Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 16h

Print provides engagement and reach and loyalty and isn't noisy and doesn't live in an enshittified space. What's not to love?

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 16h

Next level enshittification

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/09/e...

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns AI models can be hacked: 'They learn how to kill someone'

"There's evidence that you can take models ... and you can hack them to remove their guardrails," ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt said.

www.cnbc.com

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 21h

what a story from the great folk at @bittersouth.bsky.social

bittersoutherner.com/issue-no-12/...

The Heritage of American Terror — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

//

bittersoutherner.com

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 21h

Now that's a ball sack.

Dragons of Wales @dragonsofwales.bsky.social · 21h

A new portrait of Monolophosaurus. The crest here is more voluminous than most reconstructions, exploring the idea that the underlying bone might have been anchoring a larger pneumatised casque.
#SciArt

A digital portrait of a large carnivorous dinosaur in a forest setting. The dinosaur has a large boney crest above its snout and eyes, and large folds of skin hanging around its neck and jaws. The dinosaur is mostly earthy brown, but with brighter blues and pinks around the eyes and throat.

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Reposted by Arjun Basu

Pa Normandin @panormandin.bsky.social · 21h

Les données de septembre aux frontières le confirment: les Canadiens continuent à bouder massivement les États-Unis.

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 21h

No mention of use of the diplomatic term "dumb ass" in the headline....

'Not up for discussion': Brussels rejects US pressure on climate rules

In response to US demands to roll back the EU's environmental legislation, the European Commission defended its autonomous power to adopt laws.

www.euronews.com

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 22h

A food magazine without a single recipe is all vibes. Good vibes. New pod up. At the link below of we
Here we you listen to podcasts. A @magazeum.bsky.social production.

magazeum.co/content/name...

A New Recipe for Food Magazines* — Magazeum

A conversation with Famous for My Dinner Parties founders Sandra von Mayer-Myrtenhain, Yannic Moeken, and Junshen Wu.

magazeum.co

Reposted by Arjun Basu

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 1d

These are terrible numbers for Trump (via @pewresearch.org)

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

"Majorities say trump has used his office improperly; fewer say he has improved government, U.S. standing" (graphs via Pew Research)

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 1d

People are simple in the end.

Enjoying international cuisines makes people more tolerant, UK study finds

Frequent and varied eating found to reduce likelihood of perceiving immigrants as ‘cultural or economic threats’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Arjun Basu

Access Copyright @accesscopyright.bsky.social · 1d

Access Copyright began distribution of this year’s Payback payment to our creator affiliates today.

Payments through direct deposit have gone out. Cheque payments will be mailed once the labour disruption involving Canada Post workers is resolved.

www.accesscopyright.ca/creators/pay...

2025 Payback payment details

Access Copyright began distribution of this year’s Payback payment to our creator affiliates on October 9.

www.accesscopyright.ca

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 1d

If they didn't expect it, they are either stupid or lying.

www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

It felt “more different to images than people expected.”

www.theverge.com

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 2d

I sometimes believe there should be tests for people before they can fly. I just don't know what those tests would entail. And they would become politicized and racialized. But still.

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 2d

Take the good news where you can.

Something extraordinary just happened
open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

Something extraordinary just happened

But of course there's a but. Or two.

open.substack.com

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 3d

This Friday, Montreal (after this I will hopefully disappear for a few months, at least):

Poster for reading this Friday in Montreal

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 3d

There are countless novels and movies in this fact, both in the future and right now.

AI is reshaping childhood in China

Government support and tech companies’ drive for profit fuel a rush to integrate AI tools, from robot tutors to chatbots, in education and caretaking.

restofworld.org

Reposted by Arjun Basu

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 4d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

96 290 1.8K

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 4d

This feels performative (like a lot of things that sport a maple leaf) and won't change anything and the Canadian publishing industry will continue to be dominated by the foreign multinationals and we will never admit our publishing policy failed a long time ago and we won't do anything about it.

ACP launches Certified Canadian Publisher seal - Quill and Quire

Under the Certified Canadian Publisher program, books from independent Canadian-owned publishers will have a seal on their back cover, spine, or copyright page that will allow readers to easily identi...

quillandquire.com

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 4d

In terms of Good Places and Bad Places, there is no Good Place, it's all the Bad Place, online and off: the only Good Places are those without people but if you are there it becomes a Bad Place and this is inevitable. Because people.

Sartre didn't invent the idea, he just made it accessible.

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 4d

Spammers targeting writers is not a thing I thought I would ever see.

It says so much about the state of everything and I can't wait for the first novel about a writer who clicks on one of these things and what happens next....

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 5d

The rise and fall of the lit mag in the UK:

Essay | Why Magazines Fail by Tristram Fane Saunders - The London Magazine

Drawing on recent literary magazine closures, Tristram Fane Saunders asks what makes 'little magazines' so fragile, why they matter and why they so often vanish.

thelondonmagazine.org

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 7d

This was truly something else.

I vaguely remember walking through it stoned and thinking I was way too high (no pun intended) only to realize I probably wasn’t high enough.

Our definitive history of Montreal's Le Palais des Nains

For over 60 years, Philippe and Rose Nicol's miniature palace on Rachel Street was Montreal's strangest attraction where tourists became giants.

www.themain.com

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Reposted by Arjun Basu

Access Copyright @accesscopyright.bsky.social · 7d

Access Copyright will begin its distribution of this year’s Payback payment to creator affiliates on October 9.

More information on this year's payment and how we are responding to the labour disruption at Canada Post is available by clicking below.
accesscopyright.ca/creators/pay...

2025 Payback payment details

Access Copyright will begin its distribution of the 2025 Payback payment to our creator affiliates on October 9.

accesscopyright.ca

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 7d

There are outfits specializing in loans for businesses impacted by the....tariffs. Of course.

Wall Street wins big, making high-interest rate loans to cover Trump tariffs

Thanks for reading Inside China / Business!

open.substack.com

Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 7d

Last night I had a dream within a dream within a dream and I remembered the entire thing (I rarely remember my dreams) and I don't know what to do with the dream(s).

I also may have written the final part of my WIP and it has nothing to do with the dream(s).

All this to say I'm tired.

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Arjun Basu @arjun.bsky.social · 8d

This is a good analysis.

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