Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 9h

Monday #morningread
#yeats

From wildreckoning: an anthology provoked by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 21h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Research Excellence Framework 2029.

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 23h

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 3d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 21h

Sunday #eveningread
Love Poems, Sundews
By Victoria Gatehouse

From The Book of Bogs: Stories from A Yorkshire Moor and Other Peatlands.

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Will Bowell- Just Wild Images @justwildimages.bsky.social · 1d

Bittern crash landing at Deeping Lakes @lincswildlife.bsky.social yesterday. Turns out there are two! @lincsbirding.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social @weedonsworld.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social #WildlifeOfTheUK #PatchBirding #JustWildImages #BirdlifeBritain #BirdingHighlights

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 22h

Dear students, AI will ruin your essay.
You can't find this quote from Measure for Measure because AI makes it up: "I do so beg, / For your sake, 'twas not to me but to your brother / A person not worth your love." (Act 5, Scene 1)
It's quicker, safer, and superior to use ur own brains. Totally!

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Dr Rebecca Warren @drrjwarren.bsky.social · 23h

The lifelong psychological trauma of this destruction on those who have survived is beyond comprehension.

Resist 🕎🍉 @antizionistjew.bsky.social · 1d

No homes left, Gaza.

(Muhammad Smiry)

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

Annual autumnal view at Sugarwell Hill. A chair, a tree, a soul, and two horses. #soullife

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

Hawthorns are ready but no signs of redwings. A buzzard’s shrilling permeates the woods. Light frost on the grass. Solitary walking helps one download wisdom from above. Up the Sugarwell Hill and cut the tails of unnecessary emotions.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 1d

Bearded tits love dawn and are only seen at sunrise. If I can't focus on alignment with my higher self, I will be dragged down to stupid, chaotic, looping hells. Perhaps 'balance' is not that correct. 'Focus'(tap the centre of the forehead) should always be remembered and prioritised.

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 1d

The alarming aspect of this deliberate "anti-woke" algorithmic biasing of LLMs from an educational perspective is our institutions all bought in to an imaginary of innovation, then got locked in to enterprise contracts, and now the models are being recoded so they undermine educational values

Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 1d

Genuine question: for those enthusiastically pushing AI tools into every part of our education system—what checks/guardrails are there around algorithmic biases like this?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Charlie Mackesy’s new book: Always Remember. Exclusive Edition @waterstones.bsky.social

I like this sentence: ‘when we are vulnerable with each other, we are strong!’
Cracks are the places that light shines through.

When we are vulnerable with each other, we are strong!

Exclusive Edition in Waterstones. Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy. With a bookmark and a lovely pin of the mole!

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 2d

Saturday #morningread
Have a restful and peaceful weekend!
Enjoy the autumnal woods!
🍂🍁

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Jack Wallington @jackwallington.com · 3d

The latest Red List of endangered species ... now includes 172,620 species, of which 48,646 are threatened with extinction. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Now more than ever we must be the voices for nature.

Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation 'win'

Once endangered due to hunting, it is making a strong recovery thanks to global conservation efforts.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 3d

More than half of all bird species are in decline. But good news about green sea turtles - we can save species if we really try!
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

More than half of world’s bird species in decline, as leaders meet on extinction crisis

Biodiversity losses are growing, the IUCN reports as summit opens, but green turtle’s recovery ‘reminds us conservation works’

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oHT...
Some candidates were tricked by this song that I was not familiar with. Then I found this. Literally breathtaking!

Chopin: 24 Préludes, Op. 28: No. 16 in B-Flat Minor

YouTube video by Martha Argerich - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 3d

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 3d

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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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

It’s good. I like it. Thank you Michael! 👍

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Reposted by Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma

Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities @uio-oceh.bsky.social · 4d

Do trees talk to each other?

It might sound like sci-fi, but research shows that trees and plants can “communicate” underground — thanks to fungi🍄👇
#EnvHum #Mycorrhiza #WoodWideWeb

Tree roots spreading across forest floor, with a caption explaining that trees communicate underground through fungal networks.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

She does ‘not’ allow me but I don’t care
My recent lesson is ‘sovereignty’
Don’t need external validation any more!

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

I stopped at this page before I came out to enjoy the sunrise and help another flat move fridge. All unreasonable plots (e. g. My flatmate does allow me to get up and have breakfast before 9) conspired to make this warm and special #10/10portal morning. #morningread #thomashardy

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

Pleasure.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

might be better to translate ‘道 as--‘dao' than lesson or truth or epiphany...

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

No one knows before the concentrated and effortless moment, how many hells I have travelled.
'心不死则道不生'––your heart has to die before the lesson is born.

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Dr Victoria Xiaoxiao Ma @victoriaxiaoxiaoma.bsky.social · 3d

www.imdb.com/title/tt2781...
So glad that the movie Silent Friend will be released at @leedsfilmfest.bsky.social. It's about trees and humans. #envhum #ginkgo

www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/sil...

Silent Friend (2025) ⭐ 7.4 | Biography, History

2h 27m

www.imdb.com

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