Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 1d

I missed Brown Sugar being the seminal album it was for so many, but Black Messiah hit me harder than just about any other album of that period. D'Angelo was a singular, important voice. Much love to his people ❤️ R.I.P.

Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

locus @locuslebe.bsky.social · 5d

#nzpol
As ever, Anne Salmond is on point

"When Act mounted its despicable Victim of the Day campaign, delivered by Act’s parliamentary staffers at the taxpayers’ expense and attacking individual scholars as ‘deranged,’ that was another attack on institutional autonomy and academic freedom."

Anne Salmond: Academic freedom and its enemies

In NZ there are chilling moves towards illiberal democracy. While they are being strongly resisted so far, political leaders and others must wake up.

newsroom.co.nz

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

Alyssa S. @drsepinwall.bsky.social · 5d

In a meeting to advocate for my grad program, and I was asked to wrap up my "emotional" argument. No thank you. Would you say that to a man? I got an apology, but still.

Luckily this was striking because people don't normally say this shit - & other people spoke up to thank me for my advocacy.

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 5d

I want to see it as the second fall of Rome, but honestly, I think that's romanticising it.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 8d

My wife is not speaking to me because her and her mother walked in on me trying to vacuum a fart directly from source

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 6d

I appeared on University Challenge years ago. I didn't actually attend the university in question. I used to take short cuts through the campus and saw the notice for the try outs. Went along for a laugh and made the team. No one ever checked if I was actually a student there.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 6d

I'm a 47 year old straight bloke. I've taken to drinking in my local gay pub because the atmosphere is so much nicer. No screaming kids, no football wankers, just people having fun & enjoying each other's company.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 5d

Wife text me a small household request. I replied okie dokey which was auto corrected to ok donkey. Now I'm making my own tea. Fuck you technology.

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 5d

I'm not sure that having more TV than I can ever watch is enough compensation for watching the dying gasps of democracy and civil society.

If there are historians to look back on the 21st century, I hate to think what the shorthand will be (in the mode of 19C=industrial rev, 15C=Renaissance).

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 5d

I'm exhausted, and misread marbles as nipples, and it says a lot about the state of the world that that didn't particularly surprise me.

Andreas Hopf 🇩🇪 🇨🇭 🇬🇧 🇸🇪 @andreashopf.bsky.social · 5d

Peter Thiel really lost his marbles.

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 9d

"Here's a tool for you to use to help keep you safe"
"No, wait! Don't use the tool like that! We don't want you doing that!"

carrion🐛 @carrion.bsky.social · 9d

just don’t create a moderation list, bluesky said that’s bad

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 9d

Oddly, my great aunt was Greta. I think she's still the only Greta I've known personally.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 10d

I was told not to teach a class on the intellectual histories of Zionism and Anti-Zionism next year - not because they doubted I could teach it fairly, but because it would attract too many politicians scrutinizing the syllabus.

A society where that is a valid fear is no longer fully democratic.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 10d

Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall sat down for an interview for Brad Falchuk’s new Netflix series, Famous Last Words.

The premise of the series is to interview people on the condition that the interview not air until the subject has passed away.

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Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

rae-diance massage @raewynkrivan.bsky.social · Jun 27

🙏💔🙏

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 10d

And in fact, neither of those things were true...

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 20d

I have made a really good and detailed list of all the work that I need to get done this week, structured it, and ordered it by urgency. It's now 3.30pm on Friday.

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

I've read around, and I haven't seen anything suggesting it would be restricted to lottery-only, even if they are using the lottery to justify it. They have the discretion to waive it, but I can't see this administration doing so for most unis... Existing visas aren't affected, but new ones?

Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 25d

Joining Mastodon is easy! You just find an instance (not that one, not that one, not that one) and then you set up your farble to interact with the jibcrank but be sure to hide your content automatically behind a yuwving or you'll be in violation of the instances TOS and can be banned.

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

It seems to not have been mentioned in a lot of the discussion I've seen, but H1B visas in the US are how US colleges/universities hire international scholars. They will not spend $100k on a junior hire. If this proceeds, US universities will become even more insular.

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

People seem to assume that this has to be taken on the same level whether people are acting with love or hate. Let people love things. Speak up when they are espousing hate. It's not tricky. They are not the same thing, and we all know it.

Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken @papawoof.bsky.social · 25d

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

I spend too much of my time these days reading obituaries of people who I will now never have the chance to know as their eulogisers did, and that gives me my own grief.

Reposted by Mark Stewart (he/him)

Tom Isaacson @parsley72.bsky.social · 25d

Werewolf attacks are at an all time high! It's time we put common sense werewolf preventions in place like silver!

Do you even hear yourself?
Silver is so expensive! Listen, I personally believe it's actually worth it that some villagers get attacked by werewolves if it keeps the costs down.

This guy gets it.

Ahh! Nooo! Whoosh Chomp

How could this have happened??
No one could have predicted this outcome!

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

I feel like this fits into a bigger moment that I need to process a bit before I write about... But also... Fascinating.

dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 25d

“With a single post or video, we can influence thousands of guests to try a food, drink, or experience in the parks,” she says. “I couldn’t, in good conscience, keep giving them free publicity knowing they don’t support free speech and are willing to bow to fascism."

The Disney Adults Dumping the Mouse Over Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel and Disney’s battle has not only taken over the news cycle, but it has sent the Disney internet into shambles.

www.glamour.com

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Mark Stewart (he/him) @mediamarknz.bsky.social · 25d

Feeling a little bit like things at the moment are 'Do Better, Be Better, Keep Going - choose two'. Some days, it's just choose one.