In 1981, when I was ten, I visited Christchurch, New Zealand with my parents. I loved birds, especially albatrosses, and learned that tantalizingly close—360 km to the south—was the royal albatross colony in Dunedin. It was not meant to be that trip. But 44 years later, I finally made it happen.

In 1981, when I was ten, I visited Christchurch, New Zealand with my parents. I loved birds, especially albatrosses, and learned that tantalizingly close—360 km to the south—was the royal albatross colony in Dunedin. It was not meant to be that trip. But 44 years later, I finally made it happen.

So apparently the Map Equation (infoMap) can now legally drive in the states. When we developed this approach, I thought it would be an incremental advance that would not not have staying power. Martin was more optimistic—and he was right. Take a look at Martin's new tutorial!

Landing in Dunedin Aotearoa in about 90 minutes for the start of a trip that represents the culmination of a dream I’ve had since I was ten years old.

Even if the pedophile thing had never come to light I’d find it stunning how many powerful people and supposed intellectuals were more than happy to tone-match their email with a sixty year old man who Beavis and Butthead would have immediately dismissed as an immature loser.

New York Times columnist visit somewhere in the the midwest without acting like you reenlisted for a third tour in 'nam challenge. Bonus points: guess the columnist.

And the Kennedy Center is shut down because of construction.

Bro. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Pleased to say that Carl Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) will be speaking at the University of Canterbury on 13th Feb! He is hosted by @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social come see him at noon in Jack Erskine 441!

How my cut is going.

Tech journalists try googling the founder or talking to literally anyone with a clue before writing a breathless story about the latest bullshit challenge.

26. As you can tell, I'm really fond of Alfa Romeos. I both tracked and daily-drove one—a 2018 Giulia Ti-Sport—for years until a hit-and-run driver totaled it in a parking lot while I was inside the grocery store. Below: racing at the Ridge in WA State.

Tonight's beautiful murder of crows. ❤️ 🪶

Missing Bill Morrissey tonight.

5 classes in college that most influenced me intro to labor relations (why I am a union member) by @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social Calling BS by @carlbergstrom.com Sex, Gender and Disability by Joanne Woiak Intro to special education by Sarah Arvey Tov(why I went into sped) Assessment by Katie Lewis

19. I desperately want to know. Who woke up in the morning one morning and was like "screw it, I think I'm going to make this." Michelangelo?

And worse yet, that during a pandemic they should wear....masks.

Bitch ass Nazis need to wear masks but I spent two years dealing with people threatening to kill my family because I posted on main that people should get a COVID vaccine.

State-sponsored white supremacist terror.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said House Democrats will demand that CBP be banned from squaring the circle, trisecting angles with straightedge and compass.

Weekend at Bernie's ass motherfucker isn't weighing shit.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said House Democrats will demand that ICE be banned from the use of tactical nuclear weapons without a judge's order.

View from a hotel room, Milan.

I wouldn't wish an hour-long podcast featuring Russ Douthat and Jay Bhattacharya on my worst enemy but let's simply say that Podcast Jay still appears more concerned about perceived slights for his COVID crackpottery than with protecting US biomedical science from a full-on Trump-and-RFK onslaught.

The reason journalists are so particular about what’s off the record and about granting anonymity is that many of us take that very seriously. If I promise to protect your identity, I’m not just saying I won’t print your name. I’m saying I will go to jail for refusing a court order to name you.

It's easy to think that Pam Bondi and others are losing when they post names, photos, etc., of anti-ICE protestors, because public sentiment strongly favors the protests. But they're not interested in upvote ratio; they're signaling to a few extremists. This the logic of stochastic terrorism

And I think this is the one strength of large language models. They let us instruct computers in our own natural language, instead of having to learn to speak their language. Quote below from our lesson 4: thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-4-com...

Shout-out to PowerPoint for flagging the word "bespoke" as too difficult for my presumably idiot audience.

Today Musk is on about plans for the Tesla Robotaxi. Q: But how do you hail one? A:

Take four minutes out of your day.

1. From lung cancer to climate change, capitalist governments are notoriously slow to recognize and remedy the negative externalities generated by corporate activity. Generative AI is no exception. Large language models are proving a disaster in numerous spheres of public life.

What a fucking disaster. Not only are OpenAI and the likes unleashing this shit on the world, they are deliberately leaning into the harms that their business model causes with products like Prism.

18. The sublime 1954 Sportiva concept again. I don't understand why people steal old paintings when they could steal this instead.

The perfect description of OpenAI's new Prism tool.

Someone should write a book about numerical bullshit.

1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded. Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.

“The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors. It’s vibe coding, but for science.”

Currently taking the Trump-mandated civil rights training for our university. So far none of the quiz questions have addressed whether I am allowed to execute a non-violent, legal observer in the street—but I'm prepared.

Pretty sure that's more or less what Thomas Jefferson said in his letter to Williams Stevens Smith. You know, the letter about how the people have an equal obligation not to rise up against tyranny as tyranny has not to be tyrannical....

Very nice thread about our piece on AI "peer" review.

Should have listened to me while you had the chance, Greg.

15. The Bertone-designed Giulia Sprint Speciale Prototype doesn't quite have the lines of that '54 I posted earlier, but who's complaining?

Fab museum. Visited there in 2018 for a feature www.evo.co.uk/alfa-romeo/2...

From the infamous Rager In A Manger PPV

Baby Jesus Tapping Out A Sheep Bernardino Luini, early 16th century.

Yesterday, I awoke to news of another ICE killing in MN. On Bluesky, the conversation was deeply critical of ICE. But I wanted to see how things were going on X. Surprisingly, the attempts there to blame the victim weren't getting as much traction as I suspected. So I wrote a thing.

Meanwhile in the sidebar at the New York Times...

It appears that this legend owns a little bookstore — and you can order books from him instead of Bezos. Link in next post.