Ethan Bass
LightNews LightNews
banner
ethanbass.bsky.social
Ethan Bass
@ethanbass.bsky.social
530 followers 940 following 25 posts
chemical ecologist | goldenrod enthusiast
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
ethanbass.bsky.social
Ethan Bass @ethanbass.bsky.social · Apr 7
chromConverter 0.7.5 is finally available on CRAN! Major changes since v0.2.1 include support for 10+ new file formats (Shimadzu LCD/QGD, Agilent D, Varian SMS, Allotrope ASM, ANDI MS/CHROM, mzML), parallel processing, and better metadata extraction.
#rstats #CRAN #chromatography #opendata
Reposted by Ethan Bass
jaapderoode.bsky.social
Another great story on fANTastic biology.
laminda.bsky.social Mindy Weisberger @laminda.bsky.social · 6h
You're a parasitic ant queen eyeing the colony of another species. You have a simple plan:

1. Hide your scent by rubbing workers on your body
2. Infiltrate the nest
3. Spray the queen with chemicals that goad her daughters into tearing her to bits
4. All hail the usurper!

(my latest for CNN) 🧪
Parasitic ant queen chemically manipulates workers into killing their mother | CNN
Scientists newly described how a parasitic ant queen infiltrates another ant species’ colony and tricks the workers into killing their mother.
www.cnn.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
maddow.bsky.social
"300 agents stormed the building, rappelled from a helicopter, knocked down doors and hurled flash-bang grenades. Agents ziptied and detained many US citizens for hours..."

Prosecutors have not filed a *single* criminal charge against anyone arrested that night:

www.propublica.org/article/chic...
“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime
Authorities said Tren de Aragua “terrorists” had taken over the building. A ProPublica investigation found little evidence to back up the government’s claims. For the first time, the Venezuelans arres...
www.propublica.org
November 15, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
wihorne.bsky.social
Been thinking a lot abt James Baldwin’s excellent Report from Occupied Territory in the context of ICE abuses & military deployments to our communities. Couldn’t be clearer that “occupied territory” is the form of governance pursued by this lawless regime.
A Report from Occupied Territory
www.thenation.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
daviddarmofal.bsky.social
I’m gifting this article so you can read it without a subscription.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...
November 12, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
jonseidel.bsky.social
JUST IN: The Justice Department formally appeals U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis' preliminary injunction, which restricts the use of force against protesters and journalists.
NOTICE OF APPEAL IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB et al. ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) KRISTI NOEM, Secretary of U.S. ) Department of Homeland Security, in her ) No. 25-cv-12173 Hon. Sara L. Ellis, ) United States District Judge Defendants hereby appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this Court’s preliminary injunction order, see ECF Nos. 250 & 256, including this Court’s Opinion and Order granting class certification, see ECF Nos. 252 & 256, to the extent the Court’s grant of a class-wide preliminary injunction depends on that decision.
November 9, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
mcopelov.bsky.social
As recently as the late 1980s, tuition at @uwmadison.bsky.social was <$1000/semester. In current dollars, that's about $2500/semester. There is one central reason for that: the . This was a choice. Other choices remain readily available.
November 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
cornellaaup.bsky.social
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.

Read our full statement here:
Statement on Cornell’s agreement with federal government
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. We ar…
aaup-cornell.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
petersagal.bsky.social
And again, a pattern of putting out statements accusing people of serious Federal crimes and then releasing them hours or days or weeks later with no charges. And no retraction.
royalpratt.bsky.social Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 14d
NEWS: Federal agents crashed with woman’s car, pointed guns at her, dragged her out by legs, tossed her in a minivan, held her and (eventually) let her go without charges. This as Chicagoans say the immigration blitz is out of control. (DHS blames her.)
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/c...
Chicago woman dragged out of her car after colliding with ICE demands accountability
The arrest of Dayanne Figueroa highlights growing concerns about the use of force against U.S. citizens and due process. She was released after a few hours without charges.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
unraveledpress.com
This thread is about Evanston, but this has also been going on without reprieve in Elgin, Aurora, and other Chicago suburbs—a metro area of nearly 10 million people.
poemless.bsky.social Toscha @poemless.bsky.social · 16d
Some context to the viral videos:

Around 9am Friday, ICE/CBP *encircled* several square miles of a safe suburb and *stormed* it using multiple units.

They were in cars, on foot in alleys & gangways, and in helicopters. They demanded papers, threatened residents, pointed guns, kidnapped people.
November 2, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
almacampos.bsky.social
I’ve been tracking this contract since 2023, and last week, Cook County quietly renewed it. As ICE raids continue across Chicago, the board approved another $1M deal with a data broker tied to ICE. My latest for @southsideweekly.bsky.social
Cook County Board Reapproves Contract with ICE-Linked Data Firm as Raids Sweep Chicago
Four years after first being warned that a contract risked exposing immigrant data to ICE, Cook County approved another renewal—this time with advocates commissioners voicing frustration that stronger...
southsideweekly.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
ryanlcooper.com
"it seems reasonable to conclude that the administration, through Miller and his team, is selecting boats more or less at random, and intentionally killing people who could be captured, because they think it’s fun." prospect.org/2025/10/23/p...
The Pirate Lord Donald Trump - The American Prospect
All evidence suggests the president is directing the military to assassinate random civilians off the coast of South America, and thereby violating norms and laws that stretch back to before the found...
prospect.org
October 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
jaredlholt.bsky.social
Pretty insane to think there will be at least some number of Americans who will get their military news from a conspiracy-poisoned pillow salesman
October 22, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
jaguilarrod.bsky.social
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Massively parallel interrogation of the fitness of natural variants in ancient signaling pathways reveals pervasive local adaptation
The nature of standing genetic variation remains a central debate in population genetics, with differing perspectives on whether common variants are almost always neutral as suggested by neutral and n...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
heathercherone.bsky.social
NEW: A Border Patrol spokesperson could not tell @wttw.bsky.social whether these agents' body-worn cameras recorded this interaction.

