Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dan McCrum

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2d

Libraries worldwide have been impacted by Trump's tariffs. Books that are on loan from US libraries to international libraries are getting tariffed on their way back in, getting books from international libraries has turned into an expensive nightmare, etc:

www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 2d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Steven Seggie @stevenhseggie.bsky.social · 2d

An interesting article on world records in sport

bbc.com/future/artic...

Why world records seem to be getting harder to beat – according to maths

New world records in some sports are remarkably elusive, yet in others they seem to fall regularly. There is a good mathematical reason why.

bbc.com

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Five Minute Macro @fiveminutemacro.bsky.social · 5d

"a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is"

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Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 2d

A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou

(uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??)

🧵

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 2d

Help FT Weekend crown the best business lunch restaurant in London - @harrietfl.ft.com is calling for your nominations and votes www.ft.com/content/00f3...

Help FT Weekend crown the best business lunch restaurant in London

Nominations are now open for our inaugural Business Lunch Awards in partnership with OpenTable

www.ft.com

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John Thornhill @johnthornhill.bsky.social · 2d

"America has become one big bet on AI," writes Ruchir Sharma.

Better not go wrong....

on.ft.com/3KUg7z8

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 5d

This is by some distance the best thing I've seen about the effects, good and bad, of using AI in a large and complex organisation

Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 5d

Why I don't believe in "small giants": mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...

Team dynamics after AI

Small giants and real giants

mechanicalsurvival.com

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 5d

This is by some distance the best thing I've seen about the effects, good and bad, of using AI in a large and complex organisation

Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 5d

Why I don't believe in "small giants": mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...

Team dynamics after AI

Small giants and real giants

mechanicalsurvival.com

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 5d

What do they think this is, an App store?

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 5d

From @theathleticfc.bsky.social: FIFA will charge both sellers and buyers a 15% fee on its official 2026 World Cup ticket resale platform, which launched on Thursday and almost immediately had some tickets listed for tens of thousands of dollars.

World Cup ticket resale madness begins as FIFA takes two 15% fees on each sale

FIFA looks set to profit heavily from the World Cup resale ticket market

nyti.ms

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 5d

"Physics doesn’t offer bulk discounts."

John Thornhill @johnthornhill.bsky.social · 5d

Terrific piece on @alphaville.ft.com by Sinead O'Sullivan:

"Winners emerge from redundancy, not efficiency."

on.ft.com/4gTUz1M

In space, nobody can hear you budget

SpaceX and Blue Origin are no more efficient at building spacecraft than NASA. But that’s not the point of them

on.ft.com

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Robert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 5d

Is the collapse of First Brands Group an “Enron moment” for the private credit market?

I thought it was worth speaking to an expert to get an answer.

So I rang Jim Chanos. The legendary short seller had some sharp words about the “magical machine” fuelling Wall Street’s debt boom on.ft.com/4nvwlx3

Short seller Jim Chanos predicts more First Brands fiascos in private credit

[FREE TO READ] Investor famed for spotting Enron fraud sounds alarm on Wall Street’s booming debt machine

on.ft.com

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 5d

youtu.be/vOXOWAhFz0A

‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

YouTube video by MSNBC

youtu.be

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 5d

Dear Lord, it’s actually worse than the extract @stephenkb.bsky.social shared. Quite a lot worse.

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 6d

no excuse for being this bad

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · Aug 1

In March of 1945, the US Army issued this "fact sheet" to guide conversations with soldiers on the topic of fascism, paying particular attention to the ongoing threat that domestic fascist movements posed to the US. Their analysis of what a homegrown US fascism would look like is interesting.

CRESTRICTED]
ORIENTATION
FACT SHEET
64
WAR DEPARTMENT-WASHINGTON 25, D. C. • 24 March 1945 FASCISM!
Note For This Week's Discussion:
Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze; nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it. Points to stress are: (1) Fascism is more apt to come to power at a time of economic crisis;
(2) fascism inevitably leads to war; (3) it can come to any country; (4) we can best combat it by making our democracy work.

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · Aug 1

The second fascistic tactic to look out for is anyone who tries to amp up nationalistic animosities toward other nations or peoples, framing attempts to foster international cooperation as forms of weakness. The idea that all humans share the earth as equals is anathema to fascists.

2. Fascism cannot tolerate such religious and ethical concepts as the "brotherhood of man." Fascists deny the tradi fothin fational coy peration. mess
race." The brotherhood of man implies that all people-regardless of color, race, creed, or nationality
—have rights. International cooperation, as expressed in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, runs counter to the fascist program of war and world domination.
In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people

in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations. Right now our native fascists are spreading anti-British, anti-Soviet, anti-French, and anti-United Nations prop-aganda. They know that allied unity now foretells the certain defeat of fascism abroad. They know that post-war allied unity means world peace and security.
They realize that fascism cannot thrive or grow under these conditions.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 5d

The natural weathering of ALL THE ROCKS in the world removes almost 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year. Enhanced rock weathering is an attempt to use a minuscule fraction of ALL THE ROCKS to remove many times more CO₂.

How spreading rocks on fields could combat climate change

‘Enhanced rock weathering’ is a simple, but also hard to measure, way of capturing carbon

www.ft.com

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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 5d

The AI capex endgame is approaching - the always excellent @ianrharnett.bsky.social here on the AI bubble and how it is likely to burst. This chart from @raydouglas.bsky.social in the column underlines the risks www.ft.com/content/c7b9...

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Fred Studemann @frederick65.ft.com · 6d

From terrorism to Tennyson - and the journey of a lone wolf across Europe and more …. a broad inspiring range of subjects on the shortlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford Prize. Our FT report (with links on to our reviews)

on.ft.com/4o0J8HV

Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 shortlist — from terrorism to Tennyson

[FREE TO READ] Judges celebrate the breadth of a list characterised by ‘candour and courage’

on.ft.com

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Troy Teslike @troyteslike.bsky.social · 6d

Actual numbers are in: Tesla delivered 497,099 cars in Q3. My estimate was 3.2% too low, while the analyst consensus missed by 10.9%.

My Estimate: 481,000
My Error (units): -16,099
My Error (%): -3.2%

Analyst Consensus: 443,079
Consensus Error (units): -54,020
Consensus Error (%): -10.9%

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 6d

Armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down their doors overnight, pulling men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked, residents and witnesses said. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the 5-story building, and US citizens were among those detained

Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 6d

Chicago:

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 6d

"I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m, like, a professional comedian; I speak truth to power. Unless, of course, that ‘power’ is gonna murder me for speaking ‘truth,’ obviously."

Why I Have Chosen to Perform in the Mordor Comedy Festival

“A comedy festival in the capital of Saudi Arabia has become a cultural flash point as major comedians face criticism for accepting seemingly lucra...

buff.ly

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 6d

What DHS pulled in Chicago on Tuesday is wildly unconstitutional. They smashed down almost every door in the building, dragged entire families into the street, and detained people for hours ("Kavanaugh stops").

Ms. Fisher was held for five hours and another senior citizen was held for three hours.

Rodrick Johnson, 67, is one of many residents who were detained by federal agents during the South Shore raid. A U.S. citizen, he said agents broke through his door and dragged him out in zip ties.

Johnson said he was left tied up outside the building for nearly three hours before agents finally let him go.

“I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up,” Jones said. “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 6d

I get philosophical about hedge fund careers, and suggest that sometimes the office politics might be simpler than it looks.

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