Andy Vitek

Andy Vitek

@avitek.bsky.social

Political science professor. Teacher/researcher of terrorism and extremism with a focus on the far-right. As likely to post about 40k, gaming, hip-hop or football as stuff that actually matters. #BillsMafia

11.3K followers1.1K following9.3K posts

For context, this is just the groypers who run the White House social media ripping off a meme that's been all over sports twitter for weeks now.

Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social

How racist and desperate do you have to be to look at this and say, “Got ‘em!”?

I honestly don't know how AI-ing the Tiny Desk clip initially became a reference to a team being washed, but here's an example clowning on the woe-begotten LA Chargers.

To everyone responding to this with some variation of "well, it's Iowa:" provide literally any amount of evidence that shows Democrats benefiting from opportunistic transphobia. Like you can't even pull the realpolitik > ethics card because it's both morally abhorrent and politically worthless.

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com

Josh Turek of Iowa, Democrat, comes out with one of the worst anti-trans ads yet. Not only is it an anti-sports ad, it proposes a ban on federal funding for gender affirming care. That would hit all medicaid and medicare patients, and any ACA federally-subsidized plans as well. Horrific.

Listen, I'm all for Obama using his juice to fuck over the GOP, but talking about 'moral compasses' when you literally extra-judicially executed an American citizen with a done strike is...yea.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Obama argues that we won’t fix our political problems unless we rediscover our moral compass first

To be clear: I don't despise Matt Yglesias because he's an insipid dipshit who spent his entire career failing upward. I despise Matt Yglesias because he's an insipid dipshit who spent his entire career failing upward AND has the political instincts of an over-ripe butternut squash.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

A helpfully clear exchange here Hasan: "So your argument is that [Minnesota ICE protesters] should stay at home because immigration is a salient issue for Donald Trump. Opposing ICE is only going to help Trump. Wait until we win the election in 2028." Yglesias: "Yes that is what I would have said"

I am once again asking that we stop using North Korea as sloppy verbal shorthand for authoritarian media glazing. The West invented that shit.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

the view from Pyongyang

We as a society still aren't ready to truly discuss how problematic this is and what it says about the Obamas.

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It's more euthanasia, as Bioware has been a shell of itself for over a decade, but this is still so bitter. EA now adds the slow murder of one of the most iconic developers of all time to its generationally rancid track record. I might have to roll up a Mass Effect run in tribute 🕯️

Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social

BREAKING: Electronic Arts is cutting 400 jobs and shutting down BioWare, the legendary development studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Vivek's campaign manager:

FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social

Unearthed footage of Vivek Ramaswamy mocking Amy Acton for being a survivor of childhood abuse: "She has no vision other than to complain about what someone else did to her"

I just made the inaugural batch of ribs on my new smoker and they low-key might be one of the best things I've ever cooked (Memphis-style, 3 hours over charcoal and cherry wood).

The boilerplate racist and far-right gaslighting around the Paris protests is legit hilarious. As if setting parts of France on fire isn't the most quintessentially French experience in existence.

Only one episode in, and 'Visionquest' is already the most interesting MCU project I've seen in years, largely because someone FINALLY remembered that, outside of RDJ, James Spader as Ultron is the most peak casting choice Marvel has ever made. I could watch that man read the phone book.

Total proletariat victory.

TSN@tsnofficial.bsky.social

The Milwaukee Brewers complete the sweep of the LA Dodgers and advance to the World Series!

Ok, time for a teaching thread, because responses both to this and other posts make it clear that there are some fundamental misunderstandings about the realities of modern computer hardware, and it's causing people to take the bullshit of AI hucksters seriously, so here we go.

Andy Vitek@avitek.bsky.social

I will say this again: running an AI model on a phone or smart TV is like trying to run the latest 'Call of Duty' game on a potato battery. A SINGLE server rack in an AI data center has the computing power of literally thousands of high-end gaming PCs. This is pre-IPO bullshit.

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For context, that's the difference between a waterfall and a garden hose, and is the reason why millions of 5-year-old Dell office PCs are sitting in e-waste. These companies are charlatans and are leveraging the lack of technical knowledge across the board to their advantage.

