Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 13h

hate this for us

Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · 15h

I am saying once again that the Conservative attack on the Arts is because they are incredibly envious of artists who they perceive as a group that has “too much” cultural power, a type of influence Conservatives crave but will never have because they’re anti-intellectuals with no imagination.

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Gareth Watkins @garethwatkins.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine this happening in the UK and not having to sigh 'what do their parents do?' every time you hear about a new band. Wouldn't it be great to hear music from somebody who isn't directly related to the Lord Admiral Wythenshawe Bloodfeast MP, the Butcher of Bangalore?

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 13h

Or, benefits number go down. I'll be off benefits as soon as someone hires me! I'm lucky not to have mental health barriers to getting hired and I'm still struggling, so I feel that 'overdiagnosis' is, in many ways, not the reason a lot of Brits are unemployed right now.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 13h

A lot of people do want to work and will be happier doing so (hi! it's me!) if they're doing something fulfilling or are earning enough to live otherwise fulfilling lives, but there's caring about that from a place of human compassion and then there's the government's number-go-up approach.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 13h

There's a dearth of mental health support in this country and if Streeting could be trusted to improve it, I would support that, with the obvious caveats that ME/CFS is not a mental health condition and not everyone's ultimate goal is going to be getting back into work.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 13h

The combination of wanting to kick people off sickness benefits claimed on the basis of mental health conditions (with the assertion they should get support for their conditions instead) AND wanting to investigate 'overdiagnosis' of mental health conditions is really chilling.

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18h

Just as we are beginning to understand the biochemical basis of this horrendous condition, the government appoints the man perhaps most responsible for the mischaracterisation of ME/CFS – Simon Wesseley - to its *overdiagnosis* commission. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/controv...

Controversial professor to investigate overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergence for Labour

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments...

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 14h

what's happeningggggg

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 1d

I used to listen to a podcast that put out a bonus episode during a fundraiser, specifically for backers, of all the "umm" and "uh"s etc etc that they'd edited out of normal episodes

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 1d

stripy babies 😍😭

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 3d

my movie 3 of this month and what a great time

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 4d

truly no one could have foreseen this

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 4d

So cool and normal that Europe still has normal relations with Israel

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Greta Thunberg says she is being detained by Israel in cell ‘infested with bedbugs’

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

www.theguardian.com

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 4d

oh my god. I'm so glad you tried this for the community, but also, oh my god.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 5d

"Truth is intersubjective, meaning that we need other people—their testimony, their experiences, their rationality—to be well informed. And chatbots are not people. They don’t have experience. They are not witness. They are fancy wordplay."

performative male @milesklee.bsky.social · 7d

This is the biggest, toughest article I’ve done about so-called “AI psychosis.” It’s the story of a man who committed a horrific crime in his youth but served his time and against all odds found love and a new life—one that completely unraveled after he started talking to Google’s Gemini chatbot.

He Grew Obsessed With an AI Chatbot. Then He Vanished in the Ozarks

Jon Ganz committed a terrible crime in his youth, but he survived prison, fell in love, and started over. His new life unraveled in a way nobody could have predicted.

www.rollingstone.com

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant.xyz · 5d

The Japanese Mario 64 official strategy guide is an incredible thing. "Can we make little hand-made dioramas of all the levels?" "Sure, why the hell not."

A model of the first level from Mario 64.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 5d

Team Cherry please patch out the bugs that throw bells at me, I find them very unkind.

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Casket Based @cineblah.bsky.social · 5d

They want you to think the struggles are separate, indeed in opposition to one another, rather than an interconnected battle against hate and nihilism.

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Alex MacFarlane @aghowes.bsky.social · 6d

one day I will get that High Halls enemy rush, one day

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Mia @miavee.bsky.social · 6d

TERFs are trying to bully a beloved London public swimming space into throwing out their longstanding traditions/policies in order to force trans people out of using the space.

Please consider voicing your support for inclusivity here hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

Public Consultation on Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds | Commonplace

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 7d

i just love hornet sm!!!!!!

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Lucy Fishwife 🥐 @lucyfishwife.bsky.social · 6d

An indy bookseller speaks! Bookshop.org is AMAZING and frankly, without it, a lot of us would have struggled even more during lockdown. WAYYY better than Hive (if you’re picking the book up from a bookshop, why aren’t you ordering it directly from them in the first place??)

Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 7d

Independent bookshops will earn 100% of the profit from sales, and ebooks will be priced the same as they are on Amazon.

‘A tool in the fight against Amazon’: independent bookshops to begin selling ebooks

A new platform will be an alternative to Kindle, and bookshops will earn 100% of the profit from sales

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

BIRBLYFE @aaland.co · 7d

#inktobirb2025 sooty grouse

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Miriam @miriamboosh.bsky.social · 7d

Peaceful activists are dragged off boats at gunpoint for trying to feed Gaza. But the war criminals committing the genocide get applause in parliaments, billions in funding, and handshakes from presidents.
We are watching pure evil live streamed.

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Reposted by Alex MacFarlane

Brooke Newman @brookenewman.bsky.social · 7d

The stories of enslaved African people and more than 1,000 British plantation owners who were compensated after abolition have been brought together in a searchable archive for the first time.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘This is strength’: stories of enslaved Africans in Grenada made into searchable archive

Depths of Paradise project backed by British family and created by Stephen Lewis, a descendant of survivors

www.theguardian.com

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