Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 6h

yeppp 🫠

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 8h

this is gorgeous!

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Nicole 🪲 @fossilforager.bsky.social · 11h

Whale Fall pin 🦀🐋🦑

A photo of a large gold-plated enamel pin photographed on top of a lichen-covered rock. The enamel pin features a whale skeleton covered with various deep sea creatures, such as octopuses, hagfish, a giant isopod, a crab, and chimaeras.

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 8h

I would love to know at what point the right wingers will finally accept that fossil fuels are dying, but never underestimate the power of obstinance I guess lol
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 9h

More evidence of bats chasing down and eating migratory birds at night 🦇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight

Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Izzy Jayasinghe @ijayas.bsky.social · 9h

Ah, a classic moment of @nature.com recognizing the scientific contributions of both genders: man and machine.

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 10h

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 15h

⚠️Losing Nemo: Almost all aquarium fish in the US are caught in the wild⚠️

"Across all platforms and 13 popular fish taxonomic families, we found 734 unique species for sale, 89.2% (655 species) of which were sourced exclusively from the wild."
🧪🐠🌍
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 18h

Noticed the other week that there's not nearly enough #HistoricalHotties content here on Bluesky, so am posting one of the OGs, Antinous
(amirite @emmasouthon.bsky.social )

Following Hadrian @followinghadrian.bsky.social · 2d

Marble bust of Antinous depicted as Dionysus with a bronze vine wreath on his head.
The bust, found at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, was part of Marquis Giampietro Campana's collection and was regarded as one of his finest sculptures. Emperor Alexander II of Russia bought it in 1861 for the Hermitage.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 21h

A literary Iguanodon at the Earth Sciences Library. Do any other libraries have dinosaurs or other antediluvian creatures carved into the furniture?

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 19h

If a news organisation is making -200% margin after five years, it is not a commercial operation and should be assumed to have a different purpose.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21h

The channel lost £33 million to communicate its content to a large audience
www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/g...

GB News suffers huge loss despite doubling revenue and growing audience

The TV channel, whose well-known presenters include Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, fell to a pre-tax loss of £33.4m in the year to 31 May, 2024

www.business-live.co.uk

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 1d

Pour yourself a coffee and have a read of this tragic story about the last pair of Great Auks for #Auktober ♥️

Niels de Winter @nielsjdewinter.bsky.social · 2d

Such a sad story, but good that it can be told in full in museums now.
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Fate of the last female great auk is finally solved

DNA and historical sleuthing have traced the extinct bird’s remains to a museum in Ohio

doi.org

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

erm, so 3D scans from the Scottish Maritime Museum (!!) have been used by the IDF to create animations of supposed terror sites, tunnels and bunkers they've destroyed (!!!) 🫠

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 1d

As someone who works with satellite and 3D imagery, this project reinforced how crucial it is to question what’s rendered as truth.

Keep an eye out for some follow ups in different mediums looking ahead

Full story w/ @972mag.com via Oren Ziv:

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

erm, so 3D scans from the Scottish Maritime Museum (!!) have been used by the IDF to create animations of supposed terror sites, tunnels and bunkers they've destroyed (!!!) 🫠

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 1d

As someone who works with satellite and 3D imagery, this project reinforced how crucial it is to question what’s rendered as truth.

Keep an eye out for some follow ups in different mediums looking ahead

Full story w/ @972mag.com via Oren Ziv:

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 1d

As someone who works with satellite and 3D imagery, this project reinforced how crucial it is to question what’s rendered as truth.

Keep an eye out for some follow ups in different mediums looking ahead

Full story w/ @972mag.com via Oren Ziv:

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

yeah they're a huge, very well funded organisation, but if you search for 'African Parks + Baka people' you'll get a bunch of news reports

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

for those who might not know, African Parks is a somewhat, uh, controversial conservation org who basically persuade African nations to sign over large bits of land in a public-private partnership and have been accused of some, ah, Very Serious crimes

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

innnnteresting news today about African Parks, in which the government of Chad has terminated their contract to run three national parks in the country only 6 months after it was renewed 👀

Screen grab from a Time article that reads: "In a statement announcing the end of the 15-year partnership “with immediate effect”, Hassan Bakhit Djamous, Chad’s environment minister, said the charity, African Parks, had displayed a “recurring, indelicate and disrespectful attitude towards the government”.

Over four pages, the ministry alleged grave breaches of contract and financial irregularities, accusing the charity of keeping unaudited accounts and not being transparent over how funds were raised, managed and spent.

It alleged that the charity illegally collected tourism revenues, used tax-haven bank accounts in the Isle of Man and transferred capital and foreign exchange abroad “to the detriment of Chad and in flagrant violation of national banking and tax regulations”. The ministry also claimed African Parks had prioritised tourism over conservation, banned Chadians from certain sites and failed to invest in essential equipment for rangers as poaching surged across its parks."

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Janet Hill @saskajanet.bsky.social · 2d

Look at her go!
#invertebrates 🌿

Screen shot of Project Monarch app map of progress of a monarch butterfly from southern Ontario to Oklahoma.

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Reposted by Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2d

All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 2d

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

god I love natural history

A screen grab of a scientistic article with the title "The rectum of Oxaea flavescens (Andrenidae) has a specialized structure among bees."

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 2d

of course @nhcooper123.bsky.social turned everything into graphs what did we all expect???

The Perfect Specimen @perfect-specimen.bsky.social · 2d

Who ❤️ data? Our 36 specimens (31 animal, 5 plant) so far represent 8/31 (25%) animal and 2/14 (14%) plant phyla/divisions. Chordata/mammals are winning (but many of these appeared in OVERRATED). @joshlukedavis.com and @nhcooper123.bsky.social have done OK so far but there's more diversity to cover!