iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

One of the AI Tech Bros we've apparently put in charge of everything is under the impression we were capable of besting the 1790's vintage *Royal Navy* at sea. The same one that inspired our national anthem a few decades by...*checks notes*...shelling Baltimore.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If I recall correctly this wasn't actually too, and comes from people conflating two very different economic metrics.

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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Brave Little Toaster. IYKYK.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In retrospect, a somewhat obvious thought. If generative AI makes us all say...10 times as productive, and it's so straightforward that we all should be using it... Doesn't that leave us in exactly the same place we were, just with a higher peer review burden?

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I had/have a digital humanities type project I want to work on. I looked into funding for it, and pretty much decided that going after another R01 and using the accruals I got from that to self-fund it was more efficient than trying to fund it directly.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Other Snows John canonically didn't really know all that much.

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 30/09/2026

Democrats defend "science," but what they really should be defending is "wissenschaft." No major social problems - from global warming to AI - can be solved without non-commercial research across multiple fields, including the social sciences and humanities. Really wish the party understood this.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Reddit is full of a bunch of nursing students with an assignment due tomorrow *freaking out*.

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Tadashi Fukami @fukamit.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Systems Ecology, a new journal launched today, "run by researchers, for researchers, and is free to read and free to publish, with no article processing charges" systems-ecology.org/index.php/se...

systems-ecology.org

Systems Ecology

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So ah...Elsevier's been hacked. This is what you get visiting their site - which I did trying to buy a textbook >.< Credit for the image is Reddit.

A somewhat incoherent ransomware notice.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I am disturbed, as both a lapsed Catholic and an avid Warhammer player, how often current events have caused me to unironically make the statement "I'm pretty sure that's heretical."

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Virology graduate students, trying to get viruses to infect the cells they literally evolved to infect: "Why are you like this!?" AI Tech Bros: "This is probably super easy."

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I'm on the editorial board of a journal right now, and even outside LLMs, the question of what sort of "warranty" comes with code in a paper is a fascinating one. Even some very straightforward code of mine depends on a Python package that is *an experience* to install at this point.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Early Bluesky and it's absolute loathing for its creators was a sight to behold. Rarely have I seen a platform hold itself in such absolute contempt so swiftly.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"We're just going to blow something up" is several orders of magnitude cheaper and easier. The sheer resources required for an effective bioweapons program, even if AI or other tools make the theoretical creation of a pathogen easier, are still staggering. And occur *after*.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The truth is that we don't need to synthesize deadly pathogens - nature does that for us rather ably. The big hurdle for bioterrorism is not Is There Pathogen? It's mass producing it, transporting it, disseminating it, and not dying from it yourself. All those things are *hard*.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My theory for why is very much like why the lab leak hypothesis was so popular with certain groups. It moves the problem back into their wheelhouse. Bioterrorism can be stopped by laws and stopping Nefarious Others from doing things that belong in a Tom Clancey book. Maybe commandos with NVGs.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I used to do more biodefense work than I do now. The whole AI-driven pathogen development fear is *not new*. There were worries about the development of synthetic viruses, etc. for bioterror back when I was in undergrad, that hit all the same notes.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Working on a problem with using AI example for a class. Claude: "Good catch — Scandinavia never made it into the coastline data at all." Good news Sweden, Norway and Finland, the Promised Anthropic Apocalypse will not be coming for you. (Denmark and Iceland, sorry, it knows about you)

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

No context quotes from my household: "So I was sitting there wondering why my life is being consumed by mediocrity, and then I remembered I was in Qdoba."

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Ed @notdred.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Also this oral history of the making of cutscenes is a fantastic read. Complete with unexpected appearance by @astrokatie.com and a side discussion of whether there’s capitalism in space?? Everything an oral history should be down to the fantastic kicker.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

But they were all of them decieved. Another Dan Sullivan was forged in secret...

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Darcy James Argue @darcyjamesargue.com · 27/08/2026

I wrote “Codebreaker” as a commission from the West Point Jazz Knights. I thought long and hard about whether I would accept a commission from the U.S. Military Academy, and if so, what that piece would be. I settled on a musical tribute to Alan Turing. He was, and remains, my favorite antifascist.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Heck, getting students to come to campus when we need them to is currently something of a struggle.

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The Ferrari Lab @theferrarilab.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The distinction is important and has been a know issue for years. “Measles” is rarely the cause recorded on an autopsy record or in household surveys; pneumonia or diarrhea (dehydration) at the more likely proximate causes due to secondary infection.

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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.

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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Dolly Parton reads to children in the Library’s Great Hall in 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

From a science communication perspective, I always thought this was a great weakness of Pandemic the board game

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This whole thread, but especially this part. "We're going to steal the intellectual property of your faculty, then demand those faculty find use cases for our lying theft machine."

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Daniel Westreich @epidbydesign.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Reminder as fall semester is starting that teaching materials (including lectures + exercises etc.) for my textbook EPIDEMIOLOGY BY DESIGN are available FOR FREE at epidemiologybydesign.com as well as by request to me (including additional, non-public materials if you're a teacher!)

epidemiologybydesign.com

Epidemiology By Design

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Jess Edwards @edwardsjk.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I'm recruiting a postdoc to join a small and collaborative team at UNC focused on causal inference and measurement error in HIV research. Come work with us! unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/324... #episky

unc.peopleadmin.com

Postdoctoral Research Associate

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Epidemiology is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate to contribute to projects related to quantitative epidemiologic methods and H...

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

In honor of the start of the year, reposting my assertion that this scene is the most accurate representation of pre-tenure faculty life that has ever been filmed.

static.klipy.com

The Good Place Chidi Anagonye

ALT: The Good Place Chidi Anagonye

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Rose on Mars @rose.fantasyheartbreaker.com · 27/07/2026

Insanity is writing the same regex twice and expecting the same results.

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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Alina Chan worked hard to remain ignorant of her fellow lab leakers. She knew she couldn’t defend their disinformation so she pretended it didn’t exist and refused to learn about it even though I handed it to her on a silver platter. Toxic apathy.

Alina Chan & @Ayjchan • 1/3/25
Which GDB signatory/signatories spread anti-vaccine disinformation? I would appreciate knowing this as well. Thank you.
1
17
个.

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Robert Talisse @roberttalisse.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Preparing my pep talk for the incoming grad students. (The joke is that the explanations will fail.)

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Emjayess @em-jay-ess.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I knew I saved this for a reason!

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Washington State Department of Health @doh.wa.gov · 13/08/2026

Spokane residents impacted by the wildfires can replace lost or destroyed birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates at no cost. Under the governor’s Emergency Proclamation, we can waive fees for replacement certificates for those affected by the fires.

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Kris 🎃 HORRORchild @direkris.itch.io · 13/08/2026

It's so cute when people on the east coast talk about mountains

A topographical map of the US showing that there are far more, and steeper, mountain ranges in the west half of the country.

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Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Applications for the 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships are open! Katrin Schmelz just completed SFI’s Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowship, and she reflects on what the experience meant to her. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Requirements & application: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I mean, my late grandfather was never diagnosed as being on the spectrum. He also had an entire garage with model floatplanes (and *just* model floatplanes) hanging from it.

A garage with a truly impressive collection of model float planes.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Academic lies I tell myself: "This paper is like 400 words over the limit, but that'll be easy to cut." Reader, it is never easy.

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Eric Lofgren @germsandnumbers.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I am always skeptical of anyone pushing third party candidates who hasn't made ranked-choice voting their first priority.

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