alex williams
@atwilliams.bsky.social
macroeconomist and computer user at http://www.common-wealth.org, editor at www.continuousvariation.com, fellow at stanford, partisan of the republic of letters
Pinned
alex williams
@atwilliams.bsky.social
· Aug 22
"because only that exists which can be posted, bodies themselves fell under the regime of the symbolic" - literal Kittler
Reposted by alex williams
by 2029 i will probably believe the illiad and odyssey were documentaries too
November 13, 2025 at 5:07 AM
by 2029 i will probably believe the illiad and odyssey were documentaries too
Reposted by alex williams
NEW: So, the courtroom at the "Broadview 6" arraignment in Chicago yesterday featured lotsa Methodist pastors.
Why? They were supporters of defendant/fellow Methodist Brian Straw.
"If you come for one United Methodist, you have come for all of us,” one pastor said. religionnews.com/2025/11/13/m...
Why? They were supporters of defendant/fellow Methodist Brian Straw.
"If you come for one United Methodist, you have come for all of us,” one pastor said. religionnews.com/2025/11/13/m...
Methodist pastors march into courtroom with 'boring suburban dad' indicted for protesting
CHICAGO (RNS) — ‘If you come for one United Methodist, you have come for all of us,’ said a Chicago area UMC pastor.
religionnews.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:14 PM
NEW: So, the courtroom at the "Broadview 6" arraignment in Chicago yesterday featured lotsa Methodist pastors.
Why? They were supporters of defendant/fellow Methodist Brian Straw.
"If you come for one United Methodist, you have come for all of us,” one pastor said. religionnews.com/2025/11/13/m...
Why? They were supporters of defendant/fellow Methodist Brian Straw.
"If you come for one United Methodist, you have come for all of us,” one pastor said. religionnews.com/2025/11/13/m...
ultimately, i am stoked on things like baguettotron and pretty big negative on publicly owned data centers because it seems like you should want to get the most productivity out of the least use of resources
November 13, 2025 at 3:59 PM
ultimately, i am stoked on things like baguettotron and pretty big negative on publicly owned data centers because it seems like you should want to get the most productivity out of the least use of resources
Reposted by alex williams
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
Reposted by alex williams
i’ve said this before and i remain convinced it’s true, the 2028 platform that would deliver obama 08 results is “i am gonna
bring the hammer down on the corrupt self-dealing politicians and their rich friends and there are no sacred cows id give a pass”
bring the hammer down on the corrupt self-dealing politicians and their rich friends and there are no sacred cows id give a pass”
November 13, 2025 at 2:07 PM
i’ve said this before and i remain convinced it’s true, the 2028 platform that would deliver obama 08 results is “i am gonna
bring the hammer down on the corrupt self-dealing politicians and their rich friends and there are no sacred cows id give a pass”
bring the hammer down on the corrupt self-dealing politicians and their rich friends and there are no sacred cows id give a pass”
Reposted by alex williams
thinking about how i get anxious writing emails because i don't want to sound like a moron while larry summers is apparently typing emails like this:
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
November 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
thinking about how i get anxious writing emails because i don't want to sound like a moron while larry summers is apparently typing emails like this:
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
🫡🫡🫡
The world is expected to build more renewable energy projects in the next five years than in the previous 40, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.
Despite the green backlash, the transition is now inevitable, it says.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Despite the green backlash, the transition is now inevitable, it says.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Supply boom in cheaper renewables will seal end of fossil fuel era, says IEA
Watchdog’s flagship report says rise in low-carbon electricity will make transition ‘inevitable’, despite Trump’s calls to carry on drilling
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:02 PM
🫡🫡🫡
Reposted by alex williams
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...
www.apmreports.org
November 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
Reposted by alex williams
They’ve laid off so many people that the government is now getting its economic data from DoorDash.
November 12, 2025 at 1:09 AM
They’ve laid off so many people that the government is now getting its economic data from DoorDash.
Reposted by alex williams
"Baguettotron is currently best-in-class"
Breaking: we release a fully synthetic generalist dataset for pretraining, SYNTH and two new SOTA reasoning models exclusively trained on it. Despite having seen only 200 billion tokens, Baguettotron is currently best-in-class in its size range. pleias.fr/blog/blogsyn...
November 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
"Baguettotron is currently best-in-class"
Reposted by alex williams
while being the most French model yet, they had to rationalize why it wasn’t trained on French
but fr imagine being able to do ablations on THE ENTIRE end-to-end training process. you’d learn so much
but fr imagine being able to do ablations on THE ENTIRE end-to-end training process. you’d learn so much
November 11, 2025 at 2:36 AM
while being the most French model yet, they had to rationalize why it wasn’t trained on French
but fr imagine being able to do ablations on THE ENTIRE end-to-end training process. you’d learn so much
but fr imagine being able to do ablations on THE ENTIRE end-to-end training process. you’d learn so much
Reposted by alex williams
US CONSUMER SENTIMENT FELL TO 50.3 IN OCTOBER — THE 2ND-LOWEST READING EVER, NOW ABOUT 10 POINTS BELOW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS LOW AND WEAKER THAN DURING ANY PRIOR RECESSION.
November 12, 2025 at 1:17 AM
US CONSUMER SENTIMENT FELL TO 50.3 IN OCTOBER — THE 2ND-LOWEST READING EVER, NOW ABOUT 10 POINTS BELOW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS LOW AND WEAKER THAN DURING ANY PRIOR RECESSION.
