Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 11m

NYC has a new AI chat bot called Libby for tourists. Someone please FOIA how much it costs and what the traffic numbers are? I'm desperate to know

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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 10h

Dear EU,

Please don't cave in to these monsters.

"Unlike traditional trade negotiations, the US is not offering concessions in return. “It’s a one-way street,” said one EU official."

US demands EU dismantle green regulations in threat to trade deal

Washington wants American companies to be exempted from rules such as having to draw up climate transition plans

www.ft.com

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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 2h

The direct address straight to the camera at the end of this is 100% right out of professional wrestling. Finally.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4h

If you come for my people, you come through me.

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 4h

This administration is flooding the zone so furiously that people have largely lost track of the lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, the gov’t shutdown, the economy, failed release of the Epstein files & so much else. It’s a tactic of would-be strongmen.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5h

Pritzker: "It's unconscionable. This has never happened before. They're calling out troops onto the streets of a state that doesn't want them and they're not even telling us where they're gonna go, what they're gonna do. This hasn't happened I don't think since the Civil War."

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Let the Right Hon In @danhon.com · 4h

Wow. That whole web social game FarmVille era that also overlapped with Regular People Play Wii games.

Emilia @lazerwalker.com · 5h

I got an email today that Facebook is shutting down web games. That certainly has big end of an era vibes — the first commercial game I worked on was a FB Flash game at Zynga.

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 4h

I think that, for very good reasons, we increasingly see any corporation as the opposition and t/f non-compliance becomes its own self-justifying end, even when it inconveniences others.

Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 5h

He is very compliant about leaving the plane. No police or security.

Another passenger also got up and followed him off the plane.

A few people clapped.

This is really unsettling.

Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 4h

I hear from a lot of places that people are just shorter tempered and more violent post COVID. I dunno if it is brain damage so much as being steeped in internet depersonalization during isolation and an ever increasing stress on people's lives. Aborting the flight is just dumb tho.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 5h

Still waiting for a more efficient explanation of everything than "Everyone got brain damage from Covid": the airline executives charging a $155 predatory premium for legroom, the guy deciding to customize his own flight experience, the chain of command aborting the whole flight—busted mind-traffic!

Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 5h

This is absolutely wild. I’m on a cross country flight. We are being diverted midway through to Denver. The reason? Some dude is sitting in the exit row who didn’t pay the $155 fee and he refuses to move back to his seat.

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 6h

DEI for me, not for thee.

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 5h

Def!

Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 8h

People waiting in line for the Wed 10am opening of the Harry Potter store in Manhattan... uhhh don't.

That store is never full.
Don't ever wait on line in NYC
Don't go to that store

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 10h

I like this very much. 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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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 8h

This is a form of advertising I can get behind. usa.streetsblog.org/2025/10/08/t...

This Newsroom Is Looking For Its Next Big Tip on the Train — Streetsblog USA

Investigative journalists at ProPublica are betting that the next big tipster is riding the rails right now — and reaching out to find them.

usa.streetsblog.org

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 9h

Looks good! Loving the colors there.

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Ernie Smith @ernie.tedium.co · 19h

As you might have heard, Dr. Demento is retiring this weekend. Fortunately, I know an incredibly massive Dr. Demento fan.

tedium.co/2025/10/07/d...

new @tedium.co

Dr. Demento Is Retiring. He Leaves Behind An Army Of Musical Oddballs

A Dr. Demento superfan looks back on the novelty radio icon as he finally hangs up his microphone. Oh, he pulled in a bunch of other superfans.

tedium.co

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 1d

You can joke about Pam Bondi’s ridiculous unprofessionalism all you want, but I’m deeply shocked by it: She acts as if she fears absolutely no consequences, convinced that there will be no more political power transfers. — This should shake everyone to their core.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d

In a press release, Texas Attorney General calls "transgenderism" a "corrupted ideology" that is "a cancer on our culture."

This is openly genocidal rhetoric about trans people from a sitting AG.

A press release dated October 7, 2025, with the headline: “Attorney General Ken Paxton Launches Undercover Operations to Infiltrate and Uproot Leftist Terror Cells in Texas After Increased Political Violence.” The statement claims rising left-wing violence, referencing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and outlines Paxton’s directive for undercover investigations. A highlighted quote from Paxton reads: “Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people.” The text further accuses the radical Left of fostering political violence, referencing incidents involving Antifa-like groups and a supposed assassin tied to transgender movements. It also notes that President Trump designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, with Paxton vowing sweeping investigations into radical leftist groups.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

I grew up going to Zabar's. So many of my childhood memories center around the best lox in NYC (which is saying something). With Saul Zabar's passing today, the Upper West Side has lost a legend who turned his parent's humble store into a culinary institution.

Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97

www.nytimes.com

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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 11h

heh analogous to what i'm dealing with right now with google nixing xslt from chrome: they control 80% of the screens so if they don't feel like paying to fix the bugs in the implementation they've been coasting on for a decade and a half, they can just unceremoniously erase it from the standards

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NPR @npr.org · 11h

Democrats and a federal union argue that Trump administration language posted on federal agency websites and some emails blaming a shutdown on the "Radical Left Democrats" violates a 1939 federal law.

Democrats take legal aim at 'the Radical Left' language during shutdown

Democrats and a federal union argue that Trump administration language posted on federal agency websites and some emails blaming a shutdown on the "Radical Left Democrats" violates a 1939 federal law.

n.pr

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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 10h

We save each other

Seth Stern @sethstern.bsky.social · 19h

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said, Megan Crepeau and @benjaminpenn.bsky.social report

news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Two Chicago-Area ICE Protesters

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Shira Ovide @shiraovide.bsky.social · 10h

Sigh. futurism.com/artificial-i...

Amazon Caught Peddling AI Slop Version of Cory Doctorow That's So Ironic That We Have to Go Outside and Stare at the Sky for a Bit

The renowned tech critic's book "Enshittification" hasn't even been out for a full day, and Amazon is already selling AI-generated knockoffs.

futurism.com

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GamesIndustry.biz @gibiz.bsky.social · 13h

Just under half of gamers worldwide are women, according to a new report published by the Entertainment Software Association

www.gamesindustry.biz/esa-48-of-vi...

ESA: 48% of video game players are women

2025 Global Power of Play report also found that mobile is the preferred device for women and players overall

www.gamesindustry.biz

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11h

“.. If a deal with China isn’t reached soon, Hill said, the soybean market ‘might be a bloodbath.’”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

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