iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Hey, I’m just asking questions. Ignorant questions, bigoted questions, questions that have been repeatedly answered for many years. Sorry, but I’m not listening to answers right now; I’m far too busy asking questions. It’s called being intellectually curious.

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ELSA: Euclid Legacy Science Advanced analysis tools @elsa-euclid.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

ELSA member Pietro Bergamini warping members of the public (painlessly) at "La Notte delle ricercatrici e dei ricercatori" last week, demonstrating the @ec-euclid.bsky.social space telescope's discoveries of gravitational lenses 🔭

Members of the public holding a dark cloth taut, for demonstrating motion in curved spacetime

Members of the public holding a dark cloth taut for demonstrating motion in a curved spacetime, with a ball bearing resting on the cloth curving the space or cloth around it

Pietro running a real time warp-yourself simulation, showing what you look like when warped by gravitational lensing. A member of the public is holding a ball bearing between finger and thumb, which is being warped into curved arcs

A scale model of the Euclid space telescope on a window ledge. There is also a model astronaut on the window ledge.

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Ben Stanford @drbenstanford.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Never, ever listen to these people when they preach from the rooftops about free speech, cancel culture and lefty snowflakes. The only speech they care about is that which agrees with them.

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nick @unionnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

On the *same day* the Cornell Seven drugged and raped Jane Doe, Cornell banned four students (including the President of Cornell JVP) from campus for three years for nonviolent, pro-Palestine protests. The same Cornell officials let the rapists off with apology essays.

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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Most TV is just this now.

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Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#JWST proposers, lest you not have enough to worry about already, check out some new language on use of the much-beloved \vspace parameter in your proposal jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportu...

static.klipy.com

Carry On Queen Charlotte

ALT: Carry On Queen Charlotte

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Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 29/09/2026

Ruining their future should be the fucking goal actually

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026

I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026

Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.

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Richard @benjymous.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My Golden Retriever went rogue again, sorry about your picnic

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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 24/09/2026

*extremely tired voice*AI agents don't "go rogue". They are not sentient; they don't have agency. They work within guardrails set by humans. If the humans are so shit at building secure sandboxes for the agents to work within, that's on the humans. Stop using this framing.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

NASA has selected a new far-infrared space telescope, PRIMA! Marvellous news and congratulations to the whole team! And tonight I'll raise a glass to SPICA, the ESA/JAXA proposed far-IR space telescope that I worked on for many years www.nasa.gov/news-release... h/t @davecl.bsky.social

nasa.gov

NASA Selects Far-Infrared Telescope as First in New Mission Class - NASA

NASA announced Wednesday a mission to explore the history and evolution of the universe, PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), is advancing to

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Would anyone like my lovely @royalastrosoc.bsky.social diary? I use an electronic diary so this is surplus to requirements. Keyboard for scale. Free to a good home, or even a bad one 🔭🧪

Purple 2027 RAS diary with keyboard for scale.

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight

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Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

In the movie version of this, after Piddington runs out of food water and money as a result of leaving the UK, the residents apply for asylum and end up housed in a military base, with HILARIOUS consequences. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans

Piddington residents voted over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Bold move for a village with no school, no hospital or GP surgery, no pharmacy, no shops, no petrol station, no police station, no fire station, no bank or post office. But what it lacks in basic civic infrastructure, it makes up for in a village hall of pissy fuckwits www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans

Piddington residents vote over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby.

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I am so tired of nasty, insular, smug gits playing PR stunts to prevent people finding safety. I say grant them independence and then see how they react to facing immigration restrictions when they want to do a big shop or work. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans

Piddington residents vote over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby.

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LiLBazula 👻 🎃 @lilbazza.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The most spectacularly stupid embarrassing island on the face of the earth chock full of small time brain broken petty fascists who deserve everything they demand. Full independence for Piddington now. Hard border. Visas. Passport control. Tariffs.

Delivering the result, Susannah Parden, vice chair of the parish council said: "We are Piddington the village that roars."

Following the result, council chair Tim McNally said: "This is an example of democracy in operation.

"We went into this village hall as the underdogs - we had a plucky idea.

"We have given a message to the world."

Responding to the village saying it had "roared", Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast: "I think they have – we have heard it, we are listening.

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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

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Philipp Markolin @philippmarkolin.eurosky.social · 10/09/2026

🚨🚨🚨 Seems like another Mathematician comes forward with concerns about OpenAI stealing unpublished math research and then publishing it as AI solve under big publicity. Andreas Thom and Gábor Kun worked on Gromov’s soficity conjecture. (See his thread with alt-text) mstdn.science/@andreasthom...

1/3 I want to record a number of points that I realized after reading up on the controversy. In fact it recalls an exchange I had with OpenAI after its non-sofic-group announcement. It exposes a serious, unanswered question about whether researchers can trust OpenAI with unpublished mathematics.

I wrote in an email to Mark Sellke and Sebastien Bubeck shortly after the surprising finding of a non-sofic group using the methods of Kun and myself:
“Another point is that I and a colleague in Dresden were discussing the expander matching problem and various extensions of the work with Gabor Kun actively over the last months with ChatGPT, so that we are of course curious if that was part of the training data or accessible to the reasoning process. There is a certain (frankly unacceptable) lack of transparency here; and I fear it will damage the communal process of math more than the new AI-generated results will benefit the subject.”

Mark Sellke’s complete answer was: “Regarding your conversations with ChatGPT: that did not happen.”

I had explicitly asked about two different things: (1) whether our conversations entered training data, and (2) whether they were accessible to the solving process. The categorical answer now looks as though it addressed only direct access under (2). No such qualification, explanation, or evidence was given. I take this as dishonesty to say the least.
OpenAI now says in the Buckmaster-Alpöge case that no specific user data was accessed, but adds that it “cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models.”

