sardean

I launched these balloons as part of an outreach program: bowers.cornell.edu/news-stories... it was a lot of fun! Turns out weather balloons are a great way to talk about both classic and modern "AI"

And in early August, balloon #2 ended it's journey in the Black Sea 🫡

small conferences are lots of fun! consider joining us next June in LA, and share with folks who might be interested.

Actually, I launched two balloons. But the first one crashed into the ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia due to a ballast issue. RIP

A weather balloon's path from North America over the Atlantic to North Africa

two weeks ago, I launched a weather balloon. After a loop de loop over the middle of the Atlantic, it's currently making its way over north Africa. windbornesystems.com/balloon-soci...

E.g. at netflix "we initially did not observe significant improvements in performance over well-tuned non-deep-learning approaches. Only when we added numerous features of heterogeneous types to the input data, deep-learning models did start to shine in our setting" ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/i...

But more generally, this seems like a repeated pattern for deep learning. One of the main advantages is how flexible the models are, and how many disparate types of inputs they can be trained to use. This is in contrast to physics based or simpler ML models.

The Future of Weather Prediction Is Here. Maybe.

however, I do think the deep models are promising, particularly because its easy for non-experts to incorporate new data sources as inputs. Credit to my brother for this perspective! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/b...

they also rely on the initial conditions/"state estimates" provided by physics based models

my (1000 foot view) of recent advances in deep weather models is that they basically get better accuracy metrics by doing a better job of being Bayes optimal. I.e., predicting the mean of future outcomes (vs more realistic looking high resolution weather patterns).

basically, there are still wins from giving the models better initial conditions. (eventually that will saturate because of the chaotic dynamics/numerical precision/etc)

they suggest that there are still gains to be made by collecting/incorporating more real time weather data, specifically that we could get than currently usable predictions several more days into the future

I've been getting interested in weather prediction, where (depending on how much you believe physics models) there are some interesting things you can say: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

totally agree, the market of baby products feels pretty scammy (not to mention all the targeted ads). But the same anxieties that all these products prey on seem to be reinforced by the safety culture...or at least this is the case on reddit forums full of anxious new parents.

I don't really feel like there needs to be a distinction! Plenty of food that I'm already eating is puree-ish textured. And my baby is so interested that even when I hold the spoon it feels very "baby led".

Safety Standard for Operating Cords on Custom Window Coverings The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission or CPSC) has determined that custom window coverings with accessible operating cords longer than 8 inches pose an unreasonable risk of strangula...

it affects more than just products *for* babies too! www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

having recently become a parent, I've found the consumer safety culture/institutions/etc around babies (and children) fascinating. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about it.

I DO!

Human vs. Generative AI in Content Creation Competition: Symbiosis or Conflict? The advent of generative AI (GenAI) technology produces transformative impact on the content creation landscape, offering alternative approaches to produce diverse, high-quality content across media, ...

on the other hand, maybe llms enable people to craft better responses to questions? I can't say I actually believe this, but simple game theoretic models show that symbiosis can exist: arxiv.org/abs/2402.15467

Ursula Le Guin writes beautifully about utopia, with the perspective of it being more a process than a state. Her popular books (Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, many short story collections) are great, but my absolute favorite is Always Coming Home.

I just aim the camera so he's out of the frame. Not sure what people think or if they notice!

I do lots of work now with baby in my arms napping and/or eating. Zoom meetings included! They're one of the easier things to do one handed.