Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Sheila Webber @sheilawebber.bsky.social · 1d

Webinar: AI ‘everything’: AI tools, AI search, AI images and more

Expert Phil Bradley's final webinar will be on 24 October 2025 AI ‘everything’: AI tools, AI search, AI images and more 11:00-14:00 BST. "he will bring together all the best and latest content from his popular Power Hours on AI for information professionals." Tickets cost £90. Register at https://tinyurl.com/26fnmauv Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn in the partk, October 2025

dlvr.it

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Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · 1d

Meet the female codebreakers of Bletchley Park

Deciphering enemy code during the second world war was arguably the first role for women in tech

by Suzanne Bearne (from the archives)

www.theguardian.com/careers/2018...

#womenInStem

A Mark 2 Colossus computer. The ten Colossi were the world's first (semi-) programmable electronic computers, the first having been built in 1943.

Unknown author - This file is from the collections of The National Archives (United Kingdom), catalogued under document record FO850/234.

A Colossus Mark 2 codebreaking computer being operated by Dorothy Du Boisson (left) and Elsie Booker (right), 1943

The image shows a Mark 2 Colossus computer, one of the ten machines built during World War II for British codebreaking efforts. Two women, Dorothy Du Boisson (left) and Elsie Booker (right), operate the large electronic computer, which occupies an entire room. The machine is composed of panels filled with switches, dials, cables, and vacuum tubes, representing the first (semi-) programmable electronic computers in history, built in 1943 to help decipher encrypted German communications at Bletchley Park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park#/media/File:Colossus.jpg

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Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · 1d

How Close Did We Come to Losing Beowulf Forever?

Robert Bartlett on a Vital Work of the Western Canon That Barely Survived Multiple Disasters

lithub.com/how-close-di...

Beowulf at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subje...

#books #literature #old_manuscripts

The first folio of the heroic epic poem Beowulf, written primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Part of the Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript currently located within the British Library. This is a digital photographic copy of the folio. Text shown according to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version:

WE GARDE na in geardagum, þeodcyninga, [129] þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Then the feast was found, he asked for it, grew under the clouds, the gods, until each of those sitting around him heard the sound of the horn, gomban gyldan. That was a good king. After that, he was remembered, walking in the fields, the good one sent to the king; the fire on the king who had long been dead. His life, the ruler of the people, the lord of the world, was taken away; Beowulf was quick to spring forth, Scyld's son, into the lands of the dead. Thus shall men go forth to good deeds, from pious gifts to their fathers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf#/media/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg

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LSE Impact Blog @lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 1d

💥New: What we can learn from tracking research funding flows from North to South

✍️Francesco Obino

#ResearchFunding #DevelopmentResearch #ResearchEquity

What we can learn from tracking research funding flows from North to South - Impact of Social Sciences

How tracking global development research funding flows could provide valuable insights into key questions facing the international development sector.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Sam Hester @calgaryhester.bsky.social · 1d

I've been writing #comics about #yyc election stuff for @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social! Sharing today's, because I loved learning about J. M. Miller. I visited his grave at Union Cemetery. His institutional memory must have been incredible!

Check out more election comics at sprawlcalgary.com! #yyccc

Black & white text and images on a bright green background. "Did you know? J. M. Miller was Calgary's city clerk from 1913-1955."

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Mike "looking for research fellowship" Caulfield @mikecaulfield.bsky.social · 1d

People always aske me "What does SIFT for AI look like?" Meaning, what is the minimal set of habits you need to teach students to use it effectively for exploration of claims online? It's taken a couple years to get here but this is a start at a response mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/get-it-in-...

Get it in, track it down, follow up

Three essential moves to using AI for verification and contextualization, with a bit of LLM-specific guidance

mikecaulfield.substack.com

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Duane Bratt @duanebratt.bsky.social · 1d

Can I tell you how indispensable @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social has been in its coverage of the Calgary election. Whether you are following it closely or not. Videos of numerous ward and mayoral forums. And there most valuable service, a campaign primer. www.sprawlcalgary.com/calgary-elec...

Meet the Calgarians running for mayor and council in 2025 | The Sprawl

Follow along with our candidate tracker.

www.sprawlcalgary.com

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Brooks DeCillia @bdecillia.bsky.social · 1d

“If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them,” Leo said of journalists.

apnews.com/article/pope...

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

apnews.com

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 1d

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

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Margy MacMillan @margymaclibrary.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for posting this - fascinating discussion!

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 2d

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

A comic strip in six panels. The panels inerlock like a jigsaw with knobs and sockets. Two stick figures walk right to left through all the panels.

Panel 1: Person 1 says "I hear you're working on a new theory."
Panel 2 & 3: Person 2 says: "Yes, I'm calling it the jigsaw model. I think it could change our whole View of reality."
Panel 4: Person 1 says "When Will you publish?:
Panel 5: Person 2 says "But a couple of things are still bothering me." (this piece/panel is a bit squint)
Panel 6: This piece is rotated ninety degees and fits to the others very badly. Person 2 is saying "Soon. I feel like I'm really close"
A second look at the whole comic shows that the last two panels read in the wrong order because the jigsaw has been put together incorrectly.

