Dvij Mankad
@dvij.bsky.social
Ph.D. Student of Physics at Weizmann Institute of Science. I do b-Physics in the ATLAS Collaboration.
AI companies scraping websites at scale is a real problem. But a proposed NY law could make it harder for libraries, journalists & researchers to preserve the web and investigate the powerful. That's why we've joined @eff.org & others in a letter to Gov. Hochul. blog.archive.org/2026/08/04/i...
Internet Archive to New York: Don’t Kill the Good Bots in the Fight Against Bad Bots | Internet Archive Blogs
blog.archive.org
With Claude solving all kinds of math problems, and us not yet having solved quantum gravity, can we conclude physics is a more human endeavor? 🙃
Folks, it's seizing the means of production, not mocking the means of production. I feel like Bernie is obviously right on the AI sovereign wealth fund, while the certain segment of the online left is letting their aesthetic disgust of AI blind their judgement.
Overhearing people on the street uttering names of non-anglosphere countries and getting excited that people are becoming interested in what's going on around the world -- only to realize it's a once-in-a-four-year concern with how well people from different countries can kick a ball.
Since people are taking the Artemis launch to be the thing that reassures us that we can still do cool things, I'm a bit annoyed.
Why is every other app advertising itself as "Duolingo but for X"? Has anyone had a positive experience with Duolingo?!
Anyone interested in gleaning true information from the internet is going to have to cultivate a trusted collection of sources rather than relying on search or social media. Dare we hope for a renaissance of the RSS reader?
Benjamin Mills@bjwmills.bsky.social · 10mo agoGoogled the title of our new paper out today and the FIRST HIT was an AI sludge article that was completely incorrect A: no we didn't analyse phosphorus isotope ratios in rocks B: NOBODY analyses these C: because phosphorus only has ONE stable isotope Dead internet here we go
People really need to stop being weird about AI. Like criticize but be cool about it? I think that's possible?
I think for me the most compelling answer for "why fund basic research?" (and the one most relevant to the people doing the work) is that humans are curious and finding stuff out makes us happy and fulfilled. Science is a thing humans like. Life would be more dull and sad if we didn't do it. end/🧵
As an almost Gandhian, I think Gandhians in London should clean up the statue before offering treats and additional paint to the vandalizers, and repeat. share.google/IV3vG5EL6kx0...
Tavistock Square: Gandhi statue defaced in London days before his birthday
Officials in London have said that they are looking into the reports but haven't identified anyone responsible yet.
share.google
Can we not use "AI" as a replacement for "video games" or "computers" or "smart phones" to cry about how a new generation is different from ours?!
Why are there so many brosphere podcasters copying Rogan's studio aesthetics but not enough particle physicists wearing all black?!
I think the title should have been "AI is not another abstraction because God does (should?) not play dice."!
Rakhim Davletkali@rakhim.org · 11mo agoAI is not another abstraction because god plays dice rakhim.exotext.com/ai_is_not_an...
Next up. Kittens are cute to people everywhere. 😒
Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 11mo agoHonest elections matter to people everywhere
Psychologists can finally take solace in the fact that someone is using even more dubious statistical methods. @verybadwizards.bsky.social.
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 11mo agoVance: "While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far-Left."
People who used to complain that Twitter is bad for mental health (before 2022), how's the lack of it working out for your mental health? 😒
We're supposed to believe that the company that can't get an auto-complete extension right is going to give us fault tolerant quantum computing?
Why is Google force-feeding me the AI slop *across the board*? 😭😭😭 I don't need an AI answer when I am trying to look up an address or the working hours of a shop!
2FA is literal trolling. I need to go somewhere and you're blocking me unless I solve your stupid riddles!
People who say consciousness is needed to collapse wave function should roll out the theoretically unbeatable captcha based on their brilliant idea or shut the fuck up!
Do we have to pretend that Pope Francis was some progressive hero? He was, and I can't emphasize this enough, the literal Pope!
If your company shows me "external" ads on YouTube, I'll never buy whatever you're selling even if I need it to save my life. Just buy the ad-reads from the content creators themselves, it's significantly less annoying and presumably targets the demographics much more precisely.
Bayesians have the most severe case of victim complex. Look around, almost everyone is a Bayesian, you won. Stop crying.
All of the ref-working to change moderation policy or pretend fact-checking or labeling is “censorship” or investigative academics is in service of this recognition. It’s to optimize the playing field in ways that aren’t possible on broadcast mediums.
Free speech except if you want to boo someone with enough extra money to hire a bunch of lawyers. Example #2634 why liberal principles cannot be realized within capitalism.
Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2y agoIt's difficult to overstate just how much professional journalists have been trained to fear defamation lawsuits and how much it has impacted the ability to tell the truth
