iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Economist? The magazine which repeatedly editorialized *against public sanitation* 150-odd years ago? I'm shocked. Shocked...! 😱

Except from a January 2011 New York Times op-ed by Paul Krugman. Relevant section:
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As Joe points out, this argument says that we should adopt an equally laissez-faire attitude toward sewage.

But hey, there was a time when conservatives did, in fact, argue for doing nothing about effluent of any kind. In the years leading up to the Great Stink of 1858, which finally got the British to build a London sewer system, The Economist editorialized against any such foolish notion (pdf):

suffering and evil are nature’s admonitions—they cannot be got rid of.

Or, to put it (almost) in the modern vernacular, stuff happens.

And given the way we’re heading — with politicians arguing that the federal government has no right to ban child labor — don’t be surprised to see the anti-sewer movement making a comeback, and to see elected representatives, even if they know better, holding their noses and going along.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Ah, the glorious messiness of Canada. 🍁 The land of Brownian-motion-based winter time zones. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Upcoming winter time zones in Canada.
For now...

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

They’re switching between the old 2025 and fully redesigned 2026 models. Takes time to retool. It’s accurate that they cannot build cars fast enough. Everyone in the industry wants to have their problem.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

[Congratulations again @cleangridview.bsky.social, and I don't want to interfere with your retirement reading. 👍 I can recommend "The Brothers Karamazov", which even includes a 19th century description of manspreading. 😅 ]

Description of manspreading from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. It reads:
Finally the rural police officer climbed into the cart next to Mitya. He sat down heavily and spread out his legs, pushing against Mitya as he installed himself, without appearing to notice.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Complex systems live [or die] on diversity [or lack thereof]. Princeton Univ Press blurb on Scott Page's book below. You don't spend equal amounts on niches (ASL, Cree, LDV FCEVs) vs the dominant vector, but you keep options open. As with DAC. /5 press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

This book provides an introduction to the role of diversity in complex adaptive systems. A complex system—such as an economy or a tropical ecosystem—consists of interacting adaptive entities that produce dynamic patterns and structures. Diversity plays a different role in a complex system than it does in an equilibrium system, where it often merely produces variation around the mean for performance measures. In complex adaptive systems, diversity makes fundamental contributions to system performance.

Scott Page gives a concise primer on how diversity happens, how it is maintained, and how it affects complex systems. He explains how diversity underpins system level robustness, allowing for multiple responses to external shocks and internal adaptations; how it provides the seeds for large events by creating outliers that fuel tipping points; and how it drives novelty and innovation. Page looks at the different kinds of diversity—variations within and across types, and distinct community compositions and interaction structures—and covers the evolution of diversity within complex systems and the factors that determine the amount of maintained diversity within a system.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Efficiency is relevant for simple machines. And like beef (100 calories of feed --> 2 edible calories) H2 vehicles seem unnecessarily complex. But complex systems, like our energy systems, are different from simple machines. /4b

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

John Ralston Saul covers this in his magisterial book on the Indigenous Recovery -- "The Comeback." It's the Monolith and the Circle. Do we seek policies to make everyone the same -- or to make everyone included? The shames we bear as Canadians come from the former; every pride from the latter.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Lower hoods should be available in some Japanese carmakers’ [non-BEV] lineups soon. www.cnbc.com/2024/05/28/t...

"With these engines, each of the three companies will aim to optimize integration with motors, batteries, and other electric drive units," they said in a joint statement. Toyota owns about a fifth of Subaru and roughly 5% of Mazda.
The three said their efforts will help decarbonize internal combustion engines by making them compatible with alternative fuel sources such as e-fuels
and biofuels. They also hope more compact engines will revamp vehicle design by allowing for lower hoods.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Indigenous Peoples should not need a “permission slip” from settlers to build projects. Pembina puts it well. We respect their right to pursue our living standards — or we don’t. /1 www.pembina.org/media-releas...

