Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 5h

Whenever I say his name, I make a little song.
Timothee challalaa, chowder may
Timotheeee chhhalllamehhhh🎶

Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 5h

It is anger that drives drastic shifts in political beliefs over brief bursts of time. Previously, it was assumed that fear was driving the wheel. Anger is an "approach" emotion, humans seek OUT vengeance, while fear makes us retreat. #PsychSky 🩺
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 6h

External threats can turn hawks to doves as we saw with American "war fever" post 9/11. It goes both ways. Threats to healthcare and threats from pollution can shift people left. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #PsychSky 🩺

Can Threat Increase Support for Liberalism? New Insights Into the Relationship Between Threat and Political Attitudes - Fade R. Eadeh, Katharine K. Chang, 2020

The extant literature demonstrates that exposure to threat almost always increases support for political conservatism. But can threat increase the support for p...

journals.sagepub.com

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 7h

tired of this shit, all of it
"I feel like for years my job was to scream that there's a house on fire on the edge of town but now it's spread everywhere."
www.welcometohellworld.com/everything-i...
ditto @lukeoneil47.bsky.social

Everything is so stupid and so dangerous at once

Out here is where the monsters are

www.welcometohellworld.com

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 8h

Ah, radioactive plume from an industrial accident.

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 8h

after the 10th radioactive shrimp recall in 7 weeks, i decided to do some digging

little did i know it would lead me to an underreported industrial accident that may have released an airborne plume of radioactive debris over swaths of indonesia
www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

What Is Really Going on With All This Radioactive Shrimp? - Consumer Reports

Here’s the latest on how shrimp and spices got contaminated with cesium-137, how the FDA has responded, and why consumers should not panic.

www.consumerreports.org

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 12h

This got NSF funding but the "magic" is coming from regional partnerships with industry, scientists, designers, municipal leaders, toxicologists, rural well owners and indigenous groups. It takes a village to keep a village healthy. 🧪🩺 #ClimateSky #ScienceSky source.washu.edu/2025/09/wash...

WashU’s Trusted Tap will empower households to monitor water quality

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis will empower people to monitor their own tap water with a project funded through the National Science Foundation.

source.washu.edu

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 12h

Grants for climate change research got yanked, but one point of hope I've seen at @washu.edu is climate scientists and environmental engineers embracing regional networks of environmental protection. With an EPA/CDC leadership void, locals are banding together. 🧪 source.washu.edu/2025/09/mult...

Multidisciplinary team secures $3.6M grant to investigate health risks from flooding

Funding from the National Science Foundation will enable researchers across many disciplines at Washington University in St. Louis to advance ongoing research into the damaging health effects of repea...

source.washu.edu

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 12h

Congrats!

Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 13h

Woke Pope Says Nope To DisInfo Slope

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 17h

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Leah Shaffer

Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 14h

It’s day 9 of the government shutdown and day 262 of government dismantling.

If you wish to help support fired or furloughed cdc workers 👉 www.cdcresourceportal.org

Feds, check out CDC mutual aid’s shutdown survival guide for info on places providing shutdown loans. Some are interest free👇

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 14h

The revolution will be televised and include a dancing frog.

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 3d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 14h

The orphan crusher is very close to godpowers just like in the popular book: "Don't invest in the Torment Nexis Orphan Crusher Web 4.0"

Errol 🦇 🏳️‍🌈 @eerieseymour.bsky.social · 16h

The Orphan Crusher is here to stay. If we don’t feed more Orphans to the Crusher the Orphan Crushing industry will die. It’s time to wake up to the reality of the Orphan Crusher. The Orphan Crusher is worth billions. We need to teach people to use the Orphan Crusher. It’s here to stay.

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 14h

More from Gaza

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 14h

Sharing Gaza requests today, to make up for our missing Link.

Alex Winter @alexwinter.com · 14h

A message below from my dear friend Tasneem in Gaza. The civilians are homeless and starving, with infrastructure and medical services in ruins. Don't turn away. They rely entirely on our donations to survive.

Please give to Tasneem so she can feed her children, and others. ❤️🙏

tinyurl.com/Tasneemo

A message from Tasneem: "They have completely demolished our house and destroyed my husband's entire livelihood. My life depends solely on donations.

Their truth will be exposed to the entire world once the hostages are released. For two years, they lied, calling it "self-defense" and "rescuing hostages," while in reality they carried out a cold-blooded genocide against an unarmed people."

Tasneem's three children: Rafif, Hassan and Alma.

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 14h

I think Bad Bunny is going to do great at the Super Bowl.

a cartoon of a stadium with third ball locked

Alt: futurama shows baseball of the future which includes motorcycling through the bases as they blow up.

media.tenor.com

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Squirrel took off with my squash and enjoyed the snack with the convenient chair I have provided. Rude.

A half eaten butternut squash on a lawn chair

Half eaten butternut squash on a lawn chair, fucking squirrels

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

These companies gotta pay, their "product" scorched from public access.

niki grayson @nikigrayson.com · 1d

the city of los angeles burned in january in part because of a man who couldn’t stop generating images of burning cities on ChatGPT, and then after he lit the fire he asked if the fire he started was his fault

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

The biggest "tell" is too much descriptive filler that doesn't also serve as a form of exposition.

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

This is so interesting, thanks for setting it up.

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Aced it

Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 1d

Hey all, I'm trying to get a baseline for how good people are at detecting whether fiction is AI-generated or human-written (most of the research on this is for nonfiction and my hypothesis is we're better with fiction).

If you have time, give it a try?

jlp-experiment.github.io/ai-detection...

AI vs Human Fiction Detection Test

jlp-experiment.github.io

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

I loved that show for the whole five minutes it was on

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly, could watch a 15 minute loop of that panicked pause. Stephen? Stephen?

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

Cnn edited out this part but fortunately, we've got Dave.

Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 1d

Stephen Miller froze after mentioning “plenary authority.”

… but what is plenary authority?

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

*"All interactions with Jerry do represent my employer, my views, or the views of anyone in the entire history of mankind"

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