iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 25/07/2026

The other day I had company during lunch

Two crows spending time together in the sun

Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 01/06/2026

Don't miss the last YAG PUB Lectures of this academic year! Wednesday June 3 at Vin Natuur, Groningen, 17.00 Ayushi Rastogi – Code, Chaos, and Compromises: Behind the Scenes of the Apps We Use Every Day Nynke Velinga – Giving the green light? Liability for AI in traffic

YAG Pub Lecture Series poster featuring talks by Ayushi Rastogi ("Code, Chaos, and Compromises: Behind the Scenes of the Apps We Use Every Day") and Nynke Velinga ("Giving the green light? Liability for AI in traffic"), location (Vin Natuur, Groningen), date (June 3, 2026), time (17.00-18.00)

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 07/05/2026

#coffee addicted ants are slowly conquering all the coffee machines in one of our @rug.nl buildings 🐜🤯☕🐜

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 11/03/2026

I hate that since the advent of ChatGPT I cannot use em dash’s without being accused to be a machine. This fun sketchplanation made me think about it again :( Source: open.substack.com/pub/sketchpl...

What is an Em dash, En Dash, Hyphen - and when and how to use them table with examples

KNOW YOUR DASHES
THE HYPHEN, EN DASH, AND EM DASH

HYPHEN, short, for intimately related concepts concepts, e.g. tie-in or toll-free

EN DASH, med, concepts related by distance, e.g May–Sep or p147–148

EM DASH, long, Adding a new thought like (), I love it — but then 1 always do

sketchplanations

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 03/03/2026

If you are in Groningen, don’t miss tomorrow’s #YAGPubLectures! Focus is on the brain, with Gido van de Ven on "Forgetting in brains and machines" and Jamal Williams on "Music-evoked memory reactivation and its effects on later retrieval." As usual we will start at 17.00 at Vin Natuur!

YAG Pub Lecture Series poster featuring two drinks (a cocktail with lemon slice and a lemonade with lemon slices) on a blue and beige background. Event details include talks by Gido van de Ven on "Forgetting in brains and machines" and Jamal Williams on "Music-evoked memory reactivation and its effects on later retrieval." Event takes place at Vin Natuur on March 4, 2026, with arrival at 16:30, followed by two 15-minute talks with Q&A, and drinks at 18:00. Hosted by University of Groningen and Young Academy Groningen.

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 12/02/2026

Dus, #odido, je vertelt me dat al mijn belangrijkste persoonlijke gegevens gestolen zijn. En mensen vragen me nog steeds waarom ik geïrriteerd raak van het geven van persoonlijke gegevens aan techbedrijven…

Odido message explaining what personal information was collected by hackers. The data includes full name, customer number, address, phone number, email, bank account number, date of birth, and ID details. The non-collected data includes 'Mijn Odido' password, billing information, location data, invoicing details, and scans of identity documents.

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 30/01/2026

Don't forget the YAG Pub lectures, each first Wednesday of the month, at Vin Natuur in Groningen. You can see the full program for the remaining academic year attached!

Flyer for YAG Pub Lecture Series
4 February 2026
Ranjita Bose – Plastics for the future
Antonĳa Grubisic-Cabo – Flatlands: Strange Physics of 2D Materials
4 March 2026
Gido van de Ven – Forgetting in brains and machines
Jamal Williams – Using Film to Study Music and Memory
8 April 2026
Ole Gmelin – How Young gay men develop sexual identities in the context
of cultural narrative of gender and sexuality
Defne Abur – Speech as a unique window into our body and brain
6 May 2026
Dulce Morales – Electrolysis Happy Hour: Cheap Cocktails, Cheap
Hydrogen!
Kritika Saxena – Gender and development economics
3 June 2026
Ayushi Rastogi – Code, Chaos, and Compromises: Behind the Scenes of the
Apps We Use Every Day
Nynke Velinga – Giving the green light? Liability for AI in traffic
Where: Vin Natuur (Oude Kijk In 't Jatstraat, Groningen)
When: First Wednesdays of the month (normally)

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 26/01/2026

Warmer dan veel andere kantoren op onze verdieping 🥶

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 26/01/2026

Welcome to the office. Where we are supposed to work and this afternoon also have oral exams 🥶🥶🥶

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 06/01/2026

YAG Pub Lectures are back with the new year. Join us Jan 7, 2026 @ Vin Natuur for two fascinating talks: * Dina Maniar on "Sippin’ on Sustainability: The Secret Life of Polymers" * Willem Jespers on "Computer-Aided Drug Discovery" 📍 16:30–18:30 | Free drinks + Q&A! #YAGroningen

YAG Pub Lecture Series poster featuring two drinks (a cocktail and a lemonade) with event details: "Dina Maniar on Sippin' on Sustainability – The Secret Life of Polymers" and "Willem Jespers on Computer-aided Drug Discovery." Event at Vin Natuur on January 7, 2026, from 16:30–18:30. Includes QR code, University of Groningen and Young Academy Groningen logos.

