Reading

Leaky Learning Machine

Posted by storybored

https://www.metafilter.com/210665/Leaky-Learning-Machine

A small number of samples can poison LLMs of any size. "In a joint study with the UK AI Security Institute and the Alan Turing Institute, we found that as few as 250 malicious documents can produce a "backdoor" vulnerability in a large language model—regardless of model size or training data volume. Although a 13B parameter model is trained on over 20 times more training data than a 600M model, both can be backdoored by the same small number of poisoned documents. Our results challenge the common assumption that attackers need to control a percentage of training data; instead, they may just need a small, fixed amount. "

Full Paper.

https://www.metafilter.com/210665/Leaky-Learning-Machine

Dear Yuletide Writer Letters 2025

It's letters time! If you're writing a letter along with your Yuletide sign-up, you can comment here with a link to your letter and also enter the details in the 2025 tagset app. For browsing convenience, the app also generates a google spreadsheet you can access directly. (Bookmarking will be available in the app once tag set corrections are complete.)

What's the deal with letters?
Letters are an optional tradition of Yuletide. When you sign up to the event, there's a space in the form for linking to somewhere in your own space (journal, public document, etc) where you can go into detail about what you like in fic and fandom. This post collects these links. The prompts on AO3 are hidden through sign-ups, but letters are visible as soon as you want them to be.

Letters are an optional extra in Yuletide. If you only post a letter here, you haven't signed up. To get an assignment and a gift, you need to sign up at the collection - open Oct 14-24. If you're using this post before sign-ups are open, please check back on AO3 to sign up there!

What makes a good letter?
Mileage varies. We encourage you, at minimum, to include your AO3 name, the fandoms and characters you're requesting, your Do-Not-Wants (DNWs), and whether or not you can receive treats. [This is a feature you can set in your AO3 preference settings. New accounts have permission to receive treats turned off by default, but participants with older accounts should check if they have not checked this in a while]. There are additional posts here and here discussing how to use DNWs.

How to post your letter

Finish your letter and make sure it's publicly visible. Here's the tagset to check what you can request

Enter it in the app*! You can edit your letter after submitting it - save the key, or ask the mods for the key if you lose it

Comment below! Include:
- Your AO3 name
- A link to your letter
- The fandoms you are requesting (3-8)
- The characters you are requesting in your fandoms (1-4, or Any)
If you post to the app first, it will spit out a handy chunk of text with all these details for you to use when commenting.

*Please reach out here if you're having trouble with the app! Characters can be selected by clicking on them.

!!! We ask you to add your letter both places to make sure it gets to people who are excited to read it. If for whatever reason you can only comment on a post, then please include the following line in your comment:

Mods, please add my letter to the app.

We will sweep the post occasionally and add letters to the app.

Warning: Locked or placeholder letters will be removed. You can add your letter when it's done.

If you have a question, contact a mod on Discord or comment here

Mini-challenges
As mini-challenges are posted, they will be added below.
( See links to this year's mini-challenges under the cut. )

The opening (and closing) of sign-ups will be announced at the admin comm.

Enjoy! And thank you to karanguni for the app!

"It's about you"

Posted by chavenet

https://www.metafilter.com/210664/Its-about-you

But all jokes (and anxieties) aside, are there any legitimate reasons we should be polite to AI? The answer is yes, at least according to one recent study posted on the preprint server arXiv.org by a team at Waseda University and the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, both in Tokyo. Using polite prompts, the authors found, can produce higher-quality responses from a large language model (LLM)—the technology powering AI chatbots. But there's a point of diminishing returns; excessive flattery can cause a model's performance to deteriorate, according to the paper. from Please Be Polite to ChatGPT [Scientific American]

Related: Skywalkers are all abnormally nice to droids

https://www.metafilter.com/210664/Its-about-you

(no subject)

Some thoughts on keeping yourself informed and still sane, in this time of overwhelming overwhelm everywhere.

One Thousand Square Foot Hanger System

Posted by Glinn

https://www.metafilter.com/210663/One-Thousand-Square-Foot-Hanger-System

How ThredUp Resells 17 Million Garments Every Year (Business Insider) [YT: 12:29] TW: Uses AI. "It feels like you're in the Matrix, but it's clothing."

