Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 3h

Win-win-win

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 1d

since denver launched its e-bike rebate program - the have sold 10,000 e-bikes and reduced an estimated 1,000,000 car trips - replacing millions of VMTs and reducing air pollution

there are no climate silver bullets... but damn - e-bikes and e-cargo bikes are close

denvergov.org/Government/A...

Denver Celebrates 10,000 E-Bike Rebates

Since its inception in April 2022, Denver has distributed over 10,000 electric bikes (e-bikes) to community members through its pioneering e-bike rebate program. As the first U.S. city to implement su...

denvergov.org

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 14h

They are not planning "a violent crackdown" on 10.18. What they are doing is sending a signal to their shock troops to try to cause havoc. But those shock troops will be vastly outnumbered. Go out and protest freely. Do not be cowed.

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Brittany Hailer @brittanyhailer.bsky.social · 1d

More out of the Cuyahoga County Jail: over a one-year period there were 334 work orders placed for malfunctioning or unusable showers, including clogged drains and black mold. One woman told me she had to clean the bathroom with menstrual pads. www.themarshallproject.org/2025/10/09/j...

Why America’s Jails Are So Disgusting

Understaffing, outdated facilities and poor management have led to filthy conditions in jails in St. Louis, Cleveland and Hinds County, Mississippi.

www.themarshallproject.org

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 9h

Ha despite my genuine enthusiasm when I saw Cleveland landmarks I agree. Though I often feel let down when I see a movie people say is excellent. This one was meh at best.

Reposted by Jonathan Welle

John Farrell @johnffarrell.bsky.social · 12h

It takes brave politicians to break the vicious cycle of monopoly power abuse by utility companies.

A graphic from ILSR showing how utilities pour their profits into political activity defending their interests, use their platform monopoly to hinder their competitors, and then overcharge captive customers to pad shareholder returns.

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Bike Cleveland @bikecleveland.bsky.social · 16h

"Each statistic represents someone whose life was changed by a crash, and as Bike Cleveland’s report states, “These crashes are not accidents — they’re the tragic and preventable result of streets that fail to keep people safe.”

signalcleveland.org/the-city-inv...

A Bike Cleveland report says more crashes can be prevented

Despite work to improve traffic safety, crashes and fatalities involving bicyclists and pedestrians increased in 2024.

signalcleveland.org

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Jon Shaffer @jonshaffer.bsky.social · 1d

liberation theology remains undefeated

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 1d

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.

bit.ly

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Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 1d

Over 40% of corn grown in Indiana is used to make ethanol that cars burn. One acre of corn yields about 16,500 vehicle-miles per year of ethanol, which sounds high until you realize that one acre of solar yields about 2,700,000 vehicle-miles per year: 16,000% more driving for a given plot of land.

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

James Martin, SJ @jamesmartinsj.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo XIV: "I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor."

"Dilexi te"

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 2d

Not being able to easily get around between cities like this is one of my least favorite parts about living in Cleveland

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

work trips this week from c’ville to DC to Baltimore to Providence back to DC and then home. the bike is how i am getting from station to hotel to wherever i need to be

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 2d

And this is probably less than fully honest

Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 2d

The most honest thing I’ve ever heard from him

Cleveland Scene @clevelandscene.bsky.social · 3d

Haslam says average Browns ticket at Brook Park dome will be over $200, but that's still four years away, so guess higher www.clevescene.com/news/haslam-...

Haslam Says Average Browns Ticket at Brook Park Dome Will Be 'Over $200' - Cleveland Scene

The Browns owner believes the price of admission will be "worth it."

www.clevescene.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Dakotah Kennedy @dakotahsays.bsky.social · 3d

CMSD is expected to spend $603k on this same surveillance technology. Former city council member Kerry McCormack also recently took a job there after resigning early. #Flock #Cleveland #CMSD

404 Media @404media.co · 3d

NEW: Cops in Texas told 404 Media in May they used Flock to find a woman who self-administered an abortion out of concern for her safety.

Documents now show police were conducting a “death investigation” and discussed whether they could charge her with a crime: www.404media.co/police-said-...

Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime

Court records show that the narrative Flock and a Texas Sheriff's Office has told the public isn't the whole story, and that police were conducting a 'death investigation' into the abortion.

www.404media.co

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 4d

Any day now I expect my dad to send me an erudite article by David Brooks about how Bari Weiss running CBS is very good, actually

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 4d

I kind of can’t believe this Bari Weiss quote is even real, and yet www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

“I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal … and that’s ok. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”

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Veiko Spolitis @veikospolitis.bsky.social · 4d

Mercator map is one of the primary reasons why russians are sick with imperialism. Russians schools continue to misinterpret the reality, and in combination with the lie of the "third Rome", it makes Muscovy the anti-civilization not worthy #UN membership par excellence!

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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 7d

In all the endless discussions of LLMs, there’s a point that is, on one level, obvious, but that I feel does not get sufficiently foregrounded: LLMs are transforming material that people have put up on the internet.

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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 7d

When we look at the useful stuff that LLMs give us, we should not think, how cool is this technology. We should think, what an amazing range of useful work people are willing to share online, freely, without any monetary compensation. Which the machine is just summarizing for us.

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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 7d

What LLMs are doing, fundamentally, is reaping the benefits of a vast spontaneous, directly social, decommodified decentralized production of use values.

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 7d

The top 1% in the US have now a record $52 trillion in wealth.

The bottom 50% have about $4 trillion.

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 7d

Public abundance, private sufficiency

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 7d

funded as part of vienna's massive 2030 baths construction program...

schoen

www.wien.gv.at/freizeit/bae...

Bäder-Bauprogramm 2030

Ausgewählte Bäder-Bauprojekte von 2021 bis 2030: Standort, Projekt, Status, Fertigstellung

www.wien.gv.at

Reposted by Jonathan Welle

PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Worldwide Annually @tkovach.bsky.social · 11d

Painesville is using funding from EPA to replace its coal power plant with solar and batteries, not because it's "out of fashion," but because it's the single most expensive power plant in the country to operate ($1400/MWh), and it's so polluting that it put Lake County in nonattainment for SO2.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, and NYC ... coal just makes the world go round."

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Jonathan Welle @wellejonathan.bsky.social · 11d

Maybe it’s because I’m renovating my bathroom but this hits hard

‘AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations.’

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 11d

No surprise, this is very good. pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...

Pluralistic: The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh (27 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

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Reposted by Jonathan Welle

Prof. Bob Howarth @profbobhowarth.bsky.social · 14d

This can't be good: "Over the past three years, leading tech firms have committed more toward AI data centers, plus chips and energy, than it cost to build the interstate highway system over four decades, when adjusted for inflation."
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

Spending on AI Is at Epic Levels. Will It Ever Pay Off?

Tech companies are pouring hundreds of billions into data centers, taking on heavy debt, but current revenue is relatively tiny. Critics warn of a new dot-com bubble.

www.wsj.com

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