Ethan Soutar-Rau
@ethansr.bsky.social
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Doctor says, 'Dont worry, parser design is simple. Great programmer Kate Compton has written the parser you seek’
November 16, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Doctor says, 'Dont worry, parser design is simple. Great programmer Kate Compton has written the parser you seek’
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
I find this pretty striking - we're not even offered the standard "here's why Mamdani's victory is actually trouble for the left" kind of gymnastics, the strategy really seems to be to hope no one notices
it is wild that Labour is doing exactly what the reactionary centrists recommend and is absolutely destroying its base of support as a result, and yet reactionary centrists in the US are just utterly silent about the complete failure of their program.
November 16, 2025 at 1:03 PM
I find this pretty striking - we're not even offered the standard "here's why Mamdani's victory is actually trouble for the left" kind of gymnastics, the strategy really seems to be to hope no one notices
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Freelance photojournalist Jim Vondruska, who was born and raised on the west side of Chicago, has been doing brilliant work throughout the DHS blitz of the city. 🫡
@reuters.com @pictures.reuters.com
@reuters.com @pictures.reuters.com
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
November 15, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Freelance photojournalist Jim Vondruska, who was born and raised on the west side of Chicago, has been doing brilliant work throughout the DHS blitz of the city. 🫡
@reuters.com @pictures.reuters.com
@reuters.com @pictures.reuters.com
Biology is so extraordinarily competitive too… how are these people direct admitted to the major…
Enrollment by major in the UCSD remedial math course teaching “elementary and middle school math concepts”. Bad news for anybody planning on seeing a human doctor in 2060 and onwards:
November 13, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Biology is so extraordinarily competitive too… how are these people direct admitted to the major…
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 AM
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
this is useful because “search” and “browse” tools offer the inverse of this... once you know the received name of something it’s easy to find more about it.
At the same time… an “AI Search Engine” is an awkward mess.
At the same time… an “AI Search Engine” is an awkward mess.
One of my favorite LLM use cases is literally just asking it what the closest preexisting concept to a thought is.
"I have this idea, has anyone had this idea before and what's it called?"
It used to be REALLY DIFFICULT to reliably answer questions like that and I feel like we'll forget it was.
"I have this idea, has anyone had this idea before and what's it called?"
It used to be REALLY DIFFICULT to reliably answer questions like that and I feel like we'll forget it was.
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 AM
this is useful because “search” and “browse” tools offer the inverse of this... once you know the received name of something it’s easy to find more about it.
At the same time… an “AI Search Engine” is an awkward mess.
At the same time… an “AI Search Engine” is an awkward mess.
You can *see* why it was hard to give up on the idea.
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) moored to USS Patoka (AO-9) off the coast of Panama during Fleet Problem XII, February 1931.
November 8, 2025 at 7:42 PM
You can *see* why it was hard to give up on the idea.
my feeling on this is that the US has a culture that is both fractured and orthodox in the least helpful ways.
Talent is the wrong rubrik for this… the right one is labor. A lot of minds with *enough* compute to test their ideas.
Talent is the wrong rubrik for this… the right one is labor. A lot of minds with *enough* compute to test their ideas.
The DeepSeek moment underestimated the talent portion & overfocused on training capital in N of GPUs.
The rest of 2025 has been living through that reality with Kimi, GLM, Ant Ling, Meituan... The burden of proof is back on scaling if AI will be in the hands of a few companies.
The rest of 2025 has been living through that reality with Kimi, GLM, Ant Ling, Meituan... The burden of proof is back on scaling if AI will be in the hands of a few companies.
November 8, 2025 at 5:42 PM
my feeling on this is that the US has a culture that is both fractured and orthodox in the least helpful ways.
Talent is the wrong rubrik for this… the right one is labor. A lot of minds with *enough* compute to test their ideas.
Talent is the wrong rubrik for this… the right one is labor. A lot of minds with *enough* compute to test their ideas.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
shitfaced jamaal bowman saying this is so fuckin funny i feel so seen right now
November 6, 2025 at 4:05 AM
shitfaced jamaal bowman saying this is so fuckin funny i feel so seen right now
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.
November 5, 2025 at 1:13 AM
this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.
