iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet

It’s especially good today because neutrinos are just so much fun to talk about. They’re little! They’re weird! They sneakily transform themselves to other flavors when no one is looking!

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Partially reassembled office. Very happy to have painting done and various things tidied up. Feel free to guess my favorite color...

Picture of an office. The desk is off-screen to the left. There's a purple hoodie (the brontosaurus one from the Science Museum of Minnesota) hanging on the office chair, which is on top of a fuzzy purple rug. A Captain Proton poster leans against a filing cabinet. A schematic of the Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) leans against a table, which has a Tardis cookie jar and a gold-colored tree hung with various Star Trek starships as ornaments. The walls are very dark purple. There's a couple utility boxes and, plus some painter's tape and newspaper as evidence of recent painting.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Me: I'm painting my basement office. Style police: What color? Me: This. <shows bucket> Style police: Are you sure? You don't want something more mature like eggshell white, or- Me: No. Style Police: -beige? Me: Beige is boring. I'm an adult! I can pick whatever _actual_ color I want!

A basement wall with blue painter's tape, a couple electrical boxes, and one corkboard-ish neighboring wall. There's newspaper on the floor to protect it from the drying paint, which is very, very purple. There's a little glare on the wall from the ceiling light.

A basement window with white trim, blue painter's tape, and some furniture covered with tarp. The wall is a freshly painted dark purple.

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Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Good news: @sfwa.bsky.social's Recommended Reading List once again lives! The general public and SFWA members can sort the list to see what SF/F novels, stories, poems, comics, scripts and games are receiving the most love and attention from the org's writers. 1/ www.patreon.com/jasonsanford...

patreon.com

Genre Grapevine: Good News as the SFWA Recommend Reading List Returns | Jason Sanford's Genre Grapevine

When Professor Farnsworth in Futurama says "Good news everyone!" it's rarely good news for his Planet Express crew. But in this case, the ne

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Just rewatched Star Trek TNG episode "The Boobytrap" with my kid, and whew, if that whole "let's get the computer to construct a copy of Leah Brahms from her research and logs" thing was creepy and uncomfortable the _first_ time I watched it, it isn't any better now that we have generative "AI."

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Having a _negative_ word count goal feels very weird. It's like I'm writing in the Twilight Zone.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"How did you get into TTRGPs?" College friends, after a near-miss in high school. HS: I had a friend who had the D&D players guide, and shared an electronic copy. I was fascinated. (Still ❤️ building characters.) Nobody got a game together, though. College: Invite to game -> instant acceptance.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Options generally included a mix: 1. Maps, consulted in advance of driving 2. Directions 3. Having a co-pilot with the map and directions 4. Trying to remember the names of streets before and after the critical turn, so I'd know when I was close or if I'd missed it

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Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Oh, what a nice idea. (Closing streets for a safer Halloween.)

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Dear melon plant: Look, I appreciate the ambition, but do you really think all these little melons you're growing are going to get ripe before the first frost? Look, the maple's already throwing in the towel for the season... #gardening

A tiny green melon, not even as long as my fingers yet, still growing on the plant. There's some protective chickenwire in the background, and plant and mini-melon are wet from rain.

Somewhat dark view from underneath a huge old maple tree, looking up the trunk into the canopy, where the upper leaves are transitioning from green to a golden yellow.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 29/09/2026

A win on fair use: court rejects fair use defense of AI training

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Which edit is easier: 1. Restructuring a too-long, ~170k word manuscript into two books, and adding a net 30k words along the way, or 2. Minor cleanup on a 120k word manuscript, but you also need to cut 10% of the words My gut says #1 will take longer, but we'll see how excruciating the cuts are.

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 28/09/2026

Any time we hear "AI did this and this", it's not proof programs are becoming sentient, but that the humans deploying said AI did this (which is generally failing to deploy proper sandboxing measures to prevent an AI from going against security) It's not the AI that's rogue, it's the company

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

*hits compile on Scrivener* Alrighty, that's the first big edit done on "Let's Kill The Gods." (Don't worry, they deserve it.) File sent off to my trusty alpha reader (aka, my lovely husband). Next up... <stares at pile of writing projects> I'm gonna make myself a hot chocolate.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Author Simulator. My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Title: Author Simulator

Level 1: Get to desk and begin! (Platform video game-style image of an author jumping from a block onto a cloud with desk and computer) Result: success!

