Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Simon

merritt @merrittk.com · 5h

that isn't a "saying" it's an official saudi tourism slogan lmao

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Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 14h

if you’ve ever watched the apprentice, that’s the world without arts or humanities degrees

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Robert Dallas Grue 🦇 @robertdallasgray.com · 9h

come 2 hug & pint 8.30 if u want a ass kicking

venue blackboard advertising clara mann s/b yrs truly

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Joseph Fink @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 9h

this is how I, a resident of LA, found out that the Palisades fire was arson, that they caught the guy, and that he used gen AI to work his way up to doing the crime

niki grayson @nikigrayson.com · 10h

the city of los angeles burned in january in part because of a man who couldn’t stop generating images of burning cities on ChatGPT, and then after he lit the fire he asked if the fire he started was his fault

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Simon @simonxix.com · 10h

Off to the GFT for a satellite #LFF screening (the only one I managed to get tickets for) of WAKE UP DEAD MAN, the new Knives Out. A very autumnal sort of film.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 16h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Simon @simonxix.com · 15h

Wallace's work is similarly preoccupied with the foundations of American neo-fascism but perhaps from a more culture-driven standpoint.

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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 17h

A reminder of how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party in 1983, an era featuring much more widespread racial prejudice in the public, approached the issue of race and national identity:

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Simon @simonxix.com · 19h

I often find this on picket lines: people will say they are 100% supportive of you and then walk through the picket line. So not 100% supportive, then? tweets.simonxix.com/119931756417...

SimonXIX’s Twitter Archive—№ 52,315

Several people told me that they were in solidarity with us but they were just going to pop inside to return a book or talk to a tutor. No. If you cross the picket line, you are, by definition, not in...

tweets.simonxix.com

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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 21h

The Rees Moggs will still do History degrees. The Johnsons will still do Classics.
Sadly, the Wilsons from South Bank in Middlesbrough won't get the intellectual stimulation of studying a subject of interest for a degree.

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Simon @simonxix.com · 1d

GenAI used in the service of fascism.

Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 3d

Reform UK’s Councillor Dave Poole has put out this bizarre graphic littered with spelling errors.

Our favourite part is where it says Reform UK keeps being called the ‘fat right’.

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Beth 💜 @picklebee.bsky.social · 1d

Tfw your being called unbritish because you're opposing a genocide.

Edited stills from the avengers movie.

Keir Starmer: it is unbritish to go to a protest on October 7th.

Mark Ruffalo: that's my secret chief... I'm always unbritish.

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Bill Corbett @billcorbett.bsky.social · 1d

But users and posts don’t matter, you’re not running a social media business, right? It’s all about the ATProtocol. Right??

Bluesky @bsky.app · 2d

we hit 2 billion posts today! 🥳

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Open Humanities Press @openhumanities.bsky.social · 1d

Rebekka Kiesewetter has posted some thoughts on the Radical Open Access III: From Openness to Social Justice Activism conference (Cambridge, April, 2025):

radicaloa.postdigitalcultures.org/reflections-...

Well worth a read.

Reflections on Radical Open Access III: From Openness to Social Justice Activism – Radical Open Access Collective

radicaloa.postdigitalcultures.org

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☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · 2d

what if I told you that taking accountability for your actions was traditionally considered a load-bearing feature of masculinity?

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 2d

“I voted for none of this."

Prominent influencers, including Theo Von, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Schulz, are starting to distance themselves from the president they helped propel to the White House.

Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

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Simon @simonxix.com · Nov 11

Seriously, in my time I've done IRC, MSN Messenger, BBS forums, MySpace, Facebook. Twitter was The Place for such a long time that we forgot the internet culture of moving on when a place was dead and done.

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Scary Corpse @damselindystopia.bsky.social · 2d

Absolutely maddening that this isn't a bigger news story outside of NI tbh. Loyalists are literally threatening to burn shit down over dual language signage, but Palestine Action are the big scary terrorists that we all need to be talking about, right?

