Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brian T. Rice

zach @extrafabulous.bsky.social · 8h

Reposted by Brian T. Rice

Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 14h

I am so sick of living in a world where certain groups insist art & culture be re-oriented to serve their tastes and whims when their own pitiful inability or unwillingness to critically engage with and contemplate creativity clearly demonstrate that art & culture are too good for them.

Conservatives Take Aim at ‘One Battle After Another’: “Year’s Most Irresponsible Movie”

While Paul Thomas Anderson's film is being heralded as a masterpiece by many, some conservatives accuse it of potentially inspiring left-wing violence.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

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The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 8h

Christ

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 14h

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 2d

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 5h

I'm laughing out loud because, *twenty years ago*, a friend in robotics told me that showing off a dancing robot is what you do when your robot sucks, and a *group* of them even more so.

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Sorrowscopes @sorrowscopes.bsky.social · 4h

Scorpio: If you’re looking for answers from giant balls of plasma that are millions of miles away, it’s already too late. See a therapist. Eat a burrito.

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Sorrowscopes @sorrowscopes.bsky.social · 4h

Sagittarius: Today’s planetary configuration resembles a middle finger but it’s probably nothing.

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qdot @buttplug.engineer · 6d

Boards of Canada's Olsen performed on a PDP-1. Holy shit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wubk...

Boards of Canada "Olson" on a 1959 PDP-1 Computer

YouTube video by Joe Lynch

www.youtube.com

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Countess Sappho @countess-sappho.bsky.social · 1d

YOU HEARD THEM

Meme image of Shinji from Evangelion leaning forward in a folding chair with his heads in his hands. Text around him reads "GET IN THE FUCKING FROG" and there are two depictions of someone in inflatable frog suits

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Microchip Makes @microchip-makes.bsky.social · 1d

MagnePins is a modular, ATmega2560-controlled DIY refreshable braille and tactile display.

Novel mechanism makes refreshable braille displays practical | Arduino Blog

Tactile displays — particularly for use as refreshable braille displays — have always been a challenge to design and fabricate, as they require so many moving parts. Every dot needs its own actuated m...

blog.arduino.cc

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Bruno Dias @brunodias.bsky.social · 1d

The whole 'Jay was under legal pressure!' conspiracy theory is nonsense. Put it down.

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Bruno Dias @brunodias.bsky.social · 1d

This is a letter from one random loser in the House bitching at social media platforms with a vague threat backed by no actual extant legal authority. If your response to getting this letter was to immediately knee jerk ban a bunch of people, you have no business running a social media platform.

Evelyn @chipnick.com · 6d

Seems like it.

Letter to the CEOs of major us based social media platforms including BlueSky

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the service you provide to our Republic, and may God be with you and
your family. America is suffering under the dark weight of horror after the graphic, televised murder of a heroic Christian leader, Mr. Charlie Kirk. I ask that you reflect upon your own unique responsibility to participate in the very appropriate, legal and Constitutionally sound response.

Please be advised that your platforms are rightfully expected to expeditiously remove all posts that have celebrated the political assassination ofCharlie Kirk. Further, the authors of these posts are tobe identified and banned from your platform, as well as any new pages they may create.

Gleeful celebration of the heinous murder of an American citizen, brazenly published within the public forums of social media, is not to be tolerated within the accepted and legal parameters ofa free and humane society, and I have initiated a Congressional effort to force

accountability. If you shield these offenders, section 230 will not protect your platform from vigorous exposure.

I hold the gavel for the Federal Law Enforcement subcommittee of the House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee, and my Chair has specific Congressional authority over Federal regulatory law enforcement. My Committee will be a leading force in the righteous endeavor to protect the legitimate free exchange of ideas and opinions, which requires the vigilant maintenance of appropriate behaviors within our publicly accessed social media forums.

The reasonable restriction of public statements that lie far beyond the standards of our own society is not an oppression of free speech, it is, rather, the protection of free speech. Having the will to guard the standards and integrity of the infrastructure that enables the expression of opinion in our public discourse is a crucial responsibility that we must embrace. I am hopeful to receive your full cooperation, and I expect a formal response to this letter of encouragement within one business week.

Respectfully,
Chay bein
Clay Higgins
Member of Congress

CC:
The Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America
The Honorable Pam Bondi, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 1d

The English Revolution was in no small part sparked by King Charles I routing around parliament to find everything he wanted through non/legislative means, despite that being why Parliament exists. Over a century later, American colonists aware of this explicitly gave their Congress power to stop it

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

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David Neiwert @davidneiwert.bsky.social · 1d

This has always been part of the GOP playbook: Downplay incidents of right-wing violence, and then repurpose them as supposed acts of leftist terrorism for public consumption. They first did this in 2020.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

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Scifi Art @scifiart.bsky.social · 23h

Bruce Pennington ‘Eschatus’ (Dragon’s World, 1976) 1/2

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An Enigma Shrouded in Mystery (Shadowlab) @shadownetworks.org · 23h

"Redefining the world wide web."

Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 1d

Arachnotechnology.

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Josh Busby @busbyj2.bsky.social · 1d

No way to run a government. Fired. Not fired. Fired again. Not fired. Pants on fire.

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Some of the layoffs at CDC are being REVERSED.
Here is my updated story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

More than 1,000 CDC staff receive layoff notices during government shutdown

Another round of mass layoffs has struck CDC. The agency had already been cut during a reorganization this year, and more employees are now being shed amid the government shutdown.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 23h

Genuinely one of the smartest things I’ve read about the curdled politics of 2025.
archive.is/gGS6V

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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[foreign Object] @jcoglan.com · 1d

passkeys are a dead end unless they are adequately explained to users, which so far they emphatically have not been

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auonsson @auonsson.bsky.social · 23h

Estonia has closed off a road/border passing through Russia after larger than usual groups of troops have been spotted.

Comment: I am hard pressed to find any insignia on those filmed and SE news claims "little green men".

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23h

really striking the degree to which not a single person working in the trump administration appears to be interested in serving the american people

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Bill Corbett @billcorbett.bsky.social · 23h

These are state police, under @jbpritzker.bsky.social’s control. The great khan.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 23h

Troopers just violently attacked protesters, tackled several, several arrests, shoving activists and press with batons.

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Identifile: Desktop Dungeon @gearbytegames.bsky.social · 1d

My friend and I spent a year making a Desktop Dungeon Crawler game about deleting viruses!

And it's coming to Steam Next Fest coming Monday!
#gamedev 🎮 #pixelart #indiegame

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Karen Dalton Beninato 🐦 @kbeninato.bsky.social · 1d

Lived through this at a small paper. Every consultant pitch seemed like what someone would recommend if they didn't want any more newspapers.

Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 1d

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists.

I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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