Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

@bowlerhatscience.org

2.6K followers 570 following 16K posts

Science writer, journalist, physicist, hat man, cat man, queer. Pfp by @makinaro.com . See my pinned posts if you're wondering why I disappeared and reappeared. Signal: BowlerHatScience.51

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · Jan 28

Reintroduction post! I am a science writer/journalist who also writes science comics in collaboration with @makinaro.com . My cats are Callisto and Nebula. I post about science, music, comics, politics, cats, porg karaoke, and human rights. Racists, anti-trans/anti-queer bigots, etc. will be blocked

Callisto (a stripey brown white and orange cat) and Nebula (a dark gray cat with silver paws) lounging in a sunbeam. They are almost but not quite cuddling.

7 13 160

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Katie McKissick @katiemckissick.bsky.social · 7h

Husband requested I crochet a bone for Halloween decor. I have regrets.

A crochet bone on a couch. Supposed to look like a standard cartoony femur but it looks disturbingly phallic.

5 13 93

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Justin Zimmerman @jztidecat.bsky.social · 8h

Trump’s administration as well as Bari Weiss are clear reminders that white folks get to be incredibly unqualified and reach the top. No, marginalized person. You aren’t the imposter.

1 39 140

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 7h

yeah it's about bedtime

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 7h

Haul in the chains! Let the carcase go astern!

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 7h

I've also thought about what it would take to implement Martha Wells' Raksura in 5e D&D, since I *definitely* don't have the time or chops to write a full-scale Raksura RPG

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Memento (Spooky) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · 7h

Tim Onion is doing better vaccine messaging than our own CDC

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 9h

If you're wondering whether or not to get a flu shot, I didn't get one in time, and I just had a fever dream where I was in the Drew Carey Show because several days ago I was on the Wikipedia page for the Drew Carey Show. You don't have to do this to yourself.

3 30 230

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 7h

I have several lavender bergamot-scented things around and I think I've become a fragrance guy

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

I haven't even wanted to comment because I don't trust [waves hands wildly around]

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

don't get me wrong, I really love DMing. But I really don't like most of the premade campaigns so I get ambitious. This one involves the aftermath of the Herp War (frog people vs. snake people), an incursion by transdimensional genocidal colonists, and unstable regions of wild magic.

1 1

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

I could send over the Clovenland campaign I wrote, but I want to tweak a few things. I really also need to finish writing the rules for creating the amphibian characters (the Bufos). As I said, I tend to get ... very involved.

1 1

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

I've dropped more money than I can afford on kickstarters this year because there are *so* many good comics projects

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

Oh I hear that. I kinda want to play a game where I'm not DM too — I seem to always end up in charge and that's a lot of time commitment.

2 4

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

instead of calipers our symbol is the D20. We should all put those on our headstones.

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

when I walk through my neighborhood's cemetery I see so many Masonic symbols on headstones (and a few esoteric symbols I'm not sure what they're part of). OTOH, I think D&D and other TTRPGs are taking the place of male-only fraternal orders, and that's great.

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

1 5

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 8h

I can't see her winning but I also couldn't see Trump winning in 2016 and I was wrong (I know he lost the popular vote but in our fucked-up system it's the same thing)

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 12h

I don't know how many times to point out that is absolutely ghoulish and non-consensual and disgusting behavior.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.

October 10, 2025

4 min read

Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Screenshot includes an AI generated image of what looks like a human cross between Daenaerys Targaryen and Marilyn Monroe on the back of a dragon.

16 160 740

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 10h

Academic articles can be written in a popular science writing style

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 20h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

14 33 250

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 10h

AMEN

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · 12h

Elon Musk is a white nationalist. Anyone who needs more data points to reach this conclusion is beyond help or persuasion.

If you buy, rent, service, or supercharge a Tesla you are supporting the most powerful white nationalist on earth. Period.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 12h

Musk is funding the legal battle of UK Far Right activist Tommy Robinson - real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon - as he faces charges brought by counterterrorism police.

Tommy Robinson claims Elon Musk is funding his legal battle — The Times and The Sunday Times

Tommy Robinson has claimed Elon Musk was paying his legal costs as he went on trial for refusing to comply with a request made by counterterrorism police as he tried to leave Britain last year. Robins...

apple.news

33 720 2.3K

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 10h

I have indeed laughed the snorty laugh on the train

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 10h

yeah he would have ... words for her, I suspect

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 11h

OK there's my Unhinged Literary Opinion: Pratchett is the greatest humanist/philosophical writer of our era.

Micah @rincewind.run · 11h

and since he really does have a quote for everything, in the wise words of Sir Terry Pratchett: “Susan hated Literature. She’d much prefer to read a good book.”

22 100 580

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 11h

I didn't know his name *wasn't* Tommy Robinson

Reposted by Free Łink - Matthew R Francis

Nebraska Humane Society @nehumanesociety.bsky.social · 11h

why would you give a dog a normal name when you could name him Blorbo. the world is your oyster

10 30 210

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 11h

this is at home of course so nobody to blame or suffer but me

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 11h

That's one thing we have to remember: not only was Columbus a cruel, venal, violent, racist, and evil man, but he was also profoundly ignorant. A spherical turdball: shitty from every direction you look at him.

1 12