Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Timothy Vollmer @tvol.bsky.social · 6h

Some recent film photographs, self-developed and scanned at the Berkeley Art Studio. Ilford HP5.

Black and white photograph of a classical building with arched windows framed by modern circular metal sculpture, with a reflecting pool in the foreground.

Black and white photograph of a public park with palm trees, buildings on a hillside, and people gathered on the grass.

Black and white photograph of rocky hillside terrain with large boulders and scrubby vegetation.

Black and white photograph of a Richmond ferry station platform with a modern shelter building.

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California Faculty Association @cfaunited.bsky.social · 6h

CFA today filed a lawsuit against the CSU. We seek an order prohibiting the CSU from disclosing CFA members’ personal info in response to federal subpoenas without providing notice to workers and an opportunity for them to object. Read more in our press release:

www.calfac.org/cfa-sues-csu...

A truncated version of the press release available at the link

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 16h

MIT's response to the Trump admin's proposed "compact" is excellent and should be a model for other universities. orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 14h

“Another former OpenAI employee who also was not authorized to speak publicly argued that releasing a deepfake AI social media platform was the right business decision, even if it contributes to the collapse of everyone's shared sense of reality.” 💀

Sora gives deepfakes 'a publicist and a distribution deal.' It could change the internet

OpenAI's new hit app has unleashed a new wave of AI slop across the internet. But what happens when there are no rules over hyper-realistic synthetic videos?

www.npr.org

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Todd Wolfson @proftwolf.bsky.social · 15h

I am proud to say that MIT has rejected Trump's poison compact. MIT President Sally Kornbluth: "Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education."
@aaup.org @aft.org @higheredlabor.bsky.social @uaw.org
links.mit.edu/nl3/N5Jy2cKq...

Regarding the Compact

links.mit.edu

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Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 16h

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 20h

“It would be better to have high-quality human attention being paid to submissions, and peer review being fully done by…alert and focused humans" says Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner.

AI in peer review: where to draw the line? - Research Professional News

As publishers seek “shared principles”, others warn AI could become “sticking plaster” for structural problems

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Seriously' Considering Using the Insurrection Act, Reports NBC

President Trump is "seriously" considering invoking the Insurrection Act in order to more easily deploy National Guard troops to major cities as part of crime crackdown, NBC reported on Wednesday

www.mediaite.com

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UC Berkeley Labor Center @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social · 2d

The UC Berkeley Labor Center mourns Kent Wong, our longtime colleague and friend. A passionate champion for workers—especially immigrants—and students, Kent dedicated his life to justice. Our hearts are with our colleagues at the UCLA Labor Center.

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Andres Guadamuz @technollama.bsky.social · 8d

Sora 2 and the end of copyright as we know it

Something remarkable is happening online, and I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I’ll try. OpenAI has released Sora 2, the latest version of its video-generating tool, and it has landed with a bang. Before launch, Sam Altman made headlines by…

Sora 2 and the end of copyright as we know it

Something remarkable is happening online, and I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I’ll try. OpenAI has released Sora 2, the latest version of its video-generating tool, and it has landed with a bang. Before launch, Sam Altman made headlines by suggesting that copyright holders would need to opt out of having their works used for outputs, a statement that understandably set off alarm bells in some circles.

www.technollama.co.uk

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Authors Alliance @authorsalliance.bsky.social · 2d

We recently received a question regarding the AI scraping of Institutional Repositories: (1) Do open access Institutional Repositories permit the use of the IR’s materials for AI training? and (2) Are there legal mechanisms that would prevent the use of IR materials in AI training?

Institutional Repositories and AI Scraping

We recently received a question regarding the AI scraping of Institutional Repositories, by which we mean online digital archives that provide access to the intellectual output of scholars, often a…

www.authorsalliance.org

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Timothy Vollmer @tvol.bsky.social · 2d

a close up of a man 's face with a blue eye

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a blue eye

media.tenor.com

Timothy Vollmer @tvol.bsky.social · 2d

The level of “nothing to see here” rhetoric from the highest levels of UC administration (including a 3-page FAQ!) is truly something to behold. www.dailycal.org/news/uc/uc-p...

