iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This thought brought to you by the following paper (Martin et al 2026, @jappliedecology.bsky.social ) doi.org/10.1111%2F13...

doi.org

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 3h

Things one loves to see :) @britishecologicalsociety.org journals allow authors to contribute abstracts in non-English languages. There are 8 (+ English) languages here – what's the current record? Will ya bunch ae bampots accept Scots?

Screenshot of the opening lines of a scientific journal article Abstract in Euskara/Basque language. There are 9 language options included!

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Didn't bother to read the article, and if it isn't "UKHE Senior Managers're Wankdongles" neither should you.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Whoop! The @responsedivnet.bsky.social is now on Bluesky! Given them a follow to find out about all the cool things going on in the Response Diversity Network! 🧪🌍

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

FFS – is that listed in the journal's "Instructions to authors"? 🤢

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

P.S. I'm expecting to have ~26 taught course tutees this year (UG and MSc). 5 group meetings with each of 3 year groups, one 1-2-1 session with each tutee (down from 2 in previous years).

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Our student numbers have stayed pretty constant, but consecutive rounds of 'voluntary' and compulsory redundancies, topped off with failure to replace other staff who leave, mean even when institutions can't or aren't over-recruiting, senior managers still find a way to make the job miserable 😖

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"My student fees are paying for the prestige first, then my education."

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Interesting comparison between bail approaches for this and another, very recent, airport adjacent 'terrorism' case.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hey – some of us shit AND get off the pot.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Deadline tomorrow! Don't be shy!

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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Oh – maybe I missed your point. If we can manage/control/eliminate harmful, but financially successful products, then we can definitely do the same for environmentally damaging, financially unsuccessful products?

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

*whispers* AI is not a financially successful business model...

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Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

1/ People keep saying AI is inevitable. History disagrees. Plenty of technologies were called unstoppable, and societies stopped them or shrank them down to a niche. A thread 🧵

evitable
adjective
uk /ˈev.ɪ.tə.bəl/ us /ˈev.ə.t̬ə.bəl/

able to be avoided or prevented:
He believes that world war is evitable.
Inevitable suffering due to persecution is to be distinguished from evitable sickness.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Very excited to announce applications now open for @redileep.bsky.social PhD position with me, Dan Eastwood & Dan Jones. "Response Diversity in the pre- and post-management ecological restoration of co-invading alien plant species in post-industrial landscapes" 🧪🌍 www.swansea.ac.uk/jobs-at-swan...

swansea.ac.uk

MSCA PhD: Response Diversity in the pre- and post-management ecological restoration of co-invading alien plant species in post-industrial landscapes

Recruiting a PhD candidate as part of the international ReDiLeep Doctoral Network, investigating co-invasion of non-native plant species

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

still decide which stories to amplify. We can curate a little bit, and find voices/groups in ways we probably couldn't before (which will be good for some and dangerous for others), but the same money/power that invented 'facts' previously is still basically doing so today 😞

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I think we all shared a similar set of curated stories, decided by a smaller number of creators. They weren't necessarily facts, just the stories that newspaper and TV station owners wanted us to hear. We now have the chance to add our own voices through a few more channels, whose owners...

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Rowan Kuminski @rowankuminski.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

⚠️Please share!⚠️ We are recruiting participants to complete a written interview for a PhD chapter on linguistic experiences of ecologists from Catalonia. Participants do not need to currently reside in Catalonia and can participate in Catalan, Spanish, and/or English. Thank you! 🪶🕷️🌲🐡🍄 #ecology

A white background with the words "Are you a Catalan ecologist?" at the top in black and red, adn underneath the text "If you are a professional ecologist from Catalonia and would be willing to do a written interview about your linguistic experiences, please contact Rowan Kuminski at r01tk22@abdn.ac.uk", and underneath in yellow it says "Gràcies!". In the background are transparent digital images of a shearwater and an oak leaf.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Adding more slop to the pile of stuff we don't have time to read might not be a valuable solution.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"Send me a Teams invite that I will respond to Tentatively" 🎶

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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 19/09/2026

this tweet is NINE years old and is still the best trans rights policy advice out there

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Funding councils are explicitly asking Grant applicants to include AI in their proposals. Universities are paying for Copilot and other LLM subscriptions and firing researchers 🤷

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It's easy to argue that humanity is worse off with the extra garbage (gen)AI is producing.   There! Fixed it for you, you credulous lickspittles.

Screenshot of a bluesky post by those cockwombles at the Economist, claiming that "It is hard to argue that humanity is worse off with the extra knowledge AI is producing".

