Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eric Klinenberg @ericklinenberg.bsky.social · 12d

It's a small step from here to prohibiting professors from teaching about climate change, slavery, colonialism, racial discrimination, evolution, and the efficacy of vaccines.

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

www.nytimes.com

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UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · 13d

The Jan 2025 LA fires showed how urban wildfires endanger transit riders and ppl w/o cars.

📊 Among transit riders surveyed:
- 28% relied on rides from others
- 21% used transit to evacuate
- Black respondents were most likely to evacuate via transit (42%)
www.its.ucla.edu/publication/...

Evacuation modes by subgroups: This bar chart figure shows how various population groups traveled to safety during the wildfire evacuation. While getting rides from others was most frequent among evacuees, public transit or walking/biking were more commonly used by transportation-disadvantaged groups, including low-income, Black, and carless residents

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · Nov 15

Listen, Broligarchy is not some cute synonym for oligarchy. It's genuinely different & WAY more dangerous.

I'm a sociologist who's been studying the ultra-rich globally for 17 yrs, entering their world as an offshore wealth mgr. Published 2 books abt them.

🧵Broligarchs are distinct in 3 ways:

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Nov 15

There’s a sort of Trump apologist, a relatively small but loud subset, who probably don’t realize or intend to be, but are so attached to a previous hyperbolic claim that they deny anything important changed.

-US was already an oligarchy
-US was already fascist
-Biden gave Israel a blank check
-Etc

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Madeline Brozen @mbrozen.bsky.social · Jun 25

Our multi-campus research team shared preliminary results from our work about the evacuation experiences of transit riders with LA county transportation and emergency management professionals yesterday! Can’t wait to release these findings publicly later this summer

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Marcel Moran @marcelmoran.com · Jun 20

Same street, two years apart. Rue Charles Moureu.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Jun 18

There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 6

A springtime trip to Buenos Aires was where I first encountered jacarandas, which is absolutely part of why I love LA’s so much

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 4

Figure 2

blooming jacaranda trees in the UCLA sculpture garden

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 4

So much is terrible these days but it's also jacaranda season in Los Angeles, which is beautiful from the ground and absolutely stunning from air.

a photo from an airplane with a corridor of jacaranda street trees blooming purple

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ETSC - European Transport Safety Council @etsc.eu · Jun 3

Study on London 20 mph limits shows:
- collisions ⬇️ 35%
- casualties ⬇️ 36%
- fatal/serious injuries ⬇️ 34%
- child casualties ⬇️ 46%
- child deaths ⬇️ 75%
- walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists killed/seriously injured ⬇️ 28%

etsc.eu/20mph-limits...

20mph limits in London linked to sharp fall in road injuries and deaths, new report finds

A new study published by Transport for London (TfL) has shown that the introduction of 20mph speed limits and zones on local authority-managed roads in London between 1989 and 2013 led to significant…

etsc.eu

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · May 13

"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants.

Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."

David Malakoff @davidmalakoff.bsky.social · May 13

Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF

Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress

www.science.org

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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · May 8

As federal data infrastructure is gutted, we'll lose a window into the vast local health disparities. But those disparities will remain because place is an engine of health provision and stratification, not just an analytic vessel. New essay from me in UAR:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

An Engine, Not a Vessel: Place, Politics, and Health in the United States
Philip Roccohttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-7039
Abstract
Social scientists often treat places as containers for social and economic phenomena that shape health outcomes. Yet this analytic practice conceals more than it reveals. Local governments in the United States should be understood as engines of both health promotion and stratification. As the contributions to this symposium suggest, governments not only occupy a formal place in the U.S. public health system, their decisions on everything from housing to transportation infrastructure can also have profound impacts on health outcomes. Local political economies likewise renegotiate the parameters of acceptable health interventions, public understandings of health disparities, and the status of population health as a public good. By illustrating these linkages, the authors here suggest important future lines of research on both the promise and limits of local health governance, as well as how the allocation of local political power shapes health disparities.

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UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · Apr 28

🚨 Job alert: UCLA ITS is hiring a founding Staff Director for a new parking policy center! Work with top scholars, shape reform, and carry on the legacy of Donald Shoup.
🅿️ Learn more & apply by May 17: www.its.ucla.edu/202...

