Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Trump Loses Nobel Peace Prize He Shamelessly Campaigned For

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 13h

“Trump, fueled by a bone-deep contempt for Barack Obama—who won the plaudit in his first year as President—has been shameless in his bid to become the fifth person in his role to get the prestigious nod for those who chase peace, “
time.com/7324832/trum...

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday said the recognition would instead go to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

'Lee Miller was the bravest person I ever knew': The pioneering photographer who captured the horror of World War Two

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 13h

“She would later quip: "I'd rather take a picture than be one". By 1942, she was an accredited World War Two correspondent for the same glossy magazine she had originally modelled and shot designer outfits for.”
www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

The unflinching gaze of the fearless US artist and war photographer bore witness to both beauty and brutality. Now she is the subject of a major exhibition at Tate Britain.

www.bbc.com

What sort of humanist thinking should we be pursuing in the age of smart machines? Is humanism compatible with AI? Or do humans need to think of smart digital tech as a species threat?

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 13h

“The holy grail for all these tech companies, big and small alike, is to create AI that replaces our physical human labour with the ‘work’ of the algorithm. That is what tech visionaries eulogise as the disruption of the digital age.”
engelsbergideas.com/essays/algor...

Algorithms vs Humanity

engelsbergideas.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

That’s correct;the starvation deaths of this number of children is a brutal ,diabolical act of a despotic monster; Netanyahu now joins Hitler , Stalin and other mass murderers as one of the most evil executioners in history; following a similar atrocity committed by Hitler against his people.

Plato and the Poets - Boston Review

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Plato was essentially a poet—the truth and splendour of his imagery, and the melody of his language, are the most intense that it is possible to conceive.” www.bostonreview.net/articles/pla...

The centuries-old debate should be settled: an intellectual world bereft of poetry is a damaged one.

www.bostonreview.net

Avant-Garde 1920s Costumes Reemerge, Revealing Their Makers’ Tragic Story

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights.”
hyperallergic.com/248602/avant...

In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights.

These 4 Words Can Defuse Any Awkward Situation

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Well, that was awkward!” Or: “That was certainly honest!” In addition to acknowledging the inappropriate or uncomfortable comment and framing it as something positive—the truth—you’re signaling your desire to change the course of the conversation”
time.com/7323983/what...

Awkwardness thrives in silence—but humor disarms it.

Almost 55,000 preschool children in Gaza acutely malnourished, Lancet study estimates

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Almost 55,000 children under the age of six in Gaza are estimated to be acutely malnourished, far more than have so far been identified as victims of the potentially lethal condition “
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Study shows clear link between Israeli aid restrictions and malnutrition among children aged between six months and five years

US shutdown deadlock deepens as senators reject competing bills

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“The deadlock over ending the US government shutdown deepened on Wednesday, with senators once again rejecting competing bills to restart funding as Democrats and Republicans remain dug in on their demands for reopening federal agencies. “
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Proposals from both sides fail to receive enough support as no senators change their votes from recent days

The Boundless Deep by Richard Holmes review – wild times with young Tennyson

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“It is inconceivable,” wrote Tennyson, “that the whole Universe was merely created for us, who live on a third-rate planet of a third-rate sun.” The new telescopes and microscopes revealed spaces infinitely large and beings infinitesimally small”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous early 19th century crisis of faith

The Supreme Court is headed toward a radically new vision of unlimited presidential power

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Formed by conservative legal theorists in the 1980s to help President Ronald Reagan roll back liberal policies, the unitary executive theory promises to radically expand presidential power.”
theconversation.com/the-supreme-...

Recent rulings indicate that the high court is leaning toward expanding the type of presidential power that is more emblematic of dictatorship than democracy.

theconversation.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Through his art, he comes across as both confident and restless, always searching for the next combination of color and form rather than a motif. “
hyperallergic.com/1047487/geor...

George Morrison Painted a Different Picture of Abstract Expressionism

The Ojibwe artist was active in New York's midcentury art scene and embraced by fellow Abstract Expressionists, yet he’s rarely in canonical histories today.

