Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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🦇🧛‍♂️Bram Stoker’s GuitarMoogula🧛‍♂️🦇 @guitarmoog.bsky.social · 57m

The unification of the English kingdoms was, largely, a mistake.

Casmilus @casmilus.bsky.social · 6h

What's your most unhinged Britain opinion?

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EchoesAndDan @echoesanddan.bsky.social · 4h

Why wait until the apocalypse, guys? Like, just half a dozen of you could make the world an infinitely better place overnight.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 8h

www.bbc.com/news/article...

"I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking."

Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?

The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans

www.bbc.com

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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 4h

Friendly reminder that Tidal ($10.99) is now cheaper than Spotify ($11.99), delivers better audio quality, pays its artists 2x as much, and generally doesn't allow AI slop.

You can move your entire music library over in a matter of minutes.

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EchoesAndDan @echoesanddan.bsky.social · 4h

Pretty much anything titled “[Artist] Meets [Other Artist] At [Studio Name].

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EchoesAndDan @echoesanddan.bsky.social · 4h

Absolutely essential.

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Barry Burns @barry.mogwai.scot · 5h

Why is he Bernard Manning meets Paul Weller?

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Chris Sutcliffe @chrissutcliffe.bsky.social · 6h

You know, I think Jared Leto really deserves a role in the Harry Potter franchise

Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 7h

A new report suggests that the disastrous opening weekend for the Jared-Leto-starring sequel may lead to Disney pulling the plug on the Grid once and for all.

'Tron' Might Really Be Doomed After 'Tron: Ares'

A new report suggests that the disastrous opening weekend for the Jared-Leto-starring sequel may lead to Disney pulling the plug on the Grid once and for all.

gizmodo.com

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Jared mumbles into the void @ouchmonkey.bsky.social · 6h

So once upon a time, not so long ago, it was the common consensus that we should try and build a better world for all.
I miss that.

EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 9h

Review | Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Public Works and Utilities by @ouchmonkey.bsky.social

"It's one which continues to deliver delightful results."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/warr...
@warringtonruncorn.com

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Brendan May @brendanmay.bsky.social · 12h

If you are watching the Reform Party controlled Councils with their endless mishaps, resignations, fallouts, scandals, mismanagement and sheer comedic idiocy, but still thinking of making these clowns a national government, representing the UK on the global stage, you are literally insane.

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 9h

Should add really that if you're a smol newsletter bean who would dearly love to NOT be on Substack, then I will happily roll (and manage) a Ghost install for you for cost + a small maintenance fee.

I'll talk you through setting up your own mailgun and stripe. Do that and you keep ALL your revenue.

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 9h

Okay, Ghost V6 integrated with Tinybird for analytics is pretty damn filthy.

Been running @theupfront.media on Ghost for a while as part of our "No Nazi platforms" stack. Very happy with it (and with our Germany-based email hosting instead of Google Business)

The technology you use is a choice.

In many instances, the choice of platform or technology that a publisher makes can no longer be seen as neutral. Nowhere is that more clear than in journalism in the 2020s.

We are proud that The Up Front and all of our supporting digital infrastructure (like our email servers, data storage and collaboration tools) are either self-hosted and managed, or use trusted third parties who have policies that align with our values.

We reject platforms and technologies where our use would represent tacit support for — or tolerance of — the views of their owners or major funders where we disagree fundamentally with those views and the impact they have on the world.

We’re very selective in the socials we operate: we’re on Bluesky as our network of choice and use its atproto as our commenting system, curating a community of thoughtful feedback on our work and elevating other voices. We also have a LinkedIn page, because we understand its importance for our industry audience.

Perhaps more importantly, we don’t use toxic socials like Instagram, Facebook, Threads or X, which drive really unproductive behaviour in media outlets, journalists, readers and companies.

We choose our technical backend and partners carefully, selecting independent European vendors rather than US-based Big Tech, for ethical reasons, for data privacy, and because we care about supporting the good parts of the digital sector in the same way we know our subscribers care about supporting the good parts of the media sector.

