Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3h

There’s something worth pointing out here that Denmark doesn’t really have any incredibly dense parts. So the average is the same, but the median experience is pretty different.

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 12h

Fun fact: despite the enormous land mass, the population-weighted density of Canada — basically the density experienced by the average person — is the same as Denmark and close to the Netherlands.

Canada and Denmark are 3,000 people per km², while the Netherlands is 3,400/km².

Mapping Population Density Across the Globe

Explore the detailed geography of population across the globe with interactive mapping and statistics. Identify global megacity regions and the growth and diversity of urban forms. Data is from the Gl...

luminocity3d.org

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 18h

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge

BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 10h

It’s pronounced cyclist.

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8h

One thing I am wondering if we’ll see is a kinda judicial nullification where lower courts act as if Supreme Court rulings don’t apply in their jurisdiction for various reasons.

(Which is sort of the converse of the Supreme Court saying district courts cant make nation wide injunctions)

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 16h

District court judges, appointed by presidents from Reagan to Biden (including Trump I), seem to understand the assignment more than most law firms. This is curious because the data shows that lawyers as a whole are more liberal on average than federal judges

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 2d

Perry asks directly whether the feds started the alleged violence in Chicago.

She asks whether it matters if the inability to execute the law was "caused by the federal agents."

Hamilton: "No, your honor."

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 10h

the move to internalize customs revenue within the executive was telegraphed even before the previous near shutdown.

If there had been resistance then, the money would not have been collected yet.

As is, now it has and everything becomes a procedural question.

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 14h

So the Dems need to be clear again that any FMer carrying out direction to implement mil paychecks in the absence of appropriations will be subject to anti-deficiency act criminal penalties, because to be clear even with the reconciliation slush fund BS there is no way to legally so this, period

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 18h

Mud Wizard

Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 18h

Future historians: As their computers ate and destroyed all their languages we can only assume that what happened was magic became real and that's how they defeated global genocidal fascism

On the left, the German Mud Wizard in their druid cloak pushes a German riot cops who is already stuck in the mud. On the left are 3 Portland Antifa frogs in green inflatable cartoonish costumes and one black frog with white frog bones on him like the antifa frog skeleton.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 3d

Tomorrow, we will talk about this photo.

A red Ford Pinto hatchback angles across a narrow gravel forest service road, a blue enduro motorcycle on a rear hitch carrier. Tall firs frame the view. Beyond them, a towering ash cloud from a pyroclastic density flow billows skyward. Photo by Richard Kent Lasher, May 18, 1980.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

infinite brians @infinitebrians.neocities.org · 1d

this sword appeared to me in a vision

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

IMHO Montesquieu’s mechanistic explanation remains the best mental model of how this works.

There a great gears and small gears…all driven by social impulse. The size of the gear is less important than the mechanism it is enmeshed in.

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 1d

Lot of people confidently missing the point in the replies to this: if every cent of Elon musks net wealth was liquid, which it isn’t, that’s not even enough money to run the govt for two weeks. The problem less that they have money, and more how they use that money in destabilizing ways.

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

My daughter has a school assignment to write a scary story in just a few lines, and I showed her this from Clickhole, which is some of the most efficient horror scripting I've ever read.

Clickhole headline: "Incredible! We Asked These Astronauts What It's Like to Be In Space"

Astronaut Barry Wilmore, pictured in an orange spacesuit, says "“You never know true beauty until you see Earth from space, or true terror until you hear someone knocking on the space station door from outside. You look through the porthole and see an astronaut, but all your crew is inside and accounted for. You use the comm to ask who it is and he says he’s Ramirez returning from a repair mission, but Ramirez is sitting right next to you in the command module and he’s just as confused as you are. When you tell the guy this over the radio he starts banging on the door louder and harder, begging you to let him in, saying he’s the real Ramirez. Meanwhile, the Ramirez inside with you is pleading to keep the airlock shut. It really puts life on Earth into perspective.”

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 2d

Damn.

Corel Gallery Clipart @clipart.bsky.social · Aug 24

CHICAGO.BMF

The Chicago skyline at night, the buildings aglow with lights and power. An airplane is silhouetted against the dark blue sky, one wing eclipsing a brilliant full moon. The view is stunning, a testament to humanity and its glorious achievements. This will be the last full night of electricity. This will be the last plane to land safely at O’Hare. Or anywhere, for that matter. The passengers will disembark, jockey for a good spot at the luggage carousel, call their Ubers, and it will be the last time for all of it.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 3d

had never before considered that the inflatable costumes offer pepper ball protection

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 6d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3d

for every one of these stories there’s a My Teammate Used His Whole Paycheck To Buy Literal Meth And Wrote 43 Pages Over Night Which Earned Us All Fs.

