Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 2h

It's been a long time since a monologue by a comedian has made me cry helplessly with laughter but Josh's tale of radioactive shrimp and impolite behaviour in a car just did it.
youtu.be/mX85JmYVswQ?...

Radioactive Retail: Walmart’s Wildest Shrimp Yet

YouTube video by Josh Johnson

youtu.be

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 3h

Cy Canterel has made a clear exposition of the problem with #AI. As OpenAI pivots to #porn (they call it adult entertainment) as subscriptions don't materialise it's clear that this whole AI project is an inflated #Enron-style circular transaction #bubble.
youtu.be/pQ0zrQaYt3k?...

The Crumbling of the AI Colossus

YouTube video by Cy Canterel

youtu.be

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Reposted by Tom Spoors

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 5h

There’s a Martin Hollis paper where he points out the ambiguity of the conservative maxim ‘Help yourself.’

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Reposted by Tom Spoors

Inequality News @inequalitynews.bsky.social · 2d

🙂

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 15h

The youth are more than OK!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTiV...

The Spirit of Radio - High school teen band class crushes this Rush classic!

YouTube video by AW PW Vids

www.youtube.com

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 16h

Because "covert" now means "overt".

Not that the CIA or other spy agencies aren't already in Venezuela acting in their own countries' leaders' interests.

Willow @rockshrimp.bsky.social · 17h

Good this never goes badly every single time because the CIA are definitely competent.

Steve Merelman @smerelman.bsky.social · 17h

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 16h

Damien's video essays are among some of the best.
His blend of critique and political analysis wrapped around a core of well-understood sci-fi tropes is not for everyone, but his analysis of Stephen Miller in light of "The Camp of the Saints" is informative and watchable.
youtu.be/ImZKh3SqSmo?...

The science fiction book that perverted Stephen Miller

YouTube video by Science Fiction with Damien Walter

youtu.be

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 17h

Citizen's arrest of a CEO!
youtube.com/post/UgkxJwD...

Post from Novara Media - YouTube

Activists detained Mark Thurston, CEO of Anglian Water at a south London station, attempting to place him under citizen's arrest for public nuisance. Video s...

youtube.com

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Reposted by Tom Spoors

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 19h

Israel sent back Greta Thunberg’s luggage scrawled with “Whore Greta”, an Israeli flag, and a penis.

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 21h

As an Cambridge Examiner for C1 and C2 English, it's clear to me that non-native learners of English are already held to a higher standard of English than many natives.

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

Wow! A fascinating possibility. Definitely one for the #Trekkies!

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

What do you think when you see this hand sign? Live long and prosper? Well this is a headstone in the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt maybe 400 years old. It’s the sign of the kohanim priestly blessing, which Leonard Nimoy is said to have remembered from his childhood, and which he adopted for Spock.

A pair of hands both showing the characteristic four fingered V used in Star Trek.

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

She has a knack playing evil characters. Did you see her in Luther (Idris Elba's angry London cop)?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AB_...

Do you believe in Evil? - Alice & Luther - Luther - BBC

YouTube video by BBC Studios

www.youtube.com

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

What are the odds that UK politicians, with their paternalistic, post-colonial mindsets will actually listen to either the people in Palestine or marching for Palestine?
youtube.com/shorts/uu9S6...

Londoners Do Not Like Tony Blair

YouTube video by Novara Media

youtube.com

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

The law new requires reading, listening, writing and speaking at A level standard.
As a Cambridge English C2 examiner, this is a standard that many English natives would find difficult. We already hold people learning English as a foreign language to a similar, if not higher, standard than natives.

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

DNC appears to want a gerontocracy by aiding 79-year-old Mills rather than the popular oysterman who's gaining significant grassroots support.

The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry why is a Democrat running against the lovable oysterman?

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 The DSCC — led by Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Kelly, Adam Schiff, and Lisa Blunt Rochester — has formed a joint fundraising committee with Janet Mills.

Mills, running against Graham Platner in the Maine Democratic Senate primary, would become the oldest freshman (79) ever elected, to a 6-year term.

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

Clever commentary and toilet humour. All for the price of one in a one-time BOGOF deal.

jane fae @janefae.bsky.social · 1d

Some thoughts on Zach Polanski turning out to be rather good at this politics lark.

1. By raising issues like wealth tax, and Brexit, he has not so much shifted the Overton Window, as re-opened the awkward loo window that over-looked the garden, but has been rusted shut for the last decade

Reposted by Tom Spoors

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

Definitely nothing can go wrong with OpenAI having a full record of your sexy chatbot interactions.

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Reposted by Tom Spoors

Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 1d

never has there been a solution looking more desperately for a problem than ChatGPT

The Verge @theverge.com · 1d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

Some of the most thoughtful young adult literature ever written. The HBO version wasn't bad.

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

How would you fit 49 days into the x-axis scale!😑

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

The GCSE grades expect about half to get a C at GCSE ordinary. Being able to criticise Beowolf or demonstrate a deep understanding of Shakespeare or Dante hardly seems doable for most people. Anyway I thought the humanities were 'cowboy' degrees.

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Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

A mindless headline from Scientific American. It isn't Marilyn Monroe, it's image theft.

Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · 1d

“Copyright growing pains” is one hell of a euphemism for the biggest IP theft in history

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 3d

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

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

How about all politicians vaguely demonstrating some social worth. As they are clearly special, we can leave the proofs for later.

Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 2d

“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

Aldous Huxley

Tom Spoors @tomspoors.bsky.social · 1d

As a bloke, I have no issue with changing weather. I have 365/365 clothes. So much easier that way!

Rachel Holliday Smith @rachelholliday.bsky.social · 2d

ok I swapped all my summer and winter clothes so it’s gonna STAY COLD NOW RIGHT??? [shakes fist at sky] no more FUNNY BUSINESS??? [scowls threateningly at the atmosphere]

Reposted by Tom Spoors

Keith Frankish @keithfrankish.com · 1d

A Blue Peter make from 1634 (Muscovie glass was the sticky backed plastic of the day)

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 1d

“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀
⠀
From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path — publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1450880306207240194/photo/1...

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