Half Excel, Half Imagination: UMK's Quirky Confidence And Rebellion
Promotional image for an article prvieiwng UMK 2026 (photo: Ben Robertson)
What sets UMK, Finlandโs selection show for Eurovision, apart from the others is the quality of its staging concepts, argues @bensvision.bsky.social. Here, he speaks with Show Producer Matti Myllyaho to learn how Yle finds each act, the quality-over-quantity approach, and how it all comes together.
28.02.2026 15:26 โ
๐ 4
๐ 2
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
"He propagates what we call cyborg conservatism."
I spoke with @quinnslobodian.com and @bentarnoff.com for this weekโs @verfassungsblog.de editorial about their new book "Muskism" and the fusion of political authority and machine power.
๐ Read the full interview here: verfassungsblog.de/muskism/
27.02.2026 15:10 โ
๐ 22
๐ 10
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
โฆor of European public broadcasters?
27.02.2026 14:33 โ
๐ 6
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
I loved this article, particularly this: "In highlighting the ways some fans endeavour to minimize or avoid contributing to harm, even as they continue to watch to the contest, I do not aim to let people off the hook for more complicit actions, but to show that complicity and resistance coexist"
26.02.2026 16:42 โ
๐ 12
๐ 3
๐ฌ 1
๐ 0
โI was completely heartbrokenโ: Trans woman forced to stop playing cricket for fun | Good Law Project
When the ECB banned trans women, Lilyโs amateur club barred her from the team where she had played for years โ weโre helping her hit back
"These rules are hurting women who just want to play sport with their friends.
"Weโre helping Lily sue the ECB for discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. Lily, and players like her across the UK, are pillars of their community, and excluding them is a stain on womenโs sport."
26.02.2026 14:12 โ
๐ 325
๐ 98
๐ฌ 3
๐ 4
*agrees in historian*
26.02.2026 22:38 โ
๐ 8
๐ 2
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Not been following Eurovision much for obvious reasons, but this long read from Catherine is a great exploration of the complicated cultural history some ex-Yugo nations are struggling with on the musical front <3
26.02.2026 14:26 โ
๐ 7
๐ 1
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Few in this country have worked to promote the understanding of race and class as historical phenomena in Britain as long, or as well, as Catherine Hall.
None of it is a fad. It is all politics, in the hard, real sense.
26.02.2026 11:26 โ
๐ 27
๐ 12
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Witchiness, feminism, ethnonationalism, Balkan religious and historical messiness, the intersection of art and politics, complex messaging and the lack of it, etc etc
There's no politics in Eurovision though.
26.02.2026 11:39 โ
๐ 6
๐ 1
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
It certainly took me back to when I was writing mine!
26.02.2026 10:49 โ
๐ 1
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Policy priority 2 after 4 years of Russiaโs war against Ukraine: Stop relying on ๐บ๐ฆ's โresilienceโ to ensure its survival. European leaders should not look at the dogged endurance of Ukraineโs armed forces & civilians & assume that it is infinite.
Read here: buff.ly/6RWmjER
26.02.2026 09:00 โ
๐ 9
๐ 5
๐ฌ 0
๐ 1
Whatever else youโve done today, you probably havenโt had a ยฃ2m Fabergรฉ egg nicked out of your handbag.
Thereโs more to say about how the Fabergรฉs were helping a Russian Empire that was colonising Ukraine, the Caucasus etc assert itself as an imperial power, but thatโs a whole other conversation.
25.02.2026 22:34 โ
๐ 5
๐ 1
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
And he got away with her laptop. How big was this handbagโฆ?
25.02.2026 22:30 โ
๐ 1
๐ 0
๐ฌ 1
๐ 0
Queer histories in theย farm records
What can farm records teach us about same-sex relationships? Researcher Tim Jerrome shares his work exploring queer rural experiences.
If you're researching queer history in England, farm records might be one of the last places you'd check.
Yet for #LGBTQHistoryMonth, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares how he's tracing queer histories within our farm archives, and gives tips for future research.
merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...
25.02.2026 16:01 โ
๐ 172
๐ 57
๐ฌ 4
๐ 1
Politics take center stage at 2026 Winter Olympics
From JD Vance at the Opening Ceremony to athletes refusing to shut up and ski, politics has been a major story at the 2026 Olympics.