Level 2: Press on despite distractions! (Author typing as the desk/clod moves past a ghost and a spider) ) Result: success!

Level 3: Deliver manuscript to editor! (Author jumping over fire pit onto platform where editor waits) Result: success!

Level 4: Accept minor criticism! (Author lying ded in fronto of editors desk) Result: better luck next time!

Along the bottom are controls for:
Left right jump crouch read write nap coffee

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Local politics commentary: It's a really bad sign when I actually mostly agree with Joe Soucheray. I'm increasingly thinking we're going to need a mayoral recall election...

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Current status on the big edit: I'm at T-minus five chapters, and counting. (Wrong metaphor for its genre, but, eh.) So, I'm 80% done. My main thought at this stage is that the earliest and latest chapters are going fastest, while the middle required more adjustment. (Middles are hard, I guess.)

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I have also experimentally determined that playing music for, like, ten or fifteen minutes (for me, on piano, the only instrument I have any skill with) also makes me a lot happier. Follow for more shocking life hacks. :P

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Friendly reminder: Sometimes, the best entertainment is a gigantic box, a good selection of art supplies, and a healthy dollop of imagination.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/

Image: A graph with lots of red dots clustered together in a curve. The are all looking upwards at a single red dot wearing sunglasses.

Caption: Mike was an outlier and would probably be excluded from the study, but all the other data points secretly thought he was really cool.

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Kevin Hearne @kevinhearne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I went outside, y’all, and dang it does wonders for your attitude. Because some of the stuff out there is SUPER CUTE. Lookit this chipmunk climbing out on branches to eat these leafy thingies. LOOKIT. And I saw MORE. Behold the thread— 1/

I don’t know exactly what it’s eating but a chipmunk is framed by spindly branches of some leafy plant that it finds delicious.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I've seen a fair few of these myself -- the "what genre do you write?" question in a reply is a big red flag. Like, that is not hard to figure out from my posting history or profile. Or, quite possibly, the very post they're replying to.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Spotted between Saint Paul and Stillwater: A dark pink Nissan Cube with custom license plate "BRGSHIP" and a "Resistance is Futile" sticker. To the owner of said vehicle: Nicely done. 🖖

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The book: Kinda like Doctor Strange, but it's all from the magic cloak's point of view and the wizard's from Minneapolis. The WIP: Medieval farmer gets pushed over the edge by one last stupid curse and decides to kill all the worthless gods. Her daughter wants to help.

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Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Reupping this again: MSP please alert the young white women with golden doodles, one of them urgently needs the post-exposure rabies series.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Another #book I've read lately: The Witch Roads, by Kate Elliott. Holy cow, this was one of my favorites for this year. Absolutely gorgeous writing, vibrant and detailed without being tedious. It's the first half of a duology... #amreading #fantasy 💙📚🪐

The Witch Roads, by Kate Elliott. Three tall spires loom in front of a partly cloudy sky. On a walkway to the spires, a pair of tiny people are dwarfed by two rows of stone statues guarding the path. (And note well: this looks very much like an actual scene from the book, and it was epic.)

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A new #blog post from me! The current topic: I recently learned about the concept of fair play mystery (which, it turns out, I have previously enjoyed reading), and I had thoughts about extending that to a more general concept of fair play _fiction_: rznicolet.com/2026/09/19/f... #fiction #writing

rznicolet.com

Fair Play Fiction

I recently learned the term “fair play mystery.” (I’d somehow missed hearing the term until recently; I guess I was part of the lucky 10,000 that day.) The basic def…

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you'd like a book featuring a protagonist who is a sentient piece of fabric with OPINIONS about both laundry machines and how many monsters its wizard should be confronting on a regular basis (not THIS many), check out The Cloak and Its Wizard! Details: rznicolet.com/books/the-cl...

rznicolet.com

The Cloak and Its Wizard

The Cloak and Its Wizard In which a magic cloak picks a new wizard — and has to deal with the consequences. (And the laundry machine.) The Cloak of Sunset and Starlight has spent the century …

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A little of both, I think; and explaining why (and how seeing now might make 20-year-old me rethink some things) would take more than a single post's worth of characters.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Current status on first-round edits for Let's Kill the Gods: So far, so good. About halfway through. To be determined: can I finish cleaning up this thing before the end of September, so I can work on something else?

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Last day for the bundle! If you're interested in a bunch of books with folks using magic, you've got T-minus 14 hours or so and counting...

