Lembas Eater
@waybread.bsky.social
Just a person trying to be pseudonymous on the internet. Sometime teacher of philosophy. Episcopal. Trying to love my crooked neighbor with my crooked heart.
Reposted by Lembas Eater
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
The words “Fair and Balanced” were like the brain byte-code in Snow Crash that let Rupert Murdoch make journalists all over the world do what he wanted.
This BBC article gets right to the heart of my rants about modern media. The vast majority of big MAGA accounts were fake yet they’ve managed to find a handful of small Democrat fake accounts and given them equal merit. Fake Scot indie - yes. No mention of fake Reform or ‘English Patriot’ at all.
How X's new location feature exposed big US politics accounts
Dozens of pro-Trump accounts are being accused of misleading followers after the social media site began showing user locations.
www.bbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:43 PM
The words “Fair and Balanced” were like the brain byte-code in Snow Crash that let Rupert Murdoch make journalists all over the world do what he wanted.
I totally get this and I held out for as long as I could but planes are incredibly uncomfortable now, especially in economy and I have to get through the flight as best I can.
So sweatpants it is.
So sweatpants it is.
This is not a "got to hand it to them" moment, bc Duffy deserves to have nothing handed to him.
But... I also agree with him here. I wish people dressed up more when they flew.
I'm sure this is snobby or classist or something bad.
But whatevs. Shlumpiness is a type of negative externality.
But... I also agree with him here. I wish people dressed up more when they flew.
I'm sure this is snobby or classist or something bad.
But whatevs. Shlumpiness is a type of negative externality.
Duffy on his demand that air travelers not wear slippers or pajamas: "It honors our country ... don't take your shoes off and put your feet on the chair ahead of you"
November 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I totally get this and I held out for as long as I could but planes are incredibly uncomfortable now, especially in economy and I have to get through the flight as best I can.
So sweatpants it is.
So sweatpants it is.
Reposted by Lembas Eater
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
This is hell.
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
This is hell.
This is depressing in general but actually makes me feel slightly better about my fellow citizens.
I posted this on X.
Racism directed at Zohran Mamdani, brought to you by @timeswmarian, who is based in India
Racism directed at Zohran Mamdani, brought to you by @timeswmarian, who is based in India
November 24, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This is depressing in general but actually makes me feel slightly better about my fellow citizens.
This seems like a great idea until you realize you can ask the AI to write the first essay *with mistakes*.
November 24, 2025 at 10:34 AM
This seems like a great idea until you realize you can ask the AI to write the first essay *with mistakes*.
If being rich made you happy we wouldn’t be in this mess.
November 22, 2025 at 3:16 PM
If being rich made you happy we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Call me old fashioned but I think journalists should publish what they know about public figures in a timely fashion in order to inform the public instead of sitting on bombshell stories for years and/or convenient to their personal battles and finances. Just one of my weird ideas.
November 22, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Call me old fashioned but I think journalists should publish what they know about public figures in a timely fashion in order to inform the public instead of sitting on bombshell stories for years and/or convenient to their personal battles and finances. Just one of my weird ideas.
Addendum to this. One interesting thing I've found is you can actually devise multiple-choice questions that ChatGPT gets wrong about any given essay or book. What it gets wrong and why is not - for me at least - predicible. But there are persistent lacunae and misunderstandings in its output.
No but really tech companies are destroying education. Maybe you can argue they don’t mean to. And maybe you can argue there’s a way they could do better. But they are. The wheels are flying off.
November 21, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Addendum to this. One interesting thing I've found is you can actually devise multiple-choice questions that ChatGPT gets wrong about any given essay or book. What it gets wrong and why is not - for me at least - predicible. But there are persistent lacunae and misunderstandings in its output.
I have this same thought from time to time and then I have to take a break because, as Nietzsche said, the darkness stares back into you.
For profit companies, most of whom helped buy the sitting fascist government, have concentrated most of the gains in the stock market to effect, in part, this outcome which happens to align itself beautifully with the republican objective to destroy public education as we know it. Wild stuff.
November 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I have this same thought from time to time and then I have to take a break because, as Nietzsche said, the darkness stares back into you.
Reposted by Lembas Eater
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
arxiv.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:28 PM
One sign of stupidity (or intentional ignorance, it amounts to the same thing) is "discovering" things people already know about and still, somehow, misunderstanding it.
Call it the "Christopher Columbus".
Call it the "Christopher Columbus".
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has proposed a "brilliant" idea for how to end the war in Ukraine. And how no one thought of it earlier.
November 20, 2025 at 6:19 PM
One sign of stupidity (or intentional ignorance, it amounts to the same thing) is "discovering" things people already know about and still, somehow, misunderstanding it.
Call it the "Christopher Columbus".
Call it the "Christopher Columbus".
If AI takes down Oracle I will revise my opinion of the tech. It is useful sometimes!
“.. After the new issuance, Oracle’s outstanding debt load surpassed $100 billion, making it the most indebted big tech company with an investment-grade rating.”
@wsj.com $ORCL
www.wsj.com/tech/oracle-...
