Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Matt Baume 🏳️‍🌈 @mattbaume.bsky.social · 1d

Seattle's dreadful mayor just suggested we make a computer-generated Dr. Martin Luther King, and of any question he could ask it, THIS was the first thing that came to mind:

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 1d

"And you could say, Well, Dr. Martin Luther King, I've always wanted to meet you. What was your day like today? What did you have for breakfast? And he comes back and he talks to you. How cool would that be if we have a series of historical figures that we all could agree on, that we respect?"

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Phil Edwards - Live for Films @liveforfilms.bsky.social · 1d

A conversation with John Higgs, author of the book Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who at the Liverpool Literary Festival.

www.liverpool.ac.uk/literary-fes...

Use the code FESTIVALFRIEND for 10% discount

#DoctorWho #JohnHiggs #book #Liverpool #festival

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Danny Bowes @dannybowes.bsky.social · 21h

Watching the news, deeply resenting every script note I've ever gotten about something being "over the top," "lacking subtlety," "villains with unrealistic motivations," etc

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Matt Ghoulberg @mattgoldberg.bsky.social · 20h

A great thread that helps explain why I felt automatic revulsion at the latest Star Trek show looking like this:

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the hype @thehyyyype.bsky.social · 1d

Grandpa: I sent your grandma 57 handwritten love letters from the western front and she finally agreed to marry me when I returned from the war

Me: the computer told me to say "I had a good time last night" to this girl but it didn't work for some reason

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 1d

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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José Pablo Iriarte @labyrinthrat.bsky.social · 23h

Usman: It's crazy to think about all these great authors like Poe and Melville who died in poverty.

Me: Well to be fair, so will we.

^
Why I don't get invited to more parties.

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Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 1d

I am once again begging filmmakers to start lighting their night scenes again. Moonlight and starlight are both available, as are torches, campfires, and any number of plausible light sources! What I'm watching right now may as well be a podcast

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Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 16h

I’ll take a flawed work that comes from an artists true passion (which Gunn so clearly has for Peacemaker and the DCU in general) then whatever the hell Marvel has been doing the last half decade every single time.

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 20h

And the Community Award for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre goes to @authorsabb.bsky.social
#2025IgnyteAwards

2025 Winner of the Community Award: Authors Against Book Bans

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 20h

The Ember Award for Unsung Contributions to Genre goes to @soniasulaiman.bsky.social
#2025IgnyteAwards

2025 Winner The Ember Award: Sonia Sulaiman

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 20h

Congratulations @genni.bsky.social on winning the #2025IgnyteAwards in Outstanding Creative Nonfiction for AFRO-CENTERED FUTURISMS IN OUR SPECULATIVE FICTION

2025 Winner Outstanding Creative Nonfiction for AFRO-CENTERED FUTURISMS IN OUR SPECULATIVE FICTION edited by Eugen Bacon

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 20h

Congratulations @soniasulaiman.bsky.social on winning the #2025IgnyteAwards in Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works for THYME TRAVELERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION

2025 Winner Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works - THYME TRAVELLERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION edited by Sonia Sulaiman

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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad.bsky.social · 2d

And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:

Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 2d

The frogs have landed in Chicago!

Protestor in a frog suit and an anti-Ice sign with what I believe to be a Pokémon character on a street corner in Rogers Park.

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Maya Gittelman @mayagittelman.bsky.social · 18h

I got this news from friends as I made my way through the last of NYCC, feeling very fond of everyone who loves sffh as much or more than I do. Grateful for this community, @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social, @reactorsff.bsky.social and everyone who got me here.
Ignyte award winning critic. I’m so proud ❤️‍🔥

2025 Winner - Critics Award - Maya Gittelman

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The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 21h

Oh, hello

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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 20h

Yessss. Speculative legal fiction. This really is an excellent book and people should read it. Congratulations, Gautam!

The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 21h

The winner of the #2025IgnyteAwards for Outstanding Novel-Adult is THE SENTENCE by @gautambhatia88.bsky.social

2025 Winner Outstanding Novel - Adult: The Sentence by Gautam Bhatia

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 18h

Writing a series about a detective with a loving relationship with his unmurdered family. He solves cases by not drinking, taking time away from work, and getting a good night’s sleep.

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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 18h

I think it's a religious symbol:

Abhaya Mudra (Gesture of Fearlessness): How to Do, Meaning & Benefits – Fitsri Yoga

www.fitsri.com

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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 21h

Are those llama legs?

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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 21h

Bookseller showing a book to a client says, "The madman who wrote this dedicated himself to the dark arts, despite knowing perfectly well that all the real money is in Y.A."

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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 22h

The first thing to remember about Peter Thiel is that he's both gay and a theocrat. To people like that I only say...

Magneto in X-Men 3 saying, "Traitors to their own cause."

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Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 22h

Is the Antichrist here in the room with us?

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

Arturo Serrano 🇨🇴🤖👽🧙🦄 @carturo222.bsky.social · 23h

This is exactly why I didn't find much depth in Black Mirror Bandersnatch.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

the problem with a lot of 'AH HA! YOU ENJOYED THIS, YOU SICK FUCK' critiques is that the correct moral answer if you cannot exercise any choice in the game is not to play the game.

in the same way I have defeated Haneke's critique of the audience in FUNNY GAMES through simply not watching it

Sasho Todorov @sashotodorov.bsky.social · 3d

The difference, IMO, is that Spec Ops: The Line is a tightly crafted metacritique about the then dominant trends in AAA gaming while TLOU2 firmly presents itself as, and clearly believes itself to be, a story that has something meaningful to say about the nature of violence and the human condition.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

that Watchmen panel but in every single one the government of Argentina has caused a financial crisis.

I think this has happened six times in my lifetime.

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 3d

The problem, in Argentina, was utterly predictable. Milei repeated the exact same mistake of the 1990s, stabilizing the peso by tying it to the dollar, without having the political capacity to reign in spending (driven by state governments) enough to make that sustainable.

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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 4d

15, 16, 18 - the fact that there is little consistency in these bans, which are cropping up around the globe, just highlights how there is scant evidence to support any of them

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 5d

🚨🚨 #Denmark aims to ban #socialmedia for children under 15. PM Mette Frederiksen says "We have unleashed a monster" to Danish lawmakers. 🧵https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-mette-frederiksen-partially-ban-social-media-children-under-15/

Denmark aims to ban social media for children under 15, PM says

“We have unleashed a monster,” Mette Frederiksen tells Danish lawmakers.

www.politico.eu

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