Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Kristy Rawson @kristyrawson.bsky.social · 54m

"People who abuse women abuse every kind of power they have" 🎯 @lindseyboylan.bsky.social

Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 1h

Lindsey Boylan was the first of about a dozen women to accuse Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment and is now supporting Zohram Mamdani for mayor of New York City.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 19m

#EconSky #PolicySky

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 21m

Opportunity to work at the intersection of social science research, social impact, and philanthropy with The Constellation Fund.
constellationfund.org/wp-content/u...

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 41m

From "The Double Tax" by @itsafronomics.bsky.social: "....perms marketed for Black women are associated with a 50% increased risk of uterine cancer."

I thought I knew a lot about the tax women and even Black women pay, but I feel like I'm learning something new with every page.

The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid

How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid

bookshop.org

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Zoë McLaren, PhD @zoemclaren.bsky.social · 36m

Slooooow news day!

Zoo Atlanta @zooatl.bsky.social · 38m

We're delighted to announce the arrival of a Hoffmann's two-toed sloth, born to Cocoa and Nutella on October 12. Mama and baby are resting up in the sloths' indoor area, but we promise to keep the updates coming! (vid: Celyn F.)

Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 1h

You’ll notice that new developments in generative AI are always accompanied by new ways of depicting women without their consent—undermining their autonomy and harassing them—almost like it’s a pillar of the technology and its evolution

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 2h

KBJ is doing her best to explain HOW LAW WORKS to Brett and Amy but those two have long decided not to care about that.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

The Sick Times @thesicktimes.org · 2h

National COVID-19 trends data are largely unavailable this week from the CDC. The COVID-19 data that we do have, from independent wastewater surveillance and state public health departments, indicate that disease levels continue to decline across most of the U.S. bit.ly/4ogSu29

COVID-19 and other infectious disease data continue to be very limited while the U.S. government is shut down. Last week, the CDC updated a couple of national COVID-19 metrics; this week, the agency didn’t even update the national trends page. When Congress reaches a budget deal, infectious disease surveillance will remain under threat due to CDC layoffs.

The COVID-19 data that we do have, from independent wastewater surveillance and state public health departments, indicate disease levels continue to decline across most of the U.S. Epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers and her colleagues at Outbreak Outlook compiled a detailed summary of state trends. See the post on our website for data source links

WastewaterSCAN reports that national average SARS-CoV-2 levels have decreased through early October: the latest average level is less than a third of the summer surge’s peak in early September, and is close to the moderate levels reported between waves this past spring.

WWSCAN and state health department data also suggest that COVID-19 levels continue to decline across regions, as of early October, particularly in places hardest hit by this summer’s surge.

National COVID-19 wastewater trends from WastewaterSCAN, as of early October:

The U.S. will be less prepared to face both COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks this winter due to widespread layoffs at the CDC.

It’s currently unclear exactly which divisions and how many workers are included: multiple outlets reported that the Trump administration may have reversed some layoffs, with officials claiming some staff mistakenly received reduction-in-force notices and were not actually part of the cuts. But regardless, these job losses will decimate the agency’s workforce.

“It’s a massacre,” one laid-off CDC official told STAT.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 2h

Hello everyone today we are getting some basic menstruation education! No, actually, MOST mammals do NOT menstruate! With maybe one or two exceptions, only primates shed their uterine lining in a regular cycle.

Other mammals have something called estrus.

Cu'Anam 🎬💻🎮📚 @darqvirtue.bsky.social · 3h

All mammals menstruate. So why would ours make another mammal think something is wrong?

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 4h

Every time a Democrat gets caught on tape saying like “Some Trump voters are racist” we have a national scandal and JD Vance demands an entirely new kind of apology and meanwhile every Republican group chat is like “Good morning fellow SS members. Who’s ready to respect Hitler today?”

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Zoë McLaren, PhD @zoemclaren.bsky.social · 1h

Who knew fighting fascism could be so fun!

AndreaaaHHhHHHHh!! Grimes @andreagrimes.com · 2h

i did it

i got an inflatable costume for the no kings rally this weekend

i'm so excited

it's a parrot

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 7h

1)You may remember the articles criticizing liberal students for their hesitancy to make friends with conservative students—alleging that they were less open-minded than their conservative counterparts.

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14h

Here are the little darlings they’ve created. Horrifying.

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

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Zoë McLaren, PhD @zoemclaren.bsky.social · 3h

Happy ten fifteen twenty twenty-five!

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

fesstivaldog.bsky.social @fesstivaldog.bsky.social · 7h

If only we had some national, government funded health agencies to work on this disease.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

UM Population Studies Center @um-psc.bsky.social · 5h

PSC alum Jon Denton-Schneider's DiD study shows transformative effects arising from the post-1989 eradication of Guinea worm disease (GWD) in Ghana: ⬆️ agricultural productivity, women's paid employment, and literacy, and ⬇️ child marriage rates. jondentonschneider.com/files/carney...

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 21h

If men with guns and masks tried to pull me out of my car, I'd fight back. Courts should reject any claims by the government that this is aggression by the person being detained, resisting arrest, or that they're a flight risk.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 18h

Oh

New York loses bid to prevent Holtec from dumping radioactive water into the Hudson River

A federal judge sided with Holtec, allowing the company to release radiological water from the Indian Point nuclear power plant into the Hudson River.

www.lohud.com

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Zoë McLaren, PhD @zoemclaren.bsky.social · 13h

Fate of Ophelia! On repeat.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately https://theonion.com/nation-s-indigenous-people-confirm-they-don-t-need-spec-1839033177/

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

Which is pretty telling, since Oliver's comments about Reingold's "reporting" shows how bad she is at reporting, in part by ignoring facts that contradict the false narrative she's trying to sell.

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

He literally says that his show is, like Weiss' publication, an opinion show, rather than a news show, and also lists out a bunch of other opinion websites, and says that NONE of them should be put in charge of a hard news operation. So Reingold's zinger just looks like she didn't do the homework.

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Have noticed the number of journals with explicit policies around use of AI in referee reports (i.e., mandated acknowledgment of policies ruling out this use) is increasing *extremely* rapidly

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Zoë McLaren, PhD @zoemclaren.bsky.social · 1d

No they won’t.

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 2d

going viral here is worse than it used to be on twitter because half of the replies will just be pure pedantry

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

yearly reminder to people insisting that we view Christopher Columbus as "a man of his time" that *the people responsible for the Spanish Inquisition* thought Columbus was out of pocket

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 2d

Christopher Columbus was dragged back to Spain in chains by a crusading knight, convicted of tyranny and immeasurable cruelty, pardoned by Isabella but banned from returning to Hispaniola.

Fuck Columbus.

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Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 2d

I can relate. People assumed I was a yoga teacher until I told them what I do.

Also I’m not immune to mansplaining.

“If coverage systematically tilts toward some groups over others, that doesn’t just affect individual careers—it can reinforce stereotypes about who ‘looks like’ a scientist.”
🧪

When women researchers publish, media attention doesn’t always follow

Men-led papers receive more media coverage than women’s, new study finds

www.science.org

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Reposted by Zoë McLaren, PhD

BOOOOlioraptor, PhD (spooky version) @biblioraptorphd.bsky.social · 2d

Janet saying: Fun fact: Columbus is in the Bad Place
because of all the raping, slave trade, and genocide.

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