Shan Kothari

GHACHAR GHOCHAR by Vivek Shanbhag—although less about how to get/keep it than what it does to you

it's a curious thing that at least two noteworthy works of French Canadian literature—Le ciel de Bay City and L'avenir—are set in Michigan

Lost Science is a new NYT series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding. You can send your story to the Times here www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

The Irrational Decision How the computer revolution shaped our conception of rationality—and why human problems require solutions rooted in human intuition, morality, and judgment

I’m excited to announce that my new book, _The Irrational Decision_, is now available for pre-order from Princeton University Press.

this is the book I'm currently trying to push on all my friends (it's not working)

does this roughly correspond to the divide between 'AI ethics' vs. 'AI safety' labels?

is this enough to override Matthew Barnett's preference not to get stabbed? you better believe it! 10^1000 is a big number!

gonna build a Matthew Barnett-stabbing robot equipped with a knife and a CV system built to detect Matthew Barnett. its internal util-o-meter gives it 10^1000 points for stabbing Matthew Barnett.

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

it is unfortunately true that people continue to post extremely good shit on LessWrong once in a while. (my recent favorite was the post comparing tech founders and church planters)

Any ecologist from any country is eligible for the Bazzaz-Pickett Award, as long as they've worked to promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging through their mentorship. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

The nomination deadline for 2026 @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social awards is coming up on November 13, 2025! This year we're accepting nominations for the inaugural Bazzaz-Pickett Award for inclusive mentorship in ecology. We'd love to see as many nominations as possible! esa.org/about/awards/

the failure of grand theories where all of human social behavior is based on One Big Thing (or a few Big Things) is actually a great source of consolation to me

Abstract and results summary

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

Screenshot of paper title: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

AI always calling your ideas “fantastic” can feel inauthentic, but what are sycophancy’s deeper harms? We find that in the common use case of seeking AI advice on interpersonal situations—specifically conflicts—sycophancy makes people feel more right & less willing to apologize.

"The reason an LLM can answer a factual question is because someone has posted text on that specific question."

totally agree with the general thrust, but this seems to be selling short what LLMs do. as I see it, one of the more miraculous things about them is that they can sort of interpolate between existing texts and recombine information to answer questions that haven't been asked before!

Maybe not "open source," but it's pretty easy to create your own. Sometimes it even happens by accident! Results may vary, though

Photo of the 100 street bike lanes, taken from the corner of 83 ave, facing northeast. Concrete barriers are in place, and lines have been painted in the lane.

All ye of little faith, behold the new Happy Beer Street separated bike lanes, (nearly) complete with jersey barriers! #YEGbike

@yegbike.bsky.social

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching.

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

The Toner-Rodgers paper has already been withdrawn as fraudulent

Doctoral Research Fellow - FutureForests - School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences - 106218 - Grade 7 Position Details School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Fixed salary of £49,747 additional allowances may be applicable depe...

New PhD position in tree ecophysiology at BiFoR-FACE (Uni of Birmingham) 🌳 Looking at tree carbon and water dynamics under elevated CO2 and warming 🌡️
Start Jan 2026. See more info here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/376950

What Happened to the University’s Commitment to Free Expression? Charley Kirk, uAlberta, and Me | Centre for Free Expression I was shocked when the University of Alberta administration informed me, one of its law professors, that I was being placed on non-disciplinary leave for my social media comments in the wake of Charli...

"Why would it bow to antidemocratic pressures by placing a professor on leave without their request, consent, or involvement? That any university would do this is beyond comprehension and is cause for alarm about the future of academic freedom in Canada."

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

Is it narrated by Castle herself?

Not sure what the current situation is, but Boomers was only 4-5 years ago. I think the gist of it is just "here's a person who's willing to piss off the prudes"

Vermeule blurbed Boomers, and Andrews has written glowingly of Vermeule: kirkcenter.org/essays/terry...

(I probably reread Castle's essay on her messy friendship with Susan Sontag once a year—it's that juicy)

in another weird crossover, Blakey Vermeule's partner Terry Castle seems to have some sort of mutual admiration society with, of all people, Helen Andrews

We mourn the passing of our Editor-in-Chief Steve Long.

His vision to establish one of the first journals dedicated to Global Change over 30 years ago was truly ahead of its time. Through GCB, researchers have demonstrated that biology and ecosystems are not simply victims of global change..

Alberta looks to use notwithstanding clause on its 3 transgender laws: memo | CBC News Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's office has directed officials to invoke the Charter's notwithstanding clause in amending three laws that affect transgender people, says a leaked government memo obtai...

Alberta looks to use notwithstanding clause on its 3 transgender laws: memo

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...