iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 22h

It's Nobel Prize week! Keep your phones on: they call you in the morning, Swedish time. Hoping for recognition of women, people of colour & people from LMICs - all gigantically underrepresented esp in the sciences.

010

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 22h

A place in Gaza, before & after (apparently. And unsourced & unspecified. Put up at a talk by Tim Bouverie.)

Two photos:
Aerial photo of a city looking normal;
Aerial photo of the same city, almost all destroyed.

110

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The moderator on this panel addresses sassy young woman speaker & makes a little speech. Sassy young woman speaker: "What's the question?" 🤣 🤜🏻🤛🏻

192

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The moderator on this panel addresses sassy young woman speaker & makes a little speech. Sassy young woman speaker: "What's the question?" 🤣 🤜🏻🤛🏻

192

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Historian paraphrasing other historians: "environmental damage is [mainly?] European and white and male."

010

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

One of the speakers in front of 400 erudite people gets into a muddle and then says: "I hate public speaking; I've taken four beta-blockers". Big round of applause in support!

040

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Am at a 'literary festival' which is all non-fiction & really about ideas / (geo)politics. Here's the best source on a slide I've seen for ages 👍🏻

050

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Happy Q4, to everyone responsible for their organisation's accounts! 🥳🥳

000

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How do you feel about charities holding massively expensive gala events? £1000 per head seems, er, a lot.

Screenshot of invitation to gala event by Pratham UK. Individual tickets are £1000, or a table of 10 for £12,000.

011

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I am going to Greece (maiden visit!) so am panic-reading the history section of the Lonely Planet! (Gotta start somewhere...) Evidently there were 700 years when.... precisely nothing happened 🤔🤣

030

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

The Institute for Fiscal Studies @theifs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

💡 Want to work at the Institute for Fiscal Studies? We're currently recruiting for the following roles with November deadlines ⬇️ 📊 Research Economist (apply by 8 November) 📊 Research Economist - postdoctoral (apply by 15 November) 📊 Postdoctoral Fellow (apply by 15 November)

139

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Do delight in living in a country which has a grant programme specifically for "living alongside bats in churches" 🤣👍🏻 IFL living in an old country!

040

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Men: don't be a knob. Or predatory. Or inappropriate. Even years later. Brava Prof Anna for (publicly) telling this loser when to shut up 👇🏻

030

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Whoa. Headline story in The Telegraph is about Ranulph Fiennes being 'kidnapped' into a care home by his (2nd) wife & other family don't know where he is(!) (I don't!)

Front page. Headline is "investigate Fiennes captivity, say family"

031

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy anniversary of the Battle of Stamford Bridge: the one in 1066 that English King Harold won, defeating the Norwegians. Their King Harold Hadrada ("hard counsel") has no known burial place IIRC. Here's the telling in the Orkneyinga Saga, the c12th history of the earls of then-Norweigian Orkney:

040

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Cambridge University has abandoned its attempt to understand whether & what it should learn from appointing Jason Arday. Reminder: universities are supposed to be good at research, and getting people to learn. Astonishing 🤷🏻 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...

nytimes.com

Cambridge Abandons Plans to Fully Investigate Its Hiring of Jason Arday

The professor had catalyzed debates over diversity efforts in higher education.

232

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Foundation Practice Rating (FPR) @fpracticerating.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A chance for you to find out more about the Foundation Practice Rating. Join us in October or November to find out more about the aims and approach and ask any questions you have: - 12-12.45pm – Wednesday 21 October 2026 - 1-1.45pm – Wednesday 4 November 2026 Register to attend: buff.ly/YIBz3WB

foundationpracticerating.org.uk

Upcoming Webinars - Foundation Practice Rating

Learn more about Foundation Practice Rating

001

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Let's hear it for conference swag which is *actually useful*! Here: a multi way adapter for USB & USB-C -> a whole load of things 👏🏻

150

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Less weird than him taking a job at a charity (Give Directly) which wasn't available to anyone else; job was mainly about Africa where he's never lived; was paid at $500k* (miles above the market), the Chair told me he would move to Africa (he didn't); $1m was stolen on his short watch & he left.

121

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I particularly love churches which, for most of the year, shove their sometimes-esteemed Christmas decorations into random corners & think nobody can see them. Today's example includes 2 x 30 metres of fairy lights(!)

Big Christmas arch thing, in random cupboard

Candles & nativity figures on a random shelf

030

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Delighted that the Society for Evidence-Based Policing (of which I am a trustee) holds its conference in a place which passes The Fiennes Test, ie, speakers in stage can *see a clock* 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Plus we provide an additional count-down timer. Speakers can't stick to time if they can't see the time! 🤦

View of the hall looking up into the audience, clock visible

Countdown timer, visible to the speaker on the stage

030

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Reminder to conference speakers, to not use acronyms. You'll avoidably lose some of your audience because they won't know what you're talking about.

130

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Conferences should have a rule that tall people have to sit at the back. Sometimes us littlies can only see the massive person in front!

040

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Massive conference on getting evidence into UK policing! Loads of cops, researchers, other people in / around policing, analysts...and the Minister!

020

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Like that bit in Shallow Grave where some men ask the woman what type of car it was, and she looks blank & says "don't know. It was blue". The most relatable thing I've ever seen in a film!

050

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Also, it's good of this business hotel to allow for the possibility that guests get lucky....but not very lucky!

