Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 28m

It is strange to me how much Stephin Merritt has faded from public consciousness. I guess these are his pre-rediscovery years.

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 34m

On the other hand, you know she’s the type to come down with pneumonic plague, say “it’s nothin’, jest feeling a little wheezy” and go back to splitting logs for the church bonfire cookout.

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Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 39m

And we're live! Announcing the launch of @aacu.org's new Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education (APT) initiative, which I co-lead with Kathryn Enke. You'll be hearing a lot more about APT in the coming months. www.aacu.org/newsroom/aac...

AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher… | AAC&U

AAC&U Launches Initiative to Restore Public Trust in Higher Education

www.aacu.org

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 10h

"Anyone who entertained this conflagration of horseshit is guilty of felony stupidity. And it is beyond any reasonable doubt that this process was clearly rigged.

The only question is: rigged by whom?"
#NewCollegeOfFlorida

When you hear "Woke" listen for "Ka-Ching."

substack.com/inbox/post/1...

New College’s Presidential Compensation: A Surly Retrospective

Or, A Totally Normal Higher-Ed Conflagration of Horseshit

substack.com

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Christophe Veltsos @drinfosec.bsky.social · 1d

"This virus isn’t just a pathogen. It’s an architect of cognitive collapse."

🚨 Thread by @jamesthrot.bsky.social on Twitter
threadreaderapp.com/thread/19748...

Thread by @JamesThrot on Thread Reader App

@JamesThrot: You fixate on coughs/fever/hospitalisation Meanwhile, billions w/no obvious symptoms are sustaining brain damage Empathy. Logic. Foresight Invisible, ignored, unstoppable You’re all actin...

threadreaderapp.com

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 18h

youtu.be/sTlTxFio6DY?...

Cruise Ship playing Seven Nation Army

YouTube video by Jonasz Gradkowski

youtu.be

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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 18h

listen. when dolly parton’s sister says it’s time for us all to be prayer warriors for dolly. you fucking pray for dolly

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ren, book and candle 🕯️✨👻 @renandpen.bsky.social · 1d

just wow. lol also I loved this, which is true of everyone in the regime:

"Like so many bullies, Trump has skin of gossamer”

Lamhfada @lamhfada.bsky.social · 1d

Today I learned that Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, deliberately described Trump's small hands to drive him crazy in 1988, and over the decades since, Trump has sent him photos circling his hands, on multiple occasions

This is just so pathetically hilarious.

reddit post screenshot

Yes, from ABC News, The History Behind the Donald Trump 'Small Hands' Insult:

"Nearly 30 years ago, Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair magazine, described Trump in Spy magazine as a “short-fingered vulgarian.”

In an editor’s letter in "Vanity Fair" last November, Carter said that he wrote the Sky magazine comment in 1988 "just to drive him a little bit crazy."

And according to Carter, it still does.

"Like so many bullies, Trump has skin of gossamer," Carter wrote in November.

"To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers," Carter wrote. "I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby."

"The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination," Carter continued. "Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: 'See, not so short!' I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, 'Actually, quite short.'"

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 1d

Am now picturing a LOTR bonus ep that goes from Leonard Nimoy through Enya to KLF, with a bonus tag about the movie soundtrack.

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 2d

Young Marble Giants with Lee Ranaldo (on the choruses).

SCARY rineth jcss oomf TSHD ERA @witheredleaves.bsky.social · 3d

I NEED to hear billy joel's it's still rock and roll to me in shoegaze or grungegaze genre

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 3d

One of my fav historical accounts ever is two cousins who were brought to the court of King Bimbisara for punishment(so we're talking like 300 BC) because they would stand at the town square loudly arguing with each other about affairs of the kingdom and disturbing the peace

RadiantHostility (he/him) @radianthostility.bsky.social · 3d

Humans havent meaningfully changed in 500,000 years. back in the day every middle aged dude was sitting on a hilltop with a drum of some kind broadcasting his inane thoughts to anyone within range and it was just as annoying as podcasts. actually stone age podcasting would be a funny framing to

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 3d

"It is the worst of times. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book."
-Cicero

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 3d

🦅 Bearded vultures as time capsules

Researchers found centuries-old artifacts and bones in ancient bearded vulture nests in Spain, revealing how these birds preserve ecological and cultural history.

