Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 1d

Seeing people nonchalantly post stuff like makes me feel like I'm going crazy honestly.

A post from an academic on blue sky that says: "I'm learning about "prompt engineering" when asking LLMs to extract data. I now add this to all instructions:

Style
Be concise, analytic, and specific (cite page/figure if provided). If essential info is missing, keep going but flag Unclear and exact data needed. Never invent data.

#academicsky"

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MeatMechSuit @meatmechsuit.bsky.social · 4d

To ask a pakeha majority to remove representation of an indigenous minority is ongoing white supremacist colonisation. #nzpol

TheLoyalOrder @theloyalorder.bsky.social · 4d

Preliminary results of the 2025 Māori wards referendums

#nzpol

Map showing preliminary margin of support by council for the 2025 Māori ward referendums

CC BY 4.0 TheLoyalOrder

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Cam Bennett @cambennett.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like I misunderstood what they meant by back on track

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3d

About a month ago, the Trump administration got rid of the de minimis exemption, whereby packages valued under $800 could slide in without import duties. Now there's a backlog as the government can't process all of this paperwork, leading to UPS just destroying packages

Business Insider headline reads: UPS is telling customers that their packages coming to the US are marked for destruction.

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R.S.A. Garcia (BUY THE NIGHTWARD) @rsagarcia.bsky.social · 2d

Unpopular opinion: Billionaires are pyramid schemes foisted on the public by disconnected from reality, growth obsessed stock markets, VCs & 1%ers.

Nobody's business is worth more than the land value of the planet. But they can scam real fortunes out of govs etc if they claim that. That's the goal.

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Jesse @requiemarm.bsky.social · 3d

this is by far the worst reading of Alan Moore’s Watchmen I’ve ever seen and if you spend an appreciable amount of time online you will know what a crowning achievement that is

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 3d

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Nick Young @nickofnz.bsky.social · 3d

Mind blowing.

The Luxon Government has confirmed it will rewrite NZ’s once bipartisan climate change law to dilute methane reduction targets and PERMANENTLY exclude dairy from the Emissions Trading Scheme – a move Greenpeace says amounts to full-blown climate denial.
#nzpol

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James Nokise @jamesnokise.bsky.social · 3d

I have never ever seen a Comedy Festival - or any Festival - where the acts have had to do a post-fest press tour back announcing donations of part of their fees to charities because of how bad the organisers were.

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Bill Bennett @billbennett.bsky.social · 3d

Have I got this right? We can't afford to fund the health system but we can build a Death Star.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

NZ defence strategy explores space weapons export potential

Defence Minister Judith Collins insists NZ-produced technology could compete internationally.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Lyndon Hood @lyndonhood.bsky.social · 4d

Men will literally call everything that irritates them the antichrist rather than go to therapy

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Pip Adam @pipadam.bsky.social · 4d

Yaaaaay!!!

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Cars are still bad @jondoesnotexist.bsky.social · 4d

“Everyone who is rich enough or close enough to reactionary politics is effectively in a cult with beliefs loonier than the median Heaven’s Gate member” is a relatively straightforward description of the current moment. I don’t know how we live like this

Craig Harrington @craigipedia.bsky.social · 5d

I dunno, man... I dunno. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 4d

Tory Whanau missing out on a Māori ward seat sucks, but it has an obvious brightside: she's free to run for parliament in 2026 if she wants to.

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Vulture @vulture.com · 5d

Comedians like Aziz Ansari and Jessica Kirson need to look elsewhere for organizations to donate their Riyadh Comedy Festival money. Human Rights Watch said they ‘cannot accept’ donations from them.

Human Rights Watch Doesn’t Want Any Riyadh Comedy Festival Money

Comedians like Aziz Ansari and Jessica Kirson need to look elsewhere for organizations to donate their Riyadh Comedy Festival money. Human Rights Watch said they ‘cannot accept’ donations from them.

www.vulture.com

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kyle @kyledchurch.bsky.social · 5d

I shit you not, one of the 5 reasons is “every cycle ends eventually”.

Are you fucking *kidding* ??

