Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Christopher Deutsch

Philippa Nicole Barr @philippabarr.bsky.social · 58m

My latest article for Health and History @anzshm.bsky.social explores how emotion helped establish new hygienic norms in turn-of-the-century Sydney, revealing how disgust and pride motivated both compliance with and resistance to public health policies on plague and TB:
dx.doi.org/10.1353/hah....

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Julie Greene @greeneland.bsky.social · 7h

I just learned, Thomas Alter, tenured professor, has been terminated effective immediately. Shame on Texas State! We mst build support for Tom. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...

Texas State upholds the firing of associate history professor Thomas Alter

Alter’s termination occurred on Sept. 10, stemming from his remarks at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference on Sept. 7.

spectrumlocalnews.com

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Amílcar E. Challú @amilcarchallu.bsky.social · 13h

Question for #envhist and humanities peeps: I’m working on an outreach plan supporting a wetland restoration project. Does anybody have recommendations of authors or projects using history to increase public awareness on restoration projects?

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Deborah McDowell @dem8z.bsky.social · 12h

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 8h

☹️

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Bryan Edward Stone (שָׁלוֹם) @bestonetx.bsky.social · 8h

Maybe we should have built a giant well instead of a giant bridge.

www.wsj.com/us-news/clim...

This Texas Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water.

A severe drought has Corpus Christi scrambling to meet growing demand from companies like Exxon and Tesla that have invested billions of dollars in the region.

www.wsj.com

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 8h

Police in the US are no strangers to politics

Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD by Max Felker-Kantor

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Jesse Mermell @jessemermell.bsky.social · 1d

He is 13. A 7th grader w/ a pending asylum case. Being held more than 500 miles from home & housed w/ adults. He called his mom crying, & reported that he’s sleeping on concrete w/ an aluminum blanket.

How is this anything other than sick & shameful? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Jason Herbert @herberthistory.bsky.social · 16h

Comanche Chairman Forrest Tahdooahnippah sat down with me last Friday to talk about Comanche history, culture, and so much more. Our new episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert drops right now. Share if you dig it. 1/

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Miquel Ramos @miquelramos.bsky.social · 9h

He conversado con el profesor y amigo @mark-bray.bsky.social sobre su exilio tras las amenazas de la extrema derecha, la situación en los EEUU en este segundo mandato de Trump y las resistencias ante el auge fascista.
En @publico.es

youtu.be/9MF6hGbK5WE?...

Mark Bray conversa con Miquel Ramos: Las amenazas trumpistas y el exilio

YouTube video by Diario Público

youtu.be

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 12h

Christopher Columbus died 270 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, which was 249 years ago, but sure, “we” are back.

[Goose chasing guy gif] “who do you mean by “we” motherfucker”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Trump signs a proclamation: "We're calling it Columbus Day. We're back."

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 9h

Remember we're already in a world of Kavanaugh stops based solely on ethnicity. If you are from a targeted group, this can happen to you no matter what your citizenship status is. What if you forget your wallet at home? You could end up in detention for days or worse.

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10h

Do you want to live in a "papers, please" country?

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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 10h

A massive storm that brought a record storm surge to Alaska was poorly forecast, and “this is one of the clearest possible examples to date where missing upper air soundings due to NWS constraints may have led to a degraded forecast.”

Alan Gerard @wxmanms1.bsky.social · 10h

Sunday a massive storm surge event from the remnants of Typhoon Halong caused catastrophic damage in remote western Alaska. Thanks to @alaskawx.bsky.social for his help with this deep dive, including the forecast challenges in an area dealing with reduced NWS upper air soundings
tinyurl.com/4ycxaez9

Historic coastal flooding strikes western Alaska

Remnants of Typhoon Halong produce hurricane force winds and push massive storm surge inland in Kuskokwim River Delta, destroying and carrying away homes, leaving devastated communities.

tinyurl.com

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 9h

Yeah, because that's worked so well in the past...

