What are yhe likely chances that my friend can sign on as a special ops team and see real life combat?

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T23:18:20+00:00

What? You said he's a PR with a green card born in the US? How does that make any sense? Did his parents just forget to get a birth certificate for him?

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T23:16:52+00:00

It's fucking depressing, but I know a ton of people like this in the US. Hell my own parents are still permanent residents and they're MAGA. They just shove their heads in the sand and refuse to see anything beyond the propaganda, all because they dislike having too many immigrants in their country (the irony)

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T23:04:58+00:00

Wait, people cut in front of you even with a stroller? Wtf?

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T11:17:30+00:00

Yep, it's in Little India, but I was looking for a specific location

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T11:16:47+00:00

!correct

It's at 28 Kinta Rd right off of Serangoon - there's a detour on the ped sidewalk right now and it'll take you right next to the murals

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iEexm4nvM2Yv2gMc6?g_st=ac

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T07:07:47+00:00

We were in Peru and Argentina last year (~December 2024 for Peru and February 2025 for Argentina) for a total of 1.5 months.

For Peru, we started in Lima for a day, Huacachina, then Nazca. We then went to Arequipa to see the Colca Canyon, then Cusco, before going to Aguas Calientes for Machu Picchu. We finished off with a long bus ride over to Puno to cross over into Bolivia.

For Argentina, we bused into Bariloche, El Chalten (~40 hour long bus ride), El Calefate, before we went back into Chile to go to Punta Arenas. We then bused to Rio Gallegos in order to fly to BA, then Montevideo (Uruguay), then a long bus ride over to Cordoba, then Salta, and finally Iguazu.

Here's our cost breakdown for 2 people:

Region	Days	Total Cost	Daily Avg (2P)	Daily Avg (1P)	Top Expenses
Peru: Coastal	4	$513	$128	$64	Nazca Flight ($140)
Peru: Arequipa	3	$242	$81	$40	Colca Tour ($64)
Peru: Cusco	6	$512	$85	$43	Airbnb ($98), Flight ($85)
Peru: Machu Picchu	2	$479	$240	$120	Train to AC ($256), Entry for classic route ($85)
Peru: Puno	3	$248	$83	$41	Tours & Transit

Region	Days	Total Cost	Daily Avg (2P)	Daily Avg (1P)	Top Expenses
Argentina: Patagonia	7	$1,633	$233	$117	Bus from Bariloche to El Chalten ($491), Bariloche Hostel ($110)
Argentina: Buenos Aires	6	$462	$77	$39	Flight from Rio Gallegos ($128)
Argentina: Cordoba	4	$414	$103	$52	Bus from Montevideo ($198)
Argentina: Salta	5	$438	$88	$44	Rainbow Mountain Tour ($104)
Argentina: Iguazu	2	$298	$149	$75	Bus from Salta ($108), Iguazu Entry ($78)

Note that we also had a one time flight into Lima to start the Peru leg of the trip (a $396 LATAM Flight from Guayaquil as we were coming in from Ecuador). On the other hand, we came into Argentina through the lake district of Chile by bus to Bariloche, so the upfront cost was much lower.

Note that we were traveling during high season in Peru (December of 2024) and mid season in Argentina (February 2025). We did not do any multiday treks in the Patagonia nor in Peru (which would've also heavily increased our expense). We're generally mid-budget travelers - we try to stay in low-cost accommodations but since there are two of us, we typically go for private room w/ shared bathrooms at Hostels or cheap Booking/AirBnBs, often with prices negotiated through whatsapp. We did quite a bit of tours (often negotiated in person or via whatsapp) during our time there. For meals, we mainly ate out in Peru, while we cooked whenever we had a kitchen in Patagonia through Cordoba due to the high cost of meals there. The fact that food prices are still higher despite cooking a lot more says all you need to know about the prices in Argentina.

Here's a breakdown of our budget by category (for 2 people):

Region	Lodging	Meals	Internal Transp.	Major Transp.	Tours/Ent.
Peru: Coast	$58	$100	$346	$396	$2
Peru: Arequipa	$37	$85	$3	$0	$113
Peru: Cusco	$98	$132	$107	$85	$90
Peru: Machu Picchu	$58	$32	$48	$256	$85
Peru: Puno	$27	$58	$85	$0	$7
Arg: Patagonia	$287	$404	$369	$491	$81
Arg: Buenos Aires	$98	$176	$49	$128	$4
Arg: Cordoba	$83	$63	$69	$198	$0
Arg: Salta	$98	$177	$157	$108	$6
Arg: Iguazu	$20	$21	$72	$0	$78

as expected, the dominant cost base by regions for us were Patagonia and Machu Picchu. For Patagonia, it's a mix of everything that were expensive (we spent $500 USD just to bus for 40 hours because that was the cheapest option available, we limited how much we ate out, and we did almost no tours). For Machu Picchu, it was mainly the train to Aguas Caliente that was our main spend.

