Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Paula Read

Rob Milton @therobmilton.com · 1d

- put down the damn AI.

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 15h

Found the Venn diagram overlap for me and highland cattle: disco naps.

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 19h

Highland cattle are famous for their ability to "disco nap". Normally these brief, efficient sleeps will last between three and twenty minutes, deploying a variety of objects as pillows, including moorland boulders, cars or any particularly large dog or sheep who happens to be nearby.

A highland cow having a little nap on a boulder on Dartmoor (ok, it was actually scratching its head)

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 16h

There's an old German joke about a driver who hears a report of a wrong-way driver on the freeway.
"One wrong-way driver? I'm on the freeway right now and EVERYONE is driving the wrong way."

And of course there's a German word for wrong-way driver: "Geisterfahrer" - "ghost driver"

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 1d

Probably a natural aversion to the combo of ‘dick’ and ‘knot’ in the same word

Reposted by Paula Read

Gibby @thegibbon.bsky.social · 2d

The stuff in the Baltic isn't really getting the traction over here it might. We're currently doing seabed surveys off Gdansk in Poland but have lost well over a week now to GPS jamming and spoofing originating in Kaliningrad making the vessel's systems show it as being off Sweden.

Jonathan Rosenthal @journalistjon.bsky.social · 2d

Russia's grey-zone conflict against the West is escalating at sea as well as in the air, as evident in drone incursions in Denmark and a the boarding of Boracay by France
This week in @economist.com we look at the threat posed by Russia's shadow fleet, and NATO efforts to counter it. A short 🧵 1/3

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

The lack of preparation for this real, concrete world that requires IRL thinking is genuinely dire.

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

The reddit rabbit hole. www.reddit.com/r/chicago/co...

From the chicago community on Reddit: Inside the real estate fight that led up to controversial South Shore fed raid

Explore this post and more from the chicago community

www.reddit.com

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

*emerges from scary reddit rabbit hole*
Yeah, it looks ... odd

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

So the building owners potentially had a deal with ICE to clear the place of residents?

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Reposted by Paula Read

Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 2d

Riyadh Comedy Festival: “This whitewashing comes amid significant increase in repression, including a crackdown on free speech, which many of these comedians defend but people in Saudi Arabia are completely denied," says @hrw.org

www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses

The Saudi government is using the Riyadh Comedy Festival 2025 from September 26 to October 9 to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.

www.hrw.org

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

🙏

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

You are definitely not the only one. I saw the trailer and was like, ruh-roh. But it's always easier for us white folk to turn our attention outwards rather than inwards when it comes to racism. Actually, it's sort of our whole thing.

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Jezebels, race kink and Cardi B: in One Battle After Another, Black women are still stereotypes

With its hyper-sexualised Black female revolutionary and fetishised depiction of interracial relationships, Paul Thomas Anderson’s much-lauded latest raises questions about how white male directors de...

www.theguardian.com

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 2d

I mean we know who is just waiting in the wings. 🖊️

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Reposted by Paula Read

Derek Hennen, Ph.D. @derekhennen.bsky.social · 3d

I started a list for scientists and others interested in leaf litter fauna, please share and let me know if you want to be added! Do you love a good hand lens, soil sieves, and Berlese funnels? Perhaps this is the place for you.

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 3d

This guy.

a black and white drawing of a stick figure riding a rocket with the words `` the point '' below it .

Alt: a black and white drawing of a stick figure riding a rocket with the words `` the point '' below it .

media.tenor.com

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 3d

I mean it's been like that for a long time, at least here in international land. It's mostly long-form ads.

a group of scooby doo characters are gathered around a car

Alt: The Scooby Doo gang search on the ground in vain

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Paula Read

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 3d

This complete shambles is a useful reminder of why companies who say "Don't worry about the carbon, we're planting trees for that" should be treated with scepticism.

BrewDog sells Lost Forest after series of tree-planting controversies

Brewdog has announced it has sold its “Lost Forest” after 250,000 of the trees it planted on the Scottish estate died ...

www.forestryjournal.co.uk

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Reposted by Paula Read

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 3d

This whole thread 🔥

now how do I get my dad to stop talking to "Claude" because most of his Beatnik discussion buddies are dead and Claude always agrees with him

Frames @oxinabox.bsky.social · 4d

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious"

I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge.

We know exactly how LLMs work.

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 3d

🦉❤️

Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 3d

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

Reposted by Paula Read

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 3d

Iceland is becoming no-ice land.

How Icelanders are grieving the loss of 'dead' and melting glaciers

Iceland’s glaciers are disappearing. For locals, it’s a profoundly sad loss.

www.thejournal.ie

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Reposted by Paula Read

Imani Gandy Corn 🎃 @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 5d

I think what’s most frustrating right now for Black and Indigneous people is waiting for the bulk of white folks to catch up.

At some point the “this isn’t who we are” and “I didn’t have this on my bingo card” has to end and y’all will catch up, right? RIGHT?

WE NEED YOU TO CATCH UP.

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Reposted by Paula Read

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 6d

Why are medieval maps so full of All The Things? There's hardly space to swing a dead eel in there!

In my monthly post on historical maps for paying subscribers, I take a look at that question, and talk about changing ideas of maps' purposes. With fun footnotes!
www.patreon.com/posts/shooti...

Shooting Blanks: Horror Vacui and Pre-Modern Maps | Surprised Eel Maps

www.patreon.com

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Paula Read @paularead.bsky.social · 6d

My friend @jawaharas.bsky.social has new stories out, two inspirational tales of two ordinary young men who did extraordinary things. These are the stories of Aitzaz Hasan Bangash and Karim-ul-Haque. On Kissa: A Story Podcast.. ❤️

open.spotify.com/episode/72JZ...

Extradordinarily Ordinary Heroes

open.spotify.com

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Reposted by Paula Read

Anjali Enjeti @anjalienjeti.bsky.social · 7d

Badass.

“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression…Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”

Jane Fonda relaunches free speech group started by her father during the McCarthy era

In wake of the Trump administration’s censorship threats, the actor re-established the Committee for the First Amendment with A-list support

www.theguardian.com

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