iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

You know who else wasn’t a “strong swimmer”?

Two men on a couch wearing track suits being interviewed as synchronized swimmers in the Olympics. The one on the left (Martin Short) is talking. The caption reads “I’m not that… strong a swimmer”.

Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Guys, bros, … humans. Reach out to your people, either to give or get help/aid/support/interaction/a hang, whatever you need to call it. Just do it. You are not alone.

Exerpt from Encounter, C. Milosz
… And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.
…
Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.
… where are they, where are they going
…

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Wiki has it as Michael Simpson 2010 (Plant Systematics). Not sure if this is the first though. Currently perusing Joe’s Inferring Phylogenies.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Just sad news. Stan Gartler passed this week at 102 years old. There will be a couple of tributes linked here in a bit. But I just wanted to share. Stan joined Marshall’s lab after he closed his and shortly before I joined. We shared quite a few scientific interests, but Stan always checked in

Stan Gartler.
A picture of an older man with white hair, glasses, wearing a blue shirt and grey sport coat.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

The addition of vertebrae as a function of fertility in a mammal will never cease to amaze me. Plus a primitive version of the Grandmother Hypothesis?

Text: Instead, Queen Teré was reported to exhibit "guarding" behavior of Arwen and her litter. No other signs of social instabil-

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Still just fascinated with these Moka Pots from the games. Have a feeling I’ll be sketching more.

Two ink and water color sketches of performers dressed in Moka Pot costumes. One purple, and one dark pink. Lids as hats, base as skirt, and coffee chamber as body.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

You’ll may need to update first 😂

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

You can upload your own GIFs now @mads100tist.bsky.social ! I expect a 10-fold increase in game from you sir.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

OK, let’s take 🧪🧬 Sky for a spin. GSEA has a known link btwn the FDR and the # of gene sets used in analysis. Depending on which MSigDB lvl you use it can range from 50-16K ! Like cnts/feat/10K cells used for scRNAseq, is there a way to standardize the FDRs for something like 1K gene sets compared?

Buckaroo Bonzai and his team of scientists walking along a concrete spillway. Everyone is dressed in varying 80’s New Wave style. From end credits of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984).

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Wait, there are pygmy seahorses… and they’re symbionts ?!?! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A picture of two small seahorses that are red with nodules. They attach themselves to similar looking coral by their tails. Their skin looks as if it has been dusted with powdered sugar.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Happy Magnum P.I. Day to all those who celebrate at the Tigers game today!

Fans at the Detroit Tigers’ stadium wearing red Hawaiian shirts, blue baseball hats with white D’s, sun glasses, and thick mustaches.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

OK. So I’ll bite and dive deeper in AI Mode to see if I get the Picard treatment everyone’s been talking about. Nope. This time it comes clean and says there are 2. But only after it references a _Reddit_ post about how AI/LLMs have been getting this wrong.

In deep AI mode Google AI does identify only two b’s in the word blueberry, but only after referencing a post about how AI/LLMs have gotten it wrong.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Since I don’t have a Phd level LLM hanging around, I went to the Giggle Box search page to use the state-school equivalent, which most people have access to, and ask how many b’s are in blueberry. Ta-da! I get 3, the most popular answer to date in the LLM community.

Google search engine AI’s response to how many b’s are in blueberry. Three.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Filing away to the folder labeled “Could_be_worse”. Sha Lu: www.instagram.com/shaluwtk/

Vole being carried in the talons of a White-tailed Kite. The vole is looking directly at the camera. Sha Lu.

A White-tailed Kite carrying a vole in its talons mid-flight. Sha Lu.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

An expansive version of the Hourglass Model? (This one is from Doboule 2022) That encompasses more than just animals? I’m not sure if there are equivalent constraints for the other kingdoms. An expanded version of Jamie’s idea.

A cartoon of the hourglass model of development. An hourglass cartoon showing multiple stages of development for various animal species. The thin part of the hourglass shows how all animals pass through a stage of development with similar forms while the wider ends show the much greater variation in either early development or later stages.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

A Great Basin blonde (A. iodius) my father and I set in acrylic forty-ish years ago (foothills Wasatch Front). Couldn’t get all the air bubbles out of the abdomen 😂, but still. No banana for scale, but ~ 2 X 2.5 inches.

A male blondish brown tarantula set in an acrylic slab.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Adjusting the volume on this, to move a guy up and down ladders on my TV.

A beige cassette tape player with ATARI 410 written in between the holder and the control buttons.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Akil “Bad Bad” Baddoo responsible for the first 3 outs today vs the Blue Jays. Tigers with the series win and the best record in baseball! #RepDetroit

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

ggplot + scale_fill_manual() + RColorBrewer(PaleBlueButNotThatPaleBlue) = 😵

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

I am late to this, but Fear from Inside Out.

Fear, from Disney’s Inside Out. Slender purple humanoid with a sweater vest, red bow tie, and large slightly crossed eyes.

Embryonic zebra fish with a staining pattern that appears to have two purple slightly crossed eyes.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Mutations in Time and Space 2025 #MITS25 was a fabulous meeting! So much science to digest over the weekend. Special thanks to the Broad for hosting. A special art connection between the MIT campus and the Allen Institute (my next door neighbor) in Seattle. Shared Jaume Plensa sculptures.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Stopped by to see the birthplace of the Alan Parsons’ Project on my way to the 2nd day of #MITS25 #IfYouGetThisUROld 😂

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Excited for the Mutations in Time and Space meeting about to kick off 🧬 MIT is just waking up. #MITS25

Photo of pathway thru a park with brightly colored chairs to the right and flowering trees forward.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Dead last in OPS w/RISP as of 04/11/25.

Table showing OPS with RISP for all MLB teams. Mariners are dead last with 0.450. Yankees lead with 0.937. Median = 0.715.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Ha 😄, bad joke based on “fly shot” & Harmit’s love of drosophila and dad jokes. Multiple hats on hats situation.

Photo of Uraba lugens, the Mad Hatterpillar, crawling along a leaf. The caterpillar has previous head molts stacked on its current head.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Daily Decompression Focus. Courtesy of Otama-shimai.

A white hamster swimming thru a golden blue moonlit sky and seeding grass. Otama-shimai.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

I wanna see the Baker lab predict the function of this one.

Lady Gaga in a white form-fitting dress with twisting large ribbons wrapping around her from floor to several feet above her head. 2024 Met Gala

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

MolecularStructureButMakeItFashion is in your future! Flaggeller motor-hook complex?

Cryo-EM structure of the flagellar motor-hook complex. A cam shaft-like structure of multiple molecular structures with radial symmetry.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Robert Duvall would like a word:

Deep Impact 1998 movie poster. The impact of a large meteor striking New York City is shown with the tag line “Oceans Rise, Cities Fall, Hope Survives”. A metaphor for 2025? *shrug emoji*

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

😂 Might be picken’ protists here, but have UW and Oregon St merged? The coloration of the fish matches UW, but that beaver head … not a classic husky 🤣

Oregon State beaver mascot head on a yellow surf board with a purple & gold zebra fish riding.

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Donovan Anderson @scdja.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

A classic @obeygiant.bsky.social . Sometimes you channel angst thru pandas and otters … sometimes giants. Today seems to be a giant day.

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