Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 6h

oh man look at all these fish in particular being raptured (never mind the sailboat)

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Let the Right Hon In @danhon.com · 9h

Needless to say I think this is brilliant.

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 9h

This is easy: BACKEND LLMs, purpose-built for specific tasks, used as aids to human workers, is great!

FRONTEND general "AI" that can cause psychosis in some users and/or used to harass, fool, and pollute the web is very bad!

A lot of tools are limited to skilled workers because they're dangerous.

a fen with wet bones 🦴 @crayzeigh.com · 16h

i feel like two things can be true, both that machine learning is being used to protect humans from the horrors of content moderation as is necessary for any large social site

and also we can't trust modern ai/ml companies not to be using that data for generative models

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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 9h

I agree that it’s deontologically bad to be a jerk to an LLM, but I also want them to stop pretending to be human. I don’t even like it when the credit card machine at the parking lot tells me to have a nice day. Let’s keep this professional, huh?

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Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 11h

cannot believe the bike lane set this car on fire

SFPD in the bike lane putting out a car on fire on 17th street. dramatic orange flames

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Jef Poskanzer @jef.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17h

ripples https://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/54838257537/

ripples

www.flickr.com

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Jef Poskanzer @jef.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17h

wake https://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/54839443915/

wake

www.flickr.com

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Jef Poskanzer @jef.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17h

Golden Gate sunset https://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/54839118836/

Golden Gate sunset

www.flickr.com

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Jef Poskanzer @jef.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17h

ship https://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/54839364443/

ship

www.flickr.com

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 17h

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

Senator Jim Banks V
@SenatorBanks
Follow g..
The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady "privacy" formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.
It included illegal immigrants and handed
Democrats extra seats. Americans deserve a fair count and l'm fighting to fix it.
Zinited Statcs SScnate
MASHNORON DEYNN
October 6, 2025
an. Thow arewutn
Socretary
U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, DXC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutaick:
I urge you to investigate and correct erroes from the 2020 Census that handed disproportionntd political power to Democrats and illogal alicns. The Census Burcau adoptod a now and opaque
voting districts. As preparod by the Biden administration, the 2020 Censas roports miscountod the population of fourteen states, ' wrongly allocating six congressional scats aod Electoral
xx conwuu tmora uy, toc taroro tu mot đoo tnn Cunu lc pung t imber of votine districts. And the reoorts de aniovety inchaded ilecnl nhens widhout track those aliens' citiz enship status, If left uncorrected, these erroes will coetinue diluting the political power of American citizens.
Consus data plays a crucial role in allocating political roprescntation and goverment funding
Under the Constitution, cach state gets Congressional represcotutives and Electoeal College votes- based on "the whole number of persons" within the state." The number of persoes is in
tum clabaabod by a consttubocalty-mandalcd dcccacaal ccavas. Pcual agcco nely on census data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funding, much of which hinges ee opulation. And states use consus data to deaw congrossicnal and voting districts, »hich the
The it eiy of tie soaren alie n tor dur at ce hor inc ae oam toy ee n
nght wilbout statsica ly signilicant ciroo.
Diffcrcntial privacy is opaque and liable to mistakcn count totals. Sure cnough, the 2020 Ccnsus ovarocunted the noculation in cicht states and undercounted it in six." Tihe most extrcmi andercount was Arkansas, at 5.04%, and the larg…

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Mikki Kendall @karnythia.bsky.social · 19h

You could just talk about Jim Crow. I promise you, there's no need to leave America's shores to talk about life in a fascist state

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 19h

Under the Third Reich, most Germans generally lived in the law-bound normative state, while Jews and other disfavored people were victims of the arbitrary and violent prerogative state.

The dual state is characterized by the facade of normalcy obscuring the fact of an authoritarian state.

The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there.

Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.

www.motherjones.com

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wesin-🎃a spooky version of 🎃-japan @wesinjapan.bsky.social · 19h

Yes- when I think about being 'Tough on Crime' the first thing I think of is the Tokyo Police.

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 19h

Tapping this sign again today

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · Jul 10

Even if they don't have the Senate votes after the midterms, it seems like it would attract a good deal of *attention* and register to many people as doing something if Democrats impeached cabinet secretaries who keep openly breaking the law.
www.politico.com/live-updates...

DOE defies Congress by shifting funds from wind, solar, EVs

The cuts represent another front in the Trump administration’s battle to exert more control over congressionally approved spending.

www.politico.com

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Mike Ege @mikeege.bsky.social · 20h

Manga fever hits SF! 🎨 The de Young hosts the first major North American survey of manga—from the 1970s to today. Rare original drawings, immersive displays (think: ONE PIECE chapters across a gallery wall), cosplay days & more. Through Jan. 25. Read: thevoicesf.org/art-of-manga...

‘Art of Manga’ at the de Young - The Voice of San Francisco

Manga fever has arrived in San Francisco with The Art of Manga, the highly anticipated celebration of Japanese comics and graphic novels at the de Young. Even though manga is a global pop-cultural phe...

thevoicesf.org

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Cannonball Adderall @leupp.bsky.social · 20h

It’s amazing what Speaker Johnson does and does not “see”

Mike Johnson, desperately trying to get out of conversation with his Dem colleague Madeline Dean, claiming that he “didn’t see” trump’s insane speech at Quantico.

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 20h

They're really going to flirt with this, huh?

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

www.govexec.com

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 20h

I'm sure this will stem the tide of air traffic controllers calling in sick

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Johnson: "It's true that in previous shutdowns, many or most furloughed employees have been paid for the time they were furloughed, but there is new legal analysis - I don't know the details, I just saw a headline - but there are some legal analysts saying that might not be appropriate or necessary"

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

This is great. The absurdity of this moment captured. Make it go viral.

Andy @andyoregon.bsky.social · 1d

Jess Waters recycling the same guy over and over to represent “former” different enemies

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Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 20h

“We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale,” said Stephen Lezak, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Smith School and co-author of the study, in Annual Reviews. “We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.”

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 1d

News that shocks no one: Carbon offsets do nothing for climate.

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 23h

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Nick Kodama 🌲👻 @nickkodama.bsky.social · 23h

Should've used this photo

Guy in a frog costume facing ICE/police in Portland with the caption "analysis: what is the insurrection act"

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 23h

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 1d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22h

the chris caldwell of 1948 would have been arguing against desegregation of the armed forces www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | That Hegseth Speech Was Actually Pretty Good

www.nytimes.com

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wormbuxx @wormbuxx.bsky.social · 22h

Now I’m falling asleep and she’s calling a cob

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 22h

We really hit on something with the 12 year old theory of governance because that’s really the entire political project. It’s being 12 years old and not even normal 12 year olds but real pieces of shit 12 year olds

Texas GOP candidate
Shelley Luther complains that students can't make fun of transgender children
By Jay Root, Staff Writer
Updated Feb 9, 2022 6:02 a.m.

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