Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Hadas Kotek 🦄

@hadaskotek.bsky.social

4.9K followers 1.2K following 390 posts

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 6d

Can’t decide whether these Statue of Liberty rubber chickens that say “squeeze me to hear me scream” are a little too on-the-nose for these times or if they’re perfect

A yellow cardboard carton on a CVS shelf with brightly colored letters that say “squeeze me to hear me scream” and “statue of liberty chicken.” Inside the carton are hot pink, teal, and royal blue rubber chickens with googly eyes rendered like the Statue of Liberty, with their faces distressed and frozen in a shriek. They have tags around their necks that say “squeeze me to hear me scream”

52 520 2.2K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 4d

🌟 New preprint 🌟, by @olivia.science and me:

📝 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025). *Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists*. lnkd.in/ewajedAe

🧪

Table 1

Core reasoning issues (first column), which we name after the relevant numbered section, are characterised using a plausible quote. In the second column are responses per row; also see the named section for further reading, context, and explanations.

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

2 14 41

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 8d

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy.

Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social
I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

150 1.1K 8.6K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 9d

We've had evidence of this for ages, right? Frankly this feels like those endless UBI studies where they all demonstrate UBI works but that's not the answer the people in charge want to hear so nothing changes.

Annie @anniearmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

www.psypost.org/students-rate-identical-lectures-differently-based-on-professors-gender-researchers-find/# #AcademicSky - it never ends.

Students rate identical lectures differently based on professor's gender, researchers find

When philosophy students were asked to evaluate identical lectures assigned to men or women professors, their responses varied by gender. The study suggests gender bias plays a role in how teaching is...

www.psypost.org

10 180 630

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

ProPublica @propublica.org · 18d

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.

(Published Feb. 2025)

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

www.propublica.org

77 1.9K 3.4K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 20d

From Feb 4th 1939

Goebbels Ends Careers of Five 'Aryan' Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime Feb 4th 1939

26 1.1K 2.9K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 22d

can i say something without everyone getting mad

50 32 330

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Aniello De Santo @anids.bsky.social · 22d

I feel this needs to be said again but LLMs are not implementing usage-based theories of language unless one interprets the latter in the shallowest, devoid of their most interesting assumptions, way. “Usage” is not just frequency ffs.

2 10 58

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Lily Alexandre @lily-is.online · 22d

there's no contradiction between "hating trans people" and "wanting to fuck trans people". have you guys heard what men think of women

44 1.8K 7.2K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 24d

Are they not supposed to do that?

WSJ notification:
$100,000 Corvettes have a bizarre defect that's making them spontaneously burst into
flames

43 46 570

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Jadzia Axelrod 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @planetx.bsky.social · 24d

In response to @thelouvreof.bsky.social's request for bangers, I offer this, my most popular post by a long shot:

Jadzia Axelrod 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @planetx.bsky.social · Feb 14

Roses are red
Our resolve hasn't faltered

WARNING
IT IS POSSIBLE TO SURVIVE THIS BUT NOT UNALTERED

3 58 270

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 24d

Grok is being sent to the reeducation camp

550 4.2K 15K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Anne Kirn @houseofdarkly.bsky.social · 24d

Get your covid shot now. If I got one in *Florida* where it was declared "a bioweapon," you can probably get it easily! I know I'm annoying about it, but it likely gets *much harder* after the 18th/19th if you're in the US. I will virtually high five you after!

Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 25d

Got my COVID shot yesterday. Highly recommend you get yours ASAP.

David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 25d

If you haven't gotten your updated COVID vaccine by now, book an appointment fast before next week's ACIP meeting. After that, you might not be able to get one. I plan on getting mine this weekend if I possibly can. arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

5 22 81

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Deb Raji @rajiinio.bsky.social · 26d

More of this kind of reporting, please!

