Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 8h

“The opportunity right now isn't to build a better Twitter or to provide a nice place for people who care about Linux to chat: it's to build infrastructure that vulnerable people can actually use to organize, to communicate safely, and to build community.”— @werd.io werd.io/why-the-open...

Why the open social web matters now

The needs are real – and you have so much power.

werd.io

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 8h

“This model of small, trusted communities that intersect with the public sphere is already at the heart of the open social web. With the right tooling, it has applicability for journalism, for mutual aid, for co-operative culture, for collaborative marketplaces, & for every aspect of public life.“

Why the open social web matters now

The needs are real – and you have so much power.

werd.io

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 17h

Visiting the candidate or rep’s official website to see which account is linked is a time-honored method that won’t be fooled by a better fraudster.

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 17h

If @bsky.app doesn’t have a @safety.bsky.app staffer dedicated to onboarding candidates & helping them authenticate accounts to avoid issues with impersonation & fraud, I hope they do so!The US midterms will only raise the risk of reputational harms to everyone involved. (@janetmillsforME is legit.)

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 18h

Hypothesis: The disconnect between US news media coverage of causes of death and what Americans actually die from is then reflected in what people are scared of & what politicians invest in, or defund. Refocusing attention on causes will help all of us reduce harm.
ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 19h

If you can, please consider donating to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF.ca) on the occasion of my birthday. Their good work healing has never been so needed. I would be grateful if you channel good will into helping save lives: give.doctorswithoutborders.org/campaign/675...?

Donate to Help save lives. Donate now.

Support our cause by donating to Doctors Without Borders. https://give.doctorswithoutborders.org/campaign/675296/donate

give.doctorswithoutborders.org

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Reposted by Alexander Howard

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 1d

Unprecedented corruption

Michael Scherer @michaelscherer.bsky.social · 1d

Follow the money. A timely bet raises eyebrows amid record crypto selloff www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

A Historic Crypto Selloff Erased Over $19 Billion, but Two Accounts Made $160 Million

Ahead of the selloff, two accounts on Hyperliquid placed massive bets that bitcoin and ether would fall.

www.wsj.com

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 2d

Be kind, when you can.

Offer grace, if you’re able.

Render assistance, when needed.

Call for help, if asked.

Pick up the phone, when requested.

Drop by, if possible.

Show up, when your people need you.

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Lauren Harper @laurenleharper.bsky.social · 2d

Good thing @freedom.press filed a FOIA request for all of Bondi’s Truth Social DMs to see what else he’s demanding she do on his janky platform.

(Social media posts from gov officials are federal records, including deleted messages and DMs)

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 2d

This has real -- I intended to dm "Pam" -- energy.

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 2d

I❤️NY

Photo of BY bagels with schmears of cream cheese & a mug with the World Trade Center towers on a sunny morning with conifer trees

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 3d

I know you’re still pro-democracy & civil liberties for all, & still believe that’s what matters.

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 4d

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 3d

For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...

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jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 4d

MIT's response to the Trump admin's proposed "compact" is excellent and should be a model for other universities. orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 4d

🇺🇸 “If YOU hear anybody talk against a schoolmate or anyone else because of their religion, race, or national origin — don’t wait: tell them THAT KIND OF TALK IS UN-AMERICAN”— Superman
www.denofgeek.com/culture/supe...

Restored DC Comics poster showing Superman encouraging students not to stand up against bigotry & prejudice

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 4d

I take the dogs walking in the woods because I wish to live deliberately, to reduce my gaze to only the essential facts of life & death, & determine if I could not learn what nature still has to teach me, & not, whenever I die, discover that I had not fully lived.

(Credit to HD Thoreau.)

#unwiring

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4d

The correct response to Republicans widely depicting the coming protests as terrorism is to go out and protest. Each person should get 10 more people to do so. If Republicans are going to hint at violent state responses to legitimate protest, the only answer is bigger numbers.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 4d

There was never going to be a moment when everyone—everyone in government, everyone in media, everyone in the population—was roused to action at the same time. We're turning a battleship. And Pritzker understands that.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 4d

Who was president in 2020?

Senate Rs spent hours Wed insisting a Biden Censorship Regime was in power.

It’s ridiculous on its face—but dangerous in its purpose.

If you can convince people of that lie, you can justify what Trump is doing now. It’s “just payback”.

open.substack.com/pub/agentsof...

Who was president in 2020?

On pressure, coercion, and confrontations with reality

open.substack.com

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 4d

My neighborhood is full of free expression these days.

I have a feeling many of our Halloween 🎃 pumpkins are going to be …lit this year.

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 4d

No Kings 2 is Saturday, Oct. 18.

Nobody is getting paid to be there. But you can demonstrate to the world that you oppose the rise of fascism in the U.S.

Find your local protest here: www.nokings.org#map

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Sen. Roger Marshall: "October 18 is when the protest gets here. This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 4d

CRS: “If an individual in the US espouses extremist beliefs, such as anarchy or the superiority of the white race, that behavior is generally protected speech under the 1st Amendment.” www.congress.gov/crs-product/...
USAG & WH are pushing this illiberal line.

It’s a predicate for state violence.

Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 5d

The Minority Leader has found his voice, now that Trump’s authoritarianism has been amply reflected in deeds for 262 days after inauguration.
This conflict between Trump & the rule of law in an independent judiciary was inevitable. Best to go to the mats now, before democratic integrity wanes more.

Chuck Schumer @schumer.senate.gov · 5d

This is what tyranny looks like. President Trump is using the Justice Department as his personal attack dog, targeting Attorney General Tish James for the ‘crime’ of prosecuting him for fraud—and winning.

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 6d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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