Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · 7d

I forgot about my novelette 'Breaking Water', which was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Awards in 2016, and follows a journalist and a cook who becomes a 'dead charmer' as they grapple with the spiritual fallout of an epidemic of the undead in Kolkata:

7 22 54

Reposted

Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 16h

Judge Sara Ellis' opinion in IL v. Trump is an absolute banger:

www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559...

The Court therefore must make a credibility assessment as to which version of the facts
should be believed. While the Court does not doubt that there have been acts of vandalism, civil
disobedience, and even assaults on federal agents, the Court cannot conclude that Defendants’
declarations are reliable. Two of Defendants’ declarations refer to arrests made on September 27,
2025 of individuals who were carrying weapons and assaulting federal agents. See Doc. 62-2 at
19; Doc. 62-4 at 5. But neither declaration discloses that federal grand juries have refused to
return an indictment against at least three of those individuals, which equates to a finding of a
lack of probable cause that any crime occurred. See United States v. Ray Collins and Jocelyne
Robledo, 25-cr-608, Doc. 26 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 7, 2025); United States v. Paul Ivery, 25-cr-609
(N.D. Ill.). In addition to demonstrating a potential lack of candor by these affiants, it also calls
into question their ability to accurately assess the facts. Similar declarations were provided by
these same individuals in Chicago Headline Club et. al. v. Noem, 25-cv-12173, Doc. 35-1, Doc.
35-9 (N.D. Ill.), a case which challenged the Constitutionality of ICE’s response to protestors at
the Broadview ICE Processing Center. In issuing its TRO against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem,
the court in that case found that the plaintiffs would likely be able to show that ICE’s actions
have violated protestors’ First Amendment right to be free from retaliation while engaged in
newsgathering, religious exercise, and protest, and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from
excessive force. Id. at Doc. 43. Although this Court was not asked to make any such finding, it
does note a troubling trend of Defendants’ declarants equating protests with riots and a lack of
appreciation for the wide spectrum that exists between citizens who are observing, questioning,

17 290 1.3K

Reposted

The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 1d

Hecate for #ClassicsTober25 - although a minor figure in the magnificent Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau - Hecate’s presence as a chthonic goddess is significant to this work.

Who should wait patiently in the shadows? Hecate stands ready to meet Semele.

#AncientRome #History

Description of the painting from Wikipedia: “ It depicts a moment from the classical myth of the mortal woman Semele, mother of the god Dionysus, and her lover, Jupiter, the king of the gods. She was treacherously advised by the goddess Juno, Jupiter's wife, to ask him to appear to her in all his divine splendor. He obliged, but, in so doing, brought about her violent death by his divine thunder and lightning.”

Detail from Jupiter and Semele showing Hecate with the crescent moon crown in the lower left corner.

1 5 18

Reposted

Craig Barker @drcraigb.bsky.social · 2d

Happy #WorldOctopusDay

In this Attic kylix now in Boston, an octopus outsmarts the young boy fishing in the sea.

Attributed to the Ambrosios Painter, c. 510-500 BCE,
MFA Boston 01.8024 #archaeology 🏺
collections.mfa.org/objects/153702

Cup Interior tondo composition: A small nude boy is fishing as he crouches on a rocky ledge. He holds a woven bag in his left hand, and has a fish on the line. There is also a trap, shown under water, probably for the octopus hiding behind the rock. Above are the Greek letters: "P" "A" "S".

8 26

Reposted

Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · Jun 18

The 2025 shortlist:

Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera
Archangels of Funk, Andrea Hairston
Blackheart Man, Nalo Hopkinson
The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy
The West Passage, Jared Pechaček
Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo
North Continent Ribbon, Ursula Whitcher

1 44 220

Reposted

Katie West @katiewest.bsky.social · 1d

The Salvagers trilogy is one of my all-time favourite sci fi series. The characters became people I would think about in the same way I think of dear friends. It's fantastic and this price is a STEAL. BUY IT.

Alex White @alexwhite.bsky.social · 2d

Hey, I know that everything is terrible right now, but I also have to make money, so I'm going to tell you that A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is on SUPER SALE this month! Just $1.99!

Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Ship-Edge-Un...

Bookshop (Buy indie!):
bookshop.org/p/books/a-bi...

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (The Salvagers Book 1)

A washed-up treasure hunter, a hotshot racer, and a deadly secret society. They're all on a race against time to hunt down the greatest warship ever built. Some think the ship is lost forever, some t...

www.amazon.com

1 10 21

Reposted

Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 1d

Ah, it's a new frontier in Republican lawfare: buying off noisome plaintiffs. :

Jacob Shamsian @jayshams.bsky.social · 1d

I've been wondering why Dominion Voting Systems suddenly reached settlements with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and One America News.

Turns out, it's been purchased by a Republican-owned election tech firm that insisted on it, per Axios.

www.axios.com/2025/10/09/d...

2 29 53

Reposted

Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 1d

CAN YOU GUESS THIS ONE?? 👀

(Thanks to @schmidtocean.bsky.social for letting me share their video!)

13 69 180

Reposted

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 2d

Funeral Invitation, 1688.

Funeral invitations first appeared in the 17th century, and acted as an admission ticket to both the church and the funeral feast. Pallbearers were often assigned a number on the ticket to signify their position in carrying the coffin.

