megabase
@the-megabase.bsky.social
genetics guy, scientific integrity zealot, information enthusiast. flippantly earnest, cheerfully cynical
cannot get over how goofy the "true-color" reconstructions of greek and roman marble statues look
am i really expected to believe that the sculptors achieved such mastery of form but the painters never progressed beyond slathering lumpy block-color paste over it all
am i really expected to believe that the sculptors achieved such mastery of form but the painters never progressed beyond slathering lumpy block-color paste over it all
May 15, 2025 at 11:08 AM
cannot get over how goofy the "true-color" reconstructions of greek and roman marble statues look
am i really expected to believe that the sculptors achieved such mastery of form but the painters never progressed beyond slathering lumpy block-color paste over it all
am i really expected to believe that the sculptors achieved such mastery of form but the painters never progressed beyond slathering lumpy block-color paste over it all
thread of surprising diaspora communities
starting with some who owe their origin to stalin-era resettlement:
- (volga) germans of kazakhstan. peaked at 1 million just before fall of berlin wall, largely migrated to germany
- koreans in central asia, originally far east russia. around 500k today
starting with some who owe their origin to stalin-era resettlement:
- (volga) germans of kazakhstan. peaked at 1 million just before fall of berlin wall, largely migrated to germany
- koreans in central asia, originally far east russia. around 500k today
May 14, 2025 at 4:20 PM
thread of surprising diaspora communities
starting with some who owe their origin to stalin-era resettlement:
- (volga) germans of kazakhstan. peaked at 1 million just before fall of berlin wall, largely migrated to germany
- koreans in central asia, originally far east russia. around 500k today
starting with some who owe their origin to stalin-era resettlement:
- (volga) germans of kazakhstan. peaked at 1 million just before fall of berlin wall, largely migrated to germany
- koreans in central asia, originally far east russia. around 500k today
during this ordeal, o3 gaslit me with the following image. left is a bastardized version of a sketch i sent it with the "problematic rise" circled, right is the proposed fix. come on man!
May 13, 2025 at 1:58 PM
during this ordeal, o3 gaslit me with the following image. left is a bastardized version of a sketch i sent it with the "problematic rise" circled, right is the proposed fix. come on man!
Reposted by megabase
My sycophancy benchmark is updated with new tests and improved scoring, and now has a website and a paper! Thread below. syco-bench.com
May 12, 2025 at 4:27 PM
My sycophancy benchmark is updated with new tests and improved scoring, and now has a website and a paper! Thread below. syco-bench.com
just tried to get some plumbing-related advice from o3. results were so awful that it has genuinely lengthened my agi timelines; further, am considering training as a plumber to get a few more years of job security
recently asked o3 how it would do one of the more complex + bespoke tasks i perform at work
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
2030-01-16
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
May 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM
just tried to get some plumbing-related advice from o3. results were so awful that it has genuinely lengthened my agi timelines; further, am considering training as a plumber to get a few more years of job security
Reposted by megabase
🚨 REPLICATION REPORT UPDATE: One year ago, a tweet by John Holbein alerted me, @ollefolke.bsky.social, and @jopieboy.bsky.social to a paper with a shocking result about Sweden’s law criminalizing the purchase of sex.🧵
May 9, 2025 at 9:29 AM
🚨 REPLICATION REPORT UPDATE: One year ago, a tweet by John Holbein alerted me, @ollefolke.bsky.social, and @jopieboy.bsky.social to a paper with a shocking result about Sweden’s law criminalizing the purchase of sex.🧵
i am going to become the joker. terrible indictment of the sleep science subfield that fu and co are still able to pump out these awful short sleep gene papers. when will the fever break?
The SIK3-N783Y mutation is associated with the human natural short sleep trait | PNAS
Sleep is an essential component of our daily life. A mutation in human salt induced
kinase 3 (hSIK3), which is critical for regulating sleep durati...
www.pnas.org
May 8, 2025 at 12:03 PM
i am going to become the joker. terrible indictment of the sleep science subfield that fu and co are still able to pump out these awful short sleep gene papers. when will the fever break?
the greater honeyguide doesn't just lead humans to beehives so it can feed on the post-harvest scraps - it's a ruthless brood parasite to boot. has to be one of the most devious bird species going.
May 7, 2025 at 10:59 PM
the greater honeyguide doesn't just lead humans to beehives so it can feed on the post-harvest scraps - it's a ruthless brood parasite to boot. has to be one of the most devious bird species going.
found myself reading a manga ("berserk") against my better judgment. marveling at how distinctly japanese the story is:
- bushido themes: absolute loyalty to your band/leader; overwhelming odds can be beaten with insane ferocity; never giving up
- obsession with mastery, apprenticeship, drilling
- bushido themes: absolute loyalty to your band/leader; overwhelming odds can be beaten with insane ferocity; never giving up
- obsession with mastery, apprenticeship, drilling
May 7, 2025 at 11:43 AM
found myself reading a manga ("berserk") against my better judgment. marveling at how distinctly japanese the story is:
- bushido themes: absolute loyalty to your band/leader; overwhelming odds can be beaten with insane ferocity; never giving up
- obsession with mastery, apprenticeship, drilling
- bushido themes: absolute loyalty to your band/leader; overwhelming odds can be beaten with insane ferocity; never giving up
- obsession with mastery, apprenticeship, drilling
Reposted by megabase
Scientists have created a broadly effective antivenom using the blood of a Wisconsin man who has spent years exposing himself to deadly snakebites from black mambas, taipans, cobras and many others.
