Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 15h

Begging scientists (and media posts about science) to stop using ChatGPT-generated images

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Sebastian Bohrn Mena @bohrn-mena.at · 12h

Mein Kommentar zu #Machado und dem #Friedensnobelpreis für sie hat für viel Aufsehen gesorgt. So viel, dass @mimikama.org mit Anfragen wegen eines Fakten-Checks überrannt wurde. Und das haben sie jetzt, wie immer, fantastisch gemacht:

www.mimikama.org/machado-frie...

Faktencheck: María Corina Machado – Nobelpreis & Rechtsaußen?

María Corina Machado erhielt den Friedensnobelpreis – doch ihre Nähe zu ultrarechten Netzwerken, marktradikalen Plänen und einem früheren Staatsstreich sorgt für heftige Kritik.

www.mimikama.org

12 220 430

Reposted by Joschka Meier

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 12h

Traveling halfway across the world & packing into a room for a conference panel on the theme of resisting eugenics.

But not wearing a respirator during a surge in the ongoing pandemic.

What a fun way to show how the research & scholars you’re there to ostensibly listen to mean jack shit to you.

8 110 460

Reposted by Joschka Meier

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 1d

Was a mistake to drop the "weird" attack

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 1d

RFK JR: There are many other confirmations -- there are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol

60 310 2.3K

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 1d

Friends, would love help coming up with a couple of non-North American examples, just blanking -- "the best way to harm a population is to go after their children"

eg- intentional policies of harm like deportation policies, residential schools, separating enslaved families...

TIA!

26 6 42

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 1d

'Kinder der Landstrasse' in Switzerland: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_...

hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/...

This was a purported charity project to better the lot of the Jenisch People - by separating parents from their children and sending the latter into a system of forced labour and 'reeducation'

Kinder der Landstrasse - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Reposted by Joschka Meier

🎃 public HELLth guy 🎃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 1d

gold standard science baby!!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

9 26 160

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.

26 570 1.7K

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting study which recreated a 100+ year old Swiss plant survey.

The bad: Average plant diversity -26% (~-40% in the Mittelland)

The good: Loss can be halted & even reversed! Biodiversity areas work, as well as farmers adjusting their methods

#envhist

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life

Plant inventories dating back to 1884 and nearly thrown away enable unique time-lapse study of biodiversity in Swiss meadows

www.theguardian.com

1 8 16

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 1d

Some passages from the article - according to the study changes in land use is (up until now) the main cause for this kind of biodiversity loss rather than global warming.

It also shows, once again, how important environmental history is! Study wouldn't have been possible without historical data

“Our numbers show that land use was the main driver for diversity loss, far more than climate change at this stage,” Widmer says.

The way farmers cut, graze and fertilise their fields shapes which plants survive. More nitrogen fertiliser, more frequent mowing and highly productive plants displacing native species all reduce plant diversity, the analysis shows. A list of all found plant species saw 117 losers and just six winners.

1 1

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting study which recreated a 100+ year old Swiss plant survey.

The bad: Average plant diversity -26% (~-40% in the Mittelland)

The good: Loss can be halted & even reversed! Biodiversity areas work, as well as farmers adjusting their methods

#envhist

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life

Plant inventories dating back to 1884 and nearly thrown away enable unique time-lapse study of biodiversity in Swiss meadows

www.theguardian.com

1 8 16

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 2d

Jack collaborated with neo-Nazi twins to make a documentary. He was a fan of white supremacist Richard Spencer. He has tweeted 1488, the alphanumeric code for Heil Hitler. He wrote an unreadable anti-antifa book. Last year he wrote a book abt the left called “Unhumans.” That he’s now speaking here…

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 2d

From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec

38 480 1.4K

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Sarah-Maria Schober @smschober.bsky.social · 3d

Want to work on the history of hair? I am looking for a doc and postdoc to join my project team researching #earlymodern hair, race, trade and multispecies history at the University of Lucerne.

Do apply and spread the word!

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

PhD position in History (100%, 4 years) - Vacancies - University of Lucerne

Assistant or doctoral positions, employment or internship: Looking for a job at the University of Lucerne? Find our listed open positions and apprenticeships here.

www.unilu.ch

5 98 100

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Celine Camps @celinecamps.bsky.social · 4d

#SkyStorians, I'm looking for #MedievalSky and #EarlyModern paintings, engravings & other visual sources that depict screws.
(N.B. I'm not looking for depictions of screws in technical sources on this topic).
If anyone has come or comes across them, I'd love to know! #HistSci #HistTech #ArtHistory

2 11 7

Reposted by Joschka Meier

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 5d

💉

Measles cases have soared by 20% worldwide in the past year, with 742 cases in the UK alone. In August, shortly after a 10-year-old girl in Liverpool died from the disease, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health stated that the UK’s child vaccination rates have not met the World Health Organisation’s target of 95% since 2021. This rather undersells the situation. Sky News reports that “the England-wide rate for the final quarter of 2024/25 for MMR was 88.8%, down from 92.7% 10 years ago” and that “uptake in some local authorities is as low as 60%”.

