Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dan McCrum

Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 9h

Reposted by Dan McCrum

Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 8h

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 1d

This isn’t funny. Judges only speak to the press when they’re in extreme distress

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 23h

Jorge Ruiz’s blood alcohol level was far below the legal threshold for intoxication.

When his lawyers looked at similar car crash cases, they found that although Ruiz had the lowest amount of alcohol in his system, his sentence was by far the longest.

➡️ Full story: https://propub.li/3KDEql5

Article excerpt reads: Then it was Ruiz’s turn. He spoke for the first time in court.

“I want to say that I am sorry to the family,” Ruiz said. “I wouldn’t have wished for this to happen. I wish that this would have only been a dream.”

Lewis peered down from the bench at Ruiz.

“This is America,” Lewis said. “It’s the greatest country in the world and we have the right to trial in this country. I would never penalize you for exercising that right, but Mr. Lively talked about acceptance of responsibility, contrition, remorse. I haven’t seen any of that from you.”

He sentenced Ruiz to the maximum possible punishment, longer even than the 50 years requested by prosecutors: 99 years.

The court went quiet. Even the prosecutor was shocked.

Years later, Robinson remembered that moment. “That was not something that I had expected,” he said.

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 1d

Hurricane Sandy was 13 years ago

The Eyewall @theeyewallwx.bsky.social · 1d

For South Jersey and Delaware, it appears this will be the most significant coastal storm in 10 to 15 years. Major impacts, particularly from gusty winds, beach erosion, and coastal flooding. We explain impacts and the latest on active Western weather below or at theeyewall.com.

Major coastal flooding and beach erosion coming for the Jersey Shore and Delmarva, while storminess continues out West

Biggest coastal storm impacts in 10 to 15 years for Delaware and South Jersey

open.substack.com

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 1d

This isn’t funny. Judges only speak to the press when they’re in extreme distress

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 1d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 1d

The Uncanny Valet

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 1d

our economy is currently being propped up by the promise of billions of fully autonomous robot butlers coming in a year or so

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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 1d

Here is why the National Parking Platform is cool:

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/national-p...

The National Parking Platform is a big, exciting deal and you should know about it

How the government nearly squandered an enormous opportunity

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d

What an emblem of the billionaire class—descending on a peaceful city in a private jet on the horn to NYT asking for the place to be invaded by federal authorities because the rent-a-cops you employ for a week to harass a few junkies outside the convention center cost too much.

Mr. Benioff spoke as his annual Dreamforce conference is set to begin Tuesday in downtown San Francisco, bringing 50,000 visitors to the city. He is scheduled to deliver a keynote address about the benefits of "agentic enterprise," a business model in which humans and artificial intelligence bots work together.
Speaking by telephone from his private plane en route to San Francisco, he lamented that he has to pay for nundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers to help patrol the convention area and said that San Francisco needed to "re-fund" the police.
The city never actually "defunded" its police force, and San Francisco's violent crime rates are below those in many other U.S. cities.
But San Francisco has struggled to recruit and keep officers, and it still has problems with lower-level crimes and open-air drug use, especially in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin near City Hall. It has about 1,500 police officers, and Mr. Benioff says it ne → another thousand.

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 1d

Unsolicited wick pic

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 1d

Brazilian merchants pay just 0.33 per cent for electronic payments!

Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 1d

“Much of what we think of as innovation in the US is just private duct tape applied to the country’s uniquely bad payments system. Stablecoins, for example, offer a way to transfer something like a dollar from one place to another, without a bank.” Great stuff from @bhgreeley.bsky.social

Why I have to buy doughnuts with cash

Powerful lobbies are hindering a digital transition by America’s huge network of some 4,500 banks

on.ft.com

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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 2d

Now we're seeing confirmation of the NSO acquisition.

Mark my words, this is the path through which Pegasus gets put on Americans iPhones & Androids.

This dictatorship-in-a-box belongs nowhere near our constitutional rights.

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: Spyware maker NSO Group confirmed to us that the company has been acquired by a U.S. investment group.

NSO's spokesperson said the group "has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company and has acquired controlling ownership," but declined to say who is behind the investment.

Spyware maker NSO Group confirms acquisition by US investors | TechCrunch

NSO Group confirmed to TechCrunch that an unnamed group of American investors has taken “controlling ownership” of the surveillance tech maker.

techcrunch.com

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 2d

Three Hoover dams worth

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 2d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 2d

Congrats!

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Reposted by Dan McCrum

Patrick Iber @patrickiber.bsky.social · 2d

It’s probably random and silly that it’s frogs but I like it because of frogs’ role an as indicator species and because it suggests the boiling frogs metaphor

J. C. Cantwell 🌻 @segfaultvicta.aludel.xyz · 2d

frog semiotics redemption arc 2025

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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 2d

Terrible on its own terms, and also poisoning the waters in congress for any kind of bipartisan deal on transmission/permitting issues.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Reposted by Dan McCrum

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 3d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 2d

Frog as the go to Halloween costume

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 2d

Halloween 2025 is going to become one of the most glorious protest events in American history (if there are enough frog costumes).

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 6d

Libraries worldwide have been impacted by Trump's tariffs. Books that are on loan from US libraries to international libraries are getting tariffed on their way back in, getting books from international libraries has turned into an expensive nightmare, etc:

www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 6d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 9d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Steven Seggie @stevenhseggie.bsky.social · 6d

An interesting article on world records in sport

bbc.com/future/artic...

Why world records seem to be getting harder to beat – according to maths

New world records in some sports are remarkably elusive, yet in others they seem to fall regularly. There is a good mathematical reason why.

bbc.com

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Five Minute Macro @fiveminutemacro.bsky.social · 9d

"a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is"

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Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 6d

A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou

(uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??)

🧵

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 6d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 6d

Help FT Weekend crown the best business lunch restaurant in London - @harrietfl.ft.com is calling for your nominations and votes www.ft.com/content/00f3...

Help FT Weekend crown the best business lunch restaurant in London

Nominations are now open for our inaugural Business Lunch Awards in partnership with OpenTable

www.ft.com

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