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glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden
@glinden.bsky.social
1.6K followers 290 following 1.2K posts

an internet relic, linkedin.com/in/glinden

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Business 56%
Economics 33%
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Reposted by Greg Linden

propublica.org
ProPublica @propublica.org · 3h
Few patients appeal a health insurance denial, but a little-known process that requires insurers and plans to seek an independent opinion can force insurers to pay for what can be lifesaving treatment.

Here’s what experts say you need to know.
This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Your Insurer to Pay for Lifesaving Care. Here’s How to File It.
When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here are six steps experts sugges...
www.propublica.org

Reposted by Greg Linden

smbccomics.bsky.social
SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 3h
I like to think when healthcare economists are mad they should, I'LL ADJUST THE QUALITY OF *YOUR* LIFE-YEARS!

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/quality
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
Part 1/2 of an 8-panel SMBC comic update. A doctor is speaking to a patient, explaining that the healthcare system won't pay for his therapy because the QALYS don't justify it. The doctor explains that the QALYS is a formula where they take the years of life the intervention would get the patient, then they multiply it by the quality of those years. For this patient, the total for this therapy is negative 4821 years. The patient asks how that is possible, and the doctor adds that modern methods account for the decrement to other people's QALYS resulting from your continued existence. Part 2/2 of an 8-panel SMBC comic update. The doctor continues his explanation, stating that the patient's life will result in at least a 0.01 per-year decrease in quality for thousands of people, especially for the patient's children. This revelation prompts the patient to conclude that minority groups are the cause of this negative calculation. Responding to this horrible behavior, the doctor excuses himself to go adjust the QALYS Excel sheet.

Reposted by Greg Linden, Pádua Fernandes

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 4h
Your universe is a photocopy of a photocopy of a…
on.ft.com/4ahkNKa
Al-generated content has surpassed human-written articles Graph

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 6h
Interesting, avian-derived influenza, when it is able to spread to humans like in the 1918 influenza pandemic, is particularly deadly because our fever defense mechanism doesn't work against it. Avian influenza is optimized to replicate in the body temperature of birds like ducks, around 106F!
samjwilsonphd.bsky.social Sam J Wilson @samjwilsonphd.bsky.social · 7h
How does fever work?

Our new Science paper shows how elevated body temperature can protect against severe influenza and that avian-origin viruses escape this defence.

This is likely one reason why bird flus and some pandemic influenzas can be so severe.🧵

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals
Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...
www.science.org

Reposted by Greg Linden, Alan McNally

samjwilsonphd.bsky.social
Sam J Wilson @samjwilsonphd.bsky.social · 7h
How does fever work?

Our new Science paper shows how elevated body temperature can protect against severe influenza and that avian-origin viruses escape this defence.

This is likely one reason why bird flus and some pandemic influenzas can be so severe.🧵

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals
Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...
www.science.org

Reposted by Greg Linden

techpolicypress.bsky.social
Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 7h
Mark MacCarthy says there is little doubt that the AI investment boom is a bubble. The real questions, he says, are when will the bubble burst, how severe will the consequences be, and what should policymakers do now to prepare for the inevitable downturn.
Policymakers Have to Prepare Now for When the AI Bubble Bursts | TechPolicy.Press
Mark MacCarthy says the fear of making a mistake in industrial policy should not paralyze policymakers.
buff.ly

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 8h
Lovely Xkcd comic by Randall Munroe, thankful for 15 years with his wife after serious illness. Don't miss the image text: "'Want to feel old?' 'Yes.'"
xkcd.com/3172/

Reposted by Scott A. Imberman, Greg Linden

proptermalone.bsky.social
post malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 9h
sorta coming around to the view that the social danger of genAI images is less that they'll make people believe fabricated things are real and more that they'll make people believe real things are fabricated

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 9h
Many people don't know the story of how Google got its start. Altavista once owned web search, but their execs foolishly filled Altavista with untrusted information because it was cheaper. Google had search that worked and everyone switched at once. That could happen again. 2/2

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 9h
Trustworthy information from trusted sources is going to be in high demand soon. People are tired of fake accounts, fake content, scams, and propaganda. Search, social media, and news without all the crap would be popular. 1/2

Reposted by Jānis Stirna, Scott A. Imberman, Greg Linden , and 1 more

robertscotthorton.bsky.social
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 9h
HSBC forecasts that OpenAI is going to have nearly a half trillion in operating losses until 2030

Reposted by Greg Linden

christianthiels.bsky.social
Christian Thiels @christianthiels.bsky.social · 10h
"President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his core demands for ending the war in Ukraine, stating that Russia will lay down arms only if Kyiv's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow."
@bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Putin doubles down on demands for Ukrainian territory ahead of talks with US
The Russian president confirmed a US delegation is expected for talks in Moscow next week.
www.bbc.com

Reposted by Greg Linden

financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 12h
Taming the four horsemen of the infocalypse on.ft.com/48h3vtZ | opinion
Taming the four horsemen of the infocalypse
Imposter accounts, lax moderation, extremism and synthetic content could destroy trust in everything we read online
on.ft.com

Reposted by Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Greg Linden, Karen O’Leary

feralrobots.bsky.social
Feral T. Robot, Oil Swamp Utility Bot #7629 @feralrobots.bsky.social · 12h
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Figure 1 from a paper published in Nature (linked in post). The figure purports to be an infographic depiction of the "Overall working of the framework" for 'explainably' diagnosing autism spectrum disorder. The infographic is plainly nonsense, containing many spelling errors, nonsense words, meaningless images and graphs. Clearly created using generative AI and (crucially) NEVER CHECKED AT ANY STEP OF THE WRITING OR PUBLICATION PROCESS.

