puzzlescarves.bsky.social

Shell Peters @shellpeters1.bsky.social [ View ] May 19, 2024 at 01:24 UTC

...and of course Gail Carriger herself, dang it, whose books are awesome. And this is just off the top of my head. I read a lot.

Tagging @humilitas.bsky.social, @maiastrong01.bsky.social, @puzzlescarves.bsky.social, and @bodaciousjb.bsky.social to hopefully get their lists. ;-)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 19, 2024 at 17:35 UTC

Django Wexler Ann Leckie Jo Walton

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 19, 2024 at 17:34 UTC

Also off the top of my head, in absolutely no particular order, and I'm positive I'm leaving someone out. (Had to delete last post & update when I remembered one.)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 19, 2024 at 17:32 UTC

OK, sure, if you're going to *tag* me! 10 authors, read >= 5 books from each: Nicola Griffith Laurie R King Naomi Novik Guy Gavriel Kay Randall Monroe Seanan Macguire Naomi Kritzer Jane Austen Ursula Vernon Robin McKinley Dorothy Sayers Charles Stross Max Gladstone Neil Gaiman Patricia McKillip

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 14, 2024 at 21:46 UTC

Oh huzzah!

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 12, 2024 at 00:44 UTC

It's truly an amazing song. During the pandemic, work boxed up all the stuff on our desks, and let us come pick it up several months later. I linked this song internally, lightly filked. You may be the only other person I've come across randomly who's heard the Austin Lounge Lizards in person.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 10, 2024 at 23:30 UTC

Oh, and by "amazing", I mean this: There were STR (old-style) DNA profiles where, of the 13 sites + gender marker, only the gender marker was there. And it turned out to be wrong. Which we knew because from SNP panel an analyst could identify them confidently.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 10, 2024 at 01:02 UTC

Though also ridiculously garish. Boss: "Use these exact colors for SNPs. I want them so ugly customer will *have* to specify the real ones." Customer: "Yup, can see exactly what's going on from across the room. 10/10, no notes." (We tested on that week's new data, because what else was there.)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 10, 2024 at 00:59 UTC

Cool thing: One of the other companies who were helping the effort devised a forensic SNP panel. SNPs are great, because you don't need nearly as much contiguous DNA to find them as with STRs. Then we had to make an efficient many-to-many matching algorithm. *Amazing* to see it work the first time.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 10, 2024 at 00:09 UTC

It's been somewhere between tough and impossible to talk about for more than 20 years. And something I'm proud of but can't talk about starts to feel a lot like something I'm ashamed of. Which is really too bad, because that was great work. (And I'm THRILLED to learn that it's had ongoing impact.)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 10, 2024 at 00:05 UTC

This actually made me think a *bunch*. But instead of continuing to pollute @rahaeli.bsky.social 's thread, I figured I'd start my own.

Context:
me: "I spent 2.5 years on a team writing software to allow analysts to identify 9/11 WTC victims."

Turns out, I'm really proud but also
1/

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 09, 2024 at 01:34 UTC

Oh, I *am* proud! I've launched on stuff that millions of people use, and that project still comes in as my highest-impact project (with many fewer users). It was just also tough. ...as long as someone changed the colors for the SNP forensic DNA profiles. OMG those were eye-popping.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 09, 2024 at 01:30 UTC

💜💜💜 That is SO COOL! I had some idea due to a thing my boss sent us each because a stupid virus derailed any 20th-anniversary reunion ideas. But still, I'm confident you're not propaganda :-)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 08, 2024 at 01:45 UTC

Mad props (to both of you)! I spent 2.5 years on a team writing software to allow analysts to identify 9/11 WTC victims (allowing many-to-many matching, and keeping a variety of relevant info in one place), and I still have flashbacks -- and it was all *text*.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 05, 2024 at 23:38 UTC

My parents were both professors who went by Dr. Last, back in the days when you let your students call you. When I was old enough to answer the phone, but only barely, we had to have the "Sweetie, when someone asks for Dr. Last, you need to ask which one, not just get the nearest parent" talk.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] May 05, 2024 at 23:36 UTC

Makes sense. My postdoc advisor (affiliated with the medical school) insisted on being First MI Last, PhD on the grounds that *he* was actually a *scientist* (in contrast with all those MDs). (Note that I am not registering an opinion of his approach.)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Apr 23, 2024 at 01:14 UTC

I finished @maxgladstone.bsky.social 's Wicked Problems last night, and I now have one particular chorus (and harmony) of @adapalmer.bsky.social 's Hearthfire (sassafrass.bandcamp.com/track/hearth...) kinda stuck in my head.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Apr 18, 2024 at 23:37 UTC

Not quite "latine" specifically, but: Kid points out that Spanish wikipedia has some discussion of the history of "elle" (and the -e ending) in its Elle (pronombre) article.

#elleenlaRAE was a hashtag on the other site in 2015.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Apr 03, 2024 at 23:40 UTC

We got the squirrel-eviction people in to armor our house just in time for a lovely early-April nor'easter, complete with what sounds like some mixed precipitation. I'm sure the critters would rather be inside for this. We're mean.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 28, 2024 at 23:51 UTC

I just had the occasion to recommend @matociquala.bsky.social 's White Space novels to the second person this week. I like pointing people at good & interesting books! (Also, really looking forward to book 3)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 16, 2024 at 00:40 UTC

In any event, it's an amazing list this year!

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 16, 2024 at 00:38 UTC

Once upon a time, I'd see the list of Nebula finalists and say, "Ooh! Look at all these books I should read!" And now I look at them and say, "Yup! Those were all really great books!" And I'm glad I read them ahead of time, but also I'm kind of sorry I no longer have that source of recommendations.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 10, 2024 at 21:56 UTC

Spent most of yesterday devouring @aliettedb.bsky.social 's A Fire Born of Exile. Yum. (Glad I managed to stop reading long enough to do some useful things, so I don't feel *too* guilty about enjoying a book much of the day.)

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 10, 2024 at 21:32 UTC

Oh, sorry -- I hadn't realized you hadn't run across her work before! I've been recommending it around; she's lots of fun.

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 09, 2024 at 02:52 UTC

That was fun, thanks!

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 02, 2024 at 19:01 UTC

(Sorry to jump into your thread). Yeah, when I was co-writing software for forensic DNA matching for mass fatalities(*), the forensic biologists we worked with were pretty much livid at their work being compared to fingerprint analysis. (*) same STR profiles, same odds ratios, easier multi-matching

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@puzzlescarves.bsky.social [ View ] Jan 19, 2024 at 00:50 UTC

OMG, mine too. For a similar reason, except I'm not sure I was dating the guy yet. I was in 9th grade at the time.

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