iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 25/09/2026

Have you done your daily turddle?

Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 11/09/2026

Correction: racing to results was always pointless. If AI prevents academic fiefdoms, I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 02/09/2026

A government struggling with problems at home discovers the political value of having a foreign enemy, settles on Canada, turns trade grievances and border tensions into patriotic outrage, watches the media amplify every provocation, and then discovers that a fake crisis can become very real.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 19/08/2026

People out here making fun of teenage boys for their high taper fades not knowing how old-school cool it is. Here's a student with Robert Millikan circa 1930, building electroscopes to detect cosmic rays, who looks like he jumped out of a 2026 barbershop window ad.

Experimental physicist and Nobel Prize winner Robert Millikan and doctorate student Harvey Cameron. Image source: Robert Millikan and G. Harvey Cameron with early cosmic ray electroscopes, lead shielding, batteries, and voltmeter. AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives General Collection.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 29/07/2026

Just working through my census answers...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 28/05/2026

Uranus has entered the chat.

Cover of upcoming book, Uranus is Full of Gas by Chris Ferrie. Depicts an anthropomorphized version of the planet.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 31/01/2026

Apropos of nothing at all, please enjoy this game. Goal: collect tacos, books, and lattes while avoiding guns, red hats, and foxes. codepen.io/csferrie/ful...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 15/12/2025

Government™️: making things difficult only for those that already followed the rules. james.cridland.net/blog/2025/au...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 16/11/2025

Amazon is nearly giving away books. Go read words on paper!

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 04/11/2025

Lazy parenting hack. Chop up fresh veggies and just leave them out. The kids eat three times as many servings as they avoid during meal time.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 13/09/2025

🚀 New book: The Curiosity Chronicles — a pick-your-quest science adventure! See the plot map + extras: thecuriositychronicles.com Build your own with my free Adventure Builder: csferrie.com/adventure-bu... #STEM #KidLit

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 12/09/2025

Replacement rubber foot for a Microsoft Surface Laptop and the packaging it came it...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 08/09/2025

Internet. You know what to do.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 17/08/2025

I came for the "thank you" chocolates but stayed for the teacher's saying: "I had a chance to meet with a few of the students today and they were still buzzing. "

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 16/08/2025

I'm no AI evangelist, but strawmanning it doesn't add to the conversation.

Screenshot of user asking for an app to highlight US states by containing letter. The AI obliged.

Screenshot of said app. The letter r and all states containing it are highlighted.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 31/07/2025

People are asking where the idea for Quokka came from...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 27/07/2025

I'm in Melbourne for Science Week! Join me The Sun Bookshop some science-themed reading and activities. www.eventbrite.com.au/e/storytime-...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 24/07/2025

TIL the German translation of Cosmic Bullshit is more Cosmic Bullshit.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 10/07/2025

POV: running your first quantum program at www.quokkacomputing.com/qasm

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 08/07/2025

Hey Perth, don't let the weather get you down. Come out tomorrow evening and laugh along at some quantum shenanigans. 🗓️ When: Wed 9 Jul, 6 – 7:15 pm AWST 📍 Where: Ross Lecture Theatre, Physics Bldg, UWA events.humanitix.com/wa-aip-prese...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 26/06/2025

What do you mean by "physical qubits"? Atoms? An air fryer is made of atoms. To remain stable, it "uses" superposition and entanglement and even encodes qubits. The problem is not even that we couldn't control those atoms. The problem with this line of reasoning is that it doesn't run QASM files.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 26/06/2025

PERTH! Let's have some fun with Quantum Bullsh*t! All ages welcome (the b-word only appears on screen 😉). Boffins Bookstore will be onsite if you want a signed copy! 🗓️ When: Wed 9 Jul, 6 – 7:15 pm AWST 📍 Where: Ross Lecture Theatre, Physics Bldg, UWA events.humanitix.com/wa-aip-prese...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 25/06/2025

It's an emulator. An educational toy. And, before you say "It's not a quantum computer," you must define the term "quantum computer."

