iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 21h

Bournville Lantern Lectures… Disrupted Sat 17 Oct Bournville Quaker Meeting House Step back in time for an immersive performance & lively retelling of an original Bournville Lantern Lecture, brought to life by Birmingham Rep’s Creative Learning Department. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

A magic lantern slide showing an aerial view of houses and gardens in Bournville, Birmingham in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing houses on Linden Road, Bournville in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing children playing in a park in Bournville, Birmingham in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing children gathered either side of a small river in Bournville Park, Birmingham in 1906.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 21h

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Bournville Lantern Lectures - Disrupted. Immersive history coming to south Birmingham. Saturday 17 October. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

sellymanormuseum.org.uk

Bournville Lantern Lectures... Disrupted!

An immersive, family friendly production of an original Bournville Lecture, brought to life by The Rep.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Bournville Lantern Lectures - Disrupted. Immersive history coming to south Birmingham. Saturday 17 October. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

sellymanormuseum.org.uk

Bournville Lantern Lectures... Disrupted!

An immersive, family friendly production of an original Bournville Lecture, brought to life by The Rep.

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Andy Aitchison @andyaitchison.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Super proud of this and working with @tricksterprince.bsky.social and the rest of the team.

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Phil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Cool. So Burnham's plan is to use the entire state for crackdowns and racism, not just the parts explicitly designed to do crackdowns and racism. Fuck him.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

🔔 UNTIL SUNDAY! 🔔 You can pre-order my first book for £16.50! Less than the price of a train from London to Reading

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Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

#onthisday on 17 July 1936 the rebel military rose against ths Spanish Republic in colonial Morocco unleashing a murderous war causing incalculable pain+suffering, which still casts its shadow. Image: the Gracia family, like 100,000s, escaping into a very uncertain French exile, Jan 1939. Bastards

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Murder is bad, m’kay? And the Brexiteer nationalist hard-right is single-handedly responsible for introducing a real language of violent response to ”betrayal” and “treason” over the last decade. Nigel Farage literally (if preposterously) threatened armed insurrection if he didn’t get “his” Brexit.

theguardian.com

Ann Widdecombe’s death should make Britain ask itself: what sort of political culture do we want? | Gaby Hinsliff

Dehumanising politicians is the first step towards justifying their elimination. It matters more than ever to keep putting the person back into the picture, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

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The Dispatch @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Rubbish bins and rodents have long plagued the streets of Selly Oak during the summer months. Is the community loosing its spirit as a result? www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/who-cares-ab...

birminghamdispatch.co.uk

Who cares about Selly Oak?

To-let boards, rubbish, and rodents: for some, the South Brum neighbourhood has lost its soul

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Brynley Heaven @brynleyheaven.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

officially labelled a waif and stray

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Every time I turn on the News, someone is discussing who *might* be Chancellor and what that *might* mean. These are good and important questions, but they are not "News". We need to find a way to shift the dial back to reporting on what *has* happened, rather than speculating on what *might*.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

'A government that says it wants innovation while pursuing a policy of often malign neglect when it comes to universities’ funding model and international students is not being tough-minded. It is simply incoherent.' @jdportes.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Burnham must learn from Starmer’s mistakes: Labour was elected to transform the economy, not just stabilise it | Jonathan Portes

Devolution, tax, the EU and immigration: these are all opportunities for growth if Burnham abandons the excessive caution of the past few years, says economist Jonathan Portes

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🦋 Frankie 🦋 @frankiemillie10.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

We laugh in the face of cattlegrids 🐑

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Sinead Carter @sineadcarter.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

still looking! please share with your networks ☺️

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Dr Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

'Ray addresses a meeting': my post about how the author and campaigner Ray Strachey (1887–1940) first became a suffragist as a student at Newnham College Cambridge in 1905, then took to the roads in a campaigning caravan in the summer of 1908.

open.substack.com

Ray Strachey, Cambridge suffragist

‘If we get the vote now, it will be entirely due to her'

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

If you can sit in a meeting and cry about what you're being told to do to a child, you can also refuse to do it.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Congratulations to the government on saving 2700 jobs by nationalising British Steel. Now, about the 18,000 university jobs lost in the last 18 months, with more coming…

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Elspeth Van Veeren @evanveeren.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Florence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’

Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education

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John Paddington @padders123.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Still find it fascinating the complete mess of the city she represents isn't seen as a negative thing. It's almost as if the ongoing bin strike (and lack of household recycling for over a year) doesn't get any attention. Just imagine if what is happening in Birmingham was in London.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🚨📘 Book Alert! 📘🚨 My first monograph, 'A Science for Everyday Life' is now available for pre-order! Published by @upittpress.bsky.social & released mid-December 2026. US/North America: upittpress.org/books/978082... UK/Europe: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Book cover for 'A Science for Everyday Life: Mass media, natural history and the environment in Britain, 1900-1945'. Image on the cover shows a class of children watching a film about a frog.

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I know people who clung onto the Labour Party in the slim chance that after Keir Starmer things might have been different. Labour consistently revealing there's absolutely no plan for change. The puurpose is to maintain power & wealth for the super rich. Join.greenparty.org.uk

join.greenparty.org.uk

Join the Green Party

Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party standing up for people and planet.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I’m really going to have to backtrack on my long-held position that the idea of a ‘crisis of masculinity’ is bollocks.

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Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

“Gender studies is so irrelevant to today’s world”

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

At which point are journalists allowed to say "nope, that's not an answer. You're failing in your duties by repeating this very obvious deflection for two years in a row. You need to give an actual response now."? Or else publish just "the DfE said the same thing they did for 24 months".

