Elf M. Sternberg
elfsternberg.bsky.social
Elf M. Sternberg
@elfsternberg.bsky.social
Husband to a gorgeous wife, father to two great kids, greying leatherfairy, infamous furry, and world-class software engineer. If you can read this, you're running code I wrote.
Omaha and I went to see the Broadway tour of Spamalot! It felt... stale. The bits that were good are not very new, and the bits that are new are not very good. If you grew up watching Monty Python, it's kinda dull.
February 16, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Womp, womp. The FCC determined that Bad Bunny sang the radio-sanitized versions of his songs and did not use profanity during the NFL half-time show. Republicans' complaints have been dismissed.

www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...
FCC Reaches Final Decision On Bad Bunny's Halftime Show
The FCC faced calls to "investigate" Bad Bunny's Super Bowl 60 halftime show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. U.S. Congressman Randy Fine called for the FCC to look into and ultimately pu...
www.yahoo.com
February 15, 2026 at 8:02 PM
The only saving grace is that autocrats don't want competent people. They want loyal people. Pirro is where she is because she's incompetent. Her loyalty let her find an "alternative career advancement path."

www.politico.com/news/magazin...
‘Stunning’: Jeanine Pirro’s Failure to Indict Democrats Is a Big Deal
The U.S. attorney is stumbling in Trump’s revenge tour — and it’s a sign of more struggles to come.
www.politico.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Measles outbreak in South Carolina reaches 950. Conservatives say this is the price of freedom.

www.wyff4.com/article/meas...
Measles outbreak in South Carolina reaches 950 cases
There are currently 186 people in quarantine and nine in isolation.
www.wyff4.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Taking sildenafil (viagra) regularly may be good for your cardiovascular system. But taking it every day? That would be hard.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02...
www.telegraph.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Wait, WHAT!? Erika Kirk, fucking Charlie Kirk's WIDOW, the woman arranging the "Traditional White Women in Leadership" conference, is being credibly accused of grooming a fifteen year-old girl with flirtatious and salacious messages and gifts.

www.msn.com/en-us/lifest...
MSN
www.msn.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
It’s helpful to think that LLM responses that *do* appear to conform to consensus reality are due to a cognitive bias on the part of the observer
LLM responses which do not reflect consensus reality & facts are produced via the Same Process which generate responses which *Do* broadly conform to consensus reality & facts.

The Same Processes.

The Same Ones.

"Hallucination" is just a word to distance yourself from the outputs you don't like.
How many times, in how many contexts, from how many internal and external researchers, or from how many CEO's are people going to have to receive this message before they believe it:

"Hallucinations" are an inherent part of the large language model architecture.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
September 8, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
I have been saying this for 3 years now; it is evident from even a theorerical understanding of these systems' operations. But ppl keep claiming it's not true or not important, or could be patched over, & so I keep hoping each time an "AI" company CEO comes out & admits will be the one that sticks
September 21, 2025 at 8:29 PM
At least she's not six times more likely to be shot by her husband with that gun than she is to ever use it in self-defense. That's the only hopeful aspect to this story.
More queer women are getting guns in response to MAGA violence ➡️ https://bit.ly/3MHvRXC

📷 Getty, Netflix
February 15, 2026 at 7:40 PM
It represents only 61% of American women?
Noticing a pattern at Erika Kirk’s upcoming event
February 15, 2026 at 7:27 PM
One horrifying thought that occurs to me: so many men may be embracing AI because they understand this, that AIs reduce the demand for mid-tier knowledge work, which they hope will force women into more traditional roles and stances.
Countries with falling fertility rates are those where knowledge work opened up vast opportunities for women, the economy shifted to expect their contribution, but the existing social forces also shifted to cement high patriarchy and deprive women of equal standing: www.nber.org/papers/w3331...
Babies and the Macroeconomy
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
February 15, 2026 at 7:18 PM
I find this a fascinating read. Xi Jinping has been purging China's military leadership. There is strong evidence that leadership was deeply corrupt: selling favors and rank, and siphoning state resources to private ends.

