tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org

Some nice work by colleagues at MPIA showing that a pupported z~7.4 quasar is, it seems, just an asteroid.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/accb5b

#Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophysics #EpochOfReionization #EoRQSO

The number of mass killing fatalities in the US through April, annualized, would represent about a 50% increase over 2022. Family-related mass killings are up around 100%.
#nowyouknow #massshooting #homicide #family #familyviolence

Regarding the latter, my own complaints are more along the line of the professor's who says “using Mastodon can feel like eating your vegetables”. But others experienced more serious drawbacks.

“On Twitter, it took me a little over two years to say something that got me a bunch of racist trolls in my DMs and mentions. On Mastodon, it took 48 hours ... There’s no wonder that we started calling Mastodon the homeowners’ association of social media”.

A reminder that we still need your support. The Russian authorities have designated Meduza as a “foreign agent,” blocked our website, shattered our crowdfunding inside Russia, banished our journalists, and, finally, outlawed us. https://support.meduza.io/en

Hi, I think we need even better ways to help new users.

Thousands are signing up every day, but many leave soon after because of confusion.

My idea is that we get behind a hashtag and make it a kind of decentralised helpdesk for new people. This is already happening and I want to add energy to this.

Which hashtag would be best to unite around?

If it happens, it could be another indication that while the Kremlin prizes elite stability (see the low number of cadre changes since 2/2022), it prefers avoiding even minimal risks. Uss has been regarded as an unpopular governor whose bid for a 2nd term might attract complications.

@Radical_EgoCom I am once again asking everyone to realize that composting is an option if you have dietary restrictions that prevent you from eating the rich.

Vad är det DN skriver egentligen??

"Den svenska avskyn för ryssen har djupa rötter. Ibland kan man undra varför – historiskt har Ryssland trots allt inte förorsakat Sverige så djupt lidande. Lars Linder läser Dick Harrisons nya bok om den väldiga och opålitliga grannen i öster."

Byt ut "ryssen" mot "juden". Funkar bra?

https://www.dn.se/kultur/den-larde-dick-harrison-har-haft-lite-for-brattom-i-fienden/

An interesting as subtle bias in our image generators: the American smile

https://medium.com/@socialcreature/ai-and-the-american-smile-76d23a0fbfaf

New @niemanlab by study coauthor @dangillmor: "The corrections dilemma: Admitting your mistakes increases accuracy but reduces audience trust, a new study finds" https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-corrections-dilemma-admitting-your-mistakes-increases-accuracy-but-reduces-audience-trust-a-new-study-finds/

Our study: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-experimental-political-science/article/corrections-dilemma-media-retractions-increase-belief-accuracy-but-decrease-trust/A6A9A16D97F22E1CA22B051D215E752B

one aspect of diffusion-based generative models which I find kind of funny / bittersweet is that

i) the optimisation problem is convex in terms of the { score / denoiser / ... }, and is even a least-squares problem in some formulations. this means that it would be extremely well-adapted to the sorts of statistical theory which people loved 10-15 years ago, but

ii) these models have become { popular, feasible, etc. } in the neural network era (and even as a direct result of certain NN architectures?), and the aforementioned favourable convexity properties are largely absent in weight space, and thus don't obviously yield any insights about the recent practical successes.

The #BBB turning up the soil in the province of Overijssel

#Netherlands #PS2023 #elections

The 2023 edition of my long-running anti-establishment art-science-fusion code-therapy smooth-baritone causal inference & Bayesian data analysis course is complete. 20 lectures, from the basics of causal inference & Bayesian updating to mixed models & Gaussian processes.

Lecture recordings, slides, homework sets and solutions are all listed here. Take it at your own pace. First half is a solid course in regression and causal inference. Second half turns it up to 11. https://github.com/rmcelreath/stat_rethinking_2023#calendar--topical-outline

Nonprofits delenda est.
---
RT @JakeMGrumbach
Leave it to state legislatures to make Congress look like paragons of virtue. Truly wild story of corruption in the Ohio state legislature in the post-Citizens United era.

https://grist.org/politics/ohio-bribery-scandal-larry-householder-verdict/

h/t Pierson
https://twitter.com/JakeMGrumbach/status/1635337460262764544

Very provocative article by Animah Kosai on Corruption Perception Index.

We so easily forget that the ones who corrupt are the ones who pay bribes, not the ones who receive them.

Corruption and bribes are mechanisms at the disposal of the rich and powerful to tilt the playing field in their favour and away from the lesser rich and powerful, so who are the ones to blame?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-corrupt-really-animah-kosai

#Corruption #AnimahKosai #MoneyLaundering #Bribe #Bribes

Yet another sign that the footprint of the death penalty is shrinking. I thank Gov. Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Here’s the first part of his statement today:

Today, I'm announcing I will not issue any execution warrants during my term as Governor.

When one comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve every time — and I’m asking the General Assembly to send me a bill abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania once and for all…

#DeathPenalty #CapitalPunishment #Abolition

I just had whatever the opposite of 'future shock' is - I stumbled upon a telescope proposal from 2001 and I wondered if the #latex would compile - of course it did, and the proposal looked exactly as it should have.

In related news, I wrote my thesis in Word 98 and the next version refused to open one of my chapters for no obvious reason.

Plain text and openly documented image formats are definitely the way to future proof your work....

On #Poland's schizophrenic border regime: while #refugees are welcomed on the Ukrainian border, the Belarusian border is a militarized "death zone" where humanitarian aid is criminalized.

30 dead, 200 missing, broken bones, food and water poisoning, dog bites, miscarriages, hypothermia, starvation, trauma..

https://twitter.com/ManuelaBoatca/status/1601534875659558912

#refugeeswelcome #EUBorders

From "Hurry up and leave, Bachar" to "People's revolution everywhere" — a thread by @ayoub about how a Syrian #protest song was adopted and adapted, over and again, by Lebanese and Iranians, with lyrics that similarly came to refer to shared global fights: "From Lebanon to Hong Kong, from Chile to Lebanon"

https://twitter.com/joeyayoub/status/1586055384892346369

#ProtestSongs #internationalism

If the US wants to reduce inflation, maybe the solution should include sending USD 1tn to the developing world to invest in climate solutions. Rising US rates are causing massive unemployment -- in places like Colombia, where it's at 14%.

https://wapo.st/3DCZNwv