Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 10h

Replace Jared Leto with Tig Notaro and we’ll talk.

Cosmic Marvel @dailycosmicmarvel.bsky.social · 17h

‘TRON: ARES’ has earned $14.3M in its opening day at the domestic box office.

For comparison, ‘MORBIUS’ opened to $17.3M.

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 11h

I’m not trying to give @pbs.org ideas for raising money—but I am. I would buy women’s fit T-shirts of all my favorite childhood shows. Reading rainbow, 321 contact, square one, zoobiliee zoo. I feel like two generations will run to donate even more money for shirts with Levar Burton on them…

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kim-mn.bsky.social @kim-mn.bsky.social · 14h

IMLS’s new team decided that nearly all of the $14.1 million allocated to the Nat'l Leadership Grants for Libraries(in 2025) is going to 1 recipient, the U.S. Semiquincentennial Co.

So instead of our taxes going to support our libraries, we're paying for a UFC fight on the white house lawn.

skellyton bones jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 20h

It's October 2025 and the federal government is shut down.

So what's currently going on at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)? Well, a lot of money seems to be "missing," among other things.

buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

The Current State of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (October 2025 Edition)

Grant money that should be going to library projects is going to state-sponsored propaganda, among other IMLS updates.

buttondown.com

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 14h

This, too, is eugenics.

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 15h

⚠️ USAToday reporter confirms the office in charge of special education funding has been “decimated”:

Zach Schermele
Follow
@ZachSchermele
NEW: The Education Dept. layoffs continued overnight, w/ the main office in charge of special ed funding being
"decimated," as one person described.
"They cut just about everyone that works with IDEA funding," said another.
"I'm not sure how these programs exist moving forward."
10:21 AM • 10/11/25 • 2.1K Views

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 14h

Austin, I KNOW you still know how to be weird.

Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 15h

Portland does not own the patent on inflatable animal costume protests, come on people

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Jenét Morrow @jenetallday.bsky.social · 1d

Once again, if your library has Hoopla, check to see if their plan includes TV shows and movies. If so, you'll have access to Acorn TV, MHz Choice, AMC and BritBox shows and more.

Jenét Morrow @jenetallday.bsky.social · Feb 6

On a budget? A reminder to check to see if you have access to Kanopy and Hoopla through your library. Hoopla has ebooks, music, movies and TV shows. A lot of AMC and Acorn TV shows on that platform. And Kanopy has a kids section with unlimited "borrows". #library

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Mollie Katzen @molliekatzen.bsky.social · 1d

"President Trump continued to describe Portland as a city on fire Friday even as residents enjoyed the first fall rain and the lone demonstrator at the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building was dressed as a pink Care Bear."

Sometimes there is a good sentence or two in the NYT.

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Reverend Jesus "H" Christ @reverendjesus.com · 1d

Blessed are the frogs, for they keep making authoritarians look incredibly stupid

Three persons in inflatable frog costumes. One of them is holding a nicely painted sign with two little cartoon frogs holding hands, below the text "FROGS TOGETHER STRONG"

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 1d

I didn’t realize this is coming out so soon! I LOVE the book. This looks like great fun.

Film Updates @thefilmupdates.bsky.social · 2d

The trailer for ‘HEATED RIVALRY’ starring Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams.

It follows a pair of leading Major League Hockey players who harbor a secret: Away from their rivalry on the ice, they are secretly lovers.

Premieres November 28 on Crave.

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🎃 a frightful hoxgoblin 🎃 @kellenhoxworth.bsky.social · 1d

Higher Ed in 2025 is opening your mailbox to see that your institution has sent you:

1. A Center for Teaching and Learning call to integrate AI into your classroom; and

2. An Office of Academic Integrity email encouraging you to crack down on students who use AI to cheat.

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 2d

Protest frogs. What a time to be alive.

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 2d

Honestly, the only reason I knew that was that Jodie Foster got it right in Contact. I love that movie.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 2d

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

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jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 2d

. @404media.co is investigating book bans. They could use your pointers on where to be looking. You can do it anonymously.

"We need help deciding... which school districts and cities to seek public records from and... where we should point our reporting efforts. "

www.404media.co/help-us-inve...

Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

www.404media.co

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Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 2d

there have always been people who like to write, and people who like to say they have written, and the latter really love the idea of AI and the former can not understand why you'd let a computer do the fun part.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 2d

there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually

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Joseph Fink @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 3d

this is how I, a resident of LA, found out that the Palisades fire was arson, that they caught the guy, and that he used gen AI to work his way up to doing the crime

niki grayson @nikigrayson.com · 3d

the city of los angeles burned in january in part because of a man who couldn’t stop generating images of burning cities on ChatGPT, and then after he lit the fire he asked if the fire he started was his fault

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John Lyon @johnlyon.bsky.social · 3d

Me: Is there something I could do differently to improve my sleep?

