Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ward Q. Normal (he/him)

@wardqnormal.bsky.social

7.9K followers 1.5K following 5.9K posts

Teacher, knitter, widower, Phish head, provincial park, strategy puzzle video game, type of volcanic crater, electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, species of moth of the family Tortricidae, ...

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · Aug 11

New school year about to start, so a new thread for the alphabetical order commute playlist. This morning's drive started with "Dumb All Over" (Zappa) and ended with 4 songs titled "Dust" (Monks of Doom, Parquet Courts, 13th Floor Elevators, Elvis Costello).

7 2 49

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

I'm so sorry. It's an awful situation, and millions of people's lives are going to be hurt by this. I snark a lot on here, but it's gallows humor because I know this is going to be devastating.

1 1

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

"Try that* in a small town."

* getting health care at a hospital.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

SCARBOROUGH: The Nebraska Rural Health Association says at least 6 rural hospitals would have to close bc of the big beautiful bill

FLOOD: Here's the deal: Some hospitals that are rural hospitals are going to eventually have to transition from being acute bed hospitals into being an ER model

5 31 110

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

"Drugs are gonna be so cheap the drug companies are gonna be paying YOU to take their drugs."

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

Every day, Pope Leo gets closer to writing an encyclical entitled "In Particular, Fuck That Fucking Piece Of Shit JD Vance."

2 9 69

Reposted by Ward Q. Normal (he/him)

Captain AmBOOvalent (comedy music) 🫱🏻‍🫲🏾 @captainambivalent.com · 1d

(Reposting with alt text cause it’s brilliant)

Photo of an astronaut with the bio:
Barry Wilmore
"You never know true beauty until you see Earth from space, or true terror until you hear someone knocking on the space station door from outside. You look through the porthole and see an astronaut, but all your crew is inside and accounted for.
You use the comm to ask who it is and he says he's Ramirez returning from a repair mission, but Ramirez is sitting right next to you in the command module and he's just as confused as you are. When you tell the guy this over the radio he starts banging on the door louder and harder, begging you to let him in, saying he's the real Ramirez. Meanwhile, the Ramirez inside with you is pleading to keep the airlock shut. It really puts life on Earth into perspective."

5 20

Reposted by Ward Q. Normal (he/him)

[Sic] Burns @sicburns2.bsky.social · 1d

Fine give him the Nobel Piece of Shit Prize

8 16 80

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

They gave one to Kissinger, so you never know.

Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social · 1d

Call me crazy but I don’t think the peace prize should go to a guy indiscriminately slaughtering civilians on fishing boats

1 1 26

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

Fucking hilarious.

I think it's a biphone.

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

10th Anniversary Edition of NeuroTribes. To say that seeing the first copy of this was bittersweet is an immense understatement.

A man with blond/gray short hair and beard, wearing glasses and a pink shirt, holding up a copy of the book NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman.

10 10 130

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 1d

Editing a selfie on my phone and one of the options is "straighten."

I think not. Nice try, homophobes.

3 6 96

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

#VanityPlateEnigmas - VF4NGSV

Followed them for about a mile before I got it. The 4 is an A. Brilliant.

5 4 32

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

I have taken
the freedom of speech
that was in
the Constitution

and which
you were probably
using
for peaceful protest

Forgive me
the courts said they were
so agitating
and so irritating

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

14 220 790

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

I had never heard of him before! Sadly, no source I've found gives the pronunciation of his name. In San Francisco, the street name is pronounced "goff." (Rhymes with cough)

1 1

Reposted by Ward Q. Normal (he/him)

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 3d

1. A new poll shows that Virginia voters prefer Democratic Governor candidate Abigail Spanberger's approach to trans issues over Republican Earle-Sears by a wide margin.

She's ahead 10 points in the race now, and voters prefer her 50-37 on trans issues.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

New Poll: Voters Prefer Spanberger For Virginia Governor On Transgender Issues By Wide Margin, Despite Anti-Trans Ads

The issue also ranked lowest among issues polled. The CNU poll is the second poll showing Spanberger pulling ahead.

www.erininthemorning.com

15 180 910

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Heh. Even better if it rhymed with "through." Turn right on Goo St, we'd all say.

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

OTOH, given that through, though, cough, tough, and bough are all pronounced differently, I'm not sure what "exactly as it looks" would even mean for this word. It does rhyme with one of those, but good luck picking which one.

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Gough.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 2d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

8 15

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you for reposting that awful follow-farming meme account. I would never have been able to find and block them if you hadn't forced them into my feed against my wishes.

1 16

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Age 15?

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

You mean the Y2K "scam" where thousands and thousands of programmers put in countless hours of work to edit millions of lines of code and prevent anything from going wrong? That "scam"?

Working to avoid problems is not a scam.

1 7

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Nope.

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Nope. And please don't keep guessing. Hahahaha.

1 1

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

I'm only half serious, but let's just say that every day that half grows a little closer to whole. Hahaha.

1 3

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

It was long before anything was called social media, but way back in 1994, on a USENET news group, I met the most amazing guy I ever met in my life. We got married a few years later. I'd call that pretty great.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

5 2 71

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 2d

Do you guys need any chemistry teachers up there?

1 2