Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 3h

Nice picture. That story has stuck with me since I was young and read As a Driven Leaf.

Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 7h

Heading out to the gym on another peaceful, quiet beautiful autumn day in Chicago. Crickets chirping in the back garden, someone riding a bike past playing music, people walking dogs, early risers waiting for the bus to work.

Chicago is tooling along as always.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 7h

Nope. Neighborhood parking is still a post apocalyptic disaster, but otherwise we’re fine.

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 18h

Here's your daily dose of weirdness for today!

Altered Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

First panel. Calvin's dad says, "what story would you like to read tonight? Anything except..."

Calvin: "The Voynich Manuscript?"

Second panel. Calvin's dad, exasperated: "No! No Voynich Manuscript tonight!"

Calvin: "I want the Voynich Manuscript !"

Third panel. Calvin's sad: "Look, you know how the story goes! You've memorized the whole thing! It's completely unreadable!"

Calvin: "I want mysterious glyphs and symbols!"

Fourth panel. Calvin: "Wow! The story was different thatvtime!"

Hobbes: indecipherable squiggles

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 19h

The Body is like the Org Chart.The Mind is like the Mission Statement. Wipe away the blame.
No Org Chart. No Mission Statement. Where can the blame settle?
From the Deplatform sutra.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 19h

The Body is like the Org Chart.The Mind is like the Mission Statement. Wipe away the blame.
No Org Chart. No Mission Statement. Where can the blame settle?
From the Deplatform sutra.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 20h

Good luck.

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 21h

New Fashion History Video! 🎉

"Button Up, Button Down, Buttons All Around: Men's Coats in the Playful Eighteenth Century"

🗃️🪡

#FashionHistory

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8J6...

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 23h

That is a lot. That’s enough pages for one of the quick reading versions of the Mahabharata.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

"The Emperor is spending this millennium dead for Tax Purposes"

The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Grimdark Galaxy.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

Both. They see people not bowing down and worshiping them as the same as the world being destroyed.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 1d

Buttinskies buttress their buttoned up butterballs, but can they?

Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Dana Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror 🎃 @danacorn.bsky.social · 1d

I have gotten letters with this precise complaint.

FieldExplores (Gator Days) @fieldexplores.bsky.social · 2d

Banned Books - Gator Days

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Aurora Webcomic @aurorawebcomic.bsky.social · 2d

good morning and good night

comicaurora.com/aurora/2-5-43/

2.5.43 - Aurora

And that’s a wrap! Everything completely resolved and fine with absolutely no lingering c’mon man As usual I’ll be taking a small break between chapters to sleep, eat food, maybe go apple-picking, and...

comicaurora.com

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

Because internet posts stick around, one does not have to finish an argument with a goober, one just needs to present enough of the reality of the situation and then go off to do other things.

I don't do this often, because it's still quite tiring, but if I feel up for it, I will.
/3

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

A variation of this can be done using goobers on the internet which is to present ones understanding as responses and as questions to the aforementioned goobers.

This doesn't work with outright fascists, but does work with the clueless and overconfident. /2

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

There's a writing trick I often teach about how do do info dumps. The trick is that information imparted by having two characters argue is more likely to be read than the same information presented by one character. /1

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

Because internet posts stick around, one does not have to finish an argument with a goober, one just needs to present enough of the reality of the situation and then go off to do other things.

I don't do this often, because it's still quite tiring, but if I feel up for it, I will.
/3

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

A variation of this can be done using goobers on the internet which is to present ones understanding as responses and as questions to the aforementioned goobers.

This doesn't work with outright fascists, but does work with the clueless and overconfident. /2

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 2d

There's a writing trick I often teach about how do do info dumps. The trick is that information imparted by having two characters argue is more likely to be read than the same information presented by one character. /1

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Reposted by Richard Garfinkle

Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 3d

I had to draw a flow chart and family trees to keep track of who was who in a Jane Austen novel. Keeping track of multi-character narratives is challenging.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 3d

We were grateful to meet you!

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 3d

You know. That bothered me too.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 3d

I couldn’t keep track of everybody, but each time period had a few people who mattered in the narrative. But it was not an easy read and not one I would recommend.

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Richard Garfinkle @rgarfinklesff.bsky.social · 3d

That was uppermost in my mind when I reread the Romance of the Three Kingdoms early this year. The amount of famine and destruction going on was horrendous and what happened to the various peoples when “So and so conquered thus and such and executed….”

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