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 2d

You never hear Doug Beattie say a 'firm hand' is needed for the people who actually terrorise Northern Ireland

News Letter front page 'Firm hand' needed over Gaza protests. UUP's Beattie makes action call after arrests.

Sunday Life front page 5 October 2025 Loyalists in vow to burn council vans over Irish

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 2d

Sorry, we can't afford to give you your real-terms pay cut.

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2d

'Staff at some institutions will not get even get the small rise due to them because of a clause in the negotiations that allows for a delay for up to 11 months if a university is facing financial difficulties.' So far, Dundee, Kent, Brunel, Coventry, Swansea.

Five UK universities tell staff they can’t afford pay rises

Negotiations over whether to honour 1.4 per cent increase ongoing at several other institutions amid financial crunch

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Simon @simonxix.com · 3d

It puts the lie to Bluesky's claims to be systems architects first and foremost if the meagre federation that they have so far offered with ATProto is still centralised.

Aveta👾🇭🇹 @aliafonzy.blacksky.app · 3d

Update from Link. He said he still is banned despite being under BlackSky PDS cause BlueSky servers still used? :( idk

Just sharing what I’m told.

Screenshot of an iMessage conversation between Aveta and contact ‘AJ’ at 1:21. The conversation shows:

Aveta (blue bubbles): ‘If you get account back’ ‘Move to BlackSky immediately’
AJ (gray bubbles): ‘I am on Blacksky.’ ‘lol’
Aveta: ‘Wait what’ ‘WHAT’
AJ: ‘But they still use Bsky servers.’
Aveta: ‘How tr’ ‘Oh yeah… well shit’ (marked as Delivered)
AJ: ‘That’s how they got me.’ ‘You should include that too.’ ‘Decentralized moderation my ass.’

At the bottom is a notification banner reading ‘AJ has notifications silenced’ with a moon icon.

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Simon @simonxix.com · 3d

Whoopsy-daisy.

John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: breach of Discord age verification data.

Including some users passports & DLs

Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic.

Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/

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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: breach of Discord age verification data.

Including some users passports & DLs

Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic.

Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/

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Jim Ross 🎞️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @jimgr.bsky.social · 3d

A four day working week is not “madcap” or “weird and wacky”. There are innumerable people (me included) who already do it. Why does nobody challenge politicians on this sort of obvious bollocks? Taking the word ‘conservative’ to self parody levels here.

The Scotsman @scotsman.com · 3d

SNP has turned Scotland into a 'laboratory for weird and wacky policies', says Russell Findlay
www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

SNP has turned Scotland into a 'laboratory for weird and wacky policies' - Findlay

Russell Findlay said the SNP had “embraced every madcap idea known to man and woman” during his speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

www.scotsman.com

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 3d

In pursuit of power and money, one by one, they stamp over anything they need to to get it while telling you it is the world that changed

Cerulean Man 🐝 🏳️‍🌈 🌹 🐶 @ceruleanman.bsky.social · 3d

The hypocrite that is Shabana Mahmood. Remember, someone always has the receipts. Do as I say, not as I do. #Gaza #UK

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Simon @simonxix.com · 3d

The policies he named are "rent controls, [...] universal basic income, [...] four-day working week."

The Scottish Government adopted rent controls last week largely pushed by the Scottish Greens and haven't enacted the other two.

The Scotsman @scotsman.com · 3d

SNP has turned Scotland into a 'laboratory for weird and wacky policies', says Russell Findlay
www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

SNP has turned Scotland into a 'laboratory for weird and wacky policies' - Findlay

Russell Findlay said the SNP had “embraced every madcap idea known to man and woman” during his speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

www.scotsman.com

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Simon @simonxix.com · 3d

Manners are like a muscle that you exercise and so I have sympathy with the idea that (if you use them at all) you should say 'please' and 'thank you' to (surveillance) devices like Alexa (especially in front of children). But that's not the point that the person talking about 'AI eugenics' made.

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