Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Do we think there’s any chance Mike Tomlin and Harbaugh swap teams? Because that would be very funny.

January 13, 2026 at 10:28 PM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

The worst part of the #eagles game is that they lost exactly as I predicted they would lose. I knew I should have stopped watching at half time.

January 12, 2026 at 1:01 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

I just want to go on the record as saying that I've wanted to create a website that almost entirely ditches the menu and replaces it with a really good site search for years.

#contentstrategy

January 6, 2026 at 9:15 PM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

It’s been awhile since I read a music list I really liked, but this Top Electronic Music of the past 25 years aligns with me so well. ra.co/features/4482

The Best Electronic Records of 2000-25 · Feature ⟋ RA

Alongside Tracks and Mixes, here are RA's favourite Albums, EPs, Compilations and Club Releases of the 21st century so far.

ra.co

January 6, 2026 at 2:16 AM

Reposted by TJ Gunther

austin_walker

@austinwalker.bsky.social

One thing I keep thinking about is the Rubio interview towards the start of last year. Whether he actually believes this fully or if it’s rhetorical positioning, it’s an argument that lays the groundwork for this and possibly future acts of global banditry.

(www.state.gov/secretary-ma...)

QUESTION: America first.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, and that’s the way the world has always worked. The way the world has always worked is that the Chinese will do what’s in the best interests of China, the Russians will do what’s in the best interest of Russia, the Chileans are going to do what’s in the best interest of Chile, and the United States needs to do what’s in the best interest of the United States. Where our interests align, that’s where you have partnerships and alliances; where our differences are not aligned, that is where the job of diplomacy is to prevent conflict while still furthering our national interests and understanding they’re going to further theirs. And that’s been lost.

And I think that was lost at the end of the Cold War, because we were the only power in the world, and so we assumed this responsibility of sort of becoming the global government in many cases, trying to solve every problem. And there are terrible things happening in the world. There are. And then there are things that are terrible that impact our national interest directly, and we need to prioritize those again. So it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was not – that was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet. We face that now with China and to some extent Russia, and then you have rogue states like Iran and North Korea you have to deal with.

So now more than ever we need to remember that foreign policy should always be about furthering the national interest of the United States and doing so, to the extent possible, avoiding war and armed conflict, which we have seen two times in the last century be very costly. They’re celebrating the 80th anniversary this year of the end of the Second World War. That – I think if you look at the scale and scope of destruction and loss of life that occurred, it would be far worse if we had a global conflict now. It may end life on the planet. And it sounds like hyperbole, but that’s – you have multiple countries now who have the capability to end life on Earth. And so we need to really work hard to avoid armed conflict as much as possible, but never at the expense of our national interest. So that’s the tricky balance.

So I think returning us to that, now you can have a framework by which you analyze not just diplomacy but foreign aid and who we would line up with and the return of pragmatism. And that’s not an abandonment of our principles. I’m not a fan or a giddy supporter of some horrifying human rights violator somewhere in the world. By the same token, diplomacy has always required us and foreign policy has always required us to work in the national interest, sometimes in cooperation with people who we wouldn’t invite over for dinner or people who we wouldn’t necessarily ever want to be led by. And so that’s a balance, but it’s the sort of pragmatic and mature balance we have to have in foreign policy.

January 4, 2026 at 3:47 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

I just want to brag a little. I just fixed my son’s tangled up slinky. I have never fixed a slinky before in my life, but I sure have tried. This feels like figuring out the Rubik’s Cube for the first time or something.

December 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM

Reposted by TJ Gunther

eileen chengyin chow

@chowleen.bsky.social

As winter solstice approaches, resharing a small poem of longing from a poet of the Chinese diaspora who spent the latter half of his life in Taiwan. He died there in December seven years ago, in 2017.

Yu Guangzhong, "Nostalgia"
- in his handwriting, alongside my translation
#everynightapoem #余光中

鄉愁

小時侯
鄉愁是一枚小小的郵票
我在這頭
母親在那頭

長大後
鄉愁是一張窄窄的船票
我在這頭
新娘在那頭

後來啊
鄉愁是一方矮矮的墳墓
我在外頭
母親在裏頭

而現在
鄉愁是一灣淺淺的海峽
我在這頭
大陸在那頭

Nostalgia
Yu Kuang-chung

When I was little
Nostalgia was a tiny stamp
Me on this side
Mother on that side

When I grew up
Nostalgia was a narrow ship's ticket
Me on this shore
My bride on the other shore

Later, oh later
Nostalgia was a squat grave
Me on the outside
Mother on the inside

And now
Nostalgia is a shallow strait
Me on this shore
My Mainland on the other shore

trans. Eileen Cheng-yin Chow

December 20, 2024 at 7:33 PM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

MLS coming bundled in Apple TV next year is awesome and huge. I hope this gets more people into the fold and excited about local soccer.

November 14, 2025 at 2:23 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Had someone say to me today that demonstrating expertise isn’t prescribing a solution, it’s understanding the problem and knowing how to find the solution.

November 8, 2025 at 3:28 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

The Dodgers could just keep throwing all star starters at the Blue Jays. Eventually you knew they’d win. What a bummer.

November 2, 2025 at 4:26 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

My favorite part of game 7s, especially in the World Series, is that you see teams throw everything at it. I have no idea how this game ends.

November 2, 2025 at 3:32 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Alright, my new claim to fame is having my review of Side Story (sidestory.show) read aloud on the show. 10/10 gaming podcast. Love hearing @austinwalker.bsky.social talk about games again.

Side Story

Side Story is a bi-weekly podcast about games and the stories we tell about them, presented by Friends at the Table and supported by our patrons at friendsatthetable.cash.

sidestory.show

October 9, 2025 at 2:10 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

My 3yo hears me scoff when the Dodgers score. She says, “Are the Phillies trying to lose?” Spoken like a true Philadelphian. #phillies

October 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Apple’s new DJ mode in music really threw me for a loop when it started pitching my song up to match the BPM of the next song. It’s a gimmick, but I think I’m in it.

September 17, 2025 at 3:10 PM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

I got a water bottle from work. I loved that water bottle. I had it for only 24 hours. I left it in an office building with a very low chance I’ll get it back. Now I can’t stop thinking about where this water bottle might be. Who has it? What lost and found bin could it be in?

September 13, 2025 at 2:30 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Not sure what’s more amazing. Silksong dropping, or a new Life Well Wasted by @robertashley.bsky.social dropping the same day.

September 6, 2025 at 12:25 AM

TJ Gunther

@digitj.bsky.social

Just discovered my comment on a random TikTok telling a girl to go to the doctor to fix an ear blog has almost 50k likes. I think that’s my biggest internet post?

August 29, 2025 at 12:13 PM