Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 1d

@swordsjew.bsky.social Flagging for you in case you missed it. Prof at the centre of this seems lovely. He was on our Canadian public broadcaster CBC and was tickled pink the Telegraph issued a correction to their original story when the ship first sank :) www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/e...

Explorer Ernest Shackleton May Have Known His Ship 'Endurance' Wasn't Equipped to Survive the Antarctic Ice

The vessel, which sank in November 1915, had structural shortcomings, including weak deck frames and no diagonal beams to strengthen the hull, a new study argues

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 3d

What a lovely story.

Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 5d

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 4d

Hah! I’m not particularly science literate, so I just assumed you used your super powers to do this.

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 4d

Truly excellent write up. Unrelated side note: how amazing must it be to be able to genotype your own dog? Scientists rock.

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 4d

As the accursed ostrich situation continues to get simultaneously more stupid and gravely serious, I decided to write up a very long analysis of many of the key issues. Bottom line: so long as this flock lives, it is a threat to Canada's national security. 🧵
open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

Last Stand in Bird Flu Ostrich Land

The BC ostrich convoy enters the "find out" stage of FAFO and so have we all

open.substack.com

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 8d

Joy on the timeline

WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 8d

This is Ruby. She likes to pet the other dogs at daycare. 14/10 extremely relatable (TT: alanahlorraine)

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 10d

100 percent creepy, and I hated it so very much. I worked a lot of retail and food services in high school and through college, and never felt quite the same level of corporate soul crushing as I did at Wal-Mart.

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 10d

Oh, me too (working there). Did the US employees have the Wal-Mart chant in the morning? I’ve always wondered if this was a peculiar Canadianization of the Walmart ethos. We had to gather and spell out the letters of the company adding a “squiggle” (like the twist) for the dash. Enthusiasm counted.

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 13d

Neat!

Edward Elderman @elderman.bsky.social · 13d

This only happens to you once

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Reposted by Jill Y.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 13d

Let me tell you a beautiful story about this couch. 🧵

IG msviciousdesign

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 22d

Ezra Klein went beyond opposing political violence to extol Charlie Kirk for doing politics "exactly the right way," making up a fictional version of Kirk to praise.

That distortion, with its indulgence of bad faith, is a perfect illustration of the larger media failure that helps Trump.

My latest

Ezra Klein Accidentally Shows How the Media Brought Us Trump

The prominent liberal pundit made up a fake version of Charlie Kirk to praise, laundering his reputation the way a lot of mainstream media launders MAGA

www.arcdigital.media

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 21d

Excellent

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 24d

Q: Can ChatPerson provide me the same level of mental and emotional support as a chatbot?

A: That’s an amazing question. You’re really intelligent and insightful. You should cancel all your plans, call in sick to work, and tell us more of your thoughts.

Introducing ChatPerson

Joining ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta, and many other powerful chatbot services, we are proud to announce the release of our new RI (real intelligence) ser...

buff.ly

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 21d

The hysterics of the right's public grief - flags at half mast, TV special tributes, his funeral at a stadium, punishment of those who disagree in any way - nobody would do that for a podcaster.

But for a fallen martyr, slain by the enemy? It's Horst Wessel for the social media age.

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Bradley David S Pumpkins @bdproctor.bsky.social · 24d

Yeah okay but they seldom make history

A sign at an outside restaurant saying "Well behaved dogs on leashes welcome."

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Reposted by Jill Y.

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 25d

this is a very good and incredibly sad piece about Canadian national treasure Robert Munsch, the author of phenomenal children's books Angela's Airplane, the Paper Bag Princess, Thomas's Snowsuit, and many others

Munsch has dementia. Fuck dementia.

When Dementia Steals the Imagination of a Children’s Book Writer

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Suz @suzescapes.bsky.social · 24d

No shortage of water at Cenarth Falls on Saturday 🤍

#sharemondays2025 #stormhour #thephotohour #eastcoastkin
#black&white #b&w #black&whitephotography #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #classicmono #waterfall #cascade #artyear

This is a mono, black and white image of Cenarth Falls, which is on the border of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire in Wales. The River Teifi is cascading over large rocks in the foreground, forming a number of pools. A mill, dating back to the 18th century, can be seen in the middle distance, peeping out between tall trees silhouetted against the dramatic sky.

