FusionProgGuy

Very cool and detailed Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University study on sycophancy: "Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence"

Sycophancy, the phenomenon of excessively agreeing with or flattering users, is a pervasive issue in current LLMs.

Findings:

Do you think there would there be more vegans if you could learn about how different fish sound like? What if we could understand what they're communicating?

I have another one for your fun facts about Axolotls eating their siblings limbs for a snack news.northeastern.edu/2019/10/21/n...

When This Beetle Gets Eaten by a Frog, It Heads for the 'Back Door' New research details how this Japanese water beetle travels through the bowels of its predator to emerge out the other end, alive and unharmed

@angryhacademic.bsky.social
What can we learn from a Japanese water beetle? You can beat being digested by frog by running through it's digestive tract! Scientists put sticky wax on their legs to see if they got out the natural way - but they didn't make it. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/w...

There’s some evidence to suggest that you can piggy back a bit off the flu vaccine for some Covid protection. So you can maybe space them 6 months apart to cover you for a year if you get it yearly.

I’m considering getting my Covid vaccine soon, before December - maybe this month still, especially as I don’t know what America will be doing with Covid vaccines. It may be harder for people (at least there) to get them. Are you off Covid vaccines permanently now? I’m considering doing it yearly.

I’m still wearing a respirator to protect myself and others, but have started to go out more regularly to eat or drink somewhere if it’s well ventilated. I still sometimes take my CO2 monitor with me. How about you?

Hey Michelle, thank you! Long time no see! I’m not on Bluesky much. I see you shared your diagnosis. I have a gut feeling I have AuDHD as well. Got hyper-fixation, OCD and a strong sense of justice. Haven’t looked into it. I’m keeping myself busy with various projects.

mRNA vaccines are safe, have been in development for decades, & have far broader applications than older vaccine technologies.

New vaccine technologies evolve when scientists have tools & knowledge to make something more elegant or complex that wasn’t possible before.

5/

State steps in to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccine Public health order counters potential limitations set by the USFDA

New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them.

States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.

YouTube video by Taylor Lorenz 'Somebody needs to do it'

I've lost some longtime friends over explaining why the left's embrace of covid disinformation led us to Trump, Musk &Palestine. Thankfully, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social is much smarter than I am, and was able to lay it out in detail in this brilliant vid. The left is complicit
youtu.be/zXrjlOE9e50?...

YouTube video by South China Morning Post Fish out of water? Scientists have trained these goldfish to ‘drive’

Fun fact: goldfish can be taught to drive fish tank robots
youtube.com/watch?v=UFrN...

h/t @fusionprogguy.bsky.social for this fishy fact!

A graph showing grey and white matter brain volume, ventricular volume, and cortical thickness through the lifespan, titled Brain Change. caption reads: Researchers analysed more than 120,000 brain scans to assembles the most comprehensive growth chart of the brain so far. white and grey matter volume and mean cortical thickness (the width of the grey matter) increases rapidly early in development, whereas ventricular volume (the amount of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain) increases rapidly later in life

Fun fact: different parts of your brain change size with age
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/d41...

h/t @fusionprogguy.bsky.social for feeding our brains knowledge about our brains...

Just to be sure, ask your doctor what risks there are with the supplements you want to take, and mention other meds and supplements you are already taking. Some supplements might interfere with your existing meds.

Don’t fall for the scam. Listen to experts and read papers, then ask them questions about it.
Try not to supplement nutrients if you’re not deficient. Supplements are unregulated so risks exist, like unknown ingredients (eg heavy metals) and excess nutrients.

If you are not already, please consider masking in public, especially in places where people have no choice but to go
- including public transit, grocery stores, and medical centers (especially medical centers).
Doing so could literally save someone's life.

www.usnews.com/opinion/arti...

3/3

Notice to flat-Earthers all around the globe: Please alert the authorities if tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse looks like this:

Due to the lack of interest in sars-cov2 some in the covid cautious have suggested a rebrand with the name Airborne-aware, given how likely it is that a new pandemic could be around the corner. Masking doesn’t just reduce the chance of catching Covid.

Do combined vaccines exist yet?

A carnist can use the same argument - if you were meant to eat potatoes and beans, you'd eat it raw! If you were meant to eat rice, you'd not cook it. If you were meant to eat bread it would grow on trees, and so on. If you think those are bad arguments, stop using the same kind of argument!

Please stop using this argument. It suggests that humans should not do anything that is not "natural". Want to get somewhere - don't use a car, plane or bicycle - that's not how we moved. Want to take medicine - it's not natural - so don't listen to doctors.... - that's the reasoning this supports.

New admin claims to be the frontier of radical transparency—but in just 1 week, public health decisions are being hidden from view. Instead of strengthening transparency, Sec. Kennedy is rolling it back:

1. ACIP meeting (CDC’s vaccine advisors). Delayed = No transparency on vaccine policy decisions

What are your favourite respirators?
Do you wear them outdoors in summer or just in winter to keep warm?

Yes, Marc Veldhoen uses red crosses to indicate that the title of a paper can often be misleading and that people who are not experts can come to wrong conclusions about the meaning of findings. It looks simple to cross out a study, but it takes years of knowledge to be able to explain why.

I see. I wasn’t aware that drinking would have a drastic effect on Covid risk. Is there an increased risk for moderate drinking - a few drinks on weekends?

You’re allowed to have preferences for risks, but it’s a surprising. For me it has been difficult to reduce precautions based on what I know Covid can do to the body, but also by how many people have been severely impacted. I think I am still traumatised by the pandemic.

If avoiding alcohol is so important that you would drop Covid precautions if it meant you wouldn’t be tempted to drink, I think it means you think drinking is more dangerous or harmful to your well-being than catching Covid, right?

I’m not sure how to understand your risk hierarchy. For me both read like the risk related to catching Covid is very low, unless I misunderstand how little stands on the way of being an alcoholic. I don’t mean any judgement - just seeking to understand your statements.