iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Look my friends, public hospitals are a mess. They can't even pay their bills. So we gotta privatize them. I don't like it either, but it's the only way. My friends in the Mafia say they'll do a great job, they promised me.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Parenting accomplishment unlocked: 6 yo felt confident enough he borrowed my Park Tool Allen keys to undo his training wheels by himself. And off he goes!

A boy in a blue shirt and bright yellow helmet rides a red bike on the side of a suburban street.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Evan Solomon is another version of the "E=mc^2+AI" guy.

A screenshot of an utter idiot being an utter idiot. Apparently, this is a desirable thing when you are the minister of being an utter idiot, sorry, AI.
Sreekanth Kumbha adds "+AI" to Einstein's E=mc2 equation, which shows that +AI=0.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If I may... if I may... what if, instead of a running the country as a democracy based on shared goals and values, we re-examine our realities and let me run this country as a bank, where I am the CEO and the ultimate authority on everything.

Stephen Harper's essence poured into the suit currently playing as Mark Carney.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

ASHRAE: "We are leaders in decarbonizing buildings!" Also ASHRAE: "Have you considered adding a fossil fuel system to your all electric building?"

A screenshot of ASHRAE Journal on Decarbonizing with Hybrid Geothermal, with a section highlighted how adding fossil fuel to an all electric system has "benefits".

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I checked this one off last night. Solid 11/10.

A screenshot of a Sandra Boynton Kid's book reasinf Dinosaurs on Trucks because Hey why Not?!

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Obligatory tadpole bakfiets bike ride to school shot.

A picture of a tadpole cargo bike merrily rolling along a gravel path. Two kids sit in the front, one with bright green helmet with stickers on it, the other on the smaller child is red.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Sunlight through moving water (and it's reflection in the leaves above) and its babbling sound are some of my favourite things.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Gave it a shot as a Canadian. You can see the cultural influence along the North, but also the snowbird effect in Southern Flaw-ri-da

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The building code is written in blood and fire. There are very good reasons why nearly every country requires windows of minimum dimension in each bedroom. If developers can't meet the trivial $ case for min standards of human habitation, they are in the wrong business.

An economist opines that their soullessness and incapacity to see poor people as having dignity believes architects need economics training so we can cram people in windowless bedrooms to optimize the economics of MURBs.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

If the ONLY solution to a problem is your unproven, speculative technology that has unknown and limitless downsides, you are not dealing with a serious person. This is space snake oil. We know what we need to do.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The air is cool, windy, and (currently) breathable; the wind chimes sing in the spruce; and I am reading @timothysnyder.bsky.social's On Tyranny in the sunshine with a coffee.

Sunshine lights the book cover of Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

A useful reminder of the underlying axioms of Carney's economics training:

A 6 part meme where a man is having a heart attack. A suited man says he is a doctor of economics and that it is impossible for a man to suffer a heart attack as it is not in their self-interest

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Alright, we have reached the point in our climate dystopia that different hazards are fighting amongst one another.

Storm Centre screen shot with a highlighted section saying wildfire smoke will damp extreme storms.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Hey guys, I have a great idea, how about MOAR PIPELINES!!!!

Satellite view if wildfire smoke across the North American continent.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

2 million years of human evolution and we still love to make hand prints.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The sky is grey-orange. Surprisingly, particulate levels are low at ground level, but we have uncomfortable humidity. It is 35°C dry bulb and 65% RH.

The sky is grey orange. The humidity is oppressive.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

One of the challenging parts of living through the climate dystopia, of toxic air the past few days to our 3rd bout of tornado warnings this month, are those moments when kids are oblivious and just having fun playing.

A toddler in a teal and blue stripped onesy wearing a bucket hat toddles in a school park with greyish orange ish clouds and wind blown trees.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The day is not even done yet. We have another line of storms on the way.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Do you like strawberries? How about RAWberries!!!

A field of strawberries with a bright blue sky in the background

A child's hand holds an enormous red strawberry in front of a white basket filled with other strawberries. The basket is sitting on straws.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Elon might be the first trillionaire. He might also be the first person to lose trillionaire status.

A SPCX chart with the red line going down down down!

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Reviewing Kahneman and Tversky's 1974 Decision Making Under Uncertainty and like... I guess we haven't learned anything. If you don't have the mechanism to describe the future prediction, you are just deluding yourself.

Kahneman and Tversky 1974, with a section highlighted yellow, which reads "when predictability is nil, the same prediction should be made in all cases".

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

It's just a lot of falling water... but there's something really inspiring in it.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Ruin the Matrix plot with this 1 quick hack:

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

The wheels on the cybertruck go round and round all through the town.

A snapshot of a news article reading "Tesla recalls cybertruck because wheels may fall off"

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

My child has joined Chaos Undivided...

A clock with runic looking numbers with black arrow hands pointing to each one, drawn on purple paper.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Ah, like ATVs, motorcycles, and snowmobiles? Even if you were to outfit this with MTB suspension and a better motor, I don't think it would do well without a trail. But they are light on resources. A two hours' charge at 120VAC gives ~30km range. And it's still useable without power.

A man with white jacket and blue jeans rides a large white electric cargo bike.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

This new recycling/garbage/green bin program is going great! Are the for profit waste contractors going to send someone back to clean up the mess they left behind? @citykitchener.bsky.social

A picture of garbage and recycling strewn about a road. A green and blue bin are in the foreground.

Picture of a road with green bins lying on their side, their contents strewn about.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

And even if we take the full length of data (for those of you who think this is cherry picked), there's still a _significant_ increase in the slope after some weird event happened in 2020. I wonder what that could be?

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I catch it making mistakes on sustainable buildings regularly. They do represent the majority view, the problem is the majority view (w/ high corr. coeffs. from high # of hits/articles/blogs from scraped sites) is not aligned with professional knowledge (with little, if any, presence on the web).

A screenshot on Gemini with "what are all the benefits of a green roof"?

A screenshot on Claude with "what are all the benefits of a green roof"?

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

So I saw this Air Quality notice and thought: that's odd. I had never heard of poor air quality from melting snow. So anyway, pulled out the PM2.5 meter and here we are: high PM2.5. Has it always been this way, or is something different?

An Air Quality Advisory for Michigan for high PM2.5 levels.

A picture of a Handheld Temtop PM2.5 meter showing 39.8ug/m3, which is above the 25ug/m3 maximum recommended level.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

We don't have any new data, but the number of excess deaths in Canada still seems awfully high... ourworldindata.org/grapher/exce...

Line chart of excess deaths for Canada (in green) from February 2, 2020, to May 18, 2025. The chart has several spikes, but there is a consistent increase over this time period. The number of excess deaths should be close to 0. At the end of the recording period, it is above 15%.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

@jamestaite.bsky.social Initial impressions? SW facing wall. Brick chimney to the left. Total wall length about 35'. New parging on foundation, but delamination at origins of crack. Finished interior basement so cannot check foundation condition.

A picture of a brick wall, with light sealant placed over cracks running along mortar beds and vertically through bricks.

Close up picture of cracks through bricks.

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Robert Lepage, PhD., P.Eng. @rtmlepage.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Work smarter, not harder. Application of fracture mechanics on de-icing the sidewalk. Centre scoring mark and then 45° cuts to clear the whole width of the sidewalk.

A frozen over sidewalk with 3" thick compacted ice and snow. A centre cut is made with an ice chipper and a herring one type pattern along the side shows cracking of the ice.

A frozen over sidewalk with 3" thick compacted ice and snow. Large blocks of ice have been removed from the sidewalk along the herringbone pattern.

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