Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Stone Cold Jane Austen @abbyhiggs.bsky.social · Jun 22

It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Stefano Gualeni @gua-le-ni.com · Jun 18

📢Registrations are open for our upcoming event at the Italian Institute of Culture [IN ITALIANO]!

Marco Caracciolo, @tinanovels.bsky.social, and I will talk about imaginary games, speculative fiction, and climate imaginaries in the wake of my latest novel :)

iicvalletta.esteri.it/it/gli_event...

Scrivere fantascienza mentre fuori il mondo è in fiamme

In occasione della pubblicazione del suo secondo romanzo What We Owe the Dead (Set Margins’, 2025), Stefano Gualeni (Università di Malta) dialogherà con Marco Caracciolo (Università di Ghent, Belgio) ...

iicvalletta.esteri.it

1 3

Valentina Romanzi @tinanovels.bsky.social · May 28

Very much looking forward to this! I have *questions* 😄

1

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Stefano Gualeni @gua-le-ni.com · May 28

Had lots of fun last night at my book talk in Ghent #paardvantroje.

Next up: another book talk at NOI Libreria in Milan on Friday the 30th with @tinanovels.bsky.social
This one is going to be in Italian :) Join us at 19:00!

>> www.eventbrite.it/e/scrivere-f... <<

Scrivere fantascienza mentre il mondo è in fiamme

What We Owe the Dead, il secondo romanzo di Stefano Gualeni

www.eventbrite.it

1 1 5

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.bsky.social · May 22

Revoking admissions for a group that makes up 30% of the student body.

All because you dont want Black people to attend or Black history to be taught.

My God.

Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · May 22

WHEW, BUDDY.

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

www.nytimes.com

3 48 240

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · May 16

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth

360 10K 32K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

The Onion @theonion.com · May 3

Woman Reminds Self Not To Catastrophize After Spotting 4 Skeletal Horsemen On Horizon
theonion.com/woman-r...

Woman Reminds Self Not To Catastrophize After Spotting 4 Skeletal Horsemen On Horizon

LOWELL, MA—Doing her best to follow her therapist’s advice for dealing with stressful situations, area woman Holly Debling reportedly reminded herself Tuesday not to catastrophize after she spotted four skeletal horsemen on the horizon. “Okay, Holly, remember: Just because a great trumpet has sounded at the arrival of four unearthly riders, that doesn’t necessarily mean […]

theonion.com

38 440 3.6K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · Apr 26

At this juncture I’d like to point out:
* we’re on the brink of a golden age of medical healing
* there’s enough money in the world to solve every problem in the world
* a united approach could stop the climate crisis
But a small group of sociopaths seeking personal power are going to throw it away.

390 5.6K 20K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · Apr 25

🤣😶

The Onion @theonion.com · Apr 25

FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Judge Gives Trump Administration 3 Days To Return Her From El Salvador Prison

Judge Gives Trump Administration 3 Days To Return Her From El Salvador Prison

GREENBELT, MD—Decrying the deportation as “wholly lawless,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled Monday that the Trump administration had three days to return her to the United States from a Salvador...

theonion.com

2 5 65

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

The Onion @theonion.com · Apr 23

Trump Opens Up Nation’s Aquariums To Commercial Fishing

WASHINGTON—Claiming that preservation efforts had impeded U.S. seafood production for far too long, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had opened up the nation’s aquariums to commercia...

theonion.com

130 990 6.8K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · Apr 21

Kind, decent, and compassionate, Pope Francis was badly out of step with contemporary western culture.

240 2.1K 15K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · Apr 13

My cartoon for this week's @newscientist.com

A Caroll diagram consisting of four rectangles arranged in a square.
The Y axis is labelled MOVE and split into FAST and SLOW.
The X axis is labelled THINGS and split into BREAK and FIX

Top left image: (Move Fast and Break Things) Tech Bro
Bottom left image: (Move slow and break things) Runaway Steamroller
Top right image: (Move fast and fix things) Emergency Plumber
Bottom left image: (Move slow and fix things) Grandpa with a toolbox

65 1.4K 9K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Amy Siskind @amysiskind.com · Apr 3

You don’t say ….

260 1.2K 6.9K

Valentina Romanzi @tinanovels.bsky.social · Mar 31

Look what I got in the mail! @gua-le-ni.com's latest book What We Owe the Dead - highly entertaining and equally thought-provoking! Stefano and I will be chatting about it in Milan at the end of May; in the meantime you can get your copy on @freeklomme.bsky.social's website!

1 1 7

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Mar 26

Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Mar 26

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying.

They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks.

From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

1.9K 16K 37K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · Mar 24

The only piece of actual wisdom I have ever learned about US politics is "Never believe something is too stupid to happen."

39 590 3.7K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · Mar 24

lmao this made me cry real tears because it is legitimately what every day feels like right now

my work is like “hey can you make a slideshow to explain this bill?” and “oops looks like the EPA no longer exists”

2 15 110

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · Mar 1

1.9K 27K 110K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · Mar 1

It is important that people understand and accept as fact that our government is compromised. I don't mean compromised in some cloak-and-dagger sense, I simply mean that this government no longer accepts core democratic principles and is angling toward an autocracy that's part of a New Axis of Evil.

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’

www.theguardian.com

180 1.4K 4.9K

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

weeder @weeder.bsky.social · Feb 28

Not since Prohibition have so many Americans wanted to commit the same crime at once

88 2.1K 9.9K

Valentina Romanzi @tinanovels.bsky.social · Feb 15

Had the pleasure to get an advance copy, and I very much recommend reading @gua-le-ni.com's dystopian detective novel What We Owe the Dead (rad title!) when it's available next month!
Preorders at www.setmargins.press/books/what-w...

2 2

Valentina Romanzi @tinanovels.bsky.social · Feb 5

The CfP for the AISNA conference is out!
Facing West: Thinking, Living, Outliving the American West
11-13 Sept 2025, Bergamo (Italy)
Stefano Franceschini and I are co-chairing a panel on the Speculative Turn of the Frontier Myth. Send us your proposals by Feb 28!
www.aisna.net/call-for-pap...

Call for Papers

www.aisna.net

Reposted by Valentina Romanzi

Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · Feb 2

l m a o

king's co-op bookstore @kingsbookstore.bsky.social · Feb 2

16 170 1.1K

Valentina Romanzi @tinanovels.bsky.social · Jan 31

L’università in agitazione jacobinitalia.it/luniversita-...

L'università in agitazione - Jacobin Italia

Le prossime settimane saranno cruciali per dar vita a un movimento in cui far convergere tutti i settori universitari, per resistere alla riforma Bernini e imporre nel paese il tema del rifinanziament...

jacobinitalia.it