.

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Shane McCracken @shane.mccracken.org.uk · 03/06/2026

"But since then, No.10 has seemed, if anything, embarrassed by what energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband has achieved." Detailed account of some of the good happening within governments. Incl the previous Tory ones. open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

open.substack.com

Guest Post: Labour's Net Zero triumph

In the face of frenzied right-wing attacks, this government has successfully executed one of the most ambitious climate change projects in the world. It's time to give credit where it's due.

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