Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 8h

What if the unidentified masked men with guns don't accept the validity of your papers?

72 720 2.2K

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 9h

Today happened to be our Marine Mammal Protection Act lecture in Environmental Law, so I revisited case law / key issues.
There are at least three major industries that benefit from undermining the MMPA: commercial fishing and seafood, maritime transport and shipping, and the oil and gas industries.

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 1d

Republicans are aiming next to dismantle the marine mammal protection act, which protects whales, dolphins, manatees, polar bears, and sea otters.. among other ocean wildlife. 🦦

Horror Tor, friend of Union ghosts @splitrailfence.bsky.social · 1d

I love it. Makes me happy.
Weird that I'm now seeing your post here after I just read about the bill to end the 1970s marine mammal legislation to protect these beautiful creatures.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

1 33 91

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 9h

Can we trust the courts to uphold climate laws? Really good analysis: atmos.earth/political-la...

Can the Courtroom Save the Climate? | Atmos

Injunctions and other legal wins are just the start.

atmos.earth

3 9

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 9h

Several posts with it already today, most recently the one below. You can search about a day worth of posts to the gift link feed by scrolling down a few times, and then using control-F or ⌘-F to search it. Some mobile browsers let you search from inside the three-dots menu.
bsky.app/profile/flin...

Flingjore @flingjore.com · 10h

News outlets broadly reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline. The Washington Post joined the New York Times, Newsmax and CNN in refusing to sign the restrictive new policy.

#giftarticle
wapo.st/3WAcdy5

News outlets broadly reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline

The Washington Post and other major news outlets have refused to sign the Defense Department’s restrictive new media policy, citing First Amendment concerns.

wapo.st

1 3

Reposted by David Sacerdote

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 10h

Nobel Prize given for showing the importance of investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth. Basically the opposite of what the US is doing. 😭

Nature @nature.com · 13h

Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Pewter Howitt share economics prize for work that underlines the importance of investing in research and development.

go.nature.com/4hj9NNV

Economics Nobel prize won by researchers who showed how science boosts growth

Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Pewter Howitt share economics prize for work that underlines the importance of investing in research and development.

go.nature.com

11 120 370

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 10h

The way so many Republican-controlled states are updating their gerrymanders makes it really important to vote yes on California’s Prop. 50, and to pass similar measures in other Democratic-majority states

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/u...

North Carolina Republicans Plan to Redraw Congressional Map to Add a Seat

www.nytimes.com

5 11

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 10h

Americans age 2-49 can also get the nasal spray version of the flu vaccine by mail. Comes ina cooler with a Bluetooth temperature monitor. They figure out insurance coverage for you too

flu.myaspn.com

Welcome - Flumist

Average time to complete an order is less than 5 minutes

flu.myaspn.com

9

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 22h

BREAKING📢 Crack team of climate scientists show "it is no longer defensible for companies proposing new or extended fossil fuel projects to claim the climate harms will be negligible. Our research shows the harms are, in fact, tangible and quantifiable – and no project is too small to matter"

For the first time, we linked a new fossil fuel project to hundreds of deaths. Here’s the impact of Woodside’s Scarborough gas project

The results challenge claims that the climate risks posed by an individual fossil fuel project are negligible or cannot be quantified.

theconversation.com

3 78 180

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 13h

A couple of parking signs for anyone who wants to print them out for this coming Saturday.

Parking Signs

If you want to print out a poster for October 18th, here are two; fully-guaranteed countrywide but maybe especially suitable for in and around New York. No King Anytime sign ...

kieranhealy.org

42 620 1.9K

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Jeff Brady @jeffbradynews.bsky.social · 14h

"The only publication that has said it will sign the agreement is the right-wing One America News."

wapo.st/3WAcdy5

Prominent news outlets reject Pentagon rules before signing deadline

The Washington Post and other major news outlets have refused to sign the Defense Department’s restrictive new press policy, citing First Amendment concerns.

wapo.st

3 21 67

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Tim Curran @timcurran.bsky.social · 14h

For the first time, we linked a new fossil fuel project to hundreds of deaths. Here’s the impact of Woodside’s Scarborough gas project
theconversation.com/for-the-firs...

For the first time, we linked a new fossil fuel project to hundreds of deaths. Here’s the impact of Woodside’s Scarborough gas project

The results challenge claims that the climate risks posed by an individual fossil fuel project are negligible or cannot be quantified.

theconversation.com

3 6

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 20h

Every poorly executed solar project becomes a point of friction for future deployment. If you are developer, consider hiring a landscape architect and creating opportunities for new public spaces in and around your project. PV modules are not inherently ugly and they're completely safe to be around.

3 9 37

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Kaia Sand @mkaiasand.bsky.social · 1d

Really sweet resistance scene outside ICE in Portland of coffee, donuts and morning.

Person in bunny costume carries donuts outside ICE in Portland

6 75 350

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 17h

Photos coming out of Western AK are devastating.

