iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Measles Disease Information Statement | Calypta Health

An excellent summary of why measles vaccination is so important. The best available estimates say measles shots have saved tens of millions of lives. calyptahealth.com/sheets/measles

calyptahealth.com

A one-page sheet about measles for parents and pediatric practices. Free to read, download, and print.

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My hope for 2028: Trump becomes a malum exemplum—a bad example teaching what argument could not.

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Reconsidering Obama’s Syria red line and its lessons for Iran.

Trump’s disastrous blunders with Iran have made two things painfully clear: Obama came close to the maximum plausibly achievable in constraining Iran’s nuclear program, and his team was right to fear that pushing beyond diplomacy into war could lead Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz.

lawfaremedia.org

America’s Samurai Myth

The Venetian Doges, chosen by a complex system designed to block any single faction from seizing power, would projectile vomit at the use of their title to claim “efficiency” was achieved by reckless cuts.

Who will be the next Bill Clinton? He famously said his secret of success was “arithmetic.” His true secret was his ability to explain inconvenient math to ordinary Americans.

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Huge omission in this article: not a word about Chaplin's Modern Times! It uses the word "Chaplinesque" once, but no mention of the Eating Machine scene from Modern Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/a...

A ‘Kinetic Artist’ Whose Machines Create Wonder, Not Efficiency (Gift Article)

Joseph Herscher’s Rube Goldberg contraptions are viral hits online. A new live show adds a layer of choreographic complexity.

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Bill Clinton famously says the secret of how he cut the deficit was "arithmetic." Actually, his true secret was his unique ability to explain inconvenient arithmetic in a manner that felt authentic to both policy wonks and good ole boys.

Graph of rising 10-year US Treasury Yield

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Banned Books Week is coming soon. Book banning continues to be near the record level set in 2023. My local public library is specifically encouraging people to read banned books this month.

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The moment when Senator Britt (R, AL) realizes her colleague's attempt to trap Jack Smith has collapsed because in his haste to besmirch Smith he instead beclowned himself by confusing Hawks with Hawkeyes.

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Reading a blog post about how characters like Vicki Vale are "resourceful" but ultimately passengers in their own stories made me appreciate written SF all over again. Of course there's lots of sexist junk in written SF, as there is everywhere. But it's not all crud.

A comment I submitted, as viewed on the NY Times website. Article link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/w...

Below is a comment I just submitted on a New York Times article:
I am a retired biotechnology researcher. I have no experience evaluating autopsy reports, but I know a good deal about viruses and the immune system because for about 20 years my primary task at work was studying how pathogens evolve resistance to drugs.
For one child to be killed in this manner by one of the commonly used vaccines is very rare, comparable to the odds of winning a huge jackpot in a State Lottery. For two children to be killed in this manner by one of the standard vaccines on the same day is such a low probability that it fits the ordinary meaning of the word "impossible."

Article link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/well/andrea-shaw-twins-suffocation-vaccines.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FFE.ZBEK.QfRti_oORVyV&smid=url-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawUqYl9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mBWJyaWQRMUpNcU1HTlNTUU9qZnRHdTdzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEes9TIt-k-oMtEoiETfxPw_DU1ZwvJvB6qKKIBFXGa8DHKC0dJjkZ5BTMcJkw_aem_tzen9ZLmVs6_rC2kpuY5gw

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cardcatalogforlife.substack.com

Great tips on how to do sound research on ANY subject with the help of AI, from a librarian. TDLR: use AI to define questions, find sources, and compare details. But you must evaluate all sources to verify what they say and where they disagree. cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/librarian-...

Librarian Hotline: How to Research with AI

A twelve-step method for researching with AI, with prompts for each stage and a downloadable guide.

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Eric Schmitt gets fact checked at Jack Smith hearing amid Atlanta Hawks-Iowa Hawkeyes mixup

GOP Senator shows his ignorance about Iowa when he accuses Special Counsel of perjury: he thought he had trapped Smith with a text about going to a "Hawks" game thinking that meant going to Atlanta to see their NBA team. Turned out it meant seeing Caitlin play in MARYLAND! youtu.be/LWjh_T7508A?...

youtu.be

YouTube video by USA TODAY

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Cary Elwes (@Cary_Elwes) on X

Great line about an inconceivable idea: There’s a shortage of perfect movies in this world. It would be a pity to damage this one. x.com/Cary_Elwes/s...

x.com

There’s a shortage of perfect movies in this world. It would be a pity to damage this one.

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My post from March 2020: WAY more prophetic than I realized! I warned then that partisan attacks on science cost lives. During the pandemic, that's exactly what happened. x.com/MatthewDavid...

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“Vaxsplainer: person with no scientific background who comments on posts by actual scientists telling them they are wrong.” www.facebook.com/matthew.heal...

“Vaxsplainer: person with no scientific background who comments on posts by actual scientists telling them they are wrong.”

Below is a shared graphic from The Pediatrician Mom titled “Mom Truth Monday,” featuring a three-circle Venn diagram labeled “Mansplainer,” “Anti-Vaxxer,” and “Toddler.” The overlapping regions read: “Confidence wildly exceeds credentials” (mansplainer and anti-vaxxer); “Listening is largely ceremonial” (mansplainer and toddler); “The facts are not the point” (anti-vaxxer and toddler). The central intersection of all three reads: “Not accepting feedback at this time.” The original post is captioned simply “Facts.”

https://www.facebook.com/matthew.healy.3348/posts/pfbid0jBpkK1iecoJf6o1aMoZSMhS2KfwsnvjiUDMZc5TCg3cQzBG1h4UFkzpjtMNxemPTl

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He was one of the world’s most wanted men. So he bought a west African country

“The government will arrange a car crash for you.” How a Dutch crook named Jos Leijdekkers has turned Sierra Leone into a narco-state. And the risks to reporters who ask too many questions. www.economist.com/interactive/...

economist.com

How Jos Leijdekkers turned Sierra Leone into a drug-dealer’s paradise

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Fascinating essay by a Philosophy Professor on both the role of writing in education and his policy on AI use. First link is to the essay. Second link is a handout he provides to his students. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o... sites.williams.edu/jcruz/files/...

Opinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think. (Gift Article)

If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to.

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I Listened to Charlie Kirk in Context. It's WORSE

I just viewed a really thorough reply to Charlie Kirk's defenders. To be clear, his murder, like any murder, was abhorrent. But having been murdered doesn't make a racist, sexist, bigoted meretricious debater into a martyr. He wasn't a Nazi or Fascist, but many things he said really were appalling.

youtube.com

YouTube video by Tim Whitaker Speaks

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(virus or covid or infection or airborne or aerosol) (from_MatthewDavidH) until_2020-07-01 since_2020-01-01 - Search _ X.pdf

COVID-19: What I knew, and when I knew it. By 2020 I had spent three decades doing biology research, and for two of those three decades my main task at work was studying how pathogens evolve resistance to drugs. So I started following COVID closely early on.

drive.google.com

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Eleven months ago, shortly after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I posted about the inadequate security at his last public appearance, especially the failure to monitor nearby rooftops and other elevated positions.

Report Finds Security Failings at Event Where Charlie Kirk Was Killed (Gift Article)

A review commissioned by Utah Valley University faults campus and Turning Point USA officials for poor planning of the event last year.

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The Ballroom Is Does Not Conform to Fire and Safety Codes

NINE MONTHS AGO, I posted that despite much media noise about legal, historical, and aesthetic issues with Trump's ballroom project, I was worried that short-circuiting the usual review process could create SAFETY RISKS. My fears appear to have been valid: www.electoral-vote.com/evp2026/Item...

electoral-vote.com

Click on the map for the article

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For a different kind of Democratic insurgency, look to Iowa

Why has a UK publication noticed Iowa's huge drinking water problem, which may help DEMs win multiple elections here, while US national media mostly have not noticed the water issue? Minnesota made Big Ag clean up its act. Iowa just asks nicely. www.economist.com/united-state...

economist.com

Republican policies have left a red state reeling. Will voters spring for change?

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NY Times had dozens of experts rank ideas to improve reading in schools on cost and effectiveness. Their answers do not perfectly fit into narratives from either the political left or the political right.

30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts (Gift Article)

Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?

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Reposted by Matt Healy

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Stop calling people who wear masks and take Covid precautions the “forever covid” crowd. We’re literally the only ones trying to eliminate the virus. It’s not gone. It’s not over. It’s still disabling. People who deny this reality are the “forever COVID” crowd.

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In MAGA-land people are dying faster than they are being born

“In MAGA-land people are dying faster than they are being born.” Article goes on to say, the reason many MAGA areas have increasing populations is from people moving there — but many new arrivals are more liberal than the locals, therefore some MAGA areas are becoming less MAGA.

economist.com

Our analysis suggests Trump country is only growing because of migration

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Earth Day: Be more like Borlaug, less like Lysenko

Maurice Hilleman, Norman Borlaug, and Trofim Lysenko show how a scientist can save or destroy lives. Maurice Hilleman led teams that developed dozens of vaccines, saving hundreds of millions of lives.

americanexperiment.org

Last year on Earth Day, I wrote about Norman Borlaug, the University of Minnesota graduate whose work creating new, higher-yielding wheat varieties helped

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Matt Healy @matthewdhealy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Opportunity for a novelist: AI plunges our minds into the abyss by enabling this correlation: “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity.” — Lovecraft

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Matt Healy @matthewdhealy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The cognitive foundation of science rejection. This post from 2021 is VERY long. To find the most important insight, hit control-F and look for the section headed "The Political Takeaway," which is one of the best explanations I've seen of this issue: www.astralcodexten.com/p/ivermectin...

astralcodexten.com

Ivermectin: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

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RFK Junior has done even more damage to what was once a superb public health agency than previously reported. Evidence-based policy making has been replaced by policy-based evidence making. New data, reported for the first time by NY Times today, show that CDC has lost nearly a third of its staff.

‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission (Gift Article)

The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control.

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Former Cornell University student sues school, 7 fraternity members over rape allegations

Cornell Fraternity members are alleged to have gang-raped a young woman. If these allegations are true: 1. Nobody stopped them 2. the University's response has been grossly inadequate. Links in the next post contain truly sickening details www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...

cbsnews.com

Cornell University and seven Chi Phi fraternity members are facing a lawsuit over rape allegations.

NY Times asked Canadian PM whether in past 18 months he was seriously concerned about Trump using military force against Canada. Prime Minister Carney paused for NINE SECONDS, then gave a very carefully worded answer, but the pause says more than his exact words. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/w...

Special Edition: Our Interview With Mark Carney

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I didn't get COVID right early on due to unique data—I used the same internet as everyone. But with 20 years of experience studying how pathogens evolve drug resistance, I could easily filter the noise, evaluate assumptions, and identify which open sources were actually trustworthy.

Dispatchable generation is 20th century fossil fuel thinking; dispatchable load will be a much better fit for the 21st century. Instead of One Big Data Center, put large numbers of small data centers near solar and wind power under interruptible contracts that allow usage to follow wind and sun.

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