Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Niel

JA Westenberg @joanwestenberg.com · 1d

'Be authentic' and 'curate your personal brand' are contradictory instructions we've somehow convinced an entire generation to follow simultaneously

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spleenly @spleenly.bsky.social · 2d

Cultivate a compassionate, coherent, evidence-based intellectual framework or live entirely at the mercy of malicious bullshit, those are really the two options.

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 21h

Of course, the classical take, as if supply magically appears independent of who owns the land, who captures the rent, and who gets priced out. Plenty is being built for investors, tourists, and funds; cranes never stop, but people still can’t afford a home.

Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 1d

Good job ignoring the real issues; land and housing being turned into speculative financial assets, empty apartments owned by investment funds, Airbnbs eating residential stock and wages that haven't kept pace with rents. Building higher won't fix a system that dictates who gets to live in our city.

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Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 4d

Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false

“Winning” means prioritizing independence from outside influence over being right.

arstechnica.com

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Lukasz Olejnik @lukaszolejnik.bsky.social · 5d

Geostationary satellites are leaking critical data, transmitting sensitive communications in the clear. With just $800 of consumer hardware, researchers intercepted military, telecom, retail, and infrastructure traffic. satcom.sysnet.ucsd.edu/docs/dontloo...

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 4d

“Erotica for verified adults” 😂😂😂

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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 5d

"Dunbar's Number" is a zombie that lives forever in the science press it seems. Estimates of Dunbar's Number with 95% intervals, for a range of model specifications (from doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... ):

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 15d

Without Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) in psychology (doi.org/10.31234/osf...) we risk the following:

1️⃣ misunderstanding statistical models, thinking correlation is causation;

2️⃣ confusing statistical models and cognitive models, undermining theory;

3️⃣ going against stated open science norms.

4/

The three aforementioned related themes sketched out in this
section, will play out in the AI-social psychology relationships we
will examine — namely:
a. misunderstanding of the statistical modelswhich constitute contemporary AI, leading to inter alia thinking that
correlation implies causation (Guest, 2025; Guest & Martin, 2023, 2025a, 2025b; Guest, Scharfenberg, & van Rooij,
2025; Guest, Suarez, et al., 2025);
b. confusion between statistical versus cognitive models
when it comes to their completely non-overlapping roles
when mediating between theory and observations (Guest
& Martin, 2021; Morgan & Morrison, 1999; Morrison &
Morgan, 1999; van Rooij & Baggio, 2021);
c. anti-open science practices, such as closed source code,
stolen and opaque collection and use of data, obfuscated
conflicts of interest, lack of accountability for models’
architectures, i.e. statistical methods and input-output
mappings are not well documented (Barlas et al., 2021;
Birhane & McGann, 2024; Birhane et al., 2023; Crane,
2021; Gerdes, 2022; Guest & Martin, 2025b; Guest, Suarez,
et al., 2025; Liesenfeld & Dingemanse, 2024; Liesenfeld et
al., 2023; Mirowski, 2023; Ochigame, 2019; Thorne, 2009).

Being able to detect and counteract all these three together comprises the bedrock of skills in research methods in a time when AI
is used uncritically (see Table 1). The inverse: not noticing these
are at play, or even promoting them, could be seen as engaging in
questionable research practises (QRPs; Brooker & Allum, 2024;
Neoh et al., 2023; Rubin, 2023). Therefore, in the context of critical AI literacy for social psychology, and indeed cognitive, neuro-,
and psychological sciences in general, the three points above serve
as totemic touchstones, as litmus tests for checking somebody’s
literacy in AI (Guest, 2024; Guest & Martin, 2021, 2025a, 2025b;

Guest, Scharfenberg, & van Rooij, 2025; Guest, Suarez, et al.,
2025; Suarez et al., 2025; van Rooij & Baggio, 2021; van Rooij
& Guest, 2025; van Rooij et al., 2024b). To wit, if somebody is
able to minimally articulate these three related issues, how they
manifest, and why they matter to our science, we can rest easy
they know the basics of how to critically evaluate AI products in
science.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7d

In a huge coincidence, a Bitcoin billionaire just-so-happened to put up massive leveraged bets against Bitcoin and Ethereum right before Trump posted about new tariffs on China, prompting a market crash.

$200m in profits instantly. $200m we know about, because they likely used many accounts.

