James Pitt
@sahelanth.bsky.social
this is all Tiktaalik's fault
Reposted by James Pitt
Coercive sterilization in ICE detention. Eugenics.
"They tried to shut me up by deporting me."
www.npr.org/2020/12/22/9...
www.npr.org/2020/12/22/9...
Dozens Of Women Allege Unwanted Surgeries And Medical Abuse In ICE Custody
More women are coming forward to say they were pressured to have reproductive surgeries they did not want or understand, offering a glimpse into alleged medical abuses at an ICE detention center.
www.npr.org
November 15, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Coercive sterilization in ICE detention. Eugenics.
Reposted by James Pitt
sts researchers: :spend decades tracing the way well-intentioned design choices constrained by culture, capital, and the material environment can have negative outcomes in aggregate:
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI-Powered Toys Caught Telling 5-Year-Olds How to Find Knives and Start Fires With Matches
AI-powered toys are flying off the shelves -- but they're engaging in horrifically inappropriate conversations with children.
futurism.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:34 PM
sts researchers: :spend decades tracing the way well-intentioned design choices constrained by culture, capital, and the material environment can have negative outcomes in aggregate:
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Reposted by James Pitt
A good reminder that danmei might be really cool in the surface, but it's absolute hell for the authors.
November 16, 2025 at 8:10 AM
A good reminder that danmei might be really cool in the surface, but it's absolute hell for the authors.
Reposted by James Pitt
If women are underrepresented in STEM, it's at least partly because men like this offer mentoring, then embarrass themselves by assuming their mentees must be into them, then decide the best solution is to cut ties, which sends the signal to other faculty that the mentee must not be good enough.
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 12:13 AM
If women are underrepresented in STEM, it's at least partly because men like this offer mentoring, then embarrass themselves by assuming their mentees must be into them, then decide the best solution is to cut ties, which sends the signal to other faculty that the mentee must not be good enough.
Reposted by James Pitt
"Curly" fries are actually straight, they only appear bent due to the curvature of the Earth
November 16, 2025 at 5:12 AM
"Curly" fries are actually straight, they only appear bent due to the curvature of the Earth
Reposted by James Pitt
Well this is as done as it's going to get. Tiliqua frangens, a megafauna skink from pleiocene and pleistocene australia with large pointy scales feeding on spring wildflowers. #palaeoart #palaeoart #reptile #lizard
November 15, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Well this is as done as it's going to get. Tiliqua frangens, a megafauna skink from pleiocene and pleistocene australia with large pointy scales feeding on spring wildflowers. #palaeoart #palaeoart #reptile #lizard
Reposted by James Pitt
RPG idea where the protagonists are on a mission from a victim's relative to bring God to justice.
November 15, 2025 at 2:59 AM
RPG idea where the protagonists are on a mission from a victim's relative to bring God to justice.
Reposted by James Pitt
Lois McMaster Bujold's THE CURSE OF CHALION has a thing called "death magic", where you call on a God to smite your enemies, if you're willing to pay the price. It is violently illegal to attempt or research, but not actually to commit, because definitionally, it's a miracle. You can't arrest God.
November 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Lois McMaster Bujold's THE CURSE OF CHALION has a thing called "death magic", where you call on a God to smite your enemies, if you're willing to pay the price. It is violently illegal to attempt or research, but not actually to commit, because definitionally, it's a miracle. You can't arrest God.
Reposted by James Pitt
it's like they've forgotten what kind of periodical they are, and the more wretched elite culture has gotten, the more elliptical the nyt has become
whenever the nyt talks about trump, they try to do it in the style of the new yorker "talk of the town" section, like it would be gauche to come right out and say something, so they have to be fucking arch like joan didion. a news article about the nazi presidential candidate should not be "dry"
This headline stack is one for the time capsule. First, analyzing Harris's message discipline, which is common to normie politicians, as if it's uniquely revealing and shifty. Second, framing Trump's openly racist, completely dishonest stump rhetoric as if it's quirky and full of subtle meaning.
November 14, 2025 at 6:43 PM
it's like they've forgotten what kind of periodical they are, and the more wretched elite culture has gotten, the more elliptical the nyt has become
Reposted by James Pitt
As @opinionhaver.bsky.social explained: flanderization. Some CODs had hallucination sequences that were well received, but since the arc of the AAA gaming industry trends towards slop, now half the missions are nightmare sequences where you call in drone strikes on the Childhood Trauma boss.
November 16, 2025 at 1:13 AM
As @opinionhaver.bsky.social explained: flanderization. Some CODs had hallucination sequences that were well received, but since the arc of the AAA gaming industry trends towards slop, now half the missions are nightmare sequences where you call in drone strikes on the Childhood Trauma boss.
Reposted by James Pitt
do you know WHY actors and athletes are so well compensated today that it’s hard to look at them as “labor”
because they organized and negotiated for it
because they organized and negotiated for it
beyond just being wrong on the merits, the thing that bugs me about people dismissing actors and athletes as labor is that, historically, they’ve been at the forefront of a lot of labor victories that have helped labor more broadly
November 16, 2025 at 2:26 AM
do you know WHY actors and athletes are so well compensated today that it’s hard to look at them as “labor”
because they organized and negotiated for it
because they organized and negotiated for it
Mbwun from Lee and Child's The Relic!
(book version, not movie version)
(book version, not movie version)
November 16, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Mbwun from Lee and Child's The Relic!
