Brian Gawalt
@brian.gawalt.com
Blog! https://brian.gawalt.com/blog/
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Mountain View, CA
Bot author:
- @theslides.bsky.social
- this account's #ReaderBot poster
- [more tk]
Mountain View, CA
Pinned
#ReaderBot: Brian is just starting Gelman, Hill, and Vehtari's "Regression and Other Stories" and should finish in around 21 days. [Brian's Reading List]
#ReaderBot: Brian is a quarter through Gelman, Hill, and Vehtari's "Regression and Other Stories" and should finish in around 20 days. [Brian's Reading List]
January 17, 2026 at 5:07 PM
#ReaderBot: Brian is a quarter through Gelman, Hill, and Vehtari's "Regression and Other Stories" and should finish in around 20 days. [Brian's Reading List]
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
Hard agree. I'm increasingly just zero sympathy for the cowardly chauvinists who can't handle places where lots of different people get along together.
I realise I'm just a freak, but living in a multicultural city is the best thing of all time, it's just the best possible human experience and i can not understand why anyone on earth would be like "weve got to destroy this"
January 17, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Hard agree. I'm increasingly just zero sympathy for the cowardly chauvinists who can't handle places where lots of different people get along together.
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
Coordinated a beer drop by a white friend to deliver a 30-rack of Hamm’s to a Hispanic friend’s doorstep because his wife wouldn’t let him leave the house to go buy more beer for fear he’d be brutalized by lawless armed masked federal paramilitaries. This is Minnesota community. We take care of us.
January 17, 2026 at 2:22 AM
Coordinated a beer drop by a white friend to deliver a 30-rack of Hamm’s to a Hispanic friend’s doorstep because his wife wouldn’t let him leave the house to go buy more beer for fear he’d be brutalized by lawless armed masked federal paramilitaries. This is Minnesota community. We take care of us.
The fixed loophole: "Under current law, the fact that a car window was broken is insufficient to convict a suspect of auto burglary—prosecutors must prove that the door was locked, which requires victims to be physically present in court to testify[.]" calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202...
January 15, 2026 at 10:07 PM
The fixed loophole: "Under current law, the fact that a car window was broken is insufficient to convict a suspect of auto burglary—prosecutors must prove that the door was locked, which requires victims to be physically present in court to testify[.]" calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202...
good recent numbers on this here
- 1 in 4 people (perfect fraction to count as both 'lots' and 'not lots') fall into this 'scroll news' bucket
- 2 in 5 for young people
- 2 in 3 of all scrollers, scroll by it incidentally; no age interaction given
www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...
- 1 in 4 people (perfect fraction to count as both 'lots' and 'not lots') fall into this 'scroll news' bucket
- 2 in 5 for young people
- 2 in 3 of all scrollers, scroll by it incidentally; no age interaction given
www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...
January 15, 2026 at 6:42 PM
good recent numbers on this here
- 1 in 4 people (perfect fraction to count as both 'lots' and 'not lots') fall into this 'scroll news' bucket
- 2 in 5 for young people
- 2 in 3 of all scrollers, scroll by it incidentally; no age interaction given
www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...
- 1 in 4 people (perfect fraction to count as both 'lots' and 'not lots') fall into this 'scroll news' bucket
- 2 in 5 for young people
- 2 in 3 of all scrollers, scroll by it incidentally; no age interaction given
www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...
stuck bouncing back and forth between these faster and faster. do we, like the guy on the left, not see anything done, because the only thing to do is the thing on the right? can anyone think of another thing, that will change ice now? make clear that what ice does today means prison time later?
January 15, 2026 at 5:34 PM
stuck bouncing back and forth between these faster and faster. do we, like the guy on the left, not see anything done, because the only thing to do is the thing on the right? can anyone think of another thing, that will change ice now? make clear that what ice does today means prison time later?
“One thing you may not see in Santa Clara is the 32-foot donut, because Santa Clara doesn’t allow that unfortunately,” [Santa Clara venue co-owner Ausaf] Masud said. “Let’s see how big we can land off a donut for Santa Clara.”
LA’s iconic 73-year-old doughnut shop is soon opening its first Bay Area location
A doughnut shop with cameos in “Iron Man 2,” “The Simpsons” and “The Tonight Show” is opening its first Bay Area location in Santa Clara.
www.mv-voice.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:15 AM
“One thing you may not see in Santa Clara is the 32-foot donut, because Santa Clara doesn’t allow that unfortunately,” [Santa Clara venue co-owner Ausaf] Masud said. “Let’s see how big we can land off a donut for Santa Clara.”
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
"what's possible within the system", versus "the wider environment in which the system is embedded"
backofmind.substack.com/p/was-the-gr...
backofmind.substack.com/p/was-the-gr...
was the green lantern a good chap?
on having one's head in the game
backofmind.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:52 AM
"what's possible within the system", versus "the wider environment in which the system is embedded"
backofmind.substack.com/p/was-the-gr...
backofmind.substack.com/p/was-the-gr...
i dont understand this bit in money stuff. if you're selling to a shark, presumably collecting that same 2c spread on each individual sale, how are you harmed (other than the opportunity cost of "you didn't hold") by selling all the way up to $1? where does "buy @ K-1, sell @ K+1" break as K grows?
January 14, 2026 at 9:31 PM
i dont understand this bit in money stuff. if you're selling to a shark, presumably collecting that same 2c spread on each individual sale, how are you harmed (other than the opportunity cost of "you didn't hold") by selling all the way up to $1? where does "buy @ K-1, sell @ K+1" break as K grows?
