iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 22h

and we could be The Museum of English Rural Krakens with galleries exploring that very tradition

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I was wondering the same thing!

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PictCon @pictcon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It's just three days until PictCon2 and we are three short of our *closing* member numbers last year. PictCon is a small science fiction convention in Perth, Scotland. Just one day and with one programme track, and a workshop room. Our GoH is Editor Neil Williamson. Tickets are £10-£30.

eventbrite.co.uk

PictCon2

A Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention for everyone who reads, writes and watches.

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Rob Burgess @robaburg.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Being a sentient person in 2026 means arguing in public for issues you never thought you would have to articulate out loud: "Read to your children yourself instead of outsourcing it to a robot!" "Don't televise executions!" Things like that.

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…

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fairrealms.bsky.social @fairrealms.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

✷ GUEST ANNOUNCEMENT - Jude Reid ✷ We are delighted to have @squintywitch.bsky.social joining us at Fair Realms in Nottingham. Jude is a surgeon, student of Scottish Gaelic, writes for Warhammer & won the 2020 Kelpies Prize. ✷ Follow us for more guest announcements and ticket releases ✷

Guest Author
Jude Reid
Jude is a surgeon, student of Scottish Gaelic, writes for Warhammer and won the 2020 Kelpies Prize for Writing
fair Realms Fantasy fiction Festival Nottingham Central Library, 27 March 2027

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Oh my, yes! That's a good look for her.

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I have to admit I have hundreds of hours in Stardew, and have never used a mod. So even tens of mods would seem like lots to me - but the important bit is that you enjoy it.

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Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Glasgow: the UK AIDS quilt is on display at the Tramway until tomorrow. You should go.

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Rosalie ✨ @littlerecordgirl.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This has reached beyond my usual social media circle, so I wanted to drop this just in case people have the means to support. I don't like that food banks have to exist, but I do like that they do good work. glasgowse.foodbank.org.uk/support-us/d...

glasgowse.foodbank.org.uk

Donate money | Glasgow SE Foodbank

Financial donations help us provide food and practical support to people who need it.

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

#Scotstober Day 2 - bahoochie Posting mockups of a Central Scots Word Family List, here BAHOOKIE is the 1743th most common word family.

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J. L. Westover @mrlovenstein.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So grateful I get to include this comic in my book as a way of saying thanks ❤️ kickstarter.com/projects/mrlovenstein/mr-lovenstein-presents-fun

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Işıl Arıcan @isilarican.com · 02/10/2026

Quick and easy guide on how to prevent sexual assault. You are welcome.

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Albert Kirk Jr @albertkirkjr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#Scotstober Day 1 BAFFIES - Comfy shuin aften wrocht oot o oo. Ye weir them in the hoose, oot tae the van, or drappin the weans aff at the schuil. The baffie wis a sair wappen in the haunds o a bealin maw or paw, sae ye haed tae tak tent! Repeat efter me: BAFFIES

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.

From DISCVR blog's Facebook page, a momma bear & a yearling cub on her back in the shallow water. I think the background has been swapped out, and I can't rule out some AI use there? God, Facebook has become the social media for AI slop : (

The title of the article, which I link below, is "How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack"

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 30/09/2026

Been there

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Jennie Kermode @jenniekermode.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This kind of thing is infuriating and it is constant. PIP is an in-work benefit designed to cover the extra costs related to disability (and for most people it's desperately inadequate). Many people are only able to work because of the equipment, transport etc. that PIP makes available to them.

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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 28/09/2026

Any time we hear "AI did this and this", it's not proof programs are becoming sentient, but that the humans deploying said AI did this (which is generally failing to deploy proper sandboxing measures to prevent an AI from going against security) It's not the AI that's rogue, it's the company

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Mark Sugrue 🇪🇺 @marksugrue.com · 28/09/2026

You'd never guess from this @theguardian.com headline that Le Pen's party came joint 7th in this election.

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I did not know this, or the child slavery mentioned in the Wikipedia article. Thanks for sharing.

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

People aren’t faking their disabilities, they’re faking being well. We know society hates us. We know we will be judged for using assistive devices. Many of us take years to get the courage to lean in to accommodations. Stop judging. Help us build a more inclusive world.