Watershitdown @watershitdown.bsky.social · 5d

RNZ really putting in the hard yards for this gov #nzpol

www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Five reasons to feel positive about the New Zealand economy

It's been a year of grim economic news - unemployment has been up, GDP down and consumer confidence weak.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Victoria 💚 🧡 @vebate.bsky.social · 6d

I predict 27 or 28 November that he will "graciously" step aside because that's the date he gets his lifelong PM entitlements that he's entitled to.

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Mark Daly @markd12.bsky.social · 5d

Seems relevant given our disastrous electricity market that this is the same as when Transpower was sold off. Results will be the same

Sacha @sachadylan.bsky.social · 5d

National-led government wants to privatise core telecommunications infrastructure.

Government mulls possible sale of Chorus

The Finance Minister says with the completion of the ultra-fast broadband fibre initiative, there's no longer a policy reason for the Crown to own Chorus.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Pip Adam @pipadam.bsky.social · 6d

There are so many things wrong in this world and then there are these moments of joy and light!! ❤️

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Nino Cipri @ninocipri.bsky.social · 6d

Y’all this movie is SO GOOD, please see it in theaters if you can!

Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 6d

You will soon stalk, hunt, and take down Prey in theaters:

reactormag.com/prey-predato...

Prey Is Finally Getting the Theatrical Release Director Dan Trachtenberg Says It Was Made For - Reactor

The 2022 film is showing as part of a Predator double feature.

reactormag.com

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Foxy @foxylustygrover.bsky.social · 6d

It's unbelievable that this article

"Government’s books show finance minister borrowing billions to keep the lights on"

does not once mention the $12to$14Billion tax cut cost they are borrowing to cover, nor the Billions they stole from Pay Equity Fund #NZPol

Government’s books show finance minister borrowing billions to keep the lights on

Treasury has revealed the state of the Government’s finances and it shows we’re borrowing just to keep the lights on.

www.stuff.co.nz

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Tory Whanau @misswhanau.bsky.social · 6d

Just got sent this from an article by Bryce Edwards. This is completely false, and he never once fact-checked it with me. My campaign was run by me and my small volunteer team. Comments like this reflect a tired mindset that assumes women can’t succeed in politics without a man pulling the strings.

7:50
:.!=
73)
concerns about transparency and public trust.
The Anatomy of influence - A Wellington case study
Many of the powerful vested interests behind local politicians are barely acknowledged. For example, how many Wellington voters knew that the current Mayor of Wellington, Tory Whanau, had her successful 2022 campaign essentially run by corporate lobbyist Neale Jones?
Jones co-owns and operates the Capital Government Relations firm with fellow political commentator Ben Thomas. The firm is the epitome of the "revolving door"

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Amberley Museum @amberleymuseum.bsky.social · 7d

This is Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and considered to be the first person to write a computer programme which was for Babbage's Analytical Machine. She died in 1842
In her honour, today is Ada Lovelace Day and is all about encouraging women and girls in mathematics, science and engineering.

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Pip Adam @pipadam.bsky.social · 7d

Trust me - from close proximity - for a 19 year old struggling with mental health challenges job-seekers is terrifying but these changes will make things far, far worse for so many of our young people. Imagine extra funding to support 18/19 year olds through this tough time?

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Tina Makereti @tinamakereti.bsky.social · 7d

I wrote a thing that is set in an imagined near-future where there is a tent city in Te Aro park. I would very much like sci-fi/speculative fiction/dystopic fiction to remain in any way fictional. I would like it if I imagined an awful thing and it didn't turn out to be not as awful as reality.

Kay in the End Times 🏳️‍🌈 💗💜💙📚 @jennykaynz.bsky.social · 7d

A kaupapa Māori youth homelessness group says benefit changes will increase whānau stress and push more rangatahi onto the streets.

If they're living on street and beg for food, cops will move them along for vagrancy. NZ Govt is OK w poor 18 - 19YOs dying off.
#NZpol
www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu...

Government benefit changes could leave more rangatahi homeless, advocate warns

A kaupapa Māori youth homelessness group says benefit changes will increase whānau stress and push more rangatahi onto the streets.

www.rnz.co.nz

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