Reposted by alex williams
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
John Fetterman Has Too Much Gender
![Instagram caption from NPR of their interview with John Fetterman
In his new book, "Unfettered," Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) criticized his party for losing the support of working class men, writing that President Trump appealed to them more because "he wasn't afraid to comment on things the left told us we were no longer allowed to have commonsense opinions on."
Fetterman also writes, “if men are forced to choose between picking their party or keeping their balls, most men are going to choose their balls.”
“I think there's been a disconnection,” he told "All Things Considered" host Scott Detrow. “It's just this idea and just being perceived as more anti-man […] And it's just a lot different kinds of energy that comes out from.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5fkaj7zmtrdz6o4az3vvlxbf/bafkreiadfrhld7ftk53pgpl2aaafm74uz2qivzeudf3nkmykvcx643fl7i@jpeg)
November 11, 2025 at 9:12 PM
John Fetterman Has Too Much Gender
Reposted by alex williams
Seems clear that Pulte 1) broke the law while going on fishing expeditions for baseless mortgage fraud claims 2) immediately removed everyone who tried to investigate that wrong-doing.
Exclusive | Fannie Mae Watchdogs Probed How Pulte Obtained Mortgage Records of Key Democrats
FHFA’s acting inspector general handed probe report to U.S. attorney office that had indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James
www.wsj.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Seems clear that Pulte 1) broke the law while going on fishing expeditions for baseless mortgage fraud claims 2) immediately removed everyone who tried to investigate that wrong-doing.
Reposted by alex williams
I’m sorry but this whole Noah Smith Heathrow situation is so fucking funny. Centrist thought leader with PhD from University of Michigan struggles to navigate basic airport transfer, blames it on the relative economic decline of Western Europe
November 11, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I’m sorry but this whole Noah Smith Heathrow situation is so fucking funny. Centrist thought leader with PhD from University of Michigan struggles to navigate basic airport transfer, blames it on the relative economic decline of Western Europe
Reposted by alex williams
it has become impossible for me to stop listening to this nap eyes cover of a tragically hip classic, this is what it's like man:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeL...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeL...
My Music at Work
YouTube video by Nap Eyes - Topic
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:06 PM
it has become impossible for me to stop listening to this nap eyes cover of a tragically hip classic, this is what it's like man:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeL...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeL...
Reposted by alex williams
Public options for essentials, strategic price interventions, investment in housing and childcare — this is antifascist economics. It tackles the material conditions that make authoritarianism appealing.
In making life livable, democracy defends itself.
In making life livable, democracy defends itself.
November 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Public options for essentials, strategic price interventions, investment in housing and childcare — this is antifascist economics. It tackles the material conditions that make authoritarianism appealing.
In making life livable, democracy defends itself.
In making life livable, democracy defends itself.
this is going to help approximately nobody, but Mutable Instruments' Marbles module is a pretty good first pass way of thinking about what you are engaging when you are in a text box connected to a language model
November 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
this is going to help approximately nobody, but Mutable Instruments' Marbles module is a pretty good first pass way of thinking about what you are engaging when you are in a text box connected to a language model
me finally buying a replacement tascam 488 when i finally get back to living in upstate new york, where the last one died
We need to bring back tape hiss. we need to bring back no high end when you hit the Dolby button. We need to bring back audible punches. We need to bring back sounding like shit.
November 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
me finally buying a replacement tascam 488 when i finally get back to living in upstate new york, where the last one died
Reposted by alex williams
"What's the point of standards?" is the question our era is destined to answer. Thoroughly.
From Dear Leader all the way down to beat cops and schoolteachers; from internet-poisoned billionaires' Very Online pet hack journos, down to rando shitpoasters.
From Dear Leader all the way down to beat cops and schoolteachers; from internet-poisoned billionaires' Very Online pet hack journos, down to rando shitpoasters.
“I’ve been hearing that standards will be eliminated or severely cut back. Bari has told people that she wants to get rid of standards and is shocked that they have so much power. She also asked openly, ‘What’s the point of standards?’” one CBS source said.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Bari Weiss wants to take down ‘too much power’ CBS News Standards unit: sources
EXCLUSIVE: Internal rumblings within the newsroom come after the S&P head resigned and the network disbanded its vaunted Race and Culture unit.
www.independent.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 3:42 PM
"What's the point of standards?" is the question our era is destined to answer. Thoroughly.
From Dear Leader all the way down to beat cops and schoolteachers; from internet-poisoned billionaires' Very Online pet hack journos, down to rando shitpoasters.
From Dear Leader all the way down to beat cops and schoolteachers; from internet-poisoned billionaires' Very Online pet hack journos, down to rando shitpoasters.
Reposted by alex williams
Citation is how we knit the world.
Was listening to the new ep of the Allusionist this morning, and Helen was interviewing So Mayer who promptly name-checked @carriem.co.uk because the Internet is a tiny tiny village
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Citation is how we knit the world.
Reposted by alex williams
I have a new article out about US-China bloc formation, climate change, and war
🚨 NEW: Read @tobitac.bsky.social “Cold War on a Warming World” for sharp analysis of China’s economic development, its clean energy dominance and why Washington’s foreign policy response is a threat to global decarbonisation.
🔗👇
transitionsecurity.org/cold-war-war...
🔗👇
transitionsecurity.org/cold-war-war...
Cold War on a Warming World
The US foreign policy response to China's economic development is a threat to the global climate transition.
transitionsecurity.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:32 PM
I have a new article out about US-China bloc formation, climate change, and war