Chris Brockett
@chrisbrockett.bsky.social
5.2K followers 7.2K following 1.9K posts
Data janitor and leftover linguist (retired). Tsundoku expert. Language & Cognition. NLP. Japanese literature. Anti-authoritarian. Pro-science.
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Reposted by Chris Brockett
gaijinmommy.bsky.social
In the unlikely event that I don’t already, I will follow back anyone who can name all the trains in this video 😎
Reposted by Chris Brockett
dustinbwright.com
Which, whose, and how much knowledge do LLMs represent?

I'm excited to share our preprint answering these questions:

"Epistemic Diversity and Knowledge Collapse in Large Language Models"

📄Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2510.04226
💻Code: github.com/dwright37/ll...

1/10
Reposted by Chris Brockett
tedzu.bsky.social
Yeah I went down this rabbit (or elephant) hole also 😅

Vạn Tượng (萬象) in Vietnamese originally referred to the Lan Xang Kingdom (1354–1707; Lao: ລ້ານຊ້າງ, lān sāng, "million elephants")

Qing transliterated Lan Xang as 南掌. During Ming it was called 老撾 which is the name PRC uses for Laos

皇清職貢圖/南掌國
皇清職貢圖 (c. 1769)
Right: 南掌國夷官
Left: 南掌國官婦

English description: Huang Qing Zhigong Tu.
Français : Tableaux des peuples tributaires de la grande dynastie impériale de Chine / avec l'édit impérial de Qianlong et les dédicaces des ministres d'État.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huang_Qing_Zhigong_Tu_-_019.jpg
Reposted by Chris Brockett
egasmb.bsky.social
The history of the Chinese name for Vientiane, Wanxiang 萬象, is *fascinating* 😍 - it's apparently not Mandarin, but Vietnamese (Vạn Tượng)! Here it is in a 1834 map. It then entered PRC usage in lieu of Canto-based Wing5 Zan1 永珍 via the Vietnamese News Agency in the 1950s.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
mattcowgill.bsky.social
probably my most deeply-held belief: it is not possible for a slide deck to be both (1) a good presentation aide; and (2) a standalone document that can be read and understood in isolation.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
tomerullman.bsky.social
New preprint!

"Non-commitment in mental imagery is distinct from perceptual inattention, and supports hierarchical scene construction"

(by Li, Hammond, & me)

link: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

-- the title's a bit of a mouthful, but the nice thing is that it's a pretty decent summary
Reposted by Chris Brockett
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
Dune is a badly written novel but it’s very exciting if you read it at the right age for the ideas to captivate you enough that your brain can compensate for the prose.
rachelfeder.bsky.social
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
Reposted by Chris Brockett
artcrimeprof.bsky.social
UGH finishing a book means formatting citations and tracking down missing first names and not allowing myself to follow the rabbit hole that opens up when I find out an author was involved in a blackmail scheme involving sheet shooting, Van Dyck, and possibly fake royal titles. NO FUN.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
briantylercohen.bsky.social
Multiple airports are now announcing they will refuse to play Kristi Noem’s government-funded video blaming “Democrats” for the government shutdown.

“We believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging,” one airport said.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
Reposted by Chris Brockett
bearnurse.bsky.social
China invents a bone glue. Japan invents a medicine that regrows teeth naturally. America is saying Tylenol causes autism
Reposted by Chris Brockett
Reposted by Chris Brockett
publichealthguy1.bsky.social
the gutting of the national center for health statistics should be considered its own five alarm fire
altcdc.altgov.info
Eliminated at NCHS:
❌ Office of Informatics, Governance and Assurance
❌ Office of Information Sevices (communications)
❌ Office of the Director for the Division of Vital Statistics, which is now without all leadership
❌ Planning/Operations in the Division of Healthcare Statistics
Reposted by Chris Brockett
quirinpress.bsky.social
There is a set of double spouted sake vessel 酒器 in Wajima-nuri 輪島塗 lacquerware for sale on the web, 🙏 does anyone know if there is a specific name for such vessels that seem inspired by the tripod candle stick holders of Japan ❓
chrisbrockett.bsky.social
They are highly organized. They overcame their ADHD long enough to organize themselves into inflatable suits. Let the wild rumpus begin!
michaelehayden.bsky.social
“They are highly organized … [they] have purchased their own animal costumes”
Andy ngo mad about muppets again — this time in Chicago
Reposted by Chris Brockett
jamellebouie.net
federal agents stealing children and sending them south. where have i heard about that before?
caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...
Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago



31
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.
chrisbrockett.bsky.social
Well said! I was wondering when the regime would turn its attention to Washington State.
governorferguson.bsky.social
We are not bending the knee.

My response to AG Bondi and President Trump.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
cajunblue.bsky.social
🚨🚨🚨WA Governor Bob Ferguson responds to a letter he received from AG Pam Bondi in which she threatened to place him in jail. 🧯He is on fire! 1/2
Reposted by Chris Brockett
gregsargent.bsky.social
If the data doesn't confirm the unhinged despot's lies, the data has failed him and must be wrong, says Very Serious Intellectual JD Vance
atrupar.com
WELKER: Are you looking at invoking the Insurrection Act?

VANCE: We have to remember we are talking about this bc crime has gotten out of control

W: Crime is down in both Chicago & Portland

V: Crime is down bc they are so overwhelmed at the local level they are not even keeping stats properly
Reposted by Chris Brockett
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Archives banned making copies.
philistella.bsky.social
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.
impavid.us
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
eric-reinhart.com
New article out this month on how doctors become fascists.

50% of German physicians joined the Nazi Party––twice the proportion of any other profession. US doctors today are arguably the most conservative in the world, and we're heading along a similar path.
drive.google.com/file/d/1CAk9...
chrisbrockett.bsky.social
Pinochet used sports stadiums and one-way helicopter rides.
Reposted by Chris Brockett
helenkennedy.bsky.social
This was my first thought too. When the military became reliant on the leader and not the state, the republic died.
kjephd.bsky.social
Many historians of Rome identify Roman generals becoming the personal sources of payment for their armies as a key step in the downfall of the Republic, since it personalized military authority and freed armies to fight for their immediate leader, who paid them, instead of for the Republic