Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · 13d

If you’ve ever wondered where endless scam calls come from… SIM farms. USSS just shut a few down. That’s good news. But no, they weren’t going to knock out every phone in New York. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBZj...

Did The Secret Service Really Foil A Plot To Destroy New York's Cellphone Infrastructure?

YouTube video by Marcus Hutchins

www.youtube.com

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · 27d

My advisors and I finally submitted our next paper! #PhDChat

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Aug 8

Orbio Earth just open-sourced their full methane detection pipeline—models, tools, synthetic-plume engine & validation notebooks—for Sentinel-2, Landsat 8/9, and EMIT. #Methane #ClimateTech #OpenSource - orbio-earth.github.io/Project-Euca...

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Aug 7

How do we track water flowing through rivers from space? This major review says: 1–3 day revisit. Resolution down to 30–100 m widths. Must include width, slope, & velocity. Flood forecasting + water management depend on it. #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #WaterResources doi.org/10.1029/2024...

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Aug 6

The Trump administration is pushing NASA to kill two critical climate satellites. The Orbiting Carbon Observatories track CO₂ globally — data vital to scientists, farmers, and even oil companies. Cost? Just $15M/year. #ClimateScience #EarthObservation futurism.com/white-house-...

White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite

The White House has instructed NASA employees to destroy two major, climate change-focused satellite missions.

futurism.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Aug 4

"At the current rate of horrible fiery deaths, FuelArc projects the Cybertruck will have 14.52 fatalities per 100,000 units — far eclipsing the Pinto's 0.85. " - futurism.com/the-byte/cyb...

The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis

A new analysis suggests that the Cybertruck might lead to 17 times more fatalities than the infamous Ford Pinto.

futurism.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 17

Want to overlay a heatmap on a real map using Python? This guide walks through visualizing EF3–EF5 tornado trends across the U.S. with NOAA data, grid-based bins, and Matplotlib. Bonus: how to include tornado endpoints too!
#geospatial #Python towardsdatascience.com/how-to-overl...

How to Overlay a Heatmap on a Real Map with Python | Towards Data Science

Visualizing historical tornado trends

towardsdatascience.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 10

Just launched: SMAP salinity data V5.0 + V5.3 with ice/ocean flags — available now via NASA’s SNWG Earthdata Portal. Track salinity near the sea ice edge like never before. #SeaSurfaceSalinity #NASAData www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/sea-sur...

Sea Surface Salinity Datasets Now Available on the SNWG Earthdata Search Portal | NASA Earthdata

Access Sea Surface Salinity with Sea Ice Mask, a NASA Satellite Needs Working Group solution, to discern salinity values close to the sea ice edge.

www.earthdata.nasa.gov

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 8

A record-breaking heatwave is sweeping across southern Europe and North Africa. Copernicus Sentinel-3 reveals land surface temps far above normal – and the Mediterranean Sea isn't spared either. #ClimateCrisis #EarthObservation www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Southern Europe’s land and sea sizzles

A powerful heatwave has been gripping large parts of southern Europe. This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer on 29 June 2025, reveals t...

www.esa.int

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 3

NASA’s PACE satellite just dropped a year of stunning hyperspectral data—mapping chlorophyll, carotenoids & anthocyanins globally, every 1–2 days. It's the first time we’re seeing land plants in full spectral color from space. #RemoteSensing #EarthObservation - svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5548/

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | Global Views of PACE Land Vegetation Data

Global view of three major classes of plant pigments observed by the PACE satellite: chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins.

svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 2

It appears that MethaneSAT is gone. Launched in March 2024 to track powerful methane leaks, the Bezos-backed satellite veered off course over Norway and lost power. #MethaneLeaks #ClimateChange #MethaneSAT www.reuters.com/business/ene...

Exclusive: Bezos-backed methane tracking satellite is lost in space

An $88 million satellite backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos that detected oil and gas industry's emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane has been lost in space, the group that operates it told Reuters on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jul 2

Microsoft just launched Planetary Computer Pro (Public Preview) — a cloud-native geospatial platform built for AI, ML, and massive-scale analysis. 50PB+ of data, now enterprise-ready via Azure. #Geospatial #AI techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/iotblog...

