Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Shanil Virani

Kim Rosvall @rosvall-lab.bsky.social · 12h

I do want to take a minute to share the backstory of our paper on the total solar eclipse that triggered dawn behavior in birds. This was SUCH a fun paper to work on, a major light in a lot of different tunnels over the past 18 months. doi.org/10.1126/scie... < ☀️ Let the light puns begin ☀️ > (1/x)

two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway

ALT: two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway

media.tenor.com

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Kim Rosvall @rosvall-lab.bsky.social · 13h

Pumped to share our work on bird behavior and the 2024 Eclipse, in today's @science.org. 100k bird vocalizations + 10k continent-wide observations from the public = really fun collab led by Liz Aguilar, with @juncowren.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @imillercrews.bsky.social #NSF

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Paul Macklin @mathcancer.bsky.social · 14h

So proud of this multidisciplinary project, showing in particular the power of community science when enabled by user-friendly design, bolstering deep expertise.

In the 2024 solar eclipse, 11k observations from 1700 laypeople via a jointly developed, user-friendly smartphone app.🔭🧪

Community observations of bird behaviors across the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse, via a user-friendly smartphone app.

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Rich Haridy @richharidy.bsky.social · 1d

92% of buildings destroyed
1 in 4 children severely malnourished
Hundreds of thousands killed or wounded
Almost all schools, hospitals & universities destroyed
89% of the water/sanitation networks damaged

Not patting anyone on the back for achieving a ceasefire now. There's not much left to bomb.

Two years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza: By the numbers

Israel has killed or injured more than 10 percent of Gaza's population over the past 24 months.

www.aljazeera.com

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 1d

#Democracy dies in #darkness, right @washingtonpost.com? I know the @nytimes.com was too busy being the mouthpiece for the #Bush regime that bankrupted our treasury & resulted in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers in two endless wars. Just as tragic has been their silence & capitulation.

Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d

Michigan Avenue right now.

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 1d

Miss game 4 of the #BlueJays tonight? No need to check the box score. Here’s Big Papi and Vladdy to break it down for you. This will be my ringtone for the next week. Just sayin’.

#LetsGoBlueJays #ALCS #YankeesLose #MLB #ALDS #HalfBillionDollarMan

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 1d

3/3
This isn’t about partisanship anymore — it’s about power, rot, and what truth they think the public can’t handle.

Empires don’t crumble all at once.

They erode from within, when lies outnumber laws and loyalty replaces integrity.

That sound you hear? It’s the breaking point.

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 1d

2/3
Massie says he has 218 votes to force the House to release the Epstein files.

Johnson delays swearing in Rep-elect Adelita Grijalva — the decisive vote — to block it.

Even Greene says she’s never faced more pressure for signing that petition.

What are they so afraid of?

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 1d

🧵 1/3
Is the endgame finally in sight?

When Thomas Massie & Marjorie Taylor Greene are leading the charge to release the Epstein files — and Speaker Mike Johnson keeps Congress out of session to stall it — you know the cracks in Trump’s movement aren’t cracks anymore.

They’re fault lines.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

WATCH: Did the FBI find those photographs? 😶

#pambondi #donaldtrump #epstein

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 2d

I love the quote from #Yale’s Dr. Schoelkopf that puts today’s #physics #NobelPrize in context.

Mirroring the evolution of the #internet, quantum 3.0 will be the era of working #quantum #computing. With it, an explosion of knowledge that transforms how we discover, compute, & perhaps even think. 🔭🧪

Physics Today @physicstoday.bsky.social · 2d

Our story on today’s announcement of the 2025 #NobelPrize in #Physics has been updated. Learn more about the prizewinning research.

#IYQ2025

Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis share 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

With their experiments on an electric circuit in which all the electrons together behaved like a single particle, the laureates provided the first demonstration of quantum behavior at a macroscopic sc...

pubs.aip.org

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 2d

I love the quote from Dr Schoelkopf that puts today’s #physics #prize on #quantum in context.

Mirroring the evolution of the internet, quantum 3.0 will be the era of working quantum computing — and with it, an explosion of knowledge that transforms how we discover, compute, and perhaps even think.

1

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2d

Tim Miller on his recent interview with Barstool's KFC about how only "absolute batshit crazy" people want masked ICE agents kidnapping random gardeners:

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2d

Durbin: “The president said he wanted to use American cities as 'training grounds for our military' to fight 'the enemy within.' Chicago is not the enemy. Our fellow Americans are not the enemy."