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 26/09/2026

LRT: it never ceases to amaze me how utterly oblivious many men are that women exist in a totally different reality--where we have to do a daily calculus of how safe we are in environments that aren't meant to be unsafe

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Children are away which means enjoying meals they won't eat, or are hard to make for them. Today's was giant yorkshire puddings filled with veg, roast potato and cauldron veggie sausages, served with veg gravy.

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Michiel @murtoz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

They have.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot

Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

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Jennie Kermode @jenniekermode.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If Burnham does remove the ban on drinking alcohol at football matches then I hope that, here and now, he will commit to making a personal apology to every woman who gets the shite beaten out of her when her drunk husband's team loses.

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Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 23/09/2026

Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano

Picture of the streets of Pompeii, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompei_-_panoramio_(26).jpg. Taken by Tanya Dedyukhina, used under CC

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Jennie Kermode @jenniekermode.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I think I've found the ultimate expression of AI failure. Looking up a detail of 'Withnail & I' for work, I see on Google the question 'What is the point of Withnail & I?' and the answer 'The point of Withnail & I is...' - by which point, it's clear that it has missed the point entirely.

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Jennie Kermode @jenniekermode.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Huge progress on dealing with data centres in Scotland today as the Parliament just voted by almost two thirds for a year long moratorium on 'hyperscale' ones, the government having earlier established that all larger ones must undergo mandatory environmental assessments. #AI #DataCentres #ScotPol

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Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Rare occurrence of heavy rains over Uluru (Ayer's Rock), the sacred sandstone monolith of the Australian desert: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFu...

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A reminder that Delo previously pled guilty in the US to violating money laundering protections and agreed to pay a $10 million fine for "willfully” breaking the law with his BitMex platform, which was described as "in effect a money laundering platform.” This is who owns Farage now

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Woo hoo. I hope it is tasty!

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The Govan Stones @govanstones.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Want to see stunning early medieval narrative art featuring mounted warriors, but can't get a ticket to the British Museum? We have just the thing at the Govan Stones, and it's free to see every day, 11am-4pm! 📷 @hornesupremacy.bsky.social

One side of the late 9th century carved stone Govan Sarcophagus, which features a mounted warrior on a hunt and a Lamb of God scene.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Rupert Murdoch should be sent to the Hague

…and that overestimate sits alongside a third (34%) of the public believing there are “no-go” areas in London where Sharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter. Virtually the same proportion (36%) disagree this is the case, while one in five (19%) say they don't know.

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

You might have to turn up for the results of this one, Nige.

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I took this picture today of the art in the staff toilets at work. It always makes me chuckle. The ouse is one of the rivers in York.

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 07/09/2026

So, when I was a kid growing up on the coast, the lifeboats saved a friend. If you live just outside the most important fishing port in the country you are always going to have a fondness for them Plus, they have a nice line in sea suitable clothes to buy in their shop 100% wool, that'll do nicely

shop.rnli.org

RNLI Unisex Guernsey Jumper, Navy

RNLI Guernsey jumper, inspired by traditional fisherman knits. 100% British wool, made in the UK. Sizes S–XXL. Machine washable, wool setting, 30°C max.

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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Reform say they'll force school children to sing hymns. Only 5% of Britons go to church. So what we have here is a religious minority forcing their wishes on the majority, and refusing to integrate with Britain's culture. They should go and live somewhere else. According to Reform.

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Marty Hades 🔥💀 @smartypantsmarty.com · 02/09/2026

Monumental achievement.

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"plus you've got to allow for days off, two grandmother's funerals per man" -Men at Arms (Terry Pratchett)

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K.B. Spangler @kbspangler.com · 03/09/2026

Have we talked about Questionable Content recently? The last five years in particular have just been so darned good. It's humans and robots doing their best, nobody really knows what's going on, and there's a giant cryptic hive mind that spits out different embodied personalities so it can chat.

questionablecontent.net

Questionable Content - Home

Questionable Content is an internet comic strip created by Jeph Jacques about friendship, romance, and robots. QC began on August 1, 2003.

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Sam Rankin @sorankin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I was adamant that I didn't want to get married nor have kids. I did both, but I would even more strongly advocate for people being able to make their own choices (and for everyone else to shut up about those choices).

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Micah @rincewind.run · 01/09/2026

a remarkably effective life hack: just be nice to people it's incredible how much goodwill people will extend to you if you're pleasant to them

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