Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 2d

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

cow tools daily @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social · 2d

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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 · 4d

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 · 4d

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 · 4d

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 · 3d

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 · 4d

Thenmozhi has a hell of a voice

Thenmozhi Soundararajan/Dalit Diva ✨️is querying✨️ @dalitdiva.bsky.social · 4d

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 · 4d

Can't wait to read this one

WRAITH 👻🍉 @straith.ca · 4d

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 · 4d

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 · 4d

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

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 5d

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 · 5d

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 · 5d

Thank you!

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 5d

I've been saying for months that farm bailouts would be delayed to allow further consolidation of farm ownership by Trump cronies, then used as another tool in the massive theft of wealth currently being perpetrated against the American people.

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 5d

With farm bailouts back in the news, it's a great time to remind everyone that US Treasury Secretary Bessent owns thousands of acres of of soybean farms.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/u...

Bessent Has Yet to Fully Divest Assets, Raising Concern at Ethics Agency

www.nytimes.com

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 5d

Sure, AI is creating 30 million cars worth of pollution while stealing from artists and driving record unemployment, but let's make Timmy feel bad about using the inhaler that lets him play soccer with the other kids.

What the fuck, guys.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 5d

I just ordered a stack of books from you last night! I appreciate all the work that's been going into improving your UX, I can tell the experience has been steadily improving over the last few years.

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Reposted by Will Kaufman

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 5d

I wrote a poem

Cycles of the moon or compiled texts from an ex

hey
Hey
HEY
Hey
hey

hey

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Reposted by Will Kaufman

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 6d

Weird thing where people say “no one could have predicted it” when really what they mean is their political commitments and orientation were such that they ignored everyone who was predicting it

Sorry but “no one could have“ and you having your head stuck up your ass are two different situations

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Reposted by Will Kaufman

Mike Meginnis @mikemeginnis.bsky.social · 6d

I need to get some podcast guests scheduled. (I have a backlog in case of life problems but did have some problems and am as such already nibbling the backlog.) I am open to writers but not focused on them; main requirements are you need to like reading, be a decent talker, and have a passable mic.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 6d

Is there a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Around, Find Out?

Reposted by Will Kaufman

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

Hey #DVparty! Here’s the moodboard for my #SpaceOpera WE SANG DOWN THE EMPIRE.

Washed-up alien musician Nesamma Abbas 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 and choose between revolution or redemption.

Mood board of my upcoming Space Opera We Sang Down the Empire. It features ephemeral and evocative art of artist Joshua Mays to convey the spritual element of the martial art of sound that is at the heart of the book. There are women of color in space age futuristic background and magic practices.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 7d

Love it. Have you seen the Scorched speed run dampers? Another great exercise in excessive engineering for a niche of the RC hobby. Demo here at 11:32 youtu.be/YL-N60YMIkI

Speed Running with the World's FASTEST RC Cars!

YouTube video by Tomley RC

youtu.be

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 8d

So either you need to go back to school and re-take Writing & Composition 101, or you decided you just loooooove the taste of boot.

Let me rephrase that so you understand. "The taste of boot was enjoyed in place of accurate reporting."

Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 10d

And I think the real key is that the stuff people want most right now is stuff they can't buy individually without being rich. It's all stuff we need our society and governments to invest in. Time, space, privacy, third spaces, social opportunities, health... Private industry can't manufacture that

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 10d

So many startups have made people rich from the premise of "what can we replace with a version that centralizes profits?"

Anyone who wants to make money just looks at the world and thinks about how they can become a landlord over part of it.

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Will Kaufman @specwill.bsky.social · 10d

Man, this wrecking a lot of hobbies. An RC body shell I had my eye on was $45 with free shipping a month ago. Now one of the few remaining listings is on Ali Express at $70 with $194 shipping fee. For maybe an ounce of vacuformed lexan.