Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 1d

Though still only 3 deaths are attributed to measles in the US this year, we're up to 1,563 cases, which is more than 4x the number of cases we saw last year.

www.cdc.gov/measles/data...

Measles Cases and Outbreaks

Find the latest numbers of confirmed U.S. measles cases. CDC updates this page weekly.

www.cdc.gov

Reposted by Netmouse

Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 2d

Not only is this explanation great, I also know 5,271,009 people whose lives would be changed for the better by taking it on board.

Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 12d

This Tumblr user summarizes something I've been feeling/doing lately. Against everything going on, it somehow feels helpful.

User homoquartz writes: as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now."
Small talk isn't to get to know a person. It's just a greeting to affirm you're buddies in the universe. I am motivated by wanting the other person to know I am friendly, so I have gotten pretty decent at small tall when I used to hate it.

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 4d

Retina A was discovered through research on the skins of uncompensated subjects in PA prisons. This made a white researcher quite rich.

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 4d

Obama's entire campaign was civil rights activism. Not just the moment of his election, but everything that came before, including his decision to try to be the change so many of us wanted to see.

White people are no doubt forgetting how much abuse he and his family faced as he did that.

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 4d

Reality in Portland.

youtube.com/shorts/02fbx...

How Portland Is Reacting to Trump’s National Guard Threat

YouTube video by The New York Times

youtube.com

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 5d

I have to wonder how much this crop shift contributed also to the "silent spring" Rachel Carson attributed to DDT. Bird populations are down 30 percent and I suspect the lack of berries is a prime factor.

youtu.be/WdlolIJ5u9U?...

Why These 20 Garden Fruits Were BANNED in the 1950s

YouTube video by America Grows

youtu.be

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 6d

Where is the entrepreneurial spirit that in former years might have led Americans to buy these soybeans to manufacture products HERE instead of selling them to China ( where they were frequently processed into products sold back to us).

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 6d

This reminds me so strongly of the toilet paper "shortages" during the pandemic. People are having trouble affording groceries while farmers are having trouble selling crops for a good price. Our distribution systems are not flexible enough.

youtu.be/hc6hKjAuKgI?...

Trump considers $10 billion bailout for farmers as tariffs disrupt the market

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

youtu.be

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 8d

All these people calling for the release of the Epstein Files… Reminds me of the years we spent calling for Trump to release his taxes. At least THAT happened.

No, wait, it DIDN’T.

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 10d

Jane Goodall's last interview.

youtu.be/4oshFOK9-sk?...

JANE GOODALL'S LAST INTERVIEW Recorded on 9/23/25

YouTube video by dreamlion

youtu.be

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 11d

I kind of like this idea in this moment, tbh. They fired half the IRS investigators so those left really do need to prioritize the targets they pursue based on the odds that there's criminal fraud.

prayingmantes.bsky.social @prayingmantes.bsky.social · 11d

80% of tax fraud is committed by white men 30+. Guess the IRS should only audit white men.

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 11d

The military (National guard) has been quite professional, and many trained police would never stoop to the level of these ICE agents. They are hiring willing thugs and sending them out into the streets in facemasks with no real training.

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Reposted by Netmouse

Faith 🌊🥷 @faith54.bsky.social · 11d

I sat in a meeting earlier this week regarding attendance at a conference in the US, something my colleagues were keen to attend to interact & share medical research. Not one of the 12 was willing to fly into the US, siting personal safety as the reason; that’s what’s going on out there.

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 11d

Literally my daughter, yesterday.

Your Least Favorite Ghoul 👻 @leastfavoriteson.bsky.social · 11d

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 12d

Chilicon delayed my posting of the Freedom in the Family review by one week, but I posted it last Friday, right before I went on a daylong tour of municipal watershed projects.

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Reposted by Netmouse

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 12d

NEW—US Department of Education sent out standard Out of Office language to employees on Wednesday in light of shutdown. Later yesterday, workers tell me they found someone had updated their auto-responses without consent to a new one blaming Democrats.

Version of original on left, updated on right:

Thank you for your email. There is a temporary shutdown of the U.S. government due to a lapse in appropriations. I will respond to your message as soon as possible after the temporary shutdown ends. Please visit ED.gov for the latest information on the
Department's operational status.
Thank you.

Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.

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Reposted by Netmouse

Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 12d

this government is fucking with the bonds of union, genuinely insane

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 12d

simple an untenable situation, but doubly so given that big blue states are HUGE net contributors to the federal budget www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight

The Office of Management and Budget is withholding billions in energy and infrastructure money in more than a dozen states that voted against Trump.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Netmouse

P. Djéli Clark | The Disgruntled Haradrim @pdjeliclark.bsky.social · 12d

meanwhile, on Ghorman…

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 12d

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”…

“Stuff was everywhere…people’s birth certificates, and papers thrown all over. Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 12d

That sounds so frustrating. "We have all the industry contacts and distribution networks to make this book reach the readers who will love it as much as we do, but that's, like, a lot of work, so we want you to have readers already."

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Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 12d

Yes! including dwelling in the world of someone else's imagination for a bit.

Just yesterday I finished reading The Dragon With a Heart Of Chocolate, by Stephanie Burgis. Perfect for this.

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 19d

I literally just created a group there for the first time earlier today.

Netmouse @netmouse.bsky.social · 22d

It's too easy to just say shit like that, but it has no basis. The Michigan democrats I grew up with, like Senator Carl Levin (and now his son) and state legislator Rebekah Warren, were there to serve the people and worked very hard to do just that.

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Reposted by Netmouse

Marissa Lingen @marissalingen.bsky.social · 25d

Free story in @iftheresanyoneleft.bsky.social! The Things You Know, The Things You Trust: www.iftheresanyoneleft.com/stories/mari...

The Things You Know, The Things You Trust — IfTheresAnyone

In the future, everything will stay essentially the same, despite changes. The things you know about the people you love will be enough to rely on, at their core, no matter what the world does.

www.iftheresanyoneleft.com

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Reposted by Netmouse

Jonathan Dresner @jondresner.bsky.social · 26d

"The First Amendment recognizes that a certain amount of expressive disorder not only is inevitable in a society committed to individual freedom, but must itself be protected if that freedom should survive." Justice William J. Brennan, City of Houston v. Hill, in 1999

Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 26d

From James Madison's original draft of the First Amendment: "The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."

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Reposted by Netmouse

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 27d

Dr. Monarez: “Kennedy demanded 2 things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official. He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the science...He said, ‘If I was unwilling to do both, I should resign.’”

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