iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Im curious American friends. In Canadian English, using cowboy to describe someone who is not a literal cowboy implies thoughtless recklessness which inevitably ends in disaster for the individual requiring a metaphorical cavalry rescue at significant cost to all parties. Same meaning in USA?

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

For the past 400 years, you could always ask Bubba, Jimmy, Pat, and Steve-O down at the pub for their advice on public health as well instead of the experts (enlightenment marking start of expertise). Non expert opinion is always available. It isn't normally useful, but it has always been available!

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Sarah J. Martin @eatingpolitics.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I wrote an extensive email to upper admin about its promotion of an GenAI course for graduate students - I was/am so distressed. The work behind LLMs is hidden but this has real world consequences for our own ethical conduct. Culled from my course outlines here is what I said ...

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Laura Howes @laurahowes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think #chemsky has discussed before how NO-ONE should be feeding unpublished or proprietary data into public models. It really feels like that is worth reiterating.

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

David Quammen's essay in The New York Times today closes with this paragraph. It's both a scientific falsehood, and an incredibly dangerous narrative. If you're willing to give me five minutes of your time, I'd like to explain why.

The Ebola virus doesn’t need to spill back. It abides in its reservoir host, and awaits its next opportunity. A virus can’t climb out of a bat or a monkey and fly off in search of human prey. It can only spill over. If humans left the reservoir host alone — not hunting it, not capturing it, not eating it, not exporting it live, not disturbing its forest habitat — the virus wouldn’t re-emerge in humans. It would remain where it is, harming no one. But of course that’s not what happens. And when viruses spill, they often spill into us, because the human population is such a big, busy target.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The problem with modern unregulated capitalism is that Lenin is still right. This is a major, major problem. We need a return to midcentury social democracy.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is, of course, a very important insight. Something I use a lot and also talk to my undergrad students about with reference to picking phd advisors.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hey Brazil? You know how you are better than those stuck up Argentines? Now's the time to confirm it by not having a Milei moment.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A commonality among those who think AI is rather bright is that they are all rather dim. I'm surrounded by brilliant people all the time, AI ain't one of them. I wonder how absolutely stupid and incurious you must be to think highly of AI "thought" and am depressed to see that many politicians...do.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Our lab contributes to this, one experiment at a time. Most of the time, we have no idea why all the cells in that really important month long experiment JUST DIED! C'mon guys! Reframe: we aren't having experiments fail. We are exploring new mechanisms of cell death!

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If Democrats continue to focus on elite issues like the price of diesel fuel instead of on kitchen table issues like chem trails and racial purity, they're going to get walloped in November.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I am one with Microsoft Authenticator. You might use it. I have been reborn into it. I live and breath it. I spend more time with it than the things it authorizes me to access. Partially because it wants my to reauthorize every few minutes because it recognizes a kindred spirit. I am MFA-king.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I had not previously read this. I have now read this. I am a bit comforted now. ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-...

ludic.mataroa.blog

I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again — Ludicity

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This is not how vaccines work. Like...the dose of antigen is not this highly calibrated. In almost all cases, 20% of the antigen is the same as 100% as far as immune response goes. I just....can't. Its just so stupid that people who understand nothing make decisions.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We are hiring a postdoc! #Chemsky Looking for an expert in instrumental analytical instrument maintenance...I mean chemistry, specifically LC-MS, HPLC, GC-MS. Method development expertise with new analytes, and natural product isolation/identification are good!

trantteam.ca

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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 15/09/2026

A good day to remind you that if Mark Carney wants investment in important things (i.e. the knowledge economy), he could just do it. But instead he's cutting those things in favour of massive military spending while soliciting foreign ownership over Canada's future.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Despite having canceled my ACS membership for their complete lack of anything resembling a spine, I know they are in safe hands. Or tentacles. All hail our new overlords.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Counterpoint: it isnt a problem for us younger profs. Because when they DO retire, we dont get a replacement line anymore. So everyone retiring means one less member of faculty and more work for the rest of us. Them staying on is helpful right now. Very helpful.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Gotta say, Melania looks pretty presidential in these 2 pics (cursed sentence). Central Casting! Don looks like her aged grandpa who is along for a nice trip away from the nursing home for the day with nice American flags as a nice touchpoint so he doesn't get fully confused about the new place.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Look at Dr. Fancy Name Tag at Big Institution here Lording it over all of those who hot-desk their professorships! (But seriously, this is insane, I assume something is broken or on order?)

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Make a band edible. Our Lady Peas. Nick Cave and the Good Seeds

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I dont think I could write a dumber post. The solution is better grades? Everyone gets an A+! Problem solved!!! Oh. Its not the grades os it? Its about the critical thought learning. Hmmm...Wonder where society gives us opportunities to think about that?