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 25/06/2025

I drop this in front of students and say, "This is a quantum computer, and today we are going to program it." The students are instantly engaged. The self-appointed knights of the physics establishment object because their QC is always five years away, and how dare I diminish their decades of work.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 25/06/2025

Why add "with at most polynomial resource scaling"? Do you honestly think that definition is going to end up in the Oxford dictionary? No. Because, again, this is only relevant for an R&D plan; not a single device. I've never claimed to scale Quokka beyond 30 qubits. It's an educational toy.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 24/06/2025

I would like to apologise for any harm I caused in victimising these anonymous troll accounts. /s Their defeat was surprising easy. Ego deflated with five words.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 21/06/2025

100% of the individual devices that have been labelled a QC fail DV. Seems to be failing as a "standard." (That's because it's not.) DV is a wishlist for a research program never meant to be a label. blog.qutech.nl/2018/02/22/l... I'll give you another shot. 😁

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 07/06/2025

Always nice when your work gets cited. 😅😅

Curvature in the likelihood is apparent from the fact that the number of ways that you could have seen what you actually have seen varies across the rows. The “always taker, always taker” row produces the actual observed data in two out of the two possible randomization outcomes. The value of the likelihood is 1. In the remaining three rows, the observed data only occurs under one of the two randomization outcomes, so the value of the likelihood for these rows is 0.5. Paraphrasing the board book “Statistical Physics for Babies” (Ferrie, 2017), which provides style inspiration for our illustrations, physicists refer to the number of ways that you could have seen what you have seen—that is, the numerator of our likelihood—as entropy. Differences in entropy yield curvature in the likelihood.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 06/06/2025

What's the most egregious scientific BS you've heard? Perth! Come say "Hi!" and join the conversation on all things cosmic. 🗓️ Tuesday, 8th July 🕒 Doors open at 5:45pm 📍 State Library of Western Australia 🎫 Booking essential 👇

Banner advert for the event featuring a ten-year-old glamour shot of Chris that he refuses to update.

It notes the date 8 July and location, State Library of WA. Ticket price is $15.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 05/06/2025

Come say "Hi!" in Perth! 🗓️ Tuesday, 8th July 🕒 Doors open at 5:45pm 📍 State Library of Western Australia 🎫 Tickets available from $15pp www.trybooking.com/events/landi...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 23/05/2025

Stay tuned—next week Science reveals how Mercury retrograde disrupts your oxidation aura and why essential oils are the only cure.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 23/05/2025

I don't know who is making these, but I approve. No meme is bad meme.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 22/05/2025

If a politician builds a dog memorial in the woods and no one sees their face beside it, did it even happen? Is this happening in your council as well? Anyway, here's the full rant: medium.com/@csferrie/po...

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 09/05/2025

I have two children. At least one is a boy. What are the odds that I have two boys? Say you meet one of my children, who happens to be a boy. Have the odds changed? medium.com/@csferrie/re...

A 3×3 grid of black-and-white dot plots showing simulated family data for the Boy-or-Girl paradox under four filtering scenarios. Each plot is a 7×2 grid (columns = days of the week; rows = child order, older on top). Each dot represents a child—black for boys, white for girls. Grey lines connect siblings.

Top row: Classic “at least one boy” scenario: all families → filter for ≥1 boy → filter for both boys.

Middle row: “Older child is a boy”: all families → filter for older = boy → both boys.

Bottom row: “Randomly selected child is a boy”: all families → filter for sampled boy → both boys.

Each row’s final panel highlights the number of families that satisfy all conditions (e.g. “keep 5”). Faded dots and lines indicate families excluded by previous filters.

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 04/04/2025

This arrived in Queensland from Ottawa 3 days after registering online. 🇨🇦 ❤️s democracy. 💚💚💚

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 30/03/2025

I wrote a book. And now I'm pairing it with beer! The perfect complement. Dark, bitter, boozy! This is last year's vintage from Felons. It's all dark chocolate and coffee vibes. (The book's about science and why astrology, aliens, time travel, and all those fringe ideas are bullsh...)

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Chris Ferrie @csferrie.com · 26/03/2025

I received a bunch of codes for the audiobook. I'll post one on each of my socials. Comment if you got it. JW5U0V79E3FX Redeem at www.audiobooks.com/promo

Audiobook cover of Cosmic Bullsh*t by Chris Ferrie.

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