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 3d

honestly the ballsiest thing I’ve ever done was to turn in a 25 page Milton paper I had started & finished the night before it was due, along with my 2 friends who had done the same, AND submitted our equal-length group chat of running Milton shitposting we’d been doing while writing. we all got As

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 3d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3d

Ban cars.

dillo (yakubian mamba) @dillo.media · 3d

i will vote for anybody who fixes the headlight brightness situation

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

The physical momentum of the ball is one of the interesting points… so the latter seems more fun.

Like you could spin it very fast then hover fingers near it almost like a lathe.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Brian Floyd @brianmfloyd.bsky.social · 4d

the guy who caught cal raleigh’s homer was wearing a shirt that said dump 61 here and he immediately took it off and had a shirt that said dump 62 here

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 5d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 5d

Flow is basically garbage as a concept but, providing for that… it seems pretty obvious for coaches, teachers, etc would have some sense of distributed agency that would have an aspect of affect.

faculty.washington.edu/aragon/pubs/...

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 6d

the thing that’s frustrating about Canada is that it has systems which are supposed to do this… but they are underfunded.

So everyone gets one grants are handed out round robin.

And then big grants are given, but not sustained. So labs rise and fall every few years…

So much pointless destruction.

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 7d

Research also shows that spreading smaller amounts of funding out over more researchers generally delivers better scientific outcomes per dollar spent than focusing bigger grants on fewer researchers.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding

Agencies that fund scientific research must choose: is it more effective to give large grants to a few elite researchers, or small grants to many researchers? Large grants would be more effective only...

journals.plos.org

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 7d

You are dunking on this post because of some shit you believe about minds.

I am dunking on this post because I believe methodological credulity wrt MRIs has caused them to have a net negative impact on our understanding of cognition.

We are not the same.

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ @croissanthology.com · 8d

Well, you can in fact store and MRI scan of a human brain in an Excel spreadsheet, and MRI machines get better ever year...

There comes a point where you have to start believing in magic to justify the idea that excel spreadsheets can't be conscious in any disposition whatsoever

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 7d

history teacher in 50 years: So in September, that’s when the president signed an executive order criminalizing anti-fascism and saying all resistance would be crushed

student: oh so that’s when the whole country realized they were living under fascism

teacher: haha what? oh no lol not at all. no.

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Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 7d

Genuinely incredible how unprofessional these guys are. One dude yelling in your face and you immediately assault them on camera?

Daniel Connerton @lordnad.bsky.social · 7d

@govpritzker.illinois.gov

37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois.

This is assault.

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Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 7d

It’s sort of inevitable that functional interfaces will replaced by marketing placements.

AI & ML News @ai-news.at.thenote.app · 7d

Google’s Gemini AI app could soon be getting a big makeover

The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catchin…

#ai #gemini #geminiai

Google’s Gemini AI app could soon be getting a big makeover

The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catching photos.

techcrunch.com

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 7d

Like… when police clear a road for federal vehicles… this is what they become complicit in… bsky.app/profile/lord...

Daniel Connerton @lordnad.bsky.social · 7d

@govpritzker.illinois.gov

37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois.

This is assault.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 7d

Like… if this ruling holds up… the bar is so so so high for a legitimate use of the guard…

whatever theatrical effects of having the police collaborate are way less important that the practical effect.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 7d

"Here, the protests in Portland were not 'a rebellion' and did not pose a 'danger of a rebellion,' especially in the days leading up to the federalization."

Therefore, this Court reaches the same conclusion as the district court in Newsom I that the following “key characteristics” provide the boundaries for what constitutes a “rebellion”: First, a rebellion must not only be violent but also be armed.

Second, a rebellion must be organized. Third, a rebellion must be open and avowed. Fourth, a rebellion must be against the government as a whole—often with an aim of overthrowing the government—rather than in opposition to a single law or issue.

Newsom I, 786 F. Supp. 3d at 1253 (emphasis omitted). Here, the protests in Portland were not “a rebellion” and did not pose a “danger of a rebellion,” especially in the days leading up to the federalization. As discussed above, Defendants presented evidence of sporadic violence against federal officers and property damage to a federal building. Defendants have not, however, proffered any evidence demonstrating that those episodes of violence were part of an organized attempt to overthrow the government as a whole, and therefore, Defendants have failed to show that the President had a colorable basis to conclude that Section 12406(2) was satisfied.

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