Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dan Vergano

Jon Walker @jonwalkerpdx.bsky.social · 7h

You beat it by knowing that they are not real. Polygraphs are fake science more like a ouija or a magic amulet than a real test. They only "work" by tricking people into thinking they do so you confess.

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 8h

“Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown”

New, for @zeteo.com tonight, via @andrewperez.bsky.social and me:

zeteo.com/p/trump-hegs...

Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown

The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are waging a war on leakers – but ‘this stuff only works if you let it get to you,’ says one Pentagon official.

zeteo.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Andrew Gelman et al. @statmodeling.bsky.social · 1d

When rich people believe, or pretend to believe, stupid things (tennis edition)
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/10/06/w...

When rich people believe, or pretend to believe, stupid things (tennis edition) | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 12h

An honest look at the real America from a real reporter.

Penguin Press @penguinpress.bsky.social · 18h

Paper Girl by @bethmacy.bsky.social is on sale today! The Washington Post Raves: "There couldn’t be a timelier book than Beth Macy’s searching and deeply reported Paper Girl… searingly poignant, essential.”

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Review | To understand our divided America, she started with her hometown

In “Paper Girl,” Beth Macy describes returning to Urbana, Ohio, once a key stop on the Underground Railroad, now a place where Confederate flags abound.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Dan Vergano

Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 13h

We're seeking passionate law students to join EFF’s legal team as interns! Get involved in fighting for free speech, privacy, and innovation. www.eff.org/about/oppor...

Legal Internship Opportunities

Applications are now open for the Spring 2026 Intern Class, with a deadline of November 1. See below for instructions and a link to the application.EFF’s legal internships provide law students with a

www.eff.org

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 12h

Dark Energy Might Be Emerging from the Hearts of Black Holes

A controversial prediction about black holes and the expansion force of the universe could explain a cosmology mystery

www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-d...

Are Black Holes Creating Dark Energy?

A controversial prediction about black holes and the expansion force of the universe could explain a cosmology mystery

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · 14h

An initial recap of a wildly successful joint Day of Action:

www.planetary.org/articles/sav...

300 space advocates rally in D.C. to Save NASA Science

The Save NASA Science Day of Action drew nearly 300 people from across the United States to Washington, D.C., to promote space science and exploration.

www.planetary.org

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · 14h

NEW: Trump is moving to kill all funding for proposed Texas and Louisiana mega-hubs to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere

The bipartisan-backed hubs represented a rare clean tech industry where the US was on the cutting edge

by @emilypont.bsky.social for @heatmap.news

heatmap.news/politics/doe...

Trump to Cancel Direct Air Capture Hubs in Texas, Louisiana

A new list of grant cancellations obtained by Heatmap includes Climeworks and Heirloom projects funded by 2021 infrastructure law.

heatmap.news

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 14h

"Tear induction during onion cutting has long vexed the culinary community."

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

"high-speed visuals, we found that an onion does not release tear-triggering fluid in one burst"

"a practical fix: Keep knives sharp and cut gently"

Droplet outbursts from onion cutting | PNAS

Cutting onions often leads to tear-inducing aerosol release, yet the underlying mechanics remain poorly understood. In this work, via high-speed ch...

www.pnas.org

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 15h

turns out the county I'm from holds the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast. bet many other people there also do not know this

Philadelphia Inquirer @inquirer.com · 16h

Clearfield County, Pa. will make $1 million over five years to act as the middleman between ICE and the private contractor that operates the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest immigration detention facility in the Northeast.

Clearfield County will make $1 million in five-year contracts with ICE and Moshannon detention center’s private operator

The county enters the final year of its contracts with ICE and the GEO Group as the Trump administration has intensified efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.

www.inquirer.com

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 17h

The Open Notebook: "Resources for Evidence-Based Reporting on Transgender Communities"

www.theopennotebook.com/resources-fo...

Resources for Evidence-Based Reporting on Transgender Communities - The Open Notebook

Many of the issues that affect transgender people—such as gender-affirming medical care, educational policy, sports participation, military service, gender-motivated hate crime, and workplace discrimi...

www.theopennotebook.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 18h

Someone saying "Let's do the fucking news" is the ultimate sign that person has never, ever worked in a real newsroom (the fantasyland of the NYT Opinion section doesn't count)

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 19h

Bari Weiss introduced herself to CBS News staff today on the network's 9AM call, saying she wants to "win," which requires restoring trust to CBS. She also said she was excited for staff to get to know the Free Press, and ended her remarks by saying: "Let's do the fucking news."