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John Lee @johnleewriter.bsky.social · 2d

In praise of birders... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Here’s to the birdwatchers! Optimistic, slightly eccentric custodians of wonder and joy and passion and love

At its heart, birdwatching is an act of quiet rebellion, says Natalie Kyriacou. It is the gentle act of noticing – the willingness to see the world around you

www.theguardian.com

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Margy MacMillan @margymaclibrary.bsky.social · 1d

Sounds like a good team! Hope you feel better soon…

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edifiedlistener.bsky.social @edifiedlistener.bsky.social · 1d

I just finished Empire of AI by @karenhao.bsky.social and it is excellent! Even my resistance to learning about the main characters was disarmed by the urgency of the reporting. Excellent journalistic accomplishment. Recommended in the last BTA:
bendingthearcnewsletter.blog/2025/09/21/b...

Bending The Arc Late September 2025

“If the elongated text made by AI, or the images of forests or people, or the music it writes does not hold much emotional meaning for you, you might eventually learn to set expectations of e…

bendingthearcnewsletter.blog

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 4d

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

The Dangers of using AI to Grade

Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains

substack.com

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

Left: In a desperate effort to find reasonable use case, OpenAI is running ads during the baseball playoffs about how you can use ChatGPT to plan a road trip. www.youtube.com/watch?v=go4o...

Right: What happens if you actually do that. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Open AI commercial about using ChatGPT to plan a road trip

Hannah Read, 37, tried to use an AI chatbot to plan a trip to Norway with her partner and three children.

She wanted to drive from her home in Flintshire, north Wales and cross the North Sea by ferry.

"I thought it might make for a nice drive," Hannah says. "I asked ChatGPT if there was a ferry from the UK to Norway and it said there was one from Newcastle to Bergen."

She later checked a ferry travel website but found no such route exists.

A travel blog detailing how Brits can reach Norway says the last time the route operated was in 2008.

"I did feel a bit disappointed when I found out the information on ChatGPT was incorrect, as I'd got quite excited and had started planning the trip in my head," Hannah adds.

"My advice is don't rely on AI 100%, it's better to still do proper research."

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Paul R. Pival he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 2d

Canada’s National Observer unveils a powerful tool for fighting disinformation www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/08/n...

You have to register to get access, but mine came through in less than an hour. YMMV

ht @Researchbuzz

#OpenGov #OpenData

Canada’s National Observer unveils a powerful tool for fighting disinformation

Civic Searchlight brings together municipal meeting transcripts from across Canada into a searchable database for the first time. It has already been used to fight disinformation, report on impact,…

www.nationalobserver.com

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The Sprawl @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social · 2d

Four wards in Calgary haven't had election debates (Wards 2, 3, 12 and 13). The Sprawl has waited for others to organize debates in these wards. It hasn't happened. We're done waiting and are making a last-ditch effort to organize and livestream debates in these wards before Election Day. #yyccc

A last-ditch effort for local democracy in Calgary | The Sprawl

Help us do 4 more debates where they're needed!

www.sprawlcalgary.com

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

Fustiliarian Friday: Trump/Kennedy/GOP use the shutdown as an excuse to destroy the CDC’s elite field epidemiology team and one of the most important epidemiology journals in the world.

Gift link.

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 2d

My cartoon for the books page in this week’s @theguardian.com

Title: Where writers really get their ideas.

A writer, holding a note in his outstretched hand approaches a cart in the park. The front of the cart reads 'Fresh ideas' and a colourful umbrella shades the server who is reaching deep into the body of the cart (much as an ice-cream vendor might) and saying:
"I'm all out of mind-blowing concepts and heart-rending narratives, but I've got an acerbic observation, an unexpected outcome and a couple of amusing notions."

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Paul R. Pival he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 2d

Welcome to LIL’s Data.gov Archive Search | Library Innovation Lab lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2025/10...

#OpenGov

Welcome to LIL’s Data.gov Archive Search | Library Innovation Lab

Card Division of the Library of Congress, ca. 1900–1920. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Data.gov

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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 2d

"We talk abt how bird brains differ from those of mammals + reptiles—in terms of their size[,] major structures [+] wrinkliness. We tour some of the most... perplexing bird behaviors + consider their neural + anatomical underpinnings. Finally, we consider what we can learn from bird brains."

Brains of a feather - Many Minds (podcast)

01:31:13 - Birds do the darnedest things. They fly, of course. They sing. They hunt in pitch darkness. They hide their food and remember where they put it. The…

www.listennotes.com

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 2d

isrf.org/blog/how-do-...

How Do We Escape Today’s AI?

In this monthly Director's Note, Christopher Newfield explores the history, economics, and public imagination of so-called 'artificial intelligence'.

isrf.org

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Andy Jackson @azjackson.bsky.social · 2d

An #Otwituary for actor #DianeKeaton

In the movies, there is always more than
mere love and death; what about those
dizzy ingénues, women caught between
socialite and socialist, the lost and the
sweetly damaged, playing for laughs in
the diners and bedrooms of our hearts?

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Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 3d

If you’re writing a discussion and conclusion it helps to know their relationship difference between claims and conclusion patthomson.net/2025/10/11/c...

claims vs contributions

If you’re deep in the throes of doctoral work, you’ve probably had that moment where someone asks you about your “contribution to knowledge” and you freeze up like a deer in…

patthomson.net

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