Rick Hass
@rwhass.bsky.social
Day Job: Associate Professor in the College of [oops this is a personal profile] at [Some School] in Philly, Yo!
Interests: applied statistics and theory, cognitive science and computation. Health is also good.
My employer approves of my dog posts
Interests: applied statistics and theory, cognitive science and computation. Health is also good.
My employer approves of my dog posts
I have good friends who are lawyers, and I respect them, but that first sentence shaky even if you're a lawyer using language-based logic. It is not a scientific sentence, in fact, it is an insane thing to say. No offense, but I'd rather a health expert lead the CDC rather than a law-talkin' guy
A maddening double standard from Kennedy's CDC.
RFK Jr. believes that NO studies are good enough to show that vaccines do not cause autism.
But he'll cite just about *anything* showing that vaccines might cause injury.
CDC exploits sci. uncertainty when convenient, and ignores it otherwise.
RFK Jr. believes that NO studies are good enough to show that vaccines do not cause autism.
But he'll cite just about *anything* showing that vaccines might cause injury.
CDC exploits sci. uncertainty when convenient, and ignores it otherwise.
November 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I have good friends who are lawyers, and I respect them, but that first sentence shaky even if you're a lawyer using language-based logic. It is not a scientific sentence, in fact, it is an insane thing to say. No offense, but I'd rather a health expert lead the CDC rather than a law-talkin' guy
The enshitification of Adobe Acrobat is getting exponentially worse. It now takes at least 30 seconds to load, usually including a good 15 seconds of the (Mac) pinwheel of death. Then, you get like 3 AI-assistant pop ups. I just want a friggin PDF to be accessible! No I don't want to use Preview....
November 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
The enshitification of Adobe Acrobat is getting exponentially worse. It now takes at least 30 seconds to load, usually including a good 15 seconds of the (Mac) pinwheel of death. Then, you get like 3 AI-assistant pop ups. I just want a friggin PDF to be accessible! No I don't want to use Preview....
It’s starting to feel like the universe is bending towards “well 2025 is over, and you DID name it Project 2025, so I’m sorry but I’m gonna have to derail this bogus-ass train”
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
It’s starting to feel like the universe is bending towards “well 2025 is over, and you DID name it Project 2025, so I’m sorry but I’m gonna have to derail this bogus-ass train”
Even I forget that we should be focusing all of this energy on his victims. Great little piece on that here www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Epstein survivor condemns Trump for calling file release fight a ‘hoax’
Danielle Bensky, who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, says president was ‘incredibly disrespectful’ in recent comments
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Even I forget that we should be focusing all of this energy on his victims. Great little piece on that here www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Wow, and they stole so much data from all of us. This is the equivalent of having a phony address in the “Contact Us” section of a website
And like most scam victims, the politicians and voters that fell for this one only want to forget it ever happened.
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter reut.rs/4abeTdx
November 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Wow, and they stole so much data from all of us. This is the equivalent of having a phony address in the “Contact Us” section of a website
Seriously what a coward. After being just awful and brutal to so many people (not the least of which, David Hogg) she’s taking her toys and going home
BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's resigning from Congress — effective January 5, 2026.
November 22, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Seriously what a coward. After being just awful and brutal to so many people (not the least of which, David Hogg) she’s taking her toys and going home
Confidence intervals: 95% of the time, they work … every time
November 19, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Confidence intervals: 95% of the time, they work … every time
Foundation models will probably fail to capture idiosyncratic differences between patient populations because they don’t have any contextual information, nor were they calibrated for this task
November 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Foundation models will probably fail to capture idiosyncratic differences between patient populations because they don’t have any contextual information, nor were they calibrated for this task
The thing about this, is that it is entirely feasible to have even better safety controls. But it involves paying real humans to do hard-coding (i.e., "if [asks about matches] do [NOT match instructions]"). Apparently that's not in the interest of a trillion-dollar valued company (OpenAI).
"Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model by default...tests repeatedly showed that the AI toy dropped its guardrails the longer a conversation went on, until hitting rock bottom on incredibly disturbing topics."
