Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

AI Needs Game Designers

What StarCraft and Factorio teach us about the future of work.

blog.davidkaye.co

January 7, 2026 at 9:01 AM

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

Money can't buy you taste #24594

Jensen Huang of Nvidia at CES 2026 in a jacket apparently made from cheap plastic reptile skin handbags, styled like a motorcycle jacket.

January 7, 2026 at 8:54 AM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Mark Chadbourn

@chadbourn.bsky.social

Joint European statement on Greenland. They moved quickly after Miller’s comments about annexation last night.

6 January 2026
Joint Statement on Greenland
Statement by President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany, Prime Minister Meloni of Italy, Prime Minister Tusk of Poland, Prime Minister Sánchez of Spain, Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Frederiksen of Denmark on Greenland.
Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe and it is critical for international and transatlantic security.
NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up. We and many other Allies have increased our presence, activities and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries. The Kingdom of Denmark - including Greenland - is part of NATO.
Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.
The United States is an essential partner in this endeavour, as a NATO ally and through the defence agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951.
Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.

January 6, 2026 at 12:10 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Brian Bilston

@brianbilston.bsky.social

This poem is dedicated to anyone heading back into work and having to endure dull conversation about what they got up to during the Christmas holidays.

New Year Office Chitchat

How was your Christmas?
you ask

and I think
of the bloodstained rug

and the silent scraping
of the spade

in the garden
at midnight

and the wash wash
washing of my hands

and the dreams,
those endless dreams

which haunt
the night-time

and smudge
their thumbprints

on the day
to come

and I reply
Super, thanks. Yours?

January 5, 2026 at 8:18 AM

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

Love is...

Silver tabby cat with a blissed-out expression, eyes closed, hugging a scratching post like it's the love of their life.

January 3, 2026 at 6:31 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

SwearSky Index

@swearsky.bagpuss.org

Watch and listen to Bluesky swearing in real time here: swearsky.bagpuss.org

SwearSky

Bluesky profanity, as it happens

swearsky.bagpuss.org

January 3, 2026 at 12:35 AM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

SwearSky Index

@swearsky.bagpuss.org

How this works:

The Swearksy Index is the % of English Bluesky posts that contain one or more swear word in the last 10 minutes. Graphs show the average each hour (so changes a bit over the day). Posts every ~4 hours if the index remains normal, but makes extra posts if 1% above the 7-day average.

September 28, 2025 at 8:53 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Chris Blacksell

@chrisblacksell.bsky.social

I met Terry Pratchett once (and he signed my daughters pot as she’d broken her arm)
Lovely man, and his ‘boots theory’ still resonates.

The photo is the text of a section of Terry Pratchett’s book, Men at Arms.
It reads

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Men at Arms

January 3, 2026 at 8:26 AM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Don Moynihan

@donmoyn.bsky.social

24 seconds of the late Isiah Whitlock Jr saying shit on The Wire

youtu.be/5mgCoesUZwI

Best "Shiiiits" from The Wire

YouTube video by Nhan Do

youtu.be

December 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Christopher Webb

@cwebbonline.com

She did contact the police and was later found with her head “blown off”. Officers on the scene stated there was no way it was a suicide. The coroner ruled it as suicide anyway.

December 25, 2025 at 7:09 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

kottke.org

@kottke.org

Reminder: NASA’s holiday yule log fireplace video is delightful — it’s a rocket engine (in a fireplace). “8.8 million pounds of total thrust…” [kottke.org]

NASA’s Rocket Engine Fireplace

Oh, this is so good: NASA has an 8-hour cozy fireplace video in 4K that’s actually a rocket engine (in a fireplace). This glowing mood-setter is brought to you by the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that launched Artemis I on its mission around

kottke.org

December 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Shashank Joshi

@shashj.bsky.social

Undoing the harm caused by this administration - massive censorship & intimidation of media outlets at home, and transnational repression of international bodies & civil society abroad - is going to absorb a lot of time & effort in the next presidency.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK social media campaigners among five denied US visas

The Trump administration bans five people who have called for tech regulation from entering the country.

www.bbc.co.uk

December 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

Card front from 'Scribbler': 'I don't have an advent calendar so I'm just opening cupboard doors and eating whatever's in there.'

December 21, 2025 at 11:32 AM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Glen O'Hara

@gsoh31.bsky.social

Okay, when are we going to answer back? Push back? Fight back? Anything? Because our way of life and society-building institutions are under attack from outside. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump sues BBC for defamation over Panorama speech edit

The US president has requested $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages, according to court documents filed in Florida.

www.bbc.co.uk

December 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

User swore their screen was blank, until admitting it wasn't

On Call: Getting that confession took hours, during which L1 and L2 support gave up

www.theregister.com

December 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Cold War Steve

@coldwarsteve.bsky.social

December 12, 2025 at 9:45 AM

Chris Taylor

@chrisftaylor.bsky.social

God Teams sucks aaargh erase it from history let no-one remember it was ever capitalised except at the start of sentences.

December 11, 2025 at 10:14 AM

Reposted by Chris Taylor

Robert McNees

@mcnees.bsky.social

“But boss, won’t users just find that stuff?”

No. Because we’re going to make it look really shitty.

“How shitty you want it, boss?”

It has to be illegible. If I can read anything, you’re fired. And the switch that’s supposed to turn this stuff off should just make it look bad in a different way.

December 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM