Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Vicki Blud

Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · 6d

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Warwick History Post-Doc Club @post-doc-club.bsky.social · 13d

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

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Museums Association @museumsassociation.org · 18d

News | Science Museum launches Space gallery – new permanent exhibition is part of a wider project to rework the ground floor of the London museum

Science Museum launches Space gallery - Museums Association

New permanent exhibition is part of a wider project to rework the ground floor of the London museum

www.museumsassociation.org

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Megan L. Cook @meganlcook.bsky.social · 19d

Y'all know this already but this is neither how trans people nor medieval currency nor alchemy work and also I'd hoped (foolishly, it would seem!) we'd moved beyond the traffic in women as an organizing social principle.

Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 19d

What it sounds like when philosophers who are also anti-trans activists submit an amicus brief to a US court where they argue for banning trans girls and women from women's sports.

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the option of interpreting the Idaho and West Virginia
statutes as motivated by the justified aim of excluding
all males from female sports, it is quite invidious to
interpret them as instead motivated by the unjustified
aim of excluding males who identify as female in par-
ticular.
Consider a simple analogy. Imagine that we are
back in Medieval Europe. Gold is the currency of the
land. Consequently, many merchants prefer to accept
gold and only gold as payment. However, a new move-
ment is afoot, whose members are known as the alche-
mists. The alchemists purport to have found a way of
turning iron pyrite (fool’s gold) into gold. Some people
are convinced by the claims of the alchemists, though
many others are not. This difference in attitudes
starts to lead to time-wasting interactions in which an
alchemist or fellow traveler tries to purchase a good
using iron pyrite from a merchant who, unmoved by
well-publicized insistence on the part of the alche-
mists that only irrational prejudice could lie behind
lingering doubts about the possibility of converting
iron pyrite into gold, continues to insist on only ac-
cepting gold as payment. One such merchant, whose
unofficial working policy has hitherto been to accept
only gold as payment, decides to make his policy offi-
cial by putting up a sign on his store saying, “Only
gold accepted (no iron pyrite!).”

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Micah @rincewind.run · 20d

we have gone from a world in which we were told not to cite wikipedia because it was unreliable to a world where wikipedia might be the only reliable source left on the internet and we all owe a lot to the pedantic nerds who got us there

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 20d

for all people mock it wikipedia is genuinely one of the wonders of the modern world

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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 28d

Shot, chaser

Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · Sep 12

We want robust, enormous research that is SUCH good research, you already know how important and right and insightful it is before you even start it. We want research so predeterminedly world-changing that there is hardly any point actually doing the research at all.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · Sep 12

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

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Trans+ Solidarity Alliance @transsolidarity.bsky.social · Sep 5

BREAKING 🚨

The updated EHRC Code of Practice has now been sent to the Government. The Code is just as bad as we feared.

It would mean a mandatory trans bathroom ban, and trans people's exclusion from public life. The impact would be devastating.

But politicians still have time to stop this.

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Mark Thomas @markthomasinfo.bsky.social · Sep 5

Rayner is gone so where is the media outrage at Farage and his taxing dodging scams? Home bought in his partners name avoiding stamp duty, GB News pay via a company to avoid 40% tax rate on his 92k pay from them.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · Sep 5

Yes, but he’s Nigel. If he were Angela, he’d be toast. As he’s Nigel, he’s toasted.

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · Sep 5

“Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given he already owns other properties”

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

Nigel Farage uses private company to pay less tax on GB News earnings

Exclusive: Reform leader’s use of personal services firm is a practice criticised across the political spectrum

www.theguardian.com

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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · Sep 2

Another day, yet ANOTHER stupid, pointless announcement on immigration from this stupid pointless government.

Today: you are a student - we're going to write you a stern letter about how you better not be thinking of staying!

Insanity. Racist, cowardly, insanity. #r4today

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Sarah has a suggestion @goatsarah.org · Aug 29

I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset.
In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia.
In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)

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jj skolnik @modernistwitch.myatproto.social · Aug 24

need people to understand that the idea that “regular people” can’t understand trans people is inherently transphobic framing.

#1: we are regular people. demographically, we are less wealthy than cis people on the whole because of employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and the wage gap

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Philippa East (Author) @philippaeast.bsky.social · Aug 24

I hate to say it, but this feels like a horribly-targeted attack on trans healthcare, which so many people are being forced to seek privately because access via the NHS is so dire.
Please do respond to the consultation if you can (the GCs will be all over this 😭)
www.gov.uk/government/c...

Private (non-NHS) prescribing: call for evidence document

www.gov.uk

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · Aug 19

having thought about this for three days, my current status is:

what the FUCK are we doing trying to ban social media for kids and not banning AI use? we are literally telling them not to use the computer to talk to their real friends but instead to the imaginary technology monetisable 'friends'.

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · Aug 16

this makes me suspect that one of the routes that AI companies are aiming at is targeting young people. anything that existed when you were a kid feels normal and indispensable. especially if you always used AI to write all your essays for you. and to comfort you when your parents were arguing.

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Venus Bivar @vbivar.bsky.social · Aug 14

For all of the educators trying to deal with AI, I did a deep dive in early June and these are the four articles I decided to assign to my students.

1. This is the longest of the bunch, but so wonderfully comprehensive.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.

The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

www.technologyreview.com

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Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · Aug 15

Stop offloading cognitive tasks to "generative AI." Stop using systems w/ "AI" features either inextricably woven through them or prominently displayed at the top to nudge you into their use. Stop *Designing* "AI" tools & integrations that way. Stop building or using "AI" like this. Fucking Stop it.

AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study

Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.

www.bloomberg.com

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 15

can you imagine trying to convince the average skepti-dude in the year 2010 that this is what summer europe will look like in 2025

a map of europe showing temperatures in the low 40s and high 30s

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Reuters @reuters.com · Aug 14

A cognitively impaired New Jersey man grew infatuated with a Meta chatbot originally created in partnership with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. His fatal attraction shines a light on Meta's guidelines for its AI chatbots reut.rs/45DQIRj
@jeffhorwitz.bsky.social

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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · Aug 11

Dame Stephanie Shirley has died aged 91. She adopted the name "Steve" in correspondence as letters signed Stephanie went unanswered. Despite such thoroughly ingrained sexism in computing, she built an astonishing tech career and did all huge amount to support other women in tech

#histsci #histtech

Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, technology pioneer, dies aged 91

She founded the software company Freelance Programmers in 1962, which almost exclusively hired women, and in later life donated almost £70m of her fortune.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Dr Zara Bain @zaranosaur.bsky.social · Aug 8

Good morning hello how are you GUESS WHAT?

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funnels.academicaudiotranscription.com

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Vicki Blud @vickiblud.bsky.social · Aug 10

I’m so sorry 💔

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · Aug 8

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

A book titled "Outdoor Pigs: How to Make them Pay."

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Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social · Aug 8

My book, Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance: Typologies of violence and desire, with @manchesterup.bsky.social, is coming out next month! I would be delighted if you might consider ordering a copy for your libraries 💚

Front cover for Love and anti-Judaism in medieval English romance, illustration from British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2 of Lady Bertilak and Gawain in the bedchamber. Gawain is lying down with eyes closed, wrapped in green blankets, and Lady Bertilak is wearing a spotted dress, seated beside him with her hair up, her arms outstretched in a loose embrace and touching under his chin.

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