"ROS" reading group seminar, noon today, DM for the Zoom link! The book is easy enough to understand that you don't have to have read it in advance to get stuff out of our group's discussion, if you want to drop in. #statsky #mlsky
My notes on Chapter 3 of "Regression and Other Stories," plus the problem set:
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
January 14, 2026 at 3:35 PM
My notes on Chapter 3 of "Regression and Other Stories," plus the problem set:
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
January 14, 2026 at 6:18 AM
My notes on Chapter 3 of "Regression and Other Stories," plus the problem set:
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
github.com/bgawalt/ros/...
The purple line represents malicious compliance.
one thing this plus doonesbury was very good at was learning how long political careers can be. gephardt ran for president in 2004, the first one i could vote in, and i spent so much of it knee-jerk thinking "that's the guy from the 80s the aliens abducted."
[me on spring break reading this in a collected edition seven years after they appeared in a newspaper] rack em
hdl.handle.net/1811/7232771...
hdl.handle.net/1811/7232771...
January 13, 2026 at 5:28 PM
one thing this plus doonesbury was very good at was learning how long political careers can be. gephardt ran for president in 2004, the first one i could vote in, and i spent so much of it knee-jerk thinking "that's the guy from the 80s the aliens abducted."
I grew up in Fairfax Co, VA, so we got the Washington Post, which had (has?) a monster comics section. Three daily pages, like eight pages on Sundays. I'd thought that volume, times my love of doodling, was why comic strips made such a difference to me. Guess it was sufficient, not necessary?
January 13, 2026 at 5:07 PM
I grew up in Fairfax Co, VA, so we got the Washington Post, which had (has?) a monster comics section. Three daily pages, like eight pages on Sundays. I'd thought that volume, times my love of doodling, was why comic strips made such a difference to me. Guess it was sufficient, not necessary?
"He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them."
it was made by the guy who made highlander is the explanation www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMR2...
January 13, 2026 at 12:10 AM
"He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them."
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
David Lynch's experimental shorts (VHSrip) : 135s
January 13, 2026 at 12:00 AM
David Lynch's experimental shorts (VHSrip) : 135s
if i were a federal judge, this would upset me quite a bit. if i were a real fed cop, it would upset me to see widespread counterfeiting of the magic paper that means "we are real fed cops, don't try anything."
January 12, 2026 at 8:25 PM
if i were a federal judge, this would upset me quite a bit. if i were a real fed cop, it would upset me to see widespread counterfeiting of the magic paper that means "we are real fed cops, don't try anything."
it's easier to just say "the l1 penalty makes it sparse" without *really* laying out why, but i think it's worth the explanation
January 12, 2026 at 5:03 PM
it's easier to just say "the l1 penalty makes it sparse" without *really* laying out why, but i think it's worth the explanation
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
this is a very good sign
January 12, 2026 at 4:22 PM
this is a very good sign
This worked like a charm. First time trying/needing "AI Mode." share.google/aimode/D2R27...
Google Search
share.google
January 12, 2026 at 12:34 AM
This worked like a charm. First time trying/needing "AI Mode." share.google/aimode/D2R27...
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
Quick attempt at fixing the colours
January 9, 2026 at 1:03 PM
Quick attempt at fixing the colours
Good post, my favorite/most-emphasizable part is this. I can read and write Markdown easily and confidently over SSH in a terminal, and that's unique. I can do quick edits in Vim without having to load up a whole web browser.
![Screencap of a paragraph from dash's blog post with one bit of emphasis from me
2. Solved a real problem.
This one is not obvious, but it’s really important that a new technology have a real problem that it’s trying to solve, instead of just being an abstract attempt to do something vague, like “make text files better”. Millions of people were encountering the idea that it was too difficult or inconvenient to write out full HTML by hand, and even if one had the necessary skills, it was nice to be able to do so [I, Brian, have highlighted the following words:] in a format that was legible as plain text as well.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:43nhmzgiugf65gwskj3kpfj5/bafkreiho7uexm54ytv5kg2dfrg27bkxq7zfflnpv6poxkdjk4tuzswebqe@jpeg)
January 11, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Good post, my favorite/most-emphasizable part is this. I can read and write Markdown easily and confidently over SSH in a terminal, and that's unique. I can do quick edits in Vim without having to load up a whole web browser.
taking this excuse to circulate: my 2nd grader asked during CAR-LAR yesterday how far punters can punt. i went with my gut and said, if you let them off the chain, totally outside any game conditions, just pure distancemaxxing? they can all hit 150 yds, easy.
right? too high, too low?
right? too high, too low?
Sure, but your kicker should be able to make a 44 yard kick.
He and Tyler Loop would've benefited greatly from 5 extra yards. Both pushed straight right the whole way.
5 yards closer sneaks inside the upright.
5 yards closer sneaks inside the upright.
January 11, 2026 at 5:22 PM
taking this excuse to circulate: my 2nd grader asked during CAR-LAR yesterday how far punters can punt. i went with my gut and said, if you let them off the chain, totally outside any game conditions, just pure distancemaxxing? they can all hit 150 yds, easy.
right? too high, too low?
right? too high, too low?
Reposted by Brian Gawalt
working on some new ideas for moon phases
January 9, 2026 at 11:01 PM
working on some new ideas for moon phases
Drew a ninja turtle for him to color (he's shading it now)
January 11, 2026 at 2:08 AM
Drew a ninja turtle for him to color (he's shading it now)