Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

@patkanngiesser.bsky.social

1K followers 1.1K following 28 posts

Assoc. Prof, University of Plymouth, researching cooperation, norms, ethical behaviour, and cultural learning across the world. Sci-fi & fantasy. Board games. Martial arts. Pen name: P. K. Hoffmann.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann @patkanngiesser.bsky.social · Jun 25

My (very) short story "Family Recipe" about food--past, present, and future--is out today in Nature Futures.

Nature Futures @naturefutures.bsky.social · Jun 25

Food. It’s one of the great pleasures of life. And one of its necessities. Which means that, no matter where you look in time — the distant past, the far-flung future —one question will always resonate.

What’s for dinner?

#scifi by @patkanngiesser.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Coloured cubes of futuristic food sit on a square glass plate next to a fork

1 5 5

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 1d

as a cognitive scientist, I can confirm we don't know how humans think

14 26 150

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Kit Yates @kityates.bsky.social · 1d

"Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests."

Make no mistake. Our university sector is in trouble.

Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens

University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.

www.bbc.co.uk

1 10 22

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Caroline M. Yoachim @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social · 2d

Photos from today's walk at the Seattle Japanese Garden (thread). I was quite taken with these red leaves, dangling by a bit of spiderweb in a way that made them look like they were falling.

#photography #PNW #autumn #FallColors #nature #red #31DaysOfHalloween #SeattleJapaneseGarden

Closeup of half a dozen red maple leaves, suspended mid-air by (near-invisible) spider web threads in a vertical line such that it looks almost like a composite image of a leaf tumbling down from the tree, twirling as it falls. Dark greenery blurry in the background.

24 67 390

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 3d

I had thought there was enough residual dignity, and enough emphasis on maintaining the reputation of one's institution, left in the office of Vice Chancellor for a UK university that VCs would not stoop to such behaviour. How naïve that was.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 3d

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails. One university said it would conduct “active monitoring of social media” for any evidence of plans to demonstrate against Rolls-Royce at a careers fair. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

2 5 12

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 5d

Two of the most common climate misconceptions I see, even among knowledgeable folks, are that (1) most people aren't worried about climate change, and (2) if they were, they'd act.

Not true! Data show (1) most people are worried, but (2) they won’t act if they don’t know what to do-and most don’t.

A map of the world showing how levels of worry in most countries are greater than 70%. Source: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, International Public Opinion on Climate Change, 2023.

19 270 620

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 5d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

130 5.3K 15K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 5d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 5d

150 2.9K 8.8K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Mike Melton @mikemelton.bsky.social · 6d

Everybody thinks they're a photography expert now. I put my camera down for a minute and this mantis has to go and change my settings on me.

At @casabentbill.bsky.social #CostaRica

#invertebrates #mantids #insects

A brown praying mantis clings to the body of a black Panasonic camera, its front legs raised near the control dial.

19 110 680

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

dr. gianluca grimalda @ggrimalda.bsky.social · Sep 3

I've set off to Bougainville,PNG, for another #NoFly journey. I want to complete my research there. Travelling the ~25,000km distance from Italy by🚢,🚅,&🚌,I'll emit ~10 times less than✈️ (computations to come).Here the long read on my motivations: gianlu777.substack.c... 1/🧵

Map of my no-fly itinerary from Italy to Bougainville, PNG

6 43 140

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

🖤🐦‍⬛⚫𝑭𝒆𝒅𝒆⚫🐦‍⬛🖤 @fsohns.bsky.social · 5d

Updates from Argentina

Since our last post, where we talked about the importance of the legislative elections on October, and the government's struggle to keep the dollar exchange rate fixed before the election by spending dollars from the reserves and loans. Since then, three events have...

1/17

🖤🐦‍⬛⚫𝑭𝒆𝒅𝒆⚫🐦‍⬛🖤 @fsohns.bsky.social · 20d

Updates from Argentina

Long time no see for these kinds of posts, but guess what? I'm kinda super tired of my TL being drowned in US politics stuff, so I'll do this again, especially to relay the good news. Milei's government is cracking. This is gonna be a long tread explaining why.

1/29

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 22d

Argentina spends $1bn to defend peso as Milei’s crisis spirals on.ft.com/4gtNFzW

2 8 21

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 6d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

810 17K 38K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 10d

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a

desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus

28 2.2K 6.4K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

IPBES @ipbes.net · 10d

RIP #JaneGoodall - one of the modern pioneers of profound interconnections between people, animals and ecosystems. Her life was lived through science, compassion and tireless advocacy for the multiple values of nature - leaving a legacy that will endure for people and planet.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 10d

BREAKING: Jane Goodall, the conservationist renowned for chimpanzee research and environmental advocacy, has died.

