Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2h

Beautifully chilly day in Indy.

I wore one of my Grandma’s 25+ year old jackets. I could recognize its pattern anywhere.

It made a comforting pillow when I needed to cry. And I thought, “I don’t want to be able to wear this,” on the way home.

But it all was still like carrying a hug from Grandma.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 3h

Some grief/loss cliches are so true, despite being cliches. “Life is short” is one I think about often.

But almost always with the suffix: “to not…” find joy, bring others joy, brighten someone’s day, create art, engage with art that truly moves you, do the things that feel SO silly bring joy

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Reposted by Ashlee

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 19h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

Some context: bsky.app/profile/miri...

Miriam @miriamboosh.bsky.social · 3d

Let me get this straight: Link, a Black user, got banned for calling out the Bluesky CEO for following a racist. That’s not a good look, especially given Bluesky’s historical treatment of Black users here on bluesky.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

bsky.app/profile/miri...

Miriam @miriamboosh.bsky.social · 3d

Let me get this straight: Link, a Black user, got banned for calling out the Bluesky CEO for following a racist. That’s not a good look, especially given Bluesky’s historical treatment of Black users here on bluesky.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

Wtaf

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

I think of Łink’s mutual aid threads

ıllıllı FREE ŁINK ıllıllı @rvbdrm.com · 2d

Łink’s the reason I learned what alt text is and why it matters.

He helped shape Bluesky’s early culture of accessibility.

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Reposted by Ashlee

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 2d

Łink made so much of this place what it is, and how interesting it is that Jay and co find it so easy to ban poc, trans folk and Palestinians while fighting tooth and claw to protect transphobes

ıllıllı FREE ŁINK ıllıllı @rvbdrm.com · 2d

Łink’s the reason I learned what alt text is and why it matters.

He helped shape Bluesky’s early culture of accessibility.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

Re: deep grief

Is there a name for when you feel like you don’t know how to act in public anymore?

Similar to “I don’t know what to do with my hands” but like my entire body.

Similar to anxiety about being perceived, but not exactly that.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

The way I could hear this in my head 😂

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

My nervous system can’t take these kinds of posts or the constant barrage of rage baiting fake screenshots

Ian Coldwater 👻🌿 @lookitup.baby · 2d

sports fans, it would make the rest of us really happy if you could thread your OH MY FUCKING GOD jump scare posts so the rest of us could mute the thread or at least understand the context of what you’re referring to

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Reposted by Ashlee

vee.soy @vashetc.bsky.social · 2d

“Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating” — Octavia Butler

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Reposted by Ashlee

vee.soy @vashetc.bsky.social · 2d

I stopped calling Octavia butlers work prophetic once I realized she herself literally said that her work was influenced by deeply studying history which gave have her insight into the future. I realized I was watering down how truly brilliant she was and what she was trying to get across

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 2d

Absolutely crushing when you can feel it in your body, so deeply, that it wants this to be a bad dream but your mind knows otherwise

Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · Aug 16

She is my first and last thoughts every single day. Every single day, such heavy thoughts. I love to picture her smile and laugh, even though those images quickly remind me of the cold permanence of her absence.

A casket splay full of red roses, atop the end of a white casket, with two ribbons peeking out with sparkling, gold lettering: Mother, Grandmother.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 4d

Genuine question, if anyone has seen it answered — Why isn’t this a website which can be bookmarked and saved to home screens?

404 Media @404media.co · 5d

ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’

🔗 www.404media.co/iceblock-own...

ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’

Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never t...

www.404media.co

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 4d

“illusory certainty” 🔥

Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 5d

Thank you @edenroyce.bsky.social, your essay is so so so good.

Grandma showed me her death folders many times, the last time Feb 2023. She wore the sweater I knit the Christmas prior. This sweater & folder live in my home now. 😞

I hope to write about Grandma outside character limits one day.

An overhead view of a purple folder laying open, on top of a pink file cabinet’s open drawer. There are multiple envelopes being rummaged through by pale hands poking out of a red, long sleeve sweater. At the bottom is a basic note in white text: “Insurance and stuff”.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 6d

Anyone know the threshold for when to rename “corn belt” to “data center belt”

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 6d

BlackRock is in advanced talks to buy utility company AES in a $38 billion deal.

This would be one of the largest ever deals involving a U.S. power corporation.

AES is one of the world's biggest utility companies, generating electricity in 15 countries.

www.reuters.com/markets/deal...

BlackRock's GIP nears $38 billion takeover of utility group AES, FT reports

BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is nearing a $38 billion deal, inclusive of debt, to acquire utility group AES , the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

www.reuters.com

Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 16d

Kimmel’s show was off-air for less than a week. It’s infuriating how many Americans will mobilize like this every once in a while, self-congratulate as if it’s revolutionary, then meticulously itemize every excuse for not mobilizing against multiple ongoing genocides, for one example.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 16d

"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that."

Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.

Jimmy Kimmel Returns: ABC Ends Suspension Starting Tuesday

Jimmy Kimmel will return to late night on Tuesday

variety.com

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 16d

I’m not caught up on every single contextual detail, but from my current knowledge, a couple of things stand out:

1) Celebrities SO selectively mobilize, usually just for white people

2) Sarah Paulson is supposedly unsure about the necessity of a revolution, but seemingly signed pretty decisively?

ACLU @aclu.org · 16d

Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after our government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for free speech in our nation.

More than 400 artists across our nation signed on to say: We refuse to be silenced by those in power.

We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.

Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation. In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.

We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression.

Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.

This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.

A graphic listing the names of the more than 400 signers of the ACLU's letter condemning the federal government's retaliation against Jimmy Kimmel. For the full list of signatories, visit aclu.org/kimmel-letter-bk

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Reposted by Ashlee

Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 20d

What we're seeing in the "don't sign up for protests" discourse is what Paulo Freire described as the convert's failure to trust the knowledge of the oppressed. As the convert tries to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, they refuse to let go of a world where they were the authority by default.

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 20d

I’m not saying these aren’t dangerous, I’m saying guns are exponentially more dangerous and it’s absurd and illogical to literally and symbolically crush one but never! not once!!! the other

Local 12 / WKRC-TV @local12.bsky.social · 20d

Authorities in Kentucky have issued a statement after crushing a $100,000 Dodge Hellcat.

"This isn’t just about one car. It’s about protecting lives, restoring order, and showing that our city stands united against reckless behavior."

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 21d

When the worst thing I’ve ever been through started

From and including: Sunday, July 27, 2025

To and including: Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Result: 53 days

It is 53 days from the start date to the end date, end date included.

Or 1 month, 22 days including the end date.

Alternative time units

53 days can be converted to one of these units:

4,579,200 seconds
76,320 minutes
1272 hours
53 days
7 weeks and 4 days
14.52% of 2025

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 21d

1) This frames the internet as a problematic place for the gathering of identities & ideas they disagree with.

2) American eugenists called for segregation with the same language 100+ years ago.

3) Frames the same people in my first point as dangerous opposite of “normal, hardworking, law abiding”

Snippet from the quoted post’s linked article.

“We have to do something about this,” Jackson said after railing against doctors who aid with “gender transition. “We have to treat these people. We have to get them off the streets and we have to get them off the internet. We can’t let them communicate with each other. I’m all about free speech, but this is a virus, this is a cancer that’s spreading across this country that’s going to do great damage to normal, hard working, law abiding people.”

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Ashlee @ashleemboyer.com · 23d

Sometimes life after loss is sobbing while you build legos

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