Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1m

New Ring privacy policy

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 2h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 3h

Our government:

“You can’t have candy for breakfast. It’s the rule.”
“What? Why not? Candy is awesome.”
“Yes, candy is great but—“
“That’s a dumb rule. We don’t need dumb rules. I want candy now!”
“…fine, just this one time… I don’t want you to be late for the bus. We’ll talk about this later.”

Task & Purpose @taskandpurpose.com · 18h

Pentagon moves $8 billion from research to pay troops trib.al/G0HMywT

Pentagon moves $8 billion from research to pay troops

Left over R&D funds will be used to pay military members on Oct. 15, the Department of Defense said, following orders from President Trump.

trib.al

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 6h

Being such a responsible company, I’m sure they’ve gamed out the potential societal harms and have a plan for mitigating them. 💀

Are deepfakes of dead people rewriting the past?

While OpenAI's Sora has some guardrails around the likenesses of living people, protections around the likenesses of those who have died appear to be an afterthought.

www.nbcnews.com

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 5h

So much AI interest seems to boil down to “we have this basic white collar task and we think an LLM can do it better at less cost bc the avg human is poorly educated/skilled.” Would we have even greater gains if we invested a fraction of AI money into education instead? But that’s not exciting.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7h

IMHO, LLMs will be an economic negative for years.

They'll do a worse job than humans,

but will still replace humans because they're cheaper for employers,

but really they're costlier, it's just that lots of costs get externalized to society by our horrible energy/tax policies.

Lose-lose-lose.

The Real AI Risk is ‘Meh’ Technology That Takes Jobs and Annoys Us All

While AI doomsday scenarios dwell on the risks posed by superintelligent robot overlords, one Nobel-Prize winning economist fears a more mundane possibility.

www.bloomberg.com

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7h

IMHO, LLMs will be an economic negative for years.

They'll do a worse job than humans,

but will still replace humans because they're cheaper for employers,

but really they're costlier, it's just that lots of costs get externalized to society by our horrible energy/tax policies.

Lose-lose-lose.

The Real AI Risk is ‘Meh’ Technology That Takes Jobs and Annoys Us All

While AI doomsday scenarios dwell on the risks posed by superintelligent robot overlords, one Nobel-Prize winning economist fears a more mundane possibility.

www.bloomberg.com

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Cactrot @cactrot.bsky.social · 11h

We have known for a long time that guy with spiky hair, girl with purple hair and glasses and a frog is the ideal group for cataclysmic times.

Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 15h

people in Portland are taking down ICE with what looks like a party from Chrono Trigger

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 6h

The right to privacy in organizational membership lists was established by NAACP v Alabama in 1958, after the Alabama Attorney General tried to get lists of people who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott so they could be persecuted by the state.

Privacy rights are civil rights.

Mary McNamara @marymcnamara.bsky.social · 9h

Gun rights folks are seething. They want Pam Bondi fired. And I gotta say - I don’t blame them.

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 17h

"Jewish man in Montana assaulted on Oct. 7 anniversary by self-declared Nazi" www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-man-i...

Jewish man in Montana assaulted on Oct. 7 anniversary by self-declared Nazi

Suspect accused of accosting victim with Star of David tattoo who asked him if he had any Nazi-linked tattoos, reportedly told arresting officer he is a member of the '4th Reich'

www.timesofisrael.com

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 19h

Except that it doesn’t allow this use when DoD has requested the funding of the item (here, military salaries) and Congress has denied it (here, not passing appropriations). Isn’t the shutdown itself Congress denying funds for the requested item?

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 20h

DC: ICE operating in Mt. Pleasant right now

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 23h

My God. The Dukes are going to corner the entire frozen orange juice market!

ProBon @probon.bsky.social · 1d

Meanwhile the world has stopped buying American orange juice.
It now trades at 43% of the price it went for when Trump took office.

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

It’s fascinating how many of the provisions in the constitution that we thought might have been archaic (grand juries, life tenure, state control of the militia) turn out to be load bearing for responding to tyranny, specifically.

Watch out, because the Third Amendment is ripe for its moment.

Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 1d

It's the life tenure

No, seriously

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d

District court judges, appointed by presidents from Reagan to Biden (including Trump I), seem to understand the assignment more than most law firms. This is curious because the data shows that lawyers as a whole are more liberal on average than federal judges

David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

“Fuck you job security” is more valuable than “fuck you money”.

Particularly when the personal psychology that enabled you to make fuck you money also causes you to be afraid of losing it. Having the money doesn’t guarantee preservation of social status in the way that having the job security does.

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Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 1d

It's the life tenure

No, seriously

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d

District court judges, appointed by presidents from Reagan to Biden (including Trump I), seem to understand the assignment more than most law firms. This is curious because the data shows that lawyers as a whole are more liberal on average than federal judges

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 3d

Perry asks directly whether the feds started the alleged violence in Chicago.

She asks whether it matters if the inability to execute the law was "caused by the federal agents."

Hamilton: "No, your honor."

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

For judges even to be talking to NYT, even anonymously, is a huge break in norms that signals a crisis in the judiciary.

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 1d

“More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.”

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Very interesting thread on how AI datacenters, specifically, may be a bubble (even if some other parts of AI are not).

Nicholas Weaver @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com · 1d

The "This is fiber bubble so its fine..." analogy to the AI bubble really rings false.

Dark fiber in the ground is not an asset who's value goes to 0 in 5 years. Indeed, because of the fixed costs of laying fiber, the 2000s fiber was way over provisioned.

Its the opposite on GPUs...

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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 1d

Remember that there are righteous people among us, always.

Left: Netherlands, 1942

Right: Illinois, 2025

One day in the summer of 1942, after the onset of the deportations of the Jews from Holland to “the East”, a student, who was a courier for the ASG student underground group in Amsterdam, approached the de Vries family, asking them to hide a Jewish child. The de Vrieses, who had two children of their own, decided to accept the offer despite the risk that was involved in hiding Jews, and soon four year-old Louise Pinto was brought to their home.

Amid the smoke bombs and screams that ricocheted throughout a South Shore building last month during a massive military-style immigration raid, one man heard a knock on his door.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.

“I wasn’t planning on letting her stay, but I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.

“I didn’t want them to take her,” said the man, who didn’t want to be named because he fears he’ll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.

“I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her, ‘Just stay there. Don’t open, don’t, shh, just stay quiet,’” he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 1d

This is a perilous moment for democracy in the United States, but I couldn’t be prouder of the Knight Institute’s work right now, and I don’t take for granted that we have the freedom and resources to do it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This free speech group at Columbia is taking on Trump when the university won’t – and winning

The Knight Institute is defending free speech at a school now synonymous with compromising on it

www.theguardian.com

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

Cue Footloose and a dance off for freedom.

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 1d

Found this just incredibly depressing, more than anything.

An easel sign reads, “UCLA
ATTENTION
No events are permitted in this area today. Per Policy 852, this location is NOT designated for public expression activities.
Individuals participating in an event or a public expression activity in this area are subject to discipline and/or arrest.
Scan for policy information.”

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

The DC Human Rights Act treats party affiliation as a protected class from discrimination.

DC isn’t a state, it’s part of the federal government. Its laws are derivative of the Home Rule Act and are tacitly approved by Congress.

So… maybe the Supremacy Clause doesn’t apply the same for DC law?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: How many layoffs have you authorized?

TRUMP: It'll be a lot. And it'll be Democrat-oriented.

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

What a mensch.

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

They won’t go quietly.

David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 1d

ByteDance about to do some take backsies.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump announces he's putting a bajillion percent tariff on China

It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them. This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.

Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying. Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.

It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 2d

"...including while she was praying with her eyes closed and hands lifted, wearing a clerical collar and stole."

religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...

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David Brody @dbrody.bsky.social · 2d

Comey and James will get their charges dismissed, but others may not be so lucky.

These charges are about intimidating the *next* state AG or FBI official who thinks about investigating Trump. Not everyone will have a squeaky clean past. Anyone with a blemish could be scared of enforcing the law.

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 2d

Indicting political opponents & critics because they are political opponents & critics is terrifying.

It's completely inconsistent with the rule of law & democracy.

It should scare everyone - and (hopefully) will get people to realize that we all need to stand against this.

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