Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 9h

Totally idiotic, as usual

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 9h

She's nothing if not predictable, is she? I know the Tories aren't keen on anything Green these days, but pretty much all they've done this week is recycle stuff they've been banging on about--for the most part fruitlessly--for the last decade and a half. And today it's "Mickey Mouse" degrees. 🙄

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English

The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

inews.co.uk

3

Reposted by David Adger

Anson Mackay 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ans.bsky.social · 2d

Great advert for Tory private education if they can’t even spell Britain 🤦🏼‍♂️

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 2d

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

Goody-bag merch from Tory Conference branded "When Labour negotiates Britian loses" and signed "Kemi Badenoch".

2 7

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 2d

in amongst all the awful, there are still crows being crows!

Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 6d

The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...

10

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 4d

I feel everyone should read Le Guin's The Dispossessed to understand exactly this point: a lack of control simply reestablishes different sorts of control, while authoritative imposition of control is inimical to flourishing.

1 8

Reposted by David Adger

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 4d

New preprint 🌟 Psychology is core to cognitive science, and so it is vital we preserve it from harmful frames. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I use our psych and computer science expertise to analyse and craft:

Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

🧵 1/

Cover page of Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 1 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 2 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

8 97 240

Reposted by David Adger

Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 7d

The Gender Critical have already inundated this survey with their disgusting views on banning trans people from using the ponds.

Would be a shame if we inundated with trans positive views on not banning trans people.

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

Public Consultation on Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds | Commonplace

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

22 220 280

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 10d

a copy of Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism for light reading during the breaks?

2

Reposted by David Adger

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 11d

I’m not

It isn’t.

It should be, but you’re working very hard to ensure it isn’t.

59 400 1.2K

Reposted by David Adger

Oz Katerji @ozkaterji.bsky.social · 12d

Kind of feels like a big deal that a Reform/Brexit Party former MEP has been convicted of taking bribes to promote Russian interests in Ukraine, and it feels like a bigger deal that this isn’t being treated as the major scandal that it clearly is.

54 820 2K

Reposted by David Adger

Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 12d

3. ⁠this is not the moment for an incredibly expensive increase in state surveillance infrastructure to be run for profit by private tech firms just before Labour ushers in an (even more) authoritarian right wing government.

FIX THE GODDAMN COST OF LIVING INSTEAD YOU FREAKS.

66 660 2.8K

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 14d

Thank you!!!! Glad you enjoyed it

1

Reposted by David Adger

Matt DiGiuseppe @mdigiuseppe.bsky.social · 16d

🚨🚨🚨 Survey Researchers! WE HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM!🚨🚨🚨

I have access to the Comet browser by Perplexity.

I asked it to pretend to be a human, take the survey, and give me feedback. IT DID!

5 31 96

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 16d

totally agree. Just interesting to watch OpenAI actually say it!

Reposted by David Adger

Christopher Owen @oysta.au · 17d

Yeah man we should really fight back by staying on X

270 4.2K 17K

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 16d

yeah, but the authors argue that the architecture of the training model will force hallucinations even with 'perfect' data (afaicu it's the intersection of the training system with the probabilistic way that selection works as it generates)

1

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 16d

I guess it's kind of obvious, given the design, that LLMs will hallucinate, but interesting to see Open AI researchers showing that the "majority of mainstream evaluations reward hallucinatory behavior" arxiv.org/pdf/2509.04664

arxiv.org

1 1 5

Reposted by David Adger

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 17d

The problem is that the centre-left can't win every election. And trying can make them cautious, when they need to be bold.

Really successful govts - Attlee, Thatcher, Blair - secure the things they believe in by forcing their opponents to change. But that requires a confident project of their own.

6 29 230

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 18d

Spot on: "Adopting nativist discourse and policies does not win back far-right voters. It leads to losses for centrist and leftwing parties. Moreover, it raises the salience of the topic and the expectations of the government, which will always fall short" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

After the far-right mass rally in London, Britain must learn lessons from abroad – and fast | Cas Mudde

This is no time for complacent exceptionalism. The UK is part of the fourth phase of the far right in the postwar era, and its politicians must respond, says political scientist Cas Mudde

www.theguardian.com

7 13

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 18d

definitely watch this video. excellent for a linguistics class 🐦🐦!

Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social · 18d

GOP: We are putting forward a proposal to ban the use of all pronouns.

Dems: Um…we all use pronouns.

GOP: Oh. Withdrawn.

Anagram Man @conserveletters.bsky.social · 19d

LOL Awesome.

1 3 19

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 19d

I also thought this was very explanatory of much of what we are seeing: "They [MAGA] are obsessed with contamination and contagion, seeing it as the site of despicable difference."

2 1 4

Reposted by David Adger

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 19d

Disgraceful. Absurd. As with the Kimmel situation, politicians across the world want to suppress protest and creative resistance. They hate opposition. They hate protest. They hate satire. They hate art. Soon we will wake up and find our mouths gagged, our hands tied, our pens and laptops taken away

Sally Rooney unable to collect award over Palestine Action arrest threat

The Normal People author can no longer safely enter the UK without potentially facing arrest, according to a statement read out by her publisher at the prize ceremony

www.theguardian.com

4 58 150

Reposted by David Adger

Linguistic Discovery @linguisticdiscovery.com · 20d

A new book chronicles one Cherokee citizen’s odyssey of working to revitalizing the Cherokee language.

1 4 15

Reposted by David Adger

Sean Howe @seanhowe.bsky.social · 20d

25 1.5K 3.4K

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 20d

hmm. I don't get that feeling at all. There's a TV programme with `brainiacs' on it, who are the clever ones and a pro-eu podcast called the `Remaniacs'. Do you mean because of an influence from maniac?

1 1

David Adger @davidadger.bsky.social · 20d

graphotactic! I may have to get into writing systems research just to use that word :)

5