Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Don't be a dick. It's not that difficult.

Chidi from the tv show The Good Place facing a conversational partner with curly hair in 2 panels of dialog. Panel 1 shows Chidi with a surprised and incredulous expression saying, "I mean, what do you have to lose".

Panel 2 shows him with a softer expression saying, "by treating people with kindness and respect?"

December 5, 2025 at 12:16 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

via Robin Sloan's Oct. 2025 newsletter

Brian Eno quoted as saying, "All my misgivings about AI really are to do with the fact that it’s owned by a group of people that I don’t trust at all. I don’t trust their taste, I don’t trust their morals, and I don’t trust their politics, and that’s a problem for me — that the whole technology is in the hands of the wrong people."

October 19, 2025 at 1:15 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Best sign at the protest today - a perfectly protest sign sized sprig of some tree with red bark and bright yellow leaves.

#nokings #mpls

Person seen from 3/4 behind holding a protest sign sized sprig of a red barked tree with bright yellow leaves. The person is wearing gray jeans, a yellow check flannel shirt and a yellow beanie hat.

October 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

My friend emerging from the smoke at the anti-ICE protests in Broadview, IL yesterday.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

A redheaded woman wearing black pants and a black hoodie with the hood up waling toward the camera through smoke. She is wearing a dark gray mask and holding a school bus yellow sign that reads "Mr Rogers said "find the helpers" NOT kidnap your neighbors!"

The vibe is badass protestor emerges from the smoke of battle carrying a message of hope.

Photo by Anthony Vazquez in the Chicago Sun-Times

September 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

I love this piece of art!

Delft Blue and Phthalo Blue (2024) by Zipora Fried

An abstract colored pencil drawing called Delft Blue and Phthalo Blue by Zipora Fried. The drawing shows roughly 40 horizontal bands of color that transitioning from a dark blue/pruple 'phthalo blue' on the left to a mid-tone 'delft blue' on the right. Each horizontal band is made up of vertical lines, perhaps one pencil mark wide. The horizontal bands transitions from one color to the other at a different point, but generally in the center and center right of the drawing.

A close up of the previous picture that more clearly shows the vertical marks that make up each horizontal band. The individual lines of color show the transition from darker blue to lighter blue

September 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Tweet from @cartoonfurniture that says "eventually you too will get bored of public vulnerability and become interested solely in making your apartment nicer"

September 13, 2025 at 2:37 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Pepperidge Farm Remembers meme: REMEMBER THE EPSTEIN FILES? in block letters above an old man in a horse drawn carriage holding a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies. Below that: PEPPERIDGE FARM REMEMBERS in block letters

September 1, 2025 at 11:45 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Thrust: A Spasmodic Pictorial History of the Codpiece in Art by Michael Glover the best kind of informative book - funny and insightful with just the right amount of dick jokes. Could only be better by expanding it into a coffee table book.

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/thrust-mic...

A split picture - on the left is a painting of a man with a beard wearing black renaissance outfit with giant poofy sleeves and brown fur trim. Prominently displayed is his white codpiece. The codpiece forms a visual line that is continued by the hilt of the man's sword at his waist and a statue seen in the distance out a window (reversing the line of sight it looks like the statue is staring directly at the codpiece).

On the right is the yellow cover of Michael Glover's book Thrust: A Spasmodic Pictorial History of the Codpiece in Art

August 30, 2025 at 12:33 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

This cicada Tiffany style lamp made by the very talented Cady Poorman is amazing! She's also made moth and bee lamps and a ton of cool stained glass pieces.

www.instagram.com/cady_the_cre...

A Tiffany style stained glass lamp made by Cady Poorman with a 4 sided, truncated pyramid shaped shade that is designed in the shape of a cicada. The wings are made of clear, white, and amber colored glass while the body is made of darker amber and green pieces of glass. The base of the lamp is dark brown in an art nouveau style.

A closer image in 3/4 view of a Tiffany style stained glass lamp made by Cady Poorman with a 4 sided, truncated pyramid shaped shade that is designed in the shape of a cicada. The wings are made of clear, white, and amber colored glass while the body is made of darker amber and green pieces of glass. The base of the lamp is dark brown in an art nouveau style.

