Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jonathan Koomey

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 13h

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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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 10h

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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Jason Karsh @jkarsh.bsky.social · 11h

If we survive this, and Democrats are able to take back power, I guarantee you we will have to endure think-piece after think-piece that demand the rest of us reach out, stop shaming, and forgive fascists and the crimes they’ve committed. I absolutely guarantee it.

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 12h

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 11h

"In a time of darkness, New York must be the light." @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social makes a 2-minute ad about transgender rights, while sitting at the Christopher Street Pier in NYC. And yes, I'm crying, too.
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...

You Have to See This Mamdani Ad

I wasn't planning to post anything today. I dislike working and writing on weekends in general, but this was too important to ignore. You have to see this Zohran Mamdani campaign ad that came out this...

www.burnsnotice.com

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · Feb 9

A social sciences and humanities reading list on AI in education 🧵

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 14h

I actually don't really care if AI is useful/interesting/good for some things in education actually - it is besides these things clearly a big problem already that maybe need listing yet again:

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Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 2d

Brandolini’s Law (also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle):

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

H/t @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

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Jonathan Koomey @jgkoomey.bsky.social · 12h

The GOP is the party of death.

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 19h

I've yet to see this properly analysed from a psychological point of view. Obviously RFK is a nut, but there's also a broader pattern in the GOP ranks that seems deeply peculiar, of wanting positively to welcome the threat of disease and death. It feels like a collective psychosis.

Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 23h

The Trump admin is in the midst of laying off 1,100-1,200 HHS staff. The CDC's outbreak responders, gone. The office producing CDC's weekly journal MMWR is gone. CDC staff securing sensitive data, gone. Worker safety, gone. Immunization group, gone.

Instead, Congress watches RFK "make the proof"

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 13h

OOOPS! UPDATE: Two HHS officials tell me that disease detectives, measles response officers, global health officials and the MMWR staff were laid off by mistake and will be reinstated. But Washington office is still RIFed

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Guardrails of Democracy @demguardrails.bsky.social · 18h

Mike Flood, (R-NE), wasn’t received as expected by his Constituents on 10/4. Met with Boos & chants of “Tax the Rich” & “Vote Him Out”they’re not happy about Medicaid & SNAP cuts

JUST Wait ‘till they 👀 their ACA INCREASES!

Vote for ACA subsidies Mike & end the GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

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Guardrails of Democracy @demguardrails.bsky.social · 14h

MO & OH Dems need us to help Rally support!

A commissioned poll shows nearly 1/2 of MO voters oppose the maps

The Dem committee needs over 100,000 valid signatures across multiple congressional districts before the state’s 90-day window expires on Dec. 11 to let voters decide on the maps.

Missouri Democrats have an opportunity to block a new congressional map. They say they’re largely on their own.

Despite relatively little investment from Washington, Missouri and Ohio Democrats are looking to block new Republican-drawn maps through uncertain avenues.

www.politico.com

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Larry Neufeld @larryneufeldsk.bsky.social · 14h

Trump’s Sham Peace Plan countercurrents.org/2025/10/trum...

Trump’s Sham Peace Plan | Countercurrents

There is no shortage of failed peace plans in occupied Palestine, all of them incorporating detailed phases and timelines, going back to the presidency of Jimmy Carter. They end the same way.

countercurrents.org

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Dr. Kim Hannula @stressrelated.bsky.social · 16h

Tracking water in the Animas River at Durango in this thread. The Animas is a larger river than Vallecito Creek, slower to rise during extended rainfall like this. At 1:30 pm on Oct 11, it was running at 1550 cfs, up from less than 300 cfs at the beginning of Oct.

waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-l...

Animas River at Durango, CO

Discover water data collected at monitoring location USGS-09361500, located in Colorado and find additional nearby monitoring locations.

waterdata.usgs.gov

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 17h

Illinois law requires all registered vehicles to display front and back license plates, without exception. But to evade accountability, masked federal immigration agents are driving around in unmarked cars without plates.
chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...?

