Favorites March 26th 2024
This was the first footage of the collapse that I came across, apparently they managed to stop traffic in time to mostly clear the bridge. We'll see how quickly congress acts, but in 2007, they had a bill funding rebuilding a bridge like this passed in less than a week. They should look at how I-95's collapse was repaired so quickly last year.
I definitely remembered the importance of the bridge and dredging in Season 2 of The Wire, although I wasn't sure till I saw this still that it was the same bridge. This is a good opportunity to repeal the hundred year old foreign dredge act.
My take is that if LLMs had stopped scaling at GPT 3.5, it might have been worthwhile to do all this expensive fine-tuning. Perhaps specialization via fine-tuning will be the direction to go if we reach the end of improvements via scaling.
I spent a few minutes researching, this is a real thing, they're native to Hawaii, and the fruit are around 4 by 10 inches. Some stuff online says they're delicious, so either they don't travel well or they're not as delicious as the standard Cavendish.
I'm astounded that enough light falls on the crops for this to work. Looks very pretty though, very solarpunk
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Russia and China vetoed Gaza ceasefire at the UN. US abstained. (src)(cached)
– In percentage terms, Twitter usage is falling like a rock, although in absolute terms it's still more than 10x the usage of any of its primary competitors. (src)
– San Diego stopped contracting out ambulance services, city workers are handling it. Faster response times and better service are the result. "Parting out govt services to for-profit companies is bad, and we should stop" (src)
– Builder's remedy has been live for two years in many California cities. Unsurprisingly, they build in the wealthiest areas, unrestricted development doesn't result in gentrification. (src)(cached)
– ChatGPT will happily attempt to summarize MRIs you give it, but it's very very bad at it. In this example, it diagnoses a dead salmon with possible human diseases. This was a play on a recent real person who was told by ChatGPT that they have cancer, as well as an old example of using an fMRI to check for brain activity in a dead salmon. (src)(cached)
– RNC walking a fine line claiming Trump didn't tell people to inject themselves with bleach. [he said disinfectant, not bleach specifically]. (src)(cached)
– Someone recreated a Mac Plus using modern day components and 3d printing. Here's the video. (src)
– GLP-1 agonists appear to help people make positive habits, including being able to stick to taking a drug on a regular basis, which people normally hate. (src)
– Given some background on the person they're talking to, GPT-4 is better at persuasion than a human in a randomized controlled trial. 'Superhuman' AI persuasion now exists! (src)
– Commenter at the Financial Times has absolutely had it with NIMBYs. (src)(cached)
– Claude can do a reasonable job predicting the kind of inane replies that will appear in response to a proposed popular tweet. (src)(cached)
– Republican representatives are all retiring quickly because they won't be able to if their retirement will flip the house. (src)(cached)
– Environmentalists are opposing a new transmission line that will allow a wildlife refuge to be expanded. (they can get rid of the old lines once the new ones are built, and the new ones are going next to an existing road. (src)(cached)
– PRC police operating in Fiji, including extradition of chinese citizens without agreement from Fiji. (src)(cached)
– "The Dune movies are what the fall of Anakin Skywalker should have been in the prequels." (src)
– EU opens DMA compliance investigations against Google, Apple, Meta. (src)