Jane Goodall, conservationist renowned for chimpanzee research and environmental advocacy, has died

Jane Goodall, the conservationist renowned for her groundbreaking chimpanzee field research and globe-spanning environmental advocacy, has died. She was 91.

bit.ly

1 83 230

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 10d

"If we lose hope, we're doomed."

We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

160 4.3K 13K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 11d

New from me: a *free* short version of my Political Quarterly piece on universities... The issue is settled now: the massified and accessible Higher Education system we have spent tens of billions building since the 1970s is coming to an end. (1/2)
politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/where-n...

Where now for Britain’s Universities?

UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.

politicalquarterly.org.uk

4 49 93

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Micah Goldwater @micahgoldwater.bsky.social · 11d

There is a ton of research that students ratings on aggregate do not reflect learning outcomes, but whatever biases the population has. But in the "run universities like a business" model, student ratings are customer satisfaction surveys, so reflecting learning outcomes is irrelevant.

Annie @anniearmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

www.psypost.org/students-rate-identical-lectures-differently-based-on-professors-gender-researchers-find/# #AcademicSky - it never ends.

Students rate identical lectures differently based on professor's gender, researchers find

When philosophy students were asked to evaluate identical lectures assigned to men or women professors, their responses varied by gender. The study suggests gender bias plays a role in how teaching is...

www.psypost.org

2 12 37

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 12d

Just fuck off with this. How about start the conversation by highlighting how much immigrants contribute to the UK - not least by propping up the NHS and social care system!

Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.

250 1.4K 4.9K

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 14d

I am genuinely baffled and distressed as to why the UK government is intent on destroying UK's genuinely world-leading universities, who bring £265 billion into the economy and support more than 250,000 jobs.

This tax will kill us.

www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Student visas crackdown and new levies to cause ‘£1.8bn loss’ to UK economy

The Government has proposed a 6 per cent tax on international student tuition fees and a reduction in graduate visas

www.standard.co.uk

14 78 180

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Richard Haviland @rfhaviland.bsky.social · 19d

Over the last 24 hours Reform, with just a single policy announcement, have put fear where previously there was none into the hearts of millions of UK residents.

No 10 and the Chancellor have said nothing about the ethics of this.

I have no words left for them.

14 84 290

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 19d

My university is working hard to improve its history of poisonous industrial relations by announcing that it‘s deducting 50% of pay from staff carrying out action short of a strike. Withholding pay for refusing to work beyond contractual obligations sounds unlawful to me, but what do I know?

1 8 39

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr.bsky.social · 19d

It was obvious when EU citizens had the terms of their settlement here retrospectively revoked that a precedent was being set and that, in time, the argument would move on to other categories of migrant, always tending towards a purity test of who is ‘indigenous’. Unless resisted.

16 130 380

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 19d

this is a very sharp piece on why it makes no sense to run universities as if they are businesses. They're not businesses.

www.afr.com/work-and-car...

The net result is the worst of both worlds. Universities invoke the rhetoric of business discipline, but they lack the governance structures that give that discipline bite. They operate without the checks that private ownership provides, yet subject staff and students to the cost-cutting and efficiency drives that profit-maximising firms pursue. The result is waste at the top and insecurity at the bottom.

15 130 450

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 20d

This reads like one of those clever UG essays, that ploughs ahead with a bold argument despite each point hitting an evidentiary dead-end. 1/2

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 21d

Britain’s zombie universities should put Schumpeter on the syllabus on.ft.com/46tIQC1 | opinion

Britain’s zombie universities should put Schumpeter on the syllabus

It’s time to borrow from the corporate crib sheets — and if all else fails, creative destruction is a force for good

on.ft.com

5 4 28

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Suyi @suyidavies.com · 21d

For an institution supposedly invested in the work of critical thinking, there seems to be so little application of it where it matters.

If you're going to give students free access to a machine that fabricates knowledge-shaped objects, aren't you naturally suggesting that knowledge doesn't matter?

University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · 22d

NEW: Oxford will be the first UK university to give all staff and students free ChatGPT Edu access, from this academic year.

ChatGPT Edu is built for education, with enhanced privacy and security.

Graphic from the University of Oxford, featuring an image of a glowing, digital brain with the text: 'Generative AI at Oxford'. Highlights that ChatGPT Edu is now available to all staff and students. Includes a link for more information: ox.ac.uk/gen-ai

2 2 7

Reposted by P. Kanngiesser/P. K. Hoffmann

Stephen Graham Jones @sgj.bsky.social · 22d

hey, cool: Agustina Bazterrica and me in DC at the National Book Festival. Not sure if the audience'll be in this, but there's better than a thousand people out there:

Horror in Hostile Worlds: Agustina Bazterrica and Stephen Graham Jones

YouTube video by Library of Congress

youtu.be

3 12 68