Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ian Ramjohn

@iramjohn.bsky.social

3.2K followers 5.8K following 3.1K posts

Wikipedia expert at @wikieducation.bsky.social.  Plant ecology Ph.D. 🇹🇹Trinbagonian in exile https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2910-0526 (if you want to verify my account's authenticity)

orcid.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · Feb 19

I recorded this for my father's funeral today.
youtu.be/c6WWROsaCwY

Eulogy for my father, Ian Ramjohn (1931–2025)

YouTube video by Ian Ramjohn

youtu.be

2 15

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 3m

Why doesn’t Congress write better laws? Couldn’t they just say that AG-appointed US attorneys can’t serve more than 120 days in aggregate? Can’t plain text be replaced by idiot-proof text?

Reposted by Ian Ramjohn

Politico @politico.com · 2h

EXCLUSIVE: Embattled Trump nominee Paul Ingrassia told Republicans that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak,” according to a group chat viewed by POLITICO.

Trump nominee says he has a ‘Nazi streak,’ bashes MLK Jr. Day, according to texts

Paul Ingrassia’s bid to lead a whistleblower agency is set for a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

www.politico.com

100 590 1.1K

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 2h

And if this is true there’s a total breakdown

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 3h

Ellis: How are ICE agents required to identify themselves?

Byers: With badge numbers and names.

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 2h

If this is the case then higher ups have lost all control of their field agents

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 4h

Harvick: "We take these (temporary restraining orders) very seriously, your honor." Not only did agents get an email, it was discussed at morning briefings and agents who are assigned here will also be briefed on it, he adds.

1 1

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 4h

While I agree his take there is kinda weird, lots of Christians don’t believe the bible was dictated by god

Mainstream seminaries teach the idea that different authors and redactors. I mean, Deuteronomy was “found” during repair work in the Temple. That’s up there with gold plates and magic glasses

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 4h

I imagine fish have a hard time operating guns, so I think you’re right on that point.

1 1

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 4h

What does it say when one quote is disqualifying and the other isn’t?

I’m not saying Wahhaj is unproblematic, but your idea of what speech is beyond the pale illustrates your own extreme (but very mainstream American) world view. And it shows how Muslims can never be good enough

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 4h

How is this different from every Christian who prays the Lord’s Prayer? “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” doesn’t just express the view that it’s better, they’re praying for it to happen.

Is every Christian who has prayed that prayer sincerely equally bad?

1 1

Reposted by Ian Ramjohn

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 6h

Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis has just taken the bench for a hearing about to use tear gas during a series of increasingly aggressive raids across Chicago and the suburbs.
Background, for @wttw.bsky.social:

Judge Set to Question Federal Officials About Use of Tear Gas During Immigration Raids

U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis said Thursday she was “not happy” that immigration agents appear to have violated her order not to use tear gas and other weapons against journalists, protesters and an...

news.wttw.com

6 130 370

Reposted by Ian Ramjohn

Molly White @molly.wiki · 5h

i didn't fight in the Wikipedia MOS:DASH wars just to start using hyphens in place of em dashes

Caterpillar ist satt @siberianpine.bsky.social · 6h

"but I use that and I'm not an LLM" - I don't care. Also you have to start using hyphens even when you mean to use an em dash

Molly White @molly.wiki · 7h

"it isn't just X—it's Y" is by far the most annoying ChatGPTism

16 48 450

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 5h

Wikipedia taught AI how to write. That’s why it uses spaced mdashes

1 2

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 7h

Also thank you for stepping in.

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 7h

Smart advice (but I lack the good sense to shut up sometimes).

But honestly, her mother is a high-colour "Spanish" Trini of my generation (and her father is a "white" Dominicano). So I'd definitely see her among "our own folks".

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 7h

But that aside, racially ambiguous people live in a world where self-identification and perception aren't the same.

I knew I was nonwhite before I knew what race or whiteness was. But that doesn't change the fact that some people on here think I'm white, and will read what I say through that lens

Ian Ramjohn @iramjohn.bsky.social · 7h

She's not from the DR, she's American. Child of a (white-passing) Dominican and a Trini mother. Her African heritage comes from her mother

I embrace her as a fellow Trini; I don't think she's non-Black. But many people *do* (evidenced by her wiki article having 4 citations after "Afro-Latina")

1 2 2