August 21, 2025 at 8:32 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Celebrants Astartes. Or any ombré chapter would be an interesting challenge when it comes to shading and highlighting.

Picture of the warhammer 40k space marine chapter Celebrants Astartes paint scheme. The paint is an ombre pattern that goes from red at the top thru orange and into yellow at the feet of the marine. Dark gray skull with wings on the chest, red right kneepad

August 16, 2025 at 11:34 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

"Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis."

Rebecca Solnit, 'The Faraway Nearby'

Image of a tumblr.com post by rainestorming that says:

In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness —from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis.
- Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

The quote "Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis" is highlighted in blue

August 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Raf has really taken to this new pillow. #ProofOfCat

A dark gray cat curled into a ball atop an oatmeal colored pillow made of sherpa fleece with narrow red and white embroidered bands on both ends. The pillow is atop a navy blue fabric sofa.

July 26, 2025 at 2:53 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

three life-like wolf sculptures by Kendra Haste made of chicken wire fencing. Two wolves in the background are facing away, but the wolf in the foreground is seemingly looking at the viewer through a window

Life like sculptures of a wild boar and three boar piglets made by Kendra Haste by shaping chicken wire fencing

A lifelike sculpture of an eagle with outstretched wings by Kendra Haste made of chicken wire fencing

June 25, 2025 at 4:56 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

And in spanish

¿TIENES MIEDO DE PRESENTARTE EN LA CORTE DE INMIGRACIÓN?
Agentes de Cambio
Iniciativa de Defensa de los Derechos Civiles
888-462-5211
Llama al 888-462-5211 para ayuda confidencial con tu audiencia.
Podrías calificar para cambiarla a formato remoto.
Gratis • Seguro • Sin compromiso

June 24, 2025 at 1:27 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

And in spanish

June 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Forced Into A Great And Difficult Transformation by artist Liz Toohey-Wiese

"...it became another mantra I thought about while living in a place that’s been utterly transformed by resource extraction over the past century, and as I thought about the burnt landscapes I drove through."

A sign in the traditional national park style of yellow letters on brown wood slats that says "Forced into a great and difficult transformation" situated in a burnt landscape. Dead tree trunks in the background and a charred stump in the left foreground are contrasted with new growth of green grasses in the middle background and blooming green and purple flowers in the central foreground.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9dW234SfVs/

June 5, 2025 at 1:43 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

This lady from the 3/8/25 Women's March in St. Paul had the same thought.

People at the Women's March on March 8, 2025 holding signs of protest. A prominent sign says, "It's pitchfork time!!" with a red explosion graphic around the work pitchfork and a stylized image of a pitchfork

April 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Beware (hopeful?)

A medium sized kitchen knife is seen plunged into the back of a plastic bottle of Kraft classic caesar salad dressing. The scene is shown on a deck with a large terracotta planter with some dead foliage in the background

March 15, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Ooh, those are good. I saw one from the march in St. Paul that says, "It's pitchfork time!!"

March 9, 2025 at 1:20 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Slava Ukraini

February 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

I came across this fair use remix a couple years ago. Are you there, God? It's me, Magritte

An image of Magritte's "This is not a pipe" picture, but with an altered caption that says, "Es-tu la, mon Dieu? Ce N'est pas moi, Magritte." (Are you there, God? It's me, Magritte)

January 1, 2025 at 11:36 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Hula hoop like you are a bear no one is watching!

A wooden bear sculpture wearing a brass hula hoop. The sculpture is about 6 inches high made of teak wood on a white background. The bear's arms are flung out from it's sides and it's head is turned slightly - the overall effect is a hula hooping bear.

December 25, 2024 at 1:11 PM

Matt Grupa

@mattgrupa.bsky.social

Or "The Amber Bear of Słupsk," an amulet found in a peat bog
in Poland in 1887. It's believed to be from around 1000 BC, but could be even older "as similar amber animal figurines have been found in Jutland, Denmark, dating from the Mesolithic period, between 12,000 and 3900 BC."