Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Le Caghoul

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 20h

I do think this is at the heart of the issue. Our fields prepare us to participate in stable institutional structures but not how to collectively protect those structures from bad faith attacks and neoliberal dismantling.

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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 16h

*stares in highly over-specialized researcher wondering how to describe his work*

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 20h

Feels like in the 2000-2010s there was this sea change in academia where young scholars were supposed to brand themselves in this or that way to be competitive on the market, but 3 market collapses later it feels like the pivot simply led to atomized individualistic approaches to illegible fields

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 16h

Historic house glitter spill

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 3d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 16h

Grateful for this Seattle Times article exposing, again, the conditions at the ICE detention center in Tacoma. The infrastructure for the current lawlessness has been active for a long time.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Look inside Tacoma’s ICE detention center, where you could be kept for days or years

Conditions inside Tacoma's Northwest ICE Processing Center have been a mystery for many. In new interviews, people formerly held there reveal what life is like.

www.seattletimes.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 19h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 20h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 16h

This is the government analogue of the idea that ideas emerge in academia because they conform to an ideological agenda, rather than face the truth that they emerge because they are genuinely insightful and revelatory. We got gender studies because that's where the facts led!

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 19h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Le Caghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · 19h

Thank you!

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 1d

Loved this conversation between @electrolemon.bsky.social and @gianmarcosoresi.bsky.social, especially the part about the diminishing effect of “wholesome”. It’s a side point, but I always hated how reductive the memeification of “September” was as well… youtu.be/l_PqY9vRYA4

One Wholesome After Another with Demi Adejuyigbe

YouTube video by Gianmarco Soresi

youtu.be

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Le Caghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · 1d

HELL yeah

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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 1d

It’s mostly forgotten at this point, but the Dessicated Vegetables got their start as an opening act for the Glistening Meats

Erin @biscuit.quest · 1d

It’s a Saturday night in October, which means it’s time for the Glistening Meats™️ of SEC football commercials

Super close up of a glistening cheeseburger on a TV

Super close up of what appears to be a glistening barbecue sandwich

Super close up of a fried chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon. All glistening.

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KJ "October Name" Shepherd @kjshepherd.bsky.social · 1d

My favorite Diane Keaton factlet remains that she directed the music video for "Heaven is a Place on Earth." RIP queen.

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by BelindaCarlisleVEVO

youtu.be

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Erin @biscuit.quest · 1d

It’s a Saturday night in October, which means it’s time for the Glistening Meats™️ of SEC football commercials

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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 1d

Good news: @gavinnewsom.bsky.social signed the bill! Congrats to @davidpomerantz.bsky.social @earthjustice.org and TURN!

Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 6d

Governor Newsom has a bill on his desk to hold utilities accountable, and get them to stop passing along their dark money campaigns to everyday Californians.

Is he going to side with utilities, or side with the public and help lower electricity rates?
energyandpolicy.org/california-l...

California passes bill curbing utilities use of ratepayer money for political spending

State lawmakers last week made California the seventh state to pass a bill limiting investor-owned utilities from using customer money to pay for political and lobbying costs.

energyandpolicy.org

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 1d

I am happy that more people see that the police state is a BIPARTISAN project.

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 1d

Belatedly reading about this and as always really important to remind people in *every breath* that when the right talks about “woke” and “DEI” they are talking about the cultural and political wins of the civil rights movement. This arrangement existed for 52 years because of historical activism.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

www.dailytarheel.com/article/e9c7...

UNC ends Black Student Movement's 52-year 'co-ownership' of Upendo Lounge

BSM President Adam Sherif said administrators cited new federal guidelines that instruct all federally funded entities to ensure they are not engaging in "discriminatory practices, including those lab...

www.dailytarheel.com

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tru @thetrudz.photo · 1d

The purpose of TRON films are the film scores. Idk about anything else.

Gordon McAlpin @gmcalpin.bsky.social · 2d

oh wow, the early reports are that the new Tron movie isn’t doing very well at the box office. this is wild, because the last Tron movie didn’t do very well at the box office, and also the very first Tron movie didn’t do very well at the box office and also neither of those first two were very good.

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 1d

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from).

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

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David Weiskopf believes in you @dave.bzky.team · 1d

💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

David Pomerantz @davidpomerantz.bsky.social · 1d

SIGNED! 🥳🥳🥳💪💪💪

A massive victory for holding monopoly utilities accountable to their customers, and for lowering Californian utility bills.

Thank you to @governor.ca.gov, @asmmarcberman.bsky.social, @senmcnerney.bsky.social, @earthjustice.org, The Utility Reform Network for all your leadership!

David Pomerantz @davidpomerantz.bsky.social · 7d

A bill is sitting on @GavinNewsom’s desk that would lower Californians’ utility bills – all he has to do is sign it. But rumors are swirling that he plans to do the opposite - a move that could prove disastrous for California and for Newsom. A 🧵:

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Josh Busby @busbyj2.bsky.social · 1d

Poignant protest.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1d

“ICE kidnapped a community member here,” reads one. “Never forget/no nos olvidamos,” says another.

The signs have appeared across some of D.C.’s heavily immigrant neighborhoods where federal immigration arrests have escalated.

Signs popping up around D.C. note: ‘ICE kidnapping happened here’

The signs range in style and mark numerous locations where people have been taken by federal agents.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 1d

When using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, don't just make text bigger and bolder to make it a heading. That will work for sighted users, but screen reader users will miss that and just hear it as normal paragraph text. Use actual heading styles, like level 1 through 6.

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Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 1d

[tapping on microphone] does anyone here teach a class on climate risk? if yes, what textbook do you use?

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Le Caghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · 1d

Ok so I finished Strange Antiquities, and am now playing Tactical Breach Wizards. Collecting some other puzzle games to work on!

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Le Caghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · 1d

Also btw it's worked, video games are the cure for what ails me

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