Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

@santiagokique.bsky.social

460 followers 730 following 1.8K posts

Vnzln 🇻🇪MD/PhD candidate @ Stanford 🌲 I study telomere biology in health and disease; I write about science and politics blogs @ primafacie.substack.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · Oct 30

My most recent non-blog piece: a conversation with “Death-y” scholar Tamara Kneese on biotechnosolutionism and Silicon Valley’s longevity obsession

logicmag.io/issue-21-med...

Who Gets to Live Forever? A Conversation about Biotechno-solutionism with Tamara Kneese and Santiago Sanchez

“The entire fantasy of living for much longer only makes sense if you have that kind of extreme wealth or if you believe that you have the capacity...

logicmag.io

1 4 11

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 11h

he does not regret to inform you and neither do I

Willamette Week @wweek.com · 11h

Jack Dickinson, 26, says “we’re winning this.”

An Interview With the Portland Chicken

Rachel Saslow

www.wweek.com

13 170 1.1K

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 15h

American Catholicism has always been a unique strain in the Universal Church but now here we have an American Pope saying things that it’s far right government, headed in significant part by adult Catholic converts, would brand him as a domestic terrorist for saying

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 23h

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."

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 15h

Of course, these people don’t care. They are banking on finally being able to shred the social contract between capital and labor once and for all.

open.substack.com/pub/primafac...

the rulers cash out

the tides may turn, but will it matter?

open.substack.com

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 15h

In addition to this being deranged, I have a tough time believing Andreessen actually thinks this as he must be aware the majority of consumer spending comes from the top 10% wealthiest individuals. Maximizing profit means producing consumer goods for the wealthiest primarily

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 20h

the most absurd thing about the “we just arrested the antifa founder’s gf” thing is that in that same meeting the leaders of the free world were nodding along to Jack Posobiec saying antifa was founded 100 years ago in Weimar Germany, so they must have arrested a 120 year old who fought the Nazis

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 21h

theonion.com/gop-maintain...

3 17

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.

25 540 1.6K

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

samuel @quilombo.bsky.social · 1d

The level of destruction and erasure in the Gaza Strip is simply incredible. North Gaza, before and after:

17 240 300

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 2d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

55 1.4K 2.3K

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 2d

Even if AI does deliver the productivity boom investors are hoping it does (it won’t), the thought that it could raise wages without raising prices is PURE FANTASY. Productivity has been divorced from wages in the US for nearly half a century now.

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 2d

When the AI bubble pops no one will be able to say we couldn’t see it coming.

on.ft.com/4q1WeX1

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

on.ft.com

1 1 5

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Paul Offit @pauloffit.bsky.social · 3d

open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi...
In the midst of a measles epidemic that killed 3 people, RFK Jr. reminds us that vaccines don't save lives.

RFK Jr.: “Vaccines Don’t Save Lives”

In a recent post on X, RFK Jr. said that vaccines are overrated.

open.substack.com

10 32 78

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 3d

Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending

4 140 450

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 3d

I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

1/14

jeremymberg.github.io

13 160 300

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 3d

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 3d

Claim: 10 cars rammed ICE
Truth: No cars rammed ICE

Claim: She boxed ICE in
Truth: ICE boxed her in

Claim: She shot a rifle at ICE
Truth: She did not have a rifle

Claim: ICE returned fire
Truth: Only ICE fired

Claim: She drove herself to the hospital
Truth: Paramedics found her

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 3d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

590 14K 29K

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 3d

Some more random Weiss lore since she’s an official government propagandist now: we probably have her to thank for the mainstreaming of Vinay Prasad, and he probably owes her for his current job bc she facilitated his official transition to the Right mediasphere.

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · Oct 3

Is it a coincidence that V*nay Pr*sad was completely inactive on the substack he created in 12/2020 until 9/2021 -- just one month after the viral article discussing B*ri Weiss' 800k a year substack revenue came out, and his first post was about appearing on her pdocast?

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 3d

1. Federal agents from ICE and other agencies are wrongly detaining U.S. citizens, sometimes detaining them for days, on suspicion that they are undocumented immigrants.

The raids are done without search warrants or other procedures designed to protect civil liberties.

How federal agents are terrorizing American citizens

Last week, hundreds of heavily armed federal agents descended on an apartment complex in Chicago, arriving in Black Hawk helicopters and moving trucks.

popular.info

54 810 1.6K

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 4d

Every TRO against this admin comes from a hearing where the judge says “what the fuck are you people doing” and the DOJ just kind of shrugs, get ruled against, and then the admin regroups to find some other way to ignore or get around the order and then Congress does exactly nothing

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 4d

HAPPENING NOW: Judge Karin Immergut hears emergency arguments as California and Oregon seek to block President Trump's deployment of federalized California National Guard troops to Portland. 🧵

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 4d

NEW: Judge Immergut schedules a hearing TONIGHT, in 45 min, to hear arguments on SECOND TRO to block federalized California National Guard from deploying in Portland, Oregon. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71481...

1 1

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 4d

I think “the White House is directing the military to treat broad swaths of the public as terrorist threats and inciting terroristic political violence against branches of govt that would defy it” would be a good time to have a serious conversation about whether or not this is a Country

onion person @junlper.beer · 4d

this will only continue to escalate, they want a civil war

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 5d

Time to repost a classic.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/

8 72 240

Reposted by 🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5d

Greta Thunberg says she is being detained by Israel in cell ‘infested with bedbugs’

Exclusive: Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has told Swedish officials she is being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody after her detention and removal from a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian. According to the correspondence, Israeli forces are also reported by another detainee to have taken photographs where Thunberg was allegedly forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags are unknown. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

110 810 1.6K

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 5d

These changes + the new loyalty compact + university-directed extortion that has been going on and off for the better part of 6 months now all paint a pretty clear picture that the industry of knowledge production is genuinely under a new Lysenkoism, except there isn't any scientific content to it.

1 3 31

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 5d

Like...this is the biggest corruption scandal the NIH has experienced in its entire history and its not even close. Half of a BILLION dollars to a single project as a result of political spoils. That's the equivalent of several hundred R01s.

4 81 160

🪾santiago, phd 🐈‍⬛ @santiagokique.bsky.social · 5d

Even though it's crisis #192308 in our current time, I don't think it's sufficiently sunk in with ppl in the academic community that getting federal funding for your research will primarily depend on whether Trump political appointees find you and your work useful
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

5 58 130