Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 6m

The picture in my icon is like fifteen years old, but sure, go for it!

1

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 4h

This bubble can't burst soon enough.

Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 16h

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

3

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 6h

I was lucky enough to get the one story I've currently been submitting back from the previous market the week before Uncanny opened. (Not lucky enough to get it accepted there, but so it goes!) I wasn't looking forward to the decision on whether to pull it from the other market...

2

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Zach Rabiroff @zachrabiroff.com · 8h

Great news! We have built the Blackmail Machine from the classic sci-fi short story, "Help, The Blackmail Machine Is Selling My Sex Dreams to Stephen Miller"

The Verge @theverge.com · 13h

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

13 120 400

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 14h

Tag yourself. I'm "Calc."

Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 1d

The 5 genders

From a 1980s computer tablet, mode buttons for:

Call, Finance, Memo, Phone and Time

1 2

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 1d

The Regime's goal is to grind everyone down. Plain & simple. Our goal is to refuse this by taking turns to fight where and how we can. When one group needs to bow out, then another group needs to step in and so on. We don't all have to do everything. We can all do something though. Stay in the fight

26 1.4K 4.4K

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

I used to be pretty negative about Dog Man, and then I actually read it.

I'd never before seen a comic aimed at eight-year-olds tackle subjects like generational trauma before.

4

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

Ettore Boiardi.

(Aka "Chef Boyardee".)

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 1d

name an italian more worthy of an american holiday than columbus

2

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

When Mike Johnson or another national leader repeatedly claims they haven’t seen relevant things in the news, an appropriate reporter reaction would be “Holy cow, how do you not know?!? How can you do your job without knowing what’s happening? What are you doing to fix your ‘not knowing’ problem?”

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 1d

I don't understand why U.S. reporters so regularly seem to let politicians get away with 'I haven't seen that' about stuff a) they obviously know and b) is directly relevant to their job. Did they sign some kind of agreement never to ask a follow-up question?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

REPORTER: We know the president moved forward with mass layoffs. We're also learning there were significant cuts to staff at special education services. Are you comfortable with those cuts?

MIKE JOHNSON: I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know

48 440 1.7K

Reposted by Darth Paradox

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 1d

This is some of the best political news I've seen in a very long time.

There's a clear a way to end the Citizens United precedent by changing state incorporation laws - and now luminaries in both parties are forcing a vote on it in the 2026 election.

54 1K 2.8K

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

Genre is a social construct.

1 1

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

Genres are real in the way the color blue is real. We can often agree on what things are or aren't blue, but far less often on exactly where the blue/green border is. And at the end of the day it's just a name we gave to a range of electromagnetic wavelengths - and a relatively recent name, at that.

1 2

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

I agree with everything below except for the first sentence. Genres are real, but they're not useful as a way of strictly categorizing things. They're signposts, not fenceposts.

Wole Talabi @wtalabi.bsky.social · 1d

Genres aren't real. They are mental projections we impose on stories to simplify the way talk about and sell them but stories come unshaped from deep within us and writers shouldn't feel constrained by or even respect genres at all. The story comes first.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

1 2

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 1d

To be fair, a lot of the references in Aladdin were already dated when the movie first came out.

1 2

Reposted by Darth Paradox

kat, ghost of helenruthsghost @chaoskat.bsky.social · 3d

Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

It’s dinner time for the police. Appears to be pizza from a Salvation Army van.

Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.

6 4.6K 8.1K

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 2d

Their goal is almost certainly claiming a larger piece of the Kindle Unlimited payment pool by getting readers at least 10% (or whatever the threshold is) of the way into their books before they realize how shitty they are.

Marco Rinaldi @marcorinaldi.bsky.social · Nov 25

Why? Who is this meant to be good for? Nobody wants your shit AI books, never mind 8,000 in a year. Just a terrible idea and a horrible road the publishing industry is heading down.

Bookseller article with the headline "New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone" 🤮🤮🤮

2

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 2d

Success!

1

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

Not only is this explanation great, I also know 5,271,009 people whose lives would be changed for the better by taking it on board.

Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 12d

This Tumblr user summarizes something I've been feeling/doing lately. Against everything going on, it somehow feels helpful.

User homoquartz writes: as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now."
Small talk isn't to get to know a person. It's just a greeting to affirm you're buddies in the universe. I am motivated by wanting the other person to know I am friendly, so I have gotten pretty decent at small tall when I used to hate it.

6 41 120

Reposted by Darth Paradox

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

290 3.3K 14K

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 2d

I tried to make a joke about how it should have been "trainsmutation" and autocorrect messed it up for me 😔

1

Darth Paradox @darthparadox.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“Zero-day kernel CVE”

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 3d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

Eleanor G @zaichishka.bsky.social · 3d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“Translate 'yoroshiku onegai shimasu'”.

3

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 3d

found exactly the one use of “evil recoils in the presence of Christ” I am willing to sign off on, HOOOOOOOOLY SHIT

Father Larry did not come here to fuck around

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 3d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

25 980 3.8K

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Micah @rincewind.run · 2d

if we'd treated their obvious baldfaced lies and deflections more like this over the past eight years maybe we wouldn't be in this situation

shocking how easy it is when you actually see it done

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

35 990 4.9K

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Carolyn Ownbey, PhD @carolynownbey.bsky.social · 2d

If you haven’t seen it, this footage from @apnews.com is incredibly important.

The intent here seems unmistakable, in two ways: (1) just read the genocide convention, here it **absolutely** is, and (2) this level of infrastructural destruction is, no question, meant as pre-development demolition.

14 270 450

Reposted by Darth Paradox

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 3d

🧵 regarding the shutdown:

The Democrats aren’t being clear enough about this but we can be: this shutdown is about saving lives.

If we don’t reverse the Medicaid cuts (and the ACA subsidies on insurance bought through the exchanges) that Republicans made this year, people will die.

7 220 660