iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 5h

Basilica of the Dominican Order of St. Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr, Lublin | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #photographyersofbluesky #church #interior #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #Lumenira #NoAI New portfolio: lumenira.com/user/wvmierlo

Interior of the church: the sunlit tiled floor contrasts with the heavy shadows around it.

050

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

University of Nottingham UCU branch @uonucu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Our strike action began today. The management at our university has seemingly shackled itself to course closures and compulsory redundancies, despite neither being financially necessary. So we fight for our members, our students, and our community until they change their minds.

12218

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

A. Feder Cooper @afedercooper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Our large-scale study of memorization of books in open-weight LLMs (e.g., Llama, Qwen) will appear at the 2026 Conference on Language Modeling as an oral. We made a website for exploring our results on 200 books and 14 models: books-memorization.github.io

books-memorization.github.io

How much do open-weight LLMs memorize specific books?

Open-weight LLMs memorize books far more than previously believed. Memorization varies by model family, model size, and book. In extreme cases, entire books are memorized, and we can generate them eff...

26032

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Basilica of the Dominican Order of St. Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr, Lublin | May 2026 #photographersofbluesky #photography #travelphotography #church #interior #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Interior of a church: two religious statues are basking in strong light, while the rest is in shadows. Interestingly, the church is decorated with real trees and foliage.

020

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Good Law Project @goodlawproject.org · 27/09/2026

Over 85,000 people have asked their local NHS Trust to say no to Palantir. Time is running out, so every email counts. Will you email your local trust and ask them to stand against Palantir? notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/ema…

notopalantir.goodlawproject.org

Say no to Palantir in the NHS

NHS England is rolling out software to run our health records from Palantir - fight back

110771

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Mick Houghton @mickh5.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

There's something photogenic about an old window that I don't often resist. Over the years I will have taken many images of a wide variety of windows and today was no exeption. This is the Ship Inn at Sandside; it's been closed for a good while now and is very unlikely to reopen as a pub.

5736

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Mick Houghton @mickh5.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another from our Morecambe prom wander at weekend!

25310

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Street corner, Lublin | May 2026 #photography #photographersofbluesky #travelphotography #street #shadows #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

In the old town, a street corner captured with strong shadows.

0110

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 26/09/2026

Genuinely, half of me thinks the main area of AI experimentation going on right now is in how fully the concept of an "ai agent" can legally indemnify its operators

527063

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Street corner, Lublin | May 2026 #photography #photographersofbluesky #travelphotography #street #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

In the old city, an empty street with a bench, captured with strong shadows.

070

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Week 1 of Austen’s Afterlives today - the module that’s being simultaneously abolished and used as a TEF excellence case study. This is just some of the tat and fan culture we’ll look at alongside her works, adaptations, sequels and retellings. They like The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen but…

A collection of Austen ephemera: a Darcy bobblehead; Austen’s History of England, Pride and Prejudish sponge, a crochet Jane Austen, the Austen board game and card game, Austen soap and an Austen seed tray.

4509

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Five Leaves Bookshop @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Why we don't stock certain books... An example is this book. The retail price is £22.00 but you can buy a copy in Tesco for £11. We can't blame you for doing that. The price to us from the publisher would be £12.10 as they discriminate against small shops on discount.

1187

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Marking the 350th anniversary of the oldest English book auction catalogue, this year’s book trade history conference returns to the theme of auctions. 🧑‍⚖️ 📚 London 22-23 November, book now at www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

sas.ac.uk

47th Annual Conference on Book Trade History | Battling Over Books: Auction Catalogues and Their Contexts, 1676-2026

11712

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful.

Review process

As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking.

This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it.

Feedback on your application

Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.

40430236

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

UKRI is using AI for grant reviewing. Alternatively, they could have modernised the grant review process by paying human reviewers for their labour, ensuring a wider pool and speedy turnaround. Using AI here is likely a race to the bottom: uniqueness is at risk of being ironed out. What a world.

22010

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Good Law Project @goodlawproject.org · 24/09/2026

Make sure you get down to your local protest next week and join the international day of action to say NO to Palantir ❌ Not able to make it? Take action with our digital tool instead 👇 goodlaw.social/74abab

05733

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Lublin Cathedral | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #cathedral #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Interior of Lublin Cathedral, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. A side alter with religious paining in the centre is brightly lit, with the rest of the image, faintly showing pillars and other religious objects, in dark shadows.

020

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Lublin Cathedral | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #cathedral #photomonday #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Interior of a baroque cathedral looking towards the high altar.

071

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Art Herstory @artherstory.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Coming up Oct 2, in person & online – In Her Words: Women Artists and Life Writing before 1920 Women and the Arts Forum Conference 2026 A collaboration of the National Gallery, London; the Women’s Art Collection; & the Univ of St. Andrews Full schedule: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/confe...

A painted extract from Dorothy Wordsworth's diary with cursive text in black) which describes the foxgloves in a painting (not visible here) and expresses the joy that her natural surroundings bring her.

