Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 25m

I keep going back to the Take Care* clause, which bore so much weight for so long, and thus upheld our country's vision of self-rule

it has been decimated by POTUS with the Supreme Court's help & Congress's complicity

*Art II.3: "[POTUS] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"

Steven Axelrod @stevenaxelrod.bsky.social · 38m

Trump is trying to extort and punish blue states into submission. (He's doing the same thing to universities, science, and the arts.)

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Halts Billions in Grants for Democratic Districts During Shutdown (Gift Article)

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled nearly $28 billion primarily located in Democratic-led districts, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com

3 8

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 3h

High-quality replica of a pterosaur skeleton to hang from the ceiling.

Also, a house with vaulted ceilings to hang my pterosaur from.

doctober @docseuss.bsky.social · 21h

lets say a wizard has cursed you with a lot of money. you are going to become permanently brain damaged simply by being in possession of so much money. the only way out of it is to spend a lot of money on something ridiculous and not at all useful

what would you buy to break the curse?

4 2 25

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

Does it have to be only *one* pterosaur?

1 3

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

And I'm convinced there's a shit ton of information people are ignoring in receiver functions in the perpetual quest to identify 1) the crust-mantle boundary (Moho) and 2) any magma chambers/former magma chambers.

1

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

Also came up with the seed for a possible grant proposal out of having to prep the research statement. Useful if I'm able to stay in research next year....

1 5

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

There is a very big thing in the strategic plan of the place I'm submitting stuff to about "ethical AI" and "AI use."

And of course it doesn't really explain what's meant by "AI"....

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

I think we mostly can. I am not so sure about administrators....

2

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 3h

Blerg... have not eaten yet today but job application submitted before deadline.

Yay.

1 12

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 5h

I'm still indirectly pointing out that most of the relevant stuff to our field is really machine learning and that it's "so-called AI."

Because, come on, I'm not calling something that can't even do a derivation of the wave equation AI.

4

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 5h

Grrr at having to add shit about AI to teaching statements now...

Double Grrr at not being able to be relentless negative about it.

3 1 8

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 8h

it's almost like it was never about crime and democrats who blustered about deporting "violent criminals" instead of standing firmly against trump's racist agenda only paved the way for this to happen

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 9h

Trump claims ICE’s reign of terror in Chicago is targeting the “worst of the worst.”

But out of the 1,000 undocumented immigrants that have swept up, the agency has only cited 10 men with a criminal background.

Don’t believe his lies for a second.
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Trump says migrants drive violent crime in Illinois. But ICE can’t find many violent criminals.

Masked ICE agents and other federal forces showed up in Chicago to go after gangsters. Instead, they keep catching people who are just living their lives.

www.msnbc.com

1 42 120

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 8h

I have long believed that we should be WAY more vocal about how police and ICE constantly murder dogs, and I think this is great messaging actually.

The reality is that you can mobilize a whole lot of usually tuned-out Americans around a “someone is being mean to hecking doggos” cause.

37 280 1.5K

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 11h

It’s a res publica, not a democracy, say people who support the wealthy demagogue ruling without the senate or popular assembly and suggesting paying the army from private funds.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Trump: "I had a very wealthy person who called -- a donor, a great gentleman -- and he said, 'if there's any money necessary, shortfall, for the paying of the troops, then I will pay it.' Meaning he will pay it. How about that?"

15 73 220

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Dave @daveamp.bsky.social · 9h

Oh, good to know that if a legislator threatens to defund the university if someone is still employed there, the university can fire them.

3 1 5

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Dave @daveamp.bsky.social · 9h

Time for Faculty Senate! We get to hear from university counsel about our "if we get a lot of emails complaining about you we can fire you" policy.

6 6 77

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 11h

1. He's lying.

2. If he WEREN'T lying, to hell with that. We don't let billionaires directly FUND the army because then they'd try to RUN the army.

3. No goddamn kings. Find your local rally and show up on 10/18, friends. #NoKings

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Trump: "I had a very wealthy person who called -- a donor, a great gentleman -- and he said, 'if there's any money necessary, shortfall, for the paying of the troops, then I will pay it.' Meaning he will pay it. How about that?"

6 47 220

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 9h

while 'young republicans are literal nazis' is well known to folks here, the extent of it is surprisingly not that commonly known even in media and analyst circles, let alone normal people.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h

a real water is wet scenario here

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 12h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

38 380 2.5K

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Amy Westervelt @amywestervelt.bsky.social · 9h

whoops drilled.media/news/rad-fut...

Isabelle Boemeke Isn’t Trying to Spread Conspiracy Theories in her New Pro-Nuclear Book, But She Is

Pro-nuclear influencer Isabelle Boemeke’s new book, Rad Future, indulges in conspiracy theories, unsourced claims, and personal attacks against the industry’s critics.

drilled.media

1 2 20

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Amy Westervelt @amywestervelt.bsky.social · 9h

In 99% of cases, we wouldn't include someone's spouse or family member as part of a story, but given that this book trades in the sort of "abundance vs. scarcity" nonsense the technoratti have embraced, it's relevant to note that the author is married to a co-founder of AirBnB who works for DOGE

1 15 52

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

T. Greg "Antifa General Counsel (Retired)" Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 10h

This is yet another reminder that the "you can just walk around with your papers and be fine!" is a lie: the cops routinely claim whatever documentation you provide is invalid

It's racism all the way down

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she 'doesn’t look like' a Greeley."

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Chicago Tribune: Greeley, who was born at Illinois Masonic hospital and is adopted, carries a copy of her passport just in case she runs into federal agents.

“I am Latina and I am a service worker,” Greeley said. “I fit the description of what they’re looking for now.”

During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she “doesn’t look like” a Greeley.

“They said this isn’t real, they kept telling me I’m lying, I’m a liar,” Greeley recalled. “I told them to look in the rest of my wallet, I have my credit cards, my insurance.”

15 300 1K

Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 9h

The inherent corollary of "this is murder" is that we prosecute and punish people who commit murder.

Senator Ed Markey @markey.senate.gov · 9h

Trump just bombed six more people in the Caribbean, for a total of 27 civilians who have been killed so far by the US military. It’s illegal for the military to target civilians who do not pose an immediate threat. This is murder.

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says
In a social media post, the president said the people aboard a boat were suspected of smuggling drugs for an unspecified group his team had labeled terrorists.

6 110 420

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 9h

I suspect "CEO"-types covers a lot of who he interacts with.

1

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 10h

That 0.3 cm/yr differential motion between the Pacific plate and the accreting(?)/accreted(?) Yakutat terrane is going *somewhere*.

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 10h

(I also don't think it's quite equivalent to subduction initiation as terrane collision usually doesn't cover the entirety of a subduction zone/there's an inherent lateral evolution for the system.)

1

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 10h

(To my knowledge, there's not an extant data set that would really answer that. I'm not sure numerical modeling necessarily would provide a definitive answer either....)

1