Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

The last of the days sun on a #brighton high-rise

August 29, 2025 at 6:43 PM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

Hummingbird Hawkmoth doing its thing on the Verbenas this afternoon

August 9, 2025 at 8:56 PM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

Meme Monday

Aint it just

Cartoon of two people talking whilst walking down a street, both with blank far away looks. One says to the other “my desire to be well informed is currently at odds with my desire to stay sane”

July 14, 2025 at 9:23 AM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

Monty Twisty

July 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

Global temps, exceeding worst case scenarios (which as a reminder, are really really bad) and still accelerating.

Several scientists have been screaming that it’s accelerating for some time now, all have been ignored and rounded upon.

And STILL, this isn’t considered newsworthy.

Newly released chart from NYT report showing global temperatures between 1880 and 2020. The trend line clearly shows temperature increase is accelerating. This indicates global temps are on course to exceed the worst case scenario projections within IPCC assessments.

June 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

I just don’t understand how uk insect populations have dropped >60% in the last 20 years and how biodiversity is collapsing globally when developers are doing very thoughtful things like putting a bug hotel alongside 12,680sqm of concrete and steel.

Local news article from Littlehampton, Sussex, England.

Sussex
Live
Sussex Live • • Follow
20h • O
•••
If approved, of the 12,680sqm of floorspace, 12,410sqm is set to be demolished, with 10,333sqm of floorspace and 2,220sqm of mezzanine area to go up in its place, according to the plans.
The nine retail spaces will see seven retained warehouse units (A1, A2, and A5-A9 in the plans), whilst two will be new-build infill units (A3 and A4).
There would also be changes to
pedestrian-route and road layouts, planting areas including a pond, more parking spaces including EV bays, and 'sustainable' drainage infrastructure.
The plans say the HQ's removal will also reduce the 'apparent bulk' of the site from Norway Lane and the A259.
A bug hotel is also to be constructed in a bid to increase biodiversity net gain on the site, creating 'microhabitats' for insects and pollinators there.
No objections have been registered by nearbv residents or official bodies

June 10, 2025 at 9:37 AM

Mr Ro-Jo

@rojoclick.bsky.social

Bellingcat CEO Eliot Higgins:

$Quote; "The conditions that have led to what's happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world. They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built. We built 20th-century democracies on the assumption that truth could be verified, public discourse could be deliberated, and those in power could be held accountable. But the system those assumptions relied on, gatekeepers, shared facts, institutional trust, are in decline, and deservedly so. In its place: an algorithmic chaos where every citizen is a broadcaster, every feed a battleground, and every truth contestable. We didn't design for this. We didn't adapt in time. And now the cracks are widening. If we continue down this path, ignoring the collapse of shared reality, failing to rebuild the systems that stabilise truth, we will see democratic norms erode from the inside out. Not in a single catastrophic moment, but in a thousand small compromises. What follows won't look like an obvious dystopia. It will look like normality hollowed out: Parliaments still sit. Elections still happen. But truth becomes optional, reason performative, and power untouchable. People won't trust courts or parties. They won't believe evidence. They'll be certain their side is right, no matter what reality says. That's not disagreement. That's epistemic fracture. And once it sets in, it's nearly impossible to reverse. This is not just an American story. It's a preview. And the question for every other democracy is simple: Do you adapt now, or do nothing and slide into authoritarianism?"$

June 9, 2025 at 9:30 AM