I can't overstate how useful modern chatbots are for building apps and services. In the last week it helped create 3 custom applications - work and hobby related - that I would have never had the time to do and/or would have been too expensive for me to justify someone else doing over a month.

I’m training for a double centennial in July (Seattle to Portland) and one amazing thing is how drastically appetite changes transitioning from a sedentary lifestyle to burning 3000-4000 kCals a week biking 150 miles and climbing 4000-6000 feet. You crave and enjoy simple foods way more.

Being a holocaust denier is probably a lot like watching The Zone of Interest without sound or subtitles.

When I see the utter contempt Trump and MAGA show for political rivals, it reminds me often of the primary architect for this type of scorched earth politics. Newt Gingrich. Oh and he also historically relied on ultra wealthy mega donors including *drum roll* billionaire Zionist Adelson.

CBS is being retooled by a professional red-piller for frustrated liberals. Another point for the billionaires.

I see people fixate about Trump's health, but it's worth remembering who's waiting in the wings www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRP...

Went to #eccc this last weekend and the kids did cosplay. Masks and nail / needle were printed, assembled, and painted by me and my wife did the cloaks.

One of the dumbest things MAHA supports is the gutting of public research funding. The reasoning is that science needs to be realigned along cultural axes they identify with, and away from “deep state and corporate” influences. This reflects a complete misunderstanding of how public science works.

A good article on the shape and form of exploiting exhaustion on the left to red pill people who would normally identify as on the left. It’s the modern type of grift that exploits distrust to reorient trust towards the worst possible people. www.huffpost.com/entry/bari-w...

Pro tip to Laura Loomer who deleted this: The Internet is written in indelible ink.

www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... "Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery" "Who am I to tell you what your child should put in [their] body?" The party that is anti pro-choice and adopted slavery-denialism misappropriates pro-choice and anti-slavery.

This is what evil looks like. Using people as political leverage, just because you can. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/...

I think everybody is about a year too late talking about Trump being a sexual predator to get distracted from the paid masked thugs, the billionaire tax cuts, the dismantling of public investment and support, and about everything else. Good job America. I’m diagnosing you with ADHD.

It begins. Get ready to start having to pay premium to generate those Ghibli stylized images. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

“They took my cousin. He informed them he is a US citizen and his passport was in his pocket. We don’t know where they took him.” This isn’t about deporting undocumented immigrants this is about going after people who are not white!

Kristi Noem, Dr. Phil, and ICE went to this woman’s home in Huntington Park, CA at 6am to make a spectacle and you want me to be satisfied with @governor.ca.gov flowery words? Watch. It’s disgusting. Noem belongs in prison.

A little more on RFK's new vaccine committee: Malone - claimed vaccines cause AIDS Kulldorff - promoted mass COVID infection Meissner - opposed vaccines and masks for kids Pebsworth - worked at antivax nonprofit Levi - FL Surgeon General cited his paper when recommending not to get COVID vax

How can one advocate for state rights, gun rights to protect against abuses of the federal government, and personal freedom at the same time be pleased with the federal government’s response in LA? There are a few words that come to mind.

There’s some rhetoric going about that Xitter is better for science than Bluesky because the distribution of engagement is better in terms of higher numbers. Fundamental issues with Xitter aside, this is dopamine-optimizing behavior that misses the point of scientific engagement.

people need to internalize, very quickly, that federal research grants are a hypercompetitive contracting process not charity, and that what Uncle Sam gets in return for that money is American dominance in the future

World’s richest man using AI and social media to shape public thought? If you didn’t see this coming, then I don’t know what to say. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/x...

What if American Idol and Shark Tank are shaping our politics more than the evening news? Contrarian culture columnist Meredith Blake explains how reality TV fuels belief in the American dream—and erodes support for taxing the rich.

TSA has mastered the skill of “ doublespeak when describing a negative outcome like “80% compliance”. You can’t even schedule an appointment for an EDL in the Seattle area right now because of demand. If I didn’t have a passport right now I’d be screwed. www.usatoday.com/story/travel...

I only started using hydra because of team codebases, but I’m astounded how well it generates spaghetti code.

The US Department of Transportation is significantly loosening crash reporting requirements, according to a new framework released today. It’s a boon for the automotive industry as a whole—and for Elon Musk’s Tesla in particular.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

I’m at #iclr2025 tomorrow with @martinklissarov.bsky.social presenting our poster on the modeling capabilities of LLMs for sequential decision making. iclr.cc/virtual/2025...

I can understand people being frustrated with the lack of a clear cause of autism, despite decades of earnest multinational and well-funded research. The lack of a clear cause can feed into the belief that there's a conspiracy, but unclear results can really just be hard reality in (heath) sciences.

I’m just waiting for the “Mission Accomplished” photo

While the Internet gleefully exploits the ability of large models to generate images that mimic artistic styles with renewed frenzy, one should wonder if this isn’t moment of reckoning, as the subject is a very wealthy and well connected studio situated in a country with no fair use doctrine.

ICE has abducted an Iranian mechanical engineering doctoral student at the University of Alabama. thecrimsonwhite.com/120415/news/...

How to vaporize your remaining credibility with one tweet.

NEWS: Last night, the Department of Homeland Security detained a Palestinian who helped lead the Columbia encampment. Agents told him his visa was revoked. He said he had a green card. They were confused—then said that was revoked too. His attorney demanded a warrant. Agents hung up instead.

Congratulations! You’re all now beta testers! But you can’t opt out and it’s on public services. www.engadget.com/ai/doge-has-...

BREAKING: Elon Musk's rocket explosion nearly hit a commercial flight. This kind of content is being downranked on X. Please share it here. This is so dangerous.

Dress Code Drama at the Oval Office zezvaz.com/cartoons

Remember what they mean when they say “efficiency”. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

The straightforward reason public research is under attack is the administration doesn’t believe in it. The vision is to privatize and close, moving the bulk of the benefit to shareholders. Musk in particular is an evangelist of this ideology, ironically being a big beneficiary of public research.

Our paper on AI feedback was accepted to #ICLR2025 as a poster. Great work by @martinklissarov.bsky.social , @bmazoure.bsky.social , and Alex Toshev arxiv.org/abs/2410.05656