"On Ksi Lisims LNG, while we respect the Nisga'a Nation's agency to advance resource projects on their territory, LNG is becoming an increasingly risky economic bet.
Yesterday's World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency reported a massive supply of LNG coming online, outpacing demand and reinforcing its prediction that 70% of LNG export projects under construction may not be able to recover their capital costs. The production of gas itself

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Glowing profiles of terrible people is a something of an NYT tradition... 😬

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Reminds me of Toyota’s aspiring hybrid tech free-licensing effort. Which didn’t have many takers as of 2024.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

4/ Canada's auto production has fallen a lot in ten years -- from 2.4 MM/y in 2014 down to 1.3 MM/y in 2024. It's been a rough decade. h/t autoleap.com/blog/how-is-...

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

2b/ I made this chart ... six years ago while at a non-profit administering an EV infrastructure program. (That's why the targets are now out of date.) There were always going to be speedbumps, you might as well plan for them. tinyurl.com/pluginbc-aug2019

A landscape view of mountains seemingly rising out of the water. A black line traces the terrain, roughly representing rising ZEV market share from 0% (at the water line) to 100% (the top of the highest peak)

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Underneath the Darth Vader mask of “world’s richest man” he is a pathetic, pathetic creature…

Old pale wormy pathetic Anakin Skywalker underneath the Darth Vader mask.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

FYI Ani is based on a character from the manga “Death Note” (2003-2006), even his fantasy girlfriend is someone else’s IP!

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Shareholder version of the “Crack Suicide Squad” deleted scene from Life of Brian…

A bunch of men in feudal Japanese armour lay dead on the ground, having committed suicide, in a deleted scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Gah...! Quick message Jo, to say I haven't forgotten...! It's on my list! The thing is that you deserve a multi-slide reply so unlike one-off posts, I have to pore through my library of info. As a good faith gesture here are a couple topic-adjacent slides I had handy just now.

Diagram discussing the Kano Model and the disruptive innovation curve.

The disruption curve but showing that EV's are merely continuous innovation whereas e-bikes are the true disruptive innovation.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Fujifilm survived, and its former film division has as many employees as it did in ~2000! They diversified into cosmetics (collagen expertise), pharmaceuticals (antioxidants developed for film) and have been selling (small amounts of) film this whole time. 😊

Chart showing the collapse of photographic film sales from roughly 2000 to 2010. Also shown: relatively consistent employee count at Fujifilm from about 2000 to 2025.

Chart showing the collapse of photographic film sales from roughly 2000 to 2010. Also shown: relatively consistent employee count at Fujifilm.
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A text box reads:

I could be known for one thing, I might choose “popularizing the fact that while Kodak died, Fujifilm survived”.

Despite the collapse of film sales in the early 2000s, Fujifilm survived. Its former photo division has about as many employees today as 25 years ago. It was rough sailing – they did emergency layoffs, and the employee count was boosted by later acquisitions – but Fujifilm survived. It had enough resilience (“adaptive capacity”) to bounce back from catastrophe.

After doing a meticulous review of its capabilities, Fujifilm used its collagen processing expertise (important for photographic film) to enter the high-margin cosmetics market. It used its corporate library of 3,000 film additive candidates to enter the pharmaceuticals sector, and a timely merger/acquisition gave it more time to scale up these new businesses.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

TIL/confirmed that Elon Musk's Grok AI anime girl is very clearly based on Misa Amane from the 2003-2006 Japanese manga series, "Death Note". $TSLAQ (h/t @davidgerard.co.uk who thinks Death Note informed/inspired the idea of Roko's Basilisk, but I haven't finished reading it yet.)

The "Ani" AI character from Grok, created by the dim princeling who left South Africa the year Apartheid ended and never had an idea he didn't steal, and very, very clearly based on the character Misa Amane from "Death Note".

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Which are the dominant Chinese tea brands? I love that in Japan, Kikkoman (est 1603) and Yamasa (est 1645) have been locked in soy sauce competition for almost 400 years. China's tea growing regions will have competed for what, 1000+ years? 😅

An image featuring a Kikkoman soy sauce container and a Yamasa soy sauce container

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

@keubiko.bsky.social BYD is super vertically integrated, but reportedly pays suppliers after 270 days. (Longer payment cycles are apparently the norm there.) This suggests they fund growth with working capital, right? And if revenue stalls too long, things get dicey right?

