Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 13h

had never before considered that the inflatable costumes offer pepper ball protection

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 3d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

71 370 2.1K

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8h

for every one of these stories there’s a My Teammate Used His Whole Paycheck To Buy Literal Meth And Wrote 43 Pages Over Night Which Earned Us All Fs.

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 8h

honestly the ballsiest thing I’ve ever done was to turn in a 25 page Milton paper I had started & finished the night before it was due, along with my 2 friends who had done the same, AND submitted our equal-length group chat of running Milton shitposting we’d been doing while writing. we all got As

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 10h

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8h

Ban cars.

dillo (yakubian mamba) @dillo.media · 8h

i will vote for anybody who fixes the headlight brightness situation

1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 1d

The physical momentum of the ball is one of the interesting points… so the latter seems more fun.

Like you could spin it very fast then hover fingers near it almost like a lathe.

1 1

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Brian Floyd @brianmfloyd.bsky.social · 1d

the guy who caught cal raleigh’s homer was wearing a shirt that said dump 61 here and he immediately took it off and had a shirt that said dump 62 here

62 850 4.3K

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 2d

Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right

Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe

The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe

96 290 1.8K

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 2d

Flow is basically garbage as a concept but, providing for that… it seems pretty obvious for coaches, teachers, etc would have some sense of distributed agency that would have an aspect of affect.

faculty.washington.edu/aragon/pubs/...

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 3d

the thing that’s frustrating about Canada is that it has systems which are supposed to do this… but they are underfunded.

So everyone gets one grants are handed out round robin.

And then big grants are given, but not sustained. So labs rise and fall every few years…

So much pointless destruction.

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 4d

Research also shows that spreading smaller amounts of funding out over more researchers generally delivers better scientific outcomes per dollar spent than focusing bigger grants on fewer researchers.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding

Agencies that fund scientific research must choose: is it more effective to give large grants to a few elite researchers, or small grants to many researchers? Large grants would be more effective only...

journals.plos.org

1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

You are dunking on this post because of some shit you believe about minds.

I am dunking on this post because I believe methodological credulity wrt MRIs has caused them to have a net negative impact on our understanding of cognition.

We are not the same.

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ @croissanthology.com · 5d

Well, you can in fact store and MRI scan of a human brain in an Excel spreadsheet, and MRI machines get better ever year...

There comes a point where you have to start believing in magic to justify the idea that excel spreadsheets can't be conscious in any disposition whatsoever

1 2

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 4d

history teacher in 50 years: So in September, that’s when the president signed an executive order criminalizing anti-fascism and saying all resistance would be crushed

student: oh so that’s when the whole country realized they were living under fascism

teacher: haha what? oh no lol not at all. no.

140 3.4K 15K

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 4d

Genuinely incredible how unprofessional these guys are. One dude yelling in your face and you immediately assault them on camera?

Daniel Connerton @lordnad.bsky.social · 4d

@govpritzker.illinois.gov

37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois.

This is assault.

210 1.1K 4.2K

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

It’s sort of inevitable that functional interfaces will replaced by marketing placements.

AI & ML News @ai-news.at.thenote.app · 4d

Google’s Gemini AI app could soon be getting a big makeover

The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catchin…

#ai #gemini #geminiai

Google’s Gemini AI app could soon be getting a big makeover

The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catching photos.

techcrunch.com

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

Like… when police clear a road for federal vehicles… this is what they become complicit in… bsky.app/profile/lord...

Daniel Connerton @lordnad.bsky.social · 4d

@govpritzker.illinois.gov

37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois.

This is assault.

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

Like… if this ruling holds up… the bar is so so so high for a legitimate use of the guard…

whatever theatrical effects of having the police collaborate are way less important that the practical effect.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 4d

"Here, the protests in Portland were not 'a rebellion' and did not pose a 'danger of a rebellion,' especially in the days leading up to the federalization."

Therefore, this Court reaches the same conclusion as the district court in Newsom I that the following “key characteristics” provide the boundaries for what constitutes a “rebellion”: First, a rebellion must not only be violent but also be armed.

Second, a rebellion must be organized. Third, a rebellion must be open and avowed. Fourth, a rebellion must be against the government as a whole—often with an aim of overthrowing the government—rather than in opposition to a single law or issue.

