Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by stib

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12h

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch.

A bunch of astronomers and I have sent out […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 16h

I haven't really used #audacity for years, but it seems like the project is going to get a bit of a makeover. Here's a good deep dive into what's going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYM3TWf_G38
#foss

Reposted by stib

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

OK. It's going to be coming out soon because of the relentless investigations of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, so I might as well admit it before the news breaks:

I am the General Counsel of Antifa.

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Reposted by stib

Rob Ricci @ricci.discuss.systems.ap.brid.gy · 2d

I have an offer to make: do you want to run an instance on the fediverse for a group that's underrepresented here?

I'll pay the bills. Period.

I'll do admin if needed (software updates and the like). But you decide what kind of community you want it to be, so you put together the mod team.

DM me.

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 2d

Hey I've just noticed that the first and last columns are now resizable on the #mastodon web interface. I can retire the #userscript I wrote to resize columns (doesn't seem to be working now anyway). Or I could rewrite it to make all the columns resizable again, if anyone wants that. #js […]

Original post on aus.social

aus.social

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Reposted by stib

Play Ball and Fight Fascists @cafechatnoir.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

OK, because we all need some good news - Francine, the Richmomd Lowes kitty that hitched a ride on a delivery truck on it's way to North Carolina HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS BACK HOME AT HER SHOP!

https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/francine-returns-lowes-cat-oct-6-2025

Francine returns! Beloved Lowe's cat back in Richmond after accidental truck ride out of state

Beloved Lowe's cat Francine is back in Richmond after a week-long search, according to updates shared by Lowe's and Richmond Animal Care and Control on Monday.

www.wtvr.com

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Reposted by stib

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 3d

For every €1 provided through a Basic Income For Artists pilot program in Ireland, the government got €1.46 back. So it’s being made permanent.

Over and over we see it. It saves public money to provide public housing. And it makes public money to provide basic income.

We can’t afford to NOT do it.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 3d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Reposted by stib

Kit Bashir @unixbigot.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

I never would have opted for total cyber-conversion if I knew how many hours I would be spending debugging YAML files.

#tootfic #microfiction #poweronstorytoot

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

RE: https://aus.social/@mattro/115330200305295157

It supports it now ... ? I quoted this from the web interface running on Librewolf on MacOS

aus.social

Reposted by stib

Dante SCAREline 🏴‍☠️ @dantescanline.autonomous.zone.ap.brid.gy · 5d

"... A bearded vulture nest can host the animals for multiple centuries. Objects made by humans, including paper litter and plastic bags often find their way into the nesting components. And after surveying multiple sites in Spain, researchers determined that some of these accumulated artifacts […]

Original post on autonomous.zone

autonomous.zone

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d

When I'm working with #blender #GeometryNodes I like to hide unnecessary clutter. Maths nodes for example take up a lot of space, and often the name of the operation is all that you need to see what they're doing, or the name of the operation and the value of the […]

[Original post on aus.social]

Before: a bunch of maths nodes, expanded, with default names like Multiply or Less Than

After: Nodes have been collapsed and unconnected input hidden. They are now named things like + π/5, or < 3/4

stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d

just discovered that `&` aligns selections in #helix and fuck me I want the last 15 minutes where I was doing it by hand like a noob back.

A bunch of python lambda functions named after the various mathematical operators in Blender #GeometryNodes, all lined up super neatly like a proper programmer would do.

Reposted by stib

Flipboard News Desk @newsdesk.flipboard.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

Israel has begun intercepting boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the organizers of The Global Sumud Flotilla say. Read more from @BBCNews
https://flip.it/m.7WXY
#israel #gaza #flotilla #gsf #navy #palestine

Israeli naval ships intercept Gaza-bound flotilla

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is among activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla being taken to an Israeli port.

www.bbc.com

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

Did someone order some weather? #naarm

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

RE: https://mastodon.social/@carapace/115299063151365219

Tell me you've never used a 3D printer without telling me …

mastodon.social

Reposted by stib

Tim Sherratt @wragge.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

Another fun userscript to play around with in the Code Club workshop tomorrow -- this one lets you create an easter egg hunt amongst the SLV digitised collections. It's just a template really to suggest some possibilities... https://gist.github.com/wragge/ebc00790f87e83128f68d992be878dc1

SLV Easter Egg Hunt

SLV Easter Egg Hunt. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

I've added all the folders to the path, and made sure that the $PATH is updated, so I'm all out of ideas.

stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

It is installing the psd-tools (aka psd_tools) module in `~/.local/lib/python3.11/site-packages` and I can see the file there, but #blender's python refuses to believe that it's installed. I would love to love #python, but installing the fucking thing is waaay harder than actually writing it.

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

Any #bpy thing-knowers able to help me out? I'm writing a script that relies on the psd-tools module. To make sure it is loaded I do
```
try:
import psd_tools
except ImportError:
subprocess.check_call([python_executable, '-m', 'ensurepip'])
subprocess.check_call([python_executable, '-m', 'pip' […]

Original post on aus.social

aus.social

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

So, am I right in thinking that there's no way of checking the CPU temperature on a current #mac without either using admin privileges to run powermetrics or installing a third party app?
It's nice and all, but frankly this OS isn't ready for the mainstream. #macos

Terminal screenshot:
~ powermetrics
powermetrics must be invoked as the superuser
➜ ~

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

So #liquidass just arrived on my #mac. Is anyone else getting sick of how rounded corners on everything keep geting rounder and rounder? I'm a big boy, you know, I'll probably be right with sharp edges.
#gnome is guilty of this too, which is why I ended up using #i3wm

A fisher price toy computer with lotsa round corners.

stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

Yeah thanks internet random for replying to my question on reddit with what #chatgpt says is the answer. Relaying my question to the stochastic misinformation machine is truly helpful, and you've saved me much time and effort.
#ai #slop

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 11d

Sent off an angry email to the #ifsc (International Federation of Sport #climbing Having #israeli athletes compete in international sporting events is unacceptable in 2025. Feel free to copy paste and do the same (copyable text is in alt). #bds #boycotisrael

me → office@ifsc-climbing.org

Why are Israel allowed to compete at the world titles?

I'm old enough to remember when the South African apartheid regime was treated as a pariah state due to its abuse of human rights. There was almost universal global agreement that South Africa was not allowed to compete in sporting events until the system of apartheid was demolished, a campaign that had a real and successful influence upon ending the regime.

Israel is, as declared by the UN, an apartheid state, and not only that, it is engaged in a genocide against the Palestinian people–again, the UN's words, not just mine.

So it is with dismay that I see that you are allowing Israeli athletes to compete at the World Titles. This is unacceptable in 2025.
You need to not only consider the ethics of letting representatives of a genocidal apartheid state participate, but also the reputational damage the IFSC is causing to sport climbing in general, and to the sponsors of the event.

I urge you to consider a ban on Israeli climbers until the genocide that their nation is perpetrating has stopped, and the apartheid system in the country ended. I will be boycotting all of your sponsors, and organising to encourage others to do so, and notifying your sponsors of the fact until you do.

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stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 11d

Watching the #ifsc #climbing World Championships with my daughter. The men's boulder finals was a nailbiter.
But WTF are Israeli athletes doing in an international sport competition in 2025?

stib @stib.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

I'm not your therapist.

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