0135

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Lublin Cathedral | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #cathedral #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

080

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This a wonderful new zine. Take a look. Well worth your while 👇📷 #photography #zine #aofoto

040

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Whitney Trettien @whitneytrettien.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

In an essay from 1950, Norbert Weiner describes a guy who buys a player piano. It's clear he doesn't care about music, he's only interested in the mechanics of the thing. For Weiner, this is the difference between KNOW-HOW (technical skill) and KNOW-WHAT (how to use tech for human flourishing).

Quote from Norbert Weiner reading: "Some years ago, a prominent American engineer bought an expensive player-piano. It became clear after a week or two that this purchase did not correspond to any
particular interest in the music played by the piano but rather to an overwhelming interest in the piano mechanism. For this gentleman, the player-piano was not a means of producing music, but a means of giving
some inventor the chance of showing how skillful he was at overcoming certain difficulties in the production of music. This is an estimable attitude in a second-year high-school student. How estimable it is in one of those on whom the whole cultural future of the country depends, I leave to the reader."

23811

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This sounds all-too familiar 👇

012

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Lublin | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

An art installation with large flying bird hung high above the street between buildings.

091

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon | Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight" www.theguardian.com/technology/2... #AIHype #JamesJoyce

theguardian.com

AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon

Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight

213

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🔴 The £72million pound question - how worried are you about big money in British politics? Democracy for Sale is running a survey to find out what the public thinks about money in politics - and what we should do about it Please take it!! And share widely!! thx! 😀 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

How concerned are you about UK political funding? – A Democracy for Sale survey

We're Democracy for Sale, a newsletter covering dark money and influence in UK politics. We're trying to better understand our readers' and the wider public's opinions and concerns about political fun...

17432302

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“Research papers like this continue to show that there’s a certain absence of valuable, intuitive creativity in today’s AI systems” #NoAI #AIHype

012

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Lee Coursey @lee-coursey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#music #musicsky #coversongs Today I discovered a Wikipedia page listing all the known track-for-track cover albums, in which a band re-created a famous album in its entirety (e.g., Booker T and the MGs version of Abbey Road.) It's a fun list! 🎶😎 ➡️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

en.wikipedia.org

List of track-for-track cover albums - Wikipedia

012

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Mike Hindle @mikehindle.uk · 12/09/2026

Popped over to Belvoir Castle this morning. For about an hour and a half, as I wandered around, I didn't see a single other visitor 😳 Even the folks who live there had all gone out for the day, so one of the staff told me. Creepy yet peaceful 🤣 #blackandwhite #monochrome #photography

A set of four black and white photos showing the interior design, architecture and contents of Belvoir Castle.

2214

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

St Mary's, Edwinstowe (Nottinghamshire) | May 2026 #photography #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Edwinstowe #Nottinghamshire #eastmidlands #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

0131

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

We are thrilled to be ranked 9th in the Guardian’s university subject rankings for 2027! 🎉🥳🎊

041

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

Owen Jones @owenjones.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Our world was driven into catastrophe by the greed and violence of our elites. Then they blamed migrants, refugees and Muslims for the wreckage. I finally got my first printed copy of my new book The Fall of the West: How They Really Lost It. Get yours here: www.penguin.co.uk/books/468587...

823648

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

St Mary's, Edwinstowe (Nottinghamshire) | May 2026 #photography #photomonday #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Edwinstowe #Nottinghamshire #eastmidlands #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Black and white photo of three candles in front of a window inside a church.

081

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"The Gathering of the North", Edwinstowe (Nottinghamshire) | May 2026 #photography #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Edwinstowe #Nottinghamshire #eastmidlands #RobinHood #Nikon #NoAI #silentsunday Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Two women dressed in medieval garb sitting in front of a pitched tent. The image is black and white with strong contrast between light and shadow. It was taken during a Robin Hood themed reenactor event in early summer.

0101

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"Gathering of the North" event, Edwinstowe (Nottinghamshire) | May 2026 #photography #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Edwinstowe #Nottinghamshire #eastmidlands #RobinHood #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

A pitched tent among the trees at a Robin-Hood themed reenactor event in Nottinghamshire. This is a black and white photo; the tent captures the sunlight while the trees are in the shadows.

091

Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Edwinstowe (Nottinghamshire) | May 2026 #photography #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #Edwinstowe #Nottinghamshire #eastmidlands #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...

Black and white image of an old English house in the sunshine.

0152

Reposted by Wim Van Mierlo

UCD Press @ucdpress.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

UCD Press are pleased to invite you to the Dublin launch of Mary & Padraic Colum by Margaret Kelleher ⏰ 6.30 pm, 🗓️ Thurs., 17 Sept 2026 Museum of Literature Ireland Guest Speaker Éilís Ní Dhuibhne Laureate for Irish Fiction ALL WELCOME 🎟️ Free via Eventbrite 🔗 www.eventbrite.com/e/mary-padra...