iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Kicked off this year’s 31 for 31 last night with a film that’s so offensive you can’t help but be touched by it

Film poster for The Toxic Avenger (1984)

000

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1.5m followers on an AI deep sea slop page I'm gonna-

040

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

According to the Gylfaginning (via Wikipedia because sadly I am not a True Scholar) he gets bound as a punishment for killing Baldr but is later slain during Ragnarok itself.

110

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This was a good use of my holiday

An eclipse. Like, a proper one, over a Spanish lake. God damn.

260

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Since May I presented in two conferences (with @thefsbi.bsky.social last week), sailed on two research cruises, and (somewhere among all this) passed my PhD confirmation. Looking forwards to some holiday this week, but I'm very excited and intellectually stimulated by how well the project is going!

Me presenting at the MidSEC conference in Sweden - I've blocked out some graphs to hide my beautiful beautiful data.

Me in the hangar of the RRS James Cook, wearing wet-weather gear and a hardhat and making a hang ten gesture.

Me wearing oilskins, a hardhat, and an inflatable life jacket, rushing across the deck of the RV Tom Crean with an anglerfish in my hands.

Me presenting at the FSBI conference in Southampton. My title slide says "metabolic diversity of deep pelagic teleosts".

072

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Ah yeah cool man best way to endear me to your new service is to have a popup that I cannot close occupy the lower 25% of the screen

040

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Such a beautiful animal! Somehow I doubt this one has 38 Opsins...

A close up of the (remarkably small) eye of the anglerfish; my little fingernail is in frame, and it is tiny even compared to that. It appears as a shiny wet dot in an expanse of rough, leathery black skin. Her lure is visible stretching out of frame.

110

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Out on the RV Tom Crean and had a bit of a landmark day. Technically not my first angler, but this extraordinary, beautiful animal made me genuinely emotional. It’s an absolute privilege to get to meet these animals that I’ve adored for so long! (She’s a triplewart seadevil, Cryptopsaras couesii)

A female anglerfish Cryptopsaras couesii photographed in a plastic tray. She is kind of diamond shaped with a huge head and an upturned mouth. Her lure is long and extends out from her brow, tipped with a small black bulb. Her eyes are so small as to be near invisible. Her skin is satin textured and jet black.

Me holding the same fish in my hands. I’m wearing yellow oilskins, a self-inflating life jacket, and a red hard hat, alongside a pleased-as-punch expression.

1347

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Who could possibly say why I’m posting this ugly, busted, cringe fish… 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

031

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Godspeed You! Black Emperor voice:

A screenshot of a reel showing delicious looking pork served by a street vendor, with the nonsensical translated caption "The chopsticks I encounter in the vegetable market are burned white, and the entrance is gone!"

020

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The last few days have been very rewarding, and its been great to chat with so many world-leading mesopelagic scientists. Plus, you couldn't ask for a more picturesque venue!

A brick castle with Scandinavian features, including a clocktower with a weird wavy roof. There is a herb garden in the foreground.

010

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Really excited to be talking this morning at the inaugural MidSEC conference in Backaskog, Sweden 🐟

The front slide of a presentation entitled "Metabolic diversity of deep pelagic teleosts revealed through otolith-based isotope proxy". The right side of the slide is taken up by a film image showing a diversity of deep pelagic fish on a white plastic surface.

172

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Could be more extreme; I was introduced to Baker-Miller through this installation by Kapwani Kiwanga that I saw in Copenhagen, was quite overwhelming in person!

A photo from inside a short corridor; the nearest end is insanely blue, the far end is insanely pink, all are lit by fluorescent tubes. Out the end there are white walls visible.

110

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Ah yeah man for sure I'm asking this every day

A screenshot of a "people also ask" on google that has a kinda unreadable AI thing about what the correct plural of fish is

030

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Froze up at this clue on the NYT Mini because mesopelagic isn’t a 5 letter word

140

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I loooove bug season saw these two cuties today :)

A bright green metallic weevil with a tastefully ridged back, eyes that seem to sparkle intelligently, perky antennae and a little snout that almost seems to smile :) I think he’s Phyllobius

A big spooky spider wandering across tarmac; her arms are long and dark and her body and head have mottled brown markings. I’m not good at spider ID but I assume she’s an Eratigena?