A funeral invitation from April, 1688. It has an ornate black border with various memento mori iconography around it - like skeletons, winged hourglasses, and scythes.

2 58 230

Reposted

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 3d

An amazing miniature portrait of the #Roman empress Agrippina Minor (15-59 AD), made from chalcedony. Agrippina was the mother of Nero, and married to her uncle, emperor Claudius. It was rumoured that she poisoned her husband with a dish of mushrooms.

📷me

On display at British Museum

🏺

A green stone bust of a woman displayed in a museum. The sculpture features an elaborate hairdo and a solemn expression. The bust is mounted on a clear stand, with a blurred background showcasing other artifacts in the exhibition.

6 58 300

Reposted

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 2d

The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology

British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm, L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.

10 130 410

Reposted

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

Today on Volts: hey listen up! The most important election of the year is happening in Georgia next month. Two seats on the (currently all-GOP) Public Service Commission are up & rising electricity prices are on everyone's mind. This is a bellwether for next year's governor & midterm elections!

Pay attention to the most important political race of 2025

With energy affordability set to dominate national politics, Peter Hubbard and Brionté McCorkle explain why a down-ballot Georgia race is ground zero for the fight.

www.volts.wtf

5 87 180

Reposted

The Octopus Gallery @octopusgallery.bsky.social · 2d

Good news for sewists: the paper pattern company feared lost to bankruptcy has been saved as an independent company.

craftindustryalliance.org/sewing-patte...

Sewing Patterns Rise from DGA Bankruptcy Ashes - Craft Industry Alliance

The “Big 4” sewing patterns are saved. Simplicity, McCall’s, Vogue & Butterick get new life under Rubelmann Capital.

craftindustryalliance.org

20 560 1.1K

Reposted

Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 2d

Schiaparelli always knew how to bring the drama to her collections, often collaborating with other artists to combine the creativity. This 1939 evening coat was inspired by the Italian comeddia dell’arte and references the character of Harlequin @metmuseum.org #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A mannequin posed in a bright silk satin evening coat in geometric patterns of blue, yellow and red. It is lit to create drama with a shadow behind the mannequin. She is wearing long red gloves

1 10 78

Reposted

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

I have taken
the freedom of speech
that was in
the Constitution

and which
you were probably
using
for peaceful protest

Forgive me
the courts said they were
so agitating
and so irritating

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

14 220 790

Reposted

Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 3d

#histmed #MedievalSky Minji Lee's book, The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body, has just been released #OpenAccess: library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

Cover image of Minji Lee, The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body. On the complex imagery reproduced on the cover, read the book!

2 32 96

Reposted

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 2d

Samuel Alito basically argued that hating yourself is the natural state of a queer kid. And he pretended kids are the ones seeking conversion.

In reality, it's parents and religious leaders forcing this on kids — and it's abuse.

www.salon.com/2025/10/08/s...

How SCOTUS covers for the abuse of LGBTQ kids

In conversion therapy case, conservative justices imply queer kids are born hating themselves

www.salon.com

2 11 63

bibliomancer7.bsky.social @bibliomancer7.bsky.social · 3d

Kind of like how Oliver Wendell Holmes shook hands with both John Quincy Adams and JFK.

1 13

bibliomancer7.bsky.social @bibliomancer7.bsky.social · 3d

Edward Gorey was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer

7 47

Reposted

Isaiah D. Colbert @shineyezehuhh.bsky.social · 3d

Makoto Yukimura was worried that Vinland Saga's farming arc and "I have no enemies" moment was a gamble that readers wouldn't like. I told him about the J. Cole meme from the Kendrick Lamar and Drake rap beef. This is how he reacted.

If “I have no enemies” has become a meme and people remember it, then maybe people will understand what I’m really trying to say through the story, which is that humans are immature, but we can mature. To become mature is to become kind. This is the foundation of what I’m trying to say, but it really has to be much shorter for people to remember. But it does give me hope that people remember these short phrases as memes. Then, one day, it will click in their mind what I was trying to really say in the first place.

9 560 1.4K

Reposted

Ned Hartley @nedhartley.com · 5d

French PM Lecornu resigning after 13 hours now makes the Lecornu the shortest length to measure political time. For those of you using old measures this is 1/18 of a Scaramucci or about 1.2% of a Truss

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 5d

France’s latest government lasted 13 hours and 47 minutes

FinTwitter @fintwitter.bsky.social · 5d

FRENCH PM LECORNU RESIGNS

8 92 250

Reposted

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 5d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

11 140 460

Reposted

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · 5d

CDC has finally adopted the recommendations its vaccine panel made Sept. 19. This should increase access to Covid vaccines somewhat — CVS and Walgreens had said once the recs were official, they'd offer the shots w/o Rx nationwide, and Vaccines for Children program also needed the official approval

11 150 370

Reposted

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 5d

The number of parents who gasped when we told them no, we could not tell them what their kids checked out because their kids have a right to privacy!

We offered “one book cards” to kids whose parents wouldn’t agree to let them have a card. They could take out a book at a time. The FURY.

Helena Greer @blumagaincurios.bsky.social · 5d

My feelings about Banned Books Week are that no indeedy parents do NOT have the right to decide what their own children read, because children are human beings with the right to dignity and privacy.

Agreeing w the parents rights premise shifts the Overton window in the wrong ass direction.

7 110 460