Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jon Olfert 🌾🍁

Carson Winter @carsonwinter.bsky.social · 11h

We're giving this away for free, but if you're so inclined, please consider donating individually to one of the authors. We have a list right here: carsonwinter.com/we-will-spea...

We Will Speak Again of the Red Tower - The Official Page of Author Carson Winter

“The ruined factory stood three stories high in an otherwise featureless landscape…” With these words, Thomas Ligotti begins one of the most influential short stories in the canon of horror and weird ...

carsonwinter.com

1 6 8

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 13h

There are downsides to working from home. Blasting this is not one of them. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1wS...

The Halluci Nation - Babylon Ft. Northern Cree (Official Audio)

YouTube video by The Halluci Nation

www.youtube.com

2

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 1d

A poem of mine is out today in Eye to the Telescope's cyberpunk issue. The poem's an ode to the municipal maintenance work I grew up with. It's called Morning; 37°

eyetothetelescope.com/archives/058...

Eye to the Telescope

Eye to the Telescope, the quarterly online journal of SFPA, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, an international organization of speculative poets.

eyetothetelescope.com

1 5

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 2d

"Muecke said there were other applications in this first round that were interesting and inspiring. 'We encourage people to submit more than once,' Muecke said. '[Sable Island] is a very special place.'"

Wouldn't that be a hell of a thing someday, getting out there for two weeks to write and carve.

Suzanne Rent @suzannerent.bsky.social · 2d

This should be interesting! I interviewed Rose Morrison in June after she found out she was accepted as the Sable Island Institute's first artist in residence. Here's the story:

www.halifaxexaminer.ca/environment/...

2

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 2d

Sorry Rick, best of luck.

1 1

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 2d

My life has turned into kids+housework+job+this. Sleep optional. Brief detours through No Man's Sky and Slow Horses for morale purposes.

4

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 2d

Three months in, still plugging away at that nonfiction-ish project that might well be life-changing if I land it. Lot of redrafting, lot of research. Haven't had time or energy for fiction; have barely had time for this, but getting there for real.

1 20

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 4d

And a lot of emphasis this year on 'we'll do what we can afford,' yeah

1

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 4d

Just finished The Apollo Murders. Come for the lovingly detailed description of cosmonaut atmospheric valves and helicopter rotor architecture, stay for 'please let the Lunokhod rover survive this, he's been a really good boy.'

a black and white image of a rocky landscape

Alt: a moon lander flies by to touch down

media.tenor.com

4

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 4d

@ndarney.bsky.social - you hearing any ripples from the panel report on the BC side of things? What's making it across the border, if anything?

1 1

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 4d

Curled up Friday with cold meds, hot cider, and the report of the Expert Panel on Post-Secondary Funding and Alberta's Competitiveness (Mintz panel). Spent a good chunk of spring on submissions for that; love to see what landed and what bits I predicted. Many questions. Many opinions on lazy takes.

1 3

Reposted by Jon Olfert 🌾🍁

Translunar Travelers Lounge @translunartl.bsky.social · 4d

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday, or if not at least working on a final polish of a speculative fiction story (5000 words or under) to submit to Translunar Travelers Lounge before the submissions portal closes on the 15th. Details at the link! translunartravelerslounge.com/submissions/

Submissions

Broadly defined, the type of fiction we are looking for is “fun”. [Go to Submissions]

translunartravelerslounge.com

14 19

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 6d

I'm fairly sure this describes three or four Galactic Empire superweapons

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 6d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

1 3

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 7d

Now, that said, hitting their goal two years early means they've outpaced the federally/provincially-funded renovations set up for those years, so there's going to be growing pains - but having watched CSJ wade through external challenge after external challenge for ~6 years, this is pretty cool.

2

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 7d

What puts a big smile on my face today: UAlberta's French-speaking Campus Saint-Jean, which has faced many challenges, has record enrolment this year and got to put out a release that leads with "des chiffres historiques et des objectifs pulvérisés." They did in fact PULVERIZE their goals. Go CSJ.

Le chiffre de la Rentrée: 1240

www.ualberta.ca

1 3

Reposted by Jon Olfert 🌾🍁

Stephen Kotowych 🇨🇦 @ourmankoto.bsky.social · 8d

Submissions are OPEN for Year's Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume Four (the best of 2025). Send me your SFF published in 2025, you crazy Canucks! Details on my site at the link below. DON'T SELF REJECT! You can't win if you don't play ;) Subs close Feb 28, 2026. Pls share WIDELY.

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction | Stephen Kotowych

kotowych.com

100 96

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 10d

I keep hearing this one's worth a look!

1 1

Reposted by Jon Olfert 🌾🍁

A.D. Sui 🇺🇦 [sway] @thesuiway.bsky.social · 15d

I'm going to tell what my parents, raised in the USSR, taught me as a child and then re-taught it when Putin rose to power in Russia— build a small, trusted circle and never run your mouth outside of said circle. This circle will become the place you express your dissent.

6 24 95

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 15d

A bearded man wearing a black shirt with white text that reads "I don't want to be in the loop or out of the loop. I want to be aware of the loop & its contents but free from any loop-related responsibilities."

3 17 93

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 16d

Here it's the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. A piece at a time, I spent it reading THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER cover to cover. I grew up south of Calgary in Treaty 7 territory and the book hit disturbingly close to home. Probably the best from Stephen Graham Jones that I've read.

1 6

Reposted by Jon Olfert 🌾🍁

Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 17d

AI chatbots have no discernable effect on firm profitability or recorded hours of work.

Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects

We examine the labor market effects of AI chatbots using two large-scale adoption surveys (late 2023 and 2024) covering 11 exposed occupations (25,000 workers,

papers.ssrn.com

6 15

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 20d

This week after the kids finally concede to sleep I've been hammering doggedly at a nonfiction writing project that has a better than reasonable chance of changing our lives this year. If I clinch it. If.

11

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 22d

So was that opportunity an Easy Apply or a link to somewhere...outside?

1

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 22d

Typing 'king in yellow' into the LinkedIn job search to see what's out there for aspiring eldritch horrors

3 17

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 22d

Sick day today, spent most of it nauseated and/or writing like my life depended on it. It's not a mode of writing I normally do but it's tied to a hell of an opportunity and I could really use a win.

Jon Olfert 🌾🍁 @jonolfert.bsky.social · 24d

Currently writing for higher practical stakes than I've written for in years. I got this. I got this...

Also, sold a poem this morning!

5