Amir-massoud Farahmand

Happy Norooz, the Persian new year 1405/2585, the equinox, and the beginning of spring!

Annual reminder: if you’ve been accepted to multiple graduate programs and are still deciding, please let the ones you’re definitely not going to know as soon as possible! -Someone who got into his PhD off the waitlist the day after the deadline

wanted to make a few clarifications on openleaf as there’s lot of love from people (thanks❤️!) but also some misunderstanding: 1. "this encourages blind citation" -- openleaf links every suggested paper for a reason. you're supposed to read it before citing (the paper link is right there). it's a discovery tool, and most def not a "cite for me" button. also, its ranking is purely content-based -- no citation count, no popularity metrics -- specifically to avoid unfair concentration of citations to a select few papers/institutions. 2. "if you do your lit search after writing a paragraph, you're doing it wrong" -- agree! but the demo showed a simplified flow. the real use case: you've read 20 papers, but there are 1000s published monthly. you will miss relevant ones. openleaf helps you find them. already working on improvements to make it even better: - reading your existing .bib so it's aware of what you already cite - analyzing full paper text, not just abstracts - better reasoning track progress, suggest features, or pick up an issue! github.com/Demfier/openle…

I might be naïve, but I think this is not how a scientist supposed to engage with the literature, form opinions, and write about them in their paper. If we keep delegating important aspects of research to machines, what will remain of us as a researcher?

"You are the combination of your five PhD students!"

(and of course, other generalizations!)

Curious to see what happens if T is allowed to be larger than 0, so occasional performance degradation is allowed.

Very cool! If I understand the procedure correctly, this is similar to/the same as simulated annealing with an LLM-based proposal distribution (neighbour suggestion) and with the temperature T = 0 (so a greedy algorithm).

Last night, two synagogues in Toronto, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto in Thornhill and Shaarei Shomayim in North York were assaulted by gun shots. Earlier this week, Temple Emanu-El in North York was also maliciously attacked.  These criminal antisemitic attacks are an assault on the rights of Jewish Canadians to live and pray in safety. They are also fundamental violations of the Canadian way of life.  The federal government will use every tool available to confront antisemitic violence and hatred, and protect places of worship. Canada’s new government has introduced legislation to strengthen the Criminal Code, protect our communities, and combat hate.  Federal agencies, including the RCMP, will use every resource to support law enforcement to identify the perpetrators of these crimes and bring them to the full weight of justice.

This is tonight in Tehran. Explosions everywhere, and people are terrified. At the same time, the Islamic Republic has shut down the internet, leaving millions in darkness and forcing families around the world into painful uncertainty about their loved ones. Silence, fear, and suffering, this is what ordinary Iranians are living through tonight. 💔💔 For more video check @Vahid

@MaritStiles Marit, Since you and your party were silent when thousands of Iranians were murdered back in January, maybe it is better to keep the same silence now too, and instead educate yourself a bit. You can start from here: x.com/ArisenEmber/st…

Thousands of Ontarians, especially Iranian-Canadians and those with family and loved ones in the region are watching with a horror as Trump and Netanyahu unleash their illegal war on Iran. Escalation of violence – whether it’s the Iranian government shooting protestors, or the surprise airstrike – is wrong. Violence is not the path to achieving lasting peace in the region. Our thoughts are also with families across the region where civilians, including migrant workers, are losing their lives in the crossfire. The people of Iran deserve to live with peace, stability, and self‑determination.

In light of the ongoing conflict in Middle East, RLC decided to remove the abstract deadline rl-conference.cc/callforpapers.… The only deadline is for the full paper: Mar 5 (AOE) openreview.net/group?id=rl-co… Affected folks may also contact the PCs to discuss deadline extensions before Mar 5.

@ishtiaqueSIA Just two starting pointers.

Can the Iranians speak?

@ishtiaqueSIA x.com/ArisenEmber/st…

@ishtiaqueSIA x.com/SoloGen/status…

🙋‍♀️Hello - Iranian here. For those fixated on 'legality' to excuse the regime in Iran - F*ck You. No, I will not let you be my voice. You don't get to narrate my story, you don't get to claim moral superiority. You don't get to tell me my feelings are wrong. Is it legal to throw women in prison for strands of hair? Is it legal to mass execute people? Is it legal to turn a fertile land into a parched desert? Is it legal to rape? Is it legal to shoot innocent people? Is it legal to kill children? Is it legal to torture people to death? Is it legal to spread terrorism? Is it legal to deprive people of a livelihood? Is it legal to shoot people in the eye to blind them? Is it legal to silence people and take away all of their human rights? Is it legal to shoot down a passenger plane? Is it legal to drive millions to leave their country? Is it legal to jail women for singing and dancing? Is it legal to disappear people including children? You will never experience anything like Iranians have experienced for the last 47 years. Iranians have fought barehanded and they've paid a price. All up to 1,000,000 (one million) Iranians have been murdered since the regime came to power. Your books on 'civil disobedience' and 'collective protest' are useless against an armed opposition that is ideologically driven and will kill all that stand in its way. You want legality? The world has a duty to protect innocent lives. It's enshrined in R2P. Some people seem to think Iranians aren't humans. The murder, genocide and massacre of Iranians receives scant media attention - hence scant sympathy. Those who proclaim to care about 'human rights' must think Iranians are animals and not worthy. Their hatred of Israel and US is so great they've lost all perspective. Yes, Iranians are happy. They're happy someone took out Ali Khamenei and many others directly responsible for so much pain and agony. And you know what? We're unashamedly hopeful that with the help of the world's superpower, we can reclaim our country and build a better tomorrow. We know there's a long way to go, but give us this brief moment of reprieve, because daily we sit and try to tell the story of the lives lost, those at risk of execution, those under torture. We've seen the pictures and videos of massacres taking place. Our dance and happiness comes with a heavy weight. We do so, in knowledge of the many who never lived to see this day. The day of freedom will come to Iran, it's glorious - and we're not sorry if some outside help contributed to making that happen. So don't speak on my behalf and stop excusing this regime on grounds of 'anti-colonialism'. and 'anti-Zionism'. #Iran

Ali Khamenei is in hell. The world is a better place now!

My statement on Iran-related hostilities in the Middle East:

@m_ghazanfari No, this year it is in Montreal, Canada.

@SoloGen Is it in the US?

Submit your RL papers to RLC! This is now perhaps the best venue for RL researchers.