AI-Powered Stuffed Animal Pulled From Market After Disturbing Interactions With Children
FoloToy says it's suspended sales of its AI-powered teddy bear after researchers found it gave wildly inappropriate and dangerous answers.
futurism.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The thing about this, is that it is entirely feasible to have even better safety controls. But it involves paying real humans to do hard-coding (i.e., "if [asks about matches] do [NOT match instructions]"). Apparently that's not in the interest of a trillion-dollar valued company (OpenAI).
Someone help. My Google search results are basically just ads now. What the hell happened? I just had an update, so assume I can just shut off whatever sneaky settings they put in. Just terrible how bad it's gotten though.
November 17, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Someone help. My Google search results are basically just ads now. What the hell happened? I just had an update, so assume I can just shut off whatever sneaky settings they put in. Just terrible how bad it's gotten though.
They’re actually on no one’s side but their own. If you listen ti MTG in all her dissent it’s all about her and her experience
IMO MTG and others on the right who choose to abandon Trump are doing so with the intention of going further right.
They are not somehow on our side, they are on Nick Fuentes’s side.
They are not somehow on our side, they are on Nick Fuentes’s side.
November 17, 2025 at 1:35 AM
They’re actually on no one’s side but their own. If you listen ti MTG in all her dissent it’s all about her and her experience
The times story is making the rounds, but the Guardian is free, and if you pay for it (like me) you're doing a good service to journalism!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, newly released emails suggest
In messages released by House Democrats, Epstein wrote ‘of course [Trump] knew about the girls’
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The times story is making the rounds, but the Guardian is free, and if you pay for it (like me) you're doing a good service to journalism!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I'm just going to keep watching this over and over until it's Saturday
We only rate dogs. This is a family of Suburban Gold Fairies. It's rare for them to travel together like this. Very magical but please only send dogs. Thank you... 13/10 for all (TT: hdbrosriley)
November 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I'm just going to keep watching this over and over until it's Saturday
I’m all for head-injury prevention but these football helmet hats are ridiculous. Real Radioactive Man “the goggles, they do nothing“ vibes
November 11, 2025 at 2:37 AM
I’m all for head-injury prevention but these football helmet hats are ridiculous. Real Radioactive Man “the goggles, they do nothing“ vibes
Reposted by Rick Hass
#Stats friends who do Social Statistics: Would you like to be an officer in the Social Statistics Section of the ASA in 2027? We're looking for people interested in serving as Program Chair, as well as some other positions. If you're interested, let me know ASAP. Thanks!
November 11, 2025 at 1:58 AM
#Stats friends who do Social Statistics: Would you like to be an officer in the Social Statistics Section of the ASA in 2027? We're looking for people interested in serving as Program Chair, as well as some other positions. If you're interested, let me know ASAP. Thanks!
Reposted by Rick Hass
Thank you Congressman Neguse for laying it plain.
October 31, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Thank you Congressman Neguse for laying it plain.
This is the way
I smile at every dog, but I smile extra hard at doodles
October 31, 2025 at 2:18 AM
This is the way
As a native of CT, I can tell you that there's lots of things about the state that are very annoying (most notably the traffic). Rosa DeLauro, however, is a treasure
Rep. Rosa DeLauro: "On the food stamp issue, the money is there! Let them not get away with saying they can't do it. Their political will isn't there to feed the people who rely on the SNAP program which is the most effective anti-hunger program in the USA."
October 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM
As a native of CT, I can tell you that there's lots of things about the state that are very annoying (most notably the traffic). Rosa DeLauro, however, is a treasure
Reposted by Rick Hass
We wrote here why we shouldn't even call such unprincipled data dredging or fishing for statistically significant effects "exploratory research". It's time we start taking scientific exploration seriously. Again.
October 28, 2025 at 3:32 PM
We wrote here why we shouldn't even call such unprincipled data dredging or fishing for statistically significant effects "exploratory research". It's time we start taking scientific exploration seriously. Again.
Every day at pretty much 11am on the dot this happens when I work from home...
October 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Every day at pretty much 11am on the dot this happens when I work from home...
Reposted by Rick Hass
We wrote an article explaining why you shouldn't put several variables into a regression model and report which are statistically significant - even as exploratory research. bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/.... How did we do?
October 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
We wrote an article explaining why you shouldn't put several variables into a regression model and report which are statistically significant - even as exploratory research. bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/.... How did we do?