Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 2h

schools should not be graded using state or national test scores. a good school is a school that pushes its students into the Valley of Despair

Dunning-Kruger effect visualized. On a chart of confidence/wisdom, there is a quick ascent to the Peak of Mt Stupid followed by a Valley of Despair, a Slope of Enlightenment, and a Plateau of Sustainability.

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Reposted by kyle b ☠️🎢

August J. Pollak @augustjpollak.bsky.social · 3h

This is literally how Trump became president again.

I think the theory of the case for Mills is that her #1 task is to just beat Collins, who’s historically been really hard to beat. Once that’s accomplished, you can run whoever else in 6 years and it won’t be as hard.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 3h

We're going to find ourselves in more of these situations as global temperatures continue to rise and it might be time to look into "internationally-coordinated gene drive-based eradication program" before it gets prohibitively expensive.

grimm ☀️ @mugrimm.bsky.social · 15h

Trump's USDA is like "Okay we need you to believe in science".

That's how big a fuck up this is lol www.texastribune.org/2025/10/14/s...

USDA slaps down Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller over New World Screwworm

The federal agency accused Miller of disregarding proven strategies to combat the parasitic pest “in favor of clickbait publicity stunts.”

www.texastribune.org

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 3h

yeah, it feels a little academic to me, too. I appreciate you pulling the quote!

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 3h

"Olivia Nuzzi" rhymes with Muzzy. Remember Muzzy?

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 3h

port fees are the truest form of self-expression

FinTwitter @fintwitter.bsky.social · 3h

US Treasury Secretary Bessent: Perhaps China Vice Commerce Minister went rogue.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 3h

I'm onboard with this analysis but, hooboy, I wish someone could tell us what provides societal guardrails if not shame. If we're already living in a post-shame world and we can't go back, then what's the future look like?

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Reposted by kyle b ☠️🎢

Goseg Train Thread @wvistheduck.bsky.social · 4h

"This is why Dem leadership continues to fall flat. You can't shame ppl who don't share norms. You can't debate authoritarians into submission when language itself is treated as a game w/out stakes. You can't appeal to civility when the far right revels in transgression and humiliation."

Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 5h

The celebration of Charlie Kirk exposes a fundamental shift that defines our era: While shame once bound society together, it has lost the ground that gave it power—and there’s no going back.

In conversation with @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social & @ezraklein.bsky.social:
newrepublic.com/article/2015...

Why Shame No Longer Works in American Politics

While it once played a role in binding society, shame has lost its power—and so have the liberal tools that depend on it.

newrepublic.com

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 4h

30% allocation in US large cap

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 4h

trying to find the button in my roboinvestor for "shit's fucked, 100% precious metal ETFs until further notice"

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 4h

such a hill to die on, when you consider this channel isn't a one-man team. imagine your boss making you sit behind the camera filming the video you know is going to tank viewership, revenue, and eventually lead to your being fired.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 6h

"Kid A" boyfriend
"Amnesiac" girlfriend
"In Rainbows" cat

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 17h

when the replies aren't silly

screenshot from 2001's "Rejected" animated short film by don hertzfeldt. three characters wearing silly hats beating down on a guy with a normal hat. a prominant sign says "silly hats only"

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 18h

they're certainly making Reconstruction jokes that would get them disavowed by their employers lol

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

someone should invent a better word for that

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

DEAR SHIT FOR BRAINS,

Tolstoy writing at Yasnaya Polyana, Pushkin House (1891), by Ilya Repin. An old, bearded man in white country dress is writing at a desk in a modest home.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

I can imagine a future where US courts come down hard on a few high-ranking ICE folks (and maybe a White House official or two) by 2032, but that most agents will be retired by the time they see the inside of a courtroom, as happened after the Dirty War

Dirty War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

People instinctively understand that social media is a big reason we can't marshal political power the way we used to, but it ain't all censorship and gaming the algorithms. They're also making us stupider.

"What was notable actually to me and perhaps surprising was that even the low [increasing] social media users, so those who had about one hour a day by age 13, did perform on average 1 to 2 points lower on the reading and memory tasks compared to the non-social media users"' says Nagata.
And the high increasing group performed up to 4 to 5 points lower than the non-social media users.
"So those who had the highest social media use have lower scores" notes Nagata, "but even the low users had smaller differences in their cognitive scores."

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Reposted by kyle b ☠️🎢

kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 2d

foliage time, fellas

An orange tree standing out among brown and green foliage in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

bold move, calling us customers "scum," but I will admit: It got my attention

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

boy, that last photo is something else

PoPville @popville.bsky.social · 1d

Suspicious Vehicle Closes Part of 14th Street Earlier this Morning in Columbia Heights: www.popville.com/2025/10/susp...

Suspicious Vehicle Closes Part of 14th Street Earlier this Morning in Columbia Heights - PoPville

Thanks to all who sent in photos this morning. One reader shares this "Worrisome text" from 9:35am: "Just got the attached very strange and worrisome text from a place where a friend lives" Another re...

www.popville.com

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

A few friends had jobs at Publix in high school and said it was the only place in town where management treated them like human beings, which makes sense in the Florida panhandle in the mid-2000s.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 1d

I honestly feel bad for the employees who have to watch chuds march around the grocery store and would be the first victims of someone mishandling an AR-15 while ordering a Pub sub.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 2d

cup of cold brew and fun-sized snickers at 1:20pm

goku going super-saiyan. he's yelling and he has no shirt on.

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kyle b ☠️🎢 @kbarn.com · 2d

oh I've been through this with a new kitten before [withdraws the bazooka that shoots capstar] and never again

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