Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Emily L

👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 14h

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 6h

I’m a former (and maybe future?) journalist on the authoritarian disinfo beat, and a forever obsessive about information landscapes. This got my attention. I’d love to talk if you have the time and inclination!

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 9h

First genuinely new and good seeming idea I’ve seen in info space in …maybe ever?

Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 13h

Did you miss it this week?

I have a new job: president of News Creator Corps. Goes like this.

Via the people now called creators, audiences are migrating to the social layer in the internet stack. Maybe there's a way to move with, rather than against that.

newscreatorcorps.org/2025/10/news...

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

I’m going to mail him a holiday card with me and my toddler wearing our matching Hail Satan t-shirts, maybe finally start to get the cult I’m founding off the ground

Candybaz @barryodonovan.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Thiel is quite, quite mad.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

Re Nassau County, I will admit the least cool thing about me just to prove that I know from bagels: I'm from Great Neck.

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

I'm going on record. I was born in Queens, I lived almost half my life in NYC (ok also Nassau County, we'll get to that), and I'm Jewish (also half Irish, make of that what you will) and I will say what you're all too cowardly to consider: this bagel is dope, it only needs scallion cream cheese.

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 1d

When Cynthia Nixon ran for governor her bagel order was a city-wide scandal for WEEKS

They called it her Howard Dean scream.

(plain cream cheese, lox, tomatoes, red onion, and capers on a cinnamon raisin bagel)

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

Scallion cream cheese is the right choice of shmear.

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

I feel very por qué no los dos about this because definitely the masked men are quite bad, but also i'm going to have to stop being a freelancer working on unmasking authoritarianism if the health insurance i buy out of pocket starts costing 70% more

bort @crushbort.bsky.social · 1d

is it not weird that every day there’s a new video of anonymous masked men having the time of their lives beating/shooting/disappearing people and the dem response from the top down is “republicans want to double your health insurance premiums”

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

<reading my own posts> sickos-yes.jpg

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1d

<reading my own posts> what an idiot

“Hey man did you get QA to sign off?” Gigan @gigansprogress.bsky.social · 1d

“<reading my own posts> “this guy gets it”” (2025)

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

Yes! DM me your mailing address!

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 1d

I have a few more of these, if anyone would like one lmk!

Katharine Khamhaengwong @katharinegk.bsky.social · 1d

finished slogging through that bio of shevardnadze so i can finally get started on this (very kindly mailed all the way here by @laskin.bsky.social)

my breakfast and a lovely turquoise and red book titled “tulips in bloom: an anthology of modern central asian literature”

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 2d

Maybe the greatest reversal of my life was going from desperately craving fine, blonde hair as a teenager, to realizing in my late 20s that while my coarse, dark hair looks insane no matter what I do, it is actually incredibly easy to deal with. Like I barely even wash or otherwise touch it.

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 2d

Point taken, but WaPo journalists are muzzled, if not overtly, then by the knowledge that its editorial leadership caved when Bezos demanded their silence. It's not really journalists' fault that $$ controls information in this sinister way. I probably wouldn't risk a staff job in this climate.

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 2d

Why is this front-page news? The Washington Post doesn't say. It's a turning point in US history but our pathetic journalist class hides the relevance behind suggestion and implication, afraid to say things that everyone knows. Useless

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Reposted by Emily L

Nate Wolff @natewolff.bsky.social · 3d

Lots of options but let's go classic on this one and say that time we shitposted so hard they put it in a peer reviewed journal and then that issue won a prize 🐳

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

It is really incredibly sad

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Reposted by Emily L

Frances "Are You Scared Yet" Meh @francesmeh.reviews · 3d

my fallback plan if this place fails is to lead a fulfilling life instead of posting

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

The online parenting group that truly, literally saved my life (and found me housing!) when I was fleeing and abusive relationship. I would go so far as to say MOST of the great stuff in my life is on/because of the internet.

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Jay Shelat @jshelat1.bsky.social · 3d

I kid you not, some of the best friendships I’ve ever had have come from academic Twitter. What a space that was in its heyday. Fun, whimsical, supportive, kind!

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 4d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

Omg so many things. I made bank in high school selling burned CDs because I figured out napster 6 months before everyone else; I met my first boyfriend in a chatroom; I honest to god got an amazing job by being a twitter shitposter; my current partner was looking for someone terminally online.......

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 4d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

I was prickly about this as an academic, then I became a journalist and editors were like "sack up, write better prose" and I am very grateful to all of them.

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Reposted by Emily L

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 3d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 3d

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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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

More crowdsourcing: which US and/or Anglophone pubs might want to publish a longread on higher ed in Russia?

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

Prescriptivists get stitches.

Dave Hutchinson @hutchinsondave.bsky.social · 4d

‘Six words or _fewer_.”

A meme. There’s a skull at the top, followed by the words ‘WRITE A HORROR STORY IN SIX WORDS OR LESS’

Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 3d

Freelancers: how do you do your books? Anyone have a clever system for repeat/retainer-type clients? My current system is Chaos and Vibes™️ but there *might* be a better way aka software.

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Reposted by Emily L

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 3d

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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