Alexander King
@alexanderking.bsky.social
Reposted by Alexander King
The hardest thing about being good isn’t untangling complex moral dilemmas, but holding to simple principles consistently and unyieldingly, despite the world constantly insisting you would be savvy to abandon them
October 21, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The hardest thing about being good isn’t untangling complex moral dilemmas, but holding to simple principles consistently and unyieldingly, despite the world constantly insisting you would be savvy to abandon them
Reposted by Alexander King
The editorial board saying that Zohran “seems to lack the political savvy and instinct for compromise” that Sanders has, after complaining that Sanders “boasts that compromise is anathema to him” in their 2020 endorsement, is quite revealing in my opinion.
June 16, 2025 at 10:57 AM
The editorial board saying that Zohran “seems to lack the political savvy and instinct for compromise” that Sanders has, after complaining that Sanders “boasts that compromise is anathema to him” in their 2020 endorsement, is quite revealing in my opinion.
Reposted by Alexander King
What do governments spend money on?
May 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
What do governments spend money on?
Reposted by Alexander King
<diligently updating the list of career paths on the university’s “Major in Mathematics!” poster>
May 8, 2025 at 8:06 PM
<diligently updating the list of career paths on the university’s “Major in Mathematics!” poster>
Zuckerberg doesn’t have a real vision for the future other than chasing the hot tech fixation of the day. Crypto, VR, and AI. Massive resources pumped into being an also-ran.
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's chatbots will supplement your real friends: "The average American has fewer than 3 friends ... but has demand for ... 15 friends" (h/t x.com/romanhelmetg...)
May 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Zuckerberg doesn’t have a real vision for the future other than chasing the hot tech fixation of the day. Crypto, VR, and AI. Massive resources pumped into being an also-ran.
Reposted by Alexander King
the last decade has really helped me understand in a more visceral sense what it meant when God hardened the pharoah’s heart
How firm is the hold of antivax beliefs?
From the parents of the 6 year old unvaccinated child who died of measles:
“Don’t do the shots,” the girl’s mother said. Measles, she added, is “not as bad as they’re making it out to be.” She noted that her four other children all recovered…
From the parents of the 6 year old unvaccinated child who died of measles:
“Don’t do the shots,” the girl’s mother said. Measles, she added, is “not as bad as they’re making it out to be.” She noted that her four other children all recovered…
How the anti-vaccine movement weaponized a 6-year-old’s measles death
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
March 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM
the last decade has really helped me understand in a more visceral sense what it meant when God hardened the pharoah’s heart
Reposted by Alexander King
The data so far on AI-as-a-tutor shows just letting students use AI chatbots can undermine education because the AI gives the illusion of learning
But AIs properly prompted to act like tutors, especially with instructor support, seem to be able to boost learning a lot through customized instruction
But AIs properly prompted to act like tutors, especially with instructor support, seem to be able to boost learning a lot through customized instruction
March 17, 2025 at 4:19 AM
The data so far on AI-as-a-tutor shows just letting students use AI chatbots can undermine education because the AI gives the illusion of learning
But AIs properly prompted to act like tutors, especially with instructor support, seem to be able to boost learning a lot through customized instruction
But AIs properly prompted to act like tutors, especially with instructor support, seem to be able to boost learning a lot through customized instruction
The median home in the US used to cost 6.7 years of median income. Now it costs 10.
February 21, 2025 at 9:54 PM
The median home in the US used to cost 6.7 years of median income. Now it costs 10.
@nytimes.com is a joke. The main job of an academic researcher is to openly publish their work. Anyone who receives federal research funding from the NIH has to make their final manuscript AND research data publicly available.
February 19, 2025 at 2:13 AM
@nytimes.com is a joke. The main job of an academic researcher is to openly publish their work. Anyone who receives federal research funding from the NIH has to make their final manuscript AND research data publicly available.
