Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Will Kaufman

Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 1d

Enthusiasm Cannon

A drawing
large text at the top says "NEW! Skull mounted confetti cannons for people who find enthusiasm embarrassing!"
In the center, a drawing of a stern looking man in a suit with a small hole in his head that confetti is spraying out of, a diagram shows a tube mounted inside his head, connected to his brain with wires. The man is saying "I'm thrilled, truly." Small text in the corner says "do not ask how it works! It doesn't matter and it is not interesting!"
Large text underneath the drawing says "let everyone know how you feel without doing something that makes you want to crawl in a hole and die!"

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 16h

Imagine if when they asked the enterprise computer something it didn't know or couldn't do, Majel Barrett's voice came on going, "That's a great question! Of course I can help you..." and just lied right to their faces.

The gulf between good and evil lies in that little "eheheh" negative noise

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 18h

If you use Chrome and want less AI BS, here are two steps you can take: opus.ing/posts/how-to...

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 19h

The stoned hero's journey:
The forgetting about the call, the meeting with the plug, the crossing of the threshold, the crossing back for snacks, the just-one-more-bowl, the nap, the death-and-rebirth-sounds-kinda-heavy-man-how-about-some-Mario-Kart?...

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 19h

You can eat? I was told I could only have jello, broth, gatorade, and laxatives for like 36 hours.

Pro-tip, don't pick the same color for your jello and Gatorade, and definitely don't pick green.

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 19h

Like...your work desk isn't private, right? Your coworkers and your boss see that space all the time, right?

Reposted by Will Kaufman

Marie Brennan @swantower.bsky.social · 2d

To be clear: I'm not blaming editors. I don't think *anybody* likes it being this way; we've just slid here one step at a time because it's so hard to keep a short fiction magazine functioning.

(BTW, @apexmag.bsky.social is currently running a Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape... )

Apex Magazine 2026

An award-winning digital literary magazine of science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror.

www.kickstarter.com

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 1d

I'm really confused about how this is supposed to help destroy the labor market.

The Verge @theverge.com · 2d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

Reposted by Will Kaufman

innes @innes.bsky.social · 2d

Text: A computer can never be horny, therefore a computer can never make art

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine going back in time and telling Borges his infinite library is actually an incredibly literal warning.

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

1999: someday the internet will be a record of everything that ever happened

2025: someday the internet will be a record of everything that never happened

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 1d

Over half of all articles on the Internet are now written by AI

(via Axios)

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 1d

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig. Keep digging. Tunnel your way to your victim to avoid the cameras.

It’s Alive! Barker @kellylink.bsky.social · 2d

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig no graves. Save your strength! Make your enemy do it. Tell him it’s going to be a swimming pool & you’ll pay him above minimum wage & let his family come over to swim anytime they want if he’ll help with excavation.

wargen @funeralpig.bsky.social · 2d

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. One for practice and the other one is the "main" grave.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 2d

Happy Birthday Week!

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 2d

All western novels are still operating in the shadow of Don Quixote, and modernism ended our chances at ever escaping. We're just going to have to live with that until either the written word or western culture dies.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 3d

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

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 6d

This is peak crossover for 13-yr-old me's interests. Amazing.

cow tools daily @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social · 6d

it's not FOR us

edited comic panel. Batman is breaking a lump-with-handle cow tool over his knee and saying "this is the tool of the cow. we do not understand it. we will not use it."

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 6d

Coroner: Thank you for coming detective, I discovered something odd.
Detective: Lay it on me doc
Coroner: Each of the victims' heads was cut exactly 18% off. And these stab wounds are shallow, as if the killer...
Detective: Only used the tip of the knife. My God. He's back...the Gratuiterrorizer.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 6d

Where are the horror movies with morals I can get behind? Who's punishing the people who double-dip at parties?

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Reposted by Will Kaufman

It’s Alive! Barker @kellylink.bsky.social · 7d

I wrote “Some Zombie Contingency Plans” on a plane on the way to a workshop. Got off the plane, looked up the nearest Kinko’s & printed it out.

Laura Lorson @lauralorson.net · 7d

We should all tell our stories like this...mine is "the time I totally forgot about an essay and cranked out a paper on Deleuze & Guattari's Anti-Oedipus in two hours and ended up winning an award for it"

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 7d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 7d

I had some pretty inspiring teachers at the Clarion workshop, and I wrote a story one night after getting back from the bar that wound up in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy...

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 7d

Thenmozhi has a hell of a voice

Thenmozhi Soundararajan/Dalit Diva ✨️is querying✨️ @dalitdiva.bsky.social · 8d

WE SANG DOWN THE EMPIRE 85,000 Word #Spaceopera
🛸 Nesamma Abbas, a washed-up alien musician,
🎸 joins a rebel rock band to take down the Human Empire
✨with a martial art of sound ⚡🎶
.😢She must confront her pain,
🧘‍♀️ Master her powers
⚔️ & choose: revolution
❤️ or redemption
#WOC #Asian #SFF #DVpit

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 7d

Can't wait to read this one

WRAITH 👻🍉 @straith.ca · 8d

GREY GARDENS in space:

A fledgling documentarian gets overly entangled with two deposed Imperials in exile on a once-opulent space station.

He must choose: launch his career as a truth-teller, or protect these people from the judgment of a hostile audience.

#DVpit #A #SF #LGBT #TV #novella

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Reposted by Will Kaufman

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 8d

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 8d

Torn between Costanza as...whatever alien on Voyager, and Tom Hardy as Picard's clone...

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 9d

It's so clearly a case of economies of scale allowing abuses. They make a lot more Ys, so they can better amortize the cost of downgrading the base model. They don't make enough 3s for it to be cost effective to make the base model as much shittier.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 9d

The 3 at least keeps most of the features from the higher trims, but the Y is such a cynical downgrade. They literally just glued fabric over the glass roof. They had to re-engineer the front end to make a worse frunk.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you!