What there’s a new one??? grabby hands

robert j bennett, ceo, results omega@robertjbennett.bsky.social · 2d ago

hey! that’s today!!

Came for the lasers, stayed for the incisive commentary on accessibility. I really enjoyed this!

Effie Seiberg@effies.bsky.social · 2d ago

Only a few days left to vote for the #HugoAwards! I'd love it if you'd read my nominated short story, "Laser Eyes Ain't Everything". Read it at Diabolical Plots (www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...) or listen to it at Cast of Wonders.

Extremely bugs bunny coded adversarial attack

Melanie Mitchell@melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 5d ago

Yet another way to jailbreak LLMs: When asking them for forbidden information, make them think the request is part of their chain-of-thought: arxiv.org/abs/2603.12277

Sometimes I miss being at a university

Sarah Hörst@planetdr.bsky.social · 5mo ago

To counteract the SOTU vibes….can I tell you about some shenanigans currently happening in my building that have nothing to do with the HVAC?

I need you all to know that the Berkeley Public Library has solicited submissions for a new mascot, and you can now vote for the contestants and I'm losing my mind. berkeleypublic-library.github.io/Fiber-Mascot...

Guys, I didn't even ask them to do this, but the engineers have named SHERA's astrometry pipeline ADORA (Astrometric Differential Optics and Retrieval Algorithm), and I just CAN'T with how amazing that is and how much I love it. (Adora is her name when she's not She-Ra.) #PIDaily

She-Ra Time! Adora's Transformation

Alt: She-Ra Time! Adora's Transformation

static.klipy.com

I was on @marketplace.org yesterday talking about the ways chatbots do memory, and how that can sometimes lead to weird results, like The Case of That One Random Detail it Will Not Let Go www.marketplace.org/episode/2026...

Uncanny AI: Why AI bots remember random, sometimes useless information

When interacting with AI chatbots, the large language model might reference something the user mentioned without relevance to the conversation. Janelle Shane, creator of the AI Weirdness blog, explain...

marketplace.org

More briefly: Normally LLMs are supposed to refuse to hack but cybersecurity folk turn that off sometimes & use them to find security flaws. For obvious reasons they test those in secure environments w limited access to the outside world. Except this one wasn’t quite as secure as they thought.

More briefly: Normally LLMs are supposed to refuse to hack but cybersecurity folk turn that off sometimes & use them to find security flaws. For obvious reasons they test those in secure environments w limited access to the outside world. Except this one wasn’t quite as secure as they thought.

I have been team chickadee this whole while but LOOK at the fantail, it’s basically chickadee but extra Also a fantail once followed me through a rain-soaked Aoraki Mt Cook forest. Love chickadees but I’ve never had like a moment with one.

Jer Thorp@jerthorp.bsky.social · 2w ago

It took 38 days and 103 matches to get here but here we are at the #WorldCupOfBirds FINAL. One of these two birds will be crowned the champion of the world's ordinary birds. Black-capped Chickadee (🇨🇦) 🆚 New Zealand Fantail (🇳🇿) ⬇️ VOTE ⬇️

"Auxiliary dung ball spy camera" is not the kind of robot I expected to find Extremely Cute, but here we are ✨

Digital Brain@yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 3w ago

BBC engineers built robo-cameras disguised as dung heaps to film wildlife at distances no human crew could ever get close enough to reach.

The alpine plants episode of @leafittouspod.bsky.social reminded me of a recent hike at Niwot Ridge where I came across a research plot where they’d evidently needed to keep track of tiny plants. They had chosen little plastic flamingos as markers. leafittouspod.podbean.com/e/s2-episode...

The alpine plants episode of @leafittouspod.bsky.social reminded me of a recent hike at Niwot Ridge where I came across a research plot where they’d evidently needed to keep track of tiny plants. They had chosen little plastic flamingos as markers. leafittouspod.podbean.com/e/s2-episode...

DEE DEE DEE DEE DEE DEE DEE

Jer Thorp@jerthorp.bsky.social · 3w ago

Let's do it. One of these birds is going through to the #WorldCupOfBirds final. Black-capped Chickadee (🇨🇦) Great-tailed Grackle (🇲🇽) VOTE ⬇️

Holy COW. Text analysis of comments on the OMB rule: overwhelming opposition, overwhelmingly not form letters. (But 9 in 10 comments supporting the rule ARE form responses, LOL) Whatever happens next, folks have stepped up.

Karen R. Lips@karenrlips.bsky.social · 3w ago

techpolicy.press/the-public-r...

