Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by George Dillard

the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 2d

I understand that they gave somebody 150 million to be the new boss of CBS. I just want to say, if these people are ever looking to do more novel things with their money, for 150 million dollars I will write an album every day for a year. I'll do it, too. try me

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Newfie912 @newfie912.bsky.social · 4d

The thoughts of an economic depression are depressing

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 4d

Video taken one hour ago outside the Portland ICE facility of the violent insurrectionists in question

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 4d

Nobody cares and nothing will happen but this is classically, paradigmatically fascist language. Comparing opponents to vermin and pests is straight out of the textbook.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Trump to the Navy: "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats."

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 4d

John was still showing up on maps in the 1700s, long after Europeans’ explorations — brought on, in part, by their desire to find him — would have told them that he was nowhere to be found.

open.substack.com/pub/worldhis...

Prester John and the Letter from Nowhere

Medieval Europeans' search for a mythical king

open.substack.com

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 4d

For more than 500 years, Europeans located Prester John at the edge of their maps. Sometimes he ruled over India, sometimes he fought Genghis Khan in central Asia, and sometimes he resided in Ethiopia.

Prester John (the southernmost king) in Ethiopia

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 4d

The letter was, of course, a fake, but many Christians believed it anyway, because it felt good to live in a world where a mighty Christian king could come and save them. They called this mythical king Prester John.

Prester John in a black-and-white-and-red image

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 4d

In the late 1100s, European Christians received a message from an impossibly powerful king in a faraway land. This king ruled over a kingdom that encompassed the Garden of Eden, Cyclopes, and salamanders that lived in fire. 🗃️🧵

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Reposted by George Dillard

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 5d

I get (irrationally) annoyed around Halloween when there are so many guillotine decorations, a form of execution created specifically to try to be the most humane and pain free version of capital punishment (which I’m inalterably against)

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Reality Winner @reazlepuff.bsky.social · 6d

What the fuck do you mean I got a longer prison sentence than Diddy

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 6d

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison in case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’.

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spooky mental haunted house @jesseltaylor.bsky.social · 8d

The entire Republican negotiating stance here is "give us money to run over your dog or we're going to run over your dog"

Senator Ed Markey @markey.senate.gov · 8d

Canceling energy funding? Sounds like a great way for our electric bills to go up even more. Congratulations to this Administration!

Russ Vought

@russvought
(https://x.com/russvought)Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from
@ENERGY (https://x.com/ENERGY)
.

The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 8d

Brb, just planning a course based on this paragraph.

Part 1: “They want to like chop my head off, right?”: The ‘Other’ in the American Imagination

Part 2: “They got a fucking Chili’s over here!”: Capitalism & Civilisation in American Culture

We’ll be reading a lot of Edward Said

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · 8d

girl what

When he flew into Saudi Arabia, Burr's nervousness crept back, but he was struck by the amount of local Western influence. "You think everybody's going to be screaming death to America and they're going to have like fucking machetes and want to like chop my head off, right?" Burr said. "Because this is what I've been fed about that part of the world. I thought this place was going to be really tense. And I'm thinking like: 'Is that a Starbucks next to a Pizza Hut next to a Burger King next to McDonald's …..? They got a fucking Chili's over here!"

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Reposted by George Dillard

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9d

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 11d

Whoa... nicely timed to take advantage of the American interest in the Contra-Sandinista war, I bet.

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 11d

Stranger still, this reckless and destructive egotist was beloved by large sectors of the American public. Read Walker’s story here… 🗃️
worldhistory.substack.com/p/borderless...

Borderless Ambition

William Walker's one-man crusade for empire and slavery

worldhistory.substack.com

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 11d

William Walker, a doctor from Tennessee, was sort of a DIY imperialist in the mid-19th century. He carried out several cockamamie plans to make himself the ruler of a Central American nation and, improbably, succeeded in conquering Nicaragua for a short time. 🗃️ 1/2

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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 12d

The most fascinating thing about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937 is that Donald Trump and his Republican Party are doing everything possible to avoid the full and unabridged release of the Epstein files in 2025 and to make you think about anyfuckingthing else.

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Reposted by George Dillard

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 17d

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/e...

Jimmy Kimmel’s show to return on Tuesday | CNN

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to air on ABC on Tuesday night, the network announced in a statement.

www.cnn.com

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 17d

Yikes!

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Reposted by George Dillard

Ash Hickey آشلي @ordinaryash.bsky.social · 18d

Found this in a 1916 newspaper duringmy perusings recently...oof.

Screen shot from a newspaper. The imageon the left shows a nurse standing next to a seated man breathing from a tube. The image on the right shows a seated man and two standing men in uniforms looking at a rolled out map. Caption reads: A wounded New Zealander undergoing the wonderful gas treatment at Batb, England. The gaspes and vapours arise from the bowels of the earth. They are radio-active, and effect wonderful cures. French officers of the Intelligence Department interrogating a captured German on the position of the enemy forces. With the map before them the captured German is explaining the position, though one of his questioners looks rather dubious as to the answers given. —Newspaper 111. Ltd., photos.

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 18d

Yum?

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jenskallmeyer.bsky.social @jenskallmeyer.bsky.social · 18d

Radium Chocolate
image.geo.de/35094194/t/P...

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Ismael Velasco @ismael-velasco.bsky.social · 18d

This is very interesting as a Mexican. Mexico's major 20th century painters were internationally influential muralists, and below I see how their murals fit in, appropriate, and subvert a paintings-as-spectacle tradition. Their murals coopted entertainment culture for political mobilisation projects

George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · Sep 7

Before the age of moving pictures, non-moving pictures were the blockbusters. People flocked to buzzy displays of notable paintings — the bigger the better. The “Great Picture” could be a lucrative public event. 🧵🗃️

Painting of a bunch of people in an art gallery

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 18d

But before people realized the dangers that radium posed, they celebrated it in song and used it in everything, from pain relief to cosmetics. worldhistory.substack.com/p/the-dark-g...

The Dark Glow of Radium

The craze for radiation and its victims

worldhistory.substack.com

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George Dillard @worldhistory.bsky.social · 18d

People paid through the nose to get their hands on the stuff; unfortunately, it melted away much of the rest of their face. The new magic cure was radioactive, and eventually killed or disabled many of its adherents.

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