Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Gerry Doyle

@mgerrydoyle.bsky.social

*deep sigh* www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

‘It’s going much too fast’: the inside story of the race to create the ultimate AI

In Silicon Valley, rival companies are spending trillions of dollars to reach a goal that could change humanity – or potentially destroy it

www.theguardian.com

December 1, 2025 at 11:03 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Ren Wyld

@wyld.bsky.social

Recently MUP quietly released First Nations Writing: Meanjin 1977 to today. Co-editors Jeanine Leane & Dan Bourchier selected First Nations pieces published in Meanjin that represented "Writing about us, by us". Meanjin is gone but we're still writing/storytelling

www.mup.com.au/books/meanji...

www.mup.com.au

December 1, 2025 at 2:12 AM

Erik Kennedy

@erikkennedy.com

Just extraordinary.

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 21h

Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

December 1, 2025 at 6:29 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Harry Smart

@munross.bsky.social

killing people is increasingly profitable
data from @sipri.org
www.sipri.org/media/press-...

SIPRI Top 100 arms producers see combined revenues surge as states rush to modernize and expand arsenals

(Stockholm, 1 December 2025) Revenues from sales of arms and military services by the 100 largest arms-producing companies rose by 5.9 per cent in 2024, reaching a record $679 billion, according to ne...

www.sipri.org

December 1, 2025 at 2:46 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Aaron Burch

@aaronburch.bsky.social

"Close reading grounds and extends an argument, reasoning from what we all know to be the case to what the close reader claims is the case. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖, I would say."

Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 4d

I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review

Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.

www.bostonreview.net

November 30, 2025 at 1:15 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Luke McGee

@lukemcgee.bsky.social

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

November 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class

@thrasherxy.bsky.social

Gonna start an Insta called “The White Mannequins of Africa”

November 28, 2025 at 12:47 PM

Erik Kennedy

@erikkennedy.com

We have about eleven and a half hours to stop this somehow.

Stereogum @stereogum.com · 1d

Tomorrow Grimes will DJ a livestream of immortality influencer Bryan Johnson tripping on shrooms to determine its effect on longevity. Mr. Beast and the CEO of Salesforce will be there too.

Grimes DJing Immortality Influencer's Shroom Trip With Special Guest Mr. Beast

Grimes is a fan of Bryan Johnson, the multimillionaire and immortality influencer who spends his time trying to fight death. He is perhaps best known for undergoing plasma transfusions with donations ...

stereogum.com

November 30, 2025 at 6:23 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Todd Atticus

@toddatticus.bsky.social

Enjoyed revealing a little about how the cover for @erikkennedy.com’s Sick Power Trip came together for the @christchurchlib.bsky.social blog. Erik’s collection was one of my highlights from @thwupbooks.bsky.social this year.

Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi @christchurchlib.bsky.social · 3d

Kia ora! I've unleashed my fave NZ book covers of 2025. My top pick is Sick Power Trip by @erikkennedy.com
Published by @thwupbooks.bsky.social
Designed by @toddatticus.bsky.social
Todd talks about the making of the cover: my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/b... ^DR
#booksky #pukapuka

November 30, 2025 at 3:00 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Shemp Howard Stan Account

@apollospas.bsky.social

The jane lynch i am going to create meme and she is going to create a jihad that is so butlerian

November 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Rachael King

@rachaelking70.bsky.social

I’m just finishing off the third in the Violet and the Velvets series and it has inadvertently become an anti-AI manifesto that I hope will sow some seeds of distrust in children who are future adults (and encourage them to call shit out).

November 30, 2025 at 6:13 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Cat Manning

@catacalypto.bsky.social

A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:

"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view.
And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone.

"When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”

November 29, 2025 at 6:10 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Kevin M. Kruse

@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

How it started / How it’s going

The WHITE HOUSE
45
47
K PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS
RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ENDING FEDERAL
CENSORSHIP
The White House
January 20, 2025

The WHITE HOUSE
Offender Hall of Shame
A record of the media's false and misleading stories flagged by The White House. Scroll for the Truth.
The Washington Post
EXPOSED
OCBS
NEWS
EXPOSED
EXPOSED
i msnbc

November 30, 2025 at 12:49 AM

Erik Kennedy

@erikkennedy.com

This is very reasonable.

HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 2d

More of this please

Bong Joon Ho's statement on ai in the creative industry needing to be destroted

November 30, 2025 at 12:32 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Robb Edwards 🌱

@robedwards1.bsky.social

Haunting new study reveals why hundreds of dolphins were found dead in Amazon lake

focusingonwildlife.com/news/hauntin...

Haunting new study reveals why hundreds of dolphins were found dead in Amazon lake | Focusing on Wildlife

Scientists have finally discovered why hundreds of dolphins mysteriously washed up dead on the shores of an Amazon lake.

focusingonwildlife.com

November 30, 2025 at 12:24 AM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Tom Cox

@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social

Yeah, I’m sure going on a massive drug bender is all quite thrilling, but you know what is also exciting? Going on an estuary walk and finding the sunken mud-caked exoskeleton of an old boat.

I think I found this old boat, sunken into the tidal mud on the Teign estuary, in April 2022. On the way, my friend Nathan and I had misjudged the tide, and had to scramble over a barbed wire fence to avoid drowning then almost ended up in a sewage works on the edge of Newton Abbott by mistake. Eventually we reached Teignmouth, where I procure a surprisingly reasonably price original pressing of 'The Five Day Week Straw People' by The Five Day Week Straw People (1968) from the Sound Preservation Society Record Shop, possibly because its sleeve had been chewed by a mouse. If you look hard enough into the distance you might just be able to make out Jack's Patch garden centre in Bishopsteignton, where, when in a pinch, I have occasionally purchased compost, although not any plants, as it's never been the right time, and their prices aren't exactly competitive.

October 26, 2025 at 5:15 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

pöst-scött

@buzzandhum.bsky.social

By the way: 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", the film, is on YouTube.

You should watch it. In memory of Tom Stoppard.

November 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Imogen Reid

@imogenreid.bsky.social

Line Drawing/Grid, Layered Print on Hahnemühle Textured Paper

November 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM

Erik Kennedy

@erikkennedy.com

I had missed this write-up about the insanity of Neom.

'The pace of expected deliveries was extraordinary. The senior construction manager said that for 12 modules to be built by 2030, a 40ft container would need to arrive "every eight seconds", 24 hours a day.' Lol.

ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled

Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

ig.ft.com

November 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM

Reposted by Erik Kennedy

Elizabeth Spiers

@espiers.bsky.social

Hegseth is a war criminal and I think it doesn’t get the attention it deserves because he’s also stupid and it’s hard to reconcile the gravity of his crimes with his clownish persona www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...