Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

𝔾𝕆ℝ𝔸ℕ @gorangligovic.bsky.social · 8h

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

ciarangallagher.bsky.social @ciarangallagher.bsky.social · 8h

I think this is particularly true of the “what if someone transitions in name only just for the woman’s heavy weight boxing final” which appeals a lot to lawyers brained elites and is easily dismissed with “why would anyone do that?” by normies.

12 89

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 7h

A study of nearly 300,000 people published today in the New England Journal of Medicine found “that last season’s 2024–2025 mRNA COVID vaccines reduced people’s risk of emergency department visits by 29 percent, their risk of hospitalizations by 39 percent and their risk of death by 64 percent.”

Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

www.scientificamerican.com

1 120 200

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

David Barnett @davidmbarnett.bsky.social · 16h

Weird how they put all their efforts into using technology to replace human creativity and art and then say creative arts degrees are useless.

12 170 700

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 6h

globalvoices.org/2025/10/07/m...

Madagascar’s Gen Z-led revolt against power outages and water supply cuts in urban areas

Madagascar has faced repeated social crises primarily due to frequent power and water cuts. These circumstances have been a source of frustration, sparking fresh protests in the country in September 2...

globalvoices.org

5 10

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

So Mayer @suchmayer.bsky.social · 15h

This is what is says on the tin, but also: paying artists, creatives, producers & crew fairly & on time would deflate the false profit margins of *every* creative industry. Paying workers fairly wd "kill" industry *as an endless profit machine*. Not defending AI, saying this problem is baked in.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

2 19 54

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 2d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

26 2.3K 6.9K

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 12d

Premium newsletter: Based on my estimates and analysis, OpenAI needs one trillion dollars in the next four years to build 17GW of data centers and other commitments, with at least $500 billion needed for company operations. There is not enough capital to do this.

www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetr...

OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years

Shortly before publishing this newsletter, I spoke with analyst Gil Luria, Managing Director and Analyst at D.A. Davidson, and asked him whether the capital was there to build the 17 Gigawatts of capa...

www.wheresyoured.at

58 310 1.3K

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 1d

To add to this one more point: #genAI will surely blur the accessibility to our cultural memories, as it actively manipulates the streams and sources of memories accessible. In a nutshell, #historiography will have to deal with lots of more plurals of everything.

bsky.app/profile/dbel...

Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · Jul 31

I just read a clearly AI-fueled or AI-written book in my academic niche, and while I stumble to finish it, I predict that future historiography will have literature categories and markers like *published post 2024* or *published ante 2024*. Our days will be seen as the barrier between these worlds.

1 6 23

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 1d

An enterprising journalist that could prove that his aides and advisors are showing Trump fake shit that led to him signing EOs and making policy decisions would be a huge deal. Maybe the biggest story in the history of the Presidency? Bigger than Nixon. Too bad the newspapers quit being newspapers

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

11 140 520

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 1d

"the human centipede of content" is a killer description.

Chibdm @chibdm.bsky.social · 2d

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

6 22

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Lydia Mulvey @lydiamulvey.bsky.social · 1d

if you think the Basic Income for Artists in Ireland being made permanent is a good thing, wait until you learn about the income tax breaks for artists earning up to €50k p/a 💃💫

2 10 58

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

130 5.2K 15K

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 1d

In this context the AI boosterism on PM yesterday was pretty gross. They only downside they highlighted was the energy cost - which, yes, is awful. But even if it ate a normal amount of power, the copyright infringement needs flagging. And the horrors (cf Zelda Williams' experience).

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 1d

I agree with every word Zelda Williams says. And this at the end from OpenAI makes me want to go full Ned Ludd. Creators can’t have a blanket opt-out on copyright infringement of their work and have to fill out a form appealing to OpenAI’s mercy every time? Fuck off into the sun

OpenAI told the Guardian that content owners can flag copyright infringement using a “copyright disputes form” but that individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said: “We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.”

8 32

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Craig 'VI' Slee: VALIS, right? @mrvi.cold-albion.net · 4d

So the thing we've been warning about re: Age Verification just happened, mere months after it started becoming a wider required. Imagine that!

Can't technofix your way out of a social values problem

The Verge @theverge.com · 5d

Discord customer service data breach leaks user info and scanned photo IDs

An “unauthorized party” may have accessed the names of users, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and more.

buff.ly

2 39 81

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 5d

Currently at:
— only buy tech too old to have AI built in
— painstakingly disable AI every time they add it to something that used to work perfectly well
— if it can't be switched off, abandon the platform or tool
— if there are no good alternatives, avoid the AI parts
— patiently wait for the crash

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5d

🫡

How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More - Consumer Reports

AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.

www.consumerreports.org

19 1.3K 2.9K

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 4d

and my friend Zukiswa Wannner, a brilliant novelist and activist

Rehab @hatoonrehab.bsky.social · 4d

The grand son of Nelson Mandela is among the hostages too!

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 5d

why isn't this making the headlines

www.bbc.com/news/article...

3 8

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 4d

The Green Party of England and Wales says it now has more members than the Lib Dems: 83,500 to 83,174 with "hundreds more joining daily".

Interestingly, both parties are growing while Reform and the Conservatives are shedding members.

27 130 490

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 5d

The mystery of medical diagnosis!

Anyone: Why are there suddenly so many AHDH diagnoses?
Dr. Jen: Same reason there are suddenly more stars after we built telescopes.

47 2.6K 8.1K

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 5d

@jasonmasters.bsky.social's work is amazing especially when he leans into the weird.

1 1

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

doctor eek [free link arc] (alt decorative gourd season) @absolutely-not.bsky.social · 6d

i looked at the methodology for this and it is
a. sex addiction counseling group in texas did a surveymonkey and extrapolated the results to the entire us population which is the sort of research design that earns you an ff on an intro methods class (the extra f is for extra effort), and
b. p-hacked

The Independent @the-independent.com · 6d

Nearly a third of Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

1 in 3 Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

www.independent.co.uk

130 2.5K 9.5K

Reposted by Lauren Beukes

Bill Wolkoff @billwearsties.bsky.social · 6d

As a writer, I strive to always relfect our world somehow, esp in fantasy and sci fi. In Kipo, I wrote about a fictional dystopian Los Angeles that LGBTQ+ kids are very much a part of, bc it reflects the real LA we based it on. LGBTQ+ kids exist. Trans kids exist. That shouldn't be controversial.

8 57 160

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 5d

They have stopped doing it. It's the worst

1 2

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 6d

Imagine I had a physical document / card! It would be so much easier. Digital ID is gonna be a disaster if this is any taster. Not to mention, requires internet and charged and working cell phone.

2 16

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · 6d

I am among many, many, many people with an ILR and a "lesser" passport (in my case, South African) who travel internationally. Yet airlines and embassies don't know how to handle this. Every single time.

2 2 17