Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 9h

oh bless them, they're learning about whales

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 12h

There's one person who pays them $250 a month who cost Augment $15,000. Amazing stuff. Can only imagine how bad things are for Cursor or Replit
www.augmentcode.com/blog/augment...

The user message model also isn’t sustainable for Augment Code as a business. For example, over the last 30 days, a user on our $250 Max plan has issued 335 requests per hour, every hour, for 30 days, and is approaching $15,000 per month in cost to Augment Code. This sort of use isn’t inherently bad, but as a business, we have to price our service in accordance with our costs.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 15h

I mean, the conspiracy's pretty simple. This hype bubble took off, so Sam Altman and Nvidia et al are riding it as far as they possibly can, because their net worth is based on hype.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 16h

this is especially fun amidst reports that they'll also just say your papers are fake if you ARE carrying them

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 1d

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

I've had some really delightful interactions because of this, too--giving my number to a hotel desk guy in neither the state I grew up in nor the one I live in now, only to realize we went to the same high school. It's a little local badge.

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Reposted by Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky

Holly @pterosaur.bsky.social · 2d

tea kettle guys

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

oh this is a weird thought. Back then phone numbers were 7 digits except for extremely rare exceptions (in my life). Now they're always 10.

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Reposted by Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks! It grew almost entirely out of the "what if a grown-up vampire and a kid vampire teamed up to get into R-rated movies" tumblr post from like...2011?

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

(This is my soapbox: in any fantasy, people should be at least a little wrong about how the magic works.)

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Vampire skeptics point to the egregiously low sample size, and there's a school of thought that less powerful child vampires simply tend to die off quicker.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Compounding the issue, the younger a person was when they were turned, the more powerful they tend to be. Opinions are split but vampire scholarship points to something about the potential remaining lifespan of a person getting transmuted during the turning process.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

There ARE child vampires, but they're considered to be huge security threats (have you ever asked an 8-year-old to keep a secret) as well as just kind of distasteful. They end up in weird, uncomfortable "custody situations" as a result.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Despite rules and traditions in place to protect human liaisons, they do not have a particularly high life expectancy (though this is more frequently due to intercommunity feuding than someone within the community doing a whoopsie)

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

It's well-known in the community that a vampire invented Uber, to avoid needing to transmit voice over wires, another thing that vampires can't do. This is controversial between covens.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Covens have different solutions to the "how do we interface with the modern world" problem, but most of them involve recruiting or hiring living liaisons. My first MC is a depressed nocturnal undergrad who gets a work-study scholarship with requirements like "have photo ID" and "drive the bus"

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

This particular brand of vampire is an Old World phenomenon, but they made the jump early with Viking ships landing in Greenland pre-1000 CE. There are some OLD-ASS FOGEYS in university administration as a result.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

Holy water is inconclusive as they've yet to find anyone holy enough to bless it.

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

They've got some of the standard vampire weaknesses (need invitations, need blood) but some of the others are overblown (garlic is more of a cilantro-soap-gene thing, of COURSE being out in daylight gives them migraines, it would give you a migraine too with sensitive night vision)

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 1d

ahhh my vampires it's been too long.

They've organized into local covens, each with their own character (community night colleges, weird urban corporations) but shared taboos (no turning kids!!) and solutions to existing in a world not made for people who don't show up in pictures or film.

Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 1d

Spooky season is upon us! Tell me about your Vampires 🧛 #WritingPrompt

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Reposted by Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky

Cyndi Gradel @cyndigradel.bsky.social · 2d

It’s Kill Columbus Day!
@sgj.bsky.social

Earthdivers Kill Columbus by Stephen Graham Jones

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Reposted by Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky

leemanish.bsky.social @leemanish.bsky.social · 9d

doing up to 7 simultaneous tarot readings at a blackjack table w/ a multi-deck dealer’s shoe

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 2d

would I be happier if I made costuming/commission garments my full-time job? All other things being equal, I dunno. Most likely.

can I charge what I'm worth? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 2d

great thread (with lots of manufacturing specifics I didn't know!) but anyone who's ever made a button-up shirt can spot the problem at a thousand yards

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2d

This two-parter below is exactly why it's hard to make clothes in the United States.

Let's look at how much it costs to produce a button-up shirt in the US. 🧵

Someone on Twitter replies to me: "meh. buy american or stfu."

Two hours later, in a separate thread, the write: "$30 for a single button-up is ridiculous unless it is decent quality silk."

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 2d

I take such joy in sending my friends "are ya winnin, son" when I see this Discord status that it's only fair I do it to myself

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Miri Baker, approximately normal spooky @miribaker.bsky.social · 2d

"are ya winnin, son" no but by god I'm trying to get back in the game

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