Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 4h

Hey, Chicagoland friends, Mary @marykothman.bsky.social has a string quartet that is playing a concert in Chicago on 10/21. It's part of the Ear Taxi Accent concert series. Featuring music of Price, Caroline Shaw, Augusta Read Thomas, and Elizabeth Start. www.eartaxifestival.com/full-schedul...

Rising — EAR TAXI FESTIVAL

The members of Rising are realizing a dream of performing in an all-female quartet and presenting a sampling of wide-ranging styles of music by women, from the complex harmonies mixed with music deriv...

www.eartaxifestival.com

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 2d

TNC with “was silence not an option?” To be used whenever someone goes off the rails

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 2d

I went to a music accreditation conference where AI was both a keynote topic and the subject of multiple presentations. There was also a copyright presentation. Yet the two topics never overlapped or interacted with each other

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, New College is incredibly inefficient but it also dropped 60(!) spots on the US News & World Report rankings. Not easy!
Everytime Chris Rufo is introduced as an impt voice in higher ed, remember that the one time he had a hand in running an institution has been a disaster.
Competence matters.

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 7d

You'll be shocked to learn New College of Florida is on the brink of implosion just a couple of years after DeSantis engineered an extreme right-wing takeover

Fun fact: NCF's new overlords spend $134K per student (!!...the average at other FL publics is $10K) www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida

Student outcomes and rankings are slipping at the liberal arts college while spending is up. Critics believe the college is at risk of implosion, and some are calling for privatization.

www.insidehighered.com

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 6d

Wait. AI musicologists?!?

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 6d

NPR especially has a real problem with historical context in general, and arts and culture especially. I'm thinking of theirthat story about how DAWs were killing the key change, when a look at stats proved it false. But a look at Black pop music would have shown even more

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Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 6d

The conversation between Klein and Coates showed me that a lot of people who screech about “infighting” on the left aren’t aware of the fact that marginalized people have been forced to learn how to regulate their emotions during conflict, and so, are better able to hear what’s actually being said.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10d

At this point, any Democrat who votes to keep this government open without extracting very serious concessions — RFK’s resignation, ICE rollback, Epstein Files release, etc — will absolutely face a primary challenger who will set fundraising records.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10d

Republicans run the White House, Congress and Supreme Court on the principle that the only role Dems can play is bailing the GOP out from facing the consequences of their own actions.

They expect Dems to clean up after them and save them from voters’ blame, and sadly some Dems want to do just that.

Ian Bassin @ianbassin.bsky.social · 10d

Actual White House quote: “go fuck yourself.”

Its not being some pearl clutching prude to ask whether this is really how most Americans want their kids to see the seat of our government behave. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

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Decoding Fox News @decodingfoxnews.bsky.social · 11d

Greg Gutfeld screamed at his co-host @jessicatarlov.bsky.social that it would take her two months to find examples of right wing domestic terrorism. I've included several examples - the Evergreen High School shooting happened the same day as the murder of Charlie Kirk.

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 14d

You want my money to produce fair and accurate reporting, but this is the misleading garbage you put out? Let me help you.

The Science on Tylenol and autism is very clear, in that there is no causal link between use of acetaminophen and autism

Reposted by Keith Kothman

Z. Mann Zilla, Semi-Pro Goofball @pandangit.com · 16d

It's all fun and games until a cop handles a Tylenol gelcap with no gloves and within seconds their socks are bothering them.

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Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 17d

Only 1 person in the whole study went from identifying as trans to not identifying as trans. The 1/5 number came from youth going between the binary and non-binary spectrum.

This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.

The Economist @economist.com · 18d

A recent study found that children who transitioned young retained stable gender identities over time. But the fact that nearly a fifth of those in the group did not ought to give advocates of irreversible medical interventions pause

How stable are the gender identities of younger children?

A study finds that one in five who switch gender change their mind

econ.st

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Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 18d

imo a fair conclusion to draw about dem leadership's obstinance in the face of revolt from their voters is that they'd rather win an intra-party fight with their left wing & their own voters than maximize potential electoral gains in the midterms

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 18d

As usual with this issue, Harris is calling for a compromise that already exists. Every sporting body has standards for how long athletes must be on hormones before they can compete as women.

