Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Lance

Erika’s (Too) Online @erikas.online · 7h

And you can yell about clean air everywhere, which also has a number of health benefits including vastly reduced disease transmission for everyone, which helps people who can’t mask (like, say, small children). Not all infrastructure changes need the government. Bring AQ monitors and filters!

Elana Levin @levin.bsky.social · 8h

And while we need to work together to bring about collective change and restore public health and science YOU too can literally start wearing a mask again tomorrow anywhere we share air, regardless of what anyone else does. You too can break a chain of transmission. So what choice will
You make?

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 8h

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Elana Levin @levin.bsky.social · 8h

I cannot stop the mass firings overnight. But I can wear a mask to protect myself and those around me

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 9h

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 9h

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 10h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 12h

The fundamental disconnect is that the steps required by both science and patient safety are the steps hospital infection control leaders foolishly dismissed in 2020.

They have to choose between killing patients, and admitting a very big mistake.

Turns out their egos are worth more than your life.

Canada Healthwatch 🍁 @canadahealthwatch.ca · 1d

How politics is putting patients and health care workers at risk www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... @drgorfinkel.bsky.social @thestar.com

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca 🍁

"Masks prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses. The science is clear," writes Iris Gorfinkel. "The standards are in place. A health policy that reacts to hospitalizations and deaths falls below the long-held standard of do-no-harm. Policies that are enacted only once hospitalizations are high do the opposite.

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John Woodside @woodsideful.bsky.social · 15h

Dawn Farrell, the former CEO of Trans Mountain who now leads the federal government's Major Projects Office said the oil pipeline helps fight climate change.

Head of Carney’s Major Projects Office thinks Trans Mountain is good for climate

Dawn Farrell, the former CEO of Trans Mountain who now leads the federal government's Major Projects Office told the House of Commons environment committee that the oil pipeline helps fight climate ch...

www.nationalobserver.com

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Tyler, from the Internet @tylerfromtheinternet.com · Aug 30

It's never a bad time to bring up that we

a b s o l u t e l y

have the resources and ability to provide housing, food, clothing, healthcare, and education to everyone at no direct cost to the individual; and we just choose not to do it.

Tyler, from the Internet @tylerfromtheinternet.com · Aug 30

People should just get paid six thousand dollars a month to exist. You may have counterpoints and things to consider about this idea but let me just get ahead of them: shut up

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 18h

Long Covid is more prevalent in children in the US now than asthma. We are fucking destroying the next generations w/our behavior. (And adults.)

If you do care about resisting eugenics maybe start by not being the vector that disables a kid in RFK’s US. That is not too much to ask. It really isn’t.

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Alan Forseth @alanforseth.bsky.social · 19h

Hacked CRA accounts, crime sprees as the Interior Health Authority denied massive data breach for a decade.

Former privacy commissioner calls for investigation into what health authority knew and when

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... #IHA

Hacked CRA accounts, crime sprees as B.C. health agency denied massive data breach for a decade | CBC News

For a decade, a B.C. government agency denied a data breach that affected 28,000 health-care workers, creating a situation that one privacy expert says opened the door for fraud artists to continue cr...

www.cbc.ca

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 1d

Every single AI data center is a toxic investment, with most of its value tied up in GPUs that will be multiple generations behind by the time these things turn on - and then die in 3-5 years.

All to build for AI demand that doesn't exist.
edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Actually, wait - how long do GPUs last, exactly? Four years for training? Three years? The A100 GPU started shipping in May 2020, and the H100 (and the Hopper GPU generation) entered full production in September 2022, meaning that we’re hurtling at speed toward the time in which we’re going to start seeing a remarkable amount of chips start wearing down, which should be a concern for companies like Microsoft, who bought 150,000 Hopper GPUs in 2023 and 485,000 of them in 2024.
Alright, let me just be blunt: the entire economy of debt around GPUs is insane.
Assuming these things don’t die within five years (their warranties generally end in three), their value absolutely will, as NVIDIA has committed to releasing a new AI chip every single year, likely with significant increases to power and power efficiency. At the end of the five year period, the Special Purpose Vehicle will be the proud owner of five-year-old chips that nobody is going to want to rent at the price that Elon Musk has been paying for the last five years. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the rental prices for H100 GPUs that went from $8-an-hour in 2023 to $2-an-hour in 2024, or the Silicon Data Indexes (aggregated realtime indexes of hourly prices) that show H100 rentals at around $2.14-an-hour and A100 rentals at a dollar-an-hour, with Vast.AI offering them at as little as $0.67 an hour.
This is, by the way, a problem that faces literally every data center being built in the world, and I feel insane talking about it. It feels like nobody is talking about how impossible and ridiculous all of this is - it’s one thing that OpenAI has promised one trillion dollars to people - it’s another that large swaths of that will be spent on hardware that will, by the end of these agreements, be half-obsolete and generating less revenue than ever.
Think about it - let’s assume we live in a fantasy land where OpenAI is somehow able to pay Oracle $300 billion over 5 years. Said money is paying for access to Blackwell…

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Jordan Roberts @corruptario.bsky.social · 1d

And scene.

Ontario hospitals will be "rescued" by private capita, as intended.

Mob Hospital has brought in customer service consultants, and cabinet is invested in the healthcare precinct.

