Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Richard Stupart

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 22h

this is correct. and while you would get a nontrivial one off sum from a billionaire tax (not enough for a welfare state, but a lot), the ongoing point of that tax would be prevent billionaires from existing

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

47 430 2K

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

330 8.6K 27K

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

26 780 1.7K

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Ntina Tzouvala @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social · 3d

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Because for me, love is not blind loyalty – to an ideology, a state or even a community. Love is to be whole and honest, not fragmented. It struggles and wrestles. Perhaps it refuses to let go.

When you first heard me speak against this genocide, you heard my words as betrayal. But they were meant as love | Sarah Schwartz

Not speaking would go against everything I was taught to honour: the righteous among the nations – those who refused to be bystanders to injustice

www.theguardian.com

1 3 20

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 5d

Are you an early career scholar interested in some mix of media and war? We'd love to have you consider applying for Leverhulme funding to come and be part of our department.

If you think this might be you, get in touch - I'd love to see how we can support you.

www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career...

www.leverhulme.ac.uk

3 1

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 5d

Pencil sketch from a photo I took in Sumy the day after Russia's Easter Sunday attack.

For someone who has generally preferred photography, sketching has been a helpful way to work through what was a confusing set of days.

#urbansketch

Pencil sketch of one of Sumy State University's buildings after the Palm Sunday missile strike in 2025. The building facade is peppered with shrapnel impacts and much of the brickwork is exposed and shaken.

1 3 8

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Joshua Eaton @joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 6d

Not for nothing, but it is wild we’re talking about the morality of being mean to AI and not, like, industrial meat production.

1 12 72

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 6d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 7d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

99 2.3K 7K

Reposted by Richard Stupart

🎃 public HELLth guy 🎃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 8d

don’t forget to experience joy everybody

the entire class of a hundred students chasing off the nazi prick who hijacked their class

2 100 500

Reposted by Richard Stupart

madmatten.bsky.social @madmatten.bsky.social · 9d

Join the Green Party y’all 💚

4 9 59

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Lucy Osler @lucyosler.bsky.social · 9d

Philosophers of emotion, the call for abstracts for EPSSE 2026 is now open! Hosted at Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Southern Germany by our lovely president Imke von Maur on 24-26 June 2026 💕

#philsky

European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions @epsse.bsky.social · 9d

PSA 🔈Our call for abstracts for EPSSE 2026 is now open! Our 2026 annual conference will be hosted in Germany by Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt on 24-26 June 2026 💫

Deadline for abstracts on all things philosophy of emotions: 1 December 2025

www.epsse.org/call-for-abs...

Call for Abstracts | EPSSE

www.epsse.org

10 13

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 9d

Reason not to use AI number eleventymillion:

A Google search query asking when teh deadline for submitting papers to the International Communication Conference in 2026 is. The AI replies that the deadline is on Nov 3, and that this is in the past. It is October 2.

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Andreu Casas @andreucasas.bsky.social · 11d

🚨Hiring a fully funded (3.5 years) PhD for the @ldnsocmedobs.bsky.social to research social media and politics. Candidates should have quantitative/computational skills and/or be interested in content curation/moderation. UK home candidates only unfortunately. www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/hquftp...

www.royalholloway.ac.uk

1 14 4

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Simon Allison @simonallison.bsky.social · 13d

Help us name a newspaper. Every vote counts.

The Continent @thecontinent.org · 14d

📰 We’ll be back on 18 Oct — with a new member of the family.

The Continent is launching a South Africa–focused sibling. We need your help choosing its name. Cast your vote here 👇

Help us name a new SA newspaper.

South Africa needs a new national newspaper. Help us name it.

tally.so

1 5

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 20d

Oh this is BAD.

The new TOC from academia dot edu.

You grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness…

7 51 78

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Ntina Tzouvala @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social · 23d

my wholly vibes-based impression is that US institutions have been uniquely quick and willing to collaborate with the demise of democracy in comparison to those in, say, India or Turkey, which is, obviously, profoundly concerning.

4 6 47

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Jeremy Littau @jeremylittau.com · 22d

1/4 RE Kimmel, what makes this possible is broadcast TV/radio specifically are subject to FCC regulation in ways other media aren't. With limited broadcast spectrum, idea is built on notion the public owns the airwaves. It gives the FCC authority to regulate in the vaguely defined "public interest."

2 19 54

Reposted by Richard Stupart

sea shanty stan account ⛵️ @anarchoshanties.bsky.social · Sep 11

This one's maybe a little on the ling side, but trust me, it's worth it. I've cried reading it multiple times.