A federal judge ordered all federal agents to have their cameras on while interacting with members of the public.
heathercherone.bsky.social Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 27d
FULL STORY: A Border Patrol agent pointed a gun at state Rep. Hoan Huynh while he warned North Side residents that immigration agents were conducting enforcement operations, said Huynh, a Vietnam refugee who is running to represent Illinois' 9th District in Congress. @wttw.bsky.social
Illinois State Rep. Says Border Patrol Agent Pointed a Gun as He Was Warning Residents About Immigration Raids
State Rep. Hoan Huynh, a candidate to represent Illinois’ 9th District in Congress, said he was in Albany Park when he was confronted by six Border Patrol agents.
news.wttw.com
October 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
aaronhuertas.bsky.social
This is good and a fair question to ask Dem senators is why they're not doing this routinely.

As with nomination rules, repeated process objections from the minority will eventually push the majority to change the rules, to which I say, yeah, okay, make them.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Democratic senator’s floor speech condemning Trump enters 16th hour
Jeff Merkley of Oregon gives address to make case that president is ‘violating the law’ through authoritarianism
www.theguardian.com
October 22, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
unraveledpress.com
Border Patrol has reportedly detained several people in Little Village this morning.

Video from Facebook shows Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and his agents walking the streets as warning whistles blow in the background.
October 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
carlzimmer.com
US PhD admissions shrink as fears over Trump’s cuts take hold. [In some cases, to zero.] Story by @alexwitze.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US PhD admissions shrink as fears over Trump’s cuts take hold
Some doctoral programmes are admitting no students at all amid uncertainty about federal science funding.
www.nature.com
October 22, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
gochujung.bsky.social
ICE credits the presence of Illinois State Police with their ability to work on the weekend of October 4, during which they handcuffed an alder, shot a rapid responder, unleashed CS gas in two residential neighborhoods, & kidnapped dozens of community members.

chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Unraveled screenshot of a Sun-Times story that reads: “His email didn't brag about soldiers, border agents or any branch of federal law enforcement. Instead, the official wrote that the Department of Homeland Security "did not have to intervene with any protesters" the weekend of Oct. 4 - after the Illinois State Police showed up outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview. "It's clear that ISP is the difference maker in this scenario, and we are grateful for their leadership," Peter Sukmanowski, assistant director of ICE's Chicago field office, wrote. "Hopefully, we can keep it up for the long-haul."”
October 18, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
climatebrad.hillheat.com
BREAKING: The Trump regime is now illegally and unconstitutionally slashing the DOE national labs. The DOGEing continues.

* widespread RIFs
* Sandia California in Livermore may shut down entirely
#nokings
cc @fedsagainstdoge.bsky.social @energycommerce.bsky.social
October 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
donmoyn.bsky.social
Yeah, that is a tear gas canister being fired toward the retreating couple holding the baby
October 15, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
thewayoftheid.bsky.social
ICE spotted near Kenwood Academy today.
Dear Kenwood Parents and Guardians, The safety of our students is my top priority, which is why I am writing to address a situation that occurred near our school this morning. We have received reports of federal law enforcement activity in the neighborhood near our school building today. We immediately shared these reports with the CPS Office of Safety and Security, and this team reached out to the Chicago Police Department (CPD) for more information. All members of our school community are safe. Today's school day proceeded smoothly and as planned. I want to emphasize that school is the best and safest place for our students. Our staff is well-versed in the proper protocols for keeping our students and school community safe in case federal law enforcement representatives attempt to enter school property or interact with students or staff. As a reminder, our school and CPS WILL NOT coordinate with federal representatives, and we WILL NOT allow ICE agents or any other federal representatives access to our school unless they produce a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. I also want to remind you that CPS created a resource packet (English I Spanish) that includes guidance on the following topics:
October 15, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
gregsargent.bsky.social
As I've noted, central to Stephen Miller's propaganda is the claim that the Chicago complex targeted by ICE was "filled" with Tren de Aragua "terrorists."

Now @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social reports that the number of TdA members netted in that raid is down to *one.*

newrepublic.com/article/2016...
October 14, 2025 at 10:18 PM
ethanbass.bsky.social
Big girl admiring the alleyway Physalis
October 14, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Ethan Bass
davidho.bsky.social
Nobel Prize given for showing the importance of investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth. Basically the opposite of what the US is doing. 😭
October 13, 2025 at 11:58 PM