040

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I don’t use Twitter anymore but I never deleted my account, and as a consequence sometimes when googling an obscure fish taxon I’ll rediscover an absolute heater I’d fully forgotten about

A screenshot of a tweet from Nov 2024 that includes a screenshot of several blobby grey fish hanging out on yellow sediment with the caption “Went to the Guentherus aggregation at the edge of the coral reef and no one knew you 💅👀”

130

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Dude you have like 6 hours left of your life get out of my room

040

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Famously one shows up in Blue Planet 1 and it's like the cutest fish ever filmed. He literally said :3

The fish is looking at you with big dark eyes going :3

071

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It kinda reminds me of that one video of a "snowstorm" from the comet that Rosetta orbited. There's a sense that, in a way that is literally true, you are seeing something that human eyes were never meant to observe.

A black-and-white photo of a bizarre alien landscape against a starfield. On the left, a jagged cliff towers high, its lower reaches lost in a smooth drift of dust; boulders areon the bottom right of the image. The sky is dark, but flecked with bright stars and, closer, across the whole images, streaks left by particles of ice and dust.

030

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Flat Earth? Chopped. Hollow Moon? Washed. I'm bringing back Randolph Kirkpatrick's Nummulosphaeric hypothesis, which is that the Earth originated as an ocean world, with all the rocks of the crust, including igneous rocks (and even some meteorites!) originating from the aggregation of foram shells.

The cover of a pamphlet, published in 1913, titled "The Nummulosphere - An Account of the ORGANIC ORIGIN of so-called IGNEOUS ROCKS and of ABYSSAL RED CLAYS" by R. Kirkpatrick. The cover illustration is a globe covered in oceans, at the top of which sits King Neptune riding four horses; he is holding his trident, at the tip of which is impaled a foraminiferan.

140

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Been thinking a lot about these big beefy spider crabs (Paromola cuvieri) last couple of days. Big fan of this pic of one shoving a bit of sponge into a sixgill shark's mouth to make it fuck off.

Two images from a figure given in D'Onghia et al 2018's paper "Using a benthic lander to explore and monitor vulnerable ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea." The first shows a crab standing over a pile of mackerel waving a tattered bit of sponge above its head with its back legs, seeming to threaten a blackbelly rosefish that has turned away. The second shows a massive shark, mouth open, with a similar crab stuffing a bit of sponge into its gob. Very feisty.

0102

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Just because I always forget to do this - I'm out at sea again 🥳 Absolutely surreal and incredible that I've managed to do this 10 times in my scientific career so far, and very exciting to be on the RRS Discovery IV for the first time to help with the PAP-SO time series :^]

A picture of me (a schlubby white guy with long brown hair and a bad beard) wearing a navy blue hoody and jeans stood on the deck of a ship. Behind me, the Atlantic Ocean stretches out, tally, fluffy clouds arranged in rank and file to the horizon.

1101

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

You still haven't seen it. This is what a sea pig actually looks like.

130

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Man, bony fishes absolutely dunk on sharks. Not to brag or anything but the illustration in the bottom contains more diversity in body shape than all living cartilaginous fish do 😤

Two bluesky posts in a row: one celebrates the "extraordinary" diversity of sharks, the other just casually has illustrations of a half dozen of the weirdest fishes in the sea.

051

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

On today's episode of fat and jobless:

An ROV photograph of an Oxynotus roughshark against a muddy background. The fish is bizarre with a small head, very pointy dorsal fins, and an enormous, swollen belly. Credits: Marine Institute/Kerry Howell

410121

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Nowadays Aphia are often substituted for noodlefishes (Salangidae), a really odd little family related to smelts that I can't stop thinking about at the moment. Sentient beansprouts.

A pile of Salanx bonefish on banana(?) leaves. They are white and translucent, broadly cylindrical with big, goofy, googly eyes. They look kinda like udon or beansprouts.

171

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

They're eaten in Spain and Italy, lightly battered and deep fried (which tbf sounds really yummy). Apparently now though the Aphia aren't doing that well and they're protected in Spain, so largely replaced with the (imo very weird!) noodlefishes (Salangidae)

A plate of chanquetes - whole, small, golden deep-fried fishes served with lemon wedges. They kinda look like segments of onion rings.

110

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

It's so nuts that there's a commercial fishery for transparent gobies (Aphia minuta). Oh yea lemme just go catch some unflavoured gelatin lmao.

