Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 13h

“Only puree existing views is” 👌

Mike Nitabach @mnitabach.blackskycomra.de · 21h

We're looking for applicants who are demonstrably excited by their scientific interests & express a view (right or wrong doesn't matter) for where their field is headed. LLM-generated essays never sound excited & only puree existing views, cannot see forward.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 2d

I know the MAHA people don't like fluoride in the water . . . but how about just a touch of haldol? That might really be what we need in 2025.

Michael Derby @michaelsderby.bsky.social · 2d

Conservative tech lord Thiel said tighter financial regulations “were a sign that a singular world government has begun to emerge that could be taken over by an Antichrist figure who could then use it to exert control over people.” Via WashPost

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3d

Trust in institutions is delicate, and complex institutions constantly engage in compromises. This leaves them vulnerable to takeover by bad-faith actors who are not really interested in the core values of the institution, which leads to even more distrust by the institution's strongest supporters.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 3d

Is this actually The Onion?

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 3d

Kyiv will nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize if he sends Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and helps broker a ceasefire with Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today.

Zelenskyy: If Trump gives us Tomahawks, we’ll lobby for Nobel Peace Prize

Long-range missiles and a ceasefire with Russia is all it would take for a nomination from Kyiv, Ukrainian leader says.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 3d

This was not a sample of academics.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 3d

How many browsing tabs do you typically have open?*

1: 6%
2-5: 54%
6-10: 14%
11-20: 8%
21-30: 2%
More than 30: 3%

*across all windows, on desktop/laptop

yougov.co.uk/topics/techn...

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 5d

Me, but for basically everything in 2025.

Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 5d

This CBS News situation is really helping my imposter syndrome about being an editor in chief. I spent MONTHS agonizing over whether or not I was ready to helm a tiny newsroom and interviewing other EICs about what they wish they’d known — and golly, she has a lot less reporting experience than I do

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Joanne Spetz @joannespetz.bsky.social · 5d

One of my kids is quite fearful for the big insurance premium increase they'll have to absorb - they work for a small nonprofit and health insurance costs have been a killer as it is.

KFF @kff.org · 5d

⚡ A new analysis by KFF’s Jared Ortaliza finds that more than half of ACA Marketplace enrollees live in Republican congressional districts, concentrated in the South. #QuickTake https://on.kff.org/48bH774

KFF map titled “At Least 10% of the Population in All Congressional Districts in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina Are Enrolled in the ACA Marketplaces.” The map shows the share of population that is enrolled in the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces in 2025 by congressional district, 119th Congress.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 5d

Exactly. We're watching the Gilded Age right now and I'm like--"Why can't rich people now build museums or libraries or something like in the olden days?"

Micah @rincewind.run · 5d

I miss when oligarchs tried to launder their reputations by building giant museums or some shit rather than trying to build themselves a personalized propaganda network

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 6d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Nicholas Bauer PhD @bioturbonick.net · 6d

I'm a one-issue voter.

My issue: vengeance.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 6d

I am really sick of the word “deal”

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 7d

In which I suggest that tenured faculty at universities that have been invited to join The Compact should pledge to go on a federal grant strike if their university sings-on to it.

brendancantwell.substack.com/p/compact-gr...

Compact Grant Strike

Faculty need to send a clear message about what's at stake, and to follow through.

brendancantwell.substack.com

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 6d

These are also the same people championing AI to do this type of work…so what jobs are these folks supposed to get exactly?

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

Ah yes, white collar employers are desperate to hire 50 something people who have spent their work lives in manual labor.

Conservatives have long argued that since
Americans are living longer and fewer have jobs that require manual labor, many physically disabled workers could adapt to desk work, broadening their work options and resulting in fewer people being granted disability benefits.
Social Security officials prepared to issue a similar rule at the end of the first Trump administration but ran out of time.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 6d

This really makes one question the investment of time in study section if our assessments are basically going to be ignored.

For now I’ll probably continue basically because I want to help the poor SROs.

Sigh.

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · 7d

IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 7d

Might have to pin this…🫠

haka-hakase (墓博士) @nora-hakase.bsky.social · 7d

Chris, I'm so tired of just having to have been alive through several of these fucking things

Reposted by Donovan Maust

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 9d

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 9d

Chris Rufo's disastrous takeover of New College in Florida shows what universities would become if they sign the Trump regime's extortionary "compact."

New College was supposed to model the anti-woke conservative higher-ed Americans crave. Instead, it showed the opposite, and serves as a warning.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 8d

Oh. So Penn is signing this thing.

Brian “Enemy Within” Alexander @brianralexander.bsky.social · 8d

"Populism"

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Holly Fernandez Lynch @hollylynchez.bsky.social · 8d

It "offers an edge" like a gun wielding mugger offers "an edge" on staying alive if you hand over your $. We're talking about student loans, grants, contracts, visas, nonprofit status - those are the benefits Trump says schools are free to "forego" if they reject the compact. Try surviving w/o them!

Steve Joffe @stevejoffe.bsky.social · 8d

More poor framing from @chronicle.com.

Critical to recognize that memo is a sticks not carrots.

www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 9d

And somehow still keeps getting even more stupid 🫠

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 9d

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/a...

This is all just so incomprehensibly stupid.

After Declining to Give Trump a Sword for King Charles, a Museum Leader Is Out

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Donovan Maust

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 9d

As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 9d

oof. Good point.

Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 9d

They know she is French, right? Came here from another country?

Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 9d

Of course, during the days when the Statue of Liberty was copper color in the photo and before it got its green patina (~ 1886 when it was gifted), all you* had to do to immigrate was show up.

*That is, unless you were Chinese; the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882.

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 9d

I think more likely that they did more multi-year funding of Rs, so they could fund fewer in the year

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Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 9d

The Senate majority leader is just . . . helpless apparently?

🤷‍♂️

Why do these people want to be in Congress?

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 9d

“.. This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to Russ Vought,” the Senate majority leader said ..

@politico.com
www.politico.com/live-updates...

Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 10d

Yes, “vibe working” is just what large orgs that use MS products want

Donovan Maust @dtmaust.bsky.social · 10d

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