This paper contains some good arguments about an issue that concerns me a lot when I hear my colleagues talking about LLM use in developing their research: Whose ideas are you presenting as your own? (Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)

The thing that annoys me is how the idea of "AI competency" is either hilariously empty OR an impossible bar for most undergraduate students. The weak version of this seems to be "showing students how to use ChatGPT and telling them that it can hallucinate." The strong version is an MA in ML.

the attack against jews in australia celebrating chanukah on the beach is fucking terrible and scary

‘They’re trying to get rich off it’: US contractors vie to rebuild Gaza, with ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ team in the lead

AS A PROFESSOR, I AM ASKING HOW ARE OUR STUDENTS SUPPOSED TO LEARN IN THESE CONDITIONS? HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GO TO SCHOOL AND TAKE EXAMS KNOWING SOMEONE MIGHT JUST SHOW UP WITH AN EASY TO ACQUIRE AUTOMATIC WEAPON? HOW??????????

Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is, in fact, a tortology

"Alicia Silverstone is a kittenish 18-year-old movie star whom lots of men want to sleep with." That's how an infamous Rolling Stone profile of Alicia Silverstone started. It didn't get better from there. open.substack.com/pub/gossipre...

You know what? I'm willing to empirically test this as many times as it takes to reach statistical certainty about any conclusions we reach

The thing you need to understand about the Right is that they are absolutely fine just plain burning down higher education if taking it over ideologically doesn’t work. They’re perfectly happy reducing it to ashes.

Grok is... grokking again

This is so perfect. In 2012 CPAC banned the John Birch Society. In 2023 they were welcomed back into the fold. And now here they are working together with TPUSA.

These people are insane fanatics, immune to reason and any sense of self-awareness. Brain-worms, all the way down.

And meanwhile, Musk says Tesla is three weeks from taking the safety operators out of the Austin robotaxis

online gambling is essentially legal and open money fixing and laundering at this point

House members who voted for the $901 billion military bill received four times as much money from military contractors as those who opposed it. www.stephensemler.com/p/congress-i...

This was a dumb thing to do, but the article gets a lot wrong. This was not a "device" in the nuclear weapons sense of an explosive without a delivery vehicle. It was not an explosive at all. I'll write a post. #nukesky

Fuck Bluesky for complying with this ID verification shit

these guys are very obviously a bunch of white nationalists and it is getting kind of old to watch them talk around it as if we don’t already know the deal

I am begging you

This is really solid investigative reporting from the Sun-Times. And a brutal expose of Greg Bovino, the cosplaying tough guy who has terrorized so many immigrants in Chicago. Read it all. chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

A tiny trial in New York has shown that personalized mRNA vaccines can provoke massive, lasting immune responses against pancreatic cancer, even as sweeping federal cuts now threaten the fragile labs required to produce them. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-breakthr...

She died of a postpartum hemorrhage. It's a common complication that affects about 1/100 births. I had one when giving birth to my youngest child, but because I gave birth with qualified medical personnel who had quick access to life-saving medication, I survived.

in case anyone was wondering wtf happened to @thelouvreof.bsky.social/Louvre of Bluesky: the creator got doxxed, bsky did nothing, and they decided to go out in a blaze of glory

One thing I'm a little worried about is how right-wing media and political figures are trying to leverage Newsom's posts. Let me explain.

Newsom doesn't actually care about trans kids. That's just a fact. Those posts were made mostly just to troll the right. The right... has responded to the "Sorry your daughter hates you, Elon" post with a LOT of rage, which is going to be used to further target trans people.

What's the biggest story in the country today? It's not Erika Kirk's town hall but the CBS website already has at least 14 stories on it and an entire special section on the home page. www.cbsnews.com

This right here? A 🧵 of insight

Utterly shameless

Good news.

Let's take a minute to discuss how hard it was to find pictures of rats that looked even remotely menacing. The stock photographers will not be caught taking pictures of rats that make them look scary. The shark photographers could learn a thing or two.

Yesterday, Spc Sarah Becstrom was laid to rest in West Virginia at a VA National Cemetery. Surprisingly none of the major major news media mention it. No flags were lower to half staff. Well the Convicted FElon keeps the news focus on him. www.wvva.com/2025/12/10/s...

Democratic leadership didn’t want to stick their necks out for him. The GOP didn’t want him even referred to as a “Maryland man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, his congressional representative fought for him. And we should never forget any of this. apnews.com/article/abre...

Ok but also who the fuck is betting on the next fed chair

Newly Unsealed Batch Of Epstein Estate Photos Contains Rare Holographic Dershowitz

The Right: preferred pronouns? I don’t have to respect that bullshit, I’m free to act as I like Also the Right: I demand you conform to my elaborate rituals designed to guard against me fucking you

what in the fuck

Cold Weather Advisory issued December 12 at 2:20PM CST until December 14 at 10:00AM CST by NWS Des Moines IA Additional Details Here.

Making an inspirational or touching video with generative A.I. is a malicious act. It creates greater negativity and more pessimism once it's discovered. It saps people of any hope or charity it may have briefly inspired. It creates a new viral lie that will never be fully contained or debunked.

Chavarria, a U.S. citizen, was held at the airport "for more than four hours and released only after he finally agreed to let the agents search his smartphone, tablet, and laptop computer. The agents...informed him that he had no Fourth Amendment right to resist." @pacificlegal.bsky.social is suing.

Sounds like the President wants a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.

I will never forgive RFK Jr. for what he’s done… never. The layers of hell he has unleashed in many different areas — not just healthcare — over the past two decades have caused so much damage, it’s overwhelming. He is one of the greatest villains of the 21st century.

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership position on a powerful spending panel following his pardon on federal corruption charges. | “We got ratified,” Cuellar told reporters following the vote.

On a tangential note, this is what it feels like to make small talk with neurotypicals.

1. For at least 10 years, Pepsi has conspired with Walmart to force up grocery prices. That’s the shocking evidence made public today in an unsealed FTC lawsuit. The suit was abandoned in May by the Trump FTC just before it was to be un-redacted. We went to court to get it unsealed & won.

6. Why does Pepsi do this? Walmart’s promise is: Keep us the king of our domain and we’ll make you the king of yours. Walmart helps Pepsi dominate the drink market in exchange for Pepsi ensuring that Walmart dominates groceries.

Graham Linehan has such little self-awareness he *really* doesn’t understand how totally unhinged he seems in his ‘woe is me’ batshit crazy ranting! 😬 He’s the ‘cautionary tale’ of what obsessive ‘gender critical’ transphobia leads to: no friends, no life, and spaghetti carbonara for one!