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Coming up with solutions (or interesting new challenges) is not a limitation for humans. Providing the conditions (money) to come up with them is a limitation. Instead of funding humans, genAI is sucking that money away somewhere else. It's important to ask where.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Part of our excellent MSCA-funded @redileep.bsky.social global Doctoral Training Network. This and more PhD projects here: redileep.eu/vacancies.html All rebleets appreciated! @invasivesnet.bsky.social @bes-invasiongroup.bsky.social @neobiota.bsky.social @neobiota.pensoft.net 🧪🌍

redileep.eu

Vacancies – ReDiLEEP

Doctoral candidate vacancies for ReDiLEEP.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

swansea.ac.uk

MSCA PhD: Response Diversity in the pre- and post-management ecological restoration of co-invading alien plant species in post-industrial landscapes

Recruiting a PhD candidate as part of the international ReDiLeep Doctoral Network, investigating co-invasion of non-native plant species

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Not sure if you're based in Wales. If so, UCU Cymru have been very resistant to getting involved legally in redundancy cases. Might be better to call some of those no-win, no-fee ambulance chasers. I can recommend some who are helping me with a non-employment case.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

IANAL, and of course, there's nuance, but it sounds like HR refusing any opportunity to negotiate a change in contract is not ACAS approved (though ? legally dodgy). They also seem to be conflating change of contract terms and redundancy, which is even more mind blowing. Maybe I've missed something

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hope this is of some use, if you're not already aware: "If you [the employer] impose a change to a contract before getting agreement [from the employee] you will be 'in breach of contract'. This is when you break an agreed contract." www.acas.org.uk/changing-an-...

acas.org.uk

If changes cannot be agreed - Changing your employees' contracts - Acas

Advice for employers if employment contract changes cannot be agreed, including how Acas can help, and advice if considering dismissing and rehiring ('fire and rehire').

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Fucking wild that Portsmouth is the UK's largest (militaristic, surface) naval town and they can't support the RNLI. The Royal Navy can't stop the far right attacking the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Just wait until the Royal King finds out about this. He'll piss his bloody royal knickers.

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.

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Forrest Fleischman @forrestf.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What are your favorite recent examples of randomized control trials done in the environmental policy arena (or adjacent to environmental policy)? Realizing the examples I'm using in my course are all now 7-10 years old, and I bet there's some really cool new examples...

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Really, this is a story about shit processes designed by thoughtless people who don't think through the consequences of their decisions/actions. It's the 2nd e.g. in two days, after a Senate voting process with 6 positions, where (when >6 candidates) voting form REQUIRES one to select 6 candidates.

static.klipy.com

Fuck This Fuck That

Alt: Gif of a cat knocking items off a shelf with some accompanying agricultural language.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A newfound joy of working in a bilingual institution: a recruitment process has a form with an upper character limit for the job title. One can meet (or <) this limit with the English language title. Legal requirement for the title to be translated to Welsh. No guarantee this is also < limit 😭

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Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 16/09/2026

Authors!🚨 While you scramble for scarce $ 🤔 “Springer Nature reports revenue growth of 6.2%..and adjusted operating profit growth of 7.7%. They reported even more stunning submission growth of 30% and published article growth of 13%.” Publishing in society journals helps YOU not them👇🏻. Pass it on.

static.klipy.com

Man Lying on a Pile of Money

ALT: Man Lying on a Pile of Money

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Good news! The wait is finally over!

A board displaying logographic script, translated into English below. The English text reads "Please wait patiently for the failure of the system."

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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

[[6]] [1] "Meh" "Three" [3] "Cool beans" "Haters gonna...

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Regular reminder that HR is there to protect your boss from legal worries. Not you or your colleagues.

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Maybe too late, as I think I saw you'd responded, but what are your core hours? If the email has appeared outside of those, they are likely breaking rules on notice period. Not helpful to you, absolute dogshit behaviour from them, but maybe others in a similar situation might benefit. Solidarity.

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Baldur Bjarnason @baldurbjarnason.com · 10/09/2026

“I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots” ploum.net/2026-09-09-ai_policy.html > My AI policy is "I don’t want any kind of interaction with that thing." And this should be all you need to know. This.

ploum.net

I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots

I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.

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Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

We're hiring Code Integrity and Accessibility editors at MEE! Ideal for people experienced in testing and validating code, and confidence working with at least one language - open to all career stages. Deadline 25th September ⏰️ Read the role description and apply👇 buff.ly/UaSg5au

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There to pick up their pay-cheques?

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It turns out That email you sent me over the summer Was not that important to me After all. #AutoReplyLie

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Mike Fowler @theorecol.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Maybe someone needs to read up on the old "Prevention is better than cure" part of the plan.

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