Ora Tor

The Illusion of AGI, or What Language Models Can Do Without Thought It is not simple stubbornness that LLMs are not “intelligent,” much less a form of “general” intelligence, writes Eryk Salvaggio.

An LLM is language without intelligence. Turns out, language severed from a mind is remarkably powerful. The trick is that this text is just a user's text, but obscured. It takes your text, blows it up, and calibrates the debris to land nearby. Then the interface says, "Here, I wrote this for you."

This is gender.

Bright comet with tail diagonally across centre with star dots on a dark background.

I was just going through some of my favourite captures and found this one I've always liked of Comet Tsuchinshan from 2024. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych wore a helmet with images of people killed in the war during a Winter Olympics training session

Heraskevych had promised before the Games to use the event as a platform to keep attention on the conflict

"Some of them were my friends,"he said

Reports Emerge Claiming M23 Detained Blackwater Founder Erik Prince in Eastern DRC

Keep him!

“Information continuing to emerge from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claims that the M23 armed group has detained Erik Prince, the American national known as the founder and former head of the private military company Blackwater.“

Make America Healthy Again Is Eugenics Without the Name How the Politics of “Natural Health” Rebrands Preventable Death as Freedom

Measles is back. Children are dying not because medicine failed, but because ideology did. Under “Make America Healthy Again,” anti-vaccine politics recast preventable death as freedom—accepting mass mortality as a moral choice, not a failure.
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/make-ameri...

Sunday Pages: "This Was Their Finest Hour" A speech by Winston Churchill

"In other words, with little hope of Britain surviving, let alone defeating the Nazis, Winston Churchill spoke victory into existence."

Shipyard Bosses Forced to Pay Overtime to Get People to Stay for Pete Hegseth Speech Workers at Bath Iron Works, a shipbuilding company, showed no interest in hearing Pete Hegseth speak. So they were offered overtime.

Here's the full article, by @noahhurowitz.bsky.social

“They issued a polling sheet this morning to see who would attend and, at least from my crew, there were no takers,” said the worker, “and not even a mention of overtime"
A later survey went out around that said workers would receive overtime."

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Bosses at BIW forced to pay overtime t get people to state for Warmonger Pete's speech.

Ha!

See my other post for two peaceful protest events happening tomorrow, Mon Feb 9, in Bath, Maine to give Pete a proper Maine hello.

Living in this country, it’s just a reality that the left and liberals are expected to do more and uphold more. I don’t know how you can come away with any other conclusion than that when you flip the script on the above premise.

Just say Venn

Such impressive accomplishments by RFKJr

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to visit Bath Iron Work Hegseth is scheduled to speak on Monday at 2 p.m.

Hegseth is coming to #ME, @shennabellows.bsky.social @janetmillsforme.bsky.social
#mesen

I don't want BIW and others here to be part of death camps and unrestricted sea warfare, @pingree.house.gov

wgme.com/news/local/s...

⛓️CONCENTRATION CAMPS & INCINERATORS—D.H.S. is setting up a huge network of camps. They are converting the U.S. as a region for ‘expeditionary military deployment’ & no-bid no-public-comment contracts to build a “ghost network” of 10,000-person concentration camps. Jesus. Thread 🧵

Ah, yes, back when he was a tot, according to many of his supporters. Early childhood mistakes, they say.

We are proud to unveil the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 1,000 days through January 28, 2026. This 10fps period covers summer 2023’s coral bleaching mortality event, but then recovering and growing through ‘24 & ‘25 into ‘26 #coralcitycamera

All they have is hate and Kid Rock

I'm not ageist, & I find that widely-applied narrative to be not only juvenile but also offensive. I expect the people I pay to serve me to be in their positions based on the content of character and experience to do the job--Platner has neither.
When a man blames a woman for her rape, he's done.

I agree with the poster to whom you're responding and I'm a Maine resident and voter. I despise Platner; starting to feel the same about his supporters. Now what? You're going to tell a Maine taxpayer resident that they don't have the right to judge Platner? I fund the Army. You BET I have a say.

Platner supporters are no better at critical thought and not being duped than MAGA is.

Yes, he likes the little conflicts and the killing that goes with them much better than the big wars, he said.

Calley served. Was he a hero just because he served? How do tours in a war most Americans didn't want suddenly translate to being a US Senator in the chamber the Founders wrote should hold experienced, seasoned statesmen? I don't really want anymore killers as leaders. It isn't going well. Thanks.

They are so friggin desperate. Platner supporters tell me all I need to know about him. They are just as bad as MAGA.

It isn't just the tattoo. Do some homework instead of just being desperate for the guy. He said if women in the military don't want to be S assaulted, then they shouldn't get drunk--blames R victims. He comes from a well-connected family of wealth several generations deep. He isn't "working class."

👇

The Kids Trump Sent to ICE’s Dilley Detention Center ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of...

Every study shows that being in a jail or prison, no matter how "nice" or whatever, shortens your lifespan. It does. So the government is taking years off the lives of people, including children, when it opts to put them in jail.
www.propublica.org/article/life...

Robert Kraft’s team losing the Super Bowl in humiliating fashion is, to date, the worst consequence suffered by any of the men in the Epstein files.

Bettelmann Alsatian Bread Pudding with Apples and Raisins

Need something simple, sweet, and comforting?

The Bettelman, an Alsatian bread pudding with apples & raisins, is so so simple to make but WOW the best bread pudding I have ever eaten.

I share the perfect recipe & a short history of this delightful dessert.

jamieschler.substack.com/p/bettelmann

NEC director telling us not to panic is a fantastic way to begin the week

9-page opinion on Seamus Culleton in ICE detention and denied habeas relief ⤵️
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...