Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nicola Griffith

@nicolaz.bsky.social

8.9K followers 1.6K following 2.4K posts

PhD. Novelist (Hild, Spear, Menewood). All things Early Medieval. Here: Cats, crips, queers. Books, beauty, beers. MS ♿️🧪📚 MUTING THOSE WHO DON’T ALT-TEXT nicolagriffith.com Banner ID: B&W image—pint of Guinness flanked by 2 books flanked by 2 tabby cat

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · Oct 21

You will be shocked, shocked to hear that "The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong"! 🙄 Duh! OF COURSE IT'S WRONG. But now there's a cool article listing the biological and evidentiary reasons, along with nifty diagrams.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Beginning of article from Scientific American sowing a lovely orange-toned painting of a naked woman running with a spear

Beginning of an article reading "Even if you're not an anthropologist, you've probably encountered one of this
field's most influential notions, known as Man the Hunter. The theory
proposes that hunting was a major driver of human evolution and that men
carried this activity out to the exclusion of women. It holds that human ancestors had a
division of labor, rooted in biological differences between males and females, in which
males evolved to hunt and provide, and females tended to children and domestic
duties. It assumes that males are physically superior to females and that pregnancy
and child-rearing reduce or eliminate a female's ability to hunt.
Man the Hunter has dominated the study of human evolution for nearly half a century
and pervaded popular culture. It is represented in museum dioramas and textbook
figures, Saturday morning cartoons and feature films. The thing is, it's wrong."

52 920 2.2K

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 1d

Lovely! Plus a reminder: Alt-text is our friend…

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 1d

Acknowledging from the realm of Relying on Rather Large Banana and Oat Muffins…

Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 1d

Checking in from the land of Uselessly Eating Oat Biscuits.

K Lykkebo 🖤 Fantasy author @karenlykkebo.com · 1d

Trying very hard not to feel useless right now so I'm eating chocolate about it.

1 7

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 1d

When this one goes it will be terrible. Worse than anything I've lived through. I dread it. But it's coming.

C. L. Polk @clpolk.blacksky.app · 1d

Oh, hell.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

2 31

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 1d

When this one goes it will be terrible. Worse than anything I've lived through. Much worse. I dread it.

1 24

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 3d

Yep, that’s it. I’ll just have to figure out how to set those up. Just not today…

1 2

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 3d

I am the web person :)

1 2

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 4d

Every email I send from my domain-based email address to any Yahoo recipient is blocked (at least through Gmail—haven't tried it through Apple mail yet). I'm tired and sick so if anyone has a handy guide to fix this so I don't have to spent hours figuring it out, I'd be grateful.

2 3 6

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 7d

Yesterday I turned 65. Despite being ill for the last 17 days with a vile virus, it was a day of unexpected gifts and small pleasures. Plus some close supervision by a certain scarred veteran of kitty covert ops.

Yesterday I turned 65. Despite being ill with a vile virus, it was a day of unexpected gifts and small pleasures. And close supervision by one scarred kitty veteran of covert ops

nicolagriffith.com

11 65

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you! And the sun came out today just for me :)

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 12d

It seems so much easier to air this kind of Russian influence in the UK than here. Gosh, I wonder why.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 12d

Nathan Gill, Reform's leader in Wales at the last Welsh parliament election, has pled guilty to 8 bribery charges, taking Russian cash while he was one of Nigel Farage’s MEPs to speak in favour of Putin's Russia in that parliament
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges

Gill admits to eight counts of bribery relating to pro-Russia statements made in the European parliament and articles

www.theguardian.com

3 10

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 13d

Wow, they must have looked amazing! We got them originally because of the colour and the nectar, to attract hummingbirds

1 2

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 13d

If only I lived closer…

#medievalsky

TOEBI @toebi.bsky.social · 14d

⏰Reminder: Registration for #TEI2025 is still open #medievalsky.
📲Register here: www.eventbrite.ie/e/toebi-annu...
📨We look forward to welcoming you to University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social
📅 Saturday, 25 October 2025
📜Theme: Education and Early Medieval England

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 13d

I can’t wait to see a whole salmon cascade of them next year!

1 3

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 13d

OMG!!! The vine we planted 5 years ago (6?!) has finally—finally! right at the end of summer—flowered for the first time! An omen: summer 2026 is going to be brilliant and beautiful ✨

Salmon trumpet-shaped flowers on a green vine

2 1 66

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 13d

Real life monster battle. Wow.

Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 14d

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

1 7 35

Reposted by Nicola Griffith

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 14d

Please do not tell small artists and nonprofits based in the US that you are thinking about abstaining from buying stuff from us because of the Trump administration. We also do not like that guy! You can just...not tell us! It feels like being kicked when we're already down, ya know?

15 170 840

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 14d

It is!

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 14d

Well, the prissy little petunias might have got themselves Raptured but the begonia and geranium, the jasmine and more are still their blooming heathen selves, even as autumn runs its cool fingers through their leaves.

Bright flowers in pots—orange, yellow, pink, white—on a kitchen deck

2 36

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 14d

Having said that, mouse models, even humanized models, always make me a tad sceptical

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 14d

I couldn’t get to the actual paper but the write up sounds as though this could be very, very good news! 🧪

Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 14d

Researchers in Spain have developed a new intranasal COVID-19 vaccine that eliminates the virus in mice.

One dose gave 60% protection, but two intranasal doses achieved 100% protection with no detectable virus in nasal or lung tissue, suggesting sterilizing immunity.

www.csic.es/es/actualida...

Press Release

Madrid, Tuesday, 23 September 2025

An experimental intranasal vaccine eliminates the COVID-19 virus in mice

Preclinical trials with rodents show 100% protection with the second dose.

This work advances the development of new-generation vaccines against COVID-19.

(Image caption: SARS-CoV-2 virus exiting infected cells / Team of Luis Enjuanes, PNAS)

2 1 35

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 15d

These look like little bunny boars

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 15d

Two Roman finds from Rottweil (my beautiful hometown 😊): vessels in the shape of boars, dating 2nd century AD. They were used to hold oil.

📷 me

🏺 #archaeology

Two small animal-shaped figurines resembling boars, made of brownish clay. The one on the left has upright ears and a rounded body, while the one on the right has a looped handle on its back. Both are displayed on a gray surface.

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 15d

The coyotes are baying and yipping, out in force. Soon they’ll come swarming out of the ravine on the hunt. Thankfully, Charlie and George are both in for the night. If you’re in Broadview, keep your pets close tonight.

1 24

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 16d

As autumn begins, George, International Cat of Mystery, offers his sitrep: together with asset, Tabby Pimpernel, endeavouring to keep neighbourhood clear of infiltrators. Charlie uncooperative. Flowers still drawing attention of aerial insurgents and small drones

nicolagriffith.com/2025/09/22/a...

Dashing looking tabby cat puts his head and shoulders through green velvet curtains

Orange sun sinks towards hazy mountains behind a stretch of golden shimmering Puget Sound

1 20

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 16d

He and the Tabby Pimpernel (from Parts Unknown—but somewhere in the neighbourhood) have an ongoing mission to keep Broadview secure from infiltration

Nicola Griffith @nicolaz.bsky.social · 16d

The equinox, and that rich, mellow moment where the world hangs between harvest-is-in-we-can-rest and winter-must-be-readied-for. Here's the state of the Griffith-Eskridge household—or some of it, including cats and flowers...

Autumn With Cats and Flowers

We're in that rich, mellow moment where the world hangs between harvest-is-in and winter-must-be-readied-for...

nicolagriffith.com

1 1 26