Author | Lightnews

Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Aug 11

For what it’s worth, I started following you and ultimately subscribed to your fantastic newsletter because of the brouhaha. ❤️

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jul 28

Note: we were *very* far away and left when the wind shifted in our direction. The gas cloud is extremely toxic!

Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jul 28

Without planning on it at all, we caught part of the eruption in the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland a few days ago. Also saw some of the lava scars from last year. What an otherworldly place.

Volcanic eruption viewable from the road. Channels of lava cooling to the left of the active crater.

Second vantage point of the active eruption

First vantage point of the eruption on our way back from the Blue Lagoon.

Tongues of crumbly lava reaching across a destroyed road near the Blue Lagoon.

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jul 25

I met some puffins yesterday! They are much smaller than I expected, though just about as cute as I expected. They all had adult coloring, but many of them seemed to be rather new to adulthood :)

A tired looking puffin tucking its beak under a wing, but still keeping an eye on the sky.

A puffin family just outside of a cave nest.

A puffin family watching humans watch them.

A moment of reassurance - two of the puffins seemed young and unsure despite having adult coloring.

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Bradley David S Pumpkins @bdproctor.bsky.social · Jun 19

I just have to say, as a historian of the Reconstruction-era Klan, that masked paramilitaries are very bad and masked vigilantes are even worse and there are causal links between the two and none of this is good for democracy.

Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · Jun 19

Just some creepy armed Mad Max guys trying to gain entry to Dodgers Stadium.

ICE says it wasn’t them. DHS says they were Border Patrol. But honestly who the hell knows? They’ve given permission for any psycho to put on a ski mask, point a gun, grab people & throw them into an unmarked vehicle.

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julie gourinchas @literaryfey.bsky.social · Jun 19

"I asked ChatGPT" "I asked Grok" ok well I asked Gandalf and he said he has not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

To groups like ICE/police this is a feature not a bug.

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

I get that, I really do. But I grew up in a part of the country where unauthorized paramilitary groups flourished, and I think it’s important to both recognize and fight back against state sponsored violence *as well as* the fact that these groups often aim to infiltrate “official” organizations.

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

That may be true but there were also guys there wearing patches with white supremacist-associated iconography. And my point about anyone being able to buy badges and patches online still stands - how many of them were actually employed by the agencies they were claiming to represent?

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

Like literally anyone can buy tactical gear online. Patches too.

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

At this point if I see a guy in tactical gear of any kind my first thought is white supremacist paramilitary, and “official” patches are so easy to obtain online that it doesn’t matter to me if they’ve got them.

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Jun 7

I’ve been watching all the videos out of Minneapolis and LA and at this point I’m wondering if the majority of armed dudes in masks wearing “ICE” gear are even employed by them. Like ICE should be abolished *and also* most of these guys are just claiming to be them in order to terrorize people.

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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · Jun 6

Read my brilliant pal Matthew.

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · Jun 5

Good morning! On this day when the New York Times begins its podcast series on trans healthcare for kids, I wrote an open letter to my science journalism colleagues who work against trans healthcare in the name of our shared profession: galileospendulum.org/2025/06/05/o... Please read and share.

Open Letter to Anti-Trans Science Journalists

To my science journalist colleagues at the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and elsewhere: I write this open letter on the day the New York Times begins a podcast series…

galileospendulum.org

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Annalena Kofler @annalenakofler.bsky.social · May 30

Two LIGO sites are essential for independently validating observed gravitational wave signals. Without the second site, we can't constrain the sky position well enough for electromagnetic follow-up searches of binary neutron star mergers. This would be devastating for the whole field ...

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 30

NSF budget would close down one of LIGO's sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy.

"In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites
and will support a reduced level for technology development."
bsky.app/profile/hast...

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Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · May 30

it is quite literally not LIGO without two antennas

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · May 30

My people, we need two LIGO sites to prove sources are astrophysical and not, like, a rabbit hopping nearby. ⚛️

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 30

NSF budget would close down one of LIGO's sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy.

"In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites
and will support a reduced level for technology development."
bsky.app/profile/hast...

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Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · May 30

My people, we need two LIGO sites to prove sources are astrophysical and not, like, a rabbit hopping nearby. ⚛️

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 30

NSF budget would close down one of LIGO's sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy.

"In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites
and will support a reduced level for technology development."
bsky.app/profile/hast...

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · May 27

❤️ to you, I’m so sorry.

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · May 23

petition to call apps with unnecessary, intrusive, non-toggleable predictive tech "AI-infested apps"

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samjshah.bsky.social @samjshah.bsky.social · May 22

If anyone in my network knows any mathematical artists on blue sky… or artists who use math in their work on blue sky…. Can you let me know? I’d love to follow them.

(I had a bunch on Twitter but I deleted that a while ago and want to see more in my feed.)

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · May 23

I do but I haven’t posted any here. I need to get on that.

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · May 21

Everyone 6 months and older is eligible to get a flu vaccine.

It makes no sense to restrict Covid vaccines to only people who have specific medical conditions.

The FDA is basing its decisions on politics, not science.

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lacey, infested with bears @byelacey.bsky.social · May 1

you don't need chatGPT i am perfectly capable of drinking a bottle of water and lying to you

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Apr 30

So glad you’re out of there. What a creep.

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Dr. Katharine Dickson @metaomicsnerd.bsky.social · Apr 24

People need to stop following executive orders like they’re laws

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Saramoira Shields @mathematigal.bsky.social · Apr 16

Yeah. Just… yeah.

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