Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 1m

Just got our e-cargo bike & if there's anything we should be subsidizing, it's this. Haven't touched the car in a week.

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal

"Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport."

www.economist.com/internationa...

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

Reposted by Kyle R Freund

Particularly Miffed @miffedinparticular.bsky.social · 4d

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Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 1h

I am always thinking about when Grant Morrison said water moves faster when as it gets closer to the drain.

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 1h

Meta executives are telling their workers they must use AI to "go 5x faster" and expect a "5x leap in productivity"

www.404media.co/meta-tells-w...

Meta Tells Workers Building Metaverse to Use AI to ‘Go 5x Faster’

Meta says that its coders should be working five times faster and that it expects "a 5x leap in productivity."

www.404media.co

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 2h

Much needed respite

AmeriKraut @inchargeofthegirls.bsky.social · 15h

sherman, for the love of god!

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Hend Amry @libyaliberty.bsky.social · 3h

MIT’s reply to Trumps shocking attack on education is a master class in deft rhetorical communication and positioning. It refutes without ceding ground. It negates without naming the charge. It accuses and rejects while sounding compliant. What a breath of fresh air after endless disappointments

Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 3h

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 12h

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 13h

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 4h

In Broadview this morning, just outside of Chicago, where you can get a police surveillance pod, a drone, and a helicopter in a single shot.

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 3h

Yeah, not sure what's doing in particular...

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 1d

October is rosary month, I guess.

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Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · 1d

These thirty seconds show a scandal of unbelievable proportion and it might as well never have happened. Just sucked into the vacuum of history immediately. I can't dwell on it or I'll go crazy.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending habeas corpus?

TRUMP: Suspending who?

Q: Habeas corpus

TRUMP: I don't know. I'd rather leave that to Kristi.

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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 1d

Whenever anyone says how much of the U.S. economy is tied to AI right now, I'm like...damn, what if a single rich person had any idea other than "try to zero out labor costs through theft."

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Michael Bradley 🍕 @mikebradleymke.bsky.social · 1d

If you want to know how much politics have moved in the last 10 years, this guy voted in the republican primaries in 2012, 2014, and 2016.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 1d

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.

bit.ly

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ceeks @ceeks.bsky.social · 1d

no need to worry about future elections when this is our present. there should be zero negotiations until she is sworn in

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 1d

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 1d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 1d

ooh, good call for @yonahfreemark.com, let's get two locations for Madison on the map! Sequoya Library & Pinney Library!

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 2d

ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 2d

We just moved back to our neighborhood in Madison, Wis., with one of these – walkable, bustling hub & just the best dang thing.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 2d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 2d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 2d

Pray for Dolly Parton and in the meantime listen to this Radiolab series about her. Just tremendous. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

Dolly Parton's America

Music History Podcast · Series · In this intensely divided moment, one of the few things everyone still seems to agree on is Dolly Parton—but why? That simple question leads to a deeply personal, hist...

podcasts.apple.com

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 3d

Offrange was basically created for me.

As a proud former child laborer, this kind of work that gets at the nuances of the topic & how things have changed since I was a kid. Good insights into some traditions that few would understand. CC @jessehirsch.bsky.social
ambrook.com/offrange/lab...

Teens in the Tassels: How Youth Farm Labor Still Powers the Midwest - Offrange

Corn detasseling continues to be a beloved Midwestern tradition, as youth labor regulations progress and migrant workers compete with the young workforce.

ambrook.com

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 3d

It is unbelievably funny how load bearing American democratic norms turned out to be

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Mike Johnson ignores a question about when he'll swear in Rep.-elect Grijalva and walks away

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 3d

First off, we need to shave Russ' beard to determine if there is a chin there. Second off, we need to send him to the moon.

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 3d

This is rampant lawlessness

The law says what it says, and Russ Vought doesn't get to unilaterally change that

www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

www.govexec.com

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Kyle R Freund @kylefreund.com · 3d

Why the hell would you heels take an image from something that happened over 30 years ago?!