iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Got the card so now I can celebrate again

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Someone's been using AI to label their maps again

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Notice I said a tripartite union. This man is pro-unification, yes, but not as "one China", but Japan, Taiwan and China as three distinct polities in a future union state

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The volcano was meant to erupt in 2023 or 2024, but thankfully delayed for now. But only Tang has the ability to liaise with the angels to build the tools to indefinitely prevent half of Asia being destroyed

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I am pleased to report that our boy Tang Hsin-min has registered for the Taipei mayoral election this year, hopefully to save us from the volcano again by liaising with the angels, later uniting Asia into a tripartite union of Japan, Taiwan and China

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I'm sure they'll enjoy the explanation

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

NTNU's Course in Contemporary Chinese textbook has a very questionable throwaway claim about Tai-Kradai in their introduction...

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Booking dot com has an "AI assistant" to help you plan transport between hotels on a trip, which apparently thinks that taking the bus means chartering the whole thing for each person?

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The boycott was a pretty solid blow to the EBU btw

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

don't want to mark student papers any more so had a crack at a very provisional Kununurra Kriol trial translation of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Every now and then I think about this absolutely insane linguistics experiment that somehow got university ethics approval but had its funding cut

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

i wonder what else happened in 2014 to tank the KMT's popularity ever since, nothing policy-wise worth reflecting on i'm sure

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

What kind of insane routes are they doing for a slight hike to be more expensive than buying, insuring and fuelling a car every week. A weekly Plymouth area ticket is only £30

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

please someone explain why doing this is necessary for israel's security

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Got some Limited Edition® Fuel Crisis™ crisps for the game tonight

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

An "invisible tax" for thee but not for me (do they not think for a moment that someone still has to pay those costs? Oh right, they don't regard the workers as human)

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Manx has found itself stuck in a tricky spot against English for a long time and its people conscious of it. This 1835 dictionary describes a dedicated English-loan suffix for increasingly borrowed verbs, but also that this is not received well by many people using the language

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

A few years ago the Czechs elected a parliament with this seat map of four shades of blue

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Despite that Palau seems to be one of the handful of former colonies (like Taiwan) where Japan has managed to turn around its reputation, and Japanese is still the third most widely spoken language behind English and Palauan, thanks to tourism

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

It's probably underdiscussed just how intense the Japanese colonial project was in the Pacific. Japanese settlers outnumbered Palauans within 5 years of Japanese administration and 8 Japanese for every Palauan at its peak in 1940 (and this excludes military personnel)

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Look I don't want to be a partisan but these are the legislative agendas the two main parties have put forward this week (ahead of local elections this year)

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I'm not sure exactly what message SCMP wants to be sharing with this but it's certainly not a good one

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

not the only party getting referendum brainworms in the world right now

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Pro teaching tip: just draw the world map on the board from memory to get students to pay attention

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Here he is about an hour after chasing us, thankfully heading across the river and away

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

You know what yeah that's exactly the language combination I needed (yes I bought)

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

First time celebrating Holi and got to do it in Kathmandu

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Been here about 10 hours and already picking up the essentials

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

It's great how the world continues to act like it's just those intractable Arabs blocking the way to a two-state solution www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

The median voter's mind is fascinating. The previous two governments were terrible, so I'm going to vote for the same party government again

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

"Had the KMT intended to sabotage Taiwan’s security, that record-high budget would never even have left the committee room" is a funny thing to say from a party that is currently making sure this year's budget doesn't leave (or even enter) the committee room. www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori...

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

KMT in English: we always support defence spending KMT in Mandarin: defence spending is evil

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Do you ever feel like you're being watched

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Wordy qiao collective graphics about how China really is democratic if you look really hard at the right angle vs. Chinese government lawyers' "we're literally not a democracy"

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Thomas Batchelor @tobbinatorscw.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

You know a country's achieved imperial hubris when its citizens respond to minor inconveniences abroad with wishing for mass death and destruction on their adopted country