Hardest hit are indigenous villages off road system, many miles by air from supplies. Most built on river deltas w/ no high ground to which to escape.

Cuts to NASA/NOAA mean worse weather data. Cuts to EPA mean no grants for erosion control. Etc.

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 18h

These are mostly indigenous communities in Alaska that have been slammed by the storm.

The local manager of a small airline fleet says he is the only one doing evacuations right now!

Defund FEMA and people are abandoned. Defund public media and no-one knows.

FYI, today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

Flooding seen with water up to the crash barriers of local roads

Sheds and debris lie scattered in the storm

A small blue house has been blown onto its roof

3 240 340

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Danielle Venton @dventon.bsky.social · 17h

Update: On Saturday Governor Newsom issued a notification that he was vetoing SB 326 by Senator Josh Becker (D Menlo Park). In his veto message he said the required planning would cost too much money.

Danielle Venton @dventon.bsky.social · 3d

New from me: under-the-radar bill could be mst important piece of the wildfire bill package. Will @governor.ca.gov Newsom sign it? We'll know in days: www.kqed.org/science/1998... With thanks to those who spoke w/ me State Sen. @joshbecker.bsky.social, www.megafire.org & @michaelwara.bsky.social.

Will Newsom Sign California’s ‘Biggest Step’ Toward Saving Fire-Prone Neighborhoods? | KQED

A little-known bill will accelerate fire mitigation efforts by clearing space around housing across the state.

www.kqed.org

2 4 12

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 17h

Some LADWP customers can get free solar panels and battery storage. Here's how: laist.com/news/climate...

Some LADWP customers can get free solar panels and battery storage. Here's how

The goal of the L.A. Department of Water and Power program is to help low-income households save on their bills while boosting the power grid.

laist.com

3 1

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 17h

Here's one I generated by using my library card. Note that the WSJ limits gift links to 300 clicks

www.wsj.com/economy/hous...

He Won the $2 Billion Powerball. Now He’s Buying Up Lots Burned in the L.A. Fires.

Edwin Castro is one of the biggest investors snapping up destroyed properties—and he wants to lead in rebuilding his hometown of Altadena.

www.wsj.com

2 1 7

David Sacerdote @davidsacerdote.bsky.social · 18h

Refineries are the choke point of fossil funded fascism. They're capital-intensive, magnify the impact of any blast, slow to repair, and taking one out of commission raises consumer prices while lowering wellhead prices.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

To Inflict Pain on Russians, Ukraine’s Drones Zero In on Oil Refineries

www.nytimes.com

1 7

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action @joindayenu.bsky.social · 4d

No thrones. No crowns. No kings. 🚫 👑

On October 18, millions will rise to say: America has no kings — the power belongs to the people. Find an event near you (if it fits your Shabbat practice)!

Remind our leaders: this is a Democracy, and the power is in our hands. nokings.org

@indivisible.org

2 10

Reposted by David Sacerdote

George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 21h

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

20 2.5K 6.3K

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 18h

Complicated feelings about 👇, 1st world climate adaptation issues, as we have 3 local ski hills here that face obsolescence due to climate change. The same alpine snow issues also mean much of Europe won’t have summer river flow for water, transport & power plant cooling. apple.news/ACW1Kqb9OQMi...

My day dismantling a ski resort closed down by climate change — The Telegraph

Our writer sees grown men cry as workers take apart pylons and lift cables in an Alpine destination that once guaranteed snow

apple.news

1 12 21

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Dana Hull @danahull.bsky.social · 20h

It happened again, this time with an Xiaomi Corp. SU7 electric sedan: driver crashes car, bystanders are unable to open the door, car bursts into flames and the driver dies

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Xiaomi Shares Tumble After Reports EV Crash Traps Person Inside

A fatal crash involving a Xiaomi Corp. SU7 electric sedan on Monday has renewed concerns over electrically powered car-door handles, after bystanders were unable to open the doors and rescue the drive...

www.bloomberg.com

6 27 42

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Doug McVay @dougmcvay.bsky.social · 1d

Portland cyclists strip down in pouring rain to protest ICE facility and Trump troop deployment
www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

Portland cyclists strip down in pouring rain to protest ICE facility and Trump troop deployment

“We’re cold, but not as cold as ICE,” said a sign on one rider’s back.

www.oregonlive.com

3 7

Reposted by David Sacerdote

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

"I’m currently putting 15kW [of PV solar] on my 'shed' in Australia, at the same time I’m putting 13kW on the roof of my office building in San Francisco. My actual quotes for both projects, converted to USD/Watt is $0.53 in Australia, and $3.88 in San Francisco."

Pure insanity.

Sam Altman vs. Jane Goodall

The astonishing commitments of energy to AI, put in perspective. A better idea to power it all, and a contemplation of why we think AI is more important than environmentalism.

energyandstuff.substack.com

8 39 160

Reposted by David Sacerdote

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 1d

base(d)

Commercial Solar Guy @commercialsolarguy.com · 1d

Wind turbine base install

8 21 160