Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

singemonkey.bsky.social @singemonkey.bsky.social · 2h

I’m always trying to make people aware of this. What they don’t mention here is that it’s not just high “naturally occurring” levels of sugar. Commercial fruit juices are routinely dehydrated to increase the relative sugar content to grossly unhealthy levels. And then they lean on no *added* sugar.

The Conversation Africa @africa.theconversation.com · 2h

South Africa’s diabetes rates have nearly tripled in a decade. Are fruit juices really the healthy choice we think they are? 🥤

theconversation.com/fruit-juices...

#HealthAndMedicine

Fruit juices in South Africa are getting a free ride: why they should have the same health warning labels as fizzy drinks

Fruit juices get a free regulatory ride in South Africa because the sugar in them is natural.

theconversation.com

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CrazyMyra @outonthemoors.bsky.social · 4h

Roast your chicken in the heat of battle

Medieval manuscript image of a man in full armour, with what looks like a squirrel on his helmet, riding a big, long-tailed dog of some sort. His right arm is cocked and ready to throw a spear (it looks more like a rotisserie spit) with plucked chicken impaled on it.

The illustration is of a "fox-crested knight riding a cat (allegory of gluttony)", from the Etymachia, a document made in Germany in 1420 and now housed in the Wellcome Library, London, as part of the "Wellcome Apocalypse".

(From @wellcomecollection on Insta)

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Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 4h

⚡️Drop Site Daily | October 15, 2025

Palestinian bodies bear signs of field executions; Trump conditions $20 billion Argentina bailout on Milei’s reelection; 45,000 health care workers go on strike in U.S.

www.dropsitenews.com/p/palestinia...

Palestinian bodies bear signs of field executions;Trump conditions $20 billion Argentina bailout on Milei’s reelection; 45,000 health care workers go on strike in U.S.

Drop Site Daily: October 15, 2025

www.dropsitenews.com

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Sumitra Badrinathan @sumitra.bsky.social · 5h

🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨

➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms

hopeful findings👇🏽

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 4h

"Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction and death... It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda" - the late Marie Colvin.

Truth is the cornerstone of justice. Without it we can't start to hold those responsible to account. Let journalists into Gaza.

The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 4h

The Rafah crossing is expected to re-open.

Alongside the desperately needed aid, journalists must be allowed into Gaza.

Over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza - but the crimes of the Israeli government and military must not go undocumented.

Let the journalists in.

Graphic with an image of a press photographer among rubble in Gaza.

Text reads:

REAL HOPE. REAL CHANGE.

LET
JOURNALISTS
IN

Green Party
Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ

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The Rest Is Politics @therestpolitics.bsky.social · 4h

We see you Zack Polanski 👀

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 3h

As Madagascar’s President Rajoelina flees and the army takes control, Gen Z protesters demand clean water, reliable electricity, and dignity for all.
www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

‘We don’t want power, we want light’: Madagascar awaits post-Rajoelina era

As president flees and army takes control, Gen Z protesters demand water, electricity and a well-functioning country.

www.aljazeera.com

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Lisa Röstlund @lisarostlund.bsky.social · 8h

We’ve met with Greta Thunberg and others in the flotilla. They describe hours-long scenes of torture and sexual harassment in Israeli captivity. Experts conclude that they have been subjected to serious crimes – Sweden’s foreign minister believes they have themselves to blame.

tinyurl.se/crR

Greta Thunberg: “They kicked me every time the flag touched my face”

– Greta Thunberg on her days in Israeli captivity Beating, kicking, and threats of being gassed in cages. Greta Thunberg and several others from the flotilla ar

www.aftonbladet.se

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Linotype Pilgrim @symbo1ics.bsky.social · Nov 22

The "use case" for LLMs is: Spam. Everywhere.

Screenshot from quoted article:

The LLM is for spam
OpenAI’s AI-powered text generators fueled a lot of the hype around AI — but the real-world use case for large language models is overwhelmingly to generate content for spamming. [Vox]

The use case for AI is spam web pages filled with ads. Google considers LLM-based ad landing pages to be spam, but seems unable or unwilling to detect and penalize it. [MIT Technology Review; The Verge]

The use case for AI is spam books on Amazon Kindle. Most are “free” Kindle Unlimited titles earning money through subscriber pageviews rather than outright purchases. [Daily Dot]

The use case for AI is spam news sites for ad revenue. [NewsGuard]

The use case for AI is spam phone calls for automated scamming — using AI to clone people’s voices. [CBS]

The use case for AI is spam Amazon reviews and spam tweets. [Vice]

The use case for AI is spam videos that advertise malware. [DigitalTrends]

The use case for AI is spam sales sites on Etsy. …

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Dylan Reeve @dylanreeve.com · 23h

It's amazing how incredibly explicitly OpenAI seems to be admitting that they have no idea how to actually monetize their automated lying machine.

The Verge @theverge.com · 1d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 14h

Banks make $26bn in a decade of financing deforesting companies.

Destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level - agricultural expansion, mining, infrastructure, logging.

Profits before climate change, human lives and the planet.

The cult of deregulation will make matters worse.

Banks make $26bn in decade of financing deforesting companies

US, EU and UK banks have made over $10 billion in income since Paris Agreement by financing companies involved in deforestation, new analysis ahead of COP30 reveals

globalwitness.org

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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 15h

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Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · 1d

“Copyright growing pains” is one hell of a euphemism for the biggest IP theft in history

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 2d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 1d

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 1d

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says

www.nytimes.com

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singemonkey.bsky.social @singemonkey.bsky.social · 14h

Confirmation that committed university Republicans are just the kind of fascists you imagine them to be.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

singemonkey.bsky.social @singemonkey.bsky.social · 22h

Israel 20 seconds after getting the hostages back… vile scum.

Truthout @truthout.org · 22h

Israel is going to halve the amount of aid that it will allow into Gaza under the ceasefire agreement, aid groups say — a move Israel has attempted to justify by blaming Hamas for supposedly violating the deal that Palestinians have said Israel is working to sabotage.

Israel Says It’s Halving Aid Into Gaza After Receiving Last 20 Living Captives

Israel says Hamas hasn’t returned captives’ bodies — while still blocking entry of machinery that can clear rubble.

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Truthout @truthout.org · 22h

Israel is going to halve the amount of aid that it will allow into Gaza under the ceasefire agreement, aid groups say — a move Israel has attempted to justify by blaming Hamas for supposedly violating the deal that Palestinians have said Israel is working to sabotage.

Israel Says It’s Halving Aid Into Gaza After Receiving Last 20 Living Captives

Israel says Hamas hasn’t returned captives’ bodies — while still blocking entry of machinery that can clear rubble.

buff.ly

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singemonkey.bsky.social @singemonkey.bsky.social · 1d

It’s great to qualify this stuff but disheartening to see how most of the post-apartheid gains have been lost after the pandemic (2011 was a 30 year low). Major policy changes to reduce alcohol consumption could slash murders *and* road deaths. We, Namibia, and Mozambique are outliers vs Africa gnly

Africa Check @africacheck.org · 1d

There’s no denying that murder rates in South Africa are high. But two bold claims published by the widely read Guardian newspaper still caught our attention. Here’s what we found. africacheck.info/capetown_dan...

Is Cape Town South Africa's second most dangerous city? Here's what the numbers show

There’s no denying that murder rates in South Africa are high. But two bold claims published by the Guardian still caught our attention.

africacheck.info

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singemonkey.bsky.social @singemonkey.bsky.social · 1d

Dreamed I was in LA this morning (never been). Dream LA has the most incredible species of ibis everywhere: shiny black with a flaring crimson bib and two long, pendulous feathers hanging from the end of the gape.

#birds #dreambirding

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Trita Parsi @tparsi.bsky.social · 2d

This is why those banking on the Israeli "opposition" convince very few...

Yair Lapid, head of Israel's opposition:

"Those who demonstrated against Israel in London, Rome, Paris... were deceived by propaganda... The truth is, there was no genocide, no intentional starvation."

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Even more annoying is that the original poster is using the LLM to “wade through a mountain of papers for a systemic review”. Which means feeding a lot of academic material into the plagiarism machine that always lies, without the consent of the authors.

Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 2d

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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The Intercept @theintercept.com · 1d

Watch this before going to a protest.

How To Stay Safe At a Protest, According To An Attorney

As people head to the streets this weekend in LA and elsewhere, protesters should be informed about their constitutional rights and safety options. On the latest episode of The Intercept Briefing…

interc.pt

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Zoë “Baddie Proctor” Quinn @unburntwitch.com · 1d

People who work in data/tech ethics must be some of the most irate people alive these days

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Lyndie Chiou @lyndie.bsky.social · 2d

Here are the remnants of a massive star that ignited in 1054. Ancient astronomers marveled at how they could see the supernova even during the day. All that's left today is the faint, colorful smudge called the Crab Nebula.

Image credit: my tiny telescope - only 2 hours!

#science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 1d

Now that you know better, don't move the goal posts.

"Per the UN, Palestinian girls in Israeli prison have suffered sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were raped."
www.savethechildren.net/news/palesti...

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