The problem isn’t that we’re ignoring ‘reasonable concerns,’ the problem is that republicans are lying.

I agree with the concerns expressed by
parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports,, Harris writes. "With goodwill and common sense, I believe we can come up with ways to do this, without vilifying and demonizing children."

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 19d

It’s Faculty Committee Meeting Day to all who celebrate! We will pretend that the world is not on fire all around us

Reposted by Keith Kothman

Dee Phunk @deephunk.bsky.social · 20d

I want everyone to take a step back for a second, remember why she was fired from New York and juxtapose this w/ all the high profile media folks that have recently lost *their* jobs. *Some* people are allowed to fail upwards. It's mesmerizing.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 20d

think if you're broadly a centrist and were suuuuuper concerned about attacks on free speech from the left and so you decided to give the right a hearing then you need to realise you were taken for QUITE the ride (and don't really have anyone to blame but yourself)

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Asher Hellbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 22d

If you don't know enough about these people to know that they use "empath" as an insult, than you fundamentally should not be talking to them. Someone literally should take your microphone away before you hurt yourself and others

Buttadeus @thewanderingjew.bsky.social · 22d

And when he gets to the Shapiro chat, there's something in how much obvious contempt Ben Shapiro has for Klein, which he enthusiastically slurps up.

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 22d

looks at the news...hits play!!!

Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 22d

Seems to be happening on he west side of the state as well. Totally stuffed up

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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.bsky.social · 23d

"Bill Kristol is more expansive and full-throated in his defense of transgender rights than most elected Democratic officials" is another sentence.

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 23d

"Bill Kristol quotes George Washington's condemnation of 18th century antisemitism to defend transgender people from scapegoating following the assassination of Charlie Kirk" is an actual sentence

Jews were then a tiny percentage of the population of the United States–something like 2,500 souls out of almost 4 million. But Washington wanted to emphasize that the members of this small and previously persecuted minority were entitled, here in the United States, to the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as everyone else.

Two hundred and thirty five years later, there is in this nation a minority group whose rights are under severe attack: transgender individuals. We have a presidential administration which seeks to curtail those individuals’ rights. We have a powerful political movement that wishes to make them afraid.

This is wrong. It’s also un-American. Other Americans don’t have to understand or sympathize with transgender individuals. But we ought to defend their basic human rights. We ought to do so out of a simple sense of justice. But we also ought to do so out of a sense of pride that our nation exemplifies an “enlarged and liberal policy” for mankind, and that here “there shall be none to make him afraid.”

One could call that American greatness.

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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 24d

Something people aren't talking about enough is how often Charlie Kirk invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before Congress about the domestic terrorists he provided buses to get to Washington on January 6, 2021.

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 24d

idk if you've seen this south korean editorial that ran a few days ago. google translate version scorched my eyebrows www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion...

Maga is fundamentally a populist white racism.
The slogan "Make America Great Again" is more accurately described as "Make White
America Greater." The fact that the tariff policy insisted on a 50% tariff only on steel and aluminum stems from the concentration of these groups in the Rust Belt.

The massive crackdown on illegal immigrants at the Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions joint venture plant in Georgia must be understood in this context. The scenes of our workers being chained and escorted away were reminiscent of the dragging of African slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
Department of Homeland Security boasted of
"the largest single-site raid in history," and Immigration and Customs Enforcement even brazenly released footage of the raid, which was highly violating human rights, as if to boast of their "achievement."

Far-right whites may have secretly rejoiced.
Even politicians like the Georgia governor and local lawmakers, who had been active in attracting factories, have shifted their stance and sympathized with their grievances. This is likely because it's difficult to ignore the anti-immigrant sentiment of native Americans. Like the McCarthyism that swept through American society in the 1950s, irrational madness dominates American society. The recent visa issue, which could have been resolved diplomatically with advance notice from an ally, is difficult to explain beyond political maneuvering. The fact that they mobilized helicopters and armored vehicles for show, as if they had been caught, is difficult to explain.

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 24d

Hopefully you also did not have to explain groyper to them

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Keith Kothman @keithkothman.bsky.social · 25d

That’s more than my political hot takes

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