iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And so it begins, lecture 1 for Regulating Innovation kicks of today! What is regulation? what is innovation?

Text on a powerpoint slide: LW5118 - Regulating Innovation: Law, Technology, and Governance, Dr Thomas Cheney (he/him), thomas.e.l.cheney@northumbria.ac.uk

Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I know most people aren't on Truth social and I've only got an account for research purposes but holy fuck does the US president post some truly unhinged shit on his social media site I mean what the actual fuck is this:

image of North America as the 'greater' United States

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

you'd be wrong - cycle lane is on the right

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

five years ago this month actually, and now she sleeps on what will be the baby nursing chair :)

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It funny (its not) but having been doing a lot of reading of the US state department's archival records on the law of the sea negotiations this was like thier number one concern about international straits but you know they weren't worried about the US doing it

Donald Trump shares an image of the straiht of hormuz 'claiming' it as US territory

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Can't be sure but I don't this person is a fan:

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

look the smoking ban killed the pub - the data shows it - correlation is causation! iea.org.uk/wp-content/u...

graph showing pub closures since 1980 with a sharp drop off around the mid 2000s

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Not done by any stretch but 'feature complete' as they say, will submit end of October...

photo of my printed out manuscript of 'space, the final resource frontier: the governace of planetary and extraplanetary natural resources' with bloomsbury Acadmeic

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Lol... I'm not sure how I got on the Meridian Center's mailing list but it is hilarious

Screenshot of text: "The Question: What does American Influence look like at 250, and who are the architects building it?"

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

there are some great lines in this book of mine...

screenshot of text fragment "...misreading, if being first was as important as is proclaimed in Space Expansionist literature this book would be written in Portuguese."

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

lol what sad pathetic shit is this - you won a football match...

Argentine football players hold a sign reading Las Malvinas Son Argentinas

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

There are some absolute gems in the back issues of Foreign Affairs

Screenshot of text which reads: The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction by Henry A. Kissinger

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Sadly been repealed but perhaps the best bit of the US Federal Code...

Screenshot of text - Title 50 USC: "Chapter 7 - Interference with Homing Pigeons Owned by United States"

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The Thucydides Trap idea seems to only have been used with respect to China in 2012, but didn't really gain traction until 2016-2018?

Google N-gram Viewer for Thucydides Trap - showing virtually 0 until about 2010 with a stead rise until 2014 before it takes off

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

finally a targeted ad that actually feels targeted

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

1952. Now granted the key reason theyre pushing solar is to reduce US need to source oil from abroad but nevertheless a reminder that choices were made, we didnt have to have quite the oil soaked 20th century weve had.

Efforts made to date to harness solar energy economically are infinitesimal. It is time for aggressive research in the whole field of solar energy - an effort in which the United States could make an immense contribution to the welfare of the free world.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

the ability to open the library within the word processor is huge

a screenshot of zotero open within a word document showing the full zotero library

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

righty time to turn 80,000 words of notes into a 10,000 word chapter... #writing

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Nor surprised, although I do take issue with the civil liberties score because a lot of those questions were really about the rule of law rather than civil liberties - also personally I'd prefer to describe myself as an internationalist rather than a globalist but that's one of those nuance things

Findmypolitics: Social Democrat - Centre Left - Economics: 62% left wing; social 69% libertarian; civil liberties 28% pro-liberty; governance 75% globalist; systems trust 44% high trust

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Am enjoying the "no no wait for me" energy this headline implies

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

so Lib Dem-green council in Newcastle Im guessing, which is huge!

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Wow @nclgreenparty.bsky.social sill largest party, now on 17 seats new.newcastle.gov.uk/election/new...

Bar chart showing that the Green Party currently have 17 declared seats, Independents 3, Liberal Democrat 16 and Reform 9 of those seats so far declared for Newcastle city council

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

So uh this pops up when you land on a White House [dot] gov page... could Trump be any more of a sad sack loser

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Have emailed my MP, urge you all to do the same. www.writetothem.com?gad_source=1...

