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Michael Ekstra Scary

@md.ekstrandom.net

1.9K followers 860 following 1.9K posts

Info sci prof @ Drexel, trying to keep the machines (esp. RecSys & IR) from learning bigotry and discrimination. ADHDS9. Usually self-propelled. Opinions those of the Vulcan Science Academy. 🐰x2. 🏡 https://md.ekstrandom.net 🧪 https://inertial.science

md.ekstrandom.net

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 6h

Curse heard on a Philly street: “I hope you lose like the Eagles.”

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 8h

YES! Very similar thoughts watching Ralph. And loved Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 8h

I dearly love Tron, and enjoyed Tron: Legacy, but I think this is correct.

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 8h

Tron is such an 80s thing, it's hard to make relevant for the 21st century. It's all about arcade games and mainframes, and software that was written primarily by a single coder. The actual story of Tron is silly AF, which is one of its main joys.

But it should never have been revived.

Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 12h

The thesis is we're in a world information war waged by authoritarians disassembling ways of knowing that contradict truth-by-authoritarian-personal-gnosis using lies and synthetic media not to confuse people with false evidence but to coerce participation in the make-believe via affective resonance

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Stellaween? @antlervel.vet · Apr 23

It’s really funny that The Art of War is treated as this like alpha male book when it’s clearly meant to be read by ancient Chinese failsons because it’s all “please don’t forget you have to feed your troops” and “if someone asks if you’re going to attack them consider lying about it”

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 15h

7 reasons to use Bayesian inference!
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/10/11/7...

7 reasons to use Bayesian inference! | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 16h

This is… not good. At the same time these models are being sold as universal answer machines, they’re being tuned for both-sides-ism instead of factuality.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 16h

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 5d

Weird thing where people say “no one could have predicted it” when really what they mean is their political commitments and orientation were such that they ignored everyone who was predicting it

Sorry but “no one could have“ and you having your head stuck up your ass are two different situations

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Eric Goldman @ericgoldman.bsky.social · 1d

"The message is clear: Texas A&M does not permit teaching LGBT topics. Politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in Texas classrooms. Anyone who crosses this line may be fired on flimsy pretext"

www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

Why I Withdrew From My Dream Job

At Texas A&M, politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in classrooms.

www.chronicle.com

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Ariana Maher @airy.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry to go on, but remember translated manga in the 90s, where they'd flip all of the art out of some fear that Americans wouldn't adapt to right-to-left reading? But readers adapted quick and wanted manga unflipped. The human brain is built more complex than folks give it credit for.

Ariana Maher @airy.bsky.social · 1d

You'd think that lettering is a straightfoward design process -- copy text, draw a balloon, draw a tail, bam -- but depending on the language, culture, creative production, publishing industry, and readership habits, the design language evolves differently and readers adapt to that.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

Pope summed up my whole-ass research agenda.

Screenshot: "Free access to information is a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies, and for this reason, we are called to defend and guarantee it," he said.
"Current events call for particular
discernment and responsibility, and it is clear that the media has a crucial role in forming consciences and helping critical thinking".
The pope also spoke about the challenges facing news media with the rise of AI.
"Artificial intelligence is changing the way we receive information and communicate, but who directs it and for what purposes? We must be vigilant in order to ensure that technology does not replace human beings, and that the information and algorithms that govern it today are not in the hands of a few," he said.
He nominated "transparency of sources of ownership, accountability, quality and objectivity" as key to news media.

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 2d

a brutal night for Philly sports

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

Possibly after drinking the liquor.

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

I hate to contradict, but that’s flambé.

Duvet is a lawn sport where you use a mallet to hit a ball through wire hoops.

Mel @thegatesofmel.blacksky.app · 2d

No boo. That’s Timothèe Chalamet.

Duvet is when you put liquor in a hot pan and flames burst out.

LadiDadi @loki-013.bsky.social · 2d

Oh nah, you're thinking of richocet.

Duvet is that actor from Call me by your name that's dating Kylie Jenner

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

What in the… rubycentral.org/news/rubygem...

Rubygems.org AWS Root Access Event – September 2025

As part of standard incident-response practice, Ruby Central is publishing the following post-incident review to the public. This document summarizes the September 2025 AWS root-access event, what oc...

rubycentral.org

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

theorem: the real numbers hate you, specifically, in addition to being generally evil, and are continuously plotting to explode your intuitions and wreck your mathematics.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

a rabbit is standing on a carpet in front of a closet filled with clothes .

Alt: a rabbit zooms into a room and startles another rabbit that was sitting on the floor minding its own bunny business

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Haunted Nick Seaver @nickseaver.website · 2d

nothing like watching a presentation about ed tech tools to radicalize you against them

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

one angular coordinate is insufficient to capture my confusion.

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

is the blt Euclidean?

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

@nickseaver.website want to make sure you are aware of this important research.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

… wtf?

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.

They should feel bad.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

I also see this paradigm called “recourse-oriented”, and think it’s very promising for many important use cases.

Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com · 3d

He isn't an undocumented immigrant, not even an immigrant, a natural born US citizen. He's the second most streamed artist on Spotify, second only to Taylor Swift. A logical choice to play the Super Bowl, but Republicans are extremely mad about it. And absolutely everyone knows why. 2/2

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