Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.bsky.social · 18h

In a time of repression, be ungovernable.

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

Portland 🔥

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 18h

I really do not relate to people who use AI chatbots to plan their holidays.

How long before venues start paying the AI companies to get themselves mentioned in the AI 'suggestions'?

It's surely going to end up like Google and Amazon search, full of awful irrelevant sponsored suggestions?

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 18h

AI holiday planning: I found the perfect seaside town for my summer trip

Holiday-makers say AI-powered chatbots really help organise where to go - but some things need double-checking.

www.bbc.com

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 18h

Shorts and gloves in October, what a combo!

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21h

Left: In a desperate effort to find reasonable use case, OpenAI is running ads during the baseball playoffs about how you can use ChatGPT to plan a road trip. www.youtube.com/watch?v=go4o...

Right: What happens if you actually do that. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Open AI commercial about using ChatGPT to plan a road trip

Hannah Read, 37, tried to use an AI chatbot to plan a trip to Norway with her partner and three children.

She wanted to drive from her home in Flintshire, north Wales and cross the North Sea by ferry.

"I thought it might make for a nice drive," Hannah says. "I asked ChatGPT if there was a ferry from the UK to Norway and it said there was one from Newcastle to Bergen."

She later checked a ferry travel website but found no such route exists.

A travel blog detailing how Brits can reach Norway says the last time the route operated was in 2008.

"I did feel a bit disappointed when I found out the information on ChatGPT was incorrect, as I'd got quite excited and had started planning the trip in my head," Hannah adds.

"My advice is don't rely on AI 100%, it's better to still do proper research."

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 1d

Everyday now there is new information detailing just how economically unviable AI is. Data centers will be the new abandoned Walmarts, but on an even larger scale.

futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought

An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.

futurism.com

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Jonathan Atkinson @lowwintersun.bsky.social · 1d

And whilst people might criticise this as playing to the already converted, research shows Reform are actually vulnerable to messaging like this.

Rather than, you know, saying they have a point and you actually like flags too. 🙄

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 1d

It’s a glorious sunny day in October so I’m taking the kids to the park while loudly lamenting the dangers of catastrophic climate change hbu

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 2d

“Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.”

Hang onto your butts. This “correction” is gonna hurt.
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 1d

That really articulates something I couldn’t put my finger on watching the clip going around LinkedIn last night that I think you or Aaron posted

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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.bsky.social · 1d

Regardless of what one thinks of the Greens and Zack Polanski, there is something refreshing and much needed about seeing a politician name far-right discourse as it is

No more euphemising, no more "populism", "legitimate concerns" etc - accurate & damning depictions instead as needed

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 1d

Greens growing. Reform ratttled.

PS - I changed my name back to my family's original Jewish name because I'm proud of being Jewish. If Tice think that makes me a weirdo, I think that makes him an antisemite.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Tice "green party leader Zack Polanski is a weirdo. Changed his name, claimed hypnosis could increase women's breast size, thinks me should compete in women's sport, thinks women can have a penis. Other than that he's fine. Vote Green. Get weirdo."

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

So much of this is a shell game🫠

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 1d

'The circularity has also prompted questions about how sustainable the revenues will turn out to be.'

How OpenAI put itself at the centre of a $1tn network of deals

The company behind ChatGPT has signed agreements with many of the largest tech groups, adding to a growing web of financial dependencies across the AI world

www.ft.com

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Dr. Divya 🇵🇸🧿 (offline) @divyampersaud.com · 1d

15 hours left ⚠️ Six families still don’t have anything to eat ⚠️ One family still needs a tent for elderly family members who could die in the cold ⚠️ Toddlers still in famine ⚠️ Pregnant mom needing healthcare ⚠️

We’re SO short on this week’s goal, which finishes TONIGHT. New week tomorrow yall. 7/879

Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle

We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that…

chuffed.org

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️‍🌈 @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · 1d

this is called 'corruption'.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted dinner giving tech bosses access to UK minister

Exclusive: Six tech leaders dined with investment minister, documents reveal, underlining growing influence of ex-PM’s consultancy Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted a private dinner earlier this year at which a select group of technology entrepreneurs were given access to a key minister, official documents have revealed. The former prime minister, who is a champion of the tech industry, held the dinner in an upmarket London hotel in his capacity as the head of the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) political consultancy. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 1d

in fairness I have finally embraced riffing on the absurdity of offering "100% human services" and may have at least one post in draft about @aat-transcribes.bsky.social being the transcription social enterprise equivalent of soylent green

a mistake? perhaps. do I care? nope!

Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 1d

up early to do urgent work but instead my brain is like OOO SOCIALS WHAT ABOUT SOCIALS and so I'm here and on the scheduler, not doing the urgent work!

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Sue Cowley @suecowley.bsky.social · 1d

#EduSky

Isabelle Finn-Kelcey @isabellefk.bsky.social · 1d

Sue, have you seen the research on emotional burden on ND children in schools? The research team (incl CYP) has identified & validated a list of ‘commonly upsetting experiences’ that contribute to poor MH - see page 10. Shows schools what to tweak?

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Emotional burden in school as a source of mental health problems associated with ADHD and/or autism: Development and validation of a new co‐produced self‐report measure

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dr. Joanna and her Evil Hellhounds @jlphistory.bsky.social · 1d

I was wondering about this framing considered @edzitron.com's reporting but then I got to "(OpenAI has a corporate partnership with The Atlantic)" and it makes sense why they're calling reality "doomsayers".
Yeah, be like WeWork. Please be like WeWork.

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1d

The AI doomsayers are warning of a bubble, but—at least for now—that doesn't seem to matter to AI’s biggest investors, Will Gottsegen writes in The Atlantic Daily.

The AI Money Vortex

OpenAI is worth $500 billion now. What are its investors getting back?

bit.ly

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d

At least one senior Labour official seems to finally remember they aren't in Reform.
The changes won't just harm economy and country, they'll destroy families and force more people into becoming undocumented, leading to more deportations. They need scrapping not pausing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sir Sadiq Khan calls for pause on new immigration rules

The mayor of London said the changes had "moved the goalposts".

www.bbc.com

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Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 2d

Since Link is banned, his mutual aid Fridays have gone with him. This was one of the most altruistic things I’ve seen anyone on this site do.

In light of this, I’m gonna try to fill the gap.

Drop your mutual aid requests under this thread and I will repost them for as long as I can.

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 2d

*nerds, damnit, nerds

Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 2d

Come hang out with me and my team and get shit done plus meet other needs next TUESDAY @ 10:30am BST on ZOOM!

Academic Audio Transcription Ltd @aat-transcribes.bsky.social · 2d

People go on about how research is isolating but rarely acknowledge how much worse this can be as a disabled, chronically ill or neurodivergent researcher.

Find your people via remote co-working sessions with out the usual bullshit: join our new Spark Sessions, starting Tues 14 Oct @ 10:30am BST

Spark Sessions: Virtual Co-Working Spaces for Tired Researchers

Unapologetically pro-disability and intersectional virtual co-working sessions designed to give you the time and space you need to get your sh*t done.

funnels.academicaudiotranscription.com

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Academic Audio Transcription Ltd @aat-transcribes.bsky.social · 2d

People go on about how research is isolating but rarely acknowledge how much worse this can be as a disabled, chronically ill or neurodivergent researcher.

Find your people via remote co-working sessions with out the usual bullshit: join our new Spark Sessions, starting Tues 14 Oct @ 10:30am BST

Spark Sessions: Virtual Co-Working Spaces for Tired Researchers

Unapologetically pro-disability and intersectional virtual co-working sessions designed to give you the time and space you need to get your sh*t done.

funnels.academicaudiotranscription.com

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 2d

Oh Phil I’m so sorry for your loss

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Reposted by Dr Zara Bain

Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 2d

One of the things about this study is that a lot of baby and toddler books are written in house, by editors. So the study reveals the whiteness of editorial in kidlit even if not explicitly. But, big picture, this trend is unacceptable. I remember so many promises www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

‘Catastrophic decline’ in Black representation in children’s books

A report by charity Inclusive Books for Children found that of the 2,721 books surveyed, only 51 featured a Black main character, down by 21.5% since 2023

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 2d

Be bald, live underground, last forever

Roger Highfield @rogerhighfield.bsky.social · 2d

Naked mole rats' DNA could hold key to long life, reports @bbcvic.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

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