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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 2h

SAME BUT I WAS FOURTEEN.

Arkady Martine | Dr. AnnaLinden Weller @byzantienne.bsky.social · 1d

eeeeeeeeeee OTHER PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK, I have loved this book since I was nine years old

Ancillary Review of Books @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org · 2d

In our latest critical book-club, we talk about Melissa Scott's BURNING BRIGHT (@torbooks.bsky.social), a queer cyberpunk/space opera about political machinations and online role-playing games, with author Ursula Whitcher!

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 1d

This is mostly a @barbarafantechi.bsky.social question but I welcome more general airport reminiscences. I don't speak German or Italian but I fake the latter better.

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 1d

If I am flying within the EU and I have a choice between a 50-minute Lufthansa/Air Dolomiti connection in Frankfurt and a 3-hour Air Italia connection in Rome, who is more likely to lose my luggage?

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 2d

Come talk to us about Burning Bright, whether my take on the tiny ending mystery makes sense, and why cyberpunk/space opera fusions are best!

A Meal of Thorns @mealofthorns.bsky.social · 2d

For Episode 34, @yarntheory.bsky.social joins to talk about structure, art & endings, relationships, and much more in Melissa Scott's 1993 cyberpunk space-Venice thriller BURNING BRIGHT:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/06/a...

A Meal of Thorns 34 – BURNING BRIGHT with Ursula Whitcher

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Ursula WhitcherTitle: Burning Bright by Melissa ScottHost: Jake Case…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Jake Casella Brookins @casella.bsky.social · 2d

Really glad Ursula brought my attention to this book: a particularly fine vintage of 90s SF, with some interesting character work and ideas about artistry. Recommended.

A Meal of Thorns @mealofthorns.bsky.social · 2d

For Episode 34, @yarntheory.bsky.social joins to talk about structure, art & endings, relationships, and much more in Melissa Scott's 1993 cyberpunk space-Venice thriller BURNING BRIGHT:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/06/a...

A Meal of Thorns 34 – BURNING BRIGHT with Ursula Whitcher

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Ursula WhitcherTitle: Burning Bright by Melissa ScottHost: Jake Case…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

A Meal of Thorns @mealofthorns.bsky.social · 2d

For Episode 34, @yarntheory.bsky.social joins to talk about structure, art & endings, relationships, and much more in Melissa Scott's 1993 cyberpunk space-Venice thriller BURNING BRIGHT:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/06/a...

A Meal of Thorns 34 – BURNING BRIGHT with Ursula Whitcher

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Ursula WhitcherTitle: Burning Bright by Melissa ScottHost: Jake Case…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Yoon Ha Lee (he/him) @deuceofgears.bsky.social · 5d

I'm omitting the musicology (Schenkerian analysis...) readings for school but

1. The Villainess and the Demon Knight vol. 2
2. Christopher Ruocchio's Empire of Silence
3. Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon (reread)
4. Martin Van Creveld's Command in War
5. Poul Anderson's Tau Zero (reread)

Becky Annison 🔜 Ex Tenebris is Kickstarting now! @beckyannison.bsky.social · 5d

It is time again for me to confess the size of my 'in progress' reading pile. Please feel free to join me.

And lo it came to pass that I am currently reading many books

1. Less by Patrick Grant
2. The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
3. Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

1/2

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 7d

Credit to @pwr2dppl.bsky.social for getting me thinking about drawing cards of different suits and YHL for feeding the temporary Balatro addiction.

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 7d

How do you get from a good Balatro score to the physics of mirror symmetry? One path (for people who like infinite sums) leads via the hypergeometric series.

mathvoices.ams.org/featurecolum...

The Hypergeometric Flower Pot

The negative hypergeometric distribution isn’t labeled negative because it uses negative numbers. It’s negative because we’re thinking about failure… The Hypergeometric Flower Pot…

mathvoices.ams.org

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 8d

COVER REVEAL AND PREORDER: The Public Scholar - A Practical Handbook.

"Perry focuses on the practical details of how to approach public scholarship. How do you pitch a piece to an editor? When should you follow or ignore the rules of the genre? And what happens once your piece is out in the world?"

The Public Scholar

A Practical Handbook

www.press.jhu.edu

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 9d

Want me to critique your poetry? Or stare really really hard at a page of prose? That's an add-on here!

