Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

It's a really great letter.

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Buttondown @buttondown.com · 1d

"You can, today, write and publish once, then with a mix of embeds, integrations, RSS feeds, webhooks, and automations, can kick off a Rube Goldberg machine that parcels out your content wherever your readers are."
https://buttondown.com/blog/wordpress-blog-to-buttondown

How to publish your blog and newsletter in one click

A Rube Goldberg machine for your ideas

buttondown.com

1 4

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

RTFT extremely important work on how to make key UK scientific bodies more resilient to the coming far-right threat to politicise and destroy them.

The authoritarian playbook isn't all that imaginative. We have the warnings and can act now.

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 2d

We suggest seven initial recommendations for strengthening our key scientific and evidence-generating bodies.

1 Increasing legal and statutory protection

2 Supporting independence in leadership appointments

3 Resilient funding models

4 Strengthening accountability to parliament

cont 10/11

3

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

Been enjoying this post all morning, both for the fascinating insights into dog-adjacent animals

and also the insight that canids are very, very average at sex

Dominique Berteaux @dominiqueberteaux.bsky.social · 1d

Canids seem to be the routine lovers, reusing their travel routes more than felids. This shapes hunting, encounters, and even disease spread. Insights from 1,239 GPS-tracked carnivores, including the Arctic foxes we track on Bylot Island 🧪🌿🌎🌐🦊. Read in the latest PNAS at bitly.cx/TxI2

Pictured is a male jaguar (Panthera onca) equipped with a tracking collar. William F. Fagan et al. tracked the movements of 1,239 mammalian carnivores, including 16 canid species and 18 felid species, on six continents. On average, compared with felids, canids displayed a greater density of trackways within their range and were more likely to reuse established trackways. According to the authors, the evolutionary differences in carnivore movement patterns could aid efforts to model encounters among carnivores, prey, and humans. See the article by Fagan et al. e2401042122. Image credit: Sebastian Kennerknecht (photographer).

1 3

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

Nooo! emotional support scholar! (Good luck with your talk. x)

1 1

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 1d

For more on how to survive the climate upheaval, read my book of solutions Nomad Century

1 11 21

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

ha! I just re-read (via audiobook) that last week. It's so, so good.

(though one thing I snagged on which I hadn't, 15 years ago, was the terror of the cattle and sheep. a lot less funny to me, now)

the audiobook narrator Simon Vance's voice for Temeraire is just 😍.

2

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

😆👏😂

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 2d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

2 21

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

I once worked for a (extremely wealthy and borderline psychotic) CEO who pronounced primer 'primmer' and in a very rich field it was in the top 3 things she did I just could. not. stand.

4

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 1d

This is not a story of two sides finally finding peace. It is a story of two peoples who will wake up tomorrow under two very different skies: one free to heal, the other trapped in the ruins

Nagham Zbeedat

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

For Palestinians, the relief of the Gaza cease-fire belongs to others

This Is Not a Story of Two Sides Finally Finding Peace. It Is a Story of Two Peoples Who Will Wake Up Tomorrow Under Two Very Different Skies: One Free to Heal, the Other Trapped in the Ruins

www.haaretz.com

1 18 65

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

Today it's 3 months since my little Mol died and yes, Milo has received extra special loving cuddles and reassurances that he is my little treasure. ❤️ to you.

1

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

now you're talking!

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

RTFT. Thank you @meredithmeredith.bsky.social and a huge coalition working exhaustedly to block yet another attempt to impose mass surveillance and broken encryption on Europe.

As @openrisk.eu says, Europe must unite behind principles and guardrails for a human-centric, democratic, digital era.

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 2d

We're so relieved to see Germany reaffirm its opposition to the dangerous Chat Control proposal--the one that would mandate mass scanning of communications. Germany's long been a solid champion of privacy, and the news that it was considering backing mass surveillance was alarming. 1/

1 5

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Open Risk @openrisk.eu · 2d

"it feels like we lost twenty years just trying to get tech policy and tech firms to kill fewer people, to be just a bit less egregious, and that is time we’ll never get back"

Alas, exactly true. In inteconnected and highly technological societies failure to properly regulate has dire implications

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

On the vanquishing, for now, of chat control:

"if we didn’t have to expend most our energies saying ‘No’ to this stupid, ghastly shit, and saying ‘No’ to the stupid, ghastly shit of the tech oligarchs, what might we have built instead? How productively and joyfully could we be spending our lives?

Delighted to be proved wrong — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

4 8

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

you were proved right! I'm not sure I have the reading wherewithal for a Krasznahorkai right now, but always glad to see more literature in translation (into English) added to what we think of as canonical. On Hungarian writers, I do wish Magda Szabo had got it at some point, though.

1 1

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

On the vanquishing, for now, of chat control:

"if we didn’t have to expend most our energies saying ‘No’ to this stupid, ghastly shit, and saying ‘No’ to the stupid, ghastly shit of the tech oligarchs, what might we have built instead? How productively and joyfully could we be spending our lives?

Delighted to be proved wrong — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

2 8 32

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

Yes that would be a lovely result!

1

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Brendan Halpin @bthalpin.bsky.social · 2d

Open letter to Irish minister who's pushing ChatControl from @mariafarrell.bsky.social
crookedtimber.org/2025/10/07/c...

Chat control in Europe, an open letter to the Irish Minister who wants to scan all our messages — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

1 4

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

I've not yet read her. Anticipating with glee.

1 2

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

ah I hadn't realised. Thanks for this.

1

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

Someone send this to DG HOME re. their illegal campaign in the Netherlands last year, running secret political ads for "chat control".

Caught red-handed, they were! But not red-cheeked.

Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 3d

“Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable as of 10 October.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Commission publishes guidelines to support the implementation of the Regulation on the Transparency of Political Advertising

Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable...

ec.europa.eu

1 4

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

that's fascinating. tbf Germany all but invented data protection laws (strictly speaking the first was Sweden but DE was a prime mover post-war, for obvious reasons), so it's not coming from <nowhere>. But I'm surprised and grateful for every crumb.

I also heard the AfD politics on this were odd.

1 1

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

lol thank you so much for this unexpected a.m. belly laugh!

2

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

As always, I hope Yuri Herrerra gets the nod. But either way it's a win.

Unless of course they follow last year's science winners' sweep and just award the literature prize to an LLM..

Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 2d

Who will win it this time?

I love all this speculation. Because nobody knows, and from past experience, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature will probably be a semi-obscure writer, writing semi-obscure and possibly unreadable prose.

indianexpress.com/article/book...

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Winners LIVE Updates: Murnane, Murakami, Rushdie or Ghosh — who will win the top honour?

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Winner LIVE Updates: From bookies’ favourites to the Swedish Academy’s secretive process, follow live as the world’s most prestigious literary award is announced today.

indianexpress.com

3 1 5

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly same! I only came to love it myself after I left school and became friends with a whole family of Gaeilge-speakers. Still fairly crap at it but loving it, too.

3 3