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EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 8h

Review | The Necks - Disquiet by @zivljub1.bsky.social

"They have developed a tight empathy and a set of tight instincts, with the three musicians involved always being able to sense where each of them is going, making their runs shift with full sense and logic."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/the-...

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Rocket Recordings @rocketrecordings.bsky.social · 1d

@bruiseblood.bsky.social, the new project by Mike Bourne from @teethofthesea.bsky.social has just released his second single – the stunning, electronic 'shoegaze' noise of 'Until the Sun Breaks Down'.

Watch the mesmerising self made video here:
youtu.be/GaENuOPxhgo?...

Bruise Blood – Until the Sun Breaks Down

YouTube video by Rocket Recordings

youtu.be

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EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 10h

Review | Gazpacho - Magic 8-Ball by @zmnathanson.bsky.social

"Each of the pieces that is on their latest album, details the tragedy, the downfall, and the moments where it comes out of the blue unexpectedly and not knowing the consequences that come with it."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/gazp...

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EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 9h

Review | Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Public Works and Utilities by @ouchmonkey.bsky.social

"It's one which continues to deliver delightful results."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/warr...
@warringtonruncorn.com

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 11h

Carole Malone, "Youu can't say what women's rights are because you're not a woman"

Zack Polanski, "You're not trans are you. We can all say you're not that thing so you can't have an opinion" 🔥

"You can still have an opinion from listening to people"

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Jared mumbles into the void @ouchmonkey.bsky.social · 22h

I didn't even have time to get into the weirdly deep folk horror trigger of the second track
"Is it a kind of dream?"
and the generation specific trauma it calls up.
I think if you know it doesn't need explaining and if you don't it maybe can't be.
It's such a sharp honed little sliver though.

EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 1d

Review | U - Archenfield by @ouchmonkey.bsky.social

"Folklore, weird histories and superstition threaded through uneasy compositions of piano loops, vinyl hiss and odd drones."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/u-ar...

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EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 1d

Review | Chameleons - Arctic Moon by @eklisiewicz.bsky.social

"Burgess’s voice has lost none of its vibrancy and clarity, which is a relief. The band is terrific and the performances are tight."

echoesanddust.com/2025/10/cham...

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EchoesAndDust @echoesanddust.bsky.social · 11h

In Photos | Core Festival 2025 – Saturday 📷Alan Swan Media
Bands include: @defeaterhc.bsky.social, Pest Control and Moni Jitchell (pictured) bit.ly/CorePhotoSat

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RolexTharsus @rolextharsus.bsky.social · 13h

Saw loads of these in the US earlier this year. One got confused by a large vehicle partly blocking a road it wanted to go down, so it just sat on the main road for ages, then reversed towards oncoming traffic. Good luck on those famously wide London streets...

The Independent @the-independent.com · 13h

Waymo launches robotaxi service in London

www.independent.co.uk

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Paul Putner @realpaulputner.bsky.social · 1d

I love my local offy. You already feel drunk before you even step into the premises.

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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 1d

Is there a bigger downgrade than OpenAI going from "we're building the machine god" to "the computer is horny now"?

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Zoe TunnHELL @zoewithasword.bsky.social · 1d

Would it surprise you that the owner of Scientific American's parent company, Stefan von Holtzbrinck, invested $37 million in Inkitt, an AI firm?

What a SHOCK

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 2d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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Girl on the Net @girlonthenet.bsky.social · 1d

Great stuff. Just fucking great. Actual adult creators are drowning under censorship but the robot is allowed to give you bullshit no-ethics, no-soul erotica. Why not.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 1d

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Bo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social · 1d

The use of AI to marionette a woman whose tortured existence was spent trying to carve her own life and identity out of the space men forced her into is both damningly macabre and a surprisingly perfect encapsulation of the problems with this ghoulish use of technology.

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 2d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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The Dreaded Abighoul @popeguilty.bsky.social · 1d

"Look, how about we let you fuck it?" pleaded Altman. "Normally they don't even let me fuck the AI but like, what if we let you fuck the AI? Would you pay monthly for it then?"

Axios @axios.com · 1d

Sam Altman says OpenAI will allow erotica for adult users

In a post on X, Altman also said ChatGPT will engage more personally.

www.axios.com

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