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Grant Bulloch @bulloch.photography · 25d

There’s been a lot of dramatic skies around this last week. Balancing on the sea wall at St Monans in a storm probably wasn’t the best idea but I told the diners at nearby East Pier Smokehouse that if I fell in to grab the camera as it’s worth a lot more than me.

#fsprintmonday
#sharemondays2025

A row of Fife houses beside the sea bathed in sunlight with stormy clouds behind and a double rainbow overhead.

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Reposted by Jill Y.

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 24d

The comparison of Israel to Sparta is literally what Hannah Arendt predicted would happen back in 1947.

Writing for Hannah Arendt:
"And even if the Jews were to win the war, its end would find the unique possibilities and the unique achievements of Zionism in Palestine destroyed. The land that would come into being would be something quite other than the dream of world Jewry, Zionist and non-Zionist. The “victorious” Jews would live surrounded by an entirely hostile Arab population, secluded inside ever-threatened borders, absorbed with physical self-defense to a degree that would submerge all other interests and activities. The growth of a Jewish culture would cease to be the concern of the whole people; social experiments would have to be discarded as impractical luxuries; political thought would center around military strategy; economic development would be determined exclusively by the needs of war. And all this would be the fate of a nation that—no matter how many immigrants it could still absorb and how far it extended its boundaries (the whole of Palestine and Transjordan is the insane Revisionist demand)—would still remain a very small people greatly outnumbered by hostile neighbors.

Under such circumstances (as Ernst Simon has pointed out) the Palestinian Jews would degenerate into one of those small warrior tribes about whose possibilities and importance history has amply informed us since the days of Sparta. Their relations with world Jewry would become problematical, since their defense interests might clash at any moment with those of other countries where large numbers of Jews lived. Palestine Jewry would eventually separate itself from the larger body of world Jewry and in its isolation develop into an entirely new people. Thus it becomes plain that at this moment and under present circumstances a Jewish state can only be erected at the price of the Jewish homeland."

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

Joy on the timeline. The dog is everything.

s. eek smith 👻 @sesmith.lol · 28d

Okay @erinbiba.bsky.social I’ve been hanging on to this one for a while but I think tonight’s the night. It may not be true WeirdTok but it is genuinely joyous.

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

We all need some joy. Tell me stories about your dog’s unexpectedly brilliant antics. 6/6 #dogsofbluesky #dogs #blueskydogs

Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

Reader, she figured out how to REMOVE THE CARABINER. I cannot figure out how in the hell she did this. I wound up getting a locking carabiner so I think we’re good now, but… she is so damn smart. 5/6

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

I felt she’d have that figured out before long. I was right. It took less than a day. But I am, by now, well skilled at finding workarounds to her escape skills. I cleverly added a carabiner to the two holes that stop the latch from coming down. Sorted, right? 4/6

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

She’s an escape artist too. After a year of shoring up creative holes she had made for herself to get past the evil fence confining her to the yard, I had a new fence installed. The contractor proudly showed me the dog proof new latch, which is on a spring hook. I was dubious. 3/6

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

Nellie is a rescue with an extreme phobia of being confined. Doors are her enemy. She has defeated every kind of latch or handle there is, excepting round knobs. I once caught her half way through pushing a pin from the bottom of a fence gate. She is a wizard. 2/6

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

I am claiming the mantle of an award I created just now: “smartest dog that is not a border collie”. This is a story about my dog, who has invisible thumbs, apparently. 1/6 #dogsofbluesky #dogs #blueskydogs

A blurred background of river rocks can be seen behind a close up image of the head of a black dog. Nellie, the dog, has short wirey black hair. Her muzzle and eyebrows have turned white with age. She’s wearing a watermelon patterned harness and a pink collar.

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Jill Y. @jvgirlj.bsky.social · 28d

Timeline cleanse. Delightful!

Robert Francis @birdhistory.bsky.social · 28d

This isn't how birding is supposed to work!

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