Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sean

Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 22h

Fukuyama debunks the AI abundance myth: we can't feed or clothe all not due to a lack of smarts, but priorities and resources.

The world simply can't sustain the abundant lifestyle AI proponents promise, lacking even the electricity to run the very AI they favor.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 20h

Will abolishing fare collection eliminate the need for stations on new lines?

Can expansion accelerate now?

Reposted by Sean

John W @jcwill324.bsky.social · 2d

“The apocalypse is loose on Portland. A plague of giant frogs is besieging the city”.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 4d

Hey @paulisci.bsky.social - Are students the problem? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Sean

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 5d

at some point traffic engineers & politicians need to be held accountable

The Banner Montgomery @bannermoco.bsky.social · 6d

5 years before her son died there, a mother tried to make an intersection safer

5 years before teen was killed crossing the street, his mom asked for safer roads

In September 2020, Caty Anderson typed out a short email to her state representative, lamenting that a woman was hit by a car near her family’s Kensington home.

buff.ly

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 7d

Are you quite certain that's a real place?

Read with "the interval snack is the concept of sadness" running in my mind. I feel I'm going quite mad.

Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 13d

Finally 📌

Bluesky @bsky.app · Sep 8

v1.108 is rolling out today 🚚

Now live, at long last: Bookmarks, aka Saved Posts. For all those posts you'll definitely plan to come back to!

Update the app and give it a try. The button is right down there 👇

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 19d

No. Sorry, but please get 311 to show up.

Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 20d

@ddotdc.bsky.social busted ped crossing light, 21st NW & E, southwest corner of the intersection approaching Main State

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 22d

Oomph

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 22d

Genuine question for @arstechnica.com - Great you promote YubiKey FIDO tokens/passkeys as a gift for members, but why don't you support it to log into your service?

And if it's a Condé Nast problem, here's a subscriber to each asking why his accounts to @wired.com , @newyorker.com are separate.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · 25d

@bannermoco.bsky.social - competing DC papers all have 🎁 links

Will be more tempted to continue after trial if added

Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Sep 8

Shouldn't have to be able to read Braille to get an elevator and not barked at for hitting the emergency button.

At @wmata.com Farragut North, just as bad as either end of platform.

And seriously: Just add stairs there. The escalators are always choked with people. Please!

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Sep 6

The real reason no one is selling switch to game cards- Nintendo didn't bother imposing the same performance requirements on the cartridges that they did the SD cards: www.ign.com/articles/sta...

Star Wars Outlaws Developer Defends Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards, Says Cartridges That Force You to Download the Game Are Better For Loading - IGN

The use of Switch 2's widely-disliked Game-Key Cards has been defended by a Ubisoft developer who worked on the Nintendo port of Star Wars Outlaws.

www.ign.com

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Aug 17

That pairs excellently with this: interestingengineering.com/culture/mit-...

Why an MIT student quit college over AGI fear, and are we really next?

An MIT student just quit college over AGI fears. What’s driving elite dropouts into AI safety and startups?

interestingengineering.com

Reposted by Sean

The Banner Montgomery @bannermoco.bsky.social · Aug 8

We’re holding our first community listening session on Tuesday, Aug. 26, at the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza.

This is your opportunity to meet The Banner’s journalists and senior leaders. Come with your questions and story ideas!

#montgomerycountymd #localnews

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Reposted by Sean

Scott 🦇Cave🦇 @hellabarnes.bsky.social · Jul 11

no, I said I wanted a tradewife. like a union electrician

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Aug 1

Glad to be wrong or see a quick update - Saw a RideOn 34 listing.

Still worth calling out which systems are visible on these signs, and documenting that just showing the next two buses at a depot of that size just isn't enough information to help riders make quick, intuitive decisions.

Better pic, and capturing a MoCo bus listing

Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 30

Cool - Thanks!

Excited to see the digital signage used to help make connections/provide new useful services like this to riders.

Adding some API magicks to pull data from MD & VA systems at connection points is critical, especially where the Better Bus initiative shifted routes between agencies.

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Reposted by Sean

Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · Jul 30

Someone on here compared AI produced material as "digital asbestos " which in a few decades' time we will have to work out how to eradicate from the fabric of research.

Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · Jul 30

From my own academic research, even pre LLMs there was a huge danger of zombie factoids that begin in a respectable publication by mistake and then get reprinted for decades because no one is backtracing to the original source. Once bad info gets into the system it can take years to clear it out.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Jul 29

I've seen numerous examples of this in recent days - we're at a point where some reporters are using LLMs as a source and not even remotely properly factchecking, but also where LLM generated material is making its way into other material and being unknowingly reproduced by others.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 30

We need both.

The large shared bus depots at a DTSS or Wheaton or Glenmont would be so much more intuitive if digital signage made it clear where to go immediately after disembarking from Metro.

Ideally unified, but at a minimum just as clear and prominent as these new displays.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 29

@rideonmct.bsky.social, tell me I'm wrong or that you're fixing this already please! 🙏🏻

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 29

Signs point to... No reasonable coordination. 🎱

No RideOn? Pictured at Wheaton where Better Bus rolled three Silver Spring to Rockville routes into two MoCo-run Wheaton to Rockville locals.

If you can coordinate to dump the Veirs Mill line on MoCo, why can't you coordinate to post times in common?

Hopefully just bad timing for my pic but.... Showing three trains at a depot with 8+ bus bays shows much room for improvement.

(Black bar artifact just from camera - Screen is fine.)

So many bus depots, all suddenly emptying out in tandem, with MoCo 48 & 40 slipping away together...

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 29

Amazing how often the identical emergency & call buttons are indiscernible from one another at @wmata.com stations.

How does responding to false alarms all day not cost you more than fixing the obvious accessibility issues with a little wayfinding elbow grease?

Two buttons, but if you can't read Braille good luck telling them apart. Pictured at Farragut North.

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Sean @mrzaius.bsky.social · Jul 29

Great finally seeing the digital signage outside Farragut North integrating bus timings - Will the connections be made clear in MD & VA where partner bus systems share large, complex bus depots? @wmata.com & @mcdotnow.bsky.social

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