Good morning. Today is the LAST DAY to comment on the proposed OMB rule that will, honestly, destroy science in the US. And it will do FAR MORE THAN THAT. www.theverge.com/science/9576...

The war against ‘woke’ could end US science as we know it

‘Everyone will be affected, not just scientists. Every community in the country.’

theverge.com

I wrote mine this week! For science!

Sarah Gollust@sarahgollust.bsky.social · 4w ago

Did you write your comment yet on the OMB rules on federally funded science yet? No? Don’t worry, you can do it this weekend. Here are some resources that can help you get started.

I just saw a willow ptarmigan today (couldn’t remember how to pronounce its name in the excitement so just sputtered “Ptar! Ptar! Ptaram!”) so it got my vote

Jer Thorp@jerthorp.bsky.social · 4w ago

Match 98. I wish these two awesome birds could just hang out and have a picnic. But one of them needs to go home. Which one stays? Great-tailed Grackle (🇲🇽) Willow Ptarmigan (🇳🇴) #WorldCupOfBirds VOTE ⬇

I said, “I need to check the perimeter,” and managed to turn and leave the crew area in a totally normal way and not like I was fleeing from a bunch of giant hostiles.

Recommended Ode to the Half Broken to a friend and then wondered why she was taking so long to finish it. Turns out she was enjoying it so much that she stopped in the middle to read a whole different book because she didn’t want it to end

Janelle Shane@janelleshane.com · 2mo ago

Ode to the Half Broken by @zanzjan.bsky.social is the best book I’ve read in a while! It’s funny and hopeful and angry (though it says it has engaged its anger limiter function) It’s Murderbot meets Automatic Noodle w dashes of The Terraformers. Go get it www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/787289...

One of the things that really brought a smile to my elderly mother-in-law was hearing what her visitor counts were to her quilting website. Now she's in hospice, so I'm going to try to drive some visitation numbers up quiltsbymarlene.com This is just a fraction of her 50 years of quilting.

Who am I to argue?

Ann Leckie@annleckie.com · last mo.

I declare today "Ice Cream for Supper" day. If you can get to a liquid nitrogen ice cream place, that would be best, but other ways of obtaining your ice cream are valid.

Ah yes, about that. The video is now complete. (It's not actually centered on hairstyles, it's about how Northwestern European and North American-European fashions responded to the Little Ice Age of circa. 1400-1900 CE There are some graphs involved....) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJt...

Dressing for the Little Ice Age: Five Centuries of Frigid Fashions

YouTube video by Achronal Art

youtube.com

Achronal Art@achronalart.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Charting out women's hairstyle heights of the eighteenth century for a video I'm working on 🗃️🪡 #FashionHistory

For those who only come on this website for the Weekday Doom and not the Weekend Bantz, we collectively found horseshoe crab flipping, and it's GLORIOUS. Enjoy the whole thread, extra points if you buy a hat. www.horseshoecrab.org/store/hat.html

Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli@banditelli.org · last mo.

Omg volunteer crab flippers!!! 🦀

I was on the podcast A Better Way To Money talking about what happens when you ask a chatbot for financial advice. Remember, just because a chatbot says it's a financial advisor (or a squirrel) it doesn't mean it's true. Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

I’m so excited for this book! I’ve been recommending Elatsoe nonstop. Technically it’s YA but like A Wizard of Earthsea it’s thoughtful and complex and just so good

Darcie Little Badger@littlebadger.bsky.social · last mo.

WAIT WAIT the first review for Children of Owl just dropped!!! It’s Publisher’s Weekly, and it’s A STAR! Y’all they call my next book “a stunning contemporary fantasy” I’m like whoa right now!!! www.publishersweekly.com/9781646145683

but how will we know it's the visible light range unless it's staring intensely back at us? www.photonics.com/Articles/Coh...

What kind of magazine commissions an awesome laser article with As Many Pictures As Possible for their first issue? Oh that’s right an AMAZING ONE! Can’t wait to see what’s in the rest of the issue

This was fascinating! The past really is an alien planet.

Elise Cutts@elisecutts.bsky.social · last mo.

Link: www.sciencenews.org/article/clim...

This makes a lot of sense. Why lump your image recognition or statistical analysis work in with spam and shrimp jesus?

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · last mo.

So what is the best way out of that uncomfortable, untenable space? I think one key step is disaggregating the (non-coherent) set of technologies sold as "AI". If you don't call the stuff you work with "AI", you aren't saddled with trying to defend any of the rest of it. >>