Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Laura @greenbirdo.bsky.social · 5h

#NZ dairy farmers win regularity coup. Methane (~50% of NZ's GHG emissions) reduction now consists of hand waving and future tech. #nzpol
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Graph showing New Zealand's green house gas emissions by gas. Carbon dioxide 41.3%. Methane 48.1%. Nitrous oxide 9.1%. Combined F gases 1.5%

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 8h

Video shows the immense level of destruction left behind by Israeli forces in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.

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Joy @joyfromghazza.blacksky.app · 8h

Hello friends, I am Joy, a writer stuck in #Gaza. I live in a small rented apartment after my house was destroyed during the #genocide
I have set a goal of $500 the week.
I GOT 2 donations only today!

Please help me to achieve it to pay the rent.

www.chuffed.org/project/evac...

#palestine

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Moonlight🌙🌙 @mo-on27.bsky.social · 7h

Please my friend 🙏🙏
No one supports me 😩
No one help me😭😭
If one dollar....
paypal.com/donate/?camp...
@mommunism.bsky.social
#Gaza

Help Nour complete her dream & protect her family.

Help Soliman Natsha reach their goal by donating or sharing with your friends.

paypal.com

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Abo jameel2 @engmohamedabojamel.bsky.social · 7h

Don’t stop your support
The war has ended, but I’m still living in its ashes.
Without work, without food, I fight to survive with my tears.
Please… don’t let me fade away after surviving it all
Will you bail us out for $250 for food and blankets?
Im verified
@mommunism.bsky.social
shorturl.at/hcCSb

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Laura @greenbirdo.bsky.social · 7h

A select group of small business owners* double profits under the Luxon government.

*Gangs

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 8h

this is a great piece and it absolutely sucks that the outlet went for the ambiguous headline rather.

The idea that you can remain on X and "influence opinion" is equally true for creating a new Stormfront account, or a 4Chan account, or a TruthSocial account.

Our job is to kills its influence.

Did the centre-left bit of UK politics Twitter make an error in decamping en masse to I Can’t Believe It’s Not Twitter? The old site, now remade as X, remains significantly larger than the new, and much of the political class have failed to make the jump. Did those of us who went let our desire for a comforting liberal bubble undermine our actual influence?

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

The story of social media in the last few years is not one of a self-righteous liberal flounce, but of fragmentation: network effects are a thing, and if most of the people you like to talk to switch platforms, there feels little point in remaining behind. If we have lost influence, that’s at least partly down to the government’s reluctance to use its convening power to reshape the information environment, and its odd commitment to a site owned by someone who wants Keir Starmer in prison.

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 12h

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Laura @greenbirdo.bsky.social · 9h

It *now* grosses me out when I find out someone/orgs are still there. 🤮

A bit like people who still speak positively about Elon. I mean, what else does he need to do before they'll say 'no that's too much'?

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 9h

Tl;dr: no!

I think most of us left for our mental health because who wants to argue with trolls and bots?

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 1d

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it is still shaping policy. So were we all wrong to leave?

Was the left wrong to leave X for BlueSky?

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it's still shaping policy

www.newstatesman.com

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Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · 12h

I’m sharing a Palestinian account every day and today is Raghad. Raghad is 22 years old and was finishing her studies to be a nurse. She wanted to go into nursing because her mother had a stroke that made her lose movement in her arms and legs. They are now displaced with her 10 siblings.

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 1d

What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:

"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."

This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

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Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · 1d

Azza has had a campaign for a while and been able to raise no money on it- let’s help her rebuild ❤️

Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · 1d

I’m sharing a Palestinian account every day and today is Azza. Before this Azza worked in a kindergarten and her husband owned a small coffee shop. They lost their home in the first two weeks of the war. They are trying to survive with their children Nisreen, 16, Layan, 14 and Ibrahim, 11.

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 2d

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are walking back to Gaza City as the Israeli military begins its withdrawal from the area following the ceasefire agreement.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum is there, watching what he described as ‘an endless tide of humans’.

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Jonas Algers @jonasalgers.bsky.social · 1d

Norway are facing Israel in the Football World Cup qualifiers today

The Oslo Tram Driver’s Union will be striking on the tram lines to the stadium in solidarity with the people of Palestine

www.nrk.no/stor-oslo/va...

Varsler kollektiv-streik i Oslo før Norge-Israel

Oslo Sporveiers Arbeiderforening varsler streik 11. oktober, samme dag som Israel og Norge spiller landskamp i fotball på Ullevaal Stadion. Hensikten er å vise støtte til Palestina. Én time før kampst...

www.nrk.no

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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 1d

They're literally installing Racism Dial bsky.app/profile/numb...

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · Jan 15

vox populi

Altman: thanks a lot for these! some common requests:

AGI (a little patience please)
GPT-5
better voice mode
higher rate limits
better GPTs
better reasoning
control over degree of wokeness/behavior
video
personalization
better browsing
'sign in with openai
open source

Quoting:
what would you like openai to build/fix in 2024?

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wemeze @wemeze.bsky.social · 1d

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Michael Bazaconomicon 💀 🎃 👻 @mcbazacophd.bsky.social · 2d

Now listen, I’m no scientist/professor of public health or anything like that but I don’t think this is how it works?

A picture of RFK Jr. With his arms out giving a speech with the quote “We’re doing the studies to make the proof” posted on IG by Dr. Andrea Love.

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BluesterB @bluesterb.bsky.social · 2d

Oregon, get organized!
go.bsky.app/Ft6G21R

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Dr Tara McAllister @taramcallister.bsky.social · 1d

Fuck all the people who voted no to Māori wards

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

in 2011, the president of antifa hired me to give fashion consultancy to the organization. i recommended everyone wear navy suits with tan shoes, dress sneakers, and golf polos with slim chinos. if you arrested everyone today wearing these things, you'd destroy antifa

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2covet @2covet.bsky.social · 1d

Just listened to an update from 2 UK surgeons. Three of them were booked to travel back into Gaza with a UN convoy on Sunday but Israel refused the Doctors reentry. They're also doctors who gave expert testimony at the UN about war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Israel is being duplicitous.

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Laura @greenbirdo.bsky.social · 1d

What about the mini strokes he keeps having?

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Christopher Luxon NatGPT @rugbyintel.bsky.social · 2d

What I'd just say to you is, to help kickstart the economy we've just launched a new tourism ad. Enjoy.
#LyinLuxon #WorstPMEver #WorstGovEver #CoalitionOfCorruption #NZpol

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