Reposted by Greg Linden

jlazarus.bsky.social
Jeff Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 22h
I’d be more sympathetic to “Nuzzi and Lizza are uniquely bad and not at all representative of political reporters in general” if political reporters haven’t spent the past 10 years torching their own credibility all the way back to the full court press on Hillary’s emails.

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 23h
The answer to this question is yes, it's both, also meaning it's foreign adversaries funding their efforts with a quick buck: "experts are in disagreement over whether they may be state-backed influence campaigns or even opportunists trying to make a quick buck"
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Foreign interference or opportunistic grifting: why are so many pro-Trump X accounts based in Asia?
A new feature on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter allows users to see the location of other accounts. It has resulted in a firestorm of recriminations
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Juan Cole, Robert C. Richards , and 4 more

broadwaybabyto.bsky.social
Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 23h
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.

This is the power of vaccines.

The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.

Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au

Reposted by Steven Heydemann, Tim Bale, Keith Head , and 6 more

anneapplebaum.bsky.social
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 1d
The war will end when Russia stops fighting. Therefore, pressure has to be put on Russia, so that they stop believing that they will win. Why is that so hard to understand?

Reposted by Greg Linden, Nicolas Hervé

Thomas Dietterich @tdietterich.bsky.social · 1d
Excellent blog post on the infeasibility of putting data centers in space.
taranis.ie/datacenters-...
Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea.
There is a rush for AI companies to team up with space launch/satellite companies to build datacenters in space. TL;DR: It's not going to work.
taranis.ie

Reposted by Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Magnus Johansson, Paolo Crosetto , and 4 more

xkcd.com
Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 1d
Fifteen Years

xkcd.com/3172/
Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 1d
Entire thread is well worth reading, some interesting details in here, including that "the only non-vaporware changes to software they ever oversaw (mostly they didn't write the code themselves, just leaned on someone else to do so) were to remove 'DEI' stuff from government websites"
skiles.blue John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 2d
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
danteatkins.bsky.social Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 2d
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2

Reposted by Greg Linden

techmeme.com
Techmeme @techmeme.com · 1d
S&P downgrades the ability of Tether's USDT to maintain its peg to the US dollar to "weak", the lowest rating, citing exposure to high-risk assets such as BTC (Emily Nicolle/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Greg Linden

oliviamesser.bsky.social
Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 1d
this was bad before, but these are the most troubling and serious allegations you can make about a journalist. if they’re true, i genuinely can’t think of a worse scandal in the history of political journalism. devastating to our industry, to public trust as a whole, and to everyone in its orbit

glinden.bsky.social
Greg Linden @glinden.bsky.social · 1d
Interesting piece on a cheap solar panel with a mini inverter, and nothing else, that you can just put on your balcony, plug into any outlet, and reduce your electric bill. Might send power out of your place, so only legal in the US in Utah with under 1200 watts, but may soon be legal elsewhere.
volts.wtf David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf

Reposted by Steve Peers, Andrew L. Jackson, Greg Linden , and 2 more

kenwhite.bsky.social
Popehat of Serious Proportion @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d
James Bond supervillains threaten to blow up the world with their big laser unless you pay them a trillion dollars.

Real American supervillains embed themselves in the economy and threaten to cause a depression unless you subsidize their sex robots and the weird chatbots they use to avoid humans.

Reposted by Greg Linden

nytpitchbot.bsky.social
NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 1d
(6/X) Every time you hit a narcissist, they get weaker. Sometimes they hit you back in some way that hurts you too and IRL it is sometimes best to just avoid the narcissist. But when the narcissist is president, you just have to him him every opportunity you get.

Reposted by Andréas Nilsson, Greg Linden

volts.wtf
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d
Today, in Utah, homeowners *or renters* can simply buy a solar panel at Costco, take it home, and plug it in to a wall socket, like an appliance. It just sits there & trims about 15-20% off a residential power bill. If you move to another apt., you can take it with you.

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­, Greg Linden

volts.wtf
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf

Reposted by Greg Linden

economist.com
The Economist @economist.com · 1d
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
econ.st

Reposted by Greg Linden

coltoncasto.bsky.social
Colton Casto @coltoncasto.bsky.social · 1d
Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of an input, but constructing rich mental models of the _situation_ it describes. Yet, the nature of this rep., and the conditions under which it is constructed, has remained elusive.
2/n