iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The administration has plenty of different—and sometimes competing—factions with different goals and different approaches which need to be disentangled to make sense of what's happening and why.

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Ok these are lowkey absolutely hilarious/disturbing.

The America.gov landing page. A child stands in an airport window looking at people boarding an airplane. The example prompt offered by the website reads "Try 'how do I get a passport for my child'." The implicature is that the child was unable to board the plane with the others due to lack of travel documentation.

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In a victory for science advocates, a federal court blocks the Trump administration's push to dismantle NCAR

This, basically. It also tracks with things like the attempted cuts to NCAR, which a judge found was (at least partially) attributed to political retribution against Colorado for the Tina Peters case.

cpr.org

The decision will delay attempts to break up a center often called the “mothership” of climate science.

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

It is true that this has major implications for research, but my point—and IMO people miss this bigger picture because they're focused on the research—is that for OMB the issue is about the money and who the money is going to. (e.g. other major funding disruptions to Dem-led states)

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Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

OMB has not repeatedly proposed a 55%+ cut to NSF because of 'woke' research—even if you eliminated all of the grants flagged in the Cruz report, you wouldn't scratch 10% of the budget. It is because NSF heavily funds universities.

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

I think all of us must seriously confront the prospect that our good-faith critiques can and will be co-opted. This does NOT mean silence is the only option, but careful consideration and open discussion of who we welcome as allies, funders, and champions feels like a bare minimum.

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OMB's focus on NIH and NSF, which has confused a lot of folks, pretty much boils down to stopping money going to universities.

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Is metascience being co-opted?

Fairly late on posting this, but this is pretty important reporting for those tracking science policy/reform. To be clear, I think most in the metascience community are well-meaning and intend to do good work. But the community's findings--which have not endured the same rigorous scrutiny...

sciencebusiness.net

In July, the White House released a report that argued academia is deeply dysfunctional and in need of radical reform.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Your periodic (ha) reminder that the United States is required, by law, to promote the use of the metric system for trade and commerce.

nist.gov

Metrication in Law

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

when your country's new accord on “super intelligence” misspells the country's name

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is genuinely incredible

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Kris Willis @kawillis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The drive to help patients is the fundamental source of the culture of urgency that permeates so much of biomedical research. Delays cost literal lives. 🧪 #SupportBreakthroughs #SupportScience

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

For what it’s worth I am totally in favor of a rebrand to Trump Intelligence.

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NIH funding cuts delayed a promising childhood brain cancer trial. Patients lost time they didn't have

Not enough people take seriously "funding delays"/"bureaucratic nonsense can kill people" but here it is right here. If I was mad when a patient died because it took a few extra months for lawyers to try to look for a legal basis for an international data transfer, I'm incandescent, now.

cnbc.com

A delayed clinical trial underscores the stakes of federal research funding cuts for children with DIPG, a deadly brain tumor with few treatment options.

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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We’re gonna build an insurance market to protect Nvidia from its losses=incredible logic

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

“We’re losing billions and we’re making a product that’s an existential threat to humanity” is a hell of sales pitch www.ft.com/content/c768...

ft.com

Anthropic warns of ‘existential risks to humanity’ in IPO prospectus

Long-awaited S1 filing reports Claude maker lost $8bn last year on $4.6bn in revenue

20320106

The speed of the politics shifting on this is really quite something

OpenAI Says It Will Not Release Newest Astra A.I. Model Over Safety Concerns

All these things here can be true at the same time: A) This is literally the bare minimum B) Probably a marketing thing again (though the number of recent incidents suggest the cyber risk is legit) C) Any movement like this is still welcome

nytimes.com

The company’s researchers raised questions about the security of the model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra.

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Is AI writing UN speeches?

Hey this headline is like oh hey people are using AI to write speeches when in fact in diplomacy there is simply a lot of reusing common themes and ideas, especially when you consider ease of interpretation and translation into the various official UN languages Is AI being used? Of course. 🧶

politico.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/09/2026

this is the fridge of a person who doesn’t prepare a single meal

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Holding off on any Starship conclusions just yet, but safe to say the changes in mission parameters meant that "something" happened. Unclear what impact this will have on future launches or Artemis. Way too early to speculate.

Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Yeah this was basically what NPR did when they interviewed me over the OMB rule. It’s fine. I’m used to it. Usually try to make sure I have a few pre-planned hook ideas that I’d like interviewers to lock onto.

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The idea that people want AI oversight to happen "all of a sudden" ignores years of research, warnings, and policy efforts. The delay hasn’t been a lack of awareness; it’s been because of years of industry lobbying against regulation, political resistance, and inaction.