Hot take: This article is bad. There's no methodology described for their research. There is no link to an actual research paper that would describe it (assuming there is one). Also it doesn't address U-6 unemployment or growing wages
February 17, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Hot take: This article is bad. There's no methodology described for their research. There is no link to an actual research paper that would describe it (assuming there is one). Also it doesn't address U-6 unemployment or growing wages
The Apple Vision Pro makes a lot more sense as a product when you see it as a progress report for investors rather than an actual product to be used
February 13, 2025 at 2:35 PM
The Apple Vision Pro makes a lot more sense as a product when you see it as a progress report for investors rather than an actual product to be used
Reposted by Alexander King
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
February 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
If computers were originally supposed to be bicycles for the mind, then every AI advancement is adding a more and more powerful electric motor to that bicycle.
AGI is a self-driving bicycle. You can see where there might be a hangup in getting there.
AGI is a self-driving bicycle. You can see where there might be a hangup in getting there.
February 3, 2025 at 12:34 AM
If computers were originally supposed to be bicycles for the mind, then every AI advancement is adding a more and more powerful electric motor to that bicycle.
AGI is a self-driving bicycle. You can see where there might be a hangup in getting there.
AGI is a self-driving bicycle. You can see where there might be a hangup in getting there.
Severance is a phenomenal show.
January 31, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Severance is a phenomenal show.
An interesting thing about the simplebench benchmark, (with questions designed to trick LLMs) is that most of the variance seems to be explained by the LLM's performance on language understanding benchmarks and scientific understanding benchmarks.
January 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM
An interesting thing about the simplebench benchmark, (with questions designed to trick LLMs) is that most of the variance seems to be explained by the LLM's performance on language understanding benchmarks and scientific understanding benchmarks.
One of the interesting things about Simplebench and Livebench is that raw reasoning capabilities don't actually correlate well with the linguistic adversarial robustness needed to do well on Simplebench. Simplebench correlates best with language understanding.
January 28, 2025 at 8:27 PM
One of the interesting things about Simplebench and Livebench is that raw reasoning capabilities don't actually correlate well with the linguistic adversarial robustness needed to do well on Simplebench. Simplebench correlates best with language understanding.
Severance is one of the best TV shows of all time.
January 25, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Severance is one of the best TV shows of all time.
Reposted by Alexander King
This is a very striking graph. Especially if you believed that the way to have a popular program is to propose things that polls show there is already support for.
January 24, 2025 at 7:27 PM
This is a very striking graph. Especially if you believed that the way to have a popular program is to propose things that polls show there is already support for.
Reposted by Alexander King
Wikipedia is here!
🗿📜 Did you know that statues are not the only wonder of ancient culture found on Easter Island?
Besides the monolithic human figures known as moai, another great puzzle seen in this southeastern Pacific Ocean island is rongorongo, a mysterious system of glyphs carved on wooden tablets. 🧵⬇️ (1/6)
Besides the monolithic human figures known as moai, another great puzzle seen in this southeastern Pacific Ocean island is rongorongo, a mysterious system of glyphs carved on wooden tablets. 🧵⬇️ (1/6)
January 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Wikipedia is here!
Reposted by Alexander King
Cardiovascular disease mortality has declined in many countries over the past decades.
For example, US cardiovascular disease death rates have declined 4x since 1950.
For example, US cardiovascular disease death rates have declined 4x since 1950.
January 23, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Cardiovascular disease mortality has declined in many countries over the past decades.
For example, US cardiovascular disease death rates have declined 4x since 1950.
For example, US cardiovascular disease death rates have declined 4x since 1950.
Reposted by Alexander King
Devastating for scientists and their research, and everyone who benefits from that research.
I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research.
Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions
Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions
All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.
January 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Devastating for scientists and their research, and everyone who benefits from that research.
I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
Inflation compared between countries, where price levels on January 2020 are set at a value of 100 for each country. The black line is what 2% annual growth would look like.
January 20, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Inflation compared between countries, where price levels on January 2020 are set at a value of 100 for each country. The black line is what 2% annual growth would look like.
I'd argue that the reduction in home ownership tracks pretty well to house prices outpacing incomes for that age bracket.
January 6, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I'd argue that the reduction in home ownership tracks pretty well to house prices outpacing incomes for that age bracket.