3. BYD’s profits slump

Chinese electric auto giant BYD reported another slump in its quarterly profits amid growing domestic competition. Much like Tesla, which has seen its market share in the U.S. drop in recent months as rivals surged ahead, BYD saw its third-quarter profits tumble 33% from a year earlier to roughly $1.1 billion. Total revenue dropped 3%. The Shenzhen-based company — the world’s largest electric automaker — remains dominant in China, but rivals Geely Automobile Holdings and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. saw increases in third-quarter sales of 96% and 84% respectively, Bloomberg reported.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Renown renewables opponent who added 4 years to transmission permitting ... nonetheless supports rooftop PV, battery storage (cc @jigarshahdc.bsky.social) and endorsed a recent utility-scale solar farm. We all contain multitudes! 🤔 @latitudemedia.bsky.social www.oregonlive.com/environment/...

"Gilbert still dislikes utility-scale projects that rely on transmission lines to move the power across the state, preferring local solutions such as energy efficiency, rooftop solar and community battery systems – she even has a solar panel on her cabin in Wisconsin.

But she recently surprised clean energy proponents when she testified in support of Sunstone Solar, the state’s largest approved solar project, set to be built on about 10,000 acres of farmland in Morrow County.

She backed that project, she said, because its developer agreed to put about $11 million into a new fund to compensate farm owners for the damages to the local economy."

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

2/ it all points back to the fact EVs are experiencing an adoption *curve*, not an adoption *step function*. via Wikipedia 👇

The Heaviside step function, from Wikipedia.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

PS - did you see The Left Hand of God at the game last night?? 😂😂😂

A photo of the LA Dodgers' 1960s pitching legend, Sandy "the left hand of God" Koufax, attending the 18-inning marathon game 3 between the Toronto Blue Jays and the LA Dodgers.
The caption by Mike Baker reads:
"it's cool to see that this game's starting pitcher is still hanging in there"

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

[coughs politely] (NRSVUE translation, Matthew 19)

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

5/ I forgot Bluesky highlights the last tweet, and [4] was risque content from The Economist. 🤦 So, still on-theme, Japan started investing in AUS' Lynas Rare Earths in 2011, after China rattled its rare earth export ban saber. wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/LYC/0299...

Chart from a Powerpoint slide from Lynas Rare Earths, indicating Japan made its first investment in the company in 2011.
(Meaning, not long after the 2010 Senkaku/Daioyu Islands Incident, after which China threatened to restrict rare earth exports to Japan.)

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

2/ Lanthanum and Cerium supply are available to Japan through Australia (mining) then Malaysia (refining) through Lynas Rare Earths. lynasrareearths.com

Chart from a 2018 Toyota press release explaining their goal to reduce ND (neodymium) content in magnets by replacing some of it with La/Ce (lanthanum and cerium), both of which Japan can access via Malaysia.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

@jessedjenkins.com @blakeshaffer.bsky.social Veering off baseball (go Jays, sorry Jesse) do either of you have colleagues who could benefit from analogizing a DER grid to the Toyota Production System? (e.g. colleagues who talk to manufacturers?) 👇

Resilience diagram for Lean Production (a.k.a. the Toyota Production System). Outside a cell-type structure, representing the facility, large reserves of strategic inventory ("reserves") are indicated as R*.
Individual workstations also have a small amount of reserves, indicated as "R".

The same diagram is used, but this time it's representative of the electric grid. R* is shown to represent dispatchable power, while the small reserves - R - are analogized as backup generators, battery storage, solar PV and V2G EVs.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

This is "Maximum Power Principle" 101 Systems -- not just human systems -- tend towards consuming all available resources. #energysky e.g. a Chinese biomass-to-energy company sells a "biomass-to-electricity for data centres" variant. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum...

An excerpt of the Wikipedia page for the "Maximum Power Principle".
Highlighted text reads:
"... system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and effciency."

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

It's a new feeling, having to go to the Internet Archive to find one's old work, on account of the new owner paywalling old content. 👴 The piece includes a 2017-era warning that Musk's arc was self-driving him to Bond villain status. web.archive.org/web/20170509...

Image shows the Internet Archive address of an article on GreenTechMedia. Beside a Batman image, the headline of the article reads "From Hero to Villain: Lessons About Energy from 'The Dark Knight'.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Corruption so naked *Marcus Licinius Crassus* would call it shameful. 🤷

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

My “I am not paranoid” t-shirt is raising questions already answered by my “I am not paranoid t-shirt”. 😏

Article from the Vancouver Sun, in which the headline reads:

B.C. Conservatives search MLAs' phones after media leak, while leader John Rustad says he is not paranoid

Both private and legislature-issued phones were searched. The source of the media leak was not found.