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Cllr Dr Alex Powell @apowelllaw.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is domestic terrorism. It's that simple. They are using violence to advance a political position. We have seen time and again how left wing protestors are treated by police and yet the police and government are allowing this fascist vigilantism to enjoy impunity.

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I knew that some folks will not be delighted by this review of Graham Farmelo's new biography of Hawking, but so be it. The book itself is good - as I say, Farmelo lets people's words speak for themselves, and many are quite damning. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...

theguardian.com

Hawking by Graham Farmelo review – the dark side of genius

A biography of the physicist recognises his achievements, but also reveals the selfish narcissist underneath

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Chris Kendall @ottocr.at · 05/09/2026

Our grandparents knew how to deal with fascist thugs on our streets

Red wall plaque reads:

Tower Hamlets Environment Trust
THE BATTLE OF CABLE STREET
The people of East London rallied to Cable Street on the 4th October 1936 and forced back the march of the fascist Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts through the streets of the East End.
"THEY SHALL NOT PASS"

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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

That the government's response to a large-scale fascist mobilisation is to say stuff like "the right to protest is fundamental" and "we already *are* stopping the boats" is in itself the story of how we got here.

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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Kent police said 'no arrests were made' of the people who blocked a port and roads. There's your two-tier policing, folks www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...

bbc.co.uk

Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads

Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.

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onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

just stop oil protesters got five years in jail for *planning* to do this to the M25.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Apparently I’m from Honolulu, LA or San Jose. I do miss observing at the JCMT to be fair (OK I know it’s US accents only but I had to try!)

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Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Amazing. It seems that plagiarism is only a problem for The Times when black people do it

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Fabian Schussler @fabianschussler.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Astro-COLIBRI v2.31.0 is out 🚀🔭🧪⚛️☄️ 📱 Home screen widgets (Android + iOS) 📡 Our own Kafka alert broker 📈 Fermi-LAT light curves for 1500+ 4FGL sources 🎯 Cone searches over full localisation regions 🌙 Long-term visibility Details 👇 forum.astro-colibri.science/t/557

forum.astro-colibri.science

Astro-COLIBRI v2.31.0: Home screen widgets, our own alert broker, and Fermi-LAT light curves

Hi everyone, We are excited to announce the release of Astro-COLIBRI v2.31.0! This is one of our largest updates so far. Astro-COLIBRI now reaches you on your home screen, publishes its own real-time...

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Pervert glasses get the Dan Toomey treatment. youtu.be/PuoGqbLbRhc?...

youtu.be

Are smart glasses just for dirty sickos?

YouTube video by Good Work

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Academic colleagues, please read & consider signing 🧪🔭

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I'll again note that the folks willing to sign a letter supporting a raging eugenicist (purportedly in defense of his academic freedom to be racist) aren't nearly as motivated when it comes to *actual* threats to academic freedom, like this.

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Dr. Az Klymiuk @klymiuk.ca · 26/08/2026

Now, let’s see how many folks care about academic freedom.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Tagging the 🧪🔭 feeds for this seminal discovery

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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Loving this #DoctorWho themed riff on the 2048 game www.doctorwho.tv/play/thirteen

doctorwho.tv

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/08/2026

If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 24/08/2026

Sometimes society at large rejects certain ideas because they’ve been thoroughly shown to be wrong and also because they suck and the people who espouse them suck and when someone comes around arguing those ideas should be part of some edgy modern debate we can and should shun them and move on.

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Glen Weldon @ghweldon.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Optimist: The glass is half full. Pessimist: The glass is half empty. Philip Glass: half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half half

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Foreign students don’t get UK student loans. Stupidest party in the world with the most gullible followers.

Times Higher Education • @timeshighered
X.com
Reform UK has promised to ban "foreign students" from accessing student loans and said it will end public subsidies for "woke nonsense" degrees

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Dr Matthew Hardy @drmatthewhardy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Spot on. The Moral Maze is far right Overton window shifting in action! Last night’s was “Is Empathy a Weakness” FFS, basically an extreme-right trope discussed as if it were a serious proposition ☠️😡🤬🤡

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Stevie Chick @steviechick.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This is a great, succinct, stinging piece

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

In 1987 the poet Benjamin Zephaniah was considered for a visiting fellowship at Cambridge. Here's how Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper approached that particular story.

Would You Let This Man Near Your Daughter

On Friday, he is expected to
become a Cambridge don.
Just what are his qualities which
have appealed to Trinity College?
He is black. He is a Rastafarian.
He has tasted approved schools and
Borstals.
And, oh yes, he is a poet. Here is
PODI(SON

an example of the standard of his
work:
The day dat 1 met Lady Di 1,
What happy no I tell a lie.
I had a pain in my belly, I
Would not f..t near Royalty.
Is this "really the kind of man
parents would wish to have teaching
their sons and daughters?
Prefer
Our guess is that they would
prefer their offspring to start work
in a hairdresser's.
From his pleture, Mr Zephaniah
himself could do with a good
shampoo and set.

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Corinne Fowler @corinnefowler.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

#JasonArday phoned me a few days ago to talk to someone who knows what media abuse feels like. His untimely death shows why we need part 2 of the Leveson enquiry into media conduct

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Nanjala @nanjala.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Crickets when 4000 academic jobs a year are being lost in the UK and entire campuses are being shut down because of lack of funding and the secondary effects of Brexit but plenty of ink to hound a man to an early death. Despicable behaviour from the British press.

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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 16/08/2026

According to 2024/25 HESA figures, where ethnicity is known there are 270 black professors *in the whole of the UK*. That amounts to 1.1% of professors. Why are the journalists commenting on this issue so determined to do no research whatsoever?

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