Introducing Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro — Now in Public Preview | Microsoft Community Hub

Today, we’re excited to announce the public preview of Microsoft Planetary Computer Pro — a turnkey platform that makes it dramatically easier for...

techcommunity.microsoft.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 17

LOL - me too. What's sad is that I just wrote some code for a paper that does this, sort of. This is a better approach, though.

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 17

A great read on automating your ML workflow in just 10 lines of Python. With LazyPredict + pycaret, you can test over 20 models instantly and compare their performance. #MachineLearning #Python #AutoML towardsdatascience.com/how-i-automa...

How I Automated My Machine Learning Workflow with Just 10 Lines of Python | Towards Data Science

Use LazyPredict and PyCaret to skip the grunt work and jump straight to performance.

towardsdatascience.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 11

This is even worse - Brian Wilson just passed away. The Beach Boys are probably my all-time favorite band, and Brian Wilson was an absolute treasure. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvNX...

God Only Knows - The Beach Boys, a cappella

YouTube video by Stuckinthe6Ts

www.youtube.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 10

So sad to hear of Sly Stone's passing. Absolutely loved him and the Family Stone. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG_x...

Sly And The Family Stone "I Want To Take You Higher" on The Ed Sullivan Show

YouTube video by The Ed Sullivan Show

www.youtube.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 6

ChatGPT just released Codex. You can connect to a GitHub repository, and it will explain the codebase to newcomers, suggest codebase improvements, and identify and fix critical bugs. Then do a pull/merge request! Kind of awesome. chatgpt.com/codex/ #vibecoding #chatgpt #codex

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Reposted by Eric Ness

News Analysis @newsanalysis.com · Jun 5

Satellite images show Mount Etna's major eruption on June 2nd, 2025, releasing a large plume of sulfur dioxide & ash. ESA's Sentinel-5P & Sentinel-2 missions captured the event. #MountEtna #News

New Satellite Images Capture Mount Etna’s Massive Eruption

Satellite images show Mount Etna's major eruption on June 2nd, 2025, releasing a large plume of sulf...

dailygalaxy.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · Jun 2

NASA’s “Power of 10” for safety-critical code is awesome. No recursion. No dynamic memory after init. No function > 60 lines. Every return value is checked. Brutal but beautiful. Great video review. #CleanCode www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWKa...

NASAs Coding Requirements Are Insane

YouTube video by ThePrimeTime

www.youtube.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · May 30

Is America facing a literacy crisis? Not exactly. But 40% of 4th graders can't read at a basic level. And 28% of adults are functionally illiterate. The real problem? It's been bad for a long time—and it's getting worse. But Mississippi shows it's fixable. #reading www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCT...

The American Literacy Crisis, Explained

YouTube video by Jared Henderson

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Eric Ness

News Analysis @newsanalysis.com · May 23

Trump admin. revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students, impacting nearly 6,800 students. The action follows accusations of harboring anti-American agitators & CCP ties. Harvard disputes claims. #HigherEducation #News

Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students

Trump admin. revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students, impacting nearly 6,800 stud...

apnews.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · May 22

Flannery O’Connor’s once-hidden artworks are on view at her Georgia farm, offering new insight into her creative process. #FlanneryOConnor #ArtExhibition www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/s...

See Flannery O'Connor's Little-Known Visual Artworks That Had Been Collecting Dust in Storage

From childhood cartoons to thoughtful self-portraits, the acclaimed Southern writer was always a keen observer of her surroundings

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · May 13

Based on the article I came across yesterday, I put this together. It's an 'LLM-Assisted Project Development Template'. I am unsure if it works entirely, but I will test it out. Not sure if anyone else is playing with this type of development. github.com/Eric-Ness/my...

GitHub - Eric-Ness/my-ai-project

Contribute to Eric-Ness/my-ai-project development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · May 12

I really like this tutorial – defining .cursor/rules as your AI’s “operating manual” keeps context consistent and cuts down on misfires. #AICoding #PairProgramming - www.aitidbits.ai/p/sahar-ai-c...

Sahar’s Coding with AI guide

How to treat your AI coding agent (Cursor/Windsurf/Cline) as a human pair programmer and yield the best results

www.aitidbits.ai

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Eric Ness @eric.ness.net · May 11

Check out creative ways to export your maps from QGIS to Illustrator — then bring them to life with animations in Premiere!
#QGIS #Illustrator #PremierePro #MapDesign - www.chiaraphillips.com/post/make-th...

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