iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

🙋‍♂️ Never had them with vinegar (which I think might be a Lancastrian thing) but were an essential part of Carlin Sunday as a child 😀

110

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 06/10/2026

Scandal unfolding in Germany: Police has arrested the former head of the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, August Hanning, on suspicion of espionage. Hanning was the agency's chief from 1998 to 2005. www.spiegel.de/panorama/jus...

spiegel.de

(S+) August Hanning: Ex-BND-Chef verhaftet – Verdacht auf Landesverräterische Ausspähung

Nach Informationen von SPIEGEL und SPIEGEL TV haben Fahnder den ehemaligen BND-Präsidenten August Hanning festgenommen. Der frühere Spitzenbeamte soll jahrelang privat Geheiminformationen von seinem a...

2624391

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Can I throw my hat in the ring with #Breverse if it’s not been taken already.

010

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Wonder how Suella Braverman is feeling about the England football team this morning? One of their best performances ever, by a team she could not identify as “English” 🤦‍♂️

010

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Captain Haddock @realcaptainhaddock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Microsoft branding nightmare re AI risks to humanity

725647

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Just a Heads Up for the #Genealogists here. Tomorrow is the #TagderDeutschenEinheit (German Unification Day) and MyHeritage are celebrating with a weekend of free access to their German records: blog.myheritage.com/2026/09/cele...

165

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I know very little about bats, however I’m truly impressed how much genomics can tell about the origin and evolution of a species.

020

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 29/09/2026

Man City statement in full:

211326

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hi #AncestryHour. I found this AI "map" on a genealogy website (no names !). What are your thoughts? I'm not a fan - getting the geography wrong distorts the long relationship between the people of Scotland and Ireland (and confuses the heck out of people who don't realise the error).

A presumed AI-generated "Map of Ireland And Scotland" with Ireland incorrectly placed in relation to Scotland (or vice versa)

220

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The fact that I’m checking the 🇺🇸Treasury 10 year bond yield, which up until recently I didn’t care about, is not a good sign.

000

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Wait, What 🤷‍♂️. This is weird. Was this just a stag night gone wrong ?

010

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

From today’s Times newspaper. Angela Rayner condemns Labour’s migrant visa crackdown. I’ve no comment on the policy but I object to the phrase “changing the goalposts”. Goalposts are moved, not changed. 😤

010

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I have this nagging feeling that Andy Burnham would prefer to expand Manchester Airport. 🤷‍♂️

000

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 23/09/2026

Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano

Picture of the streets of Pompeii, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompei_-_panoramio_(26).jpg. Taken by Tanya Dedyukhina, used under CC

11868571648

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I must admit I’m a bit torn. Part of me wants to reset my Duolingo so I don’t feel obliged to do it every day, but on the other hand, it’s a 3000 day streak 😀

000

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My Dad grew up an "Only Child" of a Single Mum. Only later in life did he discover he had an older sister, Mary, born OTD 100 years ago. Sadly she died 5 hours after birth with what was recorded as "Infantile Convulsions".

211

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Katja Bego @katjabego.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

German Isar successfully launches satellites into orbit - the first European commercial space company to do so. This is a highly significant (and long overdue!) milestone towards European space sovereignty.

39422

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Well this was “fun” (I use the term loosely). “I” was Radha, a girl born in 1095 AD on the Ganges plain. I died aged 10 months old of measles. Hope the CDC are aware of these dangers.

000

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

That looks interesting, I’ll check it out.

210

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Sorry, should have explained it better. I usually use FMP for searching , but I’m trying to avoid having to rekey , as I make mistakes. I normally cite the GRO refs as Qn xxx district. Name SURNAME. Vol nn. p. nnnn. mother: SURNAME. I’m sure there are other formats

110

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Yup - (and now your going to tell me there is a ready made solution 😢 ) Admittedly I’ve been wanting to try Power Automate for a while .

110

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I know 😀, but I spend so much time badly copying reference info into a format that I like that I hope it’s worth it …

100

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Hi #GenHour. Sorry I’m late. I’ve been battling with Microsoft’s Power Automate to use it to generate GRO references for Civil Births from FMP or FreeBMD. In the end discovered I was using the wrong version of PAD. 🤦‍♂️ The MSI installer is better than the MS store version 😤

200

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Since it’s September, here is the obligatory snap of #Stollen at my local supermarket.

120

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Reposting for #AncestryHour. Research on Thomas Jessop of Brandon. The father to five children with five different mother over five years. The good news is that I can support 3 of the lines via a DNA cluster. Also; folks not fols 😳

030

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Just before the summer transfer window closes! Perhaps Sir Keir #Starmer is hoping to get signed up for a Premier League side. ⚽️ p.s. was going to do a joke about him joining the Saudi league for a big payday, but it’s transfer window closes later.

