West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more)

Heather Stewart, and Kalyeena Makortoff writing for the Guardian.

Tesla turns to 50-year-old stunt as it tries to Roadster again arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10...

Robin Wigglesworth is the editor of FT Alphaville (one of the rare bullshit-free zones in the financial press) and his posts are always worth reading.

A couple of recent stories for those following the AI boom.

When you watch this video about a fascinating but somehow almost forgotten bit of post-war era scientific history featuring perhaps the last interview with the famous (101 at the time) researcher behind the project.

Another day another troubling story of AI spending and debt.

Today's Daily Cartoon, by Paul Noth.

This is Joseph.

Big overlap with Betteridge's law of headlines Another helpful diagram from Randall Munroe.

The seminal parable of the AI doomster cult is the paperclip maximizer, a fairy tale (specifically, the magic mill Aarne–Thompson type 565) pretending to be a thought experiment.

One of the keys to understanding Silicon Valley's profoundly dysfunctional culture is the bizarre antagonism toward expertise.

Nicholas Grossman is definitely onto something...: There have always been humans who thought: 1) The world will end soon 2) It will happen in a cool, exciting way 3) It’ll happen to me personally 4) I’ll be a martyred prophet, or a warlord, or otherwise s…

I actually have some quibbles -- I think Newport underestimates how much many doomers are motivated by greed (in addition to craziness) and how crazy many accelerationists are (in addtion to also being greedy) -- but if you're new to the topic, this is an…

When Paul Krugman wanted to talk with someone who understood the AI bubble, he called Paul Kedrosky, as did Derek Thompson.

"Grok 4 is smarter than almost all graduate students in all disciplines simultaneously.

For as long as people have been noticing the environmental issues associated with the AI bubble, commentators have been supplying articles like this despite the massive fallacy that's obvious as soon as you take a serious look at the problem.

Just to step back and get a look at the big picture (or the big pictures), when we talk about AI, which these days almost always comes down to large language models and LLM-driven agents, there are at least four huge stories to choose from. 1.

As previously mentioned, when you hear someone like Amodei or Coxon talking about the dangers of AI, listen carefully.

An individual who, with no resources or special standing or institutional support, simply goes online, does his research, and starts writing, diligently digging into important subjects that, for some inexplicable reason, the mainstream press has chosen to…

it's weird that ai got too dangerous to keep advancing right around the time money got more expensive to borrow — dr. rich traditions, JD (@helldude.bsky.social) September 22, 2026 at 11:37 AM At a time when everybody seems to be criticizing AI and partic…

Anyone who had put money on Bonta for Governor might want to visit their Polymarket account.

Before you race to the comment section, hear me out.

Some stories and developments you might want to keep on your radar.

As previously mentioned, software veteran Carl Brown has pointed out that we can prevent incidents like the hugging face hack simply by enforcing existing laws.

I know some of you aren't video people, but this is one of the most sensible things you'll hear in this increasingly overheated debate.

[Standard caveats for the Hugging Face hacking thread.]

While reading Andrew Gelman's recent post on sanewashing, I was surprised at how many people in the comment section seem to be completely unfamiliar with the term.

DRUCK: “..

Occasionally, sitcoms will go meta and play with the conventions of the genre, such as the way that huge, life-changing events seem to disappear from the characters' collective memories and are never referred to again.

[* Can you use literally to describe something being derived from something even if the result is not a direct quote?

I'm sure Musk will deal with this with the grace and dignity we've come to expect.

It's Labor Day weekend so let's stop by Emma Goldman's ice-cream shoppe in Worcester for a hot fudge sundae and some anarchy. pic.twitter.com/LgPLuxkmWG — Charles P.

I realize we recommend a lot of Patrick Boyle videos but this is one of the best walk-throughs of one of the most important news stories of the moment (and 2026 has not been notable for slow news days).

This is Joseph.

Following up on our previous post.

We'll be coming back to this Holdren essay and what it says about techno-optimists' fascination with fusion, but for now, but for now, there's one aspect of one paragraph I'd like to focus on.

From the WSJ: SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO tested the limits of an obscure financial metric.

Brennan: "Nearly all of Florida is below the 95% immunization rate for herd immunity for measles.

When I say no one, obviously I don't mean social media, where for every event you can find someone who made a note of it.

*Probably the first time in the history of Oklahoma that anyone has attempted to compare Cushing to Rome.

I have been accused of being overly negative about AI, particularly large language models, and I have my share of issues with the technology.

From D.E.

We've recommended Brown's videos before.

This 404 report justly been getting considerable coverage.

This is a big story, certainly bigger than you might have guessed from the coverage.

Like we said before, LLMs are tools.

From Vaclav Smil’s book “Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure.”

I'm still finishing up a post on the obscure and convoluted history of the intellectual property behind the eagerly anticipated Coyote vs.

Given the state of things in 2026 and the two "next big things" that preceded generative AI, this is by no means a trivial point.

Random Patrick Boyle quote:"If I left a million dollars on the table over a non-disparagement clause, I'd bang out a million dollars worth of disparagement that same afternoon" His Wedding Guests Were Arriving—Just as His $45 Billion Fund Was Falling Apart