Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 9h

That’s correct;the starvation deaths of this number of children is a brutal ,diabolical act of a despotic monster; Netanyahu now joins Hitler , Stalin and other mass murderers as one of the most evil executioners in history; following a similar atrocity committed by Hitler against his people.

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 16h

“Plato was essentially a poet—the truth and splendour of his imagery, and the melody of his language, are the most intense that it is possible to conceive.” www.bostonreview.net/articles/pla...

Plato and the Poets - Boston Review

The centuries-old debate should be settled: an intellectual world bereft of poetry is a damaged one.

www.bostonreview.net

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 16h

“In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights.”
hyperallergic.com/248602/avant...

Avant-Garde 1920s Costumes Reemerge, Revealing Their Makers’ Tragic Story

In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights.

hyperallergic.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 16h

“Well, that was awkward!” Or: “That was certainly honest!” In addition to acknowledging the inappropriate or uncomfortable comment and framing it as something positive—the truth—you’re signaling your desire to change the course of the conversation”
time.com/7323983/what...

These 4 Words Can Defuse Any Awkward Situation

Awkwardness thrives in silence—but humor disarms it.

time.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 17h

“Almost 55,000 children under the age of six in Gaza are estimated to be acutely malnourished, far more than have so far been identified as victims of the potentially lethal condition “
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Almost 55,000 preschool children in Gaza acutely malnourished, Lancet study estimates

Study shows clear link between Israeli aid restrictions and malnutrition among children aged between six months and five years

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 17h

“The deadlock over ending the US government shutdown deepened on Wednesday, with senators once again rejecting competing bills to restart funding as Democrats and Republicans remain dug in on their demands for reopening federal agencies. “
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US shutdown deadlock deepens as senators reject competing bills

Proposals from both sides fail to receive enough support as no senators change their votes from recent days

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 17h

“It is inconceivable,” wrote Tennyson, “that the whole Universe was merely created for us, who live on a third-rate planet of a third-rate sun.” The new telescopes and microscopes revealed spaces infinitely large and beings infinitesimally small”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

The Boundless Deep by Richard Holmes review – wild times with young Tennyson

A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous early 19th century crisis of faith

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Formed by conservative legal theorists in the 1980s to help President Ronald Reagan roll back liberal policies, the unitary executive theory promises to radically expand presidential power.”
theconversation.com/the-supreme-...

The Supreme Court is headed toward a radically new vision of unlimited presidential power

Recent rulings indicate that the high court is leaning toward expanding the type of presidential power that is more emblematic of dictatorship than democracy.

theconversation.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Through his art, he comes across as both confident and restless, always searching for the next combination of color and form rather than a motif. “
hyperallergic.com/1047487/geor...

George Morrison Painted a Different Picture of Abstract Expressionism

The Ojibwe artist was active in New York's midcentury art scene and embraced by fellow Abstract Expressionists, yet he’s rarely in canonical histories today.

hyperallergic.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 1d

“Paramount acquiring The Free Press,online political commentary site,and giving its co-founder Bari Weiss the job of editor-in-chief at CBS News, it capped weeks of speculation—what critics describe as a right-wing takeover of one of the nation’s most storied broadcasters”
time.com/7318570/cbs-...

CBS Has Been in Conservative Sights for Decades

It was once deemed the "Communist Broadcasting System" by conservative activists.

time.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“The stories are satirical, fantastical and perhaps surprisingly comic. They move from aristocratic antics in a grand Jacobean house in Hertfordshire to a bedtime tale of two goddesses who arrive in “Tokio”, Japan, on the back of a whale.”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

‘A cottage of one’s own’: Newly unearthed Virginia Woolf stories to be published

A chance discovery at a country house revealed the three funny – sometimes surreal – interlinked tales, written almost a decade before Woolf’s first book was published

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“The United States has one of the oldest constitutions still in effect, but it can seem hard to find true believers. Republicans claim its principles, but let Trump choose its meaning, abrogating clauses and amendments according to his whim.”
newrepublic.com/article/2011...

Can America Become a Democracy?

What it would take for the United States to live up to the promise of its founding

newrepublic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Lorde’s poetry, and eventually her prose, came to prominence just as would-be revolutionaries were learning to live with the new dispensation. Different tactics were required, political relationships had to be rebuilt and new alliances considered.”
www.bunkhistory.org/resources/ke...

