Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

New Yorkers deserve change they can measure in their own lives.

Our new Affordability Calculator shows exactly how much our plans would save your family on childcare, rent, and bus fare.

Check your savings → zohranfornyc.com/calculator

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d

The Greens requested an interview on the Laura Kuenssberg Show with Zack Polanski when he was elected leader, but were denied, with a promise to interview him during Green conference instead.

This was then scrapped citing the Manchester synagogue attack. Polanski is both Jewish and from Manchester

BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview

The new Green Party leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted a conference interview on the flagship BBC show

bylinetimes.com

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 2d

Breaking: over 3,000 people joined @greenparty.org.uk over conference weekend.

Membership now stands at over 86,000.

We’re just getting started.

join.greenparty.org.uk

Join the Green Party

Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party standing up for people and planet.

join.greenparty.org.uk

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 2d

I'd actually forgotten how extraordinary it is that when I won the leadership - I wasn't interviewed as it was too close to our party conference interviewed.

And then refused a second time!

Part of the antidote to all of this is creating our own media platforms.

Hey @boldpolitics.bsky.social 👋🏼

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d

BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 3d

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian.

Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference.

Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say?

Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Ilias Alami @iliasalami.bsky.social · 3d

First day of term at Cambridge tomorrow. Here's an excellent book to inspire the teachers of the world for this academic year.

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

spw-dev @spw-dev.pro · 8d

This is brilliant stuff from @zackpolanski.bsky.social

What a breath of fresh air!

youtu.be/jTV4wLmmF5s?...

Zack Polanski hijacks Labour Conference to win over left wingers

YouTube video by PoliticsJOE

youtu.be

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 10d

This whole section really.

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 11d

This this this. And it’s not even that we *allowed* them in. It’s that our feckless, collaborationist leaders and some of our colleagues sent them engraved invitations, then chased them down the block and dragged them inside

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 11d

We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 11d

We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 11d

The rebranding of reactionary gender and biological essentialism as “heterodox and challenging ideas to which liberal students must be exposed” is one of the greatest achievements of our stupid era. Congratulations to the reactionary centrists who helped make it happen - you dupes, you utter dolts.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 11d

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 12d

The platformization and datafication of early childhood is going great for data extractive startups and hackers

"The software is widely used by other nurseries and childcare organisations, and it says on its website it is used by more than one million 'owners, managers, practitioners and families'"

Data controversies, James Stewart @datacontroversies.bsky.social · 12d

BBC News - Nursery hackers threaten to publish more children's profiles - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nursery hackers threaten to publish more children's profiles

The criminals say they will share 30 more profiles along with 100 employees' data if a ransom is not paid.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · 12d

Here's what the new co-owner of TikTok US and existing co-owner of the Tony Blair Institute (the 'let's do digital ID' guys) had to say this time last year.

This is who's dictating and planning to profit from mandatory government digital ID, starting with immigrants and expanding to everyone else.

Photo of Oracle owner Larry Ellison smiling under a headline from Business Insider that reads "Billionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure that 'citizens will be on their best behavior'. Dated Sept 15, 2024.

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 13d

But the AI Opportunities Action Plan said the AI would report and monitor the potholes? Was that… a lie?!?!?!?

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 14d

does anyone have favorite photos of fossil and clean energy juxtaposed? I always go looking for a picture of Chevron's solar thermal demonstration plant in Coalinga, but the available photos are pretty obscure - I'd like something pithy and well-composed!

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Dr Alina Utrata @alinau27.bsky.social · 15d

Very interesting piece

fortune.com/2025/09/23/a...

The AI boom is unsustainable unless tech spending goes ‘parabolic,’ Deutsche Bank warns: ‘This is highly unlikely’ | Fortune

“In the absence of tech-related spending, the U.S. would be close to, or in, recession this year,” George Saravelos says.

fortune.com

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Nicholas Guyatt @nicholasguyatt.bsky.social · 16d

Cambridge is *hiring* in post-1920 US political history and/or history of the US in the world. Closing date October 27. Please spread the word or, if you're an early career scholar in those fields, TELL NO ONE but please apply!

networks.h-net.org/jobs/69140/u...

University of Cambridge - UK - Assistant Professor, History of the United States since 1920 | H-Net

networks.h-net.org

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Sophia McDougall @sophiamcdougall.bsky.social · 15d

And also that to be autistic is to be a tragedy, a burden on society, a problem that must be solved. This is deeply dangerous stuff.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 15d

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Aug 18

As budgets for public #science are cut be wary of big tech and the political power they wield eg. over #Space writes Alina Utrata @stjohnsox.bsky.social @raioxford.bsky.social #NASA #ElonMusk #AI #technology
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

As public science is cut, be wary of the push to big tech

All science and technological development are not neutral or inevitable, and no decision about funding or what direction to take is neutral: in fact, ...

www.universityworldnews.com

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 16d

“Our results establish that people are more likely to request unethical behavior from machines than to engage in the same unethical behavior themselves,” the paper concludes

Using AI Increases Unethical Behavior, Study Finds

A new study in Nature reveals that people who use AI tend to be more dishonest compared to when they don't use AI for tasks.

futurism.com

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Reposted by Dr Alina Utrata

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 16d

New: 404 Media is suing ICE. We have filed a lawsuit demanding ICE release its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware to break into phones and read encrypted messages. This is expensive for a small outlet but this info is important
www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract

404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

www.404media.co

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 16d

The backlash to ABC/Disney canceling Kimmel has been swift, and severe. The whole episode underscores something I've been blogging about for a while: A lot of powerful people just don’t realize how unpopular Trump is
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-lot-of-p...