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

See my previous post. UK media continuing to carry the water for the ultra rich in the form of punching down.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Official views of the UK paper of record: the only legitimate way to immigrate is in a giant yacht with gobs of cash to give to media so they fawn over your oligarchic corruption. You know, the British Way!

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Trump giving $45,000 to aides seems to be news. Is it because this is some form of small scale corruption, or is it because for the first time ever, we have documented evidence of Trump actually giving someone money?

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Chemjobber @chemjobber.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

so the US national debt is 40 trillion bucks, and Scott Bessent is working on a buyback of 6 billion that's really too hard for my mind to grasp, so I picked a number that seems more reasonable to me. If you had a debt of $500,000, the equivalent buyback/debt reduction would be $75.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

This is all small stuff. The true answer is an export tariff on electricity, crude oil, and potash. These would be treated completely evenly for all exports from Canada. We just don't tend to export much of these to anyone else in the world other than the USA.

economist.com

Where Canada can hurt America most

Its tariff retaliation is calibrated for maximum political pressure

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Glad to see Napoleon III is back in the discourse. His hubristic narcissism is vey appropriate for our times. His ability to identify and promote talented people to run parts of a state though are not, apparently, characteristics that we would recognize as "modern virtues."

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm sure everything is fine in a market when the supplier of the tools to the retailer who sells to consumers is funding and driving the market. Who needs robust market-priced end-user demand when the supplier is willing to keep flooding the market? Supply and demand, remove the demand. Profit??

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

She's harsh...but I am struggling to disagree with @shufflersunite.bsky.social on this one. This is a dumb catchphrase and graphic. Like "We're a Team!" Was RIGHT there!!!

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Strategic Tape Reserve @strategictaper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

They should build loads of data centers all over the place that contain huge quantities of books that people can borrow for free if they fill out a form to get a data center card and promise to return the books on time and don’t make too much noise in the data center.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

People are saying that we trans allies should not watch the new HBO Harry Potter series. Question: Does JK Rowling make more money if more people watch? Or does she make the same amount of money because she has licensed the IP to HBO, and it doesn't really matter what happens from here?

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Sometimes a story is just..."well that didn't really work, but here is all our data showing that, and the only real result is that a bunch of companies are lying on their labels" Won't publish in Frontiers or MDPI or their ilk, but not sure who else will consider it. Ideas? #chemsky

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Food options at US state fairs are certainly the best manifestation of the potential greatness of the USA.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I've been thinking about certification recently. I spend more time than any healthy human should on reddit, and especially some of the university-student, and post-student subreddits. I could say this is research into trying to understand who I am dealing with, but mostly its entertainment.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Reading some plaques around campus, I've decided that if we make a ton of cash with any of our stuff, and I leave enough to endow a lecture hall or something, it will definitely need to be enough that the President would go..."Shit, seriously? That's the condition? Damn, I guess we can't say no"

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This is such a misunderstanding of Persian culture that...it is mindblowing. Telling the truth was the central tenet of Zoroastrianism, and that continued into Islamic Iran. They can be a bit irritating about their tendency to just tell the generally unvarnished truth all the time actually.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Capitalized Revolutionary Acronymic Protocols. Yoink. So good. I don't know if this is an @dereklowe.bsky.social original, or...one of those things, but it is new to me. Otherwise: agree. I think ML is really useful when you have really good data. the problem is the really good data.

science.org

So How Is AI Drug Discovery Doing, Really?

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Dean Buckley @deanbuckley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The Times will now presumably bully itself to suicide since that's what they deem an appropriate punishment for alleged plagiarism

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Brendan Harley @profharley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

@chbeillinois.bsky.social is hiring at the Asst/Assoc/Full Prof Level! It's a broad search, so please take a look: www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...

higheredjobs.com

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Terrifying thought arising from the last sentence of this piece. Is the reason so many people like AI is that they are so used to mediocrity in themselves and others that it is actually just a straight up improvement in quality of thought? Shit.

theguardian.com

‘Inept, incompetent, craven’: Scott Bessent struggles to clean up the president’s mess

There’s little optimism about treasury secretary’s ability to handle Trump’s tariffs, Iran sanctions and colossal US debt

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Besides the ports of Thunder Bay and Windsor, Canada has no major ports inland of the Welland Canal. I think its time that commercial rates through the canal correct to match market needs. A 10x increase should be good. Of course, goods to Canadian ports can have the cost subsidized by GoC.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Ah yes. The eagle starts the fight, then runs away getting its ass whooped. But this pounce is unusual. Bald eagles dont generally attack prey, they are scavengers that steal the kills of others. And their call is so silly, that it is always replaced by that of a different raptor in video.

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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Hey Hive Mind. Is there a shortcut in Windows for automatically opening the folder in Windows Explorer (File manager for us olds) the holds the file that is currently active on the screen regardless of application that is open?

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