Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 3h

Musk FRS.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

1 3 20

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

56 1.7K 3.6K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 1d

As an aside, "Excellence" must be the single-most overused, empty, boilerplate word used in academic bureaucracy and it's typically a stand-in for "We don't know what we want so you should do everything".

Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 1d

Admin email from university: "Share your ideas: Help shape operational excellence at U of I"

Soliciting ideas for how to improve operational processes.

Except...

The form doesn't work—the form created by the Operational Excellence team.

Yeah.

6 11 55

Romain Tartese @romiche29.bsky.social · 5h

Wow, 3 men 🙄

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5h

Nobel prize in chemistry awarded to scientists for work on porous materials

Trio honoured for developing revolutionary materials for applications ranging from gas storage to drug delivery The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who created revolutionary porous materials that can harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and remove toxins from water. Susumu Kitagawa, of Kyoto University, Richard Robson, of the University of Melbourne, and Omar Yaghi, of the University of California, Berkeley, shared the 11m Swedish kronor (about £871,400) prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Romain Tartese @romiche29.bsky.social · 5h

Can't wait for it to pop! 🍾

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Possibility of ‘sharp market correction has increased’, says Bank’s financial policy committee

www.theguardian.com

1

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry @weareagc.bsky.social · 10h

New paper alert!

Oliveira et al. just published in AGC:

"A petrological, geochemical, and geochronological study of Ramlat Fasad 532: An Omani addition to the Antarctic `YAMM' lunar meteorite group"

Here you can read the full free article: doi.org/10.33063/agc...

4 3

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

62 2.7K 7.4K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

MarcA Millet @marcamillet.bsky.social · 1d

New @weareagc.bsky.social publication!

This time, Oliveira et al. present a study of a new lunar meteorite and investigate its parentage and transit to Earth.

More here: doi.org/10.33063/agc...

A petrological, geochemical, and geochronological study of Ramlat Fasad 532: An Omani addition to the Antarctic ‘YAMM’ lunar meteorite group | Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry

Anders, E., & Grevesse, N. (1989). Abundances of the elements: Meteoritic and solar. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 53(1), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(89)90286-x

doi.org

1 4

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 1d

Am wondering if all of those suddenly deciding they’re against communities living “parallel lives” might reconsider their support of religious schools? Or indeed private ones?

75 400 1.8K

Romain Tartese @romiche29.bsky.social · 1d

3/3 here 😬

1

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 2d

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

Goody-bag merch from Tory Conference branded "When Labour negotiates Britian loses" and signed "Kemi Badenoch".

270 920 3K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 2d

At some point, an important function of the Conservative Party as it used to be has gone into reverse. What used to happen is that hard-right but bright MPs were given responsibilities as junior ministers and taught that slogans were all very well but governing involved the real world…

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 2d

The Tory Party has gone mad..

He insisted the Conservatives had a plan to cut spending, including £8bn of annual savings from reducing the civil service, £6.9bn from cutting the aid budget and £23bn from slashing the welfare bill.

Stride told the BBC that to save money, only UK citizens would have access to the welfare system and that people with "low-level" mental health problems would also lose access to benefits.

Asked what would happen to people living legally in Britain who are not UK citizens if they fall into hardship, he said: "They've come from other parts of the world and they would have the option to return."

The Conservatives failed to back the Labour government's proposed £5bn of welfare savings this year. Stride claimed that the Labour plans were rushed and "not considered and principled".

6 22 93

Romain Tartese @romiche29.bsky.social · 2d

😂 what a long pathetic end of reign for Macron

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 2d

French prime ministers resigns three weeks after appointment on.ft.com/4pXeLDS

French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigns

Macron ally was appointed just three weeks ago

on.ft.com

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Jo Kibble (Political Animal) @politicanimal.bsky.social · 2d

Don’t answer any calls from +33 numbers today. It’ll be Manu trying to tempt you with a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to be prime minister for a week.

4 12 68

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4d

Conventional wisdom says motherhood should wait for tenure as before you land a permanent post, #academia is just not that family friendly🙁

@carersinstemm.bsky.social are calling for change and to celebrate their new report, a Saturday🧵on parenting & academia! 1/9 👩‍🔬🧪🔭⚛️

ℹ️: carersinstemm.co.uk

From 2006. A younger and shell-shocked looking Catherine on a balcony holding a very tiny baby with the mountains of Vancouver in the background. The baby is so new, Catherine still has the pregnant bump.

