Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Steve Reeves

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 13h

I wonder if any of our news outlets will cover this — hard to do so without a full-time science reporter though

Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 13h

Also see: every Uni in NZ..even those with groups with world-wide reputation in ML/AI.

Whose management and senior admin people never spoke to them.

There's a sort of senior admin person who saw "expertise" in ML as a way of gaining prestige and having a highly paid job.

May their time be short.

Paul Brislen @brislen.nz · 13h

Too bloody right.

The seven stages of your workplace getting obsessed with AI then realising it's bollocks

ANYONE with a job is likely to have witnessed managers gushing about AI then quietly ditching the idea. See where your employer is in the cycle of AI hype.

www.thedailymash.co.uk

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Dr Lucy Stewart @lcsnz.bsky.social · 13h

Like most of the science system reforms this year, there's some good ideas here but the overarching direction this government dictates for research ('value for the private sector') is not one that will actually lead to good research

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 14h

The @marsdenfund.bsky.social has been essential for funding blue skies research in New Zealand for 30 years. Such a pity to see news it will be swallowed by the new Research Funding New Zealand. I hope the best aspects of the Marsden Fund will be retained.
www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-...

A new strategy for the science system | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

The Government is changing how science, innovation and technology are funded and supported in New Zealand. The goal is a simpler and more strategic system that helps researchers turn ideas into solutions that benefit New Zealand.

www.mbie.govt.nz

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 14h

I hope there will continue to be some blue skies grants, but I am not confident of it, considering the things said and done over the last couple of years.

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 14h

The @marsdenfund.bsky.social has been essential for funding blue skies research in New Zealand for 30 years. Such a pity to see news it will be swallowed by the new Research Funding New Zealand. I hope the best aspects of the Marsden Fund will be retained.
www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-...

A new strategy for the science system | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

The Government is changing how science, innovation and technology are funded and supported in New Zealand. The goal is a simpler and more strategic system that helps researchers turn ideas into solutions that benefit New Zealand.

www.mbie.govt.nz

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

nzjanette @nzjanette.bsky.social · 14h

Huh. And here I thought accusing other MPs of lying was verboten in the House.
#nzpol

Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 15h

Tama Potaka accuses Kieran Mcanulty of lying about pregnant women being refused emergency housing. Mcanulty says he provided contact details and the Minister hasn't been in touch. So we definitely have a weaponisation of parliamentary decorum by the regime to hide deceit here #nzqt

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Ben Gracewood @ben.gracewood.nz · 15h

Well, as expected, Seymour talked to precisely no craft beer business. fyi.org.nz/request/3228...

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Mountain Tui @mountaintui.bsky.social · 16h

Fascinating how gang numbers have surpassed 10,000 for the first time, meth use is up double & triple, cocaine spiking & gangs are making DOUBLE the profits while domestic violence doubles, but NZME is so quiet about this crisis of law and order. #nzpol

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 19h

Divide and conquer. Encouraging us to direct our rage away form the cause.

One of the greatest fears of those who profit from dividing us is that we might unify against them, and take control.

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

PPTA teachers strike on day of NCEA exams - the dates to know

About 21,000 secondary school teachers are walking off the job after stalled talks.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Paul Thistoll @pault.bsky.social · 1d

The next time someone says the Atlas Network is just a figment of our left wing paranoid imagination show them this X post:

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Bean Crusty @beancrusty.bsky.social · 1d

Sir Brian Roche gets paid approximately $600,000 annually to punch down on teachers and nurses #nzpol

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 1d

Plus yet another article where the govt side gets far more quotes included than the other. And the public service commissioner seems a political role from his words here….is it?

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

LostArcNZ @lostarcnz.bsky.social · 2d

The solutions proposed for New Zealand's (and virtually every other country's) problems are always like:
"We need to make people work for more years"
"We have to cut back on services, I'm sorry, there is just no other way"
"We have to cut benefits for young people"

never:
"We need to tax the rich"

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 2d

And this:
92% of the growth in the entire country this year has been data centers. And some of that is "circular deals" that dont involve actual money

fortune.com/2025/10/07/d...

Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says | Fortune

Is a U.S. without data centers a country without GDP growth?

fortune.com

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 2d

"the world is now composed of 91 autocracies and only 88 democracies"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Don’t fall for the authoritarian hype – Reform and the hard right can be stopped in their tracks | Gordon Brown

From the US to Europe and Asia, grievances are being exploited to gain power. But moderate voices are still in tune with the majority, says former prime minister Gordon Brown

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Baxtermack🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @baxtermack.bsky.social · 3d

Performative gobshittery that costs money is their specialty.

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 4d

So when I hear of students being encouraged to use GPT in college I don’t hear innovation. I hear cognitive atrophy, the inability to think critically for oneself, and total dependence on vulnerable centralized repositories of data for knowledge without ever understanding how knowledge is generated.

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

CuriousCat @felissapien.bsky.social · 3d

New Zealand is being schooled and coached day in day out to accept the normalisation that nothing should get in the way of the vested interests of private capital in their voracious appetite to devour power, resources, and wealth for the very few.

#nzpol

mfriend.substack.com/p/le-plat-du...

'Le plat du jour'

Serving up a fetted menu unsuitable for human consumption!

mfriend.substack.com

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Sassy Little Hobbit @sassypolitico.bsky.social · 3d

I remember when asset sales were gonna lead to mum and dad shareholders and now we just have mum and dad paying $500 power bills in the winter. The right wing ideology is a scam. It’s a pyramid scheme. It’s useless. It improves nothing.

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 4d

Thanks to @sbasfordcanales.bsky.social from @australia.theguardian.com for covering this. That the government should choose to do this, and destroy morale, trust, and its own scientific capabilities to save peanuts is mind-blowing.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The mood is ominous at CSIRO as jobs disappear ‘by stealth’ – and staff are wondering who’s next

National scientific agency has been ‘reshaping its research portfolio’ to deal with an imminent funding cliff in 2024

www.theguardian.com

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 3d

Are journalists these days incapable of crticial thinking?

Daily Indignation @dailyindignation.bsky.social · 3d

Well that’s certainly the headline the government wanted when they drew it up on the whiteboard, cheers NZME, job done.

Nzherald.co.nz: Nicola Willis says Chorus sales money could go towards funding hospitals and schools

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 3d

"Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has warned that the genocide could just as easily pivot to the West Bank"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Beware Netanyahu: he is a master of self-interest – and that’s why he signed the Hamas ceasefire deal | Ben Reiff

The Israeli PM wants to bolster his position and ward off global pariah status. But he has shifted gears before and may do so again, says Israeli journalist Ben Reiff

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Steve Reeves

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 4d

Imagine for a moment a world so dependent on data centers that every aspect of municipal infrastructure must be reshaped. Not around human need, but maintaining GPU farms that use exponentially more power and water with each build. Models are only growing, and our resources are only diminishing.

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 4d

It should strike people that the stock market isn’t crashing despite the shutdown. Like sub-prime mortgages, it has yet again totally detached itself from economic reality while they speculate on how many workers they can fire to replace with AI. It is helping a failing economic strategy save face.

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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.bsky.social · 4d

If this ceasefire happens - and I hope it does - Western media will talk about 'peace'. This will be inaccurate. What they will mean is 'quiet', a reversion to the background level of violence that Palestinians have faced for decades. Peace can only come with the end of the occupation and apartheid.

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Reposted by Steve Reeves

Toby Murray @tobycmurray.bsky.social · 4d

It never fails to amaze and frustrate when it’s the companies pushing security products that fail the most basic tests of secure product development

cje @cje.io · 4d

PATCH YO' IVANTI...OH WAIT NVM

ZDI Drops 13 Unpatched Ivanti Zero-Days Enabling Remote Code Execution

m.cje.io/48X7Ynz

ZDI Drops 13 Unpatched Ivanti Zero-Days Enabling Remote Code Execution

ZDI has publicly disclosed 13 unpatched vulnerabilities in Ivanti Endpoint Manager, including 12 RCE flaws and one local privilege escalation.

m.cje.io

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