Michael Hoffman
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michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Michael Hoffman
@michaelhoffman.bsky.social
16K followers 1.7K following 5.3K posts
Chair, Computational BIology and Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network.

Associate Professor, Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto.

Disclosures: https://github.com/michaelmhoffman/disclosure/
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michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Michael Hoffman @michaelhoffman.bsky.social · Nov 12
I'm at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University of Toronto. We have three major interests:

1/Computational methods and #ML for gene regulation data 🧬🖥️
2/Liquid biopsy beyond simple genetic variants (epigenomic, immunogenomic)
3/Reproducibility and robustness of biomedical analysis (esp. #ML)
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
I made it without getting whammed?!?!

This is the first time I can remember. Wondering if increased cultural consciousness of Whamageddon plays a role in this.
December 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Best Chanukah present: my spouse got me a subscription to @graphicmatt.com's City Hall Watcher. Excited to read some of those non-free issues I've missed!
Meg Olson gifted you a subscription! City Hall Watcher Meg Olson gifted you a year of paid subscription to City Hall Watcher! They wrote: Happy Chanukah! Click here to start reading Welcome to City Hall Watcher Thanks for subscribing to Matt Elliott’s City Hall Watcher newsletter! It sure is nice to be in your inbox. You will start receiving weekly newsletters every Monday around 5 p.m. You can also log in to the website to read the full archives and other posts as they are published. Like this newsletter? Please share it. It’s an independent publication in the perilous world of journalism focused on municipal government. None of this is easy. But it is fun. Share City Hall Watcher — Matt Elliott @GraphicMatt / graphicmatt@gmail.com / CityHallWatcher.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
michelle-c-ward.bsky.social
We're hiring for multiple open rank positions in the broad areas of biochemistry, molecular biology, and computational biology. With the recruitment of a new chair our Departmental strengths now include nuclear architecture, genomics and ancient DNA.
jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/676677/b...
Biology Faculty Opportunities (Open Rank) - Galveston, Texas job with University of Texas Medical Branch | 676677
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UTMB Health invites applications for multiple tenure-track positions at all ranks; assistant,
jobs.sciencecareers.org
December 23, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
amutepiggy.bsky.social
any movie is a christmas movie if you simply give birth to the Savior while watching it
December 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Bazaar understands the relationship between outdated angular plane requirements and the housing crisis.
Mountain Zoom in
December 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
boxbrown.bsky.social
heavily redacted peanuts
December 20, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
durrell.bsky.social
Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year
December 20, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
annabower.bsky.social
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
News Team, Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier. I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight. Sharyn
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Looking forward to the new recycling regime in Ontario starting 1 January.

Waste disposal, now brought to you by the same people who brought you Ottawa's Confederation Line and Toronto's Finch West LRT. It's gonna be great
December 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Anyone have a trusted recipe for a simple egg casserole? I want to make it both with and without turkey sausage.
December 20, 2025 at 1:35 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Any suggested scholarship about how graduate student expectations of faculty mentors differ by gender?
December 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
leastactionhero.bsky.social
i’m at the taco bell
i’m at the urgent care
i’m at the combination taco bell and urgent care
Sign: TACO BELL / URGENT CARE
June 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
This looks good but I don't want to buy Cocchi Americano or gentian or really any other new liqeurs or aperitifs. Ideas to replace? I have Lillet, vermouth, Amaro Nonino, Cointreau www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/snow...
Snowy Negroni
The snowy Negroni keeps the balanced bitter and sweet flavors of the classic cocktail, but gives it a chic, crystal-clear holiday makeover.
www.tasteofhome.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
parkermolloy.com
Back in July, he was on PBS trying to suggest that the whole Epstein thing was overblown and people should move on. Gee, I wonder why! www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
David Brooks: Yes, I can't believe anybody — people are voting on this. Like, there are some QAnon people who are upset. And there are people in the Trump administration who did exactly what Jonathan said. But I just can't believe any vote — people vote and they make decisions about politics based on their real lives, not some crazy conspiracy theory. And every August, we — Washington goes crazy with some stupid story. And then in September, we think, what was that all about? And so this year, we're a little early. We're doing it in July. But the idea that there's something there incriminating Donald Trump, his friendship with Epstein ended in 2004. The Democrats, Joe Biden administration, they had these files for four years. You think, if there had been something, you think they would have done something. The Justice Department, the courts, they have all said there's nothing actionable here. And so the problem is that — what Jonathan described, and then that Donald Trump went ballistic about it and ordered his own administration to somehow solve the problem. And then the underlying problem is that America seems to go through child abuse panics with some regularity. When I was a baby reporter, there was something called the McMartin preschool case in Manhattan Beach, California, where an entire preschool was accused of this gigantic sex ring with children and the trial that went on for years before everybody was acquitted because there was nothing there. But there's something about child abuse which is so horrific, it seems to captures people's minds and especially conspiracy mongers. (Crosstalk) David Brooks: Yes. Jonathan Capehart: And so that's also what we shouldn't lose sight of in this whole conversation. While, politically-, in Washington, we're all talking about how this has damaged the president, how Democrats are trying to take — use it to their advantage. At the root of this were girls as young as 12 who were trafficked and abused by Jeffrey Epstein and by Ghislaine Maxwell. And that should — we should never lose sight of that. David Brooks: Yes, that's a good point. And that's one of the reasons they don't want to release the grand jury, because it's incriminating sometimes to the witnesses, to their families, pictures of them with their faces blacked out, with their clothing on. So that's a very good point. Geoff Bennett: And I hear you say this does not represent a shift in the loyalty calculus among Donald Trump's core supporters. David Brooks: I would be shocked. I would be shocked. But there's obviously an active group around MAGA itself that they care. But I — people vote based on their lives, not on anything else.
December 18, 2025 at 5:43 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
It's about ethics in pedo journalism
parkermolloy.com Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 8d
David Brooks, who wrote in the NYT last month, "The Epstein Story? Count Me Out" is... in the latest Epstein photo dump published by @oversightdemocrats.house.gov.

