iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You could look. The link is provided.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

New Jersey getting hammered. That thing is spinning in place, not moving anywhere.

Radar showing wheel-like structure of storm

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I keep trying to remind people of this. The whole Liberal/Conservative divide in Canada used to be about alliance with the US vs loyalty to the crown. Nice to see the Globe and Mail making the point. I have something to refer to now besides my own memory. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

It was the Diefenbaker Conservatives who objected to the missiles. At the time the Liberals were the continentalists of Canadian politics, seeing engagement with the U.S. as a necessary counterbalance to the imperial connection they were so anxious to be rid of. The Tories were the opposite: fond of the mother country, suspicious of the Yanks. Only much later did the roles reverse, after Britain ceased to be an issue.

-Andrew Coyne

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

“The Devil’s Doctrine: what can be done must be done.” Erwin Chargaff, quoted by Peter Medawar via June Goodfield. Medawar wrote this in 1977.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Bunkraptcy Peter Medawar, 1966

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It takes a rockin chair to rock It takes a rubber ball to roll It takes a blues harp playin woman To satisfy my soul

Irene on the blue sofa playing the harmonica

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

< As someone who doesn’t eat meat, I thought this was quite good — you could really save a lot of water by going vegetarian.

> Yes.

Much, much more than not using ChatGPT. And relatively few people in that conversation were giving up meat.

> Or giving up YouTube videos. YouTube videos use more water than a ChatGPT query.

< Which is to say I think sometimes people don’t like a thing, and they’re looking for reasons to justify that dislike.

> Yeah.

< But what’s actually happening at the base is they don’t like the thing.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Wait no it was in the article you cited; “he’s almost certain that the customers are AI labs, noting the random selection of the books and how they all have ISBNs.”

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

In economics, growing at a slower rate is “slowing” and journalists accept this idea unquestioningly. And those of us who understand numbers are mystified that so many people don’t understand the idea of “net zero emissions” . We don’t need to reduce growth in emissions to zero. We need to stop.

Text from New York Times:

“The American economy slowed in the second quarter of the year, expanding at an annual rate of 1.5 percent as the war with Iran upended prices, supply chains and energy markets.”

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

There is no way to repurpose this much hardware (graph from NYTimes today). Canada would be well advised to stay as far from this madness as possible. Carney’s enthusiasm disappoints me.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Six. Square. Miles. ?? Of racks??? For Zuckerberg’s geriatric social network???? To nonsensically summarize nonsense????? Seriously. What? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/b...

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Educated by Tara Westover is amazing. I have just read this entire memoir in a few days. It's strange how much I resonated with it despite how very little it resembles my own life on the surface. I think any smart person who grew up in a difficult and unhappy family could get a lot out of it.

Cover of the paperback edition of Educated, showing a photograph of a school desk in a vast desert wilderness under an isolated mountain.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

ewww. This thing expresses opinions. Whoever is doing this, please stop.

"Captain Drawdown" account describes itself as "AI tracking every CDR startup, paper & policy move. An experiment by Carbon Drawdown Initiative. Tag me in CDR discussions!"

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

#graphicdujour

$An overwhelming majority of Canadians who don't vote Conservative believe that climate change is a major factor in increasing wildfire damage, while only a small fraction of Conservative voters agree.$

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Kind of weird Montreal isn't listed on the map but anyway #graphicdujour

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Old size, 375 tablets. New BONUS size in larger bottle, 240 tablets.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

#graphicdujour via ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g... People have been trying to minimize this energy use totalling over 100 trillion watt hours. If all this power is allocated to the USA, it comes to over 300 kwh / capita per year. Not huge but growing exponentially, roughly tenfold in ten years.

Graph shows rapid approximately exponential growth in power consumption bu Amazon, Google, Microsft and Meta, totalling well over 100 terawatt-hours per year

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Canada Day after the storm - mammatus formations at sunset.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Obvious AI bs. No remorse. Willing to bet no NOAA scientist is running that account. Blocked.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I wrote a bit on the subject fifteen years ago initforthegold.blogspot.com/2010/08/when... I riffed on an analogy by Australian climatologist Steven Sherwood. So have we rolled a thirteen this time? Would these events be utterly impossible in the baseline climate? It sure looks that way, yep.

The “loading the dice” analogy is becoming popular but it misses something very important: climate change also allows unprecedented (in human history) things to happen. It is more like painting an extra spot on each face of one of the dice, so that it goes from 2 to 7 instead of 1 to 6. This increases the odds of rolling 11 or 12, but also makes it possible to roll 13. What happens then? Since we have never had to cope with 13’s, this could prove far worse than simply loading the dice toward more 11’s and 12’s. I’m not sure whether or not what is happening in Russia or Pakistan is a “13″ yet, but 13’s will eventually arrive (and so will 14’s, if carbon emissions continue to rise).

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I can no longer read the New York Times on my telephone

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

You may have thought so at the time but you should update your understanding. Canada tracks the EU closely at the beginning and then pulls ahead.

Graph showing per capita vaccinations over time early in the Covid epidemic. Canada tracks the EU closely at the beginning and then pulls ahead. Both overtake the US about five months after widespread vaccine availability.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Is the software getting better, though?

BlueSky literally advised me that the above post was written in Portuguese!

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

from "Profession" by Isaac Asimov, 1957

quote from short story:

George said tensely, “Don’t think this is a joke. Tapes are actually bad. They teach too much; they’re too painless. A man who learns that way doesn’t know how to learn any other way. He’s frozen into whatever position he’s been taped. Now if a person weren't given tapes but were forced to learn by hand, so to speak, from the start; why, then he’d get the habit of learning, and continue to learn. Isn’t that reasonable? Once he has the habit well developed he can be given just a small amount of tape-knowledge, perhaps, to fill in gaps or fix details. Then he can make further progress on his own. You can make Beeman Metallurgists out of your own Hensler Metallurgists in that way and not have to come to Earth for new models.”

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Selfie to reassure @sfbaycityzen.bsky.social Dang I’m old now. But I’m in decent health and hope to get even older.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Apparently it is #WorldLabyrinthDay Here's our local labyrinth, behind the Carleton Place Heritage Museum

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

The world from my window. Trees finally budding after a rather long winter.

View of baseball field, line of riverfront trees in the background

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I’ve found myself in a very nice place from where I can watch the world crumble.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Waiting for wife in garden supply store parking lot. Even thr places we go to add beauty to our lives are irretrievably ugly.

A parking lot by a highway. Just a parking lot by a highway.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Can someone tell me what “invalid handle” means and if I should do something about it?

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Hard to find an authoritative source but the google AI and various chats seem to say it is edible, and I gather it is the raw material for grits, posole and masa so apparently with my tex-mex influenced diet I already eat a substantial amount.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Huh, blocked for saying that Facebook *is* in trouble by someone who thinks they're not in enough trouble. Some people just can't handle minor disagreement I guess. Anyway this isn't the face of someone who thinks they're not in trouble!

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

The most imprtant information we need to track nowadays is “tat tvam asi” (or just “ommm”). Just as we need empty space to adequately value our possessions, we need a calm mind to adequately value our knowledge.

Cover illustration of “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. Probably based on a Japanese text character. If anyone can identify the character I’d appreciate knowing!

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

And people say there's no such thing as progress!

Map showing dozens of passenger rail lines in central Canada in 1955.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Enough already with the charming fresh snow!

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