Early Bitcoin Whale Shorted $1.1B Right Before Tariffs, Now Up $27M - How Did He Know?

Satoshi-era whale shorted $1.1B in BTC and ETH 30 minutes before Trump tariffs, banking $190M-$200M as liquidations hit $19.33B.

cryptonews.com

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Masae Ohsugi @ohsg1m.bsky.social · 7d

これ面白かった。秘匿性が高い通信アプリの筆頭格であるsignalのMeredith Whittaker（元Googleの研究者）のインタビュー。

GoogleやMicrosoft、Apple等々のテック企業は基本的にユーザーの個人情報や利用情報などのプライバシーを餌として利用することを通して利益を上げていることや、その最たる例として昨今のAI技術が使われていることを解説している。私たちがネット上で日々交わしているあらゆるメッセージは、常に誰かに利用されるリスクに晒されており、それに対して人権としてのプライバシーが主張される。

youtube.com/watch?v=8BUU...

【あなたのチャットはもう"晒されている”】1億人のメッセージアプリ・シグナル代表メレディス・ウィテカー／巨大テック「無料」の裏に“監視ビジネス”／ChatGPTは個人情報を「食い尽くす」【1on1】

YouTube video by TBS CROSS DIG with Bloomberg

youtube.com

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CUP Barcelona ♀️ @barcelona.cup.cat · 7d

Unim-nos contra el feixisme i l'espanyolisme!

12 D'OCTUBRE, RES A CELEBRAR, TOT PER LLUITAR
✊🏼📣

No es poden continuar celebrant les massacres i dominacions europees com si no hagués passat res.

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve never learnt more about AB testing than when I had to prepare a 6 week crash course for data people in one of the companies I worked for.

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12d

The audacity to anthropomorphize machines being built by corporations
--stealing data
--exploiting the labor of the people who are actually the "undesirables" under eugenic thought
--killing the environment,

and then compare criticisms of such eugenic practices to, wait for it, eugenics.

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 13d

It's Nobel Prize week! A good time to remember that the economics prize was created by Swedish bankers in 1968 (67 years after the 5 original Nobel prizes) against the wishes of the Nobel family, partly to legitimize neoclassical economics in the public eye and partly to help banks avoid regulation.

Philip Mirowski - Why Is There a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics?

YouTube video by New Economic Thinking

m.youtube.com

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 12d

and it'll be a waifu on top of that.

Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 14d

Bon moment per recordar que @theguardian.com té una relació comercial amb OpenAI i que per tant tot el que publiqui sobre IA, especialment amb aquests titulars, s’ha d’agafar amb pinces.

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Erlend Grefsrud @erlendgrefsrud.bsky.social · 16d

Maybe I'm just easily disappointed but if you told me in 1990 that the future of the computer is to become a wallet full of ads, I would probably grow up a very different person to who I am today

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 15d

uv, it’s wonderful

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 15d

it’s never a good sign when a software developer starts talking about human nature

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 16d

🐘 Do elephants know when we're looking at them?

A new study shows that Asian elephants can recognise human visual attention by reading both body and face orientation.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #AnimalBehaviour 🧪

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) recognise human visual attention from body and face orientation - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) recognise human visual attention from body and face orientation

www.nature.com

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 16d

T’esperàvem

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 17d

🧒 Inequality reshapes young brains

A study of more than 10,000 US children found that living in states with greater income inequality is linked to structural brain changes and poorer mental health, regardless of family wealth.

🔗 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

#SciComm #Inequality 🧪

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains

Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’

www.theguardian.com

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Niel @nielflamarich.bsky.social · 17d

You can only love someone who spends the first 50 pages of Diaspora describing the birth of an AI from scratch. Reminded me of Russell’s Principia. Highly recommended.

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Jesse Felder @jessefelder.bsky.social · 21d

‘Renowned roboticist Rodney Brooks has a wake-up call for investors funneling billions into humanoid robot startups: you’re wasting your money.’
techcrunch.com/2025/09/26/f...

Famed roboticist says humanoid robot bubble is doomed to burst | TechCrunch

Brooks, who co-founded iRobot and spent decades at MIT, is particularly skeptical of companies like Tesla and Figure trying to teach robots dexterity by showing them videos of humans doing tasks. In a...

techcrunch.com

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