CBS Has Been in Conservative Sights for Decades

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Paramount acquiring The Free Press,online political commentary site,and giving its co-founder Bari Weiss the job of editor-in-chief at CBS News, it capped weeks of speculation—what critics describe as a right-wing takeover of one of the nation’s most storied broadcasters”
time.com/7318570/cbs-...

It was once deemed the "Communist Broadcasting System" by conservative activists.

‘A cottage of one’s own’: Newly unearthed Virginia Woolf stories to be published

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“The stories are satirical, fantastical and perhaps surprisingly comic. They move from aristocratic antics in a grand Jacobean house in Hertfordshire to a bedtime tale of two goddesses who arrive in “Tokio”, Japan, on the back of a whale.”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

A chance discovery at a country house revealed the three funny – sometimes surreal – interlinked tales, written almost a decade before Woolf’s first book was published

Can America Become a Democracy?

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“The United States has one of the oldest constitutions still in effect, but it can seem hard to find true believers. Republicans claim its principles, but let Trump choose its meaning, abrogating clauses and amendments according to his whim.”
newrepublic.com/article/2011...

What it would take for the United States to live up to the promise of its founding

newrepublic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Lorde’s poetry, and eventually her prose, came to prominence just as would-be revolutionaries were learning to live with the new dispensation. Different tactics were required, political relationships had to be rebuilt and new alliances considered.”
www.bunkhistory.org/resources/ke...

I Do Not Have to Be You: Audre Lorde’s Legacy

Audre Lorde’s legacy shows how feminism can honor difference, as Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues in this review.

www.bunkhistory.org

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Inspired by William Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet (1599–1601), Millais’s work portrays Prince Hamlet’s rejected lover Ophelia in the moments before her tragic death by drowning in a brook. “
hyperallergic.com/1035887/did-...

Did This 19th-Century Painting Inspire Taylor Swift’s New Album Art?

The dramatic teal green cover for the singer’s forthcoming “The Life of A Showgirl” is an apparent wink to John Everett Millais’s famous “Ophelia.”

Life’s Hidden Dramas in the Art of Walter Sickert

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Sickert went his own way, always. Like Breugel’s Icarus, the subjects of many of his best works are things seen off to the side, a bit inconsequential.”
hyperallergic.com/1046886/life...

Sickert didn’t go in for glamour or flattery and the subjects of many of his best works are things seen off to the side, a bit inconsequential.

Gossiping Is Smarter Than You Think

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“The fact that we all gossip so much—without getting caught—is a paradox hiding in plain sight: how do we so freely spread sensitive information, often about people we know, without the subject of our gossip ever finding out? “
time.com/7320905/goss...

The mental machinery that helps us spread rumors also helps us thrive in an interconnected world.

Trump Is Steadily Pushing the Republic Toward the Edge of Oblivion

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do, and what many of us warned was coming. He has long aimed to demolish American democracy, and he and his inner circle of supporters are now backed into a corner where they have few options but to double down.”
newrepublic.com/article/2010...

The administration has entered its most anti-Constitutional phase yet. We must call a regime that’s a danger to our way of life what it is.

newrepublic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“Brueghel’s exposure to Italy’s artistic history helped him refine his signature delicate brushwork and rich color palette, which would earn him the nickname “Velvet Brueghel.” www.thecollector.com/jan-brughel-...

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s Brilliant Work and Tragic Death | TheCollector

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s journey, from Italian influences and Rubens collaborations to botanical masterpieces and a mysterious, tragic demise.

www.thecollector.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“Habitual behaviour is made up of the things that we do without thinking, prompted by our environment and learned through repeated enactment. Encountering a familiar trigger – such as a sound, a location or another person – can activate a learned association”
theconversation.com/most-of-your...

Most of your actions are driven by habit, not thought – here’s why that’s not a bad thing

And how you can use psychology to help you break out of the habits you want to lose.

theconversation.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“Rhetoric without consequence has been the west’s modus operandi for decades. The cost has been catastrophic.”
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe