Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sandhya Dirks

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 6h

I am straight-up going to have nightmares about this

In the video Smith posted online, he said Neuralink engineers had started using language models including ChatGPT and Grok to serve up a selection of relevant replies to questions, as well as options for things he could say in conversations going on around him. One example that he outlined: “My friend asked me for ideas for his girlfriend who loves horses. I chose the option that told him in my voice to get her a bouquet of carrots. What a creative and funny idea.”

These aren’t really his thoughts, but they will do—since brain-clicking once in a menu of choices is much faster than typing out a complete answer, which can take minutes.

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Sandhya Dirks @audiosand.bsky.social · 6h

ya think?

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 7h

"Sceptics are privately - and some now publicly - asking whether the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be, at least in part, the result of what they call 'financial engineering'. In other words - there are fears these companies are overvalued."

A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley

Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.

www.bbc.com

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 6h

Federal soldiers stationed in the South is the reason we have the posse comitatus law in the US tbw: white Southern segregationists wanted to remove troops safeguarding integrated Reconstruction governments and voting rights

Miller: If I put federal law enforcement and National Guard into a nice, sleepy southern town, is anyone going to riot?

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Sandhya Dirks @audiosand.bsky.social · 6h

Is there a term for reverse cassandra-ing? (aka you keep getting it wrong, and then yet get rewarded for it and asked for your take again and again, obviously, given your dismal track-wrecking).

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 7h

AI has lost the dunce vote. It’s over

Nate Silver
@NateSilver538 • 5h
•.°
I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 9h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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USA TODAY @usatoday.com · 11h

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

bit.ly

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 8h

Who belongs in Trump's America?

USA TODAY @usatoday.com · 11h

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

bit.ly

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 7h

So dominion voting got sold, look at this fascinating statement from their new owner (not to doom but this is, uh, suboptimal). www.dominionvoting.com

(Dominion voting website now redirecting to libertyvote.com with the following statement:)

Our Promise.
-
My Fellow Americans,
Today, I am proud to announce Liberty Vote - a 100% American-owned election technology company dedicated to restoring trust in our elections. Our mission is clear: every vote must be secure, fair, and verifiable.
I have spent my life working to strengthen America's elections. That commitment began years ago, in the aftermath of the 2000 election, when I worked for the Missouri Secretary of State. Later, as Election Director in St. Louis, I led the effort to modernize outdated systems and rebuild public trust. Eventually, I founded an election technology company that today serves nearly one in four voters nationwide.
With Liberty Vote, we are building on that legacy. We are turning the page and beginning the vital work of restoring faith in American elections. While these changes will not happen overnight, Liberty Vote's mission is rooted in American values and committed to transparency, independent audits, and verifiable paper records.
Our purpose is simple: to ensure that America's elections are secure, fair, and honest.
Scott Leiendecker
Founder and Chairman, Liberty Vote

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Reposted by Sandhya Dirks

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 6h

Quick update on what we just saw here—*before curfew*, ISP troopers, Broadview PD and CCSO deputies began menacing demonstrators outside the ICE facility. Several arrests.

Pepper ball guns at the ready, a bit of a standoff going with remaining protesters. All people are doing is playing music.

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Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 8h

People are really asking me why the mainstream news is barely reporting the closing of special ed dept at DoEd like all our big media companies aren't owned and run by absolute psychopaths.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 7h

theonion.com/ice-raids-my...

MYTH: ICE agents lack proper training.

FACT: Most have been racists their entire lives.

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 9h

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 7h

See:

@jacobsilverman.com
focuses on a cohort of men—& they are, to be sure, all men—who have receded so far into their own bubbles, surrounding themselves with ever more yes-men & hangers-on, that they have lost all sense of proportion & become disconnected from reality.”
#GildedRage

Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn

A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.

www.thebulwark.com

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Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 12h

An underreported aspect of the Gaza ceasefire: The business deals that Trump's family made with Gulf Arab states gave Trump a personal stake in restraining Netanyahu — my piece @theguardian.com | www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @joshuaeakle.com · 12h

In Chicago, four vehicles descended and eight ICE agents moved in to kidnap a child.

She screams, “I’m 15,” as ICE yanks her from the car and kneels on her neck.

This is not about immigration enforcement.

It's about terrorizing Americans.

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Raja Krishnamoorthi @rajaforil.bsky.social · 7h

This is my community. This is one of our children. Absolutely horrific. Un-American. I am pushing for answers — Donald Trump needs to be held accountable.

Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @joshuaeakle.com · 12h

In Chicago, four vehicles descended and eight ICE agents moved in to kidnap a child.

She screams, “I’m 15,” as ICE yanks her from the car and kneels on her neck.

This is not about immigration enforcement.

It's about terrorizing Americans.

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 7h

Troopers have already pushed people back at least a block. Another arrest warning and they are also threatening chemical agents.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 8h

Ha ha ha they're like authoritarians www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 7h

Steve Bannon “likened Congress to the Duma.”

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 8h

Ha ha ha they're like authoritarians www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Reposted by Sandhya Dirks

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 8h

*Today. Polls close at 8pm local time; check this space after.

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 1d

It’s actually Election Day tomorrow… in Louisiana!

I’m watching: the New Orleans sheriff race, and the New Orleans mayor’s race.

Both in my cheat sheet of elections to watch this fall!

boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

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Sandhya Dirks @audiosand.bsky.social · 8h

Journalism 101: if someone says it's raining & someone else says it isn't - the journalists job to go THE F OUTSIDE and find out.

But I guess the tattered remains of journalism is now just giving a group of proven, notorious liars with power equal billing, and who cares about objective truth.

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 10h

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 9h

But it seems no one at the Times remembered or recognized the old New York joke in time to edit this piece on the affair. Embarrassing!

By Chris Hippensteel
Oct. 8, 2025
The texts from a Democrat who had served in the Virginia House were explosive. In one exchange, he suggested that the chamber's Republican speaker deserved to be killed, mentioning the legislative leader alongside Hitler and Pol Pot.
Now, the Democrat, Jay Jones, is his party's candidate in next month's election for state attorney general, and the recent revelation of his three-year-old messages have sparked a fierce outery from Republicans and rattled the Democratic ticket in a state where the

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 9h

Today I took questions from more than a dozen South Asian news outlets and spoke about our agenda to make this city affordable for each and every New Yorker.

Zohran sits at a long conference table, back to the camera, with more than a dozen journalists, some with cameras, facing him.

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