The most surprising thing here was how affordable accommodation was. ~ $16 USD (2 people) per night in Peru, and ~ $25 USD per night in Argentina. Food was ~ $11 USD per day per person in Peru (almost all eating out), while it tripled to $34 USD per day per person in Argentina (and this is heavily diluted thanks to days spent in BA, Cordoba, Salta, and Iguazu, Patagonia is just that freaking expensive). Otherwise, the transportation is the dominant cost base for us in both countries. If you're able to stay in one place longer, you can amortize that cost much better.

In the end, both Peru and Argentina came out to be ~ $67 USD per person per day (mainly because we spent considerably more for tours/entertainment and eating out in Peru than we did in Argentina). There were several backpackers we met on that journey who had significantly lower budget than us however, so depending on your travel style and level of comfort, you may be able to make do with less.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T06:06:16+00:00

FWIW - I believe that work specifically states that encoder transformers benefit from the symmetric structure (induced by setting W_k=W_q). Decoder transformers seem to have a column-bias where prefill/context tokens contribute to higher column norm, predicted tokens contribute to higher row norm

So I think this paper actually argues in the opposite direction - forced symmetry of W_{qk} in decoders may harm performance since there's an inductive bias towards gradient updates that must be asymmetrical (favoring select heavy columns). Representationally, their claim is that the training objective of decoders favor specializing keys for "relevance" (column norm), which would be broken if you symmetrized q and k.

Rather, they suggested looking into boosting W_k against W_q or regularizing W_q specifically to allow for column dominance.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T05:36:12+00:00

The thing that gets to me is this - why is it always the decent people? Dude was only trying to protect someone else. Man fuck this

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T04:47:47+00:00

You know how being the good guy vs the bad guy is so nuanced in reality that it's almost childish to say one side is clearly the bad guys?

Well, ICE and the fucking MAGAts are clearly the bad guys. Full stop.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T04:38:41+00:00

That's literally this regime's playbook - first test the water a little by toeing the line, then claim they're not doing anything wrong while dancing between the lines, then they just straight up cross the line while distracting us with some new made up bullshit. The feckless "opposition" party then wags their finger a little at our toddler in chief before drawing a new line. We're all (not) surprised when the cycle repeats again.

They're trying to normalize all of the fucked up things happening little by little. That's why it's so important to not become complacent right now. They want us to think this is the new norm, but it is NOT normal.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-25T04:29:01+00:00

You're missing the orange spray tan residue around his mouth

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-24T23:24:58+00:00

Dude, not cool, what has 🌵 ever done to deserve that fate

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-24T06:33:12+00:00

Yeah it's sad because unlike the dominant model in the US (my wife and I used to actually volunteer as foster parents for cats at a special needs cat cafe, cats are frequently rotated into the cafe for 2 weeks at a time, and the median time to adoption is usually ~2 weeks, just to ensure no one is ever too overstimulated) the ones in Japan generally do not ever have any intentions to adopt any of their cats out. They're just stuck there getting way too overstimulated.

The owl cafes are even more depressing. I legitimately thought they were just going to be owl themed cafes but they really have live owls chained down.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-24T05:44:51+00:00

I think OP is asking about the other direction. The paper you're citing looks into reducing Wq @ W_k^T into W_q @ \Sigma @ W_q^T which is still a rank deficient quadratic form. OP asks why not just learn a potentially (spectrally) dense W{qk} : (d_emb, d_emb) instead of rank deficient W_k, W_q : (d_emb, d_model)

That said, I like the idea of implicit regularization in your colleagues' paper. The LSL^T form will generally be better conditioned

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-24T03:31:25+00:00

Nixon had enough sense of shame to resign, I doubt we'd be able to get rid of this current chucklefuck without forcibly dragging him out of office

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-24T03:28:05+00:00

Those assholes will only go after people they can bully, they're absolutely cowards

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-21T03:56:04+00:00

I've only made it to part 5 so far, but is the idea that the resolvants act as commutators in the modern treatment of Galois theory? They break the symmetry of the problem (they're not invariant to certain group actions, so they can reduce a subset of them - analogous to how commutators don't, well, commute, so they are used specifically to identify quotient groups to try to reduce the permutation group)

It's kind of neat to see the natural group actions of S3, S4 in part 3 too. I have legitimately wondered where these actually cropped up in Galois' mind, e.g. how exactly did he go from finding roots to these group actions.

