Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 10h

Today it's 3 months since my little Mol died and yes, Milo has received extra special loving cuddles and reassurances that he is my little treasure. ❤️ to you.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 11h

now you're talking!

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 15h

RTFT. Thank you @meredithmeredith.bsky.social and a huge coalition working exhaustedly to block yet another attempt to impose mass surveillance and broken encryption on Europe.

As @openrisk.eu says, Europe must unite behind principles and guardrails for a human-centric, democratic, digital era.

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 16h

We're so relieved to see Germany reaffirm its opposition to the dangerous Chat Control proposal--the one that would mandate mass scanning of communications. Germany's long been a solid champion of privacy, and the news that it was considering backing mass surveillance was alarming. 1/

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Reposted by Maria Farrell

Open Risk @openrisk.eu · 17h

"it feels like we lost twenty years just trying to get tech policy and tech firms to kill fewer people, to be just a bit less egregious, and that is time we’ll never get back"

Alas, exactly true. In inteconnected and highly technological societies failure to properly regulate has dire implications

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

On the vanquishing, for now, of chat control:

"if we didn’t have to expend most our energies saying ‘No’ to this stupid, ghastly shit, and saying ‘No’ to the stupid, ghastly shit of the tech oligarchs, what might we have built instead? How productively and joyfully could we be spending our lives?

Delighted to be proved wrong — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 15h

you were proved right! I'm not sure I have the reading wherewithal for a Krasznahorkai right now, but always glad to see more literature in translation (into English) added to what we think of as canonical. On Hungarian writers, I do wish Magda Szabo had got it at some point, though.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

On the vanquishing, for now, of chat control:

"if we didn’t have to expend most our energies saying ‘No’ to this stupid, ghastly shit, and saying ‘No’ to the stupid, ghastly shit of the tech oligarchs, what might we have built instead? How productively and joyfully could we be spending our lives?

Delighted to be proved wrong — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

Yes that would be a lovely result!

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Reposted by Maria Farrell

Brendan Halpin @bthalpin.bsky.social · 18h

Open letter to Irish minister who's pushing ChatControl from @mariafarrell.bsky.social
crookedtimber.org/2025/10/07/c...

Chat control in Europe, an open letter to the Irish Minister who wants to scan all our messages — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

I've not yet read her. Anticipating with glee.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

ah I hadn't realised. Thanks for this.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

Someone send this to DG HOME re. their illegal campaign in the Netherlands last year, running secret political ads for "chat control".

Caught red-handed, they were! But not red-cheeked.

Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 1d

“Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable as of 10 October.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Commission publishes guidelines to support the implementation of the Regulation on the Transparency of Political Advertising

Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable...

ec.europa.eu

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

that's fascinating. tbf Germany all but invented data protection laws (strictly speaking the first was Sweden but DE was a prime mover post-war, for obvious reasons), so it's not coming from <nowhere>. But I'm surprised and grateful for every crumb.

I also heard the AfD politics on this were odd.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 18h

lol thank you so much for this unexpected a.m. belly laugh!

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 19h

As always, I hope Yuri Herrerra gets the nod. But either way it's a win.

Unless of course they follow last year's science winners' sweep and just award the literature prize to an LLM..

Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 19h

Who will win it this time?

I love all this speculation. Because nobody knows, and from past experience, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature will probably be a semi-obscure writer, writing semi-obscure and possibly unreadable prose.

indianexpress.com/article/book...

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Winners LIVE Updates: Murnane, Murakami, Rushdie or Ghosh — who will win the top honour?

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Winner LIVE Updates: From bookies’ favourites to the Swedish Academy’s secretive process, follow live as the world’s most prestigious literary award is announced today.

indianexpress.com

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 20h

Exactly same! I only came to love it myself after I left school and became friends with a whole family of Gaeilge-speakers. Still fairly crap at it but loving it, too.

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Reposted by Maria Farrell

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 22h

As I write in The Guardian this morning, the danger of this moment is that if Europe does not act against Trump now, it will never act again.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The EU has a secret weapon to counter Trump’s economic bullying. It’s time to use it | Johnny Ryan

The anti-coercion instrument, or ‘trade bazooka’, is designed to shield against foreign pressure, says civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ryan

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Maria Farrell

Open Risk @openrisk.eu · 21h

Chips are not just another product to trade. They are the physical substrate on which a society's infosphere unfolds. This extreme dependence is not yet internalized as the new reality. The Nvidia/China story merely a precursor of geopolitics in the fully digital era.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 1d

China last month banned companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, signaling a breakdown of a corporate strategy designed to navigate complex geostrategic tensions, Leevi Saari writes. www.techpolicy.press/the-rise-and...

The Rise and Fall of Nvidia’s Geopolitical Strategy | TechPolicy.Press

Nvidia's geopolitical balancing act between the US and China flopped after an arduous lobbying campaign, Leevi Saari writes.

www.techpolicy.press

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 21h

Et Irlande pareil, comme toujours. :-(

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

😍😍😘

Reposted by Maria Farrell

Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 1d

Write So! A call-out for disabled writers / writers with disabilities

stingingfly.org/news/a-call-...

Write So! A call-out for disabled writers / writers with disabilities – The Stinging Fly

stingingfly.org

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Reposted by Maria Farrell

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

The reality that Apple is actively anti-web is obscured by influential, aging web commentators who remember when it wasn't, and enjoy the wealth bubble's shiny toys. They're failing to demand better browsers on their phones, and that's a scandal:

open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apples-...

Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA - Open Web Advocacy

Skip to content

open-web-advocacy.org

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

Germany's justice ministry held firm and killed EU chat control (for now):

"Chat control without cause must be taboo in a state governed by the rule of law. Private communication must never be under general suspicion."

Admirably concise and direct. German in the best possible way.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

ha! that's me told for not jumping in straight away (tbf am also away that day until the evening). February it is, so!

well done and seconding the opinion that you're really fucking good at this. 👏

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

Good to know. Thank you!

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 1d

+1 Do you mind my asking which ISP you use?

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