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Universities are independent from government and are responsible for managing their own finances, but we are committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers and the economy.

“We have taken action to put the sector on a secure financial footing, including raising the maximum cap on tuition fees annually and refocusing the Office for Students to support universities’ financial stability.

“Through our ambitious reforms announced in the post-16 education and skills white paper we will restore universities as engines of growth, aspiration and opportunity.”

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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Do non-migrants have any idea how *utterly terrifying* it is for those who have IDL in the UK; have built a life here, have British kids & forged a sense of love & belonging to be bombarded with news that a sizeable % of the population & government want to be able to take that away & deport us?

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Imagine complaining that a work place is committed to equality. This is where we are in the UK in 2026. Heartbreaking to watch a society voluntarily roll back decades of progress.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The truth is that, by European standards, the UK is not a good place for kids. A big factor is the cost of living. Labour’s expansion of childcare has been something, but tackling an extractive rentier economy is much more difficult. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

UK children will be one of unhealthiest generations in decades, doctors say

Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Telling your followers to burn down hotels with asylum seekers in them is "hurty words". But Dan Hodges doing a few tweets is grounds to call the police.

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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing half the population that the "manly" way to get around is on a giant rolling couch controlled by gently depressing your toe.

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Nathan Cardon @ncardon.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My new article in @modamhist.bsky.social is out now in first view and open access and is a preview of chapter 6 of the 'The World Awheel' (@columbiaup.bsky.social). It's a story of American mobility, femininity, and power in the spaces of European empires. doi.org/10.1017/mah....

A historic photograph of Fanny Bullock Workman wearing bloomers and standing in front of a drop frame bicycle on a dirt road. Image from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, courtesy of the MacRobert Trust.

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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

My bedroom painted by Muriel Lewis c.1967 in the art therapy studio at Netherne Hospital, where she was compelled to live. Many of her works depict scenes from her materially affluent home life, often devoid of people, with eeriness & emptiness troubling under the surface of comfortable surroundings

Drawing in an illustrative but rather stiff style depicting a big bay windowed bedroom with chintz bedspread and curtains, a pink tiled fireplace to the left and a vanity unit in the central window with a view to trees outside

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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

New book by Bluecoat Press of @andyaitchison.bsky.social prison photos. It’s a very important series and anyone who loves documentary photography should buy it bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/inca...

bluecoatpress.co.uk

Incarcerated – Bluecoat Press

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Museums Association @museumsassociation.org · 09/07/2026

News | Birmingham museums extend opening hours after council budget boost New hours come into effect this month thanks to £300,000 investment

museumsassociation.org

Birmingham museums extend opening hours after council budget boost - Museums Association

New hours come into effect this month thanks to £300,000 investment

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

NEW EPISODE! This week’s ‘You’re Dead To Me’ is about the cult of saints in Medieval Europe — we chat martyrs, ascetics, miracle workers, pilgrims, shrines, and hilarious relic heists! With expert historian Dr Simon Yarrow and comedian Rachel Parris Listen on BBC SOUNDS or watch on iPlayer

• 56 mins | Available for over a year
Released on: 10 Jul 2026

Greg Jenner is joined in medieval Europe by historian Dr Simon Yarrow and comedian Rachel Parris to learn all about the cult of saints and their relics. The veneration of saints still plays an important role in the lives of Catholics all over the world, but what did the cult of saints - and especially devotion to their relics - play in medieval Europe? This episode explores all aspects of the topic: who became a saint, and how the canonisation process changed over the centuries as the papacy tried to more tightly control it. What sorts of signs and miracles proved someone's sanctity. What relics are, and how medieval churches acquired them, both legitimately and illegitimately.
What people in the Middle Ages thought saints could do for them, and the pilgrimages they took to their tombs in search of aid. And it asks whether everyone believed in the power of saints' relics - and the gruesome fate awaiting some sceptics.

If you're a fan of marvellous miracle stories, the fascinating history of the Catholic Church, and the odd gory martyrdom, you'll love our episode on medieval saints.
If you want more from Rachel Parris, listen to our episode on Eleanor of Aquitaine. And for more on the history of Catholicism, check out our episodes on the Early Medieval Papacy, Medieval Ghost Stories and Benedetta Carlini.
You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Lily Tidman
Written by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

One of the very few positives of the Empire was that a lot of people who looked like this died of malaria, or while cavalry-charging a volcano.

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Lesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Does anyone else find it really weird - this is not the first instance of this I have ever encountered - when somebody is - usually posthumously - praised for their 'strong principles' or similar phrase, when those principles were, actually, noxious?

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Of interest to UK university #Skystorians: Royal Historical Society open online meeting on 'The crisis in UK higher education: The future for History'. 4 August 2-4 pm.

eventbrite.co.uk

The Crisis in UK HE: the Future for History

An open meeting for historians in UK higher education on what is needed to best support and protect the profession and discipline.

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Lee Randall @leerandall.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It’s the 21st century and technology is often amazing. Tell me, then, who will rid me of the ubiquitous sight of people holding small fuzzy microphones to their mouths? There must be another way. #OverIt #LooksStupid

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I have a deadline please make it stop now. ☀️

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Mark Williams @mrfw17thc.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Any #skystorians know of particularly vivid accounts of hurricanes in the #earlymodern period?

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Paul Kerensa @paulkerensa.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I made this (the podcast, not the building…)

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