By Alec Lazenby
Published Oct 09, 2025
Last updated 3 hours ago
3 minute read
• 11 Comments

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

From the abstract it looks like your study is in concord with the Canada-specific finding that accepting "wasted" electrons (like how photosynthesis "wastes" photons) is preferable to trying to get to zero curtailment?

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

There's an analogue in photosynthesis, eh? 🎯 A robust grid which achieves stability while ignoring [curtails] most solar/wind is analogous to how photosynthesis ignores most of the light spectrum.

Chart showing that photosynthesis ignores most of the visible light spectrum -- chlorophyll only absorbs a few narrow bands of light.

Same as prior chart, with text box overlays. The text box overlays read:
- - - - - -
“…green plants are fine-tuned to reduce excess energy absorption by photosynthetic pigments rather than to absorb [photosynthetically active radiation] photons efficiently.” [1]

“…the evolutionary driving force behind the development of photosynthetic antennae is not maximization of efficiency but the cancellation of noise.” [2]
- - - - - - -
The evolutionary driving force [for this complex system that is the basis for most life on earth] is not maximization of efficiency. Given this, maybe we shouldn’t evaluate other complex systems (e.g. our energy systems) on efficiency alone.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

[checks the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6] ಠ_ಠ

Passage from the Christian Bible, Matthew 6. NRSV translation. The following words are highlighted

Verse 5:
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to … pray … [in public] so that they may be seen by others.”

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

US electric demand was flat for 20 years (thx, LEDs!). That should also tend to suppress utility (T&D) costs versus periods of steady expansion no? www.utilitydive.com/news/us-elec...

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

You chose the more fulfilling path, Lora. 👍 (Katha Upanishad, 5th to 1st century BCE)

Passage from the Katha Upanishad about “two paths” in life.

Section title - The Secret Within

Yama said,

There are two paths, Nachiketas.
One path leads outward and the other inward.
You can walk the way outward that leads to pleasure Or the way inward that leads to grace.
Of these two it is the path of grace.
Though concealed, that leads to the Self.

Both of these paths lie before each person eternally.
It is the way of things.
Day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment,
The wise must distinguish one from the other ~
And then choose which to walk.
The foolish, grasping first at this and then that,
Choose to walk the path of pleasure.

You, O Nachiketas,
Looked upon these objects of desire that I offered
And rejected them all.
In so doing you have chosen to walk the path of grace.

These paths lead in opposite directions.
One leads to knowledge.
The other leads to ignorance.

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Rachel, you should host Lora on Bubble Pop -- you've been harassed for years by the Canadian far-right for doing journalism that upsets them, she's been harassed for years by Tesla/SpaceX stans for the same.

Epic handshake meme:
One arm reads: journalism on the far right in Canada
other arm reads: journalism on Tesla's many evils
Label on handshake: annoying insecure losers (mostly men)

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Oh that’s nice. If Toyota used two tone along the sides where their “swoosh” metal feature is, they might look nicer…

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Ed, you should do some photojournalism at the DMZ known as Mill Ends Park! 😉

Mill Ends Park Wikipedia entry

Mill Ends Park (sometimes mistakenly called
Mill's End Park) " is the smallest urban park in the United States. It consists of 1 tree, located in the median strip of SW Naito Parkway next to Tom McCall Waterfront Park along the Willamette River near SW Taylor Street in the downtown core of Portland, Oregon, United

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

From the trough of disillusionment to the plateau of productivity. 😊

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Matthew Klippenstein (he/him) @klippenstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Big “Caligula summons the legions to pick up seashells” Energy. 🏛️

A crazy but SFW story about the Emperor Caligula.
——

Combining the accounts of Suetonius and Dio, the story is briefly told. Having over-wintered in Gaul and engaged in some allegedly farcical operations on the German frontier, Caligula drew up his forces with their equipment on the shores of the Ocean.
Briefly putting to sea, he returned to land and mounted a platform from which he ordered the signal for battle to be given. He then commanded the soldiers to gather sea-shells to be carried in his triumph in Rome.

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