Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 11h

Another Sydney Powerhouse museum cockup. There's been many.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Why a Sydney pub rock legend's drums are heading to Melbourne

Midnight Oil are Sydney rock royalty, but the drum kit that stuck with the band for more than 40 years is heading to a Melbourne music museum.

www.abc.net.au

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 15h

"The result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcasts reach millions,"

That's the whole point. He reached millions of people. He deserves a financial death penalty. A minor inconvenience compared to the victims, their families and first responders.

Reposted by Ken

Matt Round @mattround.com · 20h

OpenAI’s strategy is very clear, it’s trying to get people - especially young people - so reliant on its products intellectually & emotionally (& now sexually!) that going without them becomes unthinkable. And they need signs of that strategy working to keep the funding flowing in

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

Fortunately I only had minor pain in injection site for a few days. Totally worth it. My dad, now 96, almost went blind as a young man but was fortunate to recieve one of the then very first medical treatment drugs from his Dr.

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Mark Ogge @markogge.bsky.social · 1d

What do you get when Big Gas lobbyists AEP get scandal ridden consultants EY to do “modelling” to influence the Government’s policies?

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

ACCC urged to probe 'distorted research' behind government gas policy

Advocacy group Climate Integrity has accused the gas industry of using "distorted research", produced by the accounting firm EY, to influence the Australian government's Future Gas Strategy.

www.abc.net.au

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 1d

This is a great, detailed piece of work. There is really no secret here: OpenAI fully intend to use fossil gas to power their data centres.

All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:

www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...

John McCarrick, the company’s new head of Global Energy Policy, was a senior energy policy advisor in the first Trump administration’s Bureau of Energy Resources in the Department of State while under former Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.

As deputy assistant secretary for Energy Transformation and the special envoy for International Energy Affairs, McCarrick promoted exports of American liquefied natural gas to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and advocated for Asian countries to invest in natural gas.

The choice to hire McCarrick matches the intentions of OpenAI’s Trump-donating CEO Sam Altman, who said in a U.S. Senate hearing in May that “in the short term, I think [the future of powering AI] probably looks like more natural gas.”

It also aligns with the company’s early moves toward powering new data centers, huge warehouses full of linked-up computers that require enormous quantities of water and electricity, to run with gas. OpenAI’s U.S. Stargate Project site in Texas, which is slated to become one of the largest data center sites in the world, is already installing off-grid gas turbines to power its operations.

“Big Tech’s collusion with the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda for artificial intelligence is evident in their massive investment in methane gas power infrastructure — as well as pro-gas political operatives like McCarrick,” Tyson Slocum, director of consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said.

The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform. In a July speech to announce a $96 billion AI and energy funding package, Trump lauded fossil fuel and coal-powered data center development while flanked by oil and gas executives.

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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 2d

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David Pocock @davidpocock.bsky.social · 1d

A new study published in Nature Climate Action finds Woodside’s Scarborough gas project could cause 100s of heat-related deaths & exposed 500k people to unprecedented heat.

Govt can’t claim climate leadership while approving projects like this.
www.afr.com//policy/ener...

Forrest-backed study links Woodside mega-project to hundreds of deaths

The research, conducted by academics at ANU, suggests the massive offshore gas project off the coast of Western Australia will cause warming of 0.00039 degrees.

www.afr.com

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

One in seven Australians exist, not live, below the poverty line. A social housing shortfall of 640,000 homes and demand is rising making rent unaffordable. People having to choose between eating or shelter. Meanwhile rich corporations pay little or no tax.

www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

Pride and Prejudice is a much more entertaining read thanks to the addition of zombies.

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💧 Johny Miller @jmil4000.bsky.social · 1d

Have you ever seen anything that Trump, Kushner or Netanyahu have ever done that didn’t involve lining their own pockets? 🤑🤑🤑💵💰💵💰💵💰💵💰💵💰💵💰💵💰💵💰

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

Everything they've ever done is based around personal profit.

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Jake Broe @realjakebroe.bsky.social · 1d

This was an incredible report to watch from the frontline city of Kherson by friend of the channel Caolan Robertson! I highly recommend checking it out!

youtu.be/Hu4p4aeex4I

I’m in a frontline city where Russians are across the river

YouTube video by Caolan Robertson

youtu.be

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

It's scary, very sad and needless brutality by Russia who have totally abandoned any concept of civilisation and morality.

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turnleft2024 @turnleft8.bsky.social · 1d

saw this quote “Children are being slaughtered, on a daily basis, for almost two years."

the other day someone asked when the war in gaza start and several people said "1948"

children have been slaughtered for over 75 yrs, yet choose to frame around the deaths of israelis at a music festival

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 1d

The section of my brain once reserved for phone numbers is now used for passwords. So no nett gain.

Reposted by Ken

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 2d

The ALP might as well merge with the Minerals Council of Australia

Miners to get an early look at Labor’s new green laws

Tom Rabe
WA political correspondent
Oct 12, 2025 – 3.26pm

The Albanese government will give mining companies and other stakeholders draft extracts of its environmental protection laws before they go to parliament, as Environment Minister Murray Watt tries to rebuild trust after earlier negotiations on the reforms collapsed in acrimony.

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 2d

That's because we are teetering on the precipice of financial, social, and international diplomatic crises all at the same time.

Reposted by Ken

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.

The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.

Read that back.

When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 2d

We all know his memory is highly selective and very bad. With his senility it's hard to tell which applies with any given statement.

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 2d

@albomp.bsky.social @jimchalmers.bsky.social Just Double the rate, which only affects a tiny very wealthy minority and index it so as not to drag minor wealth into it over time. It's really simple, especially as you have the numbers. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘Our policy stands’: PM downplays Treasury advice on doubling tax rate for superannuation over $3m

Albanese reiterates policy despite reports his government was reconsidering changes to address criticisms of taxing ‘unrealised gains’

www.theguardian.com

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 2d

Send in the Mexican Staring Frogs

youtu.be/r_EhOhgqmd8?...

Mexican STARING FROG I South Park S02E06 - The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka

YouTube video by Laugh_Channel

youtu.be

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 3d

Some like Steve Price are very unwell.

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 3d

I hope Estonia has good ambush positions.

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Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 3d

Thugs. Brutal unaccountable thugs.