Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 48m

Jolt resurrects as a brand of probiotic yogurts.

Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 7h

‘96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children’s anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation after the children played with the set.‘

‘Lego doesn’t sell the sets and instead has donated more than 10,000 of the kits to hospitals around the world.’

Carceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 7h

How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/l...

How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment

Lego's MRI scanner play sets, which launched in 2023, are significantly reducing anxiety and the use of sedation in children, according to new research.

www.cnbc.com

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Cassidy Percoco @mimicofmodes.com · 3h

Consistency is expected today both because of and in favor of rigorously documented bureaucratic systems - the systems enable people in power to force you to be consistent, and all of us being consistent helps keep the bureaucracy working. (I'm not a libertarian, that's just how it is.)

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 1d

It's time again as a notable Italian-American to note Christopher Columbus was an absolute piece of shit human who didn't land anywhere near this actual country so why the fuck should he stop the mail for the whole day

Anyway, Happy Indigenous People's Day, y'all

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 1d

Two frames from The Good Place:

“Fun fact: Columbus is in the Bad Place
because of all the raping, slave trade, and genocide.”

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

Introduce yourself using only one food you refuse to eat, one movie you’ll never watch again, and one song you can’t stand

Rabbit
My Fair Lady
Sweet Home Alabama (bonus: also the Kid Rock song with the line about Sweet Home Alabama)

Indie Stacks but Spooky @oracleatbluesky.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself using only one food you refuse to eat, one movie you’ll never watch again, and one song you can’t stand

Kale
Slumdog Millionaire
Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Addy Bross 🌈 they/xe @aebrossbooks.bsky.social · 1d

Introduce yourself using only one food you refuse to eat, one movie you’ll never watch again, and one song you can’t stand

Cilantro (technically a garnish, but it tastes like soap 😖)

The Dark Knight (just didn't hit w/me)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time (just typing it has me heated 😤)

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d

A key reason why it’s been so awful to see fascists destroying the FAA is that aviation safety regulators have historically been *extremely good* at avoiding the dangerous human fallacy of “this bad thing hasn’t happened yet, it’s just nearly happened, so it’s totally safe to keep doing it”

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d

“an airplane hasn’t crashed YET as a result of a laser pointer blinding the pilot, just NEARLY crashed, so it’s actually not dangerous to shine lasers at airplanes and all global aviation authorities are overreacting cowards” is real logic I’ve seen from alleged adults on here

Pilot blindly lands plane after eyes are damaged by laser aimed into cockpit, feds say

“You almost killed this man,” a Washington judge told the man accused of pointing the laser.

www.thenewstribune.com

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

Between Arcane and Fallout, is the key to making a really good video-game-based TV show to hire Ella Purnell?

Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

Slept on Arcane when it came out, but wow. Love the depth and multidimensionality of the characters.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

this is some Expanse-level political worldbuilding and characterization.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 1d

Slept on Arcane when it came out, but wow. Love the depth and multidimensionality of the characters.

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

This, and the owner very clearly putting his thumb on the scale to promote racism, transphobia, and racist transphobic pornbots.

And that continuing to use the service was contributing value to a bigotry elemental.

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 2d

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

Curse heard on a Philly street: “I hope you lose like the Eagles.”

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

YES! Very similar thoughts watching Ralph. And loved Ralph Breaks the Internet.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 2d

I dearly love Tron, and enjoyed Tron: Legacy, but I think this is correct.

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 2d

Tron is such an 80s thing, it's hard to make relevant for the 21st century. It's all about arcade games and mainframes, and software that was written primarily by a single coder. The actual story of Tron is silly AF, which is one of its main joys.

But it should never have been revived.

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 2d

The thesis is we're in a world information war waged by authoritarians disassembling ways of knowing that contradict truth-by-authoritarian-personal-gnosis using lies and synthetic media not to confuse people with false evidence but to coerce participation in the make-believe via affective resonance

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Stellaween? @antlervel.vet · Apr 23

It’s really funny that The Art of War is treated as this like alpha male book when it’s clearly meant to be read by ancient Chinese failsons because it’s all “please don’t forget you have to feed your troops” and “if someone asks if you’re going to attack them consider lying about it”

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 3d

7 reasons to use Bayesian inference!
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/10/11/7...

7 reasons to use Bayesian inference! | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 3d

This is… not good. At the same time these models are being sold as universal answer machines, they’re being tuned for both-sides-ism instead of factuality.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

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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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 8d

Weird thing where people say “no one could have predicted it” when really what they mean is their political commitments and orientation were such that they ignored everyone who was predicting it

Sorry but “no one could have“ and you having your head stuck up your ass are two different situations

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Eric Goldman @ericgoldman.bsky.social · 3d

"The message is clear: Texas A&M does not permit teaching LGBT topics. Politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in Texas classrooms. Anyone who crosses this line may be fired on flimsy pretext"

www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

Why I Withdrew From My Dream Job

At Texas A&M, politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in classrooms.

www.chronicle.com

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Ariana Maher @airy.bsky.social · 4d

Sorry to go on, but remember translated manga in the 90s, where they'd flip all of the art out of some fear that Americans wouldn't adapt to right-to-left reading? But readers adapted quick and wanted manga unflipped. The human brain is built more complex than folks give it credit for.

Ariana Maher @airy.bsky.social · 4d

You'd think that lettering is a straightfoward design process -- copy text, draw a balloon, draw a tail, bam -- but depending on the language, culture, creative production, publishing industry, and readership habits, the design language evolves differently and readers adapt to that.

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 4d

Pope summed up my whole-ass research agenda.

Screenshot: "Free access to information is a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies, and for this reason, we are called to defend and guarantee it," he said.
"Current events call for particular
discernment and responsibility, and it is clear that the media has a crucial role in forming consciences and helping critical thinking".
The pope also spoke about the challenges facing news media with the rise of AI.
"Artificial intelligence is changing the way we receive information and communicate, but who directs it and for what purposes? We must be vigilant in order to ensure that technology does not replace human beings, and that the information and algorithms that govern it today are not in the hands of a few," he said.
He nominated "transparency of sources of ownership, accountability, quality and objectivity" as key to news media.

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Reposted by Michael Ekstra Scary

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 4d

a brutal night for Philly sports

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Michael Ekstra Scary @md.ekstrandom.net · 4d

Possibly after drinking the liquor.

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