Federal immigration officers wear masks, no name tags — now some drive cars without license plates

The Sun-Times has documented four unmarked cars carrying federal officers without required plates, offering another way to shield their identities. Federal officials say they’re meeting regulations.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 20h

Genuine question: for those enthusiastically pushing AI tools into every part of our education system—what checks/guardrails are there around algorithmic biases like this?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Ken @kenzime.bsky.social · 17h

Just remember that this guy was gifted AoNZ citizenship by John Key, he is a fucking disgrace. #nzpol

󠀁󠁿⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁢⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁢⁢⁢⁢⁤⁢👻 @0x0.boo · 17h

This is what happens when you become a billionaire, once you've bought everything that can be bought and own everything you always wanted to own the only thing left to do is talk shit, get your face in the media, and score as many ego points as possible.

The man is dead inside, empty.

Peter Thiel reportedly linked Greta Thunberg and AI skeptics to the Antichrist

In a four-part lecture series on his views of religion, billionaire Peter Thiel reportedly said Luddites are the Antichrist.

go.stonking.com

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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 20h

In which @brianbeutler.bsky.social tells people in positions of real power: "You are actors in history, you’re writing your own epitaphs." We will need to save ourselves, but we also need to remind the people in power that they will be judged by history and hold them accountable to fight for us.

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 21h

"what costs people like us sleep at night isn’t that we aren’t doing enough. It’s that we’ve lost confidence in the people who are in positions to do more. [Don't] let people in power—people who sought power, and people who have power by dint of wealth—off the hook too easily."

How To Reverse The Tide

It's the gap between what's needed and what we have that keeps us up at night.

www.offmessage.net

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Logan Mitchell PhD @loganemitchell.bsky.social · 20h

This would save electricity ratepayers enormous amounts of 💰

We're asking the Utah Public Service Commission to do the same thing

ProPublica @propublica.org · 20h

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has ordered state agencies to take “any and all steps necessary” to fast-track solar and wind permits that must break ground by next year or likely miss out on a federal tax credit Congress is ending.

With @opb.org

Oregon Fast-Tracks Renewable Energy Projects as Trump Bill Ends Tax Incentives

Gov. Tina Kotek ordered the move, which follows reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica that highlighted impediments green energy advocates blame for the state’s poor ranking when it co...

www.propublica.org

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 21h

Ha ha, lots of folks ask, how we see sunrises over the sea in California. We are on a point that sticks out in the bay, so in winter, we get sunrise and sunset over water (summer both are over the mountains and there’s fog out in the water anyway).

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Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 1d

Psychiatrists/NPs/therapists who could provide off-the-books, no-fee, Zoom-based care for individuals in crisis in ICE-targeted Chicago communities, please email me: [email protected]. Include whether you can prescribe, speak Spanish (or other languages), and available hours per week/month.

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 23h

We know that LLMs struggle with math. Apparently the people involved in delivering the data centers that power LLMs do too. There's no way that investments will pay off. The bubble of bubbles. futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought

An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.

futurism.com

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Giuseppe Onufrio @gonufrio.bsky.social · 23h

It's hard to drone a #solar panel

open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

It's hard to drone a solar panel

The war in Ukraine may be adding resilience to the list of clean energy's virtues

open.substack.com

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 23h

Best combination of a terrible headline and a great article I've seen in a while. Click-bait put to a good use.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/o...

Opinion | With Mamdani, the Left Finally Has Its Trump

www.nytimes.com

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Richard Delevan @richard.wickedproblems.earth · 3d

Nobel Prize for Climate Tech. Should actually be a category going forward. But this'll do for today (gift link) - www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Chemistry Nobel Given for Molecules That Aid Carbon Capture

Scientists from Japan, the UK and Jordan were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating molecular constructions with potential to help combat climate change.

www.bloomberg.com

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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 1d

Many people are to thank for this, the politicians who wrote it, the advocacy organizations who lobbied tirelessly for it, me who posted about it a few times, the constituents who mobilized for their communities. All equally important contributors to the process imo.

M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 1d

Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. SB 79 has been signed.

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