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 15/09/2026

🔭 A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus Image Credit & Copyright: Arnaud Mariat ap260915

A blue sky has a light cloud crossing the middle of
the image. Two crescent objects are visible through the
cloud, a large faint crescent in the center and a brighter
crescent above it.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 13/09/2026

PSA: AI is a tool just like a spade or a knife. If it breaks containment during an experiment, it's not that it's a threat à la skynet, it's a security failure from the people doing the experiments.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A key late summer/early fall question: mild cold, or feisty ragweed?

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'm just gonna note that I recently started reading The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott, and my goodness, the spooky deep time / ancient history vibes are exquisite so far. (Makes me think of Fortress in the Eye of Time by CJ Cherryh, but with faster pacing.)

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I found this article useful in sorting through my "next project" ideas: killzoneblog.com/2026/09/what... I didn't use the scores as advertised, but it was a helpful exercise. So, after all the editing stuff is done, my current plan is:

killzoneblog.com

What Should You Write Next? | Killzoneblog.com

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is that bundle I've been posting about (and that my book is in, among some excellent company).

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Perhaps a morning #bloomscroll would be nice? To start: some non-bloomy native plants. I think the one on the left is sperengellii, and the one on the right is river oats. The former is never munched by rabbits, while the latter bounces back with aplomb.

A big grassy plant with long, narrow, drooping leaves.

River oats, a cute little plant that looks like grass with branching leaves.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

All of this. This is why sequels to my debut novel are highly likely to be self-published, and also why I'm going to set a higher bar for any future trad deals. (I only signed a contract for the one book, so I don't have the scary multi-book problem.)

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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 10/09/2026

This is worth a read because it eviscerates the narration of "AI solved complex mathematical problems, we can now retire mathematicians" that's currently being pushed by the AI companies. (and in general please remain sceptical of any claims to independent thinking or intent by LLMs)

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 10/09/2026

Asteroid Mission xkcd.com/3294/

4-panel comic. (1) [Announcer with medium-length hair in front of screen showing rocket.] ANNOUNCER: The asteroid is headed for Earth, but a mission has been launched to intercept it. (2) [Two people with space helmets and carrying equipment rush out of spacecraft landed on asteroid.] (3) [People connecting laptop to asteroid.] (4) [Laptop message reads >NOCLIP *ON*]

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Is it just me, or are a lot of the "here's my neat SFF book" posts on socials kind of... bland? Samey? (These are most often indies, though of course not all fall prey to this.) Examples: it's just a trope list, or a few bullet points of nouns that aren't quite enough to pique my interest.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 06/09/2026

Anthropic settlement shenanigans: a thread 🧵 Authors are reporting receiving emails like this one. 1/5

From: Phoenix TF <info@phoenixtf-mail.co.uk>
Date: Fri, Sep 4, 2026 at 4:13 AM
Subject: Regarding Your Potential Claim in Bartz v. Anthropic
To: <redacted>

Hi <redacted>,

I'm writing about the class action lawsuit titled Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC (Case No. 24-cv-05417), in which we believe you may hold a claim.

We'd like to make you an offer to purchase that claim. In practice, that means we pay you cash upon execution of an assignment agreement, and then we assume the risk and wait for any recovery. We are paying up to 1500 USD per book.

If that's of interest, I'm happy to walk you through how it works. You can reach me by replying to this email or on my phone at (216) 496-4501.

DISCLAIMER: We are an independent third party and are not affiliated with anyone involved in this case or the District Court. You do not need to sell your claim or engage with us to receive a distribution in this case.

The Court has created a website where you can learn more about the settlement and your rights:

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/

All offers are subject to our due diligence.

Best,
Austin

Phoenix Trade Finance
https://phoenixtf.co.uk/
+1 (216) 496-4501

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

My basic plan for the state fair: * Fun * Funnel cake

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Saw Coyote vs ACME today, and it was exactly what I'd hoped for. Excellent silliness with a hopeful core message. The absolute chaos in the ending was fantastic. Probably going to be the only movie I see in theaters this year. Totally worth it.

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Rachel Reddick / RZ Nicolet @rr4idic.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

As a child, I liked the book Be Nice To Spiders. As an adult, I'm a happy provider of Cup+Card Arachnid Relocation Services. I also do centipedes! (In other news, I caught a rather large spider under the dining room table this morning and put it outside. I hope it eats many annoying insects.)

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