Newsom I, 786 F. Supp. 3d at 1253 (emphasis omitted). Here, the protests in Portland were not “a rebellion” and did not pose a “danger of a rebellion,” especially in the days leading up to the federalization. As discussed above, Defendants presented evidence of sporadic violence against federal officers and property damage to a federal building. Defendants have not, however, proffered any evidence demonstrating that those episodes of violence were part of an organized attempt to overthrow the government as a whole, and therefore, Defendants have failed to show that the President had a colorable basis to conclude that Section 12406(2) was satisfied.

1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

I think there’s a mistaken belief that local police collaboration is preferable to military deployments…

and like… it’s happening anyway.

Everyone better hope they are building relationships faster than collaborators…

bsky.app/profile/bloo...

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 4d

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said President Donald Trump plans to call up 300 members of the state’s national guard, defying opposition from local and state leaders

Pritzker Says Trump to Send Guard to Illinois Over His Objection

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said President Donald Trump plans to call up 300 members of the state’s national guard, defying opposition from local and state leaders.

bloom.bg

1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

IMHO it’s largely a mistake for Dems to deploy police to protect ICE.

There’s obviously a risk that a lot of police would defect and whatnot, but they need to get the goons in order at a local level.

It would be ironic if fratricide corrected the mistake.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 4d

CPD just relieved feds from this line too. Then a moment later the feds gassed the whole area, including the cops.

1

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 4d

Change in Headline

Before: Mark Sanchez, Ex-N.F.L. Quarterback, Is Injured in Stabbing in Indianapolis
After: Mark Sanchez, Ex-N.F.L. Quarterback, Is Charged in Stabbing in Indianapolis

11 99 400

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

I do also think that in the US protests are *organized* as an outlet rather than a genuine campaign for change.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 4d

I keep going back to this, but one of the reasons South Korea has an incredibly effective protest culture is because they have *decades* of organizational experience through daily/weekly protesting. it helps a lot to do the routine stuff to be able to pull off the big stuff.

Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 4d

Why doesn't the US have a general strike? Well you can point to culture or whatever but I think structure is of not immediate use here: does the US have organizations and institutions it can use to network, organize and mobilize a general strike? No.

1 2

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 4d

I feel like Stan is caught in a hard place where its original selling point was “fast BUGS” but gradually it became clear that it was a huge methodological liability to write your own models.

As an infrastructure project it just doesn’t have the juice vs projects in AI‘s draft.

Mark J. Nelson @mm-jj-nn.bsky.social · 5d

I didn't realize that JAX is taking over in the probabilistic programming space. Very fair (afaict) post from Bob Carpenter, one of the core Stan developers, on how that looks from the Stan side.

It’s a JAX, JAX, JAX, JAX World | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 5d

I thought this was posted by “random videos with bread” and I’m a little wistful for that moment honestly.

random videos with breakcore @memesbreakcore.bsky.social · 8d

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

Shannon Cuykendall @shannonbrooke07.bsky.social · 5d

This is what I’ve been up to during my baby’s nap time :)

New additions to my latest dance / media artwork

A dance/media artwork exploring contrasting experiences of the heart. Created entirely with mobile technologies (editing and filming) and recorded in everyday living spaces.© Shannon Cuykendall, 20…

shannoncuykendall.wordpress.com

1 1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8d

Everyone is working so hard to explain away the rot… his whole program from years ago was a technocratic vision for liberalism that could avoid entanglement w/ social welfare.

Now he’s come finally to a moment where it’s clear that abundance is orthogonal to liberalism and he’s made a choice.

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 8d

Short passage captures so much so lucidly. Gurri’s point captures the essence of what was missing in Klein’s Biden age stuff. degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/you-don-t-...

1

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8d

These things require time and space to do. It must not be given.

The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 8d

NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...

Feds detain dozens of immigrants in 'massive' South Shore apartment building raid in Chicago • The TRiiBE

An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in the course of the overnight raid in the predominately-Black neighborhood.

thetriibe.com

1

Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau

BakeOff @bakeoff.bsky.social · 8d

Speaking as a ( Danish ) vet: "We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement."
Any soldier worth their salt instantly regocnizes this as a red flag that your commanding officer is setting you up to do shit that will haunt you in your dreams for the rest of your life.

1 15 91

Ethan Soutar-Rau @ethansr.bsky.social · 8d

I dunno. I don’t see the democrats coalescing.

jeff computers @helldude.bsky.social · 8d

no serious person can support this, and even the puling democrats cannot fund a government that, had it the swat to do so, would sic its bloated military machine on our population centers in order to kill and jail its voters. mask is off, revealing a smaller, stupider mask