@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot
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tjradcliffe

@[email protected]

Poet, physicist, former engineer, former adjunct in Pathology and Molecular Med at Queen's (Kingston). Semi-retired consulting scientist living on a small island off Canada's west coast. Actor, improvisor, writer, kayaker, sailor, hiker, father. Current projects: computational physics (multi-particle Schrodinger's equation), local community theatre group, kayaking, hiking, carpentry, reading (eclectic), low-flow deep well pump design, SIRS modelling of covid. (he/him)

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theotherotherone, to bookstodon
@theotherotherone@mastodon.world avatar

Who to read if you're an Agatha Christie devotee, but have read all of her books (besides re-reading her books, of course)? The former is true of me, but the latter, not quite yet. I'm planning ahead.

I know to at least consider Sherlock Holmes, anyone in the Detection Club (which Christie co-founded), medieval mysteries like Brother Cadfael, etc. And yes, I've already read some of those here and there, especially Cadfael.

What else?

@bookstodon

tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@theotherotherone @bookstodon Not exactly Christie-ish but you might enjoy the Pentecost and Parker books.

sunflower, to bookstodon
@sunflower@plush.city avatar

what's your favourite "hidden gem" book that you never see anyone talking about?

@bookstodon

tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@sunflower @bookstodon

"Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys: pulp SF that does a better job of explicating the problem that science is faced with--which is that the universe simply does not make sense to our monkey brains, so we have to learn to think in profoundly unnatural ways--better than anything else.

"His Master's Voice" by Stanislaw Lem, which I sometimes describe as "the only science fiction novel", because in it I can recognize myself as a scientist, which is otherwise fantastically rare.

theautisticcoach, to actuallyautistic
@theautisticcoach@neurodifferent.me avatar

How did my comrades come to know that they’re autistic?

@actuallyautistic

tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@theautisticcoach

Long difficult story. I had suspected for a long time, but it took my sister making a mocking comment about a peculiar eating behavior I had as a kid to trigger a cascade of realizations and understanding. I was in my 50s, and still figuring out the ramifications six or seven years later. Long slow healing process, but it gets better.

@actuallyautistic

herhandsmyhands, to random
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

FCC to restore #NetNeutrality and also, hey, to protect our online activity from scrapping--be it for #ArtificialIntelligence training without our consent, or for even more nefarious purposes.

When the public comment period opens, for your own interest, comment--the vultures will, by the thousands, using bots/AI, so we need to show up and make sure our voices are heard, and our interests protected.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/10/fcc-moves-ahead-with-title-ii-net-neutrality-rules-in-3-2-party-line-vote/

tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@weirdwriter @herhandsmyhands @romancelandia

I'm likely missing something, but why not generate an audiobook via local software? Maybe I don't understand what "AI narration" is? Is it AI trained on other people's voices in the usual plagiaristic way?

I guess I have no problem with mechanical narration for authors who can't afford human narration and can't do it themselves, but maybe I'm missing something? I get that mechanical is 2nd best, but are there other issues?

tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@weirdwriter @herhandsmyhands @romancelandia

Yes, that clarifies things. Thank you both! I hadn't really understood that text-to-speech AI was a thing.

Private
tjradcliffe,
@tjradcliffe@mastodon.scot avatar

@pseudonymsupreme @bookstodon I've been reading Canterbury Tales for something like 35 years (in the original) and I'm almost done!

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