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 09/12/2025

Mensen beginnen zich te verzamelen voor de protestactie van vandaag tegen de bezuinigingen op het hoger onderwijs

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 21/11/2025

YSG Pub lectures are back! Don’t miss th first of this academic year on December 3 by Vin Natuur 🥳 Come in great numbers

YAG Pub Lecture Series poster: Two illustrated drinks (a cocktail and a lemonade) with event details. Speakers Sina Katharina Goetzfried and Abby C. Dommer (FSE) present on "May the Light Be With You: Controlling Medicines Like a Jedi" and "From My Lungs to Yours: How Viruses Survive Airborne Transport." Event at Vin Natuur on December 3, 2025, 17.00-18.30:talks, Q&A, and drinks. Hosted by University of Groningen and Young Academy Groningen.

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 20/11/2025

Here the Gemini policy. I need to look for Gmail’s one still

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 12/11/2025

Room booked! S3E01 is coming. In the meantime I see people are getting back on par :)

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 14/10/2025

I have found some little amanitas in the bushes, this one was quite tiny

An amanita, maybe citrina, among fallen leaves

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 14/10/2025

Nice, the campus has some very beautiful sceneries! Let me also add my other favourite tree species in Groningen’s autumn, just saw it this afternoon when cycling back to the center 😁 There are a few of those also around campus

A view on a green patch over a smal water reservoir, with many green trees and one that shades from green to orange

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 13/10/2025

I know, th photo is terrible, but those colours this morning… wow! #autumn

Autumn colours. A photo of trees on the side of the road. The leaves range from dark green, to red, to bright orange. A grey sky in the background makes the colours pop out

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 06/10/2025

Despite the severe lack of time and funding, the third season of It's Not Just Numbers, a podcast on the human side of #mathematics, is finally in the making! Stay tuned, and catch up on the episodes you missed 😊 Find us on podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/not-just-numbers or your favorite platform

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 21/09/2025

Mijn oprechte complimenten aan wie dan ook het idee van het nieuwe AH‑cadeautje had en aan de genie die ze zo verbazingwekkend precies heeft ontworpen 🤯

Miniatuur kartonnen verpakkingen als cadeau bij de AH op houten vloer, inclusief brood, melkpakken, chocolademelk, kaas en verschillende andere kruidenierswaren met puzzelstukjes op de achtergrond

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 19/05/2025

Original post: social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/...

#Oops Due to the ongoing case New York Times v #OpenAI, you cannot delete your #ChatGPT prompts and conversations as the court has ordered [1] on 13th of May that all logs must be stored until further notice. OpenAI is furious as that means "including sensitive personal information, proprietary business data, and internal government documents" [2]. The court is not impressed [3] and sticks to the order.

[1] https://steigerlegal.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250513-openai-gericht-verfuegung.pdf
[2] https://steigerlegal.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250514-openai-antrag-schreiben-gericht.pdf
[3] https://steigerlegal.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250516-openai-gericht-ablehnung.pdf

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 08/05/2025

@rug.nl staff members, from PhD to full Profs 🎨📅 Join us on May 22ndat the 'Failing Forward' Art Workshop! 🖌️📝 Help us explore failure in academia (and not) with Jobbe Holtes & our poet-in-residence. Sign up by May 14th. More infos at www.rug.nl/research/you...

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 30/04/2025

This is the kind of views I miss when I am away away from here. Not to mention the mountain hikes and the food 🤤!! #macerata #marche #sibillini

Picturesque rural Italian landscape in the Macerata province. It shows rolling hills, olive groves, and snow-capped mountains in the distance under a clear blue sky.

View on Monte San Vicino with green hills, distant mountains with light haze, and tree branches framing the foreground against a bright blue sky.

Panoramic countryside view between Tolentino and Urbisaglia; showing cultivated fields, abandoned buildings, and majestic snow-capped mountain range in the background under a vibrant blue sky.

