Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1h

“When elite universities send an inordinate number of their graduates to narrow corporate career tracks, they intensify inequality and divert young people away from serving the common good,” she told me. “It’s an important piece of the puzzle in why the public sees higher ed as a bad actor.”

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 3h

How America’s elite colleges breed high-status careers—and misery www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How America’s elite colleges breed high-status careers—and misery

“They funneled the shit out of me.”

www.motherjones.com

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 14h

Though it should be noted that early Christians made a point of currying favour with the Romans and distinguishing themselves from Jews (especially after the razing of Jerusalem), eventually leading to Christianity becoming the state religion and the dominant faith it is now.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 17h

I must say I’d never heard of Tunny or Tommy Flowers despite having visited Bletchley a few times. Colossus, yes.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 18h

Indeed - though it means people are more likely to see fruit as luxury items anyway. unseen-japan.com/luxury-fruit...

$650 Watermelon?! The History of Luxury Fruit in Japan - Unseen Japan

Would you pay $20 for a bunch of grapes? Many people in Japan do. Here's more on the history and purpose behind luxury fruit.

unseen-japan.com

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Reposted by Paul Park

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 20h

This two-parter below is exactly why it's hard to make clothes in the United States.

Let's look at how much it costs to produce a button-up shirt in the US. 🧵

Someone on Twitter replies to me: "meh. buy american or stfu."

Two hours later, in a separate thread, the write: "$30 for a single button-up is ridiculous unless it is decent quality silk."

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 19h

Lownie said in a recent talk that he hoped that the money from Entitled would make up for the enormous amount he had to spend on the lawsuit with the University of Southampton about the Mountbatten files. I hope so, I don’t think biography is a very lucrative field.

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 19h

Great article. I read Q recently and his kid gloves around Her Maj are very evident. I quite liked the way he makes clear that nobody had a good word to say about the Queen Mum and Louis Mountbatten.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 22h

Have you had a read of Entitled?

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 23h

Yeah, we have no idea what the odds will be in the 2029 election (assuming it isn’t called earlier for whatever reason). Reform are definitely having a moment but so are the Greens, who knows where the dice will fall in four years. The constant polls just make us more stressed.

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 23h

Unless you’re Delita, in which case you should resist tyranny with a view to doing tyranny later.

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Reposted by Paul Park

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

There is just so much train in Tokyo, even taking the overall size of the city into account. There were three train stations and five subway stations within a few minutes’ walk of our hotel in Ueno, which seemed a little excessive.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

This is absolutely heartbreaking given how well NZ was doing under Labour. The problem with shallow political institutions is that your country turns on a dime and can make things worse faster as well as better.

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, I’m honestly amazed that 900k people a year want to enter the UK (though of course many are students or temporary agricultural workers). People are fleeing NZ too as the National government is speedrunning infrastructure destruction. youtu.be/h-yjkAXxnMA

Honest Government Ad | Visit New Zealand!

YouTube video by thejuicemedia

youtu.be

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone’s doing it - Farage wants to deport half a million people a year, which is roughly total net migration to the UK.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

FWIW IIRC the CBSA deported 15000 people last year (with the help of the RCMP) and the numbers are going up annually, I think.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, which is why I said no more than usual (and that was 23 years ago and not the RCMP, though they were involved). The point is, the RCMP aren’t doing it enough to affect our agricultural industry, which I guess is the difference.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 1d

The difference being that the RCMP isn't actively locking up and deporting brown people, or at least no more than usual.

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 2d

Absolutely loads of Korean dramas, which are often very clear about inequality, cost of living, competition, and the need to find and keep money vs the need to be happy and be yourself. Whether it’s more romantic (No Gain No Love, Because This is My First Life) or about family/school (Sky Castle).

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 2d

The word “dreaming” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Reposted by Paul Park

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 2d

it's a good day to read about how the two stories of the Chinese economy - a booming tech sector and stagnant growth - are really the same story.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/10/c...

China’s Tech Obsession Is Weighing Down Its Economy

A decade of cutting-edge investment hasn’t translated into growth.

foreignpolicy.com

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Reposted by Paul Park

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 3d

ChatGPT's guide to Winning At Work
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Climbing the corporate greasy pole, ChatGPT style: the Stephen Collins cartoon

If I tell you what you want to hear then you’ll think I’m a god!

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Paul Park

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 4d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 4d

I am Paul’s lack of astonishment.

The Conversation UK @uk.theconversation.com · 4d

Research in psychology has found a link between wealth and selfishness

Research suggests rich people tend to be more selfish – but why is that?

Research in psychology has found a link between wealth and selfishness

tcnv.link

Paul Park @pauljunhyuk.bsky.social · 4d

Some comparisons - the UK film industry employs about 0.25m (though jobs are volatile). Financial services employ 1m, tourism 1m, manufacturing 2.5m, hospitality 3m, retail 3m, public sector 8m.

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