Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · 21h

Brookfield Raises US$20 billion for green energy transition fund.

bam.brookfield.com/press-releas...

Brookfield
Our strategy will succeed by investing in the technologies that will deliver clean, abundant, and low-cost energy and transition solutions that underpin the global economy.
Connor Teskey
CEO, Renewable Power & Transition

Reposted by thomas e fleming

Ember @ember-energy.org · 1d

#Solar keeps breaking records ☀️🏆

In the first half of 2025,
📈 solar generation jumped 306 TWh (+31%) – its FASTEST absolute growth on record
🌐 global solar share reached 8.8% as many countries worldwide hit new records

https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · 1d

Coal, at least for now, drops out of the top spot for energy. Renewables squeaked, just barely, into first place. But progress nonetheless.

Ember @ember-energy.org · 2d

NEW | Solar and wind OUTPACED global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, leading to a fall in fossil fuels compared to this time last year ☀️🌪️

Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.

https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · 13d

If you argue media is broken in America because of concentrated ownership, the data tells a different story: America ranks at the bottom of the list for media concentration.

There’s more to the story … www.economist.com/briefing/202... via @economist.com

Alt text: A horizontal bar chart titled “As fragmented as they come” showing media-industry market concentration across selected countries in 2023. The chart uses the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index where 10,000 represents maximum concentration (one company owns all media). Countries are listed vertically from most fragmented to most concentrated: United States has the lowest concentration (around 300), followed by Denmark, Germany, Austria, South Korea, China, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, France, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Portugal, India, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico having the highest concentration (around 2,800). An arrow indicates “More concentrated” pointing to the right. The chart shows that contrary to the title’s suggestion, there is significant variation in media concentration levels across countries, with Mexico being notably more concentrated than the US. Source: Global Media and Internet Concentration Project.

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Reposted by thomas e fleming

Andrew Bell @adnerwbell.bsky.social · Apr 18

Total Reset⛓️‍💥

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Aug 4

Donald Trump escalates his war on numbers
economist.com/united-state...
via @economist.com

Donald Trump escalates his war on numbers

Another shocking assault on a non-partisan institution

economist.com

1

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Aug 2

🎶 Firestarter by Prodigy
youtu.be/wmin5WkOuPw

3

Reposted by thomas e fleming

Boring Friends @boringfriends.bsky.social · Jun 18

Just me or

I’d love to live in unprecedented times artwork drawing illustration a man walking a tightrope across a fire between two yelling heads typography cartoon retro

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Aug 2

“U.S. economic statistics have been considered the gold standard for decades, the product of concerted efforts … to better understand how the economy works. Trump’s move throws the quality of America’s statistical apparatus into question.”

- via @wsj.com

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump Orders Firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief

The president’s move throws the quality of America’s statistical apparatus into question.

www.wsj.com

2

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Jul 25

Magic Decoder Ring

I’m loving my CN Tower widget on my iPhone Home Screen. Now I seem so well informed when it comes to what those colour combos mean.

Download the free iOS app here: apps.apple.com/ca/app/toron...

Screenshot of an iPhone widget for Toronto Lights showing the CN Tower silhouette against a blue to orange gradient background. The widget displays ‘Jul 25’ at the top, followed by ‘100th Anniversary of the Canadian Corp of Commissi…’ (text cut off), then ‘Blue, Orange and White’ describing the tower’s current lighting colors, and ‘+2 Other light show’ at the bottom. The widget title ‘Toronto Lights’ appears below the main content area.

Reposted by thomas e fleming

Frederik Vanhoutte - Winterbloed @winterbloed.be · May 31

While I'm browsing through the 2021 folder, some more work

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Jun 20

Should Toronto consider wins like these?

1. “… drives across the East River … which used to take an hour or more can now be as quick as 15 minutes.”

2. “… raising around $50m each month to update the subway and other public-transport systems …”

economist.com/united-state...
via @economist.com

Congestion pricing in Manhattan is a predictable success

So why on earth did it take so long to start?

economist.com

2

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Jun 18

'Tariff engineering' is making a comeback as businesses employ creative ways to skirt higher duties

via CNBC
www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/b...