He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom
Scientists have created a broadly effective antivenom using the blood of a Wisconsin man who has spent years exposing himself to deadly snakebites from black mambas, taipans, cobras and many others.
www.npr.org
May 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Scientists have created a broadly effective antivenom using the blood of a Wisconsin man who has spent years exposing himself to deadly snakebites from black mambas, taipans, cobras and many others.
donald trump if you can hear us, please donald trump, please save me, please save me donald trump, please i'm asking you, please save me
April 29, 2025 at 4:48 PM
donald trump if you can hear us, please donald trump, please save me, please save me donald trump, please i'm asking you, please save me
Reposted by megabase
If you are at a big LLM company and on a project to do RL to maximize user engagement with the models, you probably have a moral obligation to quit immediately and warn people. It's bad enough when social media does this.
April 28, 2025 at 5:29 PM
If you are at a big LLM company and on a project to do RL to maximize user engagement with the models, you probably have a moral obligation to quit immediately and warn people. It's bad enough when social media does this.
Reposted by megabase
April 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
understood that i had many foibles which barred me from entering the elite, but did not appreciate that "slow writing speed" and "bad at keeping up with correspondence" were among the more important
The group chats that changed America
A loose private network on Signal and WhatsApp helped usher in the new alliance between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s new right.
www.semafor.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:17 PM
understood that i had many foibles which barred me from entering the elite, but did not appreciate that "slow writing speed" and "bad at keeping up with correspondence" were among the more important
i love how the web shows me such a marvelous diversity of minds. take michael druggan: world-class mathematician (putnam top 10), well-calibrated bettor; hugely roided out bodybuilder, trump voter, constantly arguing that women who dislike gym rat physiques are lying. very unexpected "type of guy"
April 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
i love how the web shows me such a marvelous diversity of minds. take michael druggan: world-class mathematician (putnam top 10), well-calibrated bettor; hugely roided out bodybuilder, trump voter, constantly arguing that women who dislike gym rat physiques are lying. very unexpected "type of guy"
recently asked o3 how it would do one of the more complex + bespoke tasks i perform at work
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
2030-01-16
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
April 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
recently asked o3 how it would do one of the more complex + bespoke tasks i perform at work
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
and yeah, looks like o3 packaged into a real agent with perfect vision, good memory, some in-house context would complete it to an acceptable standard - basically as good as what i was producing ~4 years ago
2030-01-16
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
April 22, 2025 at 4:15 PM
2030-01-16
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
mood: calm before the storm
still don't fully believe this is happening. but today marks the beginning of the end of my working life. saw a hacker news comment describing how to see if deskmate is training on your machine - turns out it's been active on our workstations for two months.
Reposted by megabase
New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause:
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths
April 17, 2025 at 8:32 PM
New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause:
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths
the lavish vocabulary of the english language allows for wonderfully subtle gradations of connotation, for instance,
April 15, 2025 at 3:04 PM
the lavish vocabulary of the english language allows for wonderfully subtle gradations of connotation, for instance,
something i have been very surprised to learn over the past few years: a pretty typical aspect of aging is your body getting riddled with selfish proto-cancer lineages which acquired mutations that allowed them to out-compete their neighbors. any tissue with a fast turnover rate seems at risk
April 15, 2025 at 12:30 PM
something i have been very surprised to learn over the past few years: a pretty typical aspect of aging is your body getting riddled with selfish proto-cancer lineages which acquired mutations that allowed them to out-compete their neighbors. any tissue with a fast turnover rate seems at risk
just used blockenheimer.click to block all the delusional brigade-happy idiots who liked this post. very satisfying to build up one's defenses in this way
did rate limit my account however - i think limit is 1,666 created records (blocks, posts etc) per hour
did rate limit my account however - i think limit is 1,666 created records (blocks, posts etc) per hour
April 15, 2025 at 12:08 AM
just used blockenheimer.click to block all the delusional brigade-happy idiots who liked this post. very satisfying to build up one's defenses in this way
did rate limit my account however - i think limit is 1,666 created records (blocks, posts etc) per hour
did rate limit my account however - i think limit is 1,666 created records (blocks, posts etc) per hour
as someone who has the same relationship to statistics as a car mechanic has to engineering, o3-mini-high is awesome
"uh can we promote sparsity in the model? cool but that package is slow as hell. yeah this new one is quicker thanks. can i like bake in a prior. nice, i think that's working"
"uh can we promote sparsity in the model? cool but that package is slow as hell. yeah this new one is quicker thanks. can i like bake in a prior. nice, i think that's working"
April 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
as someone who has the same relationship to statistics as a car mechanic has to engineering, o3-mini-high is awesome
"uh can we promote sparsity in the model? cool but that package is slow as hell. yeah this new one is quicker thanks. can i like bake in a prior. nice, i think that's working"
"uh can we promote sparsity in the model? cool but that package is slow as hell. yeah this new one is quicker thanks. can i like bake in a prior. nice, i think that's working"
macaskill's 80k hours interview on ai is really giving me a "what the hell am i doing with my life" moment
April 13, 2025 at 11:34 PM
macaskill's 80k hours interview on ai is really giving me a "what the hell am i doing with my life" moment
i honestly would not have expected people to vote with their feet to this extent
i suppose this is partly due to well-publicized horror stories about border crossing and deportation rather than pure political disagreement
i suppose this is partly due to well-publicized horror stories about border crossing and deportation rather than pure political disagreement
April 13, 2025 at 11:19 PM
i honestly would not have expected people to vote with their feet to this extent
i suppose this is partly due to well-publicized horror stories about border crossing and deportation rather than pure political disagreement
i suppose this is partly due to well-publicized horror stories about border crossing and deportation rather than pure political disagreement