I Do Not Have to Be You: Audre Lorde’s Legacy

Audre Lorde’s legacy shows how feminism can honor difference, as Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues in this review.

www.bunkhistory.org

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Inspired by William Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet (1599–1601), Millais’s work portrays Prince Hamlet’s rejected lover Ophelia in the moments before her tragic death by drowning in a brook. “
hyperallergic.com/1035887/did-...

Did This 19th-Century Painting Inspire Taylor Swift’s New Album Art?

The dramatic teal green cover for the singer’s forthcoming “The Life of A Showgirl” is an apparent wink to John Everett Millais’s famous “Ophelia.”

hyperallergic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 2d

“Sickert went his own way, always. Like Breugel’s Icarus, the subjects of many of his best works are things seen off to the side, a bit inconsequential.”
hyperallergic.com/1046886/life...

Life’s Hidden Dramas in the Art of Walter Sickert

Sickert didn’t go in for glamour or flattery and the subjects of many of his best works are things seen off to the side, a bit inconsequential.

hyperallergic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“The fact that we all gossip so much—without getting caught—is a paradox hiding in plain sight: how do we so freely spread sensitive information, often about people we know, without the subject of our gossip ever finding out? “
time.com/7320905/goss...

Gossiping Is Smarter Than You Think

The mental machinery that helps us spread rumors also helps us thrive in an interconnected world.

time.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do, and what many of us warned was coming. He has long aimed to demolish American democracy, and he and his inner circle of supporters are now backed into a corner where they have few options but to double down.”
newrepublic.com/article/2010...

Trump Is Steadily Pushing the Republic Toward the Edge of Oblivion

The administration has entered its most anti-Constitutional phase yet. We must call a regime that’s a danger to our way of life what it is.

newrepublic.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Brueghel’s exposure to Italy’s artistic history helped him refine his signature delicate brushwork and rich color palette, which would earn him the nickname “Velvet Brueghel.” www.thecollector.com/jan-brughel-...

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s Brilliant Work and Tragic Death | TheCollector

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s journey, from Italian influences and Rubens collaborations to botanical masterpieces and a mysterious, tragic demise.

www.thecollector.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Habitual behaviour is made up of the things that we do without thinking, prompted by our environment and learned through repeated enactment. Encountering a familiar trigger – such as a sound, a location or another person – can activate a learned association”
theconversation.com/most-of-your...

Most of your actions are driven by habit, not thought – here’s why that’s not a bad thing

And how you can use psychology to help you break out of the habits you want to lose.

theconversation.com

Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

“Rhetoric without consequence has been the west’s modus operandi for decades. The cost has been catastrophic.”
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 3d

” Of the younger American expat writers who flocked to Paris during the ’20s: “You are all a lost generation.” Of the atomic age: “Everyone gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” Of pithy remarks: “Remarks are not literature.” www.bookforum.com/print/3202/i...

In Search of Lost Stein

The life and lasting influence of an American expat – Ryan Ruby

www.bookforum.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

No,Tulip ,most of us have the same anxieties;a recurring nightmare of confusion; “ this can’t be real “ ,but,then shaken to reality— it is ! Many of us shall not encounter the masked thugs ; more problematic, the psychological effect ;constant trepidation and uncertainty leading to a form of PTSD .

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“And now, influencers and pundits on both the political right and left are arguing about whether Frank and her family would be considered “undocumented” and therefore subjected to ICE detention—if they were living and hiding in the contemporary United States.”
time.com/7313983/anne...

The Resonance of Anne Frank's Story Today

What comparisons between Anne Frank's fate and the current campaign of mass deportations illuminate—and obscure.

time.com

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

Yes , it’s obvious we’re in a similar zeitgeist; masked , government thugs roaming the streets ,white extremism attempting to impose their wretched ideology on the masses; vilifying iconic cultural treasures— art , literature, music ,and more in an imperialist attack on anything deemed “ woke” .

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Ken @bludrone.bsky.social · 4d

“Goethe doggedly went through Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, but did not like Kant’s argument that our knowledge of nature is constituted by our mental apparatus.Goethe preferred a strict realism, in which nature’s qualities exist independently of the observer.”
literaryreview.co.uk/darkness-lig...

Ritchie Robertson - Darkness & Light

Ritchie Robertson: Darkness & Light - Goethe: A Life in Ideas by Matthew Bell

literaryreview.co.uk