120

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

German at Portsmouth @germanatportsmouth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This extract from the BBC football website is a bit like saying that a player has joined 'Manchester'.

152

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I’m surprised that the first word I thought of to describe Nigel Farage is not included in any of the red bubbles 🤣

020

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

We also got to visit the Gradierwerk (Graduation Tower) in Bad Orb. Here, water from a salty spring is dripped over blackthorn branches to increase the salinity and allow the resulting brine to be boiled for salt. Amazingly Germany has quite a few... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduat...

000

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Mrs K-G and myself were in Fulda last weekend. The city is home to the shrine/relics of St Boniface "Apostle to the Germans". ST. B. was a Devon lad, who most famously chopped down the pagan "Donar's Oak". He is therefore recognised as the patron saint of environmental destruction. 🪓🌳🫢

Most of St Boniface's bones are here, except the ones given away to other churches.

This is where St Boniface's skull is kept/venerated...

110

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

If you have time the Esk Valley Railway is worth looking at, and you also end up at Whitby. 😀

120

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

So just to confirm: - Dissatisfied royal claimant to the UK throne returning from abroad. - A new king rises in Norway. - Heir to the Jacobite pretender consolidating power on the continent. cool cool. cool cool cool cool. cool cool. Hope everyone's been keeping up with their longbow practice.

40946174

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Finally, I have to admit it's long and a little dull, as I wanted to document all the evidence related to the children and thier mothers, but at least I get to use the phrase: 'the genealogist’s “Cotton-Eye Joe” question – “Where did he come from, where did he go ?' 😀

010

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The good news is that I found a small cluster of DNA matches with three of the descendant lines, which further supports the paper records.

110

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This pattern seemed relatively common in the area he lived (Brandon, Suffolk). He was actually the first of a line of 3 generations of my ancestors who were all recorded as base-born at their baptisms.

100

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Hi fols. Finally finished writing up my research on Thomas Jessop, my gggg-grandfather. Over a 5 year period he was the father of 5 children with 5 different women. 🤷‍♂️ Two children were from first & second marriage, the other 3 were "base-born". learnalittleeveryday.wordpress.com/2026/08/27/t...

learnalittleeveryday.wordpress.com

Thomas Jessop of Brandon – the Reputed Father

Introduction One of the great things about genetic genealogy is that it brings a degree of certainty to your research. This is especially useful when the available documentary evidence is challengi…

231

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I just checked on my Ancestry DNA page and hopefully I'll soon be getting the updated #SideView results. My last update was in 2024. Today the results switched to "Pending Update" Status. #Genealogy

010

Reposted by Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

Danny Fearns @dannyfearns.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ This is one of the last coal powered sheep. The vast majority of UK sheep are now all electric ⚡️

Sheep grazing in fields, the one in the foreground with white smoke apparently coming out of its bottom

14172141754

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Feels like the phrase “Having a legal battle over Tung Tung Tung Sahar” should be a euphemism. 😀

000

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Them: Want to come to a ritual ceremony at Huaca Pucllana? Me: What do you do ? Them: Smash huge pots ? Me: Cool ✅ Them: And eat Ritual meals. Me: Sounds good. ✅ Anything else ? Them: Ritual Human sacrifices. Me: 😬

010

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

A particularly colourful Wochenmarkt (Farmers Market) here in Germany. Flowering Artichokes on the left and Greengages on the right. The two stalls selling the greengages labelled them as Renekloden and ReneClaude, which appear to be German versions of the French, Reine Claude (Queen Claude).

Purple flowering Artichokes for sale at a Wochenmarkt in Germany.

Greengages, labelled as Renekloden, for sale at a Wochenmarkt in Germany.

110

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

🚨ICYMI, some exciting #Genealogy News. Ancestry has SideView 2.0 coming out. Details below. From the info the new "Recombination breakpoint detection" tool looks super-interesting as it "maps the exact boundaries where DNA swapped between grandparental lines."🤯 support.ancestry.com/s/article/Si...

support.ancestry.com

AncestrySupport

292

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Shamelessly stealing this from the Facebook a/c of TNA. An old poster for the Tota Eclipse of God's Own Country 😀 #Eclipse2026

030

Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️ @philgrass.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

TiL that the UK is the world’s leading supplier of international cocoa transport and quarantining services thank to the “International Cocoa Quarantine Centre”. Well done Britain . 👏 www.thetimes.com/article/40c8...

thetimes.com

Student creates first all-British chocolate bar ‘in 93 years’

‘It has been amazing to follow the entire process from bean to bar without leaving Reading’

010