• 9 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • An important characteristic of a model is “stability.” Stability means that small changes in input produce small changes in output.

    Stability is important for predictability. For instance, suppose you want to make a customer support portal. You add a bot hoping that it will guide the user to the desired workflow. You test the bot by asking it a bunch of variations of questions, probably with some RLHF. But then when it goes to production, people will start asking it variations of questions that you didn’t test (guaranteed). What you want ideally, is that it will map the variants to the best workflow that matches what the customer wants. Second best would be to say “I don’t know.” But what we have are bots who will just generate some crazy off-the-wall crap, and no way to prevent it.





  • core of US power projection and intelligence gathering

    This is what Biden and probably other Washington ghouls think but if Israel is “projecting” American power then to what end? Meaning, what US interests are served? Cheaper oil? That’s our relationship with SA which is potentially hurt by Israel’s behavior (Israel, importantly, has no oil, we’d be better off normalizing with Iran). US bases? We don’t have any bases in Israel, that would be Turkey, Bahrain, etc. Do you think Israel ever considers US interests before acting? If they did historically they definitely do not under Netanyahu.

    With regards to intelligence, I am sure that when intelligence is shared it’s done so to craft a narrative that Tel Aviv wants Washington to believe. Also mossad is the most pervasive, aggressive, and successful spy agency in Washington. The flow of information is heavily one-sided.



  • History has misjudged Jeffery Sachs according to… Jeffery Sachs!

    Let’s be real, he’s the main guy pushing the “NATO expansion” theory of Russian aggression everywhere, and it exists mainly to cover for his own crimes.

    What’s more likely: that Russian revanchism came from anger over some arcane treaty negotiations, or that it came from the absolute collapse in material condition, civil society, population, daily lived experience and life expectancy that Russians experienced as Sachs and his evil clients dismantled the once-great civilization for their own enrichment? What do you think Marx’s assessment of those two theories would be?

    Sachs is a bag man. He helped the oligarchs destroy Russia and then he made himself useful to the new ruler when they were gone. He also spends a lot of time in Beijing and has a lot of good things to say about Xi as well. The guy’s a serpent.




  • I saw this as the supposed plan:

    per WSJ: It may propose delaying Ukraine’s NATO membership for 20 years, establishing a 1,200 km demilitarized zone along the current front line, and leaving 20% of occupied Ukrainian territory under Russian control—while the U.S. would continue arms support under these conditions.

    The problem is, this isn’t an acceptable plan according to Russia. Russia has insisted that:

    1. Ukraine retreats from all of the oblasts that are currently partially occupied by Russia (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson) as well as giving up claims to Crimea, and Russia takes ownership of everything without a fight
    2. Ukraine’s army is demobilized and Ukraine is demilitarized
    3. Ukraine is banned from joining any international organization, not just NATO (so no EU for instance)
    4. Ukraine receives no more military aid fro the west.

    Trump is going to find out that you can’t unilaterally declare peace.





  • The proposal was submitted by the Russian Federation shortly after they attacked Ukraine, back when Russia was still claiming that “de-nazifying” Ukraine was the purpose of the invasion.

    https://press.un.org/en/2022/gashc4365.doc.htm

    Several delegates took to the floor to express concerns over Moscow’s attempt to exploit the pretext of combating neo-Nazism to justify its brutal war against Ukraine, with Ukraine’s delegate asserting that the draft has nothing in common with the genuine fight against Nazism and neo-Nazism. Echoing his concerns, the United Kingdom’s delegate stressed that the resolution is part of Moscow’s attempt to justify its aggression against Ukraine by furthering lies and distorting history.

    The United States’ delegate called the resolution “a cynical attempt” of Moscow to further its geopolitical aims by invoking the Holocaust and Second World War. In the same vein, Australia’s delegate called Moscow’s weaponization of the Holocaust and Nazism unacceptable.




  • I used to believe that the Cuba embargo is due to Cuban refugee vote in Florida.

    But that doesn’t make sense anymore given that Florida is no longer a swing state. In fact it never really made sense since the demo that is very pro-embargo has always been solidly Republican and therefore unwinnable.

    So what really explains the embargo? Quite frankly I think it’s banana republic foreign policy and wealthy people in the US not wanting there to be a successful socialist state. For instance, the recent energy crisis in Cuba is driven by the Biden administration sanctioning oil tankers who visit the island. Why on earth would the supposedly pro-Cuba democrats do that? Who asked them to do that? Who had the clout to make them do that? Some losers in Florida who were going to vote for Trump in a red state anyway?