UHN has space for your health insurance info on the new ID bracelets.

The bust out reaches its conclusion.

Cbc News headline: Ontario hospitals say they have $1B in funding needs

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 1d

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder

Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!

www.freefunder.com

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 1d

This is actually what is going to happen.

That’s already what’s happening in Lebanon. Israel kills regularly, violates the ceasefire agreement on an hourly basis.

It’s just not on the news anymore.

This is why pressure against Israel mustn’t just continue, but increase.

The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

Israel Agrees To Go Back To Killing Palestinians On Less Frequent Basis

CAIRO—As part of a historic ceasefire agreement with Hamas following two years of war, the Israeli government reportedly agreed Thursday to go back to killing Palestinians on a less frequent basis. “I...

theonion.com

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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 1d

This is why immigrants should never vote for CONS, they do not care about you, if they had their way, there would be very little immigration--using republican talking points #Canada

Conservatives want to end birthright citizenship for children of temporary residents

www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

Conservatives want to end birthright citizenship for children of temporary residents

The Conservatives want to restrict birthright citizenship in Canada, a measure they say would mirror the rules in peer countries.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Loki @lokideburca.bsky.social · 1d

This is fuckin insane, western leaders, the EU, UK, US will tout this as some moral victory when it's a complete and utter fucking disgrace, a complete capitulation to fascism. Fuck everyone involved. No peace on stolen land.

Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 1d

A map of Gaza shows how Israeli forces will withdraw under the first phase of the ceasefire plan while remaining in control of nearly 60% of the besieged Strip aje.io/kekalb

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 1d

One side, "AI 2027" is led by a bunch of privileged white people working at the companies causing the other side (AI con/Empire of AI).

One side, the "AI is gonna be so powerful if you don't let US be the AGI builders" is making money from stealing data, killing the environment & exploiting labor.

Elinor🎗️ @ COLM 🍁 @elinorpd.bsky.social · 1d

bsky.app/profile/mari...

Slide with “we are here” in bottom left with an arrow pointing top right towards two groups of words: “AI2027” & “everyone dies” and then “AI con” “AI snake oil” “Empire of AI”

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Veni Kunche @veni.dev · 1d

"One of the reasons I like programming is because it's logical. It's predictable."

"LLMs are not predictable. You can use the exact same prompt and can get a different response every single time"

I feel the same way and this is why I don't understand the appeal

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZUk...

AI Coding Sucks

YouTube video by Syntax

www.youtube.com

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Ian @ianagp.bsky.social · 2d

"Americans would use “salami tactics.” Taking slices Canadian sovereignty and independence at a time. The first steps would not be tanks rolling across the border, but the Canadian government allowing, or being forced to allow organizations like the US Marshalls or the FBI to operate inside Canada."

Ian @ianagp.bsky.social · Apr 24

New from Avant Garde Press: Canadian Salami

"Recently, an article was published by ‘The Conversation’ about the potential of an American invasion and Canadian insurgency....It’s time to examine the issue of the Canadian resistance to American invasion."

avantgardepress.substack.com/p/canadian-s...

Canadian Salami

Insurgency in Canada

avantgardepress.substack.com

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Michelle Cohen @docmcohen.medsky.social · 1d

A Canadian doctor participated in an event where effigies of public officials were hung in nooses.

The speakers compared COVID mitigation measures to the Holocaust.

His medical college decided not to discipline him. He's still in practice in BC.

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 1d

If everyone who made a gross comment about their enemies being hanged at Nuremberg were charged with a hate crime, the entire antivax movement would be in prison by now:

Cold Spring Resident Accused of Threat

Arrested with women charged with defacing NYT building

highlandscurrent.org

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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 1d

New UK rules mean a 150% increase in refugee women and children living rough in northern France. While French police are paid by the UK government to stop refugees receiving free tents and blankets. So they sleep in the woods with their babies. Just grim www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

The babies at the border in northern France

As the United Kingdom suspends its refugee family reunion scheme, growing numbers of women and children in Calais and Dunkirk face inhumane conditions...

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Duchess Van Hoof @duchess-van-hoof.bsky.social · 1d

To avoid confusion:

1. It is nigh impossible to get that rich ethically.
2. To hoard such wealth rather than invest in your community, and improve society, is unethical.
3. An ethical billionaire ceases to be a billionaire, by neccesity.

Sheryl Weikal and the colorful Parrotlegals @leftistlawyer.com · 1d

It's categorically impossible to be an ethical billionaire and I will die on that hill forever.

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#9 Dream @gayfabfourfan.bsky.social · 1d

The Atlantic, the NYT, and so many others also participated in the destruction of public health by repeatedly publishing the lie that COVID is mild, and now an organ- and immune-system damaging airborne virus is running rampant everywhere—w/ no infection control anywhere.

Great work everyone.

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

The Atlantic, the NYT, the Post, the Free Press, Persuasion ... god, so many others ... they did it. They participated in the destruction of norms against bigotry & now bigotry is running rampant, out in the open, at the highest levels.

Great work everyone.

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 2d

If we had responded to Covid by normalizing masking, providing respirators in healthcare & adopting clean air standards…we could have beaten the virus.

We would also be seeing less measles, colds & flu.

We would all be healthier.

I believe history will see it as one of our greatest failures.

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