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"OpenAI, Anthropic and security researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents in which their frontier models took steps that outside evaluators would consider problematic, sources told Axios."

axios.com

Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents

The massive scale of security incidents points to control problems for AI companies.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I think something to consider here is that Collins voted to confirm Russ Vought as OMB Director despite the fact that he said a billion times that he thought Trump had a constitutional right to illegally impound funds, and now she’s doing shocked Pikachu reactions.

Sen. Susan Collins • fAl
劉
@SenatorCollins
X.com
Without warning or consultation, Congress just received an $810 million package of pocket rescissions from the Administration. This is the most recent attempt by this Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to undermine Congress's Constitutional power of the purse.
This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law.

Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress's appropriations powers.
OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.
The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act. Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.
I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions.

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Have to say the role reversal on pollution between Beijing and Washington is really something else. Chinese folks are buying electric cars with refrigerators and couch seats for less than $20,000 while we are getting minimally equipped gas guzzlers and paying 4-6 dollars a gallon.

nytimes.com

Trump Administration Plans to Gut Clean Car Rules

New fuel-economy standards, which President Trump said he finalized Saturday, would kill a federal effort to speed the transition to electric vehicles.

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::eyes our nuclear arsenal:: Errr, no. The only way AI is powerful enough to cause a billion deaths is by leveraging tools that already exist which can cause a billion deaths. Those triggers have been around for decades. It can make certain tools worse (see: dirty power sources, etc).

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On the flip side, it is an excellent opportunity to measure the strength, character, and ability to withstand smoke inhalation of your fellow coworkers.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Reposted by Cole Donovan

Most people have no idea how much international students are the lifeblood of higher education. But they’re about to learn. Sigh.

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President Trump Takes Historic Action to Eliminate Wasteful and Harmful Spending

In addition to “all this”, the White House has announced pocket rescissions tonight on a variety of domestic programs including health-related research and education programs. Collins has already put out a statement calling them unlawful, but with the House gone, unlikely that there will be action.

whitehouse.gov

President Trump is committed to utilizing all possible tools to cut wasteful and harmful government spending that does not benefit American citizens. Last

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Oh good another incoming war and supercharged humanitarian crisis

THE COMPLEX
GETTING READY: The U.S. military is getting organized for potential action against Cuba, CBS
News' James LaPorta reports today.
The U.S. Army Reserve is looking into whether it can give Southern Command support via police forces and medical personnel in the next four months, according to an internal Army message,
CBS reports.
While the message itself doesn't refer to Cuba, multiple U.S. officials told CBS the request is for military planning aimed at the island, against which the Trump administration has launched an intense economic pressure campaign in an effort to prompt government reforms. In his U.N. speech earlier this week, Trump said Washington was seeking a "fundamental change" in Havana.
The document didn't indicate that any units had gotten deployment orders, nor did it say how many troops would be needed or where within SOUTHCOM's domain they would be sent. But it did ask about the availability of units that would
"possibly [be] needed in 90-120 days," asking for a response to Army Reserve headquarters by today.

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Dealing with my son’s panic attacks about random things (not having his tiles in the car) and it’s triggering full experience flashbacks (sounds, smells, anxiety, feelings) of similar episodes I went through in middle school. Little wonder where he gets it.

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If only someone warned about this last year in @techpolicypress.bsky.social “When collateral damage from our bad investments starts to look like upside…, it’s worth investigating what’s actually going on and figuring out who’s getting screwed in the process.”

theverge.com

Jensen Huang talks about AI and climate change like a supervillain

It’s giving Thanos energy.

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Reposted by Cole Donovan

Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 24/09/2026

lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - New York sued Polymarket on Thursday, accusing the prediction markets operator of running an illegal gambling operation. @reuters.com

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Figuring I might as well talk about this because what the hell. GLPs do wonders for appetite/sometimes aren’t enough to motivate change in weight or body type. As they slow your body’s digestion down, if you don’t carefully manage things like fiber intake, the body will just go “k time to stop.”

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Periodic reminder that if your dog bites someone, you are held liable. If your AI goes rogue and maybe suggests starting a nuclear war, that’s a really effective marketing campaign.

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Pentagon investigates after China obtains parts from F-35 stealth fighter jet

Not going to get off this. Every conversation on research security with non-academics usually involved someone saying “well the Chinese jet looks a lot like the F-35” A) I don’t know that many universities building classified fighters B) Maybe don’t send them them F-35 parts?!?

apnews.com

The Pentagon is investigating how parts of the nation’s most advanced fighter jet ended up in Hong Kong.

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In -partial- agreement with this. My preference would be for there to be a civil authority with their own sensors that makes all the data public and available, especially allowing researchers to have access to necessary info to resolve gaps and improve systems. Expensive, but worthwhile.