Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 7h

Very interesting episode of the excellent China Global South Podcast on the recent restructuring of Kenya’s debt relating to the Standard Gauge Railway project

Kenya’s China Debt Deal Challenges Old Narratives

Kenya and China have reached a groundbreaking agreement to restructure $3.5 billion in railway loans, converting them from U.S. dollars into Chinese yuan. The move could save Kenya $215 million in deb...

chinaglobalsouth.com

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 9h

Can’t really imagine it as audiobook

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 9h

Primo Levi: Il sistema periodico

1 1

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 9h

I highly recommend Pieter Judson’s “The Habsburg Empire: A New History”

Dominique Reill @dominiquereill.bsky.social · 9h

So glad that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences had the good sense of inviting my dear friend and cherished colleague Pieter Judson membership. He really is a treasure to be treasured. www.amacad.org/new-members-...

1 4

Reposted by Guan Yang

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 2d

War creates two categories of persons: those who
outlive it and those who don’t.

Both carry wounds.

-Anne Carson
#everynightapoem

трайна
"wound"
HISTORY OF WAR: LESSON 2
War creates two categories of persons: those who outlive it and those who don't.
Both carry wounds.

5 50 190

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 11h

Thanks, appreciate it

1 1

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 16h

In vino veritas
In cervisia falsitas

Carolannie 🧹🪄🎃👻🧙‍♀️ @carolannie.bsky.social · 17h

My dad used to say everyone is "a nice guy" when you share a beer with them. It doesn't make them good people.

2 2 10

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 17h

Indeed. Here is one that has not reached Harvard:

Dysprosium Dy 镝 dī

1

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 17h

Gallium Ga 镓 jiā
Germanium Ge 锗 zhě
Graphite 石墨 shímò
Antimony Sb 锑 tī
Tungsten/wolfram W 钨 wū
Bismuth Bi 铋 bì
Magnesium Mg 镁 měi

Blaise Ulysse Bernard Collins @wittywebhandle.bsky.social · 17h

Narrator: "That was a lie."

Current monopolies held by China -
- Gallium: >95%
- Geranium: ~80%
- Natural Graphite: ~70% (Mining) / ~90% (Refining)
- Antimony ~80%
- Tungsten ~80%
- Bismuth ~80%
- Magnesium ~85%
- REE Refining ~85%

Vance Says US Holds More Cards in Escalating China Trade Spat

Vice President JD Vance called on Beijing to “choose the path of reason” in the latest spiraling trade fight between the US and China, claiming that President Donald Trump has more leverage.

www.bloomberg.com

1 1 3

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 19h

When the US government wanted to build green energy in the Tennessee Valley, it did not mess with feed-in tariffs. It did it itself.

7

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 19h

When the US government needed difficult minerals for the Manhattan Project, it did not mess with tax credits and grants. It built massive facilities at Hanford and Oak Ridge.

1 2 12

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 19h

Rare earth refining and processing is difficult, capital intensive and not very profitable. In China it can be left to private enterprise with some industrial policy, but in the United States, the more socialist 国情 means that you need the state to get directly involved.

4 23

Reposted by Guan Yang

Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 1d

Capitalists of the world unite. You have everything to lose, especially your supply chains.

3 12 69

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

It’s weird but yes, in the US it has mostly been /ænˈtiːfə/ in recent years

aohsu @aohsusometimesy.bsky.social · 4d

Here are some nerds trying to process the phonological reasons why it might be pronounced one way or the other. But it’s quite obvious to me that fascists prefer the anTEEfa pronunciation. languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=34177

Language Log » Ask Language Log: How to pronounce "Antifa"?

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

2

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

The Pleco dictionary app is helpful, has a big collection of free and paid dictionaries. Wiktionary also good.

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

France's postal service rolls out croissant-scented stamp 🥐

France's postal service rolls out croissant-scented stamp

France has launched a croissant-scented stamp to celebrate its emblematic flaky pastry, its national postal service, La Poste, announced on Wednesday.

www.france24.com

2 5 12

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

The interchange is cheap but many payment processors for small retailers charge a blended rate for all cards without any discount for debit. If you really want more debit payments, you can shop around for a different processor, but it’s an additional disincentive to the one you mention.

2

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

sfar non puoi la cosa fatta

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

If you showed random fintwit poasts about economic statistics to ChatGPT to break it down, I wonder if it would get it right.

2

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

This is bad but it is common in economics and finance social media (and I believe headlines too) to use “GDP” as shorthand for GDP growth, and it’s a bad habit. Same with CPI and PCE, which has the added confusion of PCE vs PCE deflator.

Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 1d

Hmmm, no i don't think so

Yet according to recent estimates, generative AI now accounts for roughly 40 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. In other words, if the AI spending boom falls apart, it could take down the entire economy with it.

1 5

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

I hate to say it, but may be time for some game theory.

2 7

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

The French eat lots of horse meat but also get super mad about dog meat. Different history.

1

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

To me the weirdest intra-western meat hangup is horse.

1 1

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

More seriously, whether or not you think 10/7 or 9/29 or other measures are a good idea, it’s wild how DC folks see them as the most natural things in the world, never as escalations that might elicit a response or at least complaints.

2 9

Guan Yang @guan.dk · 1d

Our glorious 50% rule

Their barbaric 50% rule

2 1 10