Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Birder K

Emma Evans @trance.bsky.social · 7h

Here's the thing. Over the last few days people have wanted to discourse, or play lawyer, or be petty and weird with minutia

Whatever.

It's real simple to me.

Link being permanently banned is wrong. That decision should be reversed.

Period.

Emma Evans @trance.bsky.social · 8h

Link's ban is wrong and should be reversed.

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 3h

Who Link was here & how he formed site culture, insisting on alt text & accessibility & disability justice, insisting on standing with trans people, mutual aid, irreverent shitposting, shows exactly that this culture of early bluesky that forged the platform is the opposite of what the team wants.

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 2h

NEW: Nevada could’ve fined Elon Musk’s Boring Co. more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project

Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

www.propublica.org

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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 6h

Zack absolutely coming for them

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 6h

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 3h

“Their data tells a clear story. The ice is forming later, melting earlier and getting thinner each year, and the snow cover is lighter. What was once a glacier 17 years ago has melted into the sea. As the ice disappears, more heat gets absorbed by the dark fjord water, contributing to warming”

Curious Reindeer and Hungry Polar Bears: Warming Is Upending an Arctic Island

www.nytimes.com

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Ale @alepresser.com · 6h

I *just* found it available on Amazon in some other countries (Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Poland...)
So, yeah! The list is growing!

If you find SideQuested available at local bookshops in your country, please let us know!

Ale @alepresser.com · 18h

Ok, look, I just updated the list of online places to preorder Side Quested Book 1:

sidequested.com/preorder-boo...

Aparently, now there are ebook preorders available (Amazon and Apple Books), and more places on Australia and Canada!

If I find more, I'll update this!

You can preorder SideQuested Book 1 NOW! - Side Quested Webcomic

Yes, finally! You can preorder SideQuested Book 1 wherever books are sold! Here are convenient links to some of the big stores (but your local indie brick-and-mortar store will also…

sidequested.com

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Miki Perkins @mikiperkins.bsky.social · 4h

This is desperately sad. Professor John Woinarski breaks the news for @aunz.theconversation.com that Australia's next animal - the tiny Christmas Island Shrew - has officially been declared extinct.

theconversation.com/and-then-the...

And then there were none: Australia’s only shrew declared extinct

Australia’s only known shrew has been declared extinct. Its loss emphasises the need for national protection of Australia’s rare and unique wildlife.

theconversation.com

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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 5h

Donald Trump’s extraordinary financial assistance for Argentina may be enough to shore up local markets until a key midterm election, but it’s doing little to boost President Javier Milei with voters

Trump Lifeline Does Little to Boost Milei With Argentina Voters

Donald Trump’s extraordinary financial assistance for Argentina may be enough to shore up local markets until a key midterm election later this month, but it’s doing little to boost President Javier Milei’s standing with voters.

bloom.bg

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 5h

Either it's a video of you saying stuff you didn't say, which is violently problematic, or it's a video of you saying stuff you did say, in which case what was the purpose of the AI bit?

Martin Nutbeem @martinnutbeem.bsky.social · 6h

Nothing could possibly go wrong with this. Creating a lifelike digital avatar on a third party platform will definitely not open teaching staff up to career destroying issues in the event of that platform being hacked.

Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 8h

Exclusive: Teachers will use 'deepfake' technology to create an AI avatar of themselves to deliver catch-up lessons for pupils who have missed school

Watch one of the school’s ‘deepfake’ teachers in our story below

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-trus...

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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 5h

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina Machado for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy

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BirdLife International @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social · 5h

🚨2025 #RedList Update🚨

We have reassessed 1,360 bird species. Out of the 11,185 species assessed worldwide: 

⚠️11.5% are globally threatened.

📉61% have declining populations.

But restoring habitats will help put these species on a path to recovery.🌱

Read more👉 www.birdlife.org/red-list-upd...

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Benjamin Balthaser @blbalthaser.bsky.social · 10h

Trump deserves no credit for this ceasefire - even in a backhanded way. He could have stopped the war this entire past year. If you have to thank someone - and there is little to be thankful for given the ruins of Gaza - please thank the global protest movement.

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 17h

and that's why we don't trust private equity

Jacob Shamsian @jayshams.bsky.social · 20h

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...

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 11h

Ian Carroll is a bad dude. He appears on Alex Jones and regularly dabbles in anti-semitic conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the holocaust.

If Ro Khanna is not only sharing his videos but sitting down to talk with him or his allies, something is fundamentally broken within the Democratic Party.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 11h

Thiessen having a good chuckle about his fired liberal colleagues - some of whom he worked with for 15 years - is a good reminder that token conservatives at mainstream news outlets are/were there to destroy them, not to contribute to them.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 14h

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13h

I donated some copies of Let This Radicalize You for distribution at an ICE watch training for folks who want to join school patrols in a nearby neighborhood. Not everyone got a copy, because 120 people showed up for that training tonight. I am endlessly proud of Chicago.

A display of copies of Let This Radicalize You on a table in front of a sign that reads: "Let This Radicalize You offers stories, strategy and heart for the kind of collective care and resistance we're building together today. It helps us move from reacting to organizing. Showing how ordinary people protect each other, build power, and keep hope alive. Take a copy. Read it. Stay connected."

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Wendy Miller @burrowingowl.bsky.social · 14h

New burrowing owl behavior for me today-- taking a bath in the rain! So cool! 🪶

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becca | they/them @beccaisoutside.bsky.social · 14h

this is the most pollen ive ever seen on a single bug, shes having the time of her life

photo of a bee covered all-over with bright orange pollen.

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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 22h

There's +$25 in bonus donations on this, so if you donate a dollar it magically becomes $26! Get on it and let's get some kids school supplies!

T. Greg "Antifa General Counsel (Retired)" Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 23h

The reskeetable TL;DR:

➡️ Donate at the link below before 11:59pm PDT Sunday 10/12/25

➡️ Let me know

➡️ Me + @esp1371.bsky.social + @jamesdyoung.bsky.social + @charliereece.com each kick in $5 per donor

➡️ Classrooms get school supplies! 🔥🔥🔥

bullcityschools.app.neoncrm.com/tgregdoucette

Greg's C2C Fundraiser

bullcityschools.app.neoncrm.com

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Jer Thorp @jerthorp.bsky.social · 13h

Stretch maybe but if someone could hook me up with a ticket for NYCC on Sunday, my kid would be very pleased.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 13h

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Wagatwe Wanjuki @wagatwe.com · 13h

but I was told #metoo made men so afraid they wouldn't even talk to women

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13h

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 13h

Pleased to see both my senators on there after I called their offices and spoke to people in person instead of leaving a message, asking them to shut the govt down and keep it down rather than vote for any bill that attacks trans people.

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 13h

Unofficial list of Dems opposing the NDAA passage here:

Baldwin
Booker
Cantwell
Duckworth
Durbin
Kim
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Padilla
Paul
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Smith
Van Hollen
Warren
Welch
Wyden

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Aerin Jacob, PhD @aerinj.bsky.social · 14h

Hello Ottawa! I will be giving talks at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa later this month. You are welcome attend.

Thu Oct 30, 5:30-6:30 pm
Annual Carmody Lecture
Carleton University
Health Science Auditorium HS 1301

carleton.ca/biology/cu-e...

George R. Carmody Lecture with Dr. Aerin Jacob

The 2025 Annual Carmody Lecture will feature Dr. Aerin Jacob, who will present “Conserving living landscapes and creating lasting legacies” on Thursday October 30, 2025 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. The eveni...

carleton.ca

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