Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Dave Jones @cleanpowerdave.bsky.social · 5d

NEW: GLOBAL RENEWABLES OVERTAKES COAL

How the heck did that happen so quickly?!...🧵

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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 4d

In an obscure corner of Kazakhstan, the remains of an ocean millions of years old have created probably the most surreal landscape on earth -- as captured by photographer Daniel Kordan

mymodernmet.com/daniel-korda...

Kazakhstan's Mangystau plateau, near the border with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, at sunset. Layers of ancient salt deposits resemble fjords of white, pink, red and orange icing spilling into a vast gray plane

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Andrew Weatherall @andyweatherall.bsky.social · 6d

Hey where is this? It is kind of glorious.

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Eric Ravenscraft @lordravenscraft.bsky.social · 10d

the most uncanny aspect of the 21st century is how many stories we have about charlatan showmen who conned the world—from PT Barnum to Andrew Wakefield—and yet we still take grandiose, provably false claims from tech CEOs as though they are harmless or, at worst, true

Politico @politico.com · 10d

“This was the year, I think, that the AI got smarter than us.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gets candid about the promises and perils of AI in the premiere episode of MD Meets — a new podcast from POLITICO's parent company Axel Springer.

🎧 Listen and subscribe: mdmeets.com

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Zoë “Baddie Proctor” Quinn @unburntwitch.com · 10d

Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an Al model's ability to edit real world spreadsheets. This result

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Mondo Mascots @mondomascots.bsky.social · 10d

Udon Nou, who has noodles for brains, is a mascot from Kagawa Prefecture. He was handing out certificates to winners at this year’s Yuruverse mascot popularity contest (having won in 2023).

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Anaesthesia @anaesjournal.bsky.social · 11d

"... a ‘RSI–TCI’ mode with a pre-programmed manual bolus offers a pragmatic solution for those who wish to preserve an intact pharmacokinetic model for accurate propofol delivery, while allowing the rapid induction clinicians expect from a manual bolus."

#AnSky #MedSky

doi.org/10.1111/anae...

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JVG 骨 @jasonv.bsky.social · 12d

Absolute all-timer sentence in today's @nytimes.com

"some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily execute civilians" says today's New York Times, continuing their long tradition of whitewashing fascism

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Stilgherrian @stilgherrian.com · 12d

I dunno why I’m only finding out now, but the “Australian Frog Atlas” is now in version 3.0. It’s a free download, including all the KML files. australian.museum/blog/amri-ne...

Putting Frogs on the map: the Australian Frog Atlas

Introducing Version 3.0 of the Australian Frog Atlas – detailed distribution maps for all 257 of Australia’s native frog species, and the introduced Cane Toad.

australian.museum

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Katie Collins @spissatella.bsky.social · 14d

They're inflating a sperm whale in my town, which is a strong contender for the oddest sentence I've ever typed

A grey inflatable of a sperm whale partially obscured by a silver van, attended by the person engaged in blowing it up

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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 16d

Official petition to the 🇦🇺 govt: make part-time PhD students' stipends tax-exempt!
www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

Stipends are low but at least tax-exempt. Unless they go part time, then it becomes taxable. This disproportionately affects PhD students w/ care duties, health issues, young children..

e-petitions

www.aph.gov.au

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Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 17d

“Electricity generation costs would be up to 50% higher if Australia stuck with only coal and gas.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Electricity generation costs would be up to 50% higher if Australia stuck with coal and gas only

Griffith University experts reveal the 30% increase in consumer power bills since 2021 would have been worse under fossil fuel-only scenario

www.theguardian.com

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Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 18d

Seeing ice cream cones during their spawning runs really takes your breath away. They’ll only do this once in their entire lives.

MachinePix @machinepix.bsky.social · 18d

Ice cream cone manufacturing line.

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kcarruthers @kcar.me · 22d

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities

Large language models reflect biases that can lead to inferior healthcare advice to female, Black and Asian patients

https://www.ft.com/content/128ee880-acdb-42fb-8bc0-ea9b71ca11a8

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 21d

this exists it is called thinking

Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.

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Andrew Weatherall @andyweatherall.bsky.social · 22d

But also hasn’t he confined almost his entire post-politics life into doing factional stuff (and definitely this has nothing to do with no one employing him)?

Andrew Weatherall @andyweatherall.bsky.social · 22d

Is there a bigger issue that Unis haven’t done the consistent campaigning over years to guide how govts/others think about the role of those Unis? Or is it that they’ve tried and nobody listens leaving Unis reacting to crud policies and external conditions?

Could use help understanding.

Andrew Weatherall @andyweatherall.bsky.social · 22d

This all seems like a depressing reflection of the place you end up when you downplay the importance of domain expertise in leadership positions. Unis should maybe be led by people who are experts in education. theconversation.com/bill-shorten...

Bill Shorten ‘re-imagines universities’, with specialist institutions and bespoke degrees

University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten has called for a “fundamental re-imagining” of Australia’s universities

theconversation.com

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Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 22d

It remains so bewildering why we as a country let entirely unexperienced non-experts who have no real knowledge of the sector run the country’s universities for million+ salaries.

Jayne Persian @drjpersian.bsky.social · 22d

Every single brain fart here is horrendous
theconversation.com/bill-shorten...

Bill Shorten ‘re-imagines universities’, with specialist institutions and bespoke degrees

University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten has called for a “fundamental re-imagining” of Australia’s universities

theconversation.com

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 22d

This is hilarious. These people have never run a real business. It is 100% a scam operated by skiled, dedicated grifters.
www.wsj.com/articles/sto...

Wall Street Journal: Stop Worrying About AI’s Return on Investment
Tech leaders at WSJ’s Technology Council Summit said it’s nearly impossible to measure the impact of AI on business productivity. And when we try, we’re measuring it wrong.
By Belle Lin and Steven Rosenbush
Sept. 16, 2025 9:33 pm ET

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Doctor WTF @hippopeteamus.bsky.social · 22d

DnD at 20: My Berserker Barbarian, with his Edgelord Warlock sidekick, seeks to defeat the Dark Gods and save the world from Evil.
DnD at 50: My Hedgehog Watchmaker (Artificer) and his Faerie Pastry Chef (Lore Bard) sidekick seek the finest marmalade and cosiest tea party in all the hedgerows.

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Andrew Weatherall @andyweatherall.bsky.social · 28d

So great. All of the stations.

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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 29d

If Israeli foreign influence operations masquerading around as community groups in Australia don't like one of the world's leading children's hospitals discussing the death of children in war, then perhaps Israel should stop killing so many of them. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...