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 18h

Not the main point, but when you're missing ~20 yr of data, I think you should just leave it blank.

Iit could be that it rose for the next five years, then plummeted and kept going! Maybe it's roughly linear! Maybe something else.

I mean, it's rising in the 1970s: you sure it pivoted RIGHT THERE?

Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 21h

Gallup has been surveying Americans' trust in legacy media since 1972. This year, a mere 28 percent of the public have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust in legacy media, its lowest level in more than five decades of tracking.

news.gallup.com/poll/695762/...

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Michael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 19h

this is really good stuff from @gelliottmorris.com

the core issue is that polling in the subjunctive is dumb. if you ask people to imagine things, people will imagine things

when you ask questions about actual, material acts of political violence, rates of support run incredibly low

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 19h

Glad Morris is on this issue. Obviously political violence in our society and the openness to it is a big issue. BUT I do think a lot of these polls, intentionally or not, have a way of amplifying very hypothetical questions. Or from a different perspective ... www.gelliottmorris.com/p/most-polls...

Why most polls overstate support for political violence

Misperceptions about the popularity of violence increase public support for it — but you can help change that.

www.gelliottmorris.com

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 18h

Journalism and Science as well, curiously enough.

Also odd, our pollsters relating news of this distrust seem weirdly timid about noting the effects of partisan propaganda in explaining the decline

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 21h

“Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk.”

Six former surgeons general condemn RFK Jr.

Opinion | Six surgeons general: RFK Jr. is a threat to the health of Americans

It was our duty in office to warn of dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 20h

"so voracious, so all-consuming, that they are putting the country’s productive industries at risk. "

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

The War Over Defense Tech | Susannah Glickman

Last October, on a Martin Luther–inspired website called www.18theses.com, a software executive named Shyam Sankar published a four-thousand-word polemic

www.nybooks.com

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 21h

Scientific American: Demonstrating quantum tunneling effect in electric circuits wins the 2015 Physics Nobel

www.scientificamerican.com/article/2025...

This Year’s Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded to Three Scientists for Work in Quantum Mechanics

John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how bizarre microscopic quantum effects can infiltrate our large-scale, everyday world

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

NPR @npr.org · 1d

Two groups are calling for new leadership at HHS after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s actions on substance abuse treatment and mental health medications, among other issues.

Psychiatrists call for RFK Jr. to be replaced as health secretary

Two groups are calling for new leadership at HHS after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s actions on substance abuse treatment and mental health medications, among other issues.

n.pr

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 1d

"the richest people in the world will have taken big steps toward ushering in the toothless, acquiescent future of mainstream media they have always wanted."

defector.com/bari-weiss-s...

Bari Weiss Signs Huge Deal To Usher CBS News Into Its Vichy Era | Defector

On Monday, newly appointed Paramount CEO David Ellison announced that his company had acquired the Free Press, the smirking blood-and-soil blog founded and run by former New York Times hall monitor Ba...

defector.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Lauren J. Young @laurenjyoung.bsky.social · 1d

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to some neat fundamental research on the immune system: peripheral immune tolerance. It's what keeps the body's defense mechanism in check—and could be key to new therapies for autoimmune disorders. @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/2025...

This Year’s Medicine Nobel Goes to Discovery of Why the Body Doesn’t Attack Itself

Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi shared the Nobel prize for their work on peripheral immune tolerance, a process that is key to organ transplants and treatment of autoimmune disease...

www.scientificamerican.com

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 3d

not clear how they solved that one. i was just there to get a used car inspected. had enough trouble as it was

Reposted by Dan Vergano

Clara Moskowitz @clarakm.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe dark energy is completely different than we imagined: @rboyle31.bsky.social 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-d...

Are Black Holes Creating Dark Energy?

A controversial prediction about black holes and the expansion force of the universe could explain a cosmology mystery

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Nick Byrd, Ph.D. @byrdnick.com · 3d

🤬 “Among articles stating that data was available upon request, only 17% shared data upon request. … Results replicate those found elsewhere: data is generally not available upon request, and promissory Data Availability Statements are typically not adhered to.”

#openScience #philSci #ethics #psych

Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 3d

My article "Data is not available upon request" was published in Meta-Psychology. Very happy to see this out!
open.lnu.se/index.php/me...

LnuOpen | Meta-Psychology

open.lnu.se

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 3d

real bafflement at the mechanic's yesterday over the proud "sovereign citizen" customer with his own tags telling them he wanted his car to get a state inspection.

just kept reading my book while they sorted. man, this country

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Reposted by Dan Vergano

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 3d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 3d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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