Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by John Conor Ryan

Romeo Kokriatski @vagrantjourno.bsky.social · 3h

Ben Gvir personally oversaw the torture of Greta Thunberg, as reported by Aftonbladet.

www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25...

Greta Thunberg: “They kicked me every time the flag touched my face”

– Greta Thunberg on her days in Israeli captivity Beating, kicking, and threats of being gassed in cages. Greta Thunberg and several others from the flotilla ar

www.aftonbladet.se

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

This is the most important politics story in a long time. Twitter has radicalized the young GOP into overt Nazism and white supremacy and the news has spent years pretending not to see.

It’s a gleefully racist and antisemitic party now. Stop pretending otherwise www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social · 1d

Hey, Bluesky pals — My startup is looking for a quant analyst with experience in data consulting and, ideally, in analyzing the social & environmental costs of industry. Knowledge about human rights abuses in the garment and textile industries is wonderful, but not essential.

Is this you? DM me!

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 1d

This by the way sheds light on the question I hear from people, "If ICE smashes its way into my car and then discovers they screwed up and I'm a citizen after all, will they pay for the broken windshield and tear gassed upholstery?" No, they won't.

Reason Magazine @reason.com · 2d

Law enforcement launched 30 tear gas canisters into Amy Hadley's home, smashed windows, ransacked furniture, destroyed security cameras, and more.

The government gave her nothing.

This Indiana city doesn’t have to pay an innocent mom $16,000 after police wrecked her home, court rules

Law enforcement launched 30 tear gas canisters into Amy Hadley's home, smashed windows, ransacked furniture, destroyed security cameras, and more. The government gave her nothing.

reason.com

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 1d

Just one's common Secret Police. Accountable only to the dear leader.
Ask no questions. See nothing. Say nothing.

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George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 1d

Find an event near you at nokings.org/#map.

( ht: @tizzywoman.bsky.social )

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 2d

but a lot of Dickens' output does feel like, o crap, it's Thursday night and I'm 1,000 words short and I don't know how to move the plot forward so here's 1,000 words of general stuff.

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Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 3d

Unlawfully fired from your job at HHS or CDC protecting the public health? Want to talk through how to tell your story in the press? I'm happy to help you think through messaging strategy.

I’ve spent years doing public health comms and talking with reporters. You can see my work at matthewcort.land

Matthew Cortland

Matthew became a lawyer by necessity. Now they use their training in public health and law to help others.

matthewcort.land

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 4d

Indeed.
Starting now, it should be called The Roberts Collapse.

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 4d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 6d

Tom Waits (& Kathleen Brennan)

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 7d

25! years ago, the team I was on helped expose the emergence of the telecom bubble.
And now this.
Circular revenues AI <==> chipmakers; immense capex spending on data centers; costs rising faster than revenues.
Smoke. Fire.

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 7d

Data centers are receiving billions in state tax exemptions.

These centers, many owned by Big Tech giants, are driving up electric bills and sucking up huge amounts of water.

AI is boosting the stock portfolios of the richest Americans while everyone else pays the price.

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 7d

Must be some book if a/ you got it and b/ long wait.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · Jun 22

Is it too late to give Sacha Baron Cohen an Oscar for this? Not a damn lie told. 🇺🇸

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Marc Murphy @murphycartoons.bsky.social · 9d

The monsters aren’t under the bed.
#ICE #CHICAGO

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Lawrence Wilkinson @lhwilkinson.bsky.social · 14d

The East India Company all over again? "The AI Raj: How tech giants are recolonizing power" @allisonstanger.bsky.social @thebulletin.org
(Plus- the Battle of Gaugamela)

Take it back: roughlydaily.com/2025/10/01/i...

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Lawrence Wilkinson @lhwilkinson.bsky.social · 12d

Celebrating a master of visual explanation: "Vale Stephen Biesty: Cross-Section King" @irondavy.bsky.social
(Plus- William Steig)

Showing (in addition to telling): roughlydaily.com/2025/10/03/w...

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 10d

Supernumerary rainbow over #sanfrancisco bay a few days ago.

A series of rainbows are seen over a peninsula and island. As many as four arcs of rainbows can be seen in the main, bright bow.

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 11d

It seems that way now. The *only* time in my professional life when I gave a presentation where my introduction was a sneering dismissal of what the MC thought, incorrectly, I was going to say, was at Cato.

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Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13d

There is a gulf in America. I submit it is the gulf between good and evil, or at least not-evil and evil.

The gulf is not just between people who oppose this and people who are indifferent to it or reluctantly accept it in support of immigration policy or see it as collateral damage.
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Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social · 13d

This raid is disgusting, abominable behavior, traumatizing children and families in their homes.
abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 14d

The mainstream view among physicists is that dark energy, a phenomenon we cannot directly observe, makes up 68% of the universe. | https://bit.ly/4nSAL0U

But according to leading theoretical physicist Claudia de Rham the status quo in physics is wrong.

#philsci ⚛️ 🧪

Massive gravity and the dark energy enigma

The mainstream view among physicists is that dark energy, a phenomenon we cannot directly observe, makes up 68% of the universe. But according to leading theoretical physicist Claudia de Rham the stat...

bit.ly

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Internet Archive @archive.org · 14d

🌐 From the first web page created in 1991… to 1 trillion web pages archived today.

Every meme, blog, tweet & vanished site is part of our shared story. This is our collective memory. And it’s being saved.

Join in our celebration this October: blog.archive.org/trillion/

#Wayback1T #WaybackMachine

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Center for Climate Integrity @climateintegrity.org · 14d

Maine's climate deception lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, Sunoco, and the American Petroleum Institute can move forward in state court, a judge ruled this week. 👏👏

They knew. They lied. They need to pay.

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John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 16d

One interesting fact about coal in the USA at least in Appalachia: all-cause mortality was higher in the specific coal-mining towns than in the similarly-poor non-coal-mining towns. So, not even the apparent wealth from coal mining outweighed the health costs of just mining.

John Conor Ryan @johnconorryan.bsky.social · 16d

Our estimates @calxinstitute.bsky.social and estimates from University of Potsdam, which separately concluded that shutting down coal was a no-regrets policy option.

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