Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 21h

He really thinks he's got a great catchphrase going.

Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 23h

Facial expressions common to all humans! 🙃

PainChek is one of these behavioral models, and it acts like a camera‑based thermometer, but for pain: A care worker opens the app and holds a phone 30 centimeters from a person’s face. For three seconds, a neural network looks for nine particular microscopic movements—upper‑lip raise, brow pinch, cheek tension, and so on—that research has linked most strongly to pain. Then the screen flashes a score of 0 to 42. “There’s a catalogue of ‘action‑unit codes’—facial expressions common to all humans. Nine of those are associated with pain,” explains Kreshnik Hoti, a senior research scientist with PainChek and a co-inventor of the device. This system is built directly on the foundation of FACS. After the scan, the app walks the user through a yes‑or‑no checklist of other signs, like groaning, “guarding,” and sleep disruption, and stores the result on a cloud dashboard that can show trends.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 22h

I don't want Copilot or Gemini, I want to be able to paste a bullet-point list from a Word document into an email.

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 1d

I uploaded my first #college recommendation letter of the year last night, and discovered that #Naviance (the platform many schools use to submit college applications to the Common App program) now has an LLM-based "assistant" for writing these rec letters. #EduSky

Part of an online flyer from PowerSchool's Naviance platform. It reads:

AI Powered Letter of
Recommendation
EFFORTLESS LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION WITH AI
ASSISTANCE
Naviance’s AI-powered Letters of Recommendation tool helps
teachers quickly create personalized, high-quality letters
using existing student data. It supports privacy, flexibility,
and full editorial control, addressing time constraints, large
caseloads, and incomplete profiles.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 1d

sometimes I think about how Billy Strings and Alicia Keys are the same stage name concept

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 1d

I somehow haven't had anyone give me a hard time about it, but I would probably end up grumbling something about how self-employed people don't get paid sick days.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 1d

I had a mentor who was a composer with like seven part-time jobs and I guess I thought that sounded doable. (And now here I am! Full-time freelancing is kind of like having seven part-time jobs! And one of them is editing/indexing music theory textbooks, so I do actually use my undergrad degree!)

nai THEE corpse bride 🦋 @astoldbynai.blacksky.app · 1d

7. Why did you want to major in your major?

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 1d

I used to do a Twitter search for "57 states" from time to time, and I always found posts from *that day* where conservatives were still bringing it up.

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 1d

I'm generalizing, but why do conservatives remember political irritations for so much longer than liberals?

It's been 17 years since Obama said some voters "cling to their guns, to their religion" and I heard a senator denounce that last month.

Obvious theory: Media ecosystem puts it on repeat

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine caring about Kaepernick in the year of our lord 2025

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 1d

sometimes I think about how that guy from two of my current favorite bands has the names of *both* elder Large Adult Sons

(I, of course, also share part of my name with a public figure who sucks)

Screenshot from the Wikipedia page for Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats / Bonny Light Horseman) showing that his middle name is Donald.

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Allison Van Deventer @allisonvandev.bsky.social · 1d

Check it out: we turned our September "Identify Your Audience and Find Target Presses" webinar into a free self-paced course, with video clips and a worksheet!

(We took out all the info that would have identified participants and their projects and re-recorded some clips)

#AcademicSky

Katelyn E. Knox @katelynknox.bsky.social · 6d

Get a taste of our teaching styles and learn how to identify your audience more succinctly in this FREE course.

workshops.dissertationtobook.com/l/pdp/audience

#academicbookcentral #academicwriting #freeworkshop

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 2d

Mike Johnson is as if "I haven't seen the tweet" was a muppet.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 3d

Routledge index turnaround time

Alicia Chantal @freshlookediting.ca · 3d

Halloween is coming! Share a 4-word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

You forgot tracked changes.

Elizabeth d'Anjou @elizdanjou.bsky.social · 3d

In honor of Hallowe'en coming up, share a 4-word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Copyedit this in Adobe.

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Charles T. Downey @ionarts.bsky.social · 3d

First encore at the Ronn McFarlane-Paul O'Dette lute duo recital today: John Dowland's "My Lord Chamberlain, His Galliard" - for two people to play on a single lute. And I thought playing piano, four hands, was tricky to coordinate!

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Emily "Babe" St. James @emilystjams.bsky.social · 3d

If we really put our heads together and keep the evening of December 24 clear, I am convinced we can Christmas Carol this man.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump: "I don't think there's anything that's gonna get me in heaven. I think I'm not maybe heaven bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make heaven."

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 3d

I had a whole existential crisis a few months ago when I was asked to fact-check an AI-generated summary of a meeting I attended. What is a summary? What is meaning? What is accuracy? Will I be able to read in the future if it's all Like This?

(And then I insisted on taking notes next time.)

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 5d

AI “summaries” are not summaries but slop

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 4d

Oops! All Virtuosos 🤩

Sierra Hull and her band on stage, from the balcony.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 4d

I am the most "grape juice and grocery store bread and it's not literally Jesus" Baptist, but this whole thing is making me so emotional. 😭

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 4d

What Fr Dowling is doing here was not just "offering communion to detainees". A full on Eucharistic Procession is a really fucking big deal. In Catholic theological framing, those folks were the honor guard with the very great privilege of escorting Jesus himself to the detention center.

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 4d

I live down a hill from one of those Cute Walkable Towns and would 100% get hit by a car if I tried walking up it. 🫠

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 4d

Vienna Teng

Quintessa Knight @quietblkgrl.blacksky.app · 4d

What would be the wildest concert for a fight to break out at?

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Marian Wilson Kimber @mwilsonkimber.bsky.social · 4d

Here's my essay about how one concert program in the State Historical Society of Iowa—now being dismantled—changed my life: www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/10/10/t....

The theft of history

Marian Wilson Kimber: I have wondered if the box of women’s club programs that changed my life will end up in the dumpster.

www.bleedingheartland.com

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 4d

There must be some mistake, I read 50 Atlantic articles about how RFK Jr just wants to help Americans eat more vegetables

Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 5d

They continue to eviscerate the public health machinery that has quietly kept Americans, and others around the world, safe and healthy for decades.

The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off. The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic.

Roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — the so-called “disease detectives” who respond to outbreaks around the globe — received layoff notices, according to a person familiar with them. The service was spared during an earlier round of layoffs in February.

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Reposted by Erin K. Maher

Laura Belin @laurarbelin.bsky.social · 5d

Marian Wilson Kimber: It’s painful to realize the people in charge of Iowa’s history apparently have no idea how history works. If they did, they'd know there is no way to predict what parts of the collection will be of interest 5, 20, or 100 years from now. www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/10/10/t...

The theft of history

Marian Wilson Kimber: I have wondered if the box of women’s club programs that changed my life will end up in the dumpster.

www.bleedingheartland.com

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 5d

Well, it doesn't surprise me that a British person said it that way, just that a US dictionary validated it, since I've heard that pronunciation before but (I think?) only from British people...

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 5d

I always thought of that as a US/UK distinction, but even Merriam-Webster has "fāt" as the first pronunciation and "fet" as the second, which surprised me. 🤔

Definition of FETE

festival; a lavish often outdoor entertainment; a large elaborate party… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

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Erin K. Maher @erinkmaher.bsky.social · 5d

new Madison Cunningham very good, but I listened to that this morning