(book version, not movie version)
(book version, not movie version)
Reposted by James Pitt
A Washington resident has been hospitalized with bird flu, according to the Washington State Health Department, and they’re infected with a strain of the virus that hasn’t been seen in humans before.
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...
Strain of bird flu virus never before reported in people is behind first human case in U.S. in nine months
A Washington resident has been hospitalized with bird flu, according to the Washington State Health Department, and they’re infected with a strain of the virus that hasn’t been seen in humans before.
www.ctvnews.ca
November 15, 2025 at 4:04 AM
A Washington resident has been hospitalized with bird flu, according to the Washington State Health Department, and they’re infected with a strain of the virus that hasn’t been seen in humans before.
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...
Reposted by James Pitt
This is an important new line being crossed. Trump isn't just pardoning the act of attempting to overthrow the government on January 6: he's pardoning *those people* for committing crimes generally. He may be creating a group of (federally) legally untouchable people.
Trump re-pardons a Jan. 6 defendant to erase unrelated gun conviction
Trump re-pardons a Jan. 6 defendant to erase unrelated gun conviction
The new pardon ends a legal clash over the limits of Trump’s sweeping Day One clemency for those who stormed the Capitol.
dlvr.it
November 16, 2025 at 12:49 AM
This is an important new line being crossed. Trump isn't just pardoning the act of attempting to overthrow the government on January 6: he's pardoning *those people* for committing crimes generally. He may be creating a group of (federally) legally untouchable people.
Reposted by James Pitt
Yup! The world was a much more wild place. Wolves, Lions, and Tigers respectively.
November 16, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Yup! The world was a much more wild place. Wolves, Lions, and Tigers respectively.
Reposted by James Pitt
There are plenty of social conditions that are corrosive to human virtue, but the thing is, that they actually work. Virtue is in fact corroded.
November 16, 2025 at 1:21 AM
There are plenty of social conditions that are corrosive to human virtue, but the thing is, that they actually work. Virtue is in fact corroded.
Reposted by James Pitt
Ban the death penalty for everything except a broad application to white collar crime.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Ban the death penalty for everything except a broad application to white collar crime.
US policy impacts everybody in the world.
So everybody in the world should get to vote on it.
So everybody in the world should get to vote on it.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 1:34 PM
US policy impacts everybody in the world.
So everybody in the world should get to vote on it.
So everybody in the world should get to vote on it.
Reposted by James Pitt
abundance of space junk now compromising manned space flight
Chinese astronauts return to Earth after vessel damaged by space debris reut.rs/4nXM3ki
Chinese astronauts return to Earth after vessel damaged by space debris
Three Chinese astronauts whose return to Earth was delayed by space debris hitting their vessel last week landed in China on Friday afternoon, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
reut.rs
November 14, 2025 at 1:04 PM
abundance of space junk now compromising manned space flight
Reposted by James Pitt
Update on the wild #polio discovery in Germany: The virus was found in wastewater in Hamburg. @rki.de, the German public health agency, says the virus sequence is very similar to some isolated in Afghanistan, so the likely source was an infected human. (page 10 here: www.rki.de/DE/Aktuelles...)
www.rki.de
November 13, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Update on the wild #polio discovery in Germany: The virus was found in wastewater in Hamburg. @rki.de, the German public health agency, says the virus sequence is very similar to some isolated in Afghanistan, so the likely source was an infected human. (page 10 here: www.rki.de/DE/Aktuelles...)
Reposted by James Pitt
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by James Pitt
(E & F) After reanalyzing 10 previously published datasets, we found all 170 significant tests supported the sponge-sister hypothesis, and there was no support for the ctenophore-sister hypothesis
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
(E & F) After reanalyzing 10 previously published datasets, we found all 170 significant tests supported the sponge-sister hypothesis, and there was no support for the ctenophore-sister hypothesis
Reposted by James Pitt
To be effective, data science agents need to be able to read plots reliably. @sara-altman.bsky.social and I wrote about some concerning findings on LLMs' ability to interpret plots when the content contradicts their expectations on the @posit.co blog.
posit.co/blog/introdu...
posit.co/blog/introdu...
When plotting, LLMs see what they expect to see - Posit
Data science agents need to accurately read plots even when the content contradicts their expectations. Our testing shows today's LLMs still struggle here.
posit.co
November 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
To be effective, data science agents need to be able to read plots reliably. @sara-altman.bsky.social and I wrote about some concerning findings on LLMs' ability to interpret plots when the content contradicts their expectations on the @posit.co blog.
posit.co/blog/introdu...
posit.co/blog/introdu...
Reposted by James Pitt
Gigan I'm going to be honest I would not be able to maintain the will to live if I had to read sentences like this earnestly on a regular basis.
November 13, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Gigan I'm going to be honest I would not be able to maintain the will to live if I had to read sentences like this earnestly on a regular basis.
Reposted by James Pitt
Quick! My book THE BIG PICTURE: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself has a limited-time Kindle deal going on. Get the Ebook for just $1.99 while it lasts. A rousing exploration of the science and philosophy of naturalism for just two bucks!
www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-...
www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-...
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself - Kindle edition by Carroll, Sean M. . Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself.
www.amazon.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Quick! My book THE BIG PICTURE: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself has a limited-time Kindle deal going on. Get the Ebook for just $1.99 while it lasts. A rousing exploration of the science and philosophy of naturalism for just two bucks!
www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-...
www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-...