iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I don't like this game anymore. What am I supposed to do with this? Pauper Commander?

Magic the Gathering card Sivitri Acarzam 5UB Legendary Creature - Human 6/4 vanilla creature

Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

The lack of scientific literacy will destroy us all. I wonder if the people who designed the sign that says "H₂O₄U" even know what they have written.

A windowed storefront for Simply Pure Water, with an external dispenser labelled "H₂O₄U 24 hour", presumably meant to be read "H₂O for you" but written as if it's a molecule that contains hydrogen, oxygen, and uranium.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Happy birthday, Shivam. Gotta go with Ellie and Alan!

Magic the Gathering card, Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists. 2GWU Legendary Creature - Human Scientist
T, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Discover X, where X is the mana value of the exiled card. Activate only as a sorcery.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

@dwarvenforge.bsky.social It appears YouTube has a recap summary of the year now. I apparently watched your videos a lot this year. I don't suppose that is worth a bean from Perilous Frontiers?

Screenshot of YouTube recap. A black screen with the gold and black icon representing RPG miniature terrain company Dwarven Forge. "Top 0.1% of viewers. You watched 210 of their videos this year -- that's dedication."

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

What's the cover that got you started in RPGs? I was completely enamored with my older cousin's AD&D books, and I wouldn't stop asking until he DMed my first campaign.

Original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook by Gary Gygax cover featuring the classic artwork of a large fire-lit horned statue being robbed of one of its large red ruby-like eyes while an adventuring party in the foreground plans their next move.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Just saw T. rex 3D in IMAX @royalbcmuseum.bsky.social Congrats to Tyler Lyson, @arctomet.bsky.social, @markwitton.bsky.social, and everyone else involved. Really great documentary!

An orange sunlit and shadowed T. rex looms over the title "T. rex 3D - narrated by Sam Neill" Art by Mark Witton.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Every time I run into a product crammed with an LLM use case that no one wants, I remember Arthur C. Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night" where humans almost become extinct because we forget how to ask computers "the right questions." Maybe we should all take a trip to our local library right now.

A book cover reading, "Golden Age Masterworks" in gold text and, "Arthur C. Clarke Against the Fall of Night" in white text. The image shows a futuristic city skyline with blurring red and orange lights streaking across the foreground and plumes of sparks in the background floating into a deep blue cloudy sky.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

In 2019, another team from the RBCM, including Dr. Victoria Arbour and Dr. Thomas Cullen, retraced where the other team had gone, and did find bone again. However, an August snowstorm cut the trip short.

Dr. Victoria Arbour, looking happy and cold, pointing to a fossil she just found.

Dr. Thomas Cullen, in a red jacket with camera in his lap, reclines on the grey rocks of Spatsizi Plateau.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

But in 2013, while sampling modern plants and insects, a group of researchers from the Royal BC Museum happened upon dinosaur teeth and bones in the Park. They only found a handful of specimens, but the stage had been set.

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Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦 @dlarson.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

There haven't been many dinosaur bones found in BC, despite abundant rock exposure that spans the Mesozoic. Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park is quite remote and mostly alpine. Not many people have been there.