Hotel bedroom with both a double & single bed

030

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Am in Milton Keynes... Gotta admire how this *extremely right-angle-tastic* place has named streets after Really Old s stuff presumably to give some gravitas. Though two streets with the same name perpendicular to each other seems like rather poor town planning... 🤔

Map of Milton Keynes, showing streets called Avebury Boulevard

Map of Milton Keynes, showing streets called Saxon Gate, and two both called Silbury Boulevard at right angles to each other, weirdly

140

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Save money! I bought a crappy shop basil plant; soaked & separated it, planting it into five big pots. This is *part* of the crop from four of them, after ~8 weeks! The original plant only cost £3.25(!). Tennis ball included here for scale (& because my house is awash with them!)

0152

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

0152

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

because there just were a lot more people by then?

120

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Now, just personally, I would have considered the crocodiles

The assessment did not consider the crocodiles but instead looked at "how the course would perform under a range of conditions, weather patterns, water levels and flood risk at both Games time and throughout the period leading into the Games".

1035556

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It's astonishing that the human race figured out the deep structure of space-time (general relativity) before noticing that people are more likely to do something if other people are doing it (social norming) - a fact that one can observe with the naked eye every single day!!

020

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

He's taken a while to write that book, hasn't he? 🤔

000

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hildegard of Bingen (12th century nun) kick-started empiricism in the Germanic lands... If you know anything about quantum theory, relativity, Leibniz, Magdeburg hemispheres, Gödel etc., that turned into a very rich seam indeed! 🤜🏻🤛🏻

010

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Gabriel Bodard @palaeofuturist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

RIP 847 years ago Hildegarde von Bingen, abbess, mystic, theologian, musical composer, astronomer, pharmacist and doctor, and among many other things inventor/discoverer of the sacred language “Lingua ignota”, who died #onthisday in 1179 CE. (Pictured, her conception of the world as a "cosmic egg")

A brightly coloured manuscript image of an oval-shaped world containing stars or flowers and surrounded by feathers or leaves, with a hole in the middle and a particularly prominent florescence towards the top. Grotesque faces or masks illuminate the left, right and bottom edges.

619782

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I have been having precisely the "who is Jesus" convo with a non-European friend. He's interested in religions. Knew ~zero abt Christianity except that it's monotheistic. It's *amazing* to walk with someone (insightful) as they read & learn abt it from scratch. Eg explaining the Trinity is hard, &..

230

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Brennan Kahan @brennankahan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

***JOB ALERT*** We are seeking to appoint 3 Statistical Methodologists to work on methods related to the statistical analysis of clinical trials, or innovative design methodology. The posts will be based within the UCL Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

ucl.ac.uk

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

11220

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

So hard to reconcile the many observations like this 👇🏻with the alleged fact that AI is going to change & kill everything: money will disappear, jobs will disappear etc. Genuinely struggling with this. You?

320

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Not as good as this specimen in a children's book I wound up using for a basic literacy class in Ghana in June! 🤔

Cartoon of an octopus in a children's book. Inexplicably - and presumably accidentally - it has nice tentacles.

000

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Reminder: rent controls can reduce supply of rental properties, making rentals scarcer & hence more expensive. Classic unintended harm. The Inst for Fiscal Studies: "there is clear evidence from a range of housing markets that, in practice, rent controls reduce supply" ifs.org.uk/articles/do-...

ifs.org.uk

Do rent controls work? | Institute for Fiscal Studies

We highlight the key theoretical predictions about rent controls and summarise what empirical research reveals about their effects in practice.

020

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Israel’s culture minister wants to strip film directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of their Israeli citizenship for their movie Naza, which features testimonies of IDF soldiers admitting to knowingly killing civilians in Gaza

9579314

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This is so so disappointing. Everything about the UK's "honours" system is terrible: they have scant relation to merit (eg, the struck-off doctor who got one!); dispro go to people close / visible to politicians; can be bought; affect the legislature (House of Lords); are opaque... 🤮 Bin it all.

3133

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“Guys, they want us to go home.” 🔥 🇫🇷 French short film about what would happen to society if all the immigrants listened to angry old racist white men and left (aka the Republican agenda)

15246322044

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Going to a 9/11 memorial concert this evening, which includes this! I've never actually heard it. Hoping for a vintage performance

Scores for John Cage's piece 4'33", which I saw in a music shop window some years ago ;-)

110

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The quiet 9/11 memorial on Staten Island to the islanders who died that day. Each person is marked with their name, birth-year, occupation and - beautifully - silhouette. The monument is in its own garden and looks out to lower Manhattan. It's on the RHS as you leave the ferry. We remember.

040

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Assisted dying will not happen. Second reading lost by 270 to 286.

4206

Reposted by Caroline Fiennes

Dee Lomas @deelomas.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The RNLI volunteer has told us that donations usually run at £20,000 per day. Currently running at £100,000 per day! Bloody brilliant!

892845742

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Yes. The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, made in Kent(!) Importantly it's made by women so is partly women's account - hence the (first?) depiction of a victim of war: this posh woman (notice her long impractical sleeves) escaping as asshole men torch her house, poor lamb.

Picture actually of the replica at Reading Museum

060

Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Bishop Odo, who commissioned the Tapestry* was Norman! Literally William the Conq's half-brother! (& got his bishop job entirely on merit, pls understand!) He's depicted standing right next to Willy Conq a bunch of times in case you forget how very Norman & important he is! *It's an embroidery 🤦

120