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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 3d

Frequently, a paper gets rejected because of a lack of excitement. There is nothing wrong with the paper, but the PC members have papers they find slightly more interesting. So it goes. A PC member has 30 papers. ~10 get in, ~10 could have, and ~10 are probably reject under any PC.

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 3d

🤷

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 3d

SOSA 26 has the same acceptance rate as FOCS (~27%). SODA has an acceptance rate of ~30%. While SoCG seems to be ~35%. Machine learning conferences with way higher rate of junk submissions, and way way higher impact, have similar acceptance rates (high 20s-low 30s). It does not make any sense.

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 5d

And a short geometric proof, if this is your thing...
arxiv.org/abs/1105.0103

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 5d

As usual, my paper got accepted to the complement of SODA.

Reposted by Sariel Har-Peled

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 8d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 8d

Good point...

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 8d

They are not dysfunctional in this regard, right? I wasn't suggesting their terrible, horrible, no good refereeing process, for example...

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 8d

Accept more papers!
sarielhp.org/misc/bloge/2...

Accept more papers!

sarielhp.org

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 8d

No mushrooms detected this time around.

Kara Swisher @karaswisher.bsky.social · 8d

Fat Man and Little Boy bombed.

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 9d

The Road to the Closest Point is Paved by Good Neighbors

arxiv.org/abs/2509.23966

The Road to the Closest Point is Paved by Good Neighbors

$\renewcommand{\Re}{\mathbb{R}}$Given a set $P$ of $n$ points in $\Re^d$, and a parameter $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$, we present a new construction of a directed graph $G$, of size $O(n/\varepsilon^d)$, ...

arxiv.org

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 10d

BTW, to avoid the captcha on overleaf, login using orcid.

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 10d

It turns out that computing the closet point and computing the closest point are not the same problem. To begin with, in the former, it is not clear what the point is doing in the closet.

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · 20d

Gemini can now create an audio summary of a paper, and the summary it generates is surprisingly good. Here is an example:
sarielhp.org/p/23/fat_sep...
For this paper:
sarielhp.org/p/23/fat_sep/

sarielhp.org

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 31

Well... That is not a math olympiad question. Of course it would do badly on it....

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Reposted by Sariel Har-Peled

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Aug 29

That’s two reported ChatGPT suicides in one week, plus the grandpa who died trying to meet Meta’s chatbot which had arranged an in-person meeting

All going really well

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · Aug 29

WSJ: ChatGPT fueled a 56-year-old tech industry veteran’s paranoia, encouraging his suspicions that his mother was plotting against him.... On Aug. 5, Greenwich police discovered that Soelberg killed his mother and himself in the $2.7 million Dutch colonial-style home where they lived together.

A Troubled Man, His Chatbot and a Murder-Suicide in Old Greenwich

“Erik, you’re not crazy.” ChatGPT fueled a 56-year-old tech industry veteran’s paranoia, encouraging his suspicions that his mother was plotting against him.

www.wsj.com

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 21

Really bad logic. Most of the Palestinians fighters killed in Gaza either their Identity is not known because their body was taken by the IDF. Or are just badly and freshly trained dudes that never got officially registered. So not 83% but probably 50%.....

+972 Magazine @972mag.com · Aug 21

Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians

Classified intelligence from May reveals Israel believed it had killed ~8,900 militants in Gaza, indicating a proportion of civilian slaughter with few parallels in modern warfare.

www.972mag.com/israeli-inte...

IDF database suggests 83% of Gaza dead were civilians

Classified intelligence reveals Israel killed 8,900 militants by May, indicating an almost unparalleled proportion of civilian slaughter.

www.972mag.com

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 21

63.413%. Accept no other number.

As for your second question the answer is obvious - Hamas and Bibi want a forever war.
Hamas because they are fanatical zealots that don't care about the suffering of their own people. And Bibi would do anything to stay in power to avoid jail for corruption...

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 21

Yo yo gulf. Me English small typing on phone bad. What is going on in Gaza is very bad, but this guardian story is crap. All it says is that only 13% of dead are on Israeli list of Hamas fighters. But random teenager gazan provided with weapon and sent to his death by Hamas is not counted...

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 21

Tell it to the American army in the first golf war. The death rate of civilians was even higher there.

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Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 18

If it was a Google product it would already have been canceled.

Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · Aug 18

As the cable news channel MSNBC splits up with NBC News, it is also dropping the "NBC" from its name: Later this year, it will become MS NOW, which stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World. Here's my full story: www.cnn.com/2025/08/18/m...

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 15

He just lost the household vote...

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 14

The troops are being equipped with ketchup bottles to defend themselves from similar future attacks.

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 10

That would have been SAD = Self Assured Destruction....

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · Aug 10

If Steve Witkoff had worked for Truman we would have dropped the bombs on ourselves and unconditionally surrendered to Japan

Sariel Har-Peled @sarielhp.bsky.social · Aug 7

Terry Tao on AI and IMO.
mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1148814...