Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 2h

If *only* it were customary for students to include cheesy clipart in their work, grading would be so much more tolerable!

Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 14h

99% of the alt text I write for @clipart.bsky.social is pure fiction. But this one, believe it or not, is 100% entirely factual.

Corel Gallery Clipart @clipart.bsky.social · 18h

ATTALI1.BMF

A color portrait of French economist and writer Jacques Attali, who is most famous as President François Mitterrand’s senior counselor during the 1980s. Attali is also credited with plucking Emmanuel Macron from obscurity and guiding him on the path to becoming France’s 25th president in 2017. Lesser known is Attali’s theories of musical composition, detailed in his 1977 book, “Bruits: essai sur l'economie politique de la musique,” or, in English, “Noise: The Political Economy of Music.” It is here that Attali describes what he saw in the 1970s as a new mode of musical composition: sampling and remixing. Just look at the clipart of the bespectacled man in a coat and tie and think, yeah, that dude is a major theorist of remix culture. 🤯️

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 21h

Tuesday afternoon study break: making granola

A tray of homemade granola with various nuts, seeds, and dry fruits on top

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Reposted by Mark Sample

Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 23h

Toad was sitting on his front porch. Frog came along and said, “What is the matter Toad? You are looking sad.”

A glum Toad sits on his front porch as a smiling Frog approaches.

From "The Letter"
In *Frog and Toad Are Friends*

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 1d

Love this. “If the university signs this compact, would it have to hire a slew of extreme left-wing scholars to ‘balance’ out the Econ department and business school?

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 1d

I can’t believe my life is being affected by the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 1d

The Playdate console now has a browser-based game creation kit, inspired by Bitsy, called Pulp. This is going to be fun...

Playdate Pulp

Pulp is a click-and-place, fun, quirky game studio for Playdate. Make a game with no code, or maybe a little code.

play.date

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Reposted by Mark Sample

Erik Simpson @erikthesimpson.bsky.social · 1d

Job Alert! Tenure-track, Creative Non-Fiction (broadly conceived), Grinnell College. joblist.mla.org/job/2000443/...

Assistant Professor of English: Creative Writing Tenure Track job with Grinnell College | 2000443

Research and teaching interests might include: screenwriting/tv writing, memoir, lyric essay, narrative journalism, graphic storytelling.

joblist.mla.org

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 1d

tag yourself

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 1d

🧜‍♀️ Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri: .
Amstelodami: Apud Ioannem Iacobi Fil. Schipper, MDCLVII [1657].

[Source]

An antique illustration from 1657 depicting various marine creatures and mythical sea beings. The main subjects include detailed drawings of several fish species such as a sawfish, a hammerhead shark, and a fish with a bulbous head. Notably, two figures resemble mermaids or sea monsters: one with a humanoid upper body and a long fish-like tail, lying one arm forward and opening its mouth, and another hybrid creature with a somewhat human face and elongated fish body. The page also includes separate sketches of shark jaws and teeth, labeled in Latin. The style is scientific yet imaginative, typical of 17th-century natural history works.

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Reposted by Mark Sample

Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 2d

🧵🧵 Texas Republicans have been increasingly open and aggressive about Christianizing America via schools - to, in the words of the state education board chair, center classrooms around "GOD, GOP & USA."

That fight just escalated, and you should pay attention - because your state could be next.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 2d

!!!!!

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 6d

I made 10 Lost Boys in 2020. Not sure I expected the game to be relevant five years later, but here we are. samplereality.itch.io/10-lost-boys

10 LOST BOYS by samplereality

An RPG Character Generator

samplereality.itch.io

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 7d

Except the audience wasn't the generals, and it wasn't even the rabid hosts on Fox News. There was an audience of one, and I'm sure he loved every minute of it.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 8d

There's a watchlist/doxxing site set up BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL that is just bonkers. Again I ask, who are the fucking snowflakes? www.in.gov/attorneygene...

She Was Fired for a Comment on Her Private Facebook Account

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 8d

Indiana really trying to out-Texas Texas www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

She Was Fired for a Comment on Her Private Facebook Account

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 11d

You win!

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Reposted by Mark Sample

Kevin R. McClure @drkevinrmcclure.com · 11d

Academic freedom is at best limited in multiple states and the people who work there know it. AND what little protection might have extended to social media is certainly gone. You can exercise your right to speech, but also get fired for it. So, you know, post with awareness.

Texas Conference of the AAUP @texasaaup.bsky.social · 11d

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 11d

If you see this, quote skeet with a screenshot from a video game that released the year you were born.

I was there at the beginning.

Computer Space (1971) by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, widely considered to be the first commercially available video game.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 13d

Republic of Texas? More like the Republic of Gilead. www.chronicle.com/article/a-pu...

What’s New
A regional public university in Texas has told employees to abide by a new policy banning classroom discussions about transgender issues.

Angelo State University, a small campus in the Texas Tech University system, directed instructors to no longer suggest that there are identities beyond male and female assigned at birth, a faculty member confirmed to The Chronicle. The professor agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from state lawmakers.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 13d

Stop. Writing. On. Bullets.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 13d

Yeah, it's great. I've installed it on my phone, computer, iPad, Pis, and router

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 13d

Everything really clicked into place when I discovered you can install Tailscale on Asus routers running Merlin firmware.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 13d

Random plug, but can I say how much Tailscale has improved my workflows? Access my home media server anywhere (which is just Jellyfin on a Raspberry Pi and a big SSD drive), SSH into the machines that run my bot accounts from anywhere, use my home router and its DNS sink to block ads wherever, etc.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 14d

“I hear many people saying that the assassination of Charlie Kirk ’changes everything’ for them, but they already said precisely that about the attempted assassination last year of Donald Trump. In fact neither event altered anyone, except to consolidate their myths.”

a slightly embarrassed announcement – The Homebound Symphony

blog.ayjay.org

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 14d

Wow, The Long Walk is unexpectedly good. Subtle where it needs to be, explosive when it's deserved. The Dorothea Lange easter egg is perfect too.

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Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · 15d

Did I say today was the rapture? Whoops, I meant *next* Tuesday!

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