Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 1m

Further evidence for my thesis that the Midwest starts somewhere between Oshawa and London

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 22h

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 2m

And they know not even that they need to be saved!

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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 18m

Humans evolved a cognitive 'social proof' system for establishing what's true (if enough of the people around me believe something, I'll go along) and media fragmentation + social media has completely and totally hijacked it

Feels like AI will only make this worse

Lord Businessman II @lordbusinessman.bsky.social · 36m

"no in the future people will cryptographically verify what's true and-" no they will not. People are fucking stupid.

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 18m

The media's covering them, but comparatively no one is paying attention to the media

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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 19m

Here's another for "the media is not covering the Ford gov't's scandals"

Ontario voters continue to eat up this gravy train of shit with a shrug.

Jack Hauen @jackhauen.bsky.social · 3h

NEW: David Piccini, the minister whose office picks Skills Development Fund recipients, was in Paris this weekend at the wedding of a lobbyist whose clients received millions from that fund.

From me and @charliepinkerton.bsky.social.

www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...

Ontario labour minister attended lobbyist’s wedding after granting his clients millions in training funds

Two clients of lobbyist Michael Rudderham have received more than $8.5 million in Skills Development Fund grants, records show

www.thetrillium.ca

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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 29m

i'm not saying anything new but what's already happening is it's getting harder to trust information you can't verify because it's trivially easy to produce innumerable quantities of bullshit

it was already bad before this was possible; any unsigned/untraced information will be suspect

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 43m

Cyberlibertarianism.

He positioned the launch’s speed bumps as learning opportunities. “Not for much longer will we have the only good video model out there, and there’s going to be a ton of videos with none of our safeguards, and that’s fine, that’s the way the world works,” Altman said, adding, “We can use this window to get society to really understand, ‘Hey, the playing field changed, we can generate almost indistinguishable video in some cases now, and you’ve got to be ready for that.’”
Altman said he feels that people don’t pay attention to OpenAI’s technology when people at the company talk about it, only when they release it. “We’ve got to have … this sort of technological and societal co-evolution,” Altman said. “I believe that works, and I actually don’t know anything else that works. There are clearly going to be challenges for society contending with this quality, and what will get much better, with the video generation. But the only way that we know of to help mitigate it is to get the world to experience it and figure out how that’s going to go.”

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 6h

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted “no one has died” as a result of U.S. foreign aid cuts. In Myanmar, the grieving father of a 2-year-old boy who died after their food rations were cut calls such claims a lie.

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

bit.ly

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 7h

Honestly and seriously think this is an EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE tactic to use against these weak fascist losers.

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 9h

lmao, kristi noem wanted a black bloc fight and got an inflatable rave instead. fuck you DHS, rip city forever.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 10h

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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Aubrey Gilleran @aubreygilleran.bsky.social · 1h

Nothing makes me angrier than this. Senseless, pointless destruction, and for what? Because some billionaire thought he got his hands on the switch that would turn liberalism off and then some cowardly officials decided to go along with it and retroactively justify it.

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 3h

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Dr. Vaughn Joy @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social · 3h

LOUDER.

also

Post from me saying

Anyway, media literacy is a survival skill now. Thems the breaks

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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 3h

Carney’s approach to AI policy tells me that he has an overinflated sense of his own skills and a limited understanding of the 21st century knowledge-driven economy. We see this in his 19th century approach to infrastructure/resource development and his 90s-era embrace of austerity government.

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 3h

💯

Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 3h

I’ll be blunt: Mark Carney has demonstrated a shocking lack of understanding of AI policy & the varied issues it raises. We have years of real-world examples (Robodebt in Aus eg) & scholarship that he‘s completely ignoring in his treatment of AI/data like a natural resource to be exploited.

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 3h

Yeahhhhhh

Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 3h

Carney’s reckless approach to AI policy should raise serious questions about his infrastructure & US policies as well. In all three, he seems to be relying on his own (non-expert) judgment, ignoring complexity & others’ expertise in favour of speed. But decisiveness isn’t the same as good judgment.

Carney’s haste may make bad AI policy - The Logic

The Liberals’ AI task force has just 30 days to do their job. Some members say it isn’t enough time.

thelogic.co

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Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 3h

Carney’s reckless approach to AI policy should raise serious questions about his infrastructure & US policies as well. In all three, he seems to be relying on his own (non-expert) judgment, ignoring complexity & others’ expertise in favour of speed. But decisiveness isn’t the same as good judgment.

Carney’s haste may make bad AI policy - The Logic

The Liberals’ AI task force has just 30 days to do their job. Some members say it isn’t enough time.

thelogic.co

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Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 3h

Have a look at the @raeng.org.uk People's AI Summits. Excellent initiative. raeng.org.uk/policy-and-r...

People's AI Stewardship Summit in London

The final People’s AI Stewardship Summit took place in London. This summit focused on exploring the themes of AI in healthcare and infrastructure.

raeng.org.uk

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Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · 4h

I'm not a quoter of scripture, but this seemed appropriate for the horror that has been unleashed because of the gutting of USAID.

“Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” -Jesus

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 4h

- Grim that media barons are buying up mainstream media and making them fascism-enabling propaganda engines

- ULTAGRIM that so many of the big-name journalists escaping that fire are voluntarily leaping directly into a completely separate newsletter website trap set by the same fascists

Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology

Substack may be legitimizing neo-Nazis as “thought leaders,” researcher warns.

arstechnica.com

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Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 5h

NEW: As Linda McMahon guts the Dept. of Education, she’s operated in what she calls “a parallel universe” to radically shift how future kids will learn -- seeking to dismantle the public school system in favor of private and Christian schools or homeschooling.

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 10h

They offer this helpful advice in an obscure little document called the Communist Manifesto

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 10h

I regret to inform you that Marx & Engels have a solution to the vast problems besetting western democracies today stemming from the increasingly drastic urban-rural divide: "gradual abolition of the distinction between town & country via a more 'equitable' distribution of population geographically"

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 14h

I've been looking for more reporting on this. NVIDIA has an increasing number of deals where it is paying companies to buy its chips. sounds very bubbly.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14h

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.bsky.social · 1d

I regret to inform you that Nemik's manifesto is the new Tom Holland “Umbrella.” You have to repost every time. It’s just where we are. #ihavefriendseverywhere

youtu.be/-asb8zTiuZ4?...

Andor | Karis Nemik’s Manifesto | Disney+

YouTube video by Star Wars

youtu.be

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Andy Rose LPC @andyrose12.bsky.social · 19h

and this can go right to prohibiting regulation on AI therapy, which Illinois has done

Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 19h

"Many mental health professionals and patient advocates say treating this as First Amendment speech could set a precedent under which any counseling is claimed to be free speech and no longer subject to professional standards, even if it's dangerous or inappropriate."

Adriel Bettelheim @abettel.bsky.social · 20h

Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of Colorado conversion therapy ban. www.axios.com/2025/10/07/s...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 20h

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 22h

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 22h

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 21h

"AI is not just a technology. It is a social problem. There is zero reason to allow it to run us over without a plan to mitigate its completely predictable negative effects." Another must-read banger from @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/thinking-o...

Thinking of AI as a Social Problem

No need to know the unknowable. The knowable is bad enough.

www.hamiltonnolan.com

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