This is really cool. The symmetry makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Not only is no help available, but the Dept of Ed has been pestering borrowers to re-certify their Income-Driven Repayment plan, since Biden’s SAVE plan is blocked by the courts leaving the shitty IDR as the only option for those who can’t afford their full payments (most people, I’d assume). But if you go to the page where you do the recertification, you’ll find that the forms have all been taken down.

It’s purposeful, to cause the maximum amount of pain to the most number of people who are the least likely to be able to handle it. I think a lot of them actually do want to burn it all down, and screw all the people who are harmed in the process. That’s what they want their legacy to be. They don’t want people who aren’t already wealthy to benefit from education.

Casey Newton founded Platformer, after leaving The Verge around 5 years ago. But yeah, I used to listen to Hard Fork, his podcast with Kevin Roose, but I stopped because of how uncritically they cover AI and LLMs. It’s basically the only thing they cover, and yet they are quite gullible and not really realistic about the whole industry. They land some amazing interviews with key players, but never ask hard questions or dive nearly deep enough, so they end up sounding pretty fluffy as ass-kissy. I totally agree with Zitron’s take on their reporting. I constantly found myself wishing they were a lot more cynical and combative.

That’s an interesting article, but it was published in 2022, before LLMs were a thing on anyone’s radar. The results are still incredibly impressive without a doubt, but based on how the researchers explain it, it looks like it was accomplished using deep learning, which isn’t the same as LLMs. Though they’re not entirely unrelated.

Opaque and confusing terminology in this space also just makes it very difficult to determine who or which systems or technology are actually making these advancements. As far as I’m concerned none of this is actual AI, just very powerful algorithmic prediction models. So the claims that an AI system itself has made unique technological advancements, when they are incapable of independent creativity, to me proves that nearly all their touted benefits are still entirely hypothetical right now.

The article explains the problems in great detail.

Here’s just one small section of the text which describes some of them:

All of this certainly makes knowledge and literature more accessible, but it relies entirely on the people who create that knowledge and literature in the first place—that labor that takes time, expertise, and often money. Worse, generative-AI chatbots are presented as oracles that have “learned” from their training data and often don’t cite sources (or cite imaginary sources). This decontextualizes knowledge, prevents humans from collaborating, and makes it harder for writers and researchers to build a reputation and engage in healthy intellectual debate. Generative-AI companies say that their chatbots will themselves make scientific advancements, but those claims are purely hypothetical.

(I originally put this as a top-level comment, my bad.)

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Charred fatty goose breast.

Blew my mind.

That’s one good-looking plate!

This one is a little challenging, and there’s not a ton of research out there, but food sensitivities/allergies aren’t caused by people’s ethnicity or background, but their allergies can be adaptations to environmental and sociocultural stimuli, which can be passed down through families, which could subsequently impact what food they decide to eat.

This article might help explain it better, but there’s a bit of a gap in the research into allergies and genetics, though I’m by no means an expert. Here’s a relevant quote:

Research in general, however, suggests that a complex interplay of socioeconomic, environmental, cultural, and systemic health inequities may influence higher prevalence rates of food allergies in certain marginalized populations.

Your description of those desks totally knocked some of my old memories loose. I remember going to a friend’s house in the late 90s when the first smallish “all-in-one” PCs started coming on the market (before the iMac claimed that space in ‘98). They had their new all-in-one PC set up on a tiny desk in the hallway outside their office. It was there so everyone in the family could use it, but I remember being shocked at how small it was, and so impressed that it didn’t need the whole corner of a room.

Wait, am I the only one who thought that game was an underrated masterpiece? The graphics were gorgeous and performant, and the mission design was intuitive and challenging. I 100%ed every mission, and loved all the investigation mechanics. I was recently thinking about doing a full replay…

It doesn’t, really. Tales From the Loop was a methodical and pretty deep exploration of human nature. I loved that show. Electric State is a basic human vs robot story with some fun action and not a lot of depth. The main similarity is big robots. It was still enjoyable to watch, I definitely recommend checking it out, but it’s pretty superficial.

Oh, we must.

If I had to choose between those options, I’d eat them slowly throughout the day.

But in reality, it’s two sittings: one row in the afternoon, and the rest at the unhealthiest of times, around 9pm.

The relatively new 4K release is gorgeous. Love that movie.

I can’t believe that movie came out more than 25 years ago…she looks amazing.

She’s a goddamn national treasure.

Yeah, I hate the interfaces, but especially the super-loud non-mutable beeps which seem to be common on every model I’ve seen. My two-burner induction setup has analog knobs for temp control, which is awesome, but it stills beep when you turn them, with every single temperature increase. Drives me crazy.

I’ll never go back to gas though. My new apartment came with a gorgeous brand new gas range, and it absolutely sucks compared to my $50 countertop induction.

Wow that looks pretty interesting. Definitely an original story concept, which is refreshing these days.

Interior Chinatown was awesome, so that’s a good sign…I’m still pretty nervous about this though.

I’ve caught most of these, and the massive leaps of improvement are genuinely impressive. Not only in how recognizable he is, but in your general style over the series. I think you’ve nailed SLJ more than a few times now.

Psyched to see Mace!

I think you are underestimating the power of empathy. I mean this constructively, not as an attack. In my opinion, it’s the single most important emotion for leading a fulfilling life, maintaining healthy relationships, and contributing to and living in a healthy society. The cool thing about empathy is that almost everyone can learn how to do it, even if it doesn’t come naturally. Think of it like a muscle you need to exercise. If you don’t use it regularly, your abilities can atrophy.

You’ve already recognized that you’re not great at empathy, which shows that you are capable of self-awareness, which is huge! The next step is just to find a way to turn that awareness inside out and put yourself in other peoples’ shoes.

The fact that you’re wrestling with the issues you bring up, shows me that you do care about these things. So I think it could be valuable to interrogate what specific things you do and don’t care about when it comes to all the things you mentioned. If you do that with empathy for others always in mind, I think most of your concerns will resolve themselves.

Cultivating Empathy