Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 8h

Wait, only two? Wasn't there LL with his adopted daughter, LL with his gender-switched clones, the mirror-twins with each other, and LL with his mom? And maybe the clones with each other?

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 13h

Joyful UW researchers are beaming.

CTV News Kitchener @ctvnewskitchener.bsky.social · 14h

Upcoming laser facility at University of Waterloo could unravel molecular mysteries

Researchers at the University of Waterloo may soon get a better understanding of the world around us thanks to a state-of-the-art laser facility.

bit.ly

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 14h

Yeah, like that.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 14h

You know what would a super-cool idea? Regular pieces on small presses.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 19h

In their defence, most are only terrible in the sense of lacking virtue while embracing vices they are certain are virtues.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 19h

Reprinted, after decades of being out of print, by Gordon Van Gelder.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 20h

I mean, he did write a book where teens trapped on an alien world start cranking out babies but it didn't involve lobotomizing any of the women to make them compliant.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 20h

RAH was patronizingly condescending towards women and a member of the "women secretly run the world and that's why they don't need the vote" club but there were actual he-man woman-haters in SFF and if you put one of them next to RAH, the difference is clear.

(con't)

Emma Evans @trance.bsky.social · 1d

I never got the sense Heinlein hated women, though I fully understand the arguments people make over that. Even with his 'slap and tickle' characters which you see in sci fi/spy film shlock of the era, he creates smart and powerful women, not the brainless bimbos.

Queers yes. Lesbians are

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 21h

As a reviewer, I stopped using it when they changed the file formats. Their recommended reader tries to install itself as the default reader, and tech support wasn't helpful.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 21h

The Cool War by Frederik Pohl

A hapless minister is drafted into international intrigue.

jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-...

Just Another Day in Paradise

Frederick Pohl’s 1981 The Cool War is a near-future stand-alone science fiction fix-up. Many Americans chafe at the endless energy shortages, rampant crime, spiralling bigotry, and endless crises they...

jamesdavisnicoll.com

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

Every once in a while I am astonished to remember medical science is so advanced there are people still living despite old enough to remember when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

Bundle of Holding: Mystery Flesh Pit

Welcome, visitor, to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park: The RPG, the Cypher System tabletop roleplaying game rulebook from Ganza Gaming about the Permian Basin Superorganism.

bundleofholding.com/presents/Fle...

Mystery Flesh Pit RPG Special

Welcome, visitor, to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park: The RPG, the Cypher System tabletop roleplaying game rulebook from Ganza Gaming about the Permian Basin Superorganism. This bizarre natural geobio...

bundleofholding.com

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

Good news for the Canadian citrus industry!

A map of Canada showing that most of the country is much warmer than usual for this time of year.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

I've never got the embedded footnotes to work. Every couple of years I forget that, and put some in, and then it causes problems.

James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

That would be terribly hard on plants and animals. Is there any chance the US could put a deranged lunatic in charge of public health?

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder what the ecological impact would be of rewilding everything west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies? I think only 8% of the US population lives there.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

i’d day this nails the South as well

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 2d

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

If it wasn't for the English agricultural policies of the 19th century, my mother's family might never have left Ireland for Cape Breton. Nothing like a famine to encourage bold ventures!

(Are American oligarchs edible?)

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 1d

He's very good on the economy, tho! 🙄🫠

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1d

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 1d

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

Three short works by Kawakami.

jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/darkn...

Darkness I Became

Hiromi Kawakami’s fantastical 19961 Record of a Night Too Brief is billed as the third volume in Pushkin Press’ Japanese Novella series2. Record of a Night Too Brief isn’t really a novella, but a coll...

jamesdavisnicoll.com

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

If someone had asked me which SP character would show the most growth after 20 years, Mike would not have made the list.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

In the PC's defence, the crooked guys started it by trying to frame the PC for the murder of a dignitary. It was a good plan, with two flaws: the PCs were the first people in the scene and removed the planted evidence, and also the corpse got back up because he hadn't been alive in the first place.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

My Warhammer: The Old World Players have successfully replaced the four crooked watch members who were mad at a single PC with a heavily armed, violent criminal gang who are mad at all of the PCs.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

That said, I am unclear why the security guy had a camera feed into the labs, instead of the periphery he was supposed to be watching.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

I saw different options to fill out, and in one case a blank screen. I am told it works OK in Safari.

James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

Watching the 1994 adaptation of The Stand. Government seems to have a handle on this 'flu business, so I can't see how they can stretch this out to 6 hours.

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James Davis Nicoll @jdnicoll.bsky.social · 2d

By Roger Elwood of all people. I am as astonished as you.

It was called Continuum, and it serialized over four volumes eight different series by eight-plus authors. I think three of the series (the ones by Farmer, Anderson, and Pangborn) were later collected into their own books.

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