New job opportunity: Parking Center Staff Director - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

Join the UCLA ITS team. We're looking for a founding staff director to lead a newly established parking center.

www.its.ucla.edu

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · Apr 23

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.

Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

stanforddaily.com

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 16

Re-upping this, given news from the UK today, because it investigates what is and who decides the definition of "biological sex," which is anything but straightforward.

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Just finished "Tested" and highly recommend. This theme, brought up about the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, echos throughout: "Scholars of this period have argued that for sports officials, the point of all this concern…about fraudulent, incorrect women, wasn’t accuracy, or logic. It was control."

Tested | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have b...

www.cbc.ca

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Apr 16

"Private sector money is what should make these investments" -- Duffy on Fox indicates the federal government is likely to pull funding for a high-speed rail project in California

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 16

Phenomenal on every account. I learned to drive in my family's almost identical '91 240 wagon -- my dad still has it!

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Ah bummer -- sorry, Dave

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Just finished "Tested" and highly recommend. This theme, brought up about the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, echos throughout: "Scholars of this period have argued that for sports officials, the point of all this concern…about fraudulent, incorrect women, wasn’t accuracy, or logic. It was control."

Tested | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have b...

www.cbc.ca

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · Apr 14

“We are not monsters,” the officer told her after she asked if she was safe. “We do what the government tells us.”

www.cnn.com/2025/04/14/u...

Tufts University student details poor conditions in ICE detention ahead of Monday hearing | CNN

A federal judge in Vermont will hear arguments Monday on the legality of Rümeysa Öztürk’s detention at a Louisiana facility the Tufts University PhD student described as “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhum...

www.cnn.com

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · Apr 3

For “abundance” to improve transportation, supporters must consider the kinds of infrastructure that gets built – not just the quantity.

Without addressing externalities (esp from cars), a supply-side spigot of new construction would be a disaster.

Me, in Bloomberg CityLab 🧵

What Would ‘Transportation Abundance’ Look Like?

Fans of the abundance movement say that adding supply solves big problems in housing and health care. But when it comes to getting around, things get complicated.

www.bloomberg.com

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Deborah Archer @deborahnarcher.bsky.social · Apr 1

It’s book release month!! I’m so excited. Get your copy here: wwnorton.com/books/978132...

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Mar 29

I commuted on Amtrak for about a decade and came up with so many research ideas. Not sure how many I remember, but would be so interested in this someday- sabbatical project

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Mar 26

Such a neat research idea & amazing findings:
- Nighttime pedestrian deaths fall 5% on nights w/ peak moonlight
- In cloud-free conditions, moonlight reduces pedestrian deaths by 17%
- Rural areas with low artificial lighting see a 39% drop in deaths under bright moonlight
- Links are causal

Justin Tyndall @justintyndall.bsky.social · Mar 26

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

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Justin Tyndall @justintyndall.bsky.social · Mar 26

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Mar 26

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying.

They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks.

From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

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Gerry Canavan @gerrycanavan.bsky.social · Mar 22

every college, corporate, and nonprofit president right now

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Mar 20

University of California has banned diversity statements in the hiring process because "the requirement to submit a diversity statement may lead applicants to focus on an aspect of their candidacy that is outside their expertise or prior experience."
By that logic, what about teaching statements?

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Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · Mar 19

As the Trump administration threatens to pull federal funds from universities, including those for medical and scientific research, the University of California has announced a hiring freeze and additional cuts.

University of California orders hiring freeze, cuts in response to Trump threats

As the Trump administration threatens to pull federal funds from universities, including those for medical and scientific research, the University of California has announced a hiring freeze and additional cuts.

www.latimes.com

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Union of Concerned Scientists @ucs.org · Mar 19

In 2018 Musk won a bid for high-speed transit in Chicago. He tried to sell the city on technology that didn’t exist and his proposal was never built. He lied and showed little regard for public services. "We are now seeing the consequences of putting someone like that in a position of power."

Blog:

Transportation Professionals Saw Elon Musk’s Lies and Disdain for the Public Firsthand.

We can't sit on the sidelines now.

blog.ucs.org

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