Irvine is… a strange place. California created some really awful messes when it expanded the UC system and it is definitely one of the wilder ones.
Both guys with extremely in-character views on what growing up in Irvine was like:
November 3, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Irvine is… a strange place. California created some really awful messes when it expanded the UC system and it is definitely one of the wilder ones.
One thing… that footage was probably one of the most cursed things put on tape up to that point...
But I doubt it ranks even top 1000 now.
But I doubt it ranks even top 1000 now.
Still absolute bullshit that he put on headphones and listened to Timothy Treadwell get eaten by a bear ON CAMERA only to demand that the tape be destroyed lest anyone else be exposed to it. Gatekeeping of the highest order. It’s not the secret chord that David played to please the Lord!!! Allow it!
DIRECTED BY WERNER HERZOG 🎥Now playing on the Criterion Channel!
An artistic renegade every bit as uncompromising, fearless, and eccentric as the outsiders, oddballs, and obsessives he makes films about.
An artistic renegade every bit as uncompromising, fearless, and eccentric as the outsiders, oddballs, and obsessives he makes films about.
November 3, 2025 at 2:13 AM
One thing… that footage was probably one of the most cursed things put on tape up to that point...
But I doubt it ranks even top 1000 now.
But I doubt it ranks even top 1000 now.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
I can’t believe we’re back to medieval level conflicts like “local authorities deny catholic prisoners the Eucharist, bishop arrives, Papal sanction may follow”
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado at ICE detention facility: “Being here is an act of holiness…soon we will seek access to the facility to bring the Eucharist to our brothers and sisters; if they say no again, we will keep praying.”
November 1, 2025 at 6:56 PM
I can’t believe we’re back to medieval level conflicts like “local authorities deny catholic prisoners the Eucharist, bishop arrives, Papal sanction may follow”
20 second timeout penalty for calling your teammate “bro”
November 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
20 second timeout penalty for calling your teammate “bro”
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
For New Yorkers who work the night shift, it can be nearly impossible to participate in political life of our city.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
October 31, 2025 at 3:28 AM
For New Yorkers who work the night shift, it can be nearly impossible to participate in political life of our city.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
So tonight we’re bringing this campaign to them — starting with taxi drivers waiting at LaGuardia.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
To be fair, if you are ill-prepared for the cold you are probably ill-prepared to look at this and understand why it’s bad.
Mt. Washington in late October? The cog railway only goes halfway up this time of year and even there it looks like this. This is where these people hopped off and thought yeah I'll just keeping strolling up into the freakish Extreme Frozen Hell zone.
October 29, 2025 at 3:35 AM
To be fair, if you are ill-prepared for the cold you are probably ill-prepared to look at this and understand why it’s bad.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
the scoreboard has crashed out
October 28, 2025 at 5:27 AM
the scoreboard has crashed out
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
BE NOT
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
AFRAID
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
BE NOT
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
AFRAID
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
October 28, 2025 at 5:43 AM
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
BE NOT
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
AFRAID
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
BE NOT
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
AFRAID
👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
I’m not sure if they ever considered that they’d need to pinch hit the organ player
Do you think they have more than one? Do they have a back up? I mean, it is the World Series, you have to be prepared.
October 28, 2025 at 5:45 AM
I’m not sure if they ever considered that they’d need to pinch hit the organ player
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
the stadium stopped selling alcohol seven innings ago. everyone at this game is sober now
October 28, 2025 at 5:31 AM
the stadium stopped selling alcohol seven innings ago. everyone at this game is sober now
causal masking feels like it is one of those things that people do because if they didn’t then other people would make fun of their model.
but like… there’s no “idea” behind it other than it works.
Why aren’t we working with more useful context?
but like… there’s no “idea” behind it other than it works.
Why aren’t we working with more useful context?
i'm reading through the technical spec, and the most interesting thing is that it's trained without causal masking -- it's more like a BERT than a standard LLM.
October 26, 2025 at 5:49 AM
causal masking feels like it is one of those things that people do because if they didn’t then other people would make fun of their model.
but like… there’s no “idea” behind it other than it works.
Why aren’t we working with more useful context?
but like… there’s no “idea” behind it other than it works.
Why aren’t we working with more useful context?