Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 2h

Devastated to learn that Steven Pinker is Canadian.

universityaffairs.ca/news/parliam...

Parliament reviews EDI for research grants - University Affairs

Witnesses testify for and against applying diversity criteria to scientific funding.

universityaffairs.ca

Reposted by Lone Bacterium 🌻

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 7h

If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.

We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.

Vlad 🐸 Țepeș @porcupunk.bsky.social · 20h

Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."

When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?

Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do

www.forbes.com

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 1d

Russia strikes Kharkiv hospital, UN convoy as Ukraine seeks US Tomahawks www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

Russia strikes Kharkiv hospital, UN convoy as Ukraine seeks US Tomahawks

Latest attacks on civilians come days before talks in which Zelenskyy hopes to secure long-range missiles from Trump.

www.aljazeera.com

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Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 1d

Palestine’s most popular leader, Marwan Barghouti, was beaten unconscious and has his ribs broken by Israeli prison guards and his family fears for his life, his son has said, citing evidence given by former Palestinian detainees released this week as part of the ceasefire deal.

Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti assaulted by Israeli prison guards, son says

Family fears for 66-year-old’s life after assault while he was being transferred between prisons

www.theguardian.com

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 1d

Rogue state shit:
" I am proud that we treat flotilla activists as supporters of terrorism, [Ben-Gvir] told the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. They should experience the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before returning to Israel. That’s how it works."

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 1d

Greta Thunberg: “Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me”

• They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me
• Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked
• She was filmed while stripped naked

Aftonbladet: tinyurl.com/a33vxatc

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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 2d

“‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat *** Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.”

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 2d

Does it count as a cover if it's a folk song, or is it a rendition? Regardless:

youtu.be/PyUI2HO24MI?...

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 2d

I didn't know until recently that this is a cover song

youtu.be/VV1XWJN3nJo?...

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 2d

Dunno about favourite, but I don't think anyone has posted this banger yet - Les Claypool's Duo de Twang covering the Bee Gees's Stayin' Alive
youtu.be/axu_Yek9n4I?...

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 8d

The destruction of Gaza. Genocide.

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Tim Mak @timkmak.bsky.social · 7d

To read about Ukrainian anarchists who joined the army – people who once rejected all forms of hierarchy, yet chose to fight not for the state, but for freedom, for their loved ones, and for those whose homes were destroyed – click the link!

The Anarchists (yes, anarchists) in Ukraine’s military

Even Ukrainian anarchists felt compelled to join the army to fight against Russia, despite opposing the concept of the state. One of them, Faust, joined to fight for the freedom of his loved ones.

www.counteroffensive.news

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Russ Frankenstein (no relation) @russ41.bsky.social · 11d

Time for a thread of all the things that Stephen Miller and his band of morons are doing to make enemies of state/local authorities.

Let's start things off with some spice for the CPD.

Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 11d

ICE is pepper spraying CPD (Chicago police)

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 6d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 10d

"None of the tickets given to minister vehicles were going less than 11 kilometres over the limit" This is in line with the Toronto Star report that said that one has to exceed the speed limit by at least 11 km/hr to get fined. www.thestar.com/news/gta/wha...

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trick van treat @derek.bike · 10d

the folks who are making a big deal about banning speed cameras sure have been caught by speed cameras a lot

Vehicles registered to Ford cabinet ministers caught by speed cameras more than 20 times | Globalnews.ca

Documents obtained by Global News reveal that, over three years, vehicles registered to Ford’s cabinet minister received more than $3,300 in fines for speeding.

globalnews.ca

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10d

This was published the day after the Heaton Park terrorist attack. I find its grim combination of antisemitism, conspiracy fictions and agrarian populism deeply worrying, as this is how it all kicked off a century ago. 🧵
farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...

Zionist Money Rules • Farms Not Factories

The purpose of our newsletter is to give you important information that is censored in the mainstream media. “The way... Read More

farmsnotfactories.org

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halyapuff.bsky.social @halyapuff.bsky.social · 11d

Doctor first abducted from occupied Donbas in 2015 sentenced to 15 years ‘for spying for Ukraine’
khpg.org/en/1608815156
#Serhiy_Petryk

Doctor first abducted from occupied Donbas in 2015 sentenced to 15 years ‘for spying for Ukraine’

Serhiy Petryk spoiled the propaganda video which is one of the reasons for these travesties, by saying he was innocent and a Ukrainian citizen, and doing so in Ukrainian

khpg.org

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The Kyiv Independent @kyivindependent.com · 11d

⚡️Explosions rock western Ukrainian cities as Russia launches large-scale drone attack.

Russia launched a wave of drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, overnight on Oct. 5.

The Air Force has warned of Russian drones approaching various regions of Ukraine.

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 11d

🙃

Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš wins Czech parliamentary election | Czech Republic | The Guardian share.google/69D2t3sMp3z4...

Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš wins Czech parliamentary election

With Babiš’s victory the Czech Republic looks set to join Hungary and Slovakia in refusing support for Ukraine

share.google

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 13d

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵

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Lone Bacterium 🌻 @lonebacterium.bsky.social · 12d

"According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket from a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit."

Unofficial TorontoStar (All News) @torontostar-rss.bsky.social · 12d

What’s the threshold for a ticket from a Toronto speed camera? Here’s what the Star has found

For the first time, the Star can report the threshold for a ticket when driving over the posted speed limit — at least in Toronto and other large municipalities nearby.

www.thestar.com

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Salome @salome-gongadze.bsky.social · 13d

"I was offered a plea deal – an admission of guilt in exchange for a lighter sentence – but I refused. To reconcile with injustice is to be buried alive."
The U.S.'s institutions pale in comparison to the bravery of Georgia's beleaguered opposition.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

From my prison cell in Georgia, I implore Europe not to abandon us to Russia | Mzia Amaglobeli

My fellow journalists are putting their lives in danger every day, but we refuse to surrender to a regime that threatens Europe’s own security, says imprisoned Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli

www.theguardian.com

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Elektra @elektrac.bsky.social · 13d

This is the analysis I’ve been waiting to read. I couldn’t agree more that we have to find the moral courage to rise to this difficult moment- a moment that demands a particular character, clarity, and bravery.

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 13d

this piece has been in the works a while but honestly i could not have asked for a better foil than ezra klein's interview with ta-nehisi coates. klein longs for peacetime--but you don't get to decide when you're in a fight.

www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 13d

ICE is buying a location tracking tool that harvests data from hundreds of millions of phones a day. Protect your location data by updating a few settings on your phone 🧵 (1/4): www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

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Unofficial TorontoStar (All News) @torontostar-rss.bsky.social · 13d

Toronto hospital housing model ‘a gift’ to residents as ER visits reduced by half

TORONTO - Every time Jason Miles walked out of prison, he would be bigger, stronger and meaner.

www.thestar.com

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