Doctor: I recommend not looking at your phone for at least an hour before bed.

Me: So nothing then.

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 4d

Can’t tell you how fast I’d be seated for the new Tron movie if it weren’t for that fucking guy

Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 4d

Obligatory Jenny Nicholson Tweet

Jenny Nicholson Tweet:

How come major film studios keep being like Jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs, and is not a good actor

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Sarah Weinman @sarahweinman.com · 4d

Distribution is THE under-reported story in book publishing (outside of the trade publications) and losing B&T is going to have untold ripple effects on the industry, small presses, and authors.

Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 4d

seems very bad www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down

At a town hall yesterday, B&T owner and CEO Aman Kochar announced that following the termination of the ReaderLink acquisition deal, he does not see a path to keep the library wholesaler in business.

www.publishersweekly.com

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 5d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 5d

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David Buchanan @retr0.id · 5d

how to deactivate torment nexus

torment nexus deactivation tutorial

torment nexus deactivation tutorial working 2025

deactivate torment nexus no survey

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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 5d

The thing about 7 billionaire freaks passing the same increasingly large wad of IOUs back and forth, is that only a pundit could possibly think this translates to increasing prosperity for everyone else.

🍁 Levi Kornelsen @levikornelsen.bsky.social · 5d

"We'd have a recession if it wasn't for all the AI spending" actually means "We are in a recession which is partially obfuscated *from statistics* (and nobody else) by rich people playing silly buggers with large transactions between each other".

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Kelsi Jo @kelsijosilva.bsky.social · 5d

We've got to stop writing stories about defeating villains without also examining the systems that create them.

Villains aren't reacting to nothing, and they aren't upset at a world that works.

I'm looking at you:
-Supetheroes
-Fantasy books
-SO much of the romantasy sphere
-dark academia
-ETC

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 6d

I was with some publishing folks recently. They said almost every pitch now is basically, “this book is just like those other books but written, bravely, BY A MAN.”

The one who could retire, did. The rest of us just got drunk

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 6d

Just out here fixing civilization. By reading fiction. As a man.

You’re welcome, ladies.

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Stephanie Leary @sleary.bsky.social · 5d

It always seems especially arduous to get to Boston from here. Good luck!

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Anise K. Strong @anisekstrong.bsky.social · 6d

This is the most amazing bit of cross-cultural mythmaking ever. I wonder if this was inspired by myths of Talos? Anyhow, I am very sorry that the secretive guild of ancient Roman robot engineers never existed, though pleased they were appropriately unionized.

Rakesh Khanna @blaftrakesh.bsky.social · 6d

When I was researching my book Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, I learned of a 1000-year-old myth about Roman tech being used to build killer robots to guard the Buddha's remains in Pataliputra, and a Hungarian folklorist read my book & got excited about it, & she managed to dig up a🧵(1/3)

Romanised Pali manuscript of the Lokapannati

Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India
p. 60
Bhoota Vahana Yanta
Bhoota Vahana Yanta means “spirit movement machine.” The term is used
for several varieties of robot drone assassins and sword-wielding machine-
men mentioned in the Lokapannati, a Pali-language text written between
1000 and 1200 CE by Saddhammaghosa of Thaton, but concerning
events that took place much earlier, around 500 to 200 BCE.
According to the story, robots were first invented by engineers of the
early Roman Republic. These robots were used for commerce, in agriculture,
as a police force, and as executioners. The secret of how to build these
spirit-engines was fiercely protected. If any engineer dared to take the designs
out of the city, one of his own executioner robots would come after
him and kill him.
At that time, in Pataliputra (then in the kingdom of Magadha, now
Patna in the state of Bihar), there lived a young man who had heard of the
Romans’ magical androids. He became so determined to learn the secrets
of their manufacture and share them with the people of Magadha that he
arranged his own death. Then, on his deathbed, he vowed to be reincarnated
as a Roman.
This indeed took place. In his new life, the man grew up to join the
Roman guild of engineers. He even married the daughter of the Master
Robot-Maker, and had a son by her.
Once he learned the secrets of the Bhoota Vahana Yanta, the man resolved
to transfer the information back to Pataliputra. But he was well
aware that now, since he was a member of the guild, he would be killed as
soon as he left. So he cut a gash in his thigh, inserted the plans in his flesh,
and sewed the wound back up.

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