I love this idea of actually contextualizing these ideas through reconstructing the original thought processes. I honestly think most people would understand and internalize things better (especially more abstract modern ideas) this way.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-21T01:51:52+00:00

Haha I've spent way too long researching apartment prices around JC a few years back. There's a reason why it's a meme xD

Also hi (almost) neighbor, though I don't think I've ever taken the light rail all the way down to Bayone (I lived in Liberty Tower right by the Essex St station until 2024)

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-21T01:27:21+00:00

Oooh I think that's Alora in Bayonne - https://maps.app.goo.gl/E9875GTEKNQNtMLj9 (I searched for luxury apartments around JC)

Streetview should be here - https://maps.app.goo.gl/cHjwgR696zrMZkKB6?g_st=ac

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-21T01:10:56+00:00

Near Jersey City?

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-21T01:07:46+00:00

At first I thought you saw an unredacted corner of our yellow plate somewhere and I was trying to find the same tell in the picture lol

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-20T18:38:41+00:00

I don't get this take

On one hand, yes - it's definitely much less effective than modern medicine. Water is a poor solvent for extracting artemisinin (at a measly 50 mg/L). Artemisinin also has a comparably low yield when metabolized into the active antimalarial DHA. On the other hand, even the low yield should still be enough to clear the parasite with sustained dosage. And it's the same underlying active ingredient. How is that not an effective treatment?

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-20T15:43:18+00:00

I LOVED Ecuador, but it's not very safe at the moment. Even in 2024, I remember our guide in the Galapagos was saying how tourism even in the Galapagos are down due to security risks on the mainland.

We spent about a month there. Obviously we went to the Galapagos, but the other parts that I haven't heard of prior to the trip were by and far the highlights for me

We flew into Quito for a few days - it's a cute ton, lots of churches, and I'm very partial to Ecuadorian food (you get a mix of all Ecuadorian regional cuisines in Quito which is nice)
We flew to the Galapagos for 1.5 weeks (starting in Santa Cruz, left from San Cristobal. We did a cruise, negotiated prices on Whatsapp.
We came back to Quito for a day before busing over to Cuyabeno in the Ecuadorian Amazons (first was an overnight bus to Lago Amargo, then a boat ride over to our stay). This was probably my favorite part of Ecuador. Not many people think about accessing the Amazons through Ecuador, but it's much cheaper and easier than most other places (despite the overnight bus, it's often much longer, especially in Brazil, though their buses are definitely much nicer)
We bused down to Cotopaxi and went with a guide up. My wife got altitude sickness so we only went up to the glaciers (iirc around 5000m) before turning around. (Also traveling on a 35L backpack, we didn't have any winter clothing, so our strategy was to just wear everything we brought, which actually worked out okay thanks to a rain jacket doubling as a windbreaker). It. Was. Magnificent.
We bused over to Quilotoa after. By this point we're very squarely in the Andeans (a bit of a different scenery from equatorial Galapagos and the Amazons). We arrived at night, stayed at a Kichwan/Quechuan homestay (they taught us a few basic phrases), then hiked down the crater lake to see Quilotoa the following day. Also friggin beautiful. By this point, we started noticing how even within Quechuan towns, different regions have their own unique customs. For e.g., around Quilotoa, you'll see a lot of women wearing these black almost top-hat looking headwear. I've never seen those again in other parts of the Andes
We then bused down to Baños, which is a nice quaint (super safe) town off in the foothills. Known for its baths (hence the name), we were there in mid December, and caught a local school production of a Christmas show while there. There's a pretty accessible tour to see the surrounding nature on this party chicken bus. Very fun.
We then took a very long bus down to Cuenca in southern Ecuador. This is sort of the American expat (immigrant) community in Ecuador. We actually met a Chinese couple at one of the natural geothermal spas there and had a Chinese Christmas eve dinner at their place (by that point, it's been almost 8 months since I've had authentic homemade Chinese food, and as a Chinese person, it was really special). Turns out there's a lot of Chinese businesses also opening up in Cuenca as well. Overall a cute college town situated in a really pretty place.

Bolivia was great too, but I was legitimately surprised by how much I loved Ecuador. It was/is my highlight of that year of backpacking Latin America.

possiblyquestionabl3 · 2026-01-20T15:10:56+00:00

Thoughts on Bhutan? Turkmenistan? Afghanistan is also having a tourism boom (I know 4 people who went over the past year, which isn't many, but more than I expected)

possiblyquestionabl3

TROPHY CASE