5 31 150

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Heidi Harley @heidiharley.bsky.social · Sep 3

Linguists! After what I hope was a restful summer, we’re starting the LSA Write Time Fridays again! Write in a zoom room with other linguists. Now featuring some Pacific-Time Friendly scheduling! I’m hosting this Friday at 1-3 ET, 10-12 PT. Hope to see you there! www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_... 🐦🐦

Write Time Friday with Heidi Harley, LSA President

About Write Time Friday This is a chance to log into a Zoom room, (optionally) set an explicit writing goal for the session, and then spend a focused two hours writing in the supportive virtual prese...

www.lsadc.org

1 7 21

Hadas Kotek 🦄 @hadaskotek.bsky.social · Sep 1

Crowdsourcing attempt: what’s the closest place to Boston/Cambridge to get a COVID shot? Best I can find is over 2 hours by train and I just don’t have that level of commitment in me

1 6

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Soren Spicknall @sorenspicknall.bsky.social · Sep 1

People are melting down at a Tribune article about CHSD 230 considering adding Arabic to its language learning electives. I wasted time in the comments, which I normally avoid doing since it's useless and awful, but it led to possibly the funniest thing anybody's ever said to me about France.

A screenshot of Facebook comments. The first, from somebody named Marcella, says "Wake up America! The encroachment is insidious and dangerous to our ideals and beliefs."

In reply, Soren says "That's why we turned French when they started offering French classes, right?"

Replying to Soren, somebody named Ken says "The French don't have a record of colonizing and conquering countries; and forcing their culture on the natives. Arabs do."

370 1K 5.2K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Matthew 🍔 @matthewburger.bsky.social · Aug 31

The fraction of people in Germany who were Jewish in 1933 (~0.75%) is lower than the fraction of people in the US today who are trans (~1%). Anyone willing to sacrifice trans people now, would have sacrificed Jews then.
Refs:
encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/a...

usafacts.org/articles/wha...

Germany: Jewish Population in 1933 | Holocaust Encyclopedia

Learn more about the Jewish population in Germany in 1933.

encyclopedia.ushmm.org

1 39 110

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · Aug 31

“In the late 1960s, Dr. Rossiter was working on her Ph.D. at Yale, when a comment from one of her male professors puzzled her. Who, she had asked, were the women in science? There were none, he said. Another professor mumbled something about Marie Curie being the exception.”🙃

Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · Aug 30

Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️

11 140 370

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · Aug 31

Academia still hates women. But we resist! Solidarity with all women in academia who face everyday sexism, erasure, harassment etc. and with all who were pushed out 💔❤️

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · Aug 31

Some of the brightest lights I’ve known have been forced to eat shit repeatedly in their careers. And they were the “lucky” ones—in that they were able to stay in the game. Many more just got completely pushed out and we never know about them except as faceless statistics.

1 13 100

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Hadas Kotek 🦄 @hadaskotek.bsky.social · Aug 31

My double decker weirdos 🦭🍞

A kitchen table and chair. There is a tabby gray cat loafing on the table and a solid gray cat loafing on the chair and looking at the camera

1 6 100

Hadas Kotek 🦄 @hadaskotek.bsky.social · Aug 31

My double decker weirdos 🦭🍞

1 6 100

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Theresa Cassiday (formerly CatenaCreations) @tlcowoooo.bsky.social · Aug 30

All those little voices add up to a ROAR!!!

2 2 19

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Catgirl Martlet 🐦🐈‍⬛🌊💙 @zenithmartlet.bsky.social · Aug 29

Hey Firefox users.

Screenshot from a Tumblr post by ralfmaximus: Mozilla, in its finite wisdom, embedded LLM bots into recent versions of Firefox for the vitally-important purpose of… naming tab groups. Now, some users are noticing CPU and power usage spikes caused by a background process called Inference.

Ugh. Reminder again for Firefox users to visit your about:config page, search for the browser.ml.chat.enabled key, and set that to false:

If yours says true then double-click it until it reads false.

Doing that turns off the AI chatbot features in Firefox, but also the stupid new LLM tab-naming feature that's rolling out

190 6.7K 12K

Reposted by Hadas Kotek 🦄

Ray Radlein @radlein.bsky.social · Aug 30

Goodness, if the President has a serious health problem I certainly hope he follows the expert medical advice of his Secretary of Health and Human Services

180 1.1K 6.9K