Far be it from me to weigh in on an issue that has become so politicised, as merely a parent who wants my children and those of others to stay alive, but I have a sinking feeling. A feeling exacerbated by a single red box on a perfunctory form and the idle chatter of concerned parents who no longer get their vaccine sceptic news from insane websites and specialist cults, but from prime-time appearances by the country’s most prominent politicians and journalists. A feeling that our children might wonder how we all lived through a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime global virus that killed millions, was effectively cured by the single most rapid and successful vaccination programme in history and which, immediately afterwards, gave way to anti-science posturing that drove vaccination rates to historic lows.

4 65 200

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Dan Marshall @danthat.bsky.social · 6d

If you enjoy Size Five and want to see it survive what is a very iffy time for the Games Industry, please do three things with your Saturday:

✅ Wishlist EARTH MUST DIE
✅ Buy a game on sale
✅ Share these links where you can

store.steampowered.com/app/3639780/...

store.steampowered.com/dev/sizefive

Earth Must Die on Steam

These moronic Terranoids think they can just roll in here and take over my beautiful Tyrythian kingdom? The kingdom that I built from the ground up with my bare hands, and only sort of inherited from ...

store.steampowered.com

2 71 95

Reposted by Joschka Meier

shaunt @shaunvids.bsky.social · 5d

actually our AI programs are like people so its racist to say you don't like them. anyway would you like to buy one

43 1.4K 6K

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah, I also have an apparently terribly difficult name and I still get surprised by the novel ways people find to mess up my name

1

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Jo (unfunded hobbyist) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 6d

Doctor MRO whom many of you still idolise is currently on the hellsite retweeting antisemitic conspiracy theory shit about the Manchester attacks being a Mossad false flag operation just FYI. This person claims to be an expert on medieval race. Total joke.

#MedievalSky

4 1 11

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 7d

The sequel to We Want Them Infected is done!

COVID killed 1.2 million Americans while vaccines saved millions.

Yet, disinformation superspreaders were empowered, where they are taking a wrecking ball to science & medicine.

How did that happen?🧵

sciencebasedmedicine.org/everyone-els...

Everyone Else is Lying to You: My Book is Done!

The pandemic’s biggest disinformation superspreaders are now in charge. How did this happen?

sciencebasedmedicine.org

8 220 570

Reposted by Joschka Meier

🎃 public HELLth guy 🎃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 7d

a lot of pandemic histories omit or speed past the massive, right wing billionaire-financed disinformation campaign waged against public health policies and officials. jonathan is doing critical work here. looking forward to reading it.

Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 7d

The sequel to We Want Them Infected is done!

COVID killed 1.2 million Americans while vaccines saved millions.

Yet, disinformation superspreaders were empowered, where they are taking a wrecking ball to science & medicine.

How did that happen?🧵

sciencebasedmedicine.org/everyone-els...

Everyone Else is Lying to You: My Book is Done!

The pandemic’s biggest disinformation superspreaders are now in charge. How did this happen?

sciencebasedmedicine.org

51 200

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7d

It’s so fucking funny that we’re still getting five NYT op-eds a week calling for the left to tone down their rhetoric

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 8d

Remember when Hillary Clinton called some Trump supporters “deplorable“?

56 840 4K

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Paul F. Tompkins @pftompkins.bsky.social · 7d

No it doesn’t, that’s you doing that

Bloomberg Opinion @opinion.bloomberg.com · 8d

Tilly Norwood raises the question of who will be the first to win an Oscar for best AI in a leading role

Tilly Norwood Is Expensive, Even for Hollywood

The “synthetic actress” may be cheaper to cast than Leonardo DiCaprio, but AI’s footprint carries major economic and environmental costs.

bloom.bg

46 520 5.4K

Joschka Meier @josserme.bsky.social · 8d

Aber gehts jetzt, oder gabs schon wieder neuen Reset?

1 1

Reposted by Joschka Meier

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 9d

We're getting a wave of articles that are like, "gee willikers it sure seems like the people who complained about 'cancel culture' for years really like canceling people."

Yes! This was extremely obvious at the time and a lot of us pointed it out!

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 9d

Some say canceling is an act of redress. Others blame it on a mob.

“People have used the word ‘cancel’ so loosely,” Ernest Owens author of “The Case for Cancel Culture,” said, “that everyone’s calling everything a cancellation.”

How cancel culture came for everyone

Few issues in recent years have united the American right as much as their professed hatred of cancel culture. That’s changing.

www.washingtonpost.com

51 710 4.6K