Tootfinder

Optimizers Qualitatively Alter Solutions And We Should Leverage This
Razvan Pascanu, Clare Lyle, Ionut-Vlad Modoranu, Naima Elosegui Borras, Dan Alistarh, Petar Velickovic, Sarath Chandar, Soham De, James Martens
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12224

Optimizers Qualitatively Alter Solutions And We Should Leverage This
Due to the nonlinear nature of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), one can not guarantee convergence to a unique global minimum of the loss when using optimizers relying only on local information, such as SGD. Indeed, this was a primary source of skepticism regarding the feasibility of DNNs in the early days of the field. The past decades of progress in deep learning have revealed this skepticism to be misplaced, and a large body of empirical evidence shows that sufficiently large DNNs following stand…

Putin took Trump for granted.
Trump will make him pay for it.
Trump’s announcement on Monday about aid to Ukraine proves once again that he is nothing if not thin- skinned.

If Trump has been consistent about one thing throughout his tumultuous, decade-long political career,
it is support for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and skepticism of Ukraine.
In 2014, Trump praised Putin’s illegal seizure of Crimea
— a prelude to Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukr…

Putin took Trump for granted. He’s going to pay for his mistake.
After the president’s startling, welcome shift on Ukraine, there’s more to do.

❝I have noticed that we people privileged by supremacy have a tendency to take this same stance toward newly aware people, a stance which is not ours to assume. We seem to feel that it is our business to meet people who are in the same place that we were just a few short years or decades ago, and meet their shock and surprise and anger and dismay with a skepticism and an impatience we haven't earned.
We say things like "are you surprised?"
We say things like "why does this shock you?"
We say "oh so you're only angry now?"
We say things like "where have you been?"
…
Instead of asking “are you surprised?” say “I was surprised once, too; here's what I know.” Instead of “what took you so long?” say “I just got here recently; here's what I've learned.”❞ https://mastodon.social/@JuliusGoat/114847074342312772

Robust and efficient multiple-unit switchback experimentation
Paul Missault, Lorenzo Masoero, Christian Delb\'e, Thomas Richardson, Guido Imbens
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12654

Robust and efficient multiple-unit switchback experimentation
User-randomized A/B testing has emerged as the gold standard for online experimentation. However, when this kind of approach is not feasible due to legal, ethical or practical considerations, experimenters have to consider alternatives like item-randomization. Item-randomization is often met with skepticism due to its poor empirical performance. To fill this gap, in this paper we introduce a novel and rich class of experimental designs, "Regular Balanced Switchback Designs" (RBSDs). At their co…

A healthy dose of skepticism is warranted whenever you hear: “the most powerful LLM ever released across key benchmarks”
📚 "When LLMs Remember Instead of Reason" #AI #benchmark

Some podcasters say Spotify's Partner Program, through which they get a cut of Spotify's ad and premium subscription revenue, pays out more than YouTube (Alexander Lee/Digiday)
https://digiday.com/media/spotifys-vid

Spotify’s video podcast program draws praise from creators — and skepticism from networks
Six months into the Spotify Partner Program, creators and podcast networks are split on the opportunity, with ad monetization at the core.

Bookmark this for when you ask yourself why skepticism turns to hatred on the use of unconstrained LLMs.
https://infosec.exchange/@dvandal/114638324336575392

Alberta Premier is going to sicken and kill children in the name of ignorance and “owning the libs” for Trump and RFK
"the number of cumulative measles cases had as of Friday passed 1,179 in Alberta. The last time Alberta came close to that number was 1986. That’s when the province reported 843 cases. In sheer number of cases, Alberta virtually matches the entire United States, where vaccine skepticism is now official government policy. ”.
#Measles #Vaccines #ABPoli
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/07/07/Danielle-Smith-Queen-Measles/

Eleven Madison Park,
the elegant, internationally acclaimed Manhattan restaurant
whose climate-minded move to an all-vegan menu four and a half years ago was hailed as both brilliantand baffling,
-- is bringing back meat.
Its chef, Daniel Humm, said in an interview that he wanted to draw more diners to the restaurant,
“I very much believed in the all-in approach, but I didn’t realize that we would exclude people,” he said. “I have some anxiety that people are goi…

Meat Is Back at Eleven Madison Park, After 4 Vegan Years
The Manhattan restaurant drew global praise and skepticism with its climate-minded, all-plant menu. Now its chef wants to be more welcoming — and popular.

Metacurity is pleased to offer our free and premium subscribers a weekly digest of the best long-form (and longish) infosec-related pieces we couldn't properly fit into our daily news crush.
This week's selection covers
--Bashar al-Assad was toppled by spyware,
--Facial recognition threatens us all with deportation,
--VC money fuels worker surveillance,
--Will Trump launch offensive cyber ops on US networks?,
--The Pall Mall Process and commercial c…

Best infosec-related long reads for the week of 5/31/25
Bashar al-Assad was toppled by spyware, Facial recognition threatens us all with deportation, VC money fuels worker surveillance, Will Trump launch offensive cyber ops on US networks?, The Pall Mall Process and commercial cyber intrusions, Self-confidence leads to GenAI skepticism, more

Viele europäische #Landwirt*innen zeigen mehr #Klimaskepsis als andere Berufsgruppen, vor allem in wohlhabenderen Ländern mit geringerem #Klimarisiko.
Das erschwert

Climate change skepticism of European farmers and implications for effective policy actions - Communications Earth & Environment
The majority of farmers in European Union countries are more skeptical about climate change impact and attribution than the general population, and more so in more innovative and higher-income countries, according to an analysis of European-level surveys.

Blowing up NATO's foundation, right before its Summit:
"Trump refused to give a clear commitment to NATO’s Article 5 — its collective defense clause — as he departed for The Hague, raising fresh concerns about his stance on one of NATO’s core principles."
https://

Trump casts doubt on NATO defense pledge as alliance confronts Russian threat
Although Article 5 is central to NATO’s security framework, U.S. President Donald Trump has previously expressed skepticism about honoring it, often criticizing member states for not contributing enough to shared defense efforts.

Following Abrego Garcia’s indictment, Ben Schrader, a high-level DOJ official within the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville
(where the charges against Abrego Garcia were filed)
abruptly resigned from his position.
While Schrader, who ran that office’s criminal division, did not explicitly state that he resigned over the charges,
sources told ABC News that his decision was based on concerns that the allegations against Abrego Garcia were politically motivated.
A…

DOJ Official Resigns After Trump Administration Charges Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Critics say the administration’s human trafficking charges against Abrego Garcia should be viewed with skepticism.

Cannot emphasize enough how much we need people with experience as public defenders and civil rights lawyers to run for political office.
At a time of authoritarianism, their skepticism of power is critical.
https://bsky.app/profile/davidmenschel.bsky.social/post…