Around the world, a garbage truck's worth of clothing is dumped or burned every second. Includes other efforts and recycling experiments around the world. The hanger system is reminiscent of the door scene from Monsters, Inc.

https://www.metafilter.com/210663/One-Thousand-Square-Foot-Hanger-System

Just keep swimming

Posted by Mitheral

https://www.metafilter.com/210662/Just-keep-swimming

You have probably passed over thousands of them with giving them a second thought. Culverts are a vital component of our transportation infrastructure and the US Federal Highway Administration (USDOTFHWA) has spent a lot of time figuring out what works best for any given constraints. They have a six part youtube series laying out some of the design tradeoffs of assorted options including how those options can enable aquatic organism travel thru a culvert.

You can skip the first 2 minutes of each video as it is a repeated description of what the series covers.

https://www.metafilter.com/210662/Just-keep-swimming

Entry tags:

LGBT Rainbow Promo.

Join LGBT Rainbow, a rainbow pass-it-on icon challenge focused on LGBTQ+ characters from any media.

lgbtrainbow

Entry tags:

queen mab + her electric sheep

a dream based on two real life events, thirty years apart

I was at my desk using the old computer my uncle sent me back in the 90s, typing away, but the keys on keyboard required a lot of force and were hard to use, so I picked up the keyboard to see what kind of cord it had, thinking maybe I could get a new keyboard and plug it in, but the cord wasn't attached to the computer! But it still worked! DUN DUN DUN.

(This dream is based on: When I was in high school, my computery uncle sent me a used Tandy something or other (Tandy 1000, maybe? it had, among other things, a word processing program (DeskMate?) and Sid Meier's Civilization I on it and came with absolutely no documentation), and yesterday one of the keys on my dad's Chromebook was sticky. Now there are two computers that have almost nothing in common.)

((Also, I'm getting better at knowing, emotionally, that the 90s weren't "ten years" ago, but I'm still not going back far enough. My original estimate was twenty years, but no that was literally thirty years ago, dawg.))

The cream is coming from inside the corn!

Posted by donnagirl

https://www.metafilter.com/210661/The-cream-is-coming-from-inside-the-corn

Often thought of as no more than a rarely-contentious canned supplement to improve the texture of boxed cornbread, creamed (or cream) corn is a delicious dish in its own right.

There's little-to-no actual cream in most traditional US recipes or in the American Indigenous corn dishes that they are derived from. The creamy texture is a result of "milking" corn cobs to release a starchy, sweet liquid. Beyond being a common potluck offering (especially in its enhanced, Million Dollar version), creamed corn is also found in the mysteriously named pâté chinois popular in Quebec, and adapted by chefs who "elevate" it or use it as a polenta-like base. However you enjoy it, just be aware that if you find an 85-year-old can of creamed corn it is under extreme pressure, full of lead and probably not fit for consumption.

https://www.metafilter.com/210661/The-cream-is-coming-from-inside-the-corn

From dry farmland to thriving wetland, swamp revival provides hope

Posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries

https://www.metafilter.com/210660/From-dry-farmland-to-thriving-wetland-swamp-revival-provides-hope

From dry farmland to thriving wetland, swamp revival provides hope. The Mount Burr Swamp in South Australia is brimming with water, giving conservationists hope its success can be a blueprint for the future.

https://www.metafilter.com/210660/From-dry-farmland-to-thriving-wetland-swamp-revival-provides-hope

multifandom icons.

Fandoms: Bed Friend, Echo, Euphoria, Fallout, Hawkeye, I Will Turn Back This Time, Jessica Jones, Killing Eve, Legends of Tomorrow, Mako Mermaids, Moon Knight, Motorheads, Mr. Robot, Ransom Canyon, Superman & Lois, Wednesday, Yellowjackets

rest HERE @

mundodefieras

Magnetic Folklore Instrument

Posted by Kattullus

https://www.metafilter.com/210659/Magnetic-Folklore-Instrument

Open Reel Ensemble have made your new bop by manipulating magnetic tapes with keyboards and big bamboo sticks, creating an instrument they call Jigakkyu. They have a lot more videos for you to enjoy. [Open Reel Ensemble previously]

https://www.metafilter.com/210659/Magnetic-Folklore-Instrument

The goal isn't to make people happy, it's to make people talk

Posted by chavenet

https://www.metafilter.com/210658/The-goal-isnt-to-make-people-happy-its-to-make-people-talk

Racism, sexism & exploitation sells, maybe. from Controversial Advertising:
How Brands Use Outrage For Profits by Ten Scores, a PR & advertising consulting firm that is using this very interesting, lavishly illustrated study to flog its services.

https://www.metafilter.com/210658/The-goal-isnt-to-make-people-happy-its-to-make-people-talk

Entry tags:

Marvel Trumps Hate 2025 Preview Week

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

20 Karl Urban Icons

I like the time frame involved in being an actor

What is Hamas?