I write tonight in weary anticipation of whatever the United States President is going to do to the people of Iran as he continues his illegal war of aggression. While I am disappointed that the Prime Minister has not been more decisive in preventing the US from using their bases in this country to wage war on Iran I do understand the complicated nature of the UK's entanglement within the US war machine, but I would urge you and the government to reconsider whether this alliance remains in the long term interests of this country, at what point do our values no longer align sufficiently for us to work to disentangle ourselves?
Over the last few months the United States has kidnapped the President of Venezuela, attacked unarmed vessels in international waters, threatened to invade Greenland, and has waged a war of aggression against Iran, now the President of the United States is openly calling for genocide against the people of Iran.
I am a lecturer in international law, I can talk to you about the legality of all of this, or rather the illegality, but I shouldn't need to this is simply immoral, it is the action of a rogue state, a pariah state, when Putin make similar comments about Ukraine we rightly reacted with horror, yet the UK government continues to regard the United States as an important ally. It is unconscionable.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Genocide, he's openly and proudly threatening genocide. This is irredeemable and not just for the man.

Donald J. Trump: A whole civilization will die to tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOW? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moements in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion corruption, and death will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

it would seem that i am very much not a tech bro

You are not a Tech Bro - 6% agreement with tech bro ideas

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Finally finished @hofrench.bsky.social excellent bio+ of Nhrumah, one of those people I mostly knew through the lens of British and American engagement with Africa, really enjoyed reading this book, the end notes have added quite a stack to my to read list! And need to read Born in Blackness now.

photo of the cover of Howard W. French's The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah. Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide. the cover features a political map of Africa on the eve of Ghana's independence.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

thought this was a joke at first... had to read it a second time

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Day 2 of strike action this week, next Wednesday @ucu.org.uk are holding a rally in support of @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social at Grey's Monument*, if you're in the area please come join us!

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Strike pizza, day 2. Bread and Roses (or carnations as my wife prefers). @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

very rough first draft printed off, but now at point that i need to start thinking of it as a whole rather than its seperate parts...

a photo of the 168 pages of my book manuscript

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

making a 'winter pie' - turnip, parsnip, potato, leek and assorted nuts, with a layer of cranberry sauce

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

cleo supports @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social strike action as it means afternoon sofa cuddles

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

oof, even British Pathe are giving the PM a kicking drawing parallels between the 'Epstien-Mandelson' affair and the Profumo affair - www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ER...

British Pathe - 3 hours ago "As Keir Starmer performs damage control over Peter Mandelson's Epstein ties, parallels have been drawn to the Profumo Affair that brought down Harold Macmillan's Tory government. They provide a link to the archive footage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ERTzh5u9w

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Not the world's most helpful research assistant but always appreciate an office visit

a grey motted cat in front of a bookshelf

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Looking forward to giving my first lecture as a module lead at Northumbria University kicking off Regulating Innovation: Law, Technology, and Governance, a 2nd year UG law module looking at how the UK regulates tech through bio/info/aerospace technology case studies

Power point slide with a very vaaguely 'techy' background - text reads: LW5118- Regulating Innovation: Law, Technology, and Governance, Dr Thomas Cheney (he/him) with my email address listed.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

good week to have added this to my collection... may have been a reason it was on such a steep discount...

photo of the cover of George C. Herring's From Colony to SUperpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776, part of the Oxford History of the United States, has two images, one a portrait of some of the American founding fathers and the other a photo of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at one of the wartime conferences

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Post a game you remember playing that nobody else remembers

A cartoon man leans out of the window of a big yellow dump truck with the big text reading Tonka Construction at the bottom

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Have been seeing ads from the RAF around Red Flag 26 and honestly we should be pulling out - like if THIS doesn't spark a response from European leaders then what the fuck are we all doing...

screen shot of an article from the Guardian - text reads White House says using US military is 'always an option' for acquiring Greenland. European Leaders push back forcefully against US president's desire to seek takeover of Arctic territory. Includes a photo of President trump in front of American flags pointing.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

the main christmas prep, decanting the port

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Strike ballot arrived @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social, easy double Yes, would be off to the postbox if i wasnt meeting with a Phd student in 20 mins. #wearetheuniversity

photo of a pink envelope from UCU containing a ballot on industrial action

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Oh boy... Under a section of the new US National Security Strategy titled 'Promoting European Greatness'... The EU really needs to be viewing the US as a hostile state www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

But this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

had its issues but deserved at least a season 2

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