🔗 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#SciComm #Ecology 🧪

The Bearded Vulture as an accumulator of historical remains: Insights for future ecological and biocultural studies

Click on the article title to read more.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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󠀁󠁿⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁢⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁢⁤⁤⁢⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁤⁢⁢⁢⁢⁤⁢👻 @0x0.boo · 3d

"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number—
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few."

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 3d

The fact that Donovan and Pink Floyd slip in there seamlessly is a source of delight.

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Michael F @michaelf617.bsky.social · 3d

I asked a Christian baker to write Charlie Kirk on a gay wedding cake and we've been staring at each other for 39 straight hours now

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 3d

#RankedChoice

Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com · 3d

[new draft post] A fertile corpse https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/10/04/a-fertile-corpse/index.html

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Jake Gold @jacob.gold · 5d

Mark Twain in Nikola Tesla's lab is such a cool photo.

It was taken with Tesla's own electric fluorescent lamp and photo setup.

Black-and-white photo of Mark Twain in a dark lab, holding a glowing experimental lamp created by Nikola Tesla; his face and hands are lit by the bright light while the rest of the room remains in shadow.

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✨️Angel Facts✨️ @angelic.style · 3d

ppl dunk constantly on things like philosophy and sociology and then turn around and go "maybe the computer *is* actually talking to me"

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Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 4d

Huh. This seems pretty neat, and potentially promising.

"Improved carbon-cement supercapacitors could turn the concrete around us into massive energy storage systems"
news.mit.edu/2025/concret...

Screenshot of text reading
In 2023, storing enough energy to meet the daily needs of the average home would have required about 45 cubic meters of ec³, roughly the amount of concrete used in a typical basement. Now, with the improved electrolyte, that same task can be achieved with about 5 cubic meters, the volume of a typical basement wall.

“A key to the sustainability of concrete is the development of ‘multifunctional concrete,’ which integrates functionalities like this energy storage, self-healing, and carbon sequestration. Concrete is already the world’s most-used construction material, so why not take advantage of that scale to create other benefits?” asks Admir Masic, lead author of the new study, MIT Electron-Conducting Carbon-Cement-Based Materials Hub (EC³ Hub) co-director, and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) at MIT.

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grantimatter @grantimatter.bsky.social · 3d

A town in Finland just switched over to a sand-battery for power and heat:

newatlas.com/energy/large...

The world's largest sand battery just went live in Finland

Finland has inaugurated an industrial-scale sand battery this week in the southern town of Pornainen, where it'll take over heating duties from an old woodchip power plant for the municipality. It's s...

newatlas.com

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 4d

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 3d

Been thinking about Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule lately, mainly as model for another question.

What proportion of US population would need to revert to media habits circa 2010 before Trumpism collapses?

MAGA is the platform architecture it weaponizes, but platforms will reject it under populist pressure.

Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · Apr 1

Lately I've seen many references to the 3.5% rule. A few years ago I pulled together this Q&A on potential uses and misuses of this statistic. www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...

The cover page for a discussion paper called "Questions, Answers, and Some Cautionary Updates Regarding the 3.5% Rule" by Erica Chenoweth. In the image, peaceful protesters can be seen in front of the US Capitol building.

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Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social · 3d

#Florida newspaper celebrates 100 years of service www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/l...

Herald-Tribune celebrates 100 years of service in Sarasota

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune was founded during the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s and weathered the Great Depression to help shape the county.

www.heraldtribune.com

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John Carpenter’s ‘Halloran’ @profhalloran.bsky.social · 4d

Hanging in my office is a framed display of various WPA murals from Post Offices that were built during the Great Depression. Truly treasures that should be preserved.

I desperately hope that if an iconoclastic Federal government is happy to let this art decay that we can find some way to save it.

There Was a Plan to Save These New Deal Masterpieces. Then Trump Won.

A feasibility study was underway about restoring the ailing federal building that houses important Ben Shahn frescoes, Philip Guston murals, and other FDR-era artwork. But the Trump administration put...

newrepublic.com

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 4d

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools Trump just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America. alumni.controlshift.app/petitions/tr...

STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Trump attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools Trump just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freedom across America...

alumni.controlshift.app

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