Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4h

Every time you see a story about global EV sales are slowing, makers are in trouble etc, check the global figures which consistently say differently.

Trust the data, not the narrative.

John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 5h

Good morning with good news: “Global EV sales topped two million units in a single month for the first time, driven by record-breaking demand across major markets."

2.1 million EVs sold globally in September. Wow!

EV sales are up 26% in Jan-Sept 2025.
rhomotion.com/news/record-... #energysky

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5h

Source: www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-che...

The chemistry community should ban drawing chemical structures with generative AI, chemists warn

AIs like Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT still make serious errors rendering structural formulae

www.chemistryworld.com

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5h

Often wrong, never in doubt - impressive display here

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Reposted by Rob Cyran

Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 1d

Well now, would you look at that?

A massive study of NEARLY 300,000 people in the United States found that receiving an updated 2024-2025 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine REDUCED people’s risk of severe disease AND death in ALL age groups, REGARDLESS of immunity from prior infection or vaccination.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Seems like a sentiment check on the excitement around building data center infrastructure more than anything else.

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

This is either clever or crazy or both: a UK company will install, in your home, a miniature data center, about the size of a heat pump, to serve as your home heating.

UK Power Networks helping SHIELD vulnerable customers from Fuel Poverty

Customers struggling with energy bills could soon benefit from low-cost heating, thanks to an award-winning UK Power Networks innovation that re-uses heat from mini data centres.

www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, this is the sort it statement that almost always raises more doubt than it quells and you don’t want to do this on a Sunday night

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Investment banks do not normally come out with statements detailing their liquidity on a Sunday night. ir.jefferies.com/news/news-de...

Jefferies Provides Letter from Its CEO and President Regarding Point Bonita Capital and First Brands Group

Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF) (“Jefferies”) announced today that is has posted this letter from our CEO, Rich Handler, and our President, Brian Friedman: ____________________ Dear Client...

ir.jefferies.com

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

So surprised!

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Futures open in three minutes, LOL

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

* TRUMP: XI IS A SMART MAN AND A GREAT LEADER

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Source - this is really good by the way on US market crashes 1963 and earlier.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Fisk enjoyed life for a while but turned out his mistress was sleeping with a young associate of his. The man blackmailed Fisk and got paid because Fisk didn’t want people knowing he was a cuckhold. He then stopped paying, social scandal ensued and blackmailer shot Fisk dead.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

A third partner of Gould and Fisk did not know the game that was being played. He did not have money to cover all the gold he bought, went bankrupt and later insane.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

Then a Euro bank syndicate emerged to crash the price. Gould was out by this point and all the people who had bought his metals were ruined, as were a lot of banks and brokerages. Gould shared some of his profit with Fisk, and they were not prosecuted because they had bought a number of judges

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

He told his partner, Jim Fisk, to buy as much as he could the next day while he would sell. So Fisk’s underling loudly announced buys, the price rocketed and Gould sold on the sly. All the liquidity exited local banks and the stock market, and banks started failing.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

The Panic of 1869 seems oddly - relevant? Jay Gould tried to corner gold after convincing the White House to stop selling gold. Halfway through the president changed his mind. Gould knew he had hours to exit or be ruined and if he sold any the price would crash.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 3d

Wonder how Tether’s plan to raise funds at a $500bn valuation are going?

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

At the very least, a strategic stockpile of various rare earths - storage costs would be cheap, don’t need to worry about having domestic supply and subsidizing operating costs. And you don’t have the dirty processing.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

I don’t understand why the US lacks a large stockpile of rare earths. Much smaller volumes needed than oil, storage costs should be relatively cheap and refining is dirty so fine if it’s located elsewhere.

Alex Turnbull @alexbhturnbull.bsky.social · 4d

Appears US admin used Pakistan as a workaround on rare earths which preciptated the China meltdown @arnabdatta.bsky.social

Pakistan delivers rare earth elements and critical minerals to USSM

Pakistan delivers its first enriched rare earth elements and critical minerals to USSM, marking a milestone for US-Pakistan supply chains.

www.fastmarkets.com

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah consumer spending is the real engine of the US economy and always has been/always will be. One caveat though is higher decile income has become more important for consumer spending over time- so might get more of a wealth effect from a market crash this time.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

It’s probably a smallish impact on GDP but bigger on corporate earnings. In 2000 GDP hit was pretty minimal but S&P earnings fell 40% if I recall correctly.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

Sam using your 1bn parameter LLM for this problem is a crime

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

Excellent paper title by the way, using Miese van der Rohe’s axiom. Any follow on paper should use fellow architect Loos’ over the top quote “ornament is crime!”

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

Tiny recursive models seem really interesting and may cause a Wall Street AI freak out at some point. Speculative guess here, but looks like a limited tool for reducing noise in some clearly-defined problems caused by model overfitting. arxiv.org/html/2510.04...

Less is More: Recursive Reasoning with Tiny Networks

arxiv.org

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5d

I was not aware that Argentine President Milei, has five cloned mastiffs (named after economists e.g. Lucas and Milton), and reportedly telepathically speaks to them, asking advice. All are clones of his first dog which he claimed to have met in a gladiator ring in Rome. time.com/6337474/javi...

time.com

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5d

This whole article is amazing