From a wiki article;
Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009.[1] Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unprecedented fast and flexible battlefield network. The U.S. Army claimed it was their "most ambitious and far-reaching modernization" program since World War II.[2] Between 1995 and 2009, $32 billion was expended on programs such as this, "with little to show for it".[3]

One of the programs that came out of the $32 billion expenditure was the concept of tracking friendly ("blue") forces on the field via a GPS-enabled computer system known as Blue Force Tracking (BFT). The concept of BFT was

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 13h

This just happened again and it really drives home the extent to which scholarly orgs could build great bridges with museums/historical sites by figuring out how to help them get access to scholarly materials. Those places might, in turn, help support those orgs with people and money.

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 7d

Working at a museum without access to a university library means spending 6 years thinking about/reading Mark Twain & his reception and then every time I think I had an original thought it turns out @mattseybold.bsky.social tweeted it out in the form of a peer-reviewed article a decade ago.

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Reposted by Christopher Deutsch

Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 13h

Check out @egertontrevor.bsky.social's review of Robert E. May's "Debunking the Yule Log Myth: The Disturbing History of a Plantation Legend," published in 2025 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social; review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

www.h-net.org

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 13h

Are we talking domestic manufacturing in the US today? I wrote a piece that explored the industry that never off-shored if your want to read about the costs of remaining:
clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/05/12/t...

The Industry that Stayed: How Meatpacking Remained Domestic

As the Trump administration calls for the return of domestic manufacturing, there is one industry that managed to resist the outsourcing process of the late 20th century. It only required the destr…

clioandthecontemporary.com

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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 13h

Studies are beginning to reveal fissures in the argument that AI boosts productivity, writes Tech Policy Press fellow @eryk.bsky.social. Nonetheless, companies and governments are pouring investments into speculative growth without ample evidence.

Generative AI’s Productivity Myth | TechPolicy.Press

People may be using artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it’s useful, writes Eryk Salvaggio.

www.techpolicy.press

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 1d

Uhg

andybrwn @andybrwn.sfba.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d

Newsom vetoes bill on disclosure of data-center water use | Sacramento Bee (gift link) https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article312472459.html?giftCode=7cc1b57fbde21d5caa17d1736d99df043f15beec42e326bda7b8a0c7d7369804

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 1d

I was young enough that I didn't even notice

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Christopher Deutsch @drchrisdeutsch.bsky.social · 1d

It is hard to truly convey just how big this movie was. Dick Tracey altered my childhood.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

watching the warren beatty DICK TRACEY movie and it is insane? legitimately wild to me that it was a hit?

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 1d

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.

The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.

Read that back.

When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 1d

Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.

FORM A CROWD
STAY LOUD
PROTECT EACH OTHER
CODE I:
ICE NEARBY
BLOW QUICKLY IN A BROKEN RHYTHM:
PRE-PRE-PRE!
→ ALERTS THE COMMUNITY THAT ICE AGENTS ARE IN THE AREA.
ROGERS PARK WHISTLE PROTOCOLS
WHY A WHISTLE? ON THE STREETS
• A SIMPLE TOOL FOR FAST ALERTS.
• LOUD.
RECOGNIZABLE.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
• OUR VOICES ARE
STRONGER TOGETHER.
WHISTLES GUIDE
PEOPLE TO:
• FOLLOW ICE CARAVANS
• CATCH UP WITH THE CROWD
• ALERT NEIGHBORS
TO JOIN IN
NOISE = VISIBILITY.
CODE 2:
CODE RED
BLOW THREE LONG BLASTS:
PREEEE-PREEEE-PREEEE!
→ ICE IS DETAINING SOMEONE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
DON'T STAY SILENT. STAY NONVIOLENT.
WHY IT WORKS
• INSTANT ALERT
SYSTEM
• FASTER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA
• TURNS SILENCE INTO COMMUNITY
ACTION
ORIGINAL FLYER CREATED BY:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• WEAR YOUR WHISTLE AROUND YOUR NECK
TEACH FAMILY
EIGHBORS TH
CODES
• USE IT WHEN ICE IS
SPOTTED
• PROTECT EACH OTHER, ALWAYS
TOGETHER, WE KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
THIS FLYER DISTRIBUTED BY:
PROTECT RP
• @PROTECTRP_

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BikePortland @bikeportland.org · 1d

Amazing Emergency Naked Ride. Here’s the moment thousands of riders rolled through the protests at the ICE facility and cheers erupted. 😮💯

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 1d

Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector.

Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.

Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.

www.nytimes.com

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