Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 3h

I got to be part of it *in person*! It was such a fun, thoughtful crew.

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Hisham Zerriffi @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social · 3h

Halfway through this seminar on Sustainable Futures and thrilled with how it has been so far. Wonderful students and a series of phenomenal guest speakers.

Huge thanks so far to Holly, Duffy, @kevinjkircher.com, Taco, @agiang.bsky.social, @debcha.bsky.social who‘ve given them a lot to think about.

Hisham Zerriffi @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social · Sep 1

"Exploring Sustainable Futures" through lenses of modeling/scenarios, planning and speculative fiction.

Can't wait to teach this new grad seminar starting Tuesday. Should be a ton of fun.

HMU if you are a modeler, a planner or a writer and interested in popping in to chat with the students. (1)

Course poster showing a person, hands on hips, staring at two diverging paths. There are circles showing a desert, an industrial scene and a forest. Text says:
FRST-V-532-C-101 Directed Studies in Forest Management
Exploring Sustainable Futures
Sustainability challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss
are “wicked problems” with long-term, uncertain outcomes. This
graduate seminar explores how we think about the future, who
shapes it, and how future-oriented thinking drives action today.
Through three lenses—scenario modeling, strategic planning,
and speculative fiction—we’ll examine how different disciplines
approach sustainable futures and how their interaction can
strengthen decision-making in the face of complexity.

1 2 6

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 3h

Yes, that would be *why* we have all these systems (technological and also social) that make them somebody else’s problem. But not engaging with them (or thinking that we just need better code) is still the equivalent of little kids thinking that meat comes from the grocery store on plastic trays.

4

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 3h

You get to read the book, *other* people get to read the book, and every interaction like this that you have with your local library sends a message that it is valued and supported by the community.

Apart from everything else, now is a great time to support civic institutions!

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 24d

Hey, I know books are expensive and money is tight right now.

But if there's a brand new book you really wanna read — including my own Lessons in Magic and Disaster — you can help get the book into way more hands by requesting it from your local library!

It's easy! Check your library's website.

11 30

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 4h

My working theory is that the reason it’s all “AI! Crypto! Simgularity!” Is because everything about actually being a body in a world of matter is tacit (ie material properties), taken care of by infrastructure (water, sewage, HVAC…), gendered (food, clothes…), or someone else’s problem (pollution).

1 11

Reposted by Deb Chachra

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 7h

🧵 from the always invaluable Dr. Taber.

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 7h

Farm bankruptcies are back in the news, so it's time to pull this chart out again.

Hey look they kept rising during Trump's first term. Then they went way down under Biden.

Now they're up again? So weird. Thanks Farm Bureau for the graphic

Screenshot from Farm Bureau article on farm bankruptcies. It shows farm bankruptcies climbing steadily 2014-2020, falling by half in 2021, & continuing to fall through 2023.

2 48 140

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle.com · 9h

MIT President Kornbluth announced on Friday the university “cannot support” Trump’s compact, saying the university disagreed with a number of the principles laid out in the document, including policies that would limit freedom of expression and institutional independence.

MIT President Says ‘We Cannot Support’ Trump’s Compact

The institution’s president, Sally Kornbluth, wrote: The proposal “is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

chroni.cl

2 20 59

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 7h

My leave is primarily focused on sharing and building on the ideas in HOW INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS and laying track for my next projects. I do have some capacity for collaborations -- please reach out if you've wanted to work together. (Vancouver friends, stay tuned for some fun events in the pipeline!)

13

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 7h

Ongoing updates: I'm currently on leave from Olin College of Engineering and based in Vancouver, Canada. I'm a Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia (thanks, @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social, for the collegial hospitality!) and very excited to continue to connect with this community.

1 1 16

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Veeloxxy Bites @the-episiarch.bsky.social · Jan 14

OMG I've FINALLY found it - the TV Ontario series about nuclear physics that I watched repeatedly when I was 14
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiM0...

You have nostalgia for the original Pokémon anime series.

I have nostalgia for the TVOntario Nuclear Physics animated series.

We are not the same.

Nuclear Physics - TVO (Full Video Series

www.youtube.com

1 12 40

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, this was (and remains) the great promise of the web — that we could create, share and connect with each other exactly like this, peer-to-peer, without gatekeepers, rather than one-to-many broadcast. It’s just that now we’re trying to do it while pollution is being dumped into the ecosystem.

4 9

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

140 1.8K 4.6K

Reposted by Deb Chachra

𝔾𝕆ℝ𝔸ℕ @gorangligovic.bsky.social · 2d

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to

9 21 110

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

59 1.1K 3.7K

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 2d

I half-jokingly, half-for real say that I think large swathes of the US will get distributed grid-scale storage in the form of a bunch of networked electric F-150s, bought to save gas and as battery backup for unreliable domestic power…

It’s not what I think we should choose but also? I’ll take it.

3 3 14

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Amy K @amyklassen.bsky.social · 3d

It's true! When I studied economics, I was stunned by the ROI of social programs. Every dollar spent on childcare returns about $2.80 to the economy, and healthcare delivers even greater returns with broader social impact.

A universal basic income is simply smart fiscal policy. Why the reluctance?

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 4d

For every €1 provided through a Basic Income For Artists pilot program in Ireland, the government got €1.46 back. So it’s being made permanent.

Over and over we see it. It saves public money to provide public housing. And it makes public money to provide basic income.

We can’t afford to NOT do it.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 4d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

15 120 290

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 5d

At King’s College London (on the Strand, the north shore of the Thames), they were reno’ing the building a few years ago and found a space that was bricked closed and nobody knew what was inside. Storeroom? Bodies? Interdimensional portal? I think they decided they were better off not knowing.

2

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 5d

I mean, I have questions.

Mainly, where was the canal water draining _to_?

Also, _why_?

1 2

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 7d

@earlymodernjohn.bsky.social [Just making sure you see this.]

Zachary Lesser @zacharylesser.bsky.social · 7d

Kofta kebab recipe in England c. 1660. Amazing find!

Danielle Clarke @rhetorician.bsky.social · 7d

Would anyone like to take a guess at the word before “kebob”? Which predates OED - ms is 1660

6

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Zachary Lesser @zacharylesser.bsky.social · 7d

Kofta kebab recipe in England c. 1660. Amazing find!

Danielle Clarke @rhetorician.bsky.social · 7d

Would anyone like to take a guess at the word before “kebob”? Which predates OED - ms is 1660

2 61 190

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 7d

[ilu all]

Chris recently informed me that in any arena, the debcha people were identifiable by their vibes, and I love that framing because it’s less about me being a *social* nexus and more that I’m just my friends’ type specimen for a way of being, interacting and understanding the world.

1 6

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Elizabeth Leitman @wxliz.bsky.social · 9d

Just a reminder that NWS is considered essential during a government shutdown. Meteorologists will still go to work, forecasts will still be made, watches and warnings will be issued, data will flow. We won’t be paid until the shutdown ends, but we’ll still protect life and property as always.

12 100 340

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 9d

Looking at a posting for a seminar at a major public research university about the role of AI in higher education (posited as inevitably increasing, of course) and it mostly makes me wish Ursula Franklin was alive to weigh in.

1 2 10

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 11d

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video

520 2.2K 12K

Reposted by Deb Chachra

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 12d

My semi-regular reminder of a really important reality about cities, density, services and taxes.

Original graphic cleaned up by @kathrynmathias.bsky.social. #CityMakingMath

Venn diagram with stable services, low density, and low taxes. The area in the centre said “Does Not Exist.” And it’s correct.

8 90 260