'Tariff engineering' is making a comeback as businesses employ creative ways to skirt higher duties

Global manufacturers are rethinking their products design, looking to tap into a lesser-known legal technique known as "tariff engineering" to lower duty costs.

www.cnbc.com

Reposted by thomas e fleming

Public Square TO @publicsquareto.bsky.social · May 24

Our first conversation is focused on bike lanes in Toronto. Whether you're a cyclist, driver, pedestrian, or transit user, your insights are valuable.

🕒 The survey is open until the 30th of May.

👉 Click here to participate: publicsquareto.github.io/bikelanes.html

Bike Lanes in Toronto - Public Square TO

publicsquareto.github.io

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Reposted by thomas e fleming

Public Square TO @publicsquareto.bsky.social · May 24

Follow us for:

- Thought-provoking Pol.is polls 🗳️
- Updates on our consensus-building project 🧠
- Real-world stories of how communities are using Pol.is to make smarter decisions 🌍

Got questions or ideas? We’d love to hear from you!

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Reposted by thomas e fleming

sjvl @sjvl.bsky.social · Apr 22

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · May 22

Could #MCP, the open-standard adopted by the big AI-players, become as important as HTTP in the post-ChatGTP web era? Microsoft’s CTO makes a convincing case that it will be.

From the web to the NLweb (not the Netherlands, Natural Language).

via @theverge.com

www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on the birth of the agentic web

How Microsoft sees the future of AI agents merging with the open web. 

www.theverge.com

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 15

“… [magnetic] tape storage works out at three to five times cheaper than disk drives, and solid-state storage … [and] may explain why Google is also one of the world’s biggest purchasers of modern tape libraries.”
via @economist.com
www.economist.com/united-state...

DOGE is coming for American officials’ magnetic tape

But more modern methods of data storage are not necessarily better

www.economist.com

1

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

🎶 Wait & See (Kris Menace’s Vocal Re-Interpretation)
by Holy Ghost!, Kris Menace
youtu.be/ymBU4e2L4Mw

Reposted by thomas e fleming

treeskulltown @treeskulltown.bsky.social · Apr 10

Good Morning 🤗 today :

Surfaces : Xanthopsia 81

format / media / size / speed / timing / éditions :

3840 x 2160 px / 4k mp4 / 118 MB / 8 fps / 59s / 1/1

objkt.com/tokens/KT1SP...

#treeskulltown #tezos #abstract #subrealism #mixedmedia #digitalpainting #digitalanimation #art #procreate

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

On the Biology of a Large Language Model
via @anthropic.com
transformer-circuits.pub/2025/attribu...

On the Biology of a Large Language Model

We investigate the internal mechanisms used by Claude 3.5 Haiku — Anthropic's lightweight production model — in a variety of contexts, using our circuit tracing methodology.

transformer-circuits.pub

thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

Anthropic can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model - What the firm found challenges some basic assumptions about how this technology really works.
via @technologyreview.com
www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/27/1...

Anthropic can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model

What the firm found challenges some basic assumptions about how this technology really works.

www.technologyreview.com

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

Researchers lift the lid on how reasoning models actually “think” - They plan sentences far in advance. They also bullshit themselves when reasoning out loud
via @economist.com
www.economist.com/science-and-...

Researchers lift the lid on how reasoning models actually “think”

They plan sentences far in advance. They also bullshit themselves when reasoning out loud

www.economist.com

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

AI Brain 'Wiring Diagram' Revealed: Anthropic Scientists Use New Tool to Crack Open the Black Box of LLM Neural Networks, Analogous to Brain Scans of Human Neural Networks

Learn more about @anthropic.com’s new "microscope" in the 🧵 below …

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thomas e fleming @thomasefleming.bsky.social · Apr 10

Get Started with the Model Context Protocol via @github.com
modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction

Introduction - Model Context Protocol

Get started with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)

modelcontextprotocol.io