Alton B.H. Worthington

sky can have little a "it can only good happen!" as a treat

Translation is one of the best things to use LLMs for.

Why?

A translation request is a tightly-controlled prompt. You are feeding in words & expecting matching words. Less room for hallucination nonsense.

When LLMs write code, they are translating from human language ➡️ programming language.

Again, the reason so many of us in academia are so categorically opposed to AI is not because we’re Luddites or idiots or denialists. It’s because ~every current tool & application of it is built on criminal theft & the bad faith monetization of it.

Good. Fuck em.

We talk about how AI is based on stolen labor, but we don't emphasize enough that it's an ongoing and future project.

Did I take a 10 minute sidebar in my Excel class to demo/explain decimal (integer and rational) vs binary (vs octal and hex) numbers while explaining data types? Yes.

Was it the best use of class time? I dunno.

Did I have fun? Absolutely.

IMO, "prediction" and "simulation" are quite different objectives (in practical terms) and I'm not paying WSJ to find out who is being sloppy about it (them, the startup, or both).

I think I've posted this a few times, but... doubtful. (osf.io/preprints/so...)

bsky.app/profile/cbar...

SpaceX alone wants there to be 100x as many satellites as you see here.

welcome back, 1970

The Project 2025 idiots 110% thought they'd be able to force all those uppity USAID staffers and cancer researchers to work in the fields and in slaughterhouses.

appears the ship that was damaged and partly abandoned was struck by a drone *boat*

I could have sworn last night I saw a massive scatterplot with "points per game" vs "shooting percentage" showing Bam Adebayo's performance was the highest sub-50% FG game ever, but can't find it. So, my students will have to trust me on it...

I’m just gonna leave this here, cause besides the free throws, it’s damn near the same exact game.

Kobe would have done the exact same thing BTW.

Innumeracy mixed with arrogance is a problem in all aspects of American life, imo

The USA baseball team shooting itself in the dick due to incompetent leadership is a metaphor so on the nose any script writer would be told to dial it back 80%.

*casablancagamblingshocked.gif*

""I'm afraid I could be arrested if I travel to that state for your wedding and need to use the restroom at the venue ..."

waiting for the day when the dow and my inbox cross again (I'm higher rn)

Quick addendum on this: the one part of the left that truly understood power was ... unions. Union organizers were never under the illusion that they could sweet-talk concessions from bosses with the right framing. They dealt in power.

That's why the right killed them.

Famously, SNAP cards holders are provided with boxes of pre-chosen rations on presentation at Government Distribution Centers.

They certainly don't use these cards as, say, debit cards to buy food items they have selected, paying market prices.

So good to have politicians like Husted to explain!

We talked about the allowed and not allowed instruments at the World Baseball Classic.

Immigrant says ICE invoked MAGA YouTuber Nick Shirley during arrest Mamdou Ndoye, who was ordered released by a judge in February, says he was rearrested by ICE later that month by agents who asked him why he was “aggressive to Nick Shirley.”

Ndoye reports from detention that Nick Shirley, himself, pointed at him during the Canal Street raid to tell them to arrest him

"ICE didn’t even try to talk to me, but then he pointed me out to ICE and they ran to me and arrested me."

A regime of influencers

www.courthousenews.com/immigrant-sa...

me today

like that one quiet coworker who has secret, cool hobbies that you never learn about until you see them on the news

Have you submitted your #2026APPAM abstract? There's still time! Learn more: https://ow.ly/CEBv50YrjgP

are we bringing back the "what are thooooooooooooooooooose?" meme?

Opportunities and Challenges Ahead ISA is at a threshold. Our cash flow is out of balance, and the Executive Committee authorized a draw on reserves, which stand at USD 5 million. Our 2026-27 budget as approved by the Governing Council includes a deficit of more than USD 500,000. Our primary financial challenges are twofold. First, and like much of the world, we have anticipated a return to status quo ante-Covid. But just as political, social, and economic factors appear to stabilize, new energies again disrupt expectations. Recognizing that local and global disruption is the new normal is essential to rediscovering ISA, to hone in on the work our members do and our defense of academic freedom and integrity. Second, many of our costs are fixed in the short term, meaning that we lack the flexibility to shift or reduce costs even as resources decline. Prior to Covid, this was an effective tactic. Locking in vendor contracts, licensing for digital platforms, and contracting convention facilities provided incredible financial incentives that reduced expenditures in the long run – as long as the status quo remained operative. In response to our financial state, President Siba Grovogui and President-Elect Audie Klotz, along with Treasurer Jeremy Youde, have launched a task force with staff to revise budgeting processes and establish more nimble approaches to financial management. We also have reduced discretionary expenditures nearly across the board, including: • Cuts in travel funds for the Presidents and me, which will limit our engagement with RSC conferences. • Reducing by half the ISA contribution to my retirement account. • Savings in programs where we had the flexibility to do so While each reduction is small when compared to our overall budget, we have saved to date nearly USD 200,000 for 26-27. And our work continues.

ngl I am impressed by the level of financial transparency from @isanet.bsky.social in their March newsletter

IYKYK

Looking forward to seeing this data visualized in Google Earth with some rad 70s background music and a space travel analogy voiceover playing.