Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 1h

The Supreme Court's Republican appointees sound ready to transform the 14th and 15th Amendments into a weapon against the very racial minorities they were meant to protect—handing Republicans 15-19 additional House seats in the process. A disaster for democracy.
slate.com/news-and-pol...

Is it racist to remedy racism? That’s the question at the heart of Callais v. Louisiana, which the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act gives Black Louisianans too much political power—and if so, whether the landmark law violates the Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the Republican-appointed justices seem eager to rule that it does. Throughout oral arguments, they suggested the VRA protects minority voters too effectively, dragging the government into race-conscious considerations that offend the equal protection rights of the white voters who sued in this case. And they floated various ways to gut what remains of the statute by twisting it beyond recognition or striking it down altogether. The result would be a windfall for Republicans, who stand to gain at least 19 seats in the House of Representatives if the Supreme Court frees them to gerrymander Black communities into oblivion. Such a decision would also devastate minority representation in Congress, eliminating up to 30 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus.

22 180 310

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 39m

I guarantee something unintentionally like this has been sold at the immensely and famously sketch South Side BK in Pittsburgh PA. It is back to being real BK now but they run out of (checks notes) Whoppers and also show up on Pittsburgh scanner a fair bit! www.cracked.com/article_2801...

The Story Of The Rogue Burger King In Pittsburgh

Every city has its own fast food urban legend, here's Pittsburgh's.

www.cracked.com

2

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 3h

Continues theme where subhed is some guys were wrongly convicted of the crime

Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 3h

Nassau Police Charge Man With Raping and Killing Teenager in 1984

Theresa Fusco was left in the woods near the roller rink where she had worked. “I loved her and I miss her,” her father said. “She lives in my heart.”

www.nytimes.com

1

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Michael Guertin @guertin.bsky.social · 4h

we are recruiting a postdoc with interest in using genomics and molecular biology to study transcription factors. We have an R35 to fund the project/salary.

1 14 6

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 4h

JAM (3 x 🔫)

👻 Boo!-ver Street Rag @hooverstreetrag.org · 4h

Well he found his little lonely love
His bride of the northern woods
But, she took me to the Opera House
Like she said she would
Then she sighed and she fell from the balcony
Shakespeare's bent to touch
She never had any time for me
'Cause I didn't protest enough

Lake Ontario! Live! @lake-ontario.live · 4h

Current* conditions near Kingston, ON:

1

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

It's Giving Enron

On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash

open.substack.com

37 270 930

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 5h

I present your tRNA CCR4-NOT paper to the ugrads in Advanced Mol Bio but maybe will have to switch it out haha for this one

1

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 6h

Quality control on the font sizes on the new PA license plates is below Cheez It level

1 4

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 19h

I think the only way I would have laughed harder is if you said the Horta. No- not even then!!!

1 1

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 19h

OH MY GOD YOU CRAZY FOR THIS ONE FOUNDIE

1 2

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 19h

That’s the way >>>

2

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 1d

Wait, WHAT? The IRB gone. The IRB!

What an extraordinarily dangerous, harmful, unethical bunch of MAGA and MAHA lackeys we now have running US public health, healthcare, and health research; they have totally lost their moral compass (assuming they once had one?).

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 1d

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Instability and confusion’ as CDC slashes 1,300 jobs before reinstating half

Trump administration says 700 notices were sent in error, while top CDC officer says ‘they didn’t think through what they were doing’

www.theguardian.com

6 39 91

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 20h

Yeah the onion and pickles are so good w brisket on the straight from the bag white bread

9

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 21h

Yeah- exactly www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

1

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 21h

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

1 1 11

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 1d

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

24 540 1.2K

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

The Onion @theonion.com · 22h

Injured Player Gives Thumbs-Down While Being Carted Off Field

16 110 1.5K

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 21h

@dilettante.bsky.social amazing

1

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 22h

Very cool!

Josh Mendell @mendell-lab.bsky.social · 22h

Colliding ribosomes are potent signals of cellular stress. But do cells use ‘programmed’ ribosome collisions to regulate gene expression? I’m excited to present a new story from my lab led by Frederick Rehfeld(@fred-rehfeld.bsky.social) which revealed that the answer is YES! Read on to find out how👇

Oxidative stress sensing by the translation elongation machinery promotes production of detoxifying selenoproteins

Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...

www.biorxiv.org

1 4

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 1d

For Businessweek’s November issue, I have a feature about the high-fee premium credit card war being waged by American Express and Chase for the hearts, minds, and swipes of America’s affluent supershoppers. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Inside the Credit Card Battle to Win America’s Richest Shoppers

The fierce fight between Amex and Chase is playing out over higher fees, extravagant events and every perk imaginable.

www.bloomberg.com

26 49 280

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 22h

It is still hilarious

1 1

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 23h

I hope you were very baroque in letting them know how you feel about that

1 1

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

cryoEM papers @cryoempapers.bsky.social · 23h

Assessing scoring metrics for AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold3 protein complex predictions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41081541/ #cryoem

2 5

Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 1d

Percentiles will go up literally because prob more ties at the top. “Dynamic” calibration is even harder now with random discussion order imo

2

Reposted by Craig Kaplan

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

280 3.2K 5.9K