OTHERSIDE - Kickstarter is LIVE! @othersidespec.bsky.social · 9d

WE'RE FUNDED! BASE GOAL ANNIHILATED IN FOUR!! HOURS!!

We're full of SO MANY emotions. OTHERSIDE means a lot to us, and we're so grateful to everyone who wants queer stories, poems, and art to have more space to exist. Now more than ever, that matters 🪐🗡️

Now onto stretch goals?? 👀

OTHERSIDE KICKSTARTER FULLY FUNDED! There is a screaming kitten in the bottom left.

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 10d

This is interesting—I see a lot of these tells in my work with writing scams, where the use of chatbots in scam solicitations and impersonations has become ubiquitous.

Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · Aug 31

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 10d

This one:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Battleship and the negative hypergeometric distribution

The negative hypergeometric distribution is often not formally studied in secondary or collegiate statistics in contexts other than drawing cards without replacement. We present a different context w...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 10d

And I had the basic terminology insight that it's negative because you're thinking about failure, which is hilarious if you're coming from math instead of stats.

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 10d

I found a cute stats ed paper about a lesson that teaches it using a modification of Battleship!

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 11d

Hey, Mathsky, what's your favorite reference for the negative hypergeometric probability distribution?

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Christopher Caldwell @seraph76.bsky.social · 11d

On the advent of Black Speculative Fiction Month *and* Black History Month in the UK, I’d like to remind you that my very Bjack, very queer collection of short stories publishes on October 14! You can pre-order here: www.neonhemlock.com/books/call-a...

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (pre-order) — neon hemlock

A collection of short stories. Publication date: October 14th, 2025. An 8” x 5” paperback. 188 pages. This is a pre-order—any other books ordered with it will ship when the pre-order is ready to ship....

www.neonhemlock.com

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Brandon O’Brien, low on Action Points @therisingtithes.bsky.social · 12d

It's @flightsoffoundry.bsky.social weekend!

On Sunday at 3pm Eastern, come listen to @akualezlihope.bsky.social, @dianadima.com, @yarntheory.bsky.social and yours truly, led by moderator @bugthewriter.bsky.social, as we chat about speculative poetry!

FoF is online & free! Register here:

Registration – Flights of Foundry

flights-of-foundry.org

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 12d

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus

Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

thewalrus.ca

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Interstellar Flight Press @interstellarflight.bsky.social · 12d

At Interstellar Flight Mag, R. Thursday interviews Marie Brennan, winner of the first Hugo Award for poetry. magazine.interstella...

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Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear) @yarntheory.bsky.social · 12d

I would like to thank the Facebook class action settlement for buying me Hades 2.

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Joshua Justice // Ghost Tropic @ghosttropic.org · 13d

This collection of interconnected short stories by @yarntheory.bsky.social is nominated for the Ursula K. Le Guin prize (for good reason). The final story is easily my favorite. Highly recommended!

Hand holding a book by Ursula Whitcher called North Contient Ribbon. The cover depicts a sprawling green landscape with an elevated railway leading to a tower. There’s a lake next to it and some white birds. In the bottom center is someone in a green cloak with their back turned.

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Renay⁷ @renay.bsky.social · 13d

One thing the Hugo Award rec sheet struggles with is artists. Are you an SFF artist, or do you know any that have done work in 2025? Our professional artist and fan artist categories need some love. #art #HugoAwards

The Hugo Awards (2026)

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Katie C @spiffykt.bsky.social · 17d

Last night I finished North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher and I can’t recommend it enough. Lovely storytelling and some of the best worldbuilding I’ve come across in a while. Also, to sweeten the deal, almost every last character is gay 🌈

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Reposted by Dr. U. Whitcher (U. is for Bear)

Darusha Wehm @darusha.ca · 13d

Are you going to @flightsoffoundry.bsky.social? Me, too!

Join me at More than the Sum of its Parts: Building Novels from Smaller Parts with @nassos.bsky.social, @vajra.me, and @yarntheory.bsky.social in hour 28.

Then @phoebebarton.bsky.social and I talk After Capitalism, Then What? in hour 51.

More than the Sum of its Parts: Building Novels from Smaller Parts with Natalia Theodoridou. M. Darusha Wehm, Vajra Chandrasekera, Ursula Whitcher in Hour 28 #FoNovellnStories

After Capitalism, Then What? with M. Darusha Wehm & Phoebe Barton in Hour 51 #FoFPostCapitalism

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