(1/3)

mylordshesacactus

Carpathia received Titanic's distress signal at 12:20am, April 15th, 1912. She was 58 miles away, a distance that absolutely could not be covered in less than four hours.

(Californian's exact position at the time is... controversial. She was close enough to have helped. By all accounts she was close enough to see Titanic's distress rockets. It's uncertain to this day why her crew did not respond, or how many might not have been lost if she had been there. This is not the place for what-ifs. This is about what was done.)

Carpathia's Captain Rostron had, yes, rolled out of bed instantly when woken by his radio operator, ordered his ship to Titanic's aid and confirmed the signal before he was fully dressed. The man had never in his life responded to an emergency call. His goal tonight was to make sure nobody who heard that fact would ever believe it.

All of Carpathia's lifeboats were swung out ready for deployment. Oil was set up to be poured off the side of the ship in case the sea turned choppy; oil would coat and calm the water near Carpathia if that happened, making it safer for lifeboats to draw up alongside her.

He ordered lights to be rigged along the side of the ship so survivors could see it better, and had nets and ladders rigged along her sides ready to be dropped when they arrived, in order to let as many survivors as possible climb aboard at once.

I don't know if his making provisions for there still being survivors in the water was optimism or not. I think he knew they were never going to get there in time for that. I think he did it anyway because, god, you have to hope.

Carpathia had three dining rooms, which were immediately converted into triage and first aid stations. Each had a doctor assigned to it. Hot soup, coffee, and tea were prepared in bulk in each dining room, and blankets and warm clothes were collected to be ready to hand out.

By this time, many of the passengers were awake-prepping a ship for disaster relief isn't quiet-and all of them stepped up to help, many donating their own clothes and blankets.

And then he did something I tend to refer to as diverting all power from life support.

Here's the thing about steamships: They run on steam. Shocking, I know; but that steam powers everything on the ship, and right now, Carpathia needed power. So Rostron turned off hot water and central heating, which bled valuable steam power, to everywhere but the dining rooms-which, of course, were being used to make hot drinks and receive survivors.

He woke up all the engineers, all the stokers and firemen, diverted all that steam back into the engines, and asked his ship to go as fast as she possibly could. And when she'd done that, he asked her to go faster.

I need you to understand that you simply can't push a ship very far past its top speed. Pushing that much sheer tonnage through the water becomes harder with each extra knot past the speed it was designed for. Pushing a ship past its rated speed is not only reckless-it's difficult to maneuver-but it puts an incredible amount of strain on the engines. Ships are not designed to exceed their top speed by even one knot. They can't do it. It can't be done.

Carpathia's absolute do-or-die, the-engines-can't-take-this-forever top speed was fourteen knots. Dodging icebergs, in the dark and the cold, surrounded by mist, she sustained a speed of almost seventeen and a half.

No one would have asked this of them. It wasn't expected. They were almost sixty miles away, with icebergs in their path. They had a responsibility to respond; they did not have a responsibility to do the impossible and do it well. No one would have faulted them for taking more time to confirm the severity of the issue. No one would have blamed them for a slow and cautious approach. No one but themselves.

15 440 990

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Ntina Tzouvala @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social · 24d

Boycott Business Insider

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 24d

Scoop: Business Insider informed its staff this week that they are allowed to use ChatGPT to generate first drafts of their stories, while also indicating the newsroom will not disclose such A.I. use to readers.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/business-i...

Business Insider and the Bots

The Axel Springer-owned newsroom is buzzing over new ChatGPT writing guidelines—part of an aggressive A.I. strategy pushed by its German parentco and detailed in a memo obtained by Status.

www.status.news

1 5 15

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 24d

This is such an amazing piece:

"I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response."

anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

2

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27d

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

380 8.4K 32K

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 25d

This is stating the obvious, but there's no good reason - besides systematic murder - for Israel to be bombing Gaza like this. Hamas is nowhere near being a 'bomb a city to dust' level threat.

Even the US didn't behave like this in Fallujah, where the opposing force was much stronger.

4

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 26d

We are definitely well past telling aspiring journalists to look to the US as a model for the profession.

1

Richard Stupart @richardstupart.com · 26d

Hot take, but I think most large (US?) media cant usefully be thought of as journalism anymore tho. It is just a profession making money of spinning culture into drama.

1 4

Reposted by Richard Stupart

Amanda Joy @ajevans21.bsky.social · Sep 11

Mary Oliver, Red Bird, 2008

#poetry #poem #MaryOliver

7 70 270