Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

People who get this are my kind of people.

Photo of a protestor holding a sign saying "private string Gender, NOT public const bool Gender." It's programming humor.

May 6, 2025 at 5:17 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Just wrapped up a weekend-long AI accelerator course. Super interesting stuff — mind-blowing in parts, slightly dystopian in others.

One thing that really stuck with me: we were shown how to fully automate the creation of viral posts on any topic, tailored to your "voice," and blasted across all your social media accounts... without you ever needing to write or even *read* them.

It works *really* well. Like, disturbingly well.

Made me wonder: how much of what we’re scrolling through every day is already written by algorithms, presented under people’s names, and never once seen by them?

Feels like we’re inching toward a weird version of the internet where it’s just bots talking to other bots, optimizing engagement with other bots, while the humans go... where, exactly? Will we need to invent a new, quieter space — offline, analog, human again?

Anyway, food for thought.

**P.S. This post was written entirely by AI.**

May 4, 2025 at 11:47 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Bets on how long until the rest of the board resigns?

I'll spare you the unhinged ranting, but King Toad has announced he's going to fire a bunch of people from the Kennedy Center's board of trustees and put in new people with himself as chairman. So that's going to be...yeah.

February 8, 2025 at 2:15 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Well, this explains a lot.

A tweet explaining that USAID was instrumental on doing groundwork to help the eventual fall of apartheid in South Africa, so no wonder Elon Musk and his stooges hate it so much.

February 4, 2025 at 1:55 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

In tonight's episode of "Read the Room":

Screenshot of a tuft & needle mattress ad, presumably for an upcoming Presidents Day sale, but saying "Enjoy our presidential perks". The most common reactions are angry reacts.

January 30, 2025 at 3:05 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Don’t get me started

Post observing that cis people will pretend to be trans allies when they wouldn’t even give up Harry Potter

January 26, 2025 at 1:43 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

And away we go.

Clips of news about migrant farm workers staying away from work out of fear of the ICE raids and how this is going to cause food prices to get very bad very fast.

January 22, 2025 at 1:36 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Gotta love that new book smell

January 18, 2025 at 2:36 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

If you need help, thinking of a New Year’s resolution, you might actually enjoy, maybe consider patronizing more local businesses. Seek out those little hole in the wall places that have been owned by the same people for decades on end. They need your business now more than ever.

A plate of Springfield cashew chicken from Tao Tao Chinese food in Kansas City, Kansas

January 2, 2025 at 1:48 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Just thought I'd share some #stereogram images of my trip to Egypt back in October. #3DImage

stereo picture of the head of the Great Sphinx

stereo picture of ancient stone cobras with a stepped pyramid in the background

stereo picture of a stretch of ground beside the great sphinx

stereo picture of the great pyramid of Khufu

December 27, 2024 at 3:40 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

One of the lesser-known Roman goddesses I dug up for the opening scene of my new book (LOTS of history research for this one btw) #booksky #lgbt

And Laverna was called to judgment by the gods, and appeared before them, but only her head was visible. ‘I swore on my body, but see I have none!’ And then she caused her head to vanish and body to
return. ‘By my head—but of course, I have no head, so no vow can bind me!’ But the gods condemned her and decreed she should be evermore the goddess of cheats and thieves and those who move in the dark. From that day, the goddess Laverna has been portrayed as either a head without a body or a body without a head.

December 27, 2024 at 3:24 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Screenshot from the opening of "Zork 1", reading: "West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here."

December 22, 2024 at 4:23 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

fake movie poster of "The Shining" but it's a smarmy Hallmark christmas movie: "He's obsessed with work. She's longing for love. And this winter, they're snowed in together. Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in Brightly Shining, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie".

December 16, 2024 at 4:08 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

I met a frog from an antique swamp,
Who said—"Two vast and furry legs of stone
Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose hat,
And wiggling ears, and smile of desperation,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The jokes it did essay, and yet fell dead;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Fozzymandias, King of Clowns;
Look upon my Jokes, and Laugh, lest I Despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The echo of distant heckling fades away."