He should absolutely be fired by NYT for this. Major conflict of interest that he didn't disclose.
December 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Glad that I never quite got around to muting [Brooks] so I can still see this news
parkermolloy.com Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 8d
David Brooks, who wrote in the NYT last month, "The Epstein Story? Count Me Out" is... in the latest Epstein photo dump published by @oversightdemocrats.house.gov.

He should absolutely be fired by NYT for this. Major conflict of interest that he didn't disclose.
December 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
thehighsign.bsky.social
Second worst thing that ever happened to JFK
December 18, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
davidasivak.bsky.social
Come be my colleague @SFU ! Call is out for Canada Impact+ Research Chairs (Assoc Prof/Prof stage)
www.sfu.ca/vpacademic/a...
Rolling review of initial applications begins Jan 19
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs
www.sfu.ca
December 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Grantwashing!
natematias.bsky.social J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 8d
Should scientists apply to OpenAI's fund for research on AI & mental health? Should policymakers consider it a credible safety effort?

Avriel Epps & I see it as "grantwashing," and it's an insult to anyone whose loved one's death involved chatbots. We explain:

www.techpolicy.press/beware-of-op...
Beware of OpenAI's 'Grantwashing' on AI Harms | TechPolicy.Press
J. Nathan Matias and Avriel Epps say OpenAI's announced research funding is the perfect corporate action to make sure we don't find answers for years.
www.techpolicy.press
December 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
I just texted someone, "Put in the newspaper that I got mad, I don't care".

So how's your day going?
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
December 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
graphicmatt.com
On the Science Centre closure, the provincial government "claimed the roof was imminently about to collapse. We now know that the roof has not collapsed winter after winter. In fact, the roof has more integrity than the Ford government itself," says Councillor Josh Matlow.
December 17, 2025 at 10:54 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
Housing Action Plan 2023–2026 Program 2, Project 2, Phase 2, Stage 1, Part 1 passes!

Can't wait for Program 2, Project 2, Phase 2, Stage 1, Part 2!!!
graphicmatt.com Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · 9d
All motions CARRY via show of hands on the avenues study of Ward 9 and Ward 11. The item CARRIES 22-1, opening the door to more density along avenues in those wards.
December 17, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Michael Hoffman
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
I saw a video recently where someone adapted their North American electric vehicle charger to heat a kettle at Brit speeds. It was so beautiful 🥲🇬🇧
My car charger can boil water really fast
YouTube video by Technology Connections
youtu.be
December 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
So do modern Hebrew speakers mostly pronounce ח/כ the same? I learned them that way, but I increasingly see romanizations that distinguish between ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨ẖ⟩ and find it disconcerting.
December 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM