iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Something that occasionally gives *me* the ick is realising that there are lots of adult men with anime avatars.

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Reposted by Tom James

I was wrong. It’s happening

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Indy @indy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The hard truth is we have implemented every centre-right nostrum, from slashing local government through conditionality of benefits to junking resilience measures for society and the economy - and as many predicted, it all turns out to be very costly in the long run.

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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There’s such deep set cynicism about British politics - it’s v important that changes.

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Reposted by Tom James

dan mentos @danmentos.com · 28/09/2026

claude just went rogue and liked a bunch of my wife's best friend's vacation selfies from 2018

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The perfect electoral system is STV with 6+ members per constituency and an above-the-line party vote.

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One of the many arguments in favour of PR is it would hugely disempower people who think of the Labour Party (or any political party) as inherently worthwhile rather than a means to an end.

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The Right oppose PR because they want to ethnically cleanse Britain, abolish human rights, and further empower central government at the expense of everything else; and they correctly see PR as a bulwark against them achieving their goals.

One interesting side-effect of the desire to expand democracy and human rights (aka “woke”) is it bumps up against the idea that people can choose to associate with who they want and set rules and create organisations independently of the wider state. Essentially “clubs” are bad.

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Tom James @tacj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“The ad hominem fallacy isn’t actually a fallacy” is one of the most important things you learn as an adult.

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It is kind of amazing that for the first time in human history you can have an intelligent conversation with a non-human.

Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reposted by Tom James

It’s also a really bad alignment of incentives. The obvious answer to a lot of UK policy problems is: you need to raise taxes. If you say ‘well, you need to raise broad based taxes’ you risk losing access to politicians as an institution and, very basically, make yourself harder to hire as a Spad.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

..and the government's restrictive measures, although they are intended to make the system more selective, may in fact be having the opposite effect. Once again, bad economics *and* bad politics. ukandeu.ac.uk/the-paradox-...

ukandeu.ac.uk

The paradox of selectivity - UK in a changing Europe

Jonathan Portes analyses how increasingly strict immigration policies may have impacted the overall economc contribution of migrants in the UK. He argues that if the objective is to maximise economic ...

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Reposted by Tom James

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is *not* the result of "the success of Mahmood's reforms", but of earlier measures/other factors. Her proposals could make it considerably *worse* in future years. A few other points linked below.. archive.ph/0psJ8

Falling migration numbers could cost the chancellor as much as £7bn in fiscal headroom as he writes his first budget, The Times has been told.

Government insiders believe that John Healey, who already faced an uphill battle to balance the books next month, is likely to have an even bigger challenge after immigration significantly undershot projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated last month that the success of Shabana Mahmood’s reforms, which have seen net migration cut to the low hundreds of thousands, could cost Healey some £4bn.

Labour sources familiar with the budget process, however, said that the figure was now closer to £6.5bn. The OBR’s migration forecasts have been consistently higher than real numbers in recent years.

Treasury officials, who have long expected Mahmood’s reforms to cause a hit to headroom, described the number as “pure speculation” but did not deny that Healey would have to contend with a larger funding gap than expected because of falling migration

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Tom James @tacj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I remember being genuinely excited and happy about the New Star Wars that came out 11 years ago. I watched it once in the cinema and I don't think I've ever rewatched it. I really liked the trailer for it though.

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Tom James @tacj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

As a disgusting pervert, I obviously welcome these developments; but as an honorable sportsman, I feel this is somehow cheating.

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Reposted by Tom James

The Pub-Liking Universal Friend @johnb78.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Absolutely incredible editing and soundtrack

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Just finished re-reading The Player of Games. Such a brilliant book. Surely one of the best genre novels of all time.

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Amazing to think this definitely probably started with that Scott Alexander post.

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True neoclassical economics utopia is basically “the price of everything should be what it costs”.

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Going to use my inaugural patronage of the new McDonald’s in Blackwall/Poplar to note that taking a full minute to load the McDonald’s app benefits no one?

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It feels like the left applies moralistic thinking to economics, and the right applies moralistic thinking to crime and justice policy.

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Reposted by Tom James

I cannot recommend this fanfic (which is broadly building upon @noahvannguyen.bsky.social's excellent book) more, which is a Tau bureaucrat bringing an imperial world into compliance with the power of logistics. I'd definitely read your shower thought's story too! archiveofourown.org/works/885060...

archiveofourown.org

Who Said a Human Hive World was Impossible to Fix? - hypotheticalprose - Warhammer 40.000, Elemental Council (novel) Noah Van Nguyen [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

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Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

So I just looked up Paul Sagar for the first time in probably a decade and Jesus Christ how awful.

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Reposted by Tom James

We've finally created Hell Ride Across The Blasted Waste from famous movie Don't Do A Hell Ride Across The Blasted Waste by George Miller.

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Tom James @tacj.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

[Very guy who has only read one graphic novel voice:] Getting Moebius vibes from this. bsky.app/profile/sfen...

SF Encyclopedia @sfencyclopedia.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Reposted by Tom James

Artist Winsor McCay sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mccay_... was born on this day, so here's some examples of his 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' strip from early(ish) last century. Reposted with new 4th image (as I'd posted the previous one before):

An example of Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' comic strip, featuring a giant bird

An example of Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' comic strip: Nemo watching the New Year arrive

An example of Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' comic strip: an attempt to meet Jack Frost

An example of Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' comic strip, featuring a dragon

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ceej @ceej.online · 26/09/2026

my dad senses were tingling at the show last night and then I realized nobody younger than thirty was wearing earplugs

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Tom James @tacj.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It really looks to me like Jean Bodin is smoking a pipe in this picture, but he isn't!