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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 2h

By analogy to LLMs, that would mean something like reading in tokens that are not in the input.

But no one uses it like that. They use it for the model outputting tokens which contain facts that the LLM doesn’t have.

This is a completely different problem! Confabulation? I dunno.

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 2h

I really hate the use of “hallucination“ in the AI community. It obscures the nature of the problem.

Perception *is* constructed, but it’s usually grounded in reference to the senses. If it’s not, and you perceive something you don’t sense then you might be hallucinating.

⛈️ Ascended NPC Alex ⛈️ @lastnpcalex.agency · 14h

that is, in some way, aren't we all hallucinating? the sense that my sensorium happens "at the same time" is simply false. sound and sight and touch reaching my brain at different times. all experience a hallucination... and yet, that isn't useful for understanding how we are good at prediction!

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3h

I gotta say there is something about the frog suit. A virtuoso tailored it.

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 14h

The inflatables have made it to Broadview.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3h

I will say that the federal bureaucracy has worked as a sort of ark that has carried within it an optimistic mode of American life.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 17h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 6h

I wonder if this effect is so strong In US because both parties have policy platforms which simply won’t work as desired.

Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · 12h

Thermostatic public opinion, reacting against the governing regime, like old faithful.
globalaffairs.org/research/pub...

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 15h

input buffers are already a sort of transparent proto version of this.

I was thinking the other day of making a fighting game where one could explicitly hold the input buffer and then execute the sequence when you desired.

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

There’s something worth pointing out here that Denmark doesn’t really have any incredibly dense parts. So the average is the same, but the median experience is pretty different.

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 1d

Fun fact: despite the enormous land mass, the population-weighted density of Canada — basically the density experienced by the average person — is the same as Denmark and close to the Netherlands.

Canada and Denmark are 3,000 people per km², while the Netherlands is 3,400/km².

Mapping Population Density Across the Globe

Explore the detailed geography of population across the globe with interactive mapping and statistics. Identify global megacity regions and the growth and diversity of urban forms. Data is from the Gl...

luminocity3d.org

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge

BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

It’s pronounced cyclist.

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

One thing I am wondering if we’ll see is a kinda judicial nullification where lower courts act as if Supreme Court rulings don’t apply in their jurisdiction for various reasons.

(Which is sort of the converse of the Supreme Court saying district courts cant make nation wide injunctions)

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d

District court judges, appointed by presidents from Reagan to Biden (including Trump I), seem to understand the assignment more than most law firms. This is curious because the data shows that lawyers as a whole are more liberal on average than federal judges

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 3d

Perry asks directly whether the feds started the alleged violence in Chicago.

She asks whether it matters if the inability to execute the law was "caused by the federal agents."

Hamilton: "No, your honor."

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

the move to internalize customs revenue within the executive was telegraphed even before the previous near shutdown.

If there had been resistance then, the money would not have been collected yet.

As is, now it has and everything becomes a procedural question.

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 1d

So the Dems need to be clear again that any FMer carrying out direction to implement mil paychecks in the absence of appropriations will be subject to anti-deficiency act criminal penalties, because to be clear even with the reconciliation slush fund BS there is no way to legally so this, period

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

Mud Wizard

Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 1d

Future historians: As their computers ate and destroyed all their languages we can only assume that what happened was magic became real and that's how they defeated global genocidal fascism

On the left, the German Mud Wizard in their druid cloak pushes a German riot cops who is already stuck in the mud. On the left are 3 Portland Antifa frogs in green inflatable cartoonish costumes and one black frog with white frog bones on him like the antifa frog skeleton.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 4d

Tomorrow, we will talk about this photo.

A red Ford Pinto hatchback angles across a narrow gravel forest service road, a blue enduro motorcycle on a rear hitch carrier. Tall firs frame the view. Beyond them, a towering ash cloud from a pyroclastic density flow billows skyward. Photo by Richard Kent Lasher, May 18, 1980.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

infinite brians @infinitebrians.neocities.org · 2d

this sword appeared to me in a vision

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 2d

IMHO Montesquieu’s mechanistic explanation remains the best mental model of how this works.

There a great gears and small gears…all driven by social impulse. The size of the gear is less important than the mechanism it is enmeshed in.

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 2d

Lot of people confidently missing the point in the replies to this: if every cent of Elon musks net wealth was liquid, which it isn’t, that’s not even enough money to run the govt for two weeks. The problem less that they have money, and more how they use that money in destabilizing ways.

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 2d

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 3d

My daughter has a school assignment to write a scary story in just a few lines, and I showed her this from Clickhole, which is some of the most efficient horror scripting I've ever read.

Clickhole headline: "Incredible! We Asked These Astronauts What It's Like to Be In Space"

Astronaut Barry Wilmore, pictured in an orange spacesuit, says "“You never know true beauty until you see Earth from space, or true terror until you hear someone knocking on the space station door from outside. You look through the porthole and see an astronaut, but all your crew is inside and accounted for. You use the comm to ask who it is and he says he’s Ramirez returning from a repair mission, but Ramirez is sitting right next to you in the command module and he’s just as confused as you are. When you tell the guy this over the radio he starts banging on the door louder and harder, begging you to let him in, saying he’s the real Ramirez. Meanwhile, the Ramirez inside with you is pleading to keep the airlock shut. It really puts life on Earth into perspective.”

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3d

Damn.

Corel Gallery Clipart @clipart.bsky.social · Aug 24

CHICAGO.BMF

The Chicago skyline at night, the buildings aglow with lights and power. An airplane is silhouetted against the dark blue sky, one wing eclipsing a brilliant full moon. The view is stunning, a testament to humanity and its glorious achievements. This will be the last full night of electricity. This will be the last plane to land safely at O’Hare. Or anywhere, for that matter. The passengers will disembark, jockey for a good spot at the luggage carousel, call their Ubers, and it will be the last time for all of it.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 4d

had never before considered that the inflatable costumes offer pepper ball protection

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 7d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

for every one of these stories there’s a My Teammate Used His Whole Paycheck To Buy Literal Meth And Wrote 43 Pages Over Night Which Earned Us All Fs.

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 4d

honestly the ballsiest thing I’ve ever done was to turn in a 25 page Milton paper I had started & finished the night before it was due, along with my 2 friends who had done the same, AND submitted our equal-length group chat of running Milton shitposting we’d been doing while writing. we all got As

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 4d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

Ban cars.

dillo (yakubian mamba) @dillo.media · 4d

i will vote for anybody who fixes the headlight brightness situation

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 5d

The physical momentum of the ball is one of the interesting points… so the latter seems more fun.

Like you could spin it very fast then hover fingers near it almost like a lathe.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Brian Floyd @brianmfloyd.bsky.social · 5d

the guy who caught cal raleigh’s homer was wearing a shirt that said dump 61 here and he immediately took it off and had a shirt that said dump 62 here

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 6d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 6d

Flow is basically garbage as a concept but, providing for that… it seems pretty obvious for coaches, teachers, etc would have some sense of distributed agency that would have an aspect of affect.

faculty.washington.edu/aragon/pubs/...

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 7d

the thing that’s frustrating about Canada is that it has systems which are supposed to do this… but they are underfunded.

So everyone gets one grants are handed out round robin.

And then big grants are given, but not sustained. So labs rise and fall every few years…

So much pointless destruction.

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 8d

Research also shows that spreading smaller amounts of funding out over more researchers generally delivers better scientific outcomes per dollar spent than focusing bigger grants on fewer researchers.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding

Agencies that fund scientific research must choose: is it more effective to give large grants to a few elite researchers, or small grants to many researchers? Large grants would be more effective only...

journals.plos.org

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