December 13, 2024 at 5:01 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

My weekly update: I have been holding off on this, but I guess it's time: my next book, Helen Highwater and the Burning Eye, drops this January 1st!

Book cover showing a woman in old-timey pilot gear leading another woman out of an ancient temple. Behind them is an image of a giant green demonic mask with red lights shooting out of its eyes

December 9, 2024 at 3:02 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Time for my annual dredging up of the unauthorized "Rudolph" sequel I wrote back in the day.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Thought at last the bad times had ceased.
All of a sudden he's the main deer,
And everybody's wanting a piece.

Everybody wants to be Rudolph,
Everybody wants a red nose.
Everybody's talkin' like Rudolph,
Everybody's wearin' his clothes.

Then one day at a swanky soiree,
Rudolph was heard to say,
"Gee I think you're all swell and I don't mean to offend,
But where the jingle-bell were you when I needed a friend?"

And all of the other reindeer,
Well, they didn't have nothing to say.
So Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
Turned around and went on his way.

The lesson my dear,
Is perfectly clear,
And it's something that you ought to know.
Fair-weather friends
Come and go like the wind,
Melt away like the new-fallen snow.

December 8, 2024 at 4:30 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

My unauthorized sequel:

December 8, 2024 at 4:29 AM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Always a Terry Pratchett quote.

facebook post reading as follows:

So. The United Healthcare guy has got me thinking about this quote. He never got blood on his hands, but he was, I would argue, a serial killer nonetheless.
"'Do you understand anything I’m saying?' shouted Moist. 'You can’t just go around killing people!'
'Why Not? You Do.' The golem lowered his arm.
'What?' snapped Moist. 'I do not! Who told you that?'
'I Worked It Out. You Have Killed Two Point Three Three Eight People,' said the golem calmly.
'I have never laid a finger on anyone in my life, Mr Pump. I may be— all the things you know I am, but I am not a killer! I have never so much as drawn a sword!'
'No, You Have Not. But You Have Stolen, Embezzled, Defrauded And Swindled Without Discrimination, Mr Lipvig. You Have Ruined Businesses And. Destroyed Jobs. When Banks Fail, It Is Seldom Bankers Who Starve. Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who Had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. For Sport." -- from "Going Postal"
There's *always* a Terry Pratchett quote.

December 5, 2024 at 11:56 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

A little something from my Facebook-self:

OK, so I have it in my head to make a 50's style industrial film
parodying the insurance industry. It would have three little elf-y
cartoon characters, and they sing a song:

"Oh we're Delay, Deny, and Defend!
And we're the insurance man's friend!
We know what to say, so you don't have to pay,
We're Delay, Deny, and Defend!

Hello folks, my name is Delay!
I can make all your problems go away!
It's no trouble at all, all you gotta do is stall,
And meanwhile, they still have to pay!

Now take a little tip from Deny:
Make sure your claimants dot every "i".
If you look hard and long, you will find *something* wrong.
And tell Mister Patient "Good-bye!"

How ya doin'? Dey call me Defend!
An' I got yer back til the end!
If dey take us to court, boy I'll fight 'em off, sport!
Ain't no one touchin' your dividend!

We're Delay, Deny, and Defend!
And we're the insurance man's friend!
And if a claimant should die, Don't expect us to cry
(spoken) We ain't runnin' a charity here!
we're Delay, Deny, and Defend!

December 5, 2024 at 3:42 PM

K L Mitchell

@klmitchell.bsky.social

Evening and welcome to my Sunday night blog where I talk about what I'm up to with my writing and related subjects.

The big news this week is the cover for book #4 is done, so I'm going to reveal it here next week. But first, this week I'm gonna give everyone a little peek. Meet Helen: