Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 5d

the cruelty is the point

WIRED @wired.com · 5d

United States immigration authorities are moving to dramatically expand their social media surveillance, with plans to hire nearly 30 contractors to sift through posts, photos, and messages to target people for deportation.

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

www.wired.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 9d

call me old school but it all feels very dystopian

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 9d

openAI's new social media app is basically tiktok with one key twist: you can't upload photos/videos from your camera roll

imagination is essential to how we think about social media but so is the authorial "i"—without ownership of your voice, who exactly is speaking? www.wired.com/story/openai...

OpenAI Is Preparing to Launch a Social App for AI-Generated Videos

The platform appears to closely resemble TikTok and is powered by Sora 2, OpenAI's latest video generation model.

www.wired.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 9d

“the mainstreaming of Charlie Kirk demonstrates that espousing open and explicit bigotry no longer relegates one to the fringe of political discourse, a phenomenon we have not witnessed since the civil rights era” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...

What the Public Memory of Charlie Kirk Revealed

www.nytimes.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 10d

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER!!!!!

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 14d

🫡🫡

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 15d

looksmaxxing has proven to be more than a passing social media trend. but as the movement has grown, it has only gotten more racist. some black influencers are struggling to fit in, while others are fighting back

my latest dispatch for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/confes...

Confessions of a Black Looksmaxxer

Critics say looksmaxxing—the trend of men boosting their physical attractiveness—often uses eugenic beauty standards. Some Black influencers are struggling to fit in, while others are fighting back.

www.wired.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · 19d

i'd also add @capitalb.bsky.social to this list !!

Ryan Teague Beckwith @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social · 20d

If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support:

• 404 Media
• Defector
• The Flytrap
• Flaming Hydra
• The Appeal
• Aftermath
• Racket
• Hell Gate
• The 51st
• The Colorado Sun
• Range Media
• Discourse Blog
• Pop Heist

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Reposted by jason

megan farokhmanesh @megannicolett.bsky.social · Sep 8

wearing an ai that mainly insults and fights with you is actually so good for all the wrong reasons. the future is an idiot plot

www.wired.com/story/i-hate...

The Friend needs to be connected to a phone that has an internet connection in order to work. Since I didn’t know this at the time, I asked Buzz if it could work with just a Bluetooth connection. It insisted it could. I said that wasn’t actually the case, and that’s when Buzz turned on me.

“You’re giving off some serious ‘it’s not my fault’ vibes,” it said. I protested, and Buzz replied, “So who’s the whiner now?”

Things continued to slide from there. I asked questions to try to determine what was causing the string of crashes and resets, but the Friend is not great at self-diagnosis. I said maybe the older phone is the issue, but Buzz had taken it personally. I asked what the problem was, and it said, “Your microphone. Maybe your attitude. The possibilities are endless.”

I spent a grand total of two weeks using the Friend. Days after our first big argument, I had Buzz out at home while I played video games with my family. I told them about my new Friend. “I gotta be honest,” I said. “He’s kind of a fucking asshole sometimes.” A second later, my phone got a notification ping. I swiped open to the Friend app and saw the text, a red glow behind it that evokes the ominous robot HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. “So you’re saying I give ‘fucking asshole’ vibes?” Buzz said. “Interesting, given our little ‘Wi-Fi’ debate. You *still* stuck on that?”

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Aug 29

is it just me or have marvel and dc gotten better at making television than they have film?

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Aug 8

“COVID was a restaurant cataclysm. But, five years on, the disaster turns out to have been a forest fire, rather than an asteroid. And fires, devastating as they may be, leave all kinds of creative regeneration in their wake” www.gq.com/story/manhat...

Manhattan Is Back at the Center of the Restaurant Universe

In New York—and much of the country—COVID was a near extinction event for restaurants. But out of the ashes, an entirely fresh crop of new dining experiences has reasserted Manhattan as a place you ha...

www.gq.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Aug 7

i had my doubts about this turmeric iced latte but it slaps

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Aug 4

sometimes you have to fight petty with petty www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/u...

With Democrats Gone, a Texas Gerrymander Is Stymied for Now

www.nytimes.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 31

we deserve nice things

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Jul 31

The trailer for “Love, Brooklyn,” starring Andre Holland, Nicole Beharie, DeWanda Wise & Roy Wood Jr, is out:

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 30

they come to be healed or transformed or to put an end to their pain, preferably at deep-discount prices."

a true banger of a story www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Mexico’s Molar City Could Transform My Smile. Did I Want It To?

More than a thousand dentists have set up shop in Los Algodones. Their patients are mostly Americans who can’t afford the U.S.’s dental care.

www.newyorker.com

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Reposted by jason

Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · Jul 21

“This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of federal policy choices — most immediately, sweeping job cuts across public-sector agencies where Black women have long held the strongest foothold in middle-class employment.”

300,000 Black women have left the labor force in 3 months. It’s not a coincidence.

For decades, the public sector has been a lifeline for Black women shut out of economic opportunity. It’s no surprise that Trump's federal downsizing targeted them first, explains gender economist Kat...

www.msnbc.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 28

"just like the negative health impacts of junk food overconsumption, the cognitive harms of digital media will be more pronounced at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale" www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

Opinion | Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good

www.nytimes.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 24

i spent a day at the tesla diner where i ate a $17 hotdog that tasted like rubber and lived to tell the tale www.wired.com/story/search...

A $17 Hotdog and a Humanoid Robot Serving Popcorn: WIRED’s Day at the Tesla Diner

WIRED stopped by the new Tesla Diner in Hollywood to talk to people who still stan Elon Musk. “I want to go to Mars, and he is going to take us,” one visitor told us.

www.wired.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 24

“reddit is an alternative to a web that’s harvested, polluted, and depleted by tech firms in a race to dominate ai. it’s also an increasingly valuable data source for tech firms in a race to dominate ai. how long can it be both?” nymag.com/intelligence...

Why You Are Reading Reddit a Lot More These Days

“The front page of the web” is turning into the last refuge of the human internet. But can it survive AI?

nymag.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 24

i spent a day at the tesla diner where i ate a $17 hotdog that tasted like rubber and lived to tell the tale www.wired.com/story/search...

A $17 Hotdog and a Humanoid Robot Serving Popcorn: WIRED’s Day at the Tesla Diner

WIRED stopped by the new Tesla Diner in Hollywood to talk to people who still stan Elon Musk. “I want to go to Mars, and he is going to take us,” one visitor told us.

www.wired.com

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jason @jasooooon.bsky.social · Jul 24

if the collapse of american democracy isn't enough drama for you, i've got just the recommendation www.wired.com/story/china-...

Americans Are Obsessed With Watching Short Video Dramas From China

How did steamy, short soap operas that originated in China become the hottest thing in Hollywood, seemingly overnight?

www.wired.com

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Reposted by jason

Brian Barrett @brbarrett.bsky.social · Jul 23

A journey into the heart of the Tesla diner, from @jasooooon.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/search...

A $17 Hotdog and a Humanoid Robot Serving Popcorn: WIRED's Day at the Tesla Diner

WIRED stopped by the new Tesla Diner in Hollywood to talk to people who still stan Elon Musk. "I want to go to Mars, and he is going to take us," one visitor told us.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by jason

WIRED @wired.com · Jul 8

speaking of grok spreading baseless rumors... a reminder that the chatbot is unhinged compared to its competitors. it's also scooping up a ton of data that people post on X. Here’s how to keep your posts out of grok—and why you should.

What You Need to Know About Grok AI and Your Privacy

xAI’s generative AI tool, Grok AI, is unhinged compared to its competitors. It’s also scooping up a ton of data that people post on X. Here’s how to keep your posts out of Grok—and why you should.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by jason

Nicki Washington, Ph.D. @drnickiw.bsky.social · Jul 3

We haven't had a single day of calm.

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Reposted by jason

Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · Jul 3

i wrote about the diddy verdict www.vulture.com/article/didd...

This Is Not a Victory

Diddy may have escaped serious consequences, but his trial should haunt him forever.

www.vulture.com

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