hamitosis's recent activity
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Comment on Google's quarterly report on adversarial use of AI for Q4 2025 in ~tech
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Comment on The malignant degradation of trust in scientific work in ~science
hamitosis (edited )Link ParentI agree with your classification of the different types of “science”. If I were to restate my own understanding of what you said, scientific research (capital ‘s’) can be performed with the intent...I agree with your classification of the different types of “science”. If I were to restate my own understanding of what you said, scientific research (capital ‘s’) can be performed with the intent to either “prove” a hypothesis for the gain of corporate benefactors or “prove” a null hypothesis for the gain of corporate benefactors. While the scientific method (lowercase ‘s’) seeks only objective truth.
The latter becomes corrupted when the incentive and therefore resources to conduct said research has the goal of producing monetary gain for the provider.
Where I think I have a differing opinion is on the claim of noble intent as a prerequisite for good science. All research requires resources and funds, regardless of the motivations of those who provide them. Those that choose to spend resources to hide, distort, or bury objective truth (capital ‘S’ science) can only do so for a short period of time because “the truth is incorruptible”. If your lab needs new funding to pay participants, or to buy equipment, or buy materials, I think the pragmatic solution would be to take funding from practically whomever is willing to give it, with the caveat being both they and you agree to try an eliminate bias as much as possible. The existing scientific community I think can and has done this pretty well. Consider double blind studies, peer reviewed papers, etc.
Arguably the most critical phase of the scientific method is the final stage of repetition. “Can an independent researcher follow the same methodology and get the same results?”
We must reclaim the phrase, “Do your own research”, to align it more to the meaning as described by the scientific method (lowercase ‘s’) instead of what I think is has become colloquially to mean, “Google it and pick whichever result you choose to believe”
If you don’t trust or suspect the institutions or research centers, appeal to the ones you do trust to repeat the study, fundraise for them, seek out learning to join them and contribute meaningfully, and/or offer your own capital.
We can’t all know everything but it doesn’t mean we can’t dedicate ourselves to know some things.
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Comment on Anyone can access deleted and private repository data on GitHub in ~comp
hamitosis Link ParentThat’s exactly what I mean. Anything that’s been forked on GitHub is going to be publicly available eventually. The keys problem can be solved for rather quickly but the loss of proprietary...That’s exactly what I mean. Anything that’s been forked on GitHub is going to be publicly available eventually. The keys problem can be solved for rather quickly but the loss of proprietary intellectual property is devastating for a business. Imagine spending all the time, effort and money on research and development of a project and can’t reap the rewards because your competitors didn’t have to spend the capital to get the same solution for free.
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Comment on Anyone can access deleted and private repository data on GitHub in ~comp
hamitosis (edited )LinkWow! This is significant! This publication is going to kickoff an arms race of brute forcing popular public repos owned/maintained by companies that have a premium SaaS offering of the same...Wow! This is significant! This publication is going to kickoff an arms race of brute forcing popular public repos owned/maintained by companies that have a premium SaaS offering of the same product as the repo. It’s a fairly common business model today.
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Comment on The future of e-commerce is a product whose name is a boilerplate AI-generated apology in ~tech
hamitosis LinkI feel like had this author used AI to write this article, he would have done a better job at conveying his message.I feel like had this author used AI to write this article, he would have done a better job at conveying his message.
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Comment on What caused you to change your mind about something significant? in ~talk
hamitosis Link Parent100% on that question. I have recently changed my mind about my religion and literally the hardest part about it is how it is and will continue to impact the relationships I have with my spouse,...100% on that question. I have recently changed my mind about my religion and literally the hardest part about it is how it is and will continue to impact the relationships I have with my spouse, my kids, my parents, my friends and my community. I would love to read about others experience with significant changes in opinions or life decisions.
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Comment on What six months of Denver’s Basic Income Project tells us in ~finance
hamitosis (edited )Link ParentI thought the same thing and despite being in favor of UBI, this study was very disconcerting. Even though the control group appears to improve at nearly the same rate as Group A, it’s impossible...I thought the same thing and despite being in favor of UBI, this study was very disconcerting.
Even though the control group appears to improve at nearly the same rate as Group A, it’s impossible to trust any conclusion from the data. Based on the numbers that skybrian posted, the data they have reported is not only inconclusive but could even be wildly misleading, so no conclusions should be drawn.
The percentages of participants that receive money and did not fill out the 6 month survey for each group are as follows:
Group A: 19.6%
Group B: 47.7%
Group C: 44.3%It’s impossible to know what the housing, employment situations, or even well being is for each of the participants after receiving these monies, however what if the reason that nearly HALF of Group B didn’t show up is because they were murdered for having $6500 of cash while experiencing homelessness?
