Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 14h

Absurd as everything this admin does. And per usual just complete ignorance. Anyone interested in Amelia should read @lauriestories.bsky.social new book The Aviator and The Showman.

Clifton Lee @cliftonlee.bsky.social · 1d

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭whut da fuck? We are beyond an Idiocracy.... Cc: @carlhoffman.bsky.social

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a law enforcement source told CNN.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 1d

These people are nuts. They sound more and more like the Taliban or the right wing Israelis. They hate America.

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1d

The nativist right keeps talking about “heritage Americans.” It's a buzzword engineered to move the goalposts on immigration even further, argues @alibreland.bsky.social.

Are You a ‘Heritage American’?

Why the far right wants to know if your ancestors were here during the Civil War.

bit.ly

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 1d

“...you will live in exile, because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and if you have broken the law, to take away your freedom.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller.

www.nytimes.com

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 11d

Congrats. I love True Nature and couldn’t agree more.

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 11d

Floored by this review of my book by Pico Iyer. Gosh.

The Life and Travels of Peter Matthiessen, Revisited

A new book sheds fresh light on the "Snow Leopard" author, from his founding of "The Paris Review" with George Plimpton to working for the C.I.A. to his many affairs.

airmail.news

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 19d

If safety was the real issue, billions and billions of dollars saved by just installing a roll cage and five point harness. More cars is a scourge. We don’t need them. All that money should be spent on trains and public transportation.

Reposted by Carl Hoffman

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 22d

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics.

The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause

By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

www.vanityfair.com

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Aug 27

All five of my books, plus several translations.

Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · Aug 27

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used.

As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how

Part 1: is your work in Libgen?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Carl Hoffman

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · Aug 25

The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...

America Tips Into Fascism

Today is different than before.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Aug 25

Freedom, in the American context, has always meant the freedom to make bank at pretty much anyone’s expense.... My review of Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West for The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com @bookcritics.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Review | The bloody, muddy true story of the real Deadwood

In his history of the legendary South Dakota gold rush town, Peter Cozzens explains how miners, outlaws, gamblers and other reprobates helped shape America.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Aug 19

Can anyone really imagine him willingly walking away from that in 2028?

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Aug 8

Spread your wings a bit. Watch the Fito Paez series on Netflix. Argentine music scene was and is still incredibly rich.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jul 21

My favorites are the people who gave my book one star on Amazon because the pages were all uneven, as in deckled edged.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jul 17

The whole point of throwing out all these good people who’ve come to this country was supposed to be because they’re taking all the jobs from needy Americans. Total Incompetence.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jul 12

One hundred and eight five years after Melville shipped out of New Bedford, Ma., then the largest whaling port in the world, the city remains the highest grossing fishing port in the USA. Spending the next year reporting on it; heading out for ten days on the Debra C in pursuit of wild fish.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jul 12

Well, I’m still here and still working! Not dead yet!

Jerry Beilinson @jbeilinson.bsky.social · Jul 12

Came across Savage Harvest in a bookstore today; it's a great work by @carlhoffman.bsky.social that took crazy amounts of time, chutzpah, and skill to report. And I thought: Now that old-school magazines with real editorial budgets are dead, will we have writers like that anymore?

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Reposted by Carl Hoffman

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · Jul 3

Reviewed James Rebanks's strange and beguiling new book for the Washington Post.

Review | On Norway’s coast, looking for an older, more thoughtful way to live

In ‘The Place of Tides,’ acclaimed nature writer James Rebanks visits a memorable woman committed to helping ducks

www.washingtonpost.com

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jun 24

Assault on knowledge and information.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jun 19

What we have become:

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation

As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.

www.newyorker.com

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jun 12

In this lawless landscape of frail masculine egos clinging to cockeyed, and often booze-fueled, notions of honor, the bullets fly, the bodies pile up, the pages turn fast and easy...." My review of Bryan Burrough's The Gunfighters for @washingtonpost.com

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Review | The gritty, unglamorous truth about the antiheroes of the Wild West

In “The Gunfighters,” Bryan Burrough sets out to debunk the myth of the Colt-toting cowboy hero.

www.washingtonpost.com

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · Jun 4

I love sulphur-crested cockatoos.

wapo.st/43MWCi4

‘Opportunistic’ cockatoos wait in line, drink from fountains, study finds

The birds, which have also opened trash bins, were filmed operating fountain handles with complex maneuvers. Researchers say they are learning from one another.

wapo.st

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · May 30

Town and Country weighs in on the reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller wing at the Met; alone of the other pieces so far the reporter delved into the complexities of his collecting and the uneven, colonial power relationships of it.

www.townandcountrymag.com/society/trad...

The Mysterious Disappearance and Lingering Legacy of Michael Rockefeller

The late scion of an American dynasty died under bizarre circumstances 64 years ago. Now, a wing of the Metropolitan Museum named for him is reopening and putting him back in the spotlight.

www.townandcountrymag.com

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · May 28

I should also say that the objects ARE fantastic, beautiful and some of them haunting, especially if you know the story of Michael's death, and I can only assume the new room will be as wondrous as the old. One of my favorite places in NYC.

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · May 28

Totally different countries, easily checked.

Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · May 28

No excuse, though.

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Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · May 28

The Asmat objects were acquired in exchange for fish hooks, monofilament fishing line, ax heads and tobacco; when they reached NY after Michael's death, insurance valued them at more than $200,000. The carver of one of the bisj poles began the chain of events leading to his death.

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