Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3h

Come to the City of Lakes Art Fair to learn about the history of US ballot design at the Minneapolis Elections booth

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 5h

I lived in Merriam Park and Cathedral Hill and St Anthony Park, all of which were really pleasant walking areas with parks, groceries, shops, restaurants, liquor stores at hand. I only reluctantly moved to Mpls when I got married. SAP and CH both also have classical music to walk to occasionally.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 20h

Tomorrow I'm braving the mean streets of Uptown to work at an art fair. Let me know if you have good safety tips. Especially since I'm taking the bus all the way down Lake St.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 21h

He's not even a professor.

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

It's been so much fun judging debate this semester. Even though teams arguing in favor of legalizing sports betting in Minnesota have a tough row to hoe.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Women always need three or four hands. Keep recording.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Um, when I was graduating in 1984, people with blue hair were the elderly ladies. And many had piercings (ears).

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

I think I'm the last generation when "blue hair" meant elderly.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 1d

Kid Rock: Do you know what is stupid… these chicks running around on campuses with blue hair, five nose rings.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

I find it so delightful that my favorite local celebrity has a clock radio. I wish I still did.

Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 1d

Sometimes I leave BBC World News on the clock radio overnight and benefit from osmosis or whatever while I sleep. I heard about a very strange Chinese novel that way once. Anyway the BBC is now on the podcast format bandwagon so I had the unfortunate experience of waking up at 4am to aimless talk.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

And the faculty of this university are given 10 days in the middle of the semester to make their individual webpages developed over decades "accessible." Without being given any real tools to do so.

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 2d

What's the worst university slogan you've ever heard?

Asking on behalf of an unnamed uni that coined "Work. With Flexibility" for a major internal reorg, & has now spent many millions on consultants who--after polling such finalists as "Vital We Are"--has settled on "Next, Forward to Our Future"

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

The University of Minnesota released this drivel as its new strategic plan. youtu.be/59Ra5Qnpa5Y?...

What Will Remain: The Future We’re Building Together

YouTube video by University of Minnesota

youtu.be

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Best photo I have of the table behind the couch. My neighbor recycles piano wood. The table in front of the couch is also piano wood with new legs attached.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Someone has never read Frederick Douglass

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 1d

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

Wilson: Now, one of the things I want to do is say: I’m really glad that slavery’s gone, and good riddance. And I want to say that the Southern slave owner, who read the books of Ephesians and Colossians and 1 Timothy and treated his slaves decently, remembering that he had a master in heaven who he studiously tried to obey — what Paul said slave owners were supposed to do — I would say he was not an orc, and he is part of the reason why slavery ended. In other words, I would say he’s a good guy.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

It, and the contents, are beautiful.

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Trump is proud of supporting the COVID vaccine, even if he's the only one in his circle who is.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration has been spreading anti-vaccine propaganda for months. Tonight, Trump's physician announced he just received a flu shot and a COVID booster.

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Reposted by Serafina

Max Hailperin @maxhailperin.bsky.social · 1d

This is bizarre even by Phil Parrish standards. He's published his take on Dominion Voting Systems' recent acquisition. It hallucinates the identity of the man behind the new company, blends one aspect of the real guy into the hallucinated one, and throws in a dubious "quote." 🧵

The Dominion Bombshell: From Conspiracy Target to Paper Ballot Pioneer

Burress, 82 and unapologetically conservative, isn’t some Silicon Valley suit peddling more machines. He’s the guy who founded Citizens for Community Values in the ‘80s, fought obscenity laws tooth and nail, and served as a Hamilton County election board member. Buying Dominion? It’s personal. “These machines are too easy to tamper with,” he’s said, echoing audits that cleared Dominion of 2020 fraud claims but couldn’t erase the distrust sown by Fox News’s $787 million settlement or OAN’s similar smackdown. No more QR codes scanned by strangers, no more “assist terminals” that sparked fresh glitches in recent cycles—like the ones flipping straight-party votes or “losing” ballots mid-count.

Burress’s vision aligns with a growing chorus: Elon Musk’s X rants demanding “paper only” because “code can be rigged from anywhere.” States like Georgia are already tabling bills for hand-marked ballots, citing the irrefutable audit trail paper provides—proven in recounts where Dominion’s own trails held up, but only because paper backups existed. In a world of surging ransomware (up 300+ incidents in healthcare and government this year alone, per CISA), electronic systems are sitting ducks. Burress gets it: Ink on paper means no Venezuelan whispers, no CCP hardware scares, no “coincidental” shutdowns like the Interlock gang’s July 2025 hit on St. Paul that leaked 43 GB of city data and activated the National Guard. It’s analog democracy in a digital warzone—simple, secure, and sovereign.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

I would have done this if I saw it before I built an island out of pipe and old piano wood.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3d

Remember when the Clinton administration set off a firestorm for firing seven White House travel office employees?

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3d

I hate to blame a victim here, but what is an adult man doing meeting a 15-year-old and her friends and driving around with them? Glad they got the shooter but jeez.

www.startribune.com/teen-admits-...

Teen admits reeling in carjack victim, shooting him multiple times in Minneapolis alley

The 17-year-old and a girl used a dating app to lure the man to the scene, according to prosecutors.

www.startribune.com

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Reposted by Serafina

general BOOsician @generalmusician.bsky.social · 3d

László's hierarchy of reads

Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 3d

Anyway, László Krasznahorkai is the third Nobel Orize laureate in literature to write in a Finno-Ugric language, after Imre Kertész (also Hungarian, 2002) and Frans Eemil Sillanpää (Finnish, 1939)

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3d

He stuck to the working class pretty tightly!

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3d

Happily the students didn't subject themselves to asking about that!

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 3d

Kevin was getting applause yesterday at the North High mayoral forum.

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 4d

The students asked good questions, which I skeeted about earlier. The answers weren't as interesting. Short's answer to everything was security guards. She also wanted to stop school shootings by having busses where the driver could lock everyone in if a shooter got onboard?

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Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 4d

The one at North was organized by the social studies class.

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