7 69 220

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Makkon @makkon.bsky.social · 6d

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

8 5.2K 14K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

lis gallant @bipedalmeatbag.bsky.social · 6d

If journals want me to give a shit about their time to publication metric, they can pay my ass to edit/review and offer an incentive to publish with them. People who get my effort for free don’t get to make demands on timeliness.

3 4 21

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 5d

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Sky News @news.sky.com · 5d

Woman named as new Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first

Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, a former nurse, has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the first time a woman has been appointed to the role in the Church of England's history.

news.sky.com

410 2.6K 17K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 5d

This is why we can't have nice things! This is why we can't even get a boycott of LPSC going, because so many people are willing to ascribe individual successes or failures to personal character instead of confronting the much bigger picture. I'm so tired

3 15

Reposted by Romain Tartese

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 6d

That sounds like a lot of power. I hope we’re doing useful things with ChatGPT. 🙃

OpenAI's New Data Centers Will Draw More Power Than the Entirety of New York City, Sam Altman Says

OpenAI's planned AI data center projects would consume as much as the entire city of New York City and San Diego combined.

futurism.com

33 150 370

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 7d

I am so dismayed a the statement today from the President of the @royalsociety.org that I want to publish here the letter I wrote to him yesterday urging him to address the clear concerns of the UK scientific community.

Screenshot of first part of letter (continues in next image). Text reads:

Dear Sir Adrian

I write to request that in its deliberations tomorrow the Council resolves to take a principled stand to defend the scientific values written into its code of conduct.

In its attempts to deal with the actions of Elon Musk FRS, the Royal Society has repeatedly failed to explain how his repudiation of those values is consistent with the code of conduct that all Fellows must adhere to as a condition of their fellowship. As is now well established, these actions include attacking Antony Fauci FRS without good cause; spreading scientific misinformation on X [through his own utterances and by relaxing controls on the platform]; recklessly and unlawfully degrading the research ecosystem of the US as part of DOGE; and bragging publicly about "feeding USAID into the wood chipper", which the Lancet estimates will cause the deaths of 14 million people, many of them children under the age of five, by 2030.

The Society’s inaction extends to the recent brief exchange of correspondence between Prof Sir Paul Nurse and Mr Musk. Although there was some initial contact, when Sir Paul laid out the Society’s specific concerns there was no reply or explanation from Musk. For reasons that I’m afraid I cannot fathom, you chose once again not to enforce your code of conduct.

Screenshot of letter. Text continues:

"You will be aware that the sense of bewildered dismay over this affair is shared by Royal Society Fellows, medallists and journals editors, and many thousands within the scientific community here and abroad. The Royal Society still claims to speak for scientists in the UK, but on this vital issue, its inaction represents an inexplicable rupture with values that our community holds very dear.

In all this my primary concern is has been for the good standing of the Royal Society as the UK’s national academy. As I am sure you understand all too well (given your recent remarks in the wake of Mr Musk’s ill-judged speech at the Tommy Robinson rally), the country, the world at large, and the very practice of science itself face severe challenges from technologies and populist politics that foment division and ignorance. In such troubled times, people look to our established institutions to have the courage to stand by long-held values of truth and decency.

It is my sincere hope the Royal Society will demonstrate tomorrow that it is just such an institution.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen"

2 39 87

Reposted by Romain Tartese

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 9d

This whole section really.

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

37 4.3K 9.5K

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 9d

Labour looking at Reform's racist policies and saying "we"ll have some of that". These aren't just discriminatory, by making migrants meet higher standards than the average person, they automatically treat migrants as if they are criminals on community service.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Under the proposals, legal migrants will have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community to be granted permanent settlement status.

25 120 410

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 10d

I am sick and tired of the political ""discourse"" in this country being about how people coming here is awful and the root of all evil, and L*bour just rolling over instead of standing up for some sort of [redacted] values

1 3 17

Reposted by Romain Tartese

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 10d

Because paying tens of thousands of pounds for visas and the "NHS surcharge", being ineligible for ANY benefits for 10 years, and therefore working tax-paying jobs constantly, and daring to want a better life is not enough.

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 10d

"Migrants will have to carry out community work or volunteering to qualify to permanently remain in the UK, according to the Home Secretary." [Telegraph]

2 26 62