Posted by yoz420

https://www.metafilter.com/210657/What-is-Hamas

10/7 was one of the most shameful days in the history of the Palestinian people; having Gaza and my beautiful people associated with the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust is a painful & awful tragedy that I & many Palestinians want nothing to do with ever. I wish more "pro-Palestine activists" would recognize and respect this and accept it as an actual fact and legitimate truth. - Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib Ahmed's is a nuanced Palestinian voice, who is anti-Hamas. He had to flee Gaza, as anyone who is against Hamas in Gaza risks torture to them and their family, and death. Ahmed's twitter

Hamas controlled UN-funded UNWRA schools, which used textbooks that taught children to hate Israel. One of the textbooks called a firebomb attack on a civlian bus in Israel a "Barbeque party" Newsweek UN Watch Hamas kills those Palestinans who disagree with their policies. CNN Hamas, in a violation of international law, disguises itself as medics and humanitarian staff, and uses hospitals as command centers, World Central Kitchen admits that Hamas militants posed as its employees. Hamas used hospitals as military command centers. Hamas needed to control all the food and humanitarian aid entering Gaza, and it killed to try and ensure that control. Rolling stone Hamas successfully threatened and censored western media/jounalist organizations since 2008. In this interview, a Reuters journalist testifies to this censorship being deployes specifically to prohibit disclosure of Hamas disguising militants as civilians Did Hamas directly control and coordinate the US Campus protest movement? A lawsuit in the US alleges this, and has social media evidence from timing of SJP posts. Hamas leadership have repeatedly said that they want to sacrifice the civilian population of Gaza as martyrs. As recently as September, their leader stated that Oct 7th and what followed is a victory for Gaza, a "golden moment". Israeli historian Haviv Rettig Gur on the hostage deal and the silence of the college protest "ceasefire" groups on the deal, and how he would feel if he was led by this kind of leadership. May Hamas be disarmed, may its murderous ideology be dismantled, and may there be peace.

https://www.metafilter.com/210657/What-is-Hamas

Entry tags:

Multifandom: Ghost of You Shrine Challenge

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Teenager uses school's 3D printer to make herself a new hand

Posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries

https://www.metafilter.com/210656/Teenager-uses-schools-3D-printer-to-make-herself-a-new-hand

Teenager uses school's 3D printer to make herself a new hand. Lois Agnello was born with only part of her left hand and came up with the idea to use her school's 3D printer to make a new one.

https://www.metafilter.com/210656/Teenager-uses-schools-3D-printer-to-make-herself-a-new-hand

Update on Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

Posted by subdee

https://www.metafilter.com/210655/Update-on-Peter-Thiel-and-the-Antichrist

In his San Francisco talk, Peter Thiel says the Antichrist will be someone who longs for a Nobel Peace Prize and also, moves fast and breaks things. But don't worry! It's not him or DJT. He also claims a vast "machinery" of the Antichrist has been put in place over the last three decades to increase financial surveillance and keep the wealthy from hiding their money.

Somewhat relatedly, here's a post from reddit about finding a non-MAGA church to join. Previously: Peter Thiel & the Antichrist

https://www.metafilter.com/210655/Update-on-Peter-Thiel-and-the-Antichrist

Entry tags:

Looking for recs with unlikeable or deeply flawed women lead characters

My partner mentioned to me a while back that Eleanor Shellstrop from 'The Good Place' is one of the few lead women characters sey've seen who are awful in the selfish and mean way she is; usually they tend to be catty or bitchy (I've not yet finished S2, no spoilers please).

I was wondering what other lead women or girl characters come to mind that fit this dynamic? Hyacinth Bucket from 'Keeping Up Appearances' is the first to come to mind, a stunning performance of deep denial and heavy class pretentions (not sure if this was called something else in the US or other countries). Or on a darker note, Jill from the horror comedy 'Nighty Night' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395404/ who is unashamedly vile.

Granted I've mostly been watching stuff with male leads recently, but I was wondering who else there is that fits this unlikeable or deeply flawed niche?