The rot is apparently everywhere.

breakingdefense.com/2026/02/chin...
Why Xi Jinping has been purging China's military leadership, and what may come next - Breaking Defense
A military purge of the People's Liberation Army leadership has been underway for the last two years, with potentially major consequences.
breakingdefense.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Countries with falling fertility rates are those where knowledge work opened up vast opportunities for women, the economy shifted to expect their contribution, but the existing social forces also shifted to cement high patriarchy and deprive women of equal standing: www.nber.org/papers/w3331...
Babies and the Macroeconomy
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
February 15, 2026 at 6:40 PM
"Most of our freshmen students are functionally illiterate." Reading books to learn dense chunks of knowledge, to engage with the work, has fallen off a cliff. We are entering a post-literate society, and that means a post-intellectual society. jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-o...
The dawn of the post-literate society
And the end of civilisation
jmarriott.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:34 PM
The COVID vaccinations work far better than we had any right to expect. The record of deaths and disability from COVID in France over the past four years show that the vaccine reduces your risk of death from COVID by 75% and your risk of long COVID by over 99%.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination and 4-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Adults in France
This cohort study uses the data from all adults aged 18 to 59 years living in France on November 1, 2021, to evaluate whether there is an association of receipt of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with long-t...
jamanetwork.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:25 PM
I have literally spoken with people who believe that sex outside of a marriage is a sin, so trying to prevent God's punishments for it is also sinful. When you ask if women should be forced to have seven children just to watch five die as punishment for Eve's sin, they don't have an answer for you.
It's estimated that 55 million Americans are infected with some form of herpes. 1 in 6 with genital herpes
February 15, 2026 at 6:40 AM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
In terms of what cures are being lost:

- Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis
- herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis
- shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease
February 13, 2026 at 5:44 AM
Furries have themselves the rudiments of an entire goddamned polis. Meanwhile, Meta no longer talks about "Meta," but they're very proud of having given their Corporate Memphis-flavored avatars feet.
I took a ton of photos in VRC tonight. :3
February 15, 2026 at 6:35 AM
A rejection of "cosmopolitanism" is to believe in the eternity of war. To believe that there exists inherent qualities that separate human beings from one another to such an extent that they will always divide into tribes and always do so for the purpose of conquest.

It is anti-christ.
Reading Marco Rubio’s speech about how “western civilization” is about embracing God, rejecting the foolish ideal of cosmopolitanism, and celebrating the genius of bands like The Beatles who were founded by the guy who wrote that song about a world with no countries or the concept of heaven & hell.
February 15, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
By spending time on Jeffrey Epstein's island, Howard Lutnick interacted with an immensely rich man and his harem of young girls. This perfectly prepared him to do deals with the royals of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. A masterstroke by President Donald J. Trump!

by Marc Thiessen
February 11, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Now's the time for me to find that transwoman awkward-harem curling story I shelved years ago. It's the next big thing, I'm tellin' ya.
the ratio of how many pages of gay hockey romance I have read in the past two months to how many hard facts about the sport of hockey I actually possess reflects very poorly on me
February 15, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
Reposting this for Valentine's Day.
Might draw something new for the occasion later today if I have the time.
February 14, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Holy shiznit, my gay genes just lit up like a disco ball being hit with neon and lasers. This is awesome.
And if you haven’t seen this searing performance from the 1971 Oscars, you ain’t dug nothing yet.

youtu.be/lPE3C0GpDoA?...
Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft live (1971)
YouTube video by CharlieKappa
youtu.be
February 15, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
The second you see this cover, a wah pedal starts playing. It’s science.
February 14, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Elf M. Sternberg
Fishbone is red hot! 5 days into their kickstarter and they are 95% funded! But everyone should hop on this chance to help them make a new album. www.kickstarter.com/projects/fis...
Fishbone - Powered by the People
We are recording a new album. This Kickstarter funds the upfront costs of recording New Album + Touring Gear + Vinyl Manufacturing.
www.kickstarter.com
February 15, 2026 at 12:52 AM