UC President denies UC Berkeley ‘capitulated’ to federal government in 160 name release

UC President James B. Milliken released a statement Oct. 3 addressing the university’s cooperation with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which included UC Berkeley’s release of ab...

www.dailycal.org

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 2d

The literal reading of this statement is Pam Bondi is planning extrajudicial executions of random protesters.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 2d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 2d

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

“Bucking tradition and legal precedent.” Lol.

I guess according to the sanitizing standards of mainstream media’s neutrality-theater journalism, you can “buck tradition and legal precedent” so hard that you end democratic self-government and the constitutional order altogether.

NPR @npr.org · 3d

President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Trump's power to deploy National Guard, explained

President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.

n.pr

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UC Berkeley Library Scholarly Communication & Information Policy @ucbscholcomm.bsky.social · 3d

We’re happy to be joining the SJSU Open Access Virtual Conference to discuss how librarians and researchers are navigating the updated NIH Public Access Policy: scholarworks.sjsu.edu/oa-un-confer...

October 21, 2025. Free to register at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Title slide with dark teal background. Main heading reads 'Navigating NIH's Revised Public Access Policy: On-the-Ground Experiences from Librarians and Researchers' in white text with a vertical yellow-green accent line on the left. Below are presenter names: Katie Fortney (California Digital Library), Tim Vollmer (UC Berkeley), and Anneliese Taylor (UCSF). At the bottom: 'SJSU Open Access Conference | October 21, 2025'

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AAUP @aaup.org · 3d

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED!

Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold.

Please click below, sign, & share.

#DefendHigherEd

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts

The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 4d

Got a tip recently about how Trump's tariffs are preventing libraries from sharing books, and causing their loaned books to get stuck or lost in other countries: www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

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Timothy Vollmer @tvol.bsky.social · 3d

“Fair use is a “case‑by‑case” standard, and the facts now include an exogenous policy barrier that makes return shipping for physical ILL either impossible or systemically unreliable.” copyrightfightclub.substack.com/p/controlled... by @kylekcourtney.bsky.social

Controlled Digital Lending Is Still Not Dead; It Just Got a New Job: Saving Interlibrary Loan from Tariff Chaos

Because apparently the "Trade War" is eating interlibrary loan and our print collections.

copyrightfightclub.substack.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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UC Berkeley Library Scholarly Communication & Information Policy @ucbscholcomm.bsky.social · 4d

Next week, join our workshop to understand scholarly metrics and learn how to amplify your academic work. Oct 14, 11a-12p, Zoom. RSVP: update.lib.berkeley.edu/2025/09/25/r...

This diagram, titled "The metrics ecosystem," illustrates the different ways scholarly impact is measured. The six categories are:

Author-level: Measures impact based on a researcher's Publications, Citations, and the Journals they publish in.

Journal-level: Measures the "Impact," Citations, and Reputation of the publication itself.

Article-level: Measures the impact of a single paper through Citations, Bookmarks, Social media mentions, and Views & downloads.

Alt-metrics: Measures broader "Attention" and social engagement for All outputs, often tracked by the Altmetric "donut."

Data, code, & software: Measures the use of non-publication outputs through Citations, Dataset downloads, and GitHub forks.

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Mikhail Zinshteyn @mzinshteyn.bsky.social · 5d

BREAKING: Hours after California filed suit against the Trump administration Sunday seeking to prevent the president from sending 300 California National guard troops to Portland, Ore., a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking federalized deployment from any state to Oregon.

Trump deploys 300 California Guard troops to Portland; Newsom vows lawsuit

Gov. Gavin Newsom is vowing to sue after he says Trump sent 300 California Guard troops to Portland to quell protests

calmatters.org

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Toby Higbie @thigbie.bsky.social · 5d

From occupied Chicago: “Worker centers, community groups, unions and informal networks have fanned throughout the city, numerous individuals taking personal risks to their own safety to help defend their neighbors.”

Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 5d

If Trump's deportation machine were an army, it would be the 13th largest on earth, ahead of Poland, Canada, Iran. The funding increase kicked in Oct 1, as federal agents unleash violence on the Chicago area, raiding communities and brutalizing protesters. By me & Lindsay Koshgarian, 📷 Steel Brooks.

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago

As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

inthesetimes.com

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 6d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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