I’m not suggesting that is what happened but rather stating it’s irresponsible to lose half of your study’s subject population and still think the resulting data is meaningful.
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Comment on Reclaiming real American patriotism in ~society
hamitosis (edited )LinkI agree with the goal sentiment of the article, but I wish Tom Nichols (author) left out the ad hominems. It undermines the primary appeal of the article. In the United States we are and have been...- Exemplary
I agree with the goal sentiment of the article, but I wish Tom Nichols (author) left out the ad hominems. It undermines the primary appeal of the article.
In the United States we are and have been one nation not in spite of our differences but because of them. Because we not only allow or tolerate our fellow countrymen and countrywomen to have differing opinions, but because we desire a place where we can have them. And because we have and would defend against any who would try to infringe on the “unalienable rights”. Foreign or domestic. Sadly, as the author points out, those attacks can come and have come from within.
We believed and should still believe in these rights inherent to not only our own citizens but of all mankind across the world.
I’m proud to stand with all those who call the United States of America home. Blue or Red, Black or White, Gay or Straight we are one nation and one people.
Happy Independence Day fellow American Tilders.
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Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food
hamitosis Link ParentSpaghetti I’s or Spaghetti lowercase l’sSpaghetti I’s or Spaghetti lowercase l’s
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Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food
hamitosis Link ParentThat is basically Spaghetti’Os without the O’s.That is basically Spaghetti’Os without the O’s.
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Comment on Highly radioactive spill near Columbia River in E. Washington worse than expected in ~enviro
hamitosis Link ParentThat’s shocking! Or it just shows my lack of knowledge about this. Thanks for sharing the link.Hanford's initial nuclear reactors used cold water pumped directly from the Columbia River to cool the nuclear fuel, and then released the contaminated water directly back into the river.
That’s shocking! Or it just shows my lack of knowledge about this. Thanks for sharing the link.
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Comment on Highly radioactive spill near Columbia River in E. Washington worse than expected in ~enviro
hamitosis Link ParentIf you mean to say that without proper intervention the risk of ground water contamination being simply a factor of “when” is self evident. Given enough time everything that can happen will...If you mean to say that without proper intervention the risk of ground water contamination being simply a factor of “when” is self evident. Given enough time everything that can happen will happen. Although it doesn’t read like it I’m really trying hard not to condescend, but appeal to our more rational and less emotional selves.
I think it is critically important we do our utmost best to speak with objectivity and only the facts that we have. Hyperbole in this arena does not benefit anyone.
We need to inform, help solve the problem, or garner support to solve it. Realistically the latter being pretty much the only thing we as civilians without expertise in the matter can do: provide support in the form of votes for those who can get the support the cleanup project needs.
The theory of contamination of the Columbia river is based on the information that the DOE and its contractors have provided us and to the extent that they know at this time. These same people and institutions are working hard to prevent the negative outcome. They need support, facts and cold hard rationale.
I agree with and appreciate your appeal to express the importance that this project be successful as the alternative could mean serious harm for a large swath of the western United States for the next thousand years.
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Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food
hamitosis Link ParentSounds awful. I’ll have to try it just to prove my theory.Sounds awful. I’ll have to try it just to prove my theory.
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Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food
hamitosis Link ParentThis is basically the norm in Brazil. Pretty common to add a banana to a lunch consisting of black beans stewed with some pork meats (feijoada) and rice with a dash of pimenta (fermented peppers...This is basically the norm in Brazil. Pretty common to add a banana to a lunch consisting of black beans stewed with some pork meats (feijoada) and rice with a dash of pimenta (fermented peppers in oil or vinegar). The sweet, salty and spicy combo is surprisingly good.
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Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food
hamitosis LinkRice with Cottage Cheese My friend turned me on to this at a time when I thought cottage cheese looked, smelled and tasted like baby spit up. He convinced me to try it and I never looked back....Rice with Cottage Cheese
My friend turned me on to this at a time when I thought cottage cheese looked, smelled and tasted like baby spit up. He convinced me to try it and I never looked back.
It’s been my go to lunch for the past 6 years and is delicious with just plain rice and cottage cheese or with soy sauce for a salty kick. Lately I’ve been putting spicy chili crisp with it. The cold creamy cottage cheese juxtaposed against the warm spicy rice is a killer combo.
Thanks for posting this. I’m so glad the Google TIG are working on this and publishing and sharing their learnings.
And from reading I’m glad to see but honestly surprised that there hasn’t been larger scale agentic attacks.
As the open source models improve or are “jailbroken” via distillation from Gemini or Opus, as mentioned in the article, in not many cycles will powerful reasoning models run on consumer grade compute. When that happens imagine agentic adversaries deployed across a bot network like we’ve seen in large scale DDOS attacks.