โIn other words, the Olympics has always been about more than just the sports athletes compete in, and the Games have always been political. So, too have sports outside of the Olympics โฆ โEveryoneโs humanity is worth more than sports.โโ awfulannouncing.com/news/politic...
25.02.2026 15:51 โ
๐ 1
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
YouTube video by Festival of Tomorrow
Festival Of Tomorrow - Eurovision and the future of broadcast entertainment
One of the exhibition curators was speaking a few weeks ago - it takes so long to develop exhibitions like these that this is legacy from #Eurovision being in ๐ฌ๐ง in 2023 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9HI...
24.02.2026 17:32 โ
๐ 2
๐ 0
๐ฌ 1
๐ 0
I was *just* at a wonderful event on queer cultures and the post-Yugoslav space at the IAS last week.
Firmed up some ways of thinking with Bosnian queer ideas of possibility, connected an activist and researcher who didnโt know each other, and thatโs just what one person got from being there.
24.02.2026 12:45 โ
๐ 3
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
โThe turn of c20/21 witnessed mainstream politicians hype the far right & use it as a scarecrow, while they positioned themselves as the bulwark: vote for us to save democracy!โฆ Yet as crises remained unaddressed & things worsened, the far right found itself increasingly legitimised & mainstreamedโ
23.02.2026 13:40 โ
๐ 5
๐ 3
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Bluesky autocorrect seems to have its own miniature internal demons over and above whatever Apple thinks itโs doing (and at same time even less likely to catch the extra letters between words I type all the time) - am continually deleting and reposting thingsโฆ
22.02.2026 19:48 โ
๐ 0
๐ 0
๐ฌ 1
๐ 0
Vince Rafael, my teacher and dear friend, and eminent historian of the Philippines, passed away today. If you work in cultural anthropology, translation studies, Asian studies, Asian Am, you'll know the monumental impact he had. He also endlessly supported young scholars. He'll be deeply missed.
22.02.2026 05:03 โ
๐ 6
๐ 4
๐ฌ 2
๐ 0
Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina: Why do so many womenโs names end in A?
Thereโs a certain air of femininity around the letter A. For one reason, it brings a great number of modern female first names to a close. A sample of famous names, especially if skewed towards theโฆ
A pattern among women's names gave me a reason to dig very deep into linguistic prehistory, lost grammar and language's arbitrariness. These rank among my favourite interests, along with 1990s pop music.
Put them all together, and I can offer you this long read:
dannybate.com/2026/02/19/m...
20.02.2026 15:13 โ
๐ 161
๐ 44
๐ฌ 16
๐ 10
congratulations rรผmeysa
If you havenโt, please read this beautiful, horrible op ed by her on the conditions in which she finished her phd
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
19.02.2026 20:34 โ
๐ 31
๐ 12
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
*waves* One more person Iโm going to see today in between much the same kind of journey!
19.02.2026 11:07 โ
๐ 2
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Nazi letters reveal paper restorersโ role in compiling Holocaust โhitlistโ
Exclusive: Research uncovers programme to make centuries-old records legible to detect peopleโs ancestry
Fascinating story about how illegible documents were made readable for the Nazis in โa shocking abuse of skillโ. Beware the uses to which things can be put: the problem is the user. But imagine if the Nazis had had AI... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
18.02.2026 11:39 โ
๐ 15
๐ 7
๐ฌ 3
๐ 0
*disbelieves* *remembers own age* *sighs*
17.02.2026 22:49 โ
๐ 0
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0
Unfortunately Bluesky doesnโt have the GIF of the Scooch year where they dressed as budget airline crew with saucy lyrics about blowing into life vestsโฆ
17.02.2026 12:43 โ
๐ 0
๐ 0
๐ฌ 1
๐ 0
More than once Iโve remembered dream brain making up apparently coherent articles in Croatian newspapers about something in popular music Iโd write about for work.
Still not completely sure their Eurovision entry this year doesnโt come from one of them.
17.02.2026 12:35 โ
๐ 1
๐ 0
๐ฌ 0
๐ 0