James Pitt
@sahelanth.bsky.social
this is all Tiktaalik's fault
Reposted by James Pitt
So he’s probably diabetic then. No follow-up questions, please.
November 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM
So he’s probably diabetic then. No follow-up questions, please.
Reposted by James Pitt
I actually see this in the exact opposite way. If you could directly spew neural 'data' into another person, you'd probably run into full-on "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him" Wittgensteinian communications breakdowns.
Language is the common interface, above our unique quirks.
Language is the common interface, above our unique quirks.
it sucks that we aren't telepathic and can't actually share thoughts with one another and that even the most advanced forms of human communication are ultimately in large part illusory
November 19, 2025 at 12:38 AM
I actually see this in the exact opposite way. If you could directly spew neural 'data' into another person, you'd probably run into full-on "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him" Wittgensteinian communications breakdowns.
Language is the common interface, above our unique quirks.
Language is the common interface, above our unique quirks.
Reposted by James Pitt
I mentioned this before but if you go through early Dragon magazines and google the authors or even the letters page writers, a *remarkable* number of people were (mostly closeted or egged at the time) gay men or trans women.
also the wife of one of the great tabletop gaming pioneers, who was also a trans woman!
November 19, 2025 at 12:54 AM
I mentioned this before but if you go through early Dragon magazines and google the authors or even the letters page writers, a *remarkable* number of people were (mostly closeted or egged at the time) gay men or trans women.
Reposted by James Pitt
People who say "we're wolves not sheep" have never seen two ewes trying to murder each other over relative status in the flock before they give birth, and then all their friends and family picking sides because being friends with the winner will raise THEIR status, until there is a massive brawl
Revenge/physical combat was how people settled things for literally millions of years, it's normal human behavior, we're wolves not sheep, the government project trying to social engineer us and domesticate us into sheep has been unsuccessful
November 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM
People who say "we're wolves not sheep" have never seen two ewes trying to murder each other over relative status in the flock before they give birth, and then all their friends and family picking sides because being friends with the winner will raise THEIR status, until there is a massive brawl
Reposted by James Pitt
A core capability for data science agents is making plots and learning from them. While developing Databot and Positron Assistant, though, we've seen that LLMs tend to ignore plotted trends when they're counterintuitive.
From @sara-altman.bsky.social and I: posit.co/blog/introdu...
From @sara-altman.bsky.social and I: posit.co/blog/introdu...
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
A core capability for data science agents is making plots and learning from them. While developing Databot and Positron Assistant, though, we've seen that LLMs tend to ignore plotted trends when they're counterintuitive.
From @sara-altman.bsky.social and I: posit.co/blog/introdu...
From @sara-altman.bsky.social and I: posit.co/blog/introdu...
Reposted by James Pitt
Reposted by James Pitt
Inexcusable. My heart breaks for the patients and researchers on the receiving end of this. 118 cancer trials and 97 ID trials canceled for petty political reasons
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
Trump admin axed 383 active clinical trials, dumping over 74K participants
It’s a “violation of foundational ethical principles of human participant research.”…
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Inexcusable. My heart breaks for the patients and researchers on the receiving end of this. 118 cancer trials and 97 ID trials canceled for petty political reasons
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by James Pitt
so fascinated by this reputational framing (‘status as a nation that has eliminated measles’) on one hand but also the fragility of the very idea of elimination (vs eradication, which is rare, difficult and likely impossible for most bugs) and its reliance on the nation-state as container
SCOOP: CDC officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
(Gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...
C.D.C. Links Measles Outbreaks in Multiple States for the First Time
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:09 AM
so fascinated by this reputational framing (‘status as a nation that has eliminated measles’) on one hand but also the fragility of the very idea of elimination (vs eradication, which is rare, difficult and likely impossible for most bugs) and its reliance on the nation-state as container
Reposted by James Pitt
Escape room where the thing you are trying to escape is reading about Olivia Nuzzi
November 18, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Escape room where the thing you are trying to escape is reading about Olivia Nuzzi
Reposted by James Pitt
i fell down a research K hole for 3 days and now know a frankly weird amount about pastrami and the history of romanian independence, but crucially NOT the fact i went diving so deep for, which has ELUDED me because culinary history is a mass of myths and lacunae
November 18, 2025 at 3:34 AM
i fell down a research K hole for 3 days and now know a frankly weird amount about pastrami and the history of romanian independence, but crucially NOT the fact i went diving so deep for, which has ELUDED me because culinary history is a mass of myths and lacunae
Reposted by James Pitt
“I’ll fight until hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on”
November 17, 2025 at 7:55 PM
“I’ll fight until hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on”
Reposted by James Pitt
An incredibly Trump-era headline theintercept.com/2025/11/17/p...
Pardoned Capitol Rioter Tried to Hush Child Sex Victim With Promise of Jan. 6 Reparation Money, Police Say
Pardoned Capitol rioter Andrew Johnson tried to keep a child sex abuse victim quiet with claimed $10 million Jan. 6 reparations, police say.
theintercept.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:57 AM
An incredibly Trump-era headline theintercept.com/2025/11/17/p...
Reposted by James Pitt
the obvious takeaway from this is that ben smith also fucked rfk jr
ben smith’s take from last year when the nuzzi/rfk story first broke aged like cheese on a dashboard
November 18, 2025 at 4:10 AM
the obvious takeaway from this is that ben smith also fucked rfk jr
Reposted by James Pitt
“Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said [Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid], ‘you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.’”