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 15/04/2025

If you are in #Groningen tomorrow, don't forget the upcoming YAG's Pub Lectures: * Clemens Mayer: Evolution as an all-purpose problem solver * Corina Prent: Innovation and imagination 📅 16 April 🕔 17.00-18.00 📍 Café de Toeter

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 18/03/2025

I am very happy with today's university newsletter :) Medewerkers van @unigroningen.bsky.social en @hanzehogeschool.bsky.social #staken op 18 maart tegen de #megabezeunigingen in het hoger #onderwijs! #DoeHetNiet

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 11/02/2025

Are you in #Groningen tomorrow? Join us at Café de Toeter, 17.00, for 2 exciting YAG pub lectures: Michael Lerch: Robots of the Future - How Chemistry Can Help Make Them Safer (and More Fun)? Anastasia Pattemore: To binge-watch or not - Language learning through watching TV Free drinks included!

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 20/01/2025

The last few days, so misty and chilly, carried a really magical vibe

A moody nighttime landscape photograph showing a misty pond or river with glowing streetlights reflected in the water, framed by bare winter trees including a large willow tree, with a fog-diffused golden light creating an ethereal atmosphere

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 09/01/2025

This has suddenly appeared in our coffe corner and kept us busy with a laugh 😂

Photograph of a printed academic paper page with a red magnet or button visible at the top. The page shows the title "THE UNREASONABLE EFFECTIVENESS OF COFFEE IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES" by Eugene Wigner, reprinted from Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 13, No. 1 (February 1960). The page includes a quote from Bertrand Russell about coffee's beauty and a humorous anecdote about two former classmates discussing mathematical symbols.
```

a clever parody of Eugene Wigner's famous paper "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences," with coffee substituted as the subject

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 23/12/2024

The holiday reading arrived just in time! The #fear of #mathematics and how to overcome it by F. Auerbach, seems to be a gem from 1924 that aged really well. I am really curious, just two more days and I’ll finally have the time… 😁 #eduSky #🧮

A photograph of a book cover: "The FEAR of MATHEMATICS, and how to overcome it" by Felix Auerbach. Published by Arhimedes in Belgrade, 2024. The cover features a large black circle and a vertical strip of colorful squares on the left edge. The subtitle at the top reads "A captivating journey through unchanging mathematical fears spanning more than a century, with a solution from a renowned physicist."

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 02/12/2024

If you are in Groningen, don't miss your free drink at the last YAG PUB lecture of this year! Cristobal Bertoglio and Patrizio Raffa will guide us through the mathematics that runs through your veins and polymers that like water, but not too much! 🗓️ Wed 3 Dec ⏰ 17.00-18.00 🏠 Café de Toeter

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 14/11/2024

It is done. Just in time for the new policy that allows full use of the data to train X's Grok AI, I have deleted all my tweets (16 years!!) with github.com/lucahammer/tweetXer, removed the app from all my devices and logged out for the last time

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 31/10/2024

When I am low on energy or my mind is racy, I need mountains (which I really miss here) or at least some isolated-enough patch of nature. Somehow being there among the trees, admiring nature, washes it all out. And when I can’t go, looking at recent photos helps a bit

A black and white mushroom, with droplets underneath

Trees and ferns, with some autumnal mist

A little orange coral is growing on a tree

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 27/10/2024

One of the best things of autumns are the mushrooms photo walks. I keep getting amazed by the many colours and smells in the woods!

gewoon elfenbankje (Trametes versicolor)

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 19/10/2024

Woo hoo, just in time for the release of the new season next month, we hit a new milestone. I am so happy to see that the effort was not vane!

It’s not just numbers was listened to 2500 times!

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 17/10/2024

Groningen is a beautiful city, but with the colours of autumn it becomes simply magical. You just randomly walk around and never cease to be amazed by the spectacles that nature throws at you

Noorderplansoen: a little lake and some colourful autumnal trees around

On the road to Zernike campus, trees are getting yellow

Walking in the north of town, a small water bed surrounded by trees in shades of green, red and yellow. The sky is pink

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 10/10/2024

If you are in north Europe you should look at the sky. This is what it looks like from Groningen, NL I can’t believe that I could see it so clearly from Groningen. A dream come true! 🤯🥳 Now I want to see the “real thing” up north even more 😍

