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Les Guthman

@lesguthman.bsky.social

490 followers 1.3K following 39 posts

Documentary director & producer. Most recent “LIGO” & YouTube web series & e-book. Coming soon, “Squeezed Light” doc. Frm Disney, NBC News, Annenberg Foundation & Peabody Award-winning VISIONS series on PBS. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

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Les Guthman @lesguthman.bsky.social · Aug 13

OTD in 2015 I interviewed LIGO’s Kip Thorne (2017 Nobel in Physics) on camera, the 1st day of what has become a ten-year, and multiple film, collaboration with @LIGO.org. My archive of LIGO’s astonishing discoveries now resides for researchers in the Les Guthman LIGO Video Archive @caltech.edu 🧪

Caltech and LIGO’s Kip Thorne, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

I grew up going to Zabar's. So many of my childhood memories center around the best lox in NYC (which is saying something). With Saul Zabar's passing today, the Upper West Side has lost a legend who turned his parent's humble store into a culinary institution.

Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97

www.nytimes.com

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

I'm honored to earn the endorsement of Liz Holtzman, who served our city with distinction as a Congresswoman, District Attorney and Comptroller.

"Mr. Mamdani will bring tremendous energy and intelligence to the second toughest job in America along with a vision of making New York more affordable."

An endorsement graphic with a photo of Former Representative Liz Holtzman.

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Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · 22h

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 1d

I has been a very long time since I posted this list of 40 consequences of climate change. But, it's important to take note of item number 40.

I truly wish things were going to get better, but sadly, it's all just going to get more f&%ked from here.

climatecasino.net/2021/10/top-...

Top 40 Impacts of Climate Change

In this post, I list 78 current and future impacts of climate change, along with references for some of the more unexpected items. That list was compiled scouring the web along with suggestions and c...

climatecasino.net

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 1d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 2d

I wrote legal editorials for the Post for a hot minute many years ago, and I was constantly anxious about making sure I got the details right. This editorial is just humiliating for everyone involved

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 2d

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Jack Smith’s lawfare and James Comey’s arraignment on pathetically weak charges

Good people will be deterred from public service if they see a meaningful risk of winding up in jail afterward.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 1d

Idaho families could see premiums jump from $611 to $2,083 a month if Republicans refuse to work with Democrats to save the health care tax credits. That's an increase of $1,472 a month for the SAME plan.

Republicans won’t talk about it but Democrats refuse to let that happen.

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NPR @npr.org · 2d

For the first time on record, renewable energy generated more electricity for the planet than coal, a new report says. n.pr/47hcegr

Renewable energy outpaces coal for electricity generation in historic first, report says

For the first time on record, renewable energy generated more electricity for the planet than coal, a new report says.

n.pr

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Jane Mayer @janemayer.bsky.social · 1d

“Doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime”- Pope Leo. Amen. press.vatican.va/content/sala...

Audience with participants in the 39th Conference of the MINDS International Association

press.vatican.va

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

Huge, huge swathes of *Trump voters* will effectively have no health care available except for emergency ER.

It is simultaneously a) the worst way to maintain public health and b) the most *expensive* way to do it.

Idiocy from moral degenerates. That's our country now.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

SCARBOROUGH: The Nebraska Rural Health Association says at least 6 rural hospitals would have to close bc of the big beautiful bill

FLOOD: Here's the deal: Some hospitals that are rural hospitals are going to eventually have to transition from being acute bed hospitals into being an ER model

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 2d

Step 1 of the plan:

Turn the justice system into a political witch hunt operation that punishes critics for free speech and immunizes loyalists for actual criminality.

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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 3d

Totally diabolical funding situation if UW, one of the best departments in the USA, has had to pause admissions.

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 3d

Sad to see the University of Washington Astronomy Department has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. General Information for applying to UW Astronomy Graduate Program. Applications must be submitted using ...

astro.washington.edu

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 4d

New (& important) from @dahlialithwick.bsky.social @mimirocah1.bsky.social Rachel Foster & me slate.com/news-and-pol...

The National Failure at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Story

It is a great challenge to pay sustained attention to any one of the onslaught of moral or legal indignities unfolding in this moment.

slate.com

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 3d

Ohh

www.propublica.org/article/elon...

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Les Guthman @lesguthman.bsky.social · 4d

Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America

Reposted by Les Guthman

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 4d

Indeed, Bad Bunny is more American under Trump's "birthright" blather than Trump is. Both of Bad Bunny's parents were also born in America. Trump's mother, however, was not.

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George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 5d

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 5d

Judge: That's what I'll do. Prohibit federalization or deployment of any NG troops into Oregon. For all reasons in prior opinion. Deployment of federalized military is ultra vires and contrary to law, violating Title 10, section 12406. I also find it's likely that defendants violate 10th Amendment.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 5d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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Bell @pocono.bsky.social · 5d

Always read Will's columns
🎁 Link

share.inquirer.com/UwBbGx

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Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 7d

here is a possible game changer for Abrego. and a very good augury for Jim Comey

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING: A federal judge says there is a realistic likelihood that the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driven by vindictive motives — reflected in the public statements of Bondi, Blanche, Noem et al.

He has ordered discovery on the question.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Les Guthman @lesguthman.bsky.social · 5d

When A.I. Came for Hollywood www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/o...

Opinion | When A.I. Came for Hollywood

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Les Guthman

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 8d

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

YouTube video by MSNBC

www.youtube.com

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 8d

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