Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 12h

Veteran entrepreneur Steve Blank explains the vital role of publicly funded research universities in industrial development — with an eye to how DOGE is throwing away a national strength. steveblank.com/2025/10/13/n...

Why Have Scientists? Why Not Just a Country of Engineers, Entrepreneurs and VCs (or AI)?
If you’ve read so far, you might be scratching your head and asking, “Why do we have scientists at all? Why pay for people to sit around and think? Why spend money on people who run experiments when most of those experiments fail? Can’t we replace them with AI?”
The output of this university-industry-government science partnership became the foundation of Silicon Valley, the aerospace sector, the biotechnology industry, Quantum and AI. These investments gave us rockets, cures for cancer, medical devices, the Internet, Chat GPT, AI and more.
Investment in science is directly correlated with national power. Weaken science, you weaken the long-term growth of the economy, and national defense.
Tech firms’ investments of $100s of billions in AI data centers is greater than the federal government’s R&D expenditures. But these investments are in engineering not in science. The goal of making scientists redundant using artificial general intelligence misses the point that AI will (and is) making scientists more productive – not replacing them.
Countries that neglect science become dependent on those that don’t. U.S. post-WWII dominance came from basic science investments (OSRD, NSF, NIH, DOE labs). After WWII ended, the UK slashed science investment which allowed the U.S. to commercialize the British inventions made during the war.
The Soviet Union’s collapse partly reflected failure to convert science into sustained innovation, during the same time that U.S. universities, startups and venture capital created Silicon Valley. Long-term military and economic advantage (nuclear weapons, GPS, AI) trace back to scientific research ecosystems.

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Ann Powers @annkpowers.bsky.social · 14h

D'Angelo was remarkable in so many ways. I'm saddest right now, as a fan, that we won't be getting an eccentric late period from him. His contributions remain inestimable but what he would have made in his 50s and onward, I just know it would have been amazing. RIP

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 18h

That’s a great choice. I’ve played XTC ‘Skylarking’ when a late-afternoon thunderstorm runs through our sweltering Southern burg. It fits.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 2d

George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby” and “Whatever Gets You Through The Night,” though?

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 3d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 3d

Oh that long working-it-out track on the OJC ‘Thelonious Himself’ CD is so revealing. And ‘Feast of Wire’ is Calexico’s apex. Hope you enjoy it all.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 3d

I ordered this and I can’t wait to read it.

John Lingan @johnlingan.bsky.social · 3d

BACKBEATS is out one month from today and it’s a real book! One that Kirkus says is great! johnlingan.com to preorder.

BACKBEATS
A HISTORY of
ROCK AND ROLL' in FIFTEEN DRUMMERS
JOHN LINGAN

A two-page spread of photos featuring the Rollibg Stones, Earl Palmer, and more.

"Fascinating reading...Loud but often overlooked, drummers get their due in this entertaining survey...Lingan does a terrific job explaining the technical aspects of drumming to a lay audience; this book is accessible to any rock fan, even ones who don't know the difference between a snare and a tom."
—Kirkus Reviews

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 4d

you know what this memo could have used is an editor

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 4d

Here's the full memo.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 5d

“Anything in English”

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 5d

Fifth Third rolls off the tongue like

The 6ths - Wasps' Nests

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Wasps' Nests by The 6ths. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 6d

All I hear is “Bet on Skubal, he might win.” Born in Hayward, Calif., even, and played Little League there.

Lead Belly - "Stewball"

YouTube video by SmithsonianFolkwaysRecordings

youtu.be

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 6d

Ottorini Respighi wrote a piece in 1924 calling for a recording of a nightingale to be played alongside the musicians’ score, in a forerunner of the practice of sampling.

His wife lived to be nearly 102 and could have heard ‘All Eyez On Me,’ another canonical work that featured sampling.

From a record jacket: “The third section depicts ‘Pines of the Janiculum,’ one of the many hills of Rome. This section takes place at midnight and Respighi wanted a nightingale singing. Realizing that no soprano or combination of instruments could achieve the exact effect he had in mind, he forever confounded purists by requesting that a phonograph record of a real nightingale be played from the orchestra.”

The record jacket from a Deutsche Grammophone recording of Respighi’s Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 8d

The stepmom on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’

bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 8d

Darrin on ‘Bewitched’
Becky on ‘Roseanne’
Marilyn Munster

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 9d

Like @sarahkendzior.bsky.social says, if he fears he will have to make a personal sacrifice, he will sacrifice the world instead.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 9d

If you watch closely, you'll see they're doing this opposite an actual funeral procession.

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 9d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 10d

Look nobody ever had autism before we were aware of and capable of diagnosing autism, you merely had a second son who was “touched” and he joined the monastery where he was known for communing with the birds.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 10d

The cover of ‘Head Hunters’ by Herbie Hancock

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 10d

I looked up the record: The 1999 Red Sox scored 23 runs in a postseason game. Seven runs in the first two innings, and 18 in the first five. www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BO...

bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 13d

And a creative way to hide it. So good!

My recent revisit has picked track 5, “Oddysee of a Cancer Cell,” as the centerpiece. So much good stuff from top to bottom. Wild record.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 13d

Been all over this one lately. The ones you might not remember are as good as the ones you do. Every track gives you something, from 1-99. #IYKYK

A 1992 CD, ‘Yerself Is Steam’ by Mercury Rev

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 13d

There was a persistent myth about Bessie Smith dying that way, refuted by Chris Albertson in the last chapter of his 1972 biography. There was even an Edward Albee play describing the circumstances incorrectly.

The cover of ‘Bessie’ by Chris Albertson

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 14d

That’s awesome.

Yep, quick and easy access is essential. It’s a reading and listening room! Grab the first Los Lobos album and put it on! You know where it is, right there next to Little Feat! (And Nick Lowe!)

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 14d

As if reading by the lamp, listening to something great, and keeping an eye on a ballgame up in the corner isn’t a great way to spend an evening.

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bonanos @bonanos.bsky.social · 14d

We get people who comment on the little 19” TV in our front room with the books and records too. (We have a bigger one elsewhere, I assure them.)

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