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 08/10/2024

Don't miss our @YAGroningen pub lectures tomorrow evening, at 5pm at Café de Toeter in Groningen! We even got a fancy title page for one of the talks 😃

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 06/10/2024

5 hours and 657 👻 tiles later, we have our aperiodic wall 😊 Thanks to all the people that passed by, @ScienceLinX, Leen van Wijngaarden and Thijs van Beers for the help

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 05/10/2024

Getting ready for #ZpannendZernike tomorrow. If you are in Groningen, come to the Bernoulliborg to help us build a big aperiodic wall!

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 27/09/2024

The YAG Pub Lectures are back! Join us on the first Wednesdays of the mont!h.You'll get free drinks, two exciting lectures and the opportunity to ask your questions to our researchers. 📍 Café de Toeter, Groningen ⏰ 17.00 - 18.30 🗓️ October 9, 2024

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 09/06/2024

@tomgauld.bsky.social your “Building” building (www.newscientist.com/article/2245... ) does almost exist in Groningen 😅 @unigroningen.bsky.social should we buy a print to put on display?

Building designed by Escher by Tom Gauld, from the new scientist link in the post

A stock photo of the Linnaeusborg (Groningen)

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 03/06/2024

Looking forward to meet you at the last YAG PUB lecture before summer! Join us at Cafe de Toeter on Wed 5 June and enjoy free drinks and the lectures of our guests - M van Vugt “What can the brains of Tibetan Monks teach us about emotions?” - R Scholtens “Across the donut verse?”

- M van Vugt “What can the brains of Tibetan Monks teach us about emotions?”

- R Scholtens “Across the donut verse?”

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 01/05/2024

Don't forget the upcoming @YAGroningen pub lecture next Wednesday, 8 May, with the following line up of speakers: * Aline Seepma, Strength in unity: the role of inter-organizational collaboration in youth care * Michelle Bruijn, The X factor in eviction cases: what protects you from being evicted?

PUB lecture series poster

* Aline Seepma, Strength in unity: the role of inter-organizational collaboration in youth care

* Michelle Bruijn, The X factor in eviction cases: what protects you from being evicted?

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 19/04/2024

And now our minds have been blown away by a funny and inspiring talks on mathematics and arts by Martin Skrodzki touching upon standing waves, logarithmic spirals and fractals So sad that I need to leave!

Martin Skrodzki next to the initial dlide of the talk

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 19/04/2024

In an enlightening talk, Nichol Furey described the algebraic DNA of particle physics. Truly fascinating

Dr Nichol Furey next to her slide showing the algebraic roadmap from spin(10) to the standard model after Higgs

Dr Furey next to the slide showing the elementary forces

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 19/04/2024

The #FMFSymposium, on harmony and symmetry, is starting. Great to see so many #mathematics and #physics students showing up, good job FMF. I am really looking forward to it fmfsymposium.nl

Prof Roest introducing the program of the day

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 06/04/2024

One can admire fascinating smoke rings over the Etna vulcano these days 🤯 Source (and more pictures): x.com/etnaboris/st...

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 03/04/2024

Don’t forget the beginning of the new series of Young Academy Groningen Pint of Science 🍻 next week, April 10, at our local Café de Toeter, with our first two guests * Maeve McKeown “Am I responsible for structural injustice?” * Julian Koellermeier “Mathematics and the race to Mars” #SciComm

YAG Pub Lecture Series programme for the upcoming semester, starting on April 10 at Café de Toeter at 17.00

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 21/03/2024

The YAG pub lecture series are back from April 10. If you are around #Groningen on the dates, come and get a free drink while enjoying the talks. #academicSky Click on the poster to see the full line up

YAG Pub Lecture Series poster
Learn over a free pint what University of Groningen scientists are discovering

10 April 2024
Maeve McKeown: Am I responsible for structural injustice?
Julian Koellermeier: Mathematics and the race to Mars

8 May 2024
Aline Seepma: Strength in unity: the role of inter-organizational collaboration in youth care
Michelle Bruijn: The X factor in eviction cases: what 7 protects you from being evicted?

5 June 2024
Marieke van Vugt: What can the brains of Tibetan monks teach us about emotions?
Robbert Scholtens: Across the Donutverse?

16.30-17.00: Arrival of audience 17.00-17.30: Speaker 1 (15 min followed by Q&A)
17.30-18.00: Speaker 2 (15 min followed by Q&A)
18.00-18.30: Drinks

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Marcello Seri @mseri.me · 08/03/2024

While editing a podcast episode for April, I stumbled upon a scared cat :D

Screenshot of a waveform from an audio recording that looks like a scared cat

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