A very small, almost entirely transparent fish. The eyes are the only pigmented part of it, and you can clearly see the gas bladder as a central bubble in the middle of the body. Credit: wouterteunissen via iNaturalist

170

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Spent the first day of my late twenties as I hope to go on (hanging out with friends, looking at anglerfish & questioning my abilities as a taxonomist) 🥳

170

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

In all seriousness despite being The Most Common Guy On Earth, there's like one good photo of Cyclothone on the internet (below). This video is a very welcome addition (and a real showcase of technical prowess!)

3194

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM THE PHD MINES

Homer Simpon lean out of moving car, his two hairs flapping lackadaisically in the hair, his smile huge and funny and genuine. The caption says "NEW DATA DAY!", in mimicry of the original New Billboard Day gag.

020

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Last really big milestone crossed in the Big Dumb Fish Project - Fish #400 ticked off the list! Theres some mismatches between the source I’m using and current taxonomy so I’ve still got “Pataecidae” as a group - very cool fish though so can’t really be mad, he reminds me of a Bosozuko biker.

~100 fish drawn in amateurish black and white doodles - mainly eels, catfish, and carpy things

~100 fishes drawn in amateurish black and white doodles. Lots of deep sea weirdos on this one, as well as gobies and cods and their ilk

About a hundred fishes drawn in amateurish black and white doodles. This has a lot of flatfish, as well as many spiny-finned fish

About 40 amateurish black and white fishes, bringing us up to #400z this is mostly very normal looking fishes, but there are some oddballs

064

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Gotta be something like that, I'm just reminiscing that the only two (quite busted) specimens I found of them in my Masters Project were from a trawl at 860-1000m

131

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Valenciennellus tripunctulatus was named by such a liar. There are way more than three puncts on that fish, I can see like 16 without even trying that hard. This is a callout post for Laurits Martin Esmark #LauritsMartinEsmarkIsOverDay

A really quite pathetic looking specimen of a deep sea fish held on an upsettingly stained blue plastic glove. The fish has a big eye and a smushed face with a dark stomach, and the back half is spotted with regular dark clumps of black pigment and photophores.

140

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Kinda sad to realise that this isn't the fish I've seen the most of now, that honour has definitely passed to Maurolicus

A top-down view of an orange plastic basket filled with small silver fish; there are thousands of them!

151

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

If loving you is Morwong, then I don't wanna be Morright

A crested morwong, a stripy fish shaped like a long triangle with a very high, spiny dorsal fin on the forehead, sits on a sandy bottom. Credit: Erik Shlogl via FoA

050

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

What a gorgeous adjective "gemmous" is. I love Callionymus so much, remarkable little beasts I scarcely thought about before December last year.

A Callionymus lyra fish held in a gloved hand; it has mauve spots on amber skin with a bright blue eye and big spines on the head.

041

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Hmm, I wonder if this is why Ballan Wrasse are called that? I tried to find out at the weekend and failed, but I could definitely see them cronching on barnacles

A pic of a speckled, lovely ballan wrasse in an aquarium setting

020

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

OH also the Space Launch System really evokes feelings for me because during my peak space obsession it was "the next thing coming". To me it will always be burned into my heart as the future of manned spaceflight no matter how flawed and wasteful it is. Also, it's what rockets should look like.

The launch of Artemis II on a Space Launch System rocket; the vehicle is HUGE, with a massive core stage consisting of big fuel tanks coated in rough brick-red insulating foam, under which fire four space shuttle main engines, their flames rendered invisible by the incredible pillars of fire bursting from the solid rocket boosters either side. Atop the orange tanks sits the spacecraft, capped with a smooth fairing and a long, elegant launch escape tower. Clouds of dark grey steam and smoke billow around its base as it ascends into a blue sky.

020

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Idk man, throw Starship into the sea and bring me back my beloved, beautiful Dynetics moon lander that looks like the Easter Bunny. Check out that lovely low centre of gravity :)

A rendering of the Dynetics moon lander on the lunar surface. It is shaped like a squat rectangle made out of trusses, with a pressurised cylinder at its centre, big golden spherical fuel tanks and two quartets of engines. The solar panels roll out from the top like bunny ears.

010

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

I am just being silly, in the vein of

020

HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Airdropping Kakapos to cool down the Chernobyl meltdown

A black and white photo of a Russian helicopter dropping sand over the Chernobyl power plant

010