Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Moose Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 1h

I have a cartoon in the current Private Eye

Cartoon. Two people standing on a stage looking at a third person who is jumping down through a trap door. In the foreground we see the backs of the audience’s heads. One standing people observes “It’s just a stage he’s going through”

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 5h

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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Burak Sonmez @buraksonmez.bsky.social · 1d

I’m a newbie on Substack 🚀

I show how simulating donation behaviour data through LLMs can generate false positives.

LLMs rationalise, but human behaviour is noisy.

buraksonmez.substack.com/p/silicon-sa...

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford @inetoxford.bsky.social · 6h

FOUR new positions available at INET Oxford!

@zparolin.bsky.social is hiring:

🠺 1x FT Post-Doctoral Researcher in Inequality, Social Policy, and Social Mobility
🠺 3x PT Rsearchers in Inequality, Social Policy, and Social Mobility

Find out more and apply HERE ➵ https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/vacancies

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 9h

Sometimes a statistic is counterintuitive. This is not one: every adult in Britain has experienced greater interaction with people of different ethnic backgrounds over their lifetime

As I say in this thread, this statistical fact is obvious in every aspect of our lives, & all of us know/feel it

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 21h

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 14h

I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 16h

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 10h

A reminder that this week the Conservatives announced they want a “British ICE”

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 13h

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 15h

Here’s video of the incident

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 19h

Marshmallow test, canine version

Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · 21h

Every neuroscience lecture ever, summarized in one dog video.

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 19h

Wow where's that?? Green?

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Retraction Watch @retractionwatch.com · 20h

The top editors of a criminology journal have stepped down after the society in charge of the publication assessed concerns about manuscript review times.

Editors of criminology journal resign amid concern about review times

The top editors of a criminology journal have stepped down after the society in charge of the publication assessed concerns about manuscript review times. The board of the American Society of…

retractionwatch.com

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 21h

🚨 New assistant prof job posting at LSE with a focus on crime and criminal justice

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/...

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, , LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university <spa...

jobs.lse.ac.uk

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 1d

Celebrating small wins this morning: Our new R package, geocausal, just broke 8,000 downloads. If you're interested in causal inference with spatio-temporal data, you can grab it on Github or CRAN

github.com/mmukaigawara...

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

The Onion @theonion.com · 19h

Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back https://theonion.com/health-experts-recommend-standing-up-at-desk-leaving-o-1819577456/

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 19h

"we're not training prompt engineers" was the feedback I gave re student use

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 21h

I get the abstinence Vs harm reduction angles - exactly the observation I made earlier in the year! IMO If students aren't doing the thinking I worry they're not really learning.

I suggested a few things to make the effort to cheat w/AI >> just doing the work oneself

We'll see how it pans out...

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 21h

Ghoulish. Profiteering from the dead.

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 22h

DJ Bruce Lee and Jackass Mr. Rogers—dead celebrities become puppets in Sora 2 videos

OpenAI’s likeness protections for living “public figures” don’t apply to “historical figures.”…

arstechnica.com

Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Midsomer murders would do that on its own!

Reminded me of this from 2013
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazin...

How unrealistic is murder on television?

There is a great deal of fictionalised murder on television. But does it give us the wrong idea about crime?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Robocop 2!

10 points!

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

It's so incredible how low homicide rates are in Europe. The UK, with a population of 70 million people, had fewer than 600 murders in 2023.
www.connexionfrance.com/news/double-...

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

WIRED @wired.com · 1d

The whole of Bluesky when they see our Amazon Prime Day deals.

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

10 points if you get the movie reference (involving different coloured versions of the same drug)

a close up of a machine with a red object in the center

ALT: a close up of a machine with a red object in the center

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 1d

Nice chart from @ourworldindata.org showing the contrast between what Americans die of (heart disease and cancer) v what the US media reports on (homicide and terrorism). This naturally leads to it being trickier to build a fact based world view
ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

What Americans die from
and the causes of death the US media reports on
Causes of death in the US in 2023
Heart disease (29%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (2.4%)
Liver disease (2.2%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)|
COVID-19 (2.1%)
Influenza/Pneu
monia (19%6)

Media coverage of these causes of death in 2023 in...
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Fox News
Heart disease (2.8%)
Heart disease (2.9%)
Cancer (4.1%)
Cancer (4.7%)
Accidents (5.9%)
Cancer (3.8%)
Accidents (6.1%)
Accidents (9.7%)
Suicide (4.1%)
Suicide (3.3%)
COVID-19 (6.0%)
COVID-19 (7.9%)
Suicide (3.8%)
COVID-19 (5.3%)
Drug overdose (7.5%)
Drug overdose (9.8%)
Drug overdose (9.5%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (24%)
Suicide (2.1%0)
COVID-19 (2.1%0
Homicide (42%)
Homicide (52%)
Homicide (46%)
Terrorism (18%)
Terrorism (12%)
Terrorism (11%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)
Note: Based on the share of causes of death in the US and the share of mentions for each of the causes in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News. All values are normalized to 100%, so the shares are relative to all deaths caused by the 12 most common causes + drug overdoses, homicides and terrorism. These causes account for more than 75% of deaths in the US.
A "media mention" is a published article in one of the outlets which mentions the cause (e,g. "influenza) or related keywords (e.g. "fu") least twice.
Data sources: Media mentions from Media Cloud (2025): deaths data from the US CDC (2025) and Global Terrorism Index.|
CC BY

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

His idea was that we couldn't have any situation where there was one group in the majority living "ghettoized" [sic] lives.

...which presumably also includes anyone who is white...

...so that's... everywhere?

Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Actual lol

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 1d

pro writing tip: always start the day by addressing a minor administrative task so that you’re in a bad mood when you begin your actual work

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