Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · 2d

When aliens land, expect them to call us "microscopic snails", before stamping us out as they make way for their new housing.

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · 2d

There's another reason to be pro gender neutral toilets: men might actually wash their hands, properly, if women are watching...

One Bladder After Another: why bros are finally having to queue for the loo | Emma Beddington www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One Bladder After Another: why bros are finally having to queue for the loo | Emma Beddington

There are few things more irritating than waiting outside the Ladies while men sail in and out of their own facilities. A new, very long film has changed all that, writes Guardian columnist Emma Beddi...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝

Yellow Dot Studios @weareyellowdot.bsky.social · 29d

"0.3 per cent of the world’s land area – yes, just the land – would be needed to meet the current energy demand from solar alone, which is LESS THAN THE CURRENT LAND FOOTPRINT OF FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE."

Why solar power is the only viable power source in the long run

Not only is solar more than capable of supplying all the world’s energy, in the long term it is the only power source that won’t fry the planet

www.newscientist.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · 27d

Anyone else remember the film Idiocracy?

m.imdb.com/title/tt0387...

Not a great film, but with more and more people falling for right wing populists and conspiracy fantasists, I'm wondering if it'll turn out to be more prophetic than, say, 1984.

Idiocracy (2006) ⭐ 6.5 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

1h 24m | R

m.imdb.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · 28d

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fiji ant study provides new evidence of insects’ decline on remote islands

DNA analysis of endemic specimens in museums finds 79% of ant populations in Pacific archipelago are shrinking

www.theguardian.com

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Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · Sep 9

A few days ago I posted a dead yellow jacket which had become a community meal for Paratemnoides social pseudoscorpions, but I hadn't really considered that they are apparently capable of teaming up and catching a live one?? Checked on them later and the unfortunate wasp was deceased. Damn. 🧪

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Maksym Polyakov 🇺🇦🌻 @maksympolyakov.bsky.social · Sep 8

🤷

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Sep 5

Reform really is attracting the best of the best...

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Nadine Dorries defects to Reform, saying Conservative party ‘is dead’

Former cabinet minister’s move on eve of Reform conference is further boost for party that took almost £1m in donations from ex-Tory donors

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Sep 3

Probably the most bizarre thing I've read about this year. #ants #genetics

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · Sep 3

Look at this crazy thing!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

www.nature.com

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Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · Sep 3

Look at this crazy thing!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

www.nature.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Sep 1

No, it tastes much better.

Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Sep 1

The oval office now reflects the man himself: gaudy and grotesque.

Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Sep 1

"A White House spokesperson told Fox News that the gold – “of the highest quality” – was all paid for by Trump personally."

The actions of someone who intends to never leave.

share.google/eWvYykcTf1JS...

Before and after: Trump’s extreme goldening of the Oval Office

An extravagant – and ongoing – makeover of the White House’s decor has taken place during the president’s second term. One colour theme stands out

share.google

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Reposted by Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝

Fair Political Coverage - we want to hear from ALL our parties @fairpoliticsnow.bsky.social · Aug 31

We’re going up at a rate of 700 signatures an hour currently. In the time it took me to boil the kettle it went up by 50. Keep the message in minds folks. Fair coverage is what we want so we hear from ALL parties not just the narrative of one. Sign and pass on petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · Aug 30

"Unfortunately, we are now living through a dis-Enlightenment.

In the US in particular, and increasingly elsewhere, facts don’t matter and can be casually denied. Universities have become subject to bullying as compliance with the requirements of one political faction..."

Welcome to the dis-Enlightenment

A new dis-Enlightenment looms: in the US and beyond, facts are denied, science silenced, and the wealthy spread lies over truth

yorkshirebylines.co.uk

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · Aug 31

Has Trump succeeded in normalising American autocracy?

People who have experienced the kind of authoritarianism the US used to condemn abroad highlight worrying signs

www.theguardian.com

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · Aug 11

🧵Here's a thought I've been having about the cost of transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy:

It does decarb fans no favors to pretend that there's no cost, or that just because "solar is cheap," that makes depreciating one entire system in favor of another cheap or easy.

However!

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Jun 28

Chalcidoidea, but beyond that I've no clue.

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Steve Metz @stevemetz.bsky.social · May 25

As a philosophy major who adored symbolic logic courses, this may be my favorite cartoon ever.

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Met4Cast @met4cast.net · May 25

This is phenomenal.

Sea surface temperatures are >5C above average to the west of the UK and around Iceland. It's the strongest area of anomalous warmth on the planet at the moment.

It's the warmest in recorded history for northwest Europe.

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · May 3

My VE Day was nothing like our image of it today. I hope we can honour what it really meant | Sheila Hancock

Our street party tea was a muted celebration, full of uncertainty. Then, as now, we faced a long struggle towards a better world, says actor and writer Sheila Hancock

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Apr 23

Another new micro #fungus for me. Is it possible to confirm this as Protomyces macrosporus on Oenanthe crocata leaves? Also from the #Stackpole Estate in #Pembrokeshire today.

#mycology

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Apr 23

New one for me, though probably quite common. I assume this is the rust #fungus Puccinia primulae on primrose Primula vulgaris at #Stackpole in #Pembrokeshire today.

#mycology

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Apr 22

A good follow up study would be to compare the results with the number of dark-money junktanks in each country.

Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say

Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Lush 🐜🪲🪰🐝 @sifolinia.bsky.social · Apr 19

This is not a #honeybee. The picture in the article of a #bumblebee is also not a honeybee. But #bees, and the threats to them, are all the same, right?

#entomology #taxonomy

search.app/zFAvr

NI's honey bees: Population at risk due to no bee inspectorate

NI's last full-time bee inspector retired in 2024 and the part-time inspector died shortly after.

search.app

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