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 2d

#Immigrants have long made significant & disproportionate contributions to the #Physics #NobelPrize. Today’s news is more than a triumph of #quantum #science — it’s a story about what we get right when we open doors, not close them.

www.boundless.com/blog/u-s-imm...
#PublicEducation #ScienceMatters

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Our Island Universe @ourislanduniverse.space · 2d

🎃✨ Halloween is older than you think!
Its roots reach to the stars — to a time when our ancestors tracked the Sun’s halfway point between equinox and solstice. They called it a cross-quarter day — a cosmic threshold between light & dark, life & death, summer & winter.

soundcloud.com/shanil-viran...

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 4d

Goodnight, #Yankees. Vladdy just baptized that baseball! The SkyDome’s a launch pad, the #Jays are flying, and October baseball feels right again. Can we invoke the mercy rule on their behalf?! ⚾️🚀💙 💥🫡 #BlueJays #LetsGoBlueJays

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 4d

Goodnight Yankees!! The motor is running and the balls are a-flying out of the #SkyDome! Let’s go @torontobluejays.bsky.social!!

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OceanCalm @justabbe.bsky.social · 5d

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 9d

The cognitive dissonance is alarming. The @washingtonpost.com has an "exclusive" piece entitled "Trump’s #USAID pause stranded #lifesaving #drugs. 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴." In another piece #FOTUS is giving $20BILLION to #Argentina to bail out a rightwing nut. There's 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 money for the middle class.

So, let's get this straight.

We don't have money to continue to provide middle class Americans subsidies so that they can afford health care coverage for their families via the ACA. So we'll shut down government instead.

We don't have money to support USAID and PEPFAR, yet just today, the Washington Post has a headline that reads "Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴."

We don't have money for basic science, which is literally the engine that drives the American economy, so we laid off *thousands* of scientists and doctors, and have gutted federal support for #NASA, #NSF, and #NIH.

We don't have any weapons to send Ukraine because they're fighting a war against an enemy who attacked their country. Maybe because they're not our enemy?

But Argentina needs a $20 BILLION bailout to save their economy -- yet again -- and FOTUS can't say "yes" fast enough. Why?! "Trump is a fan of Argentine President Javier Milei, a libertarian whose attacks on government spending and red tape have made him a folk hero to the American right."

Why is it that whenever the banks, Wall Street, and authoritarian regimes need a bailout, we have an endless treasury but we have no money nor compassion and can't help the people who 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 need help?

I don't know much but that just sounds very un-Christian-like to me.

Elections have consequences is the old saying. This is what ~78 millions Americans support.

When we need a bail out, I hope Russia and/or China will listen to him when he goes hat in hand. Maybe he'll just continue to lie on bank loan applications and get money that way as that works for him.

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

#Republicans have been selling out this country & lining their own pockets. We’re all going to pay the price because their puppet masters are going to come calling soon. They have fomented culture wars to dupe & distract the American public. If #Senate Dems cave, services slashed & debt still rises.

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

Bond holders will soon demand significant austerity measures, deep cuts to public spending, so that we can continue making debt payments. This has already started with steep federal spending cuts to Medicare & impacted Social Security in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress earlier this year.

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Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

It’s worse than that. Republicans have been selling out this country, lining their own pockets, for decades. We’re all going to pay the price because their puppet masters are going to come calling soon. They have fomented culture wars to dupe & distract the American public.

bsky.app/profile/shan...

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

Bond holders will soon demand significant austerity measures, deep cuts to public spending, so that we can continue making debt payments. This has already started with steep federal spending cuts to Medicare & impacted Social Security in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress earlier this year.

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

It’s worse than that. Republicans have been selling out this country, lining their own pockets, for decades. We’re all going to pay the price because their puppet masters are going to come calling soon. They have fomented culture wars to dupe & distract the American public.

bsky.app/profile/shan...

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

Bond holders will soon demand significant austerity measures, deep cuts to public spending, so that we can continue making debt payments. This has already started with steep federal spending cuts to Medicare & impacted Social Security in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress earlier this year.

1

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

It’s worse than that. Republicans have been selling out this country, lining their own pockets, for decades. We’re all going to pay the price because their puppet masters are going to come calling soon. They have fomented culture wars to dupe & distract the American public.

bsky.app/profile/shan...

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

Bond holders will soon demand significant austerity measures, deep cuts to public spending, so that we can continue making debt payments. This has already started with steep federal spending cuts to Medicare & impacted Social Security in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress earlier this year.

1

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

It’s worse than that. Republicans have been selling out this country, lining their own pockets, for decades. We’re all going to pay the price because their puppet masters are going to come calling soon. They have fomented culture wars to dupe & distract the American public.

bsky.app/profile/shan...

Shanil Virani @shanilv.ca · 11d

Bond holders will soon demand significant austerity measures, deep cuts to public spending, so that we can continue making debt payments. This has already started with steep federal spending cuts to Medicare & impacted Social Security in the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by Congress earlier this year.

1