Network hardware is another equally critical bottleneck. bsky.app/profile/tmon...

tmoney2007.bsky.social@tmoney2007.bsky.social

You could also talk about the networking components since the computing would be distributed in both cases. Your smart fridge: 100 Mbps Typical ISP connection: 10-1000 Mbps Interconnects between nodes in an AI data center: 400,000-1,600,000 Mbps They need to be able to talk to each other QUICKLY.

Ok, time for a teaching thread, because responses both to this and other posts make it clear that there are some fundamental misunderstandings about the realities of modern computer hardware, and it's causing people to take the bullshit of AI hucksters seriously, so here we go.

Andy Vitek@avitek.bsky.social

I will say this again: running an AI model on a phone or smart TV is like trying to run the latest 'Call of Duty' game on a potato battery. A SINGLE server rack in an AI data center has the computing power of literally thousands of high-end gaming PCs. This is pre-IPO bullshit.

View full thread

The problem is that raw computing power is only one variable in this situation. The other, and equally important variable is bandwidth, in particular with memory. Think of bandwidth as your data transport pipes, which is why your newer smartphone with newer RAM loads apps faster than your old phone.

Here's a rough breakdown of modern memory throughput: LPDDR5X (current smartphone RAM): ~10 GB/per sec DDR5 (high-end gaming PC RAM): ~50 GB/per sec HBM (AI data center RAM): ~1-2 TB/per sec

Ok, time for a teaching thread, because responses both to this and other posts make it clear that there are some fundamental misunderstandings about the realities of modern computer hardware, and it's causing people to take the bullshit of AI hucksters seriously, so here we go.

Andy Vitek@avitek.bsky.social

I will say this again: running an AI model on a phone or smart TV is like trying to run the latest 'Call of Duty' game on a potato battery. A SINGLE server rack in an AI data center has the computing power of literally thousands of high-end gaming PCs. This is pre-IPO bullshit.

I understand why the layperson would think that 'a computer is a computer,' and as a consequence, I understand why that same person might believe it when someone says an AI model that needs a single hyper-powerful computer to run could instead run of a multitude of not-so-powerful computers.

Look, I support maintaining security assistance to Ukraine, but abandoning them wouldn't even crack the top 20 as far as stains on the US.

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com

Abandoning Ukraine will be a stain on the United States for the rest of time

I will say this again: running an AI model on a phone or smart TV is like trying to run the latest 'Call of Duty' game on a potato battery. A SINGLE server rack in an AI data center has the computing power of literally thousands of high-end gaming PCs. This is pre-IPO bullshit.

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social

The most indebted corporations in America right now are, at their core, computer virus companies. They think the computer viruses are their girlfriends, so they think this absolves them of guilt. Let's find out!

I am pleased to report that, in 2026, Weird Al and his band are still some of the most peak performers I've ever seen. The man is 66 and I counted no fewer than 8 complete costume changes, including a fat suit, full Amish garb, and rolling out on a segway for 'White and Nerdy.' Just legendary.

This man is on a gear stack that would make RFK Jr blush.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

BAIER: The president says 'SI.' Are you into SI or AI? BEZOS: I do like SI, because 'artificial' is not a very flattering thing. Like, nobody wants an artificial sweetener, artificial flavoring.

My wife and I locking in at 6.25% back in August is actually looking not that bad 🫠

Unusual Whales@unusualwhales.bsky.social

BREAKING: The average 30 year fixed mortgage is now 7.63%, per MortgageNewsDaily.

I'm only about a chapter into this but am greatly enjoying it so far.

NPR@npr.org

Authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor identify supremacists that have, despite ideological differences, converged around the conviction that they are part of an elite destined to survive an apocalypse. n.pr/4AC1wxU

The substation cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does.

Ian Rapoport@rapsheet.bsky.social

49ers Pro Bowl DE Nick Bosa suffered a calf injury in practice this week and is expected to miss a few weeks, per me and Adam Schefter. He's out this week against the Cardinals, and it's TBD whether he lands on IR.