As ICE Street Raids Ramp Up, New Yorkers Stock Up On Whistles
Taking a cue from Chicago, community groups have distributed thousands of whistles in recent weeks — a grassroots system people in other cities have adopted to help neighbors sound the alarm.
www.thecity.nyc
November 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
“Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said [Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid], ‘you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.’”
Reposted by James Pitt
Come be my colleague! Yale School of Public Health has an open-rank search for Health Policy & Management. Focus areas are empirical research in health policy, healthcare management or health services research. You still have time! apply.interfolio.com/176891
November 17, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Come be my colleague! Yale School of Public Health has an open-rank search for Health Policy & Management. Focus areas are empirical research in health policy, healthcare management or health services research. You still have time! apply.interfolio.com/176891
Reposted by James Pitt
Meanwhile at home: My tiger jaw (yes that's its name) blossomed🥳
November 17, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Meanwhile at home: My tiger jaw (yes that's its name) blossomed🥳
Reposted by James Pitt
Could argue the misogyny Summers expressed both publicly while president of Harvard and in emails to Epstein says more about the culture at our most elite institutions than any of the frontpage freakouts over academia in the past few years but hey
November 17, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Could argue the misogyny Summers expressed both publicly while president of Harvard and in emails to Epstein says more about the culture at our most elite institutions than any of the frontpage freakouts over academia in the past few years but hey
Reposted by James Pitt
"The cooperative eye hypothesis proposes that human eyeballs are uniquely conspicuous and evolved under selective pressures to behave cooperatively....but lacks robust empirical support: human eye pigmentation does not uniquely stand out among primates, is not uniform at species level..."
Look past the cooperative eye hypothesis: reconsidering the evolution of human eye appearance
The external appearance of the human eye has been prominently linked to the evolution of complex sociocognitive functions in our species. The cooperative eye hypothesis (CEH) proposes that human eyeb....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:35 AM
"The cooperative eye hypothesis proposes that human eyeballs are uniquely conspicuous and evolved under selective pressures to behave cooperatively....but lacks robust empirical support: human eye pigmentation does not uniquely stand out among primates, is not uniform at species level..."
Reposted by James Pitt
Finally understood TMLE’s “doubly robust” property through simulation. Works well when either outcome OR treatment model is correct. XGBoost + TMLE captured complex relationships without manual specification. It worked on simulated complex data, would it work in real world? 🤔 #rstats #idsky #episky
Bias, Variance, and Doubly Robust Estimation: Testing The Promise of TMLE in Simulated Data | Everyday Is A School Day
Finally understood TMLE's "doubly robust" property through simulation. Works well when either outcome OR treatment model is correct. XGBoost + TMLE captured complex relationships without manual specif...
www.kenkoonwong.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by James Pitt
New paper reminds us yet again: HOMICIDE is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.
Gun violence & partner violence are related.
All-cause homicide & firearm homicide of pregnant women are higher, in states w/ higher calculated firearm ownership (1/x 🧵
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Gun violence & partner violence are related.
All-cause homicide & firearm homicide of pregnant women are higher, in states w/ higher calculated firearm ownership (1/x 🧵
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Firearm Homicide in Pregnant Women and State-Level Firearm Ownership
This cross-sectional study examines firearm homicide rates in pregnant compared with nonpregnant women and whether estimated state-level firearm ownership is associated with homicide deaths among preg...
jamanetwork.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:15 AM
New paper reminds us yet again: HOMICIDE is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.
Gun violence & partner violence are related.
All-cause homicide & firearm homicide of pregnant women are higher, in states w/ higher calculated firearm ownership (1/x 🧵
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Gun violence & partner violence are related.
All-cause homicide & firearm homicide of pregnant women are higher, in states w/ higher calculated firearm ownership (1/x 🧵
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Reposted by James Pitt
some other familiar grocery store names that are brands for producer-owned agricultural co-ops:
Blue Diamond
Bob's Red Mill
Land O'Lakes
Tillamook
Welch's
Blue Diamond
Bob's Red Mill
Land O'Lakes
Tillamook
Welch's
My #SuperlativeCannedGoo tweet from the old place is making rounds again. Support co-op cranberry growers!
November 17, 2025 at 2:44 AM
some other familiar grocery store names that are brands for producer-owned agricultural co-ops:
Blue Diamond
Bob's Red Mill
Land O'Lakes
Tillamook
Welch's
Blue Diamond
Bob's Red Mill
Land O'Lakes
Tillamook
Welch's
Reposted by James Pitt
my bf shared the world's worst take on princess mononoke with me and now u have to see it too
November 17, 2025 at 3:14 AM
my bf shared the world's worst take on princess mononoke with me and now u have to see it too
Reposted by James Pitt
2. On background, an anonymous current AMA member informed me that criticism of Oz will be silenced multiple ways:
- if you bring a poster to protest Oz, you may be subject to removal by police
- if you attempt to protest, you will be expelled from the AMA, and will be required to report this
- if you bring a poster to protest Oz, you may be subject to removal by police
- if you attempt to protest, you will be expelled from the AMA, and will be required to report this
November 15, 2025 at 3:37 AM
2. On background, an anonymous current AMA member informed me that criticism of Oz will be silenced multiple ways:
- if you bring a poster to protest Oz, you may be subject to removal by police
- if you attempt to protest, you will be expelled from the AMA, and will be required to report this
- if you bring a poster to protest Oz, you may be subject to removal by police
- if you attempt to protest, you will be expelled from the AMA, and will be required to report this
Reposted by James Pitt
Dual class shares should be illegal
November 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Dual class shares should be illegal