@wsj.com $ORCL
www.wsj.com/tech/oracle-...
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
If AI takes down Oracle I will revise my opinion of the tech. It is useful sometimes!
I see a lot of people asking what is Plur1bus about?
And I'm pretty sure it's about a virus from space.
Are people not paying attention?
And I'm pretty sure it's about a virus from space.
Are people not paying attention?
November 20, 2025 at 4:27 AM
I see a lot of people asking what is Plur1bus about?
And I'm pretty sure it's about a virus from space.
Are people not paying attention?
And I'm pretty sure it's about a virus from space.
Are people not paying attention?
All I want is fort LLMs to stop being (essentially) free to high school and college students and... that will probably never happen.
I guess I can hope that training stays expensive and the cheap models fall out of date.
Oh, how I hate the free internet cheating machine.
I guess I can hope that training stays expensive and the cheap models fall out of date.
Oh, how I hate the free internet cheating machine.
most haters literally believe serving the LLM loses money in spite of the fact that it is clearly reported in sec auditable documents at several megacorps that it is very profitable
if you're an AI hater (and i'm not hating on haters) you should probably disinter these two scenarios in your mind. the "AI bubble go pop" world most likely involves it becoming very cheap; it's the expectation that it *will* get more expensive that is driving the center overbuilds and gov't begging
November 20, 2025 at 2:38 AM
All I want is fort LLMs to stop being (essentially) free to high school and college students and... that will probably never happen.
I guess I can hope that training stays expensive and the cheap models fall out of date.
Oh, how I hate the free internet cheating machine.
I guess I can hope that training stays expensive and the cheap models fall out of date.
Oh, how I hate the free internet cheating machine.
I really like jazz, but I feel like I would like it a lot more if I was cooler. Alas!
November 19, 2025 at 8:39 PM
I really like jazz, but I feel like I would like it a lot more if I was cooler. Alas!
I sometimes teach a college class here and there and the kids are all great. They're wonderful people. But many of them can't really read (without audiobook narration) and most have no idea how to write a paper thanks to AI.
So, like, maybe we should go back and figure out where went wrong.
So, like, maybe we should go back and figure out where went wrong.
Call me Luddite but it's mental that some American school districts have moved absolutely everything onto screens??
November 19, 2025 at 8:06 PM
I sometimes teach a college class here and there and the kids are all great. They're wonderful people. But many of them can't really read (without audiobook narration) and most have no idea how to write a paper thanks to AI.
So, like, maybe we should go back and figure out where went wrong.
So, like, maybe we should go back and figure out where went wrong.
The reason the GOP doesn't have anything approaching a healthcare plan is that having a healthcare plan requires you know things. And the GOP, in its current form, is constitutionally opposed to knowing things.
Markwayne Mullin: "Reward people for being healthy. Think about this. Healthcare is the only industry that you're not rewarded for taking care of your responsibility. If you think about homeowners insurance, if you're within 500 feet of a fire hydrant, your insurance goes down."
November 19, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The reason the GOP doesn't have anything approaching a healthcare plan is that having a healthcare plan requires you know things. And the GOP, in its current form, is constitutionally opposed to knowing things.
I am skeptical about many AI-booster's claims b/c LLMS output the (rough) average of what people have previously said in the context of their prompt.
You can't get Copernicus by taking the (rough) average of Ptolemy.
And even if you did - through randomness - how would you know it's right?
You can't get Copernicus by taking the (rough) average of Ptolemy.
And even if you did - through randomness - how would you know it's right?
November 18, 2025 at 8:32 PM
I am skeptical about many AI-booster's claims b/c LLMS output the (rough) average of what people have previously said in the context of their prompt.
You can't get Copernicus by taking the (rough) average of Ptolemy.
And even if you did - through randomness - how would you know it's right?
You can't get Copernicus by taking the (rough) average of Ptolemy.
And even if you did - through randomness - how would you know it's right?
Every cereal is man cereal if you are man enough.
November 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Every cereal is man cereal if you are man enough.
Again. We have got to get to the bottom of the "smiling like a maniac" disease that every spokesperson of this administration has contracted. Somebody run some blood tests or something.
KARL: The president claims that Thanksgiving costs are down 25%. Does he know that's not true?
HASSETT: Well if you look at Walmart--
KARL: Wait a minute. I've gotta stop you. The Walmart package this year contains much less than the one last year. That's why the price is less.
HASSETT: Well if you look at Walmart--
KARL: Wait a minute. I've gotta stop you. The Walmart package this year contains much less than the one last year. That's why the price is less.
November 18, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Again. We have got to get to the bottom of the "smiling like a maniac" disease that every spokesperson of this administration has contracted. Somebody run some blood tests or something.
Reposted by Lembas Eater
Health Savings Accounts are so unappealing to me. I don't need a debit card to buy q-tips. I need an MRI.
November 17, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Health Savings Accounts are so unappealing to me. I don't need a debit card to buy q-tips. I need an MRI.
Ugg. We've already, like, had this discussion.
November 17, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Ugg. We've already, like, had this discussion.