Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Andy Carvin

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 13h

Even PBS can't be bothered to note that something is a little ODD about giving such an honor to a billionaire-funded social media troll who spent his days tricking dim teens into believing sexism and racism was acceptable

not even a passing, vague reference to him being "controversial"

PBS News @pbsnews.org · 13h

President Donald Trump will honor influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Tuesday with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the White House can bestow on a civilian. https://to.pbs.org/3J8JYDA

WATCH LIVE: Trump awards Charlie Kirk posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom

President Donald Trump will honor influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Tuesday with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the White House can bestow on a civilian.

www.pbs.org

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 13h

"Many of these trees were my friends. Creatures I had known from nut or acorn. They had voices of their own!"

PoPville @popville.bsky.social · 16h

Scroll down post for a before photo/river view: www.popville.com/2025/10/dc-t...

What the Helen of Troy Happened to the Trees at the Kennedy Center!?! Willow trees gone - PoPville

Thanks to P. for sending this jarring sight from the Kennedy Center: "Willow trees on the Kennedy center terrace razed: Before the cutting: Updates when/if more is learned.

www.popville.com

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 14h

The Assad government carried out a two-year clandestine operation to truck thousands of bodies from one of Syria’s largest known mass graves to a secret location more than an hour away in the remote desert, a Reuters investigation has found.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 14h

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week vetoed a bill to restrict children's access to AI companions and signed a narrower measure imposing transparency requirements on such products, largely siding with tech industry groups who lobbied aggressively on the bills.
buff.ly/seprPU1

Newsom Sides with Tech Lobby in AI Companion Standoff | TechPolicy.Press

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed an AI companion bill backed by consumer advocates and signed one embraced by the tech industry.

www.techpolicy.press

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 14h

"Covering your face with sunglasses and a mask can work, but it also makes you look like the faceless law enforcement officers of the other side. Protesters have embraced practical whimsy by becoming frogs, dinosaurs, and Pikachus."

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 14h

"Being a frog at a protest also serves a privacy purpose, makes it more difficult for surveillance cameras and facial recognition systems to identify protesters. Police are using AI powered camera systems to identify people who appear at protests and protecting your identity in a crowd is key."

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 14h

"A frog [..] standing up to ICE covered in weapons and armor is absurd, and that’s part of why it’s hitting so hard. But the frog is also a practical piece [..] in an age of mass surveillance, police brutality, and masked federal agents disappearing people"
www.404media.co/the-surreal-...

The Surreal Practicality of Protesting As an Inflatable Frog

Say goodbye to the Guy Fawkes masks and hello to inflatable frogs and dinosaurs.

www.404media.co

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 14h

This is fucked up on *so many* levels.

Politico @politico.com · 15h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 15h

"The UN’s humanitarian office in Gaza received word of the cuts from the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, according to spokesperson Olga Cherevko. US officials and intl aid groups were also notified...The Israeli government did not immediately comment."

Israel to halve aid into Gaza over slow return of dead hostages, a test for fragile ceasefire

The tenuous ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war is being tested as complex issues remain a day after widespread jubilation over the return to Israel of the last 20 living hostages held in Gaza ...

apnews.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 16h

"I used to be a freelance wedding photographer. I was looking for a job, and I came across an advertisement for female de-miners, so I applied and since then it's become like a big family to me."

- Mofida Majzoub, who leads de-mining operations in Syria for @minesadvisorygroup.bsky.social

This wedding photographer now removes landmines for a group that's won a top prize

The Mines Advisory Group has been removing landmines for more than three decades. This year, it received the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a prestigious award with a $3 million prize.

www.npr.org

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 16h

Damn. Way too young.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 16h

D'Angelo has died after a battle with pancreatic cancer, his former manager says. He was 51

D'Angelo Dead at 51

Grammy-winning R&B soul singer D'Angelo is dead from pancreatic cancer ... TMZ has learned.

www.tmz.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 17h

"Blood, Frogs...."

Up next: lice costumes?

Beyond Solitaire @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social · 17h

Swiped from a religious studies friend.

Portland frogs with the text: "Exodus 8:2-6: But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs... The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 17h

Umm.

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 17h

I'm sorry, is the Trump Administration talking to a tech platform?

Is it...requesting content moderation?

Today following outreach from @thejusticedept, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target @ICEgov agents in Chicago.
The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 19h

Alex Jones, rejected:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Supreme Court turns away Alex Jones' attempt to block huge defamation judgment

The conspiracy theorist had asked the justices to immediately intervene, warning that the ownership of his Infowars website could be transferred to satirical news site The Onion.

www.nbcnews.com

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19h

wow. bezos has destroyed this paper.

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 19h

Woah, new Sunn O))) just dropped - and via @subpop.bsky.social no less

sunn O))) - Eternity's Pillars (Official Audio)

YouTube video by sunn O))) Band Official

www.youtube.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 19h

@npr.org's Tom Bowman: "I've held my Pentagon press pass for 28 years....Did I as a reporter solicit information? Of course. It's called journalism: finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says."

Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass

Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scen...

www.npr.org

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 1d

Nonplussed.

Mediagazer @mediagazer.com · 1d

Apple says Apple TV+ streaming service is being renamed as Apple TV, with "a vibrant new identity" (Eric Slivka/MacRumors)

Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 2d

The AI slop featured on Facebook Reels plumbs new depths of recklessness. Today it's showing me fake footage of the Dome of the Rock on fire.

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 2d

There's something particularly Lynchian during @bennjordan.bsky.social's video on infrasound when he attempts to record the sound of a bison.

Infrasound: What You Can't Hear CAN Hurt You

YouTube video by Benn Jordan

www.youtube.com

Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 2d

The Ghorman episodes. Oof.

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 3d

All is not lost; we have friends everywhere.

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 3d

It’s this multiple times a day

They don't even bother to lie badly anymore.
I suppose that's the final humiliation.

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

Eric Goldman @ericgoldman.bsky.social · 3d

"federal judges called SCOTUS’s emergency orders “mystical,” “overly blunt,” “incredibly demoralizing & troubling” & “a slap in the face to the district courts.” One judge compared their district’s current relationship with SCOTUS to “a war zone”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 3d

"The president has already announced that if a judge does rule against him, he will invoke the Insurrection Act and then continue the military deployments. This is where we’ve been headed since January 6, 2021."

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Andy Carvin

Ernie Smith @ernie.tedium.co · 3d

I feel like this theory also explains why the “Trump is weird” approach that Walz hit on last year was so effective and why everything fell apart once the consultants got involved and told him to act normal.

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 3d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 3d

@gregsargent.bsky.social: "He & Trump are trying as hard as possible to provoke violent responses to these invasions because they want them to create yet another pretext to escalate further. They will stop at nothing when it comes to the level of propagandizing they'll do to make it seem justified."

On the Media @onthemedia.bsky.social · 3d

.@gregsargent.bsky.social on Stephen Miller’s covert plan to normalize Trump’s dictatorial moves, and how to fight back:
https://lnk.to/onthemedia/bluesky

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