iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

It turns out the chart is misleading. A more accurate picture is this one. See bsky.app/profile/kjhe...

A chart of Tourist Visits to the United States, showing a dropoff from Canada of about 25% but little change elsewhere.

Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Now that I have this travel data I am of course messing around with it further. Here’s all monthly visits Jan 2015-June 2026, smoothed. The size of the Canadian reaction to the Trump administration’s attack on them really is remarkable. Elbows up, Canada. kieranhealy.org/blog/archive...

Big drop in Canadian visits to the US. Mexico trending up, everywhere else declining slightly

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 10h

Never sure how linked posts will look in BlueSky: here is the corrected plot.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 10h

For those who have seen this chart and wondered if it is accurate, @kjhealy.co fixes it and gives a more realistic picture here. It's a picture that fits better with the 25% drop in Canadian traffic reported several times over the last year. bsky.app/profile/kjhe...

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 10h

More helpful things I didn't know about plotting in R from @nrennie.bsky.social .

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 12h

I can't view the original (because X) but I'm going to guess it's a joke that too many here (including me) have taken seriously.

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Tan G. @tangandhara.bsky.social · 13h

I refuse to believe crime against the #dataviz community is real

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 22h

It turns out that's a very bad graph. See here... bsky.app/profile/kjhe...

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 22h

The only thing worse than getting AI slop requests from famous authors is not getting AI slop requests from famous authors.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 01/10/2026

You are correct. See bsky.app/profile/kjhe...

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 01/10/2026

Several people here have been saying the graph looked wrong, and this is much closer to the 25% or so figure we've seen elsewhere. Thank you for digging out the problems.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 01/10/2026

I was surprised too, having seen the 25% or so figures that you're probably referring to. As you say, tourism is probably more elastic than business travel. I wonder if it includes cross-border day trips?

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 01/10/2026

I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to look at a different exhibit, thought I might as well glance at Melissa Auf der Mauer's photographs, and found them evocative and emotional and technically clever too. Recommended. readfoyer.com/article/meli...

readfoyer.com

Melissa Auf der Maur on the Power and Chaos of the '90s

The multimedia artist reflects on her AGO exhibition documenting a pivotal decade of her life

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is *very* good.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 30/09/2026

Pepys is in the black. Gets to celebrate.

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Teaching Swift today, and will always share this on “Modest Proposal” day.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 30/09/2026

I read the final paragraph of Middlemarch at my mum's funeral. It sets many lives in a better context.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 30/09/2026

(I follow some antis as well, and sometimes find things of interest, but the exchanges between the camps never seem productive, unfortunately. A product of the environment more than the individuals I think).

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 30/09/2026

I am very much peripheral to that community but greatly appreciate the thought and observations I get from you.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 30/09/2026

License compliance? It's a debt collection agency, bound to be profitable.

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Probably the greatest parallel parking you’ll ever see. #WorldBollardAssociation

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 29/09/2026

Well it's either an LLM or someone who knows both your work and hers. Hmmm...

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 29/09/2026

I have no idea about Anthropic's future. I can see it being immensely valuable or a bust (especially if open weight models win the enterprise space). But in my feed Simon Willison is being reasonable and Ed Zitron is eye rolling and sarcastic, so Ed not doing himself any favours.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 28/09/2026

I'm surprised by this post. I wonder if the big jump in inequality is purely a US phenomenon that I've absorbed by osmosis, or is there another perspective (e.g. is wealth inequality different?)

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Honour just to be nominated!

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

That's suprising (to me). Is the headline "inequality hasn't changed much in the last 50 years"? (Or would wealth curves look different perhaps).

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

Next up: Facebook introduces AI tool to answer your phone calls.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

Trying again. A new set of @mjmimages.bsky.social Possible New Idioms still always brightens my day.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

A new set of @mjmimages.bsky.social Possible New Idioms always brightens my day.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

Indeed. "You remember John? I wonder what he's doing now." "He's dead."

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

They will L. O. V. E. this dog park.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 27/09/2026

If you don't want to wear it around your neck, you can clip it to a pocket. Maybe we'll call the next version "Clippy". Sounds cute!

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026

I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 25/09/2026

Any chance of a response column from you?

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Vandy, C.A. @cavandy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

ohrealllly I think @katie0martin.ft.com may beg to differ that Meta is "doing the right thing"

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 25/09/2026

... and I think we already know "what we stand for".

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

Another entry in "One-sided efficiency gains are never an equilibrium". This time on AI shopping agents by the always-on-the-ball @vassb.bsky.social Gift link, you lucky people. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/034a874...

theglobeandmail.com

The dangers of letting AI agents do your shopping

Wall Street loves Muse, Meta’s new personal shopping agent, but the tools can be a minefield for consumers

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

One of my few firm opinions is that This Kind of Thing will be ubiquitous. One-sided efficiency gains are never an equilibrium.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

I am told that as a child I never finished a jigsaw because I couldn't be bothered to do the sky pieces. So me too I guess?

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

As an out-of-towner, I don't know Chris Alexander, but I too have stood looking awkward and out of place in Kensington Market.

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

"This thread is good". Well, not the thread, because threads can't be good or bad. "You expressed some good ideas in this thread"? I think that's OK.

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Reposted by Tom Slee 🇨🇦

Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Bias has a technical sense in machine learning that closely tracks but is not identical to the human one. Nearly all the anthropomorphic words people object to are quite clear in their technical context, just as “uncertainty” is quite clear in physics or “odd” in mathematics

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Tom Slee 🇨🇦 @tomslee.net · 24/09/2026

Proud to say that my opinion on one topic has remained unchanged for three weeks.

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