#forensic science ask blog

[surging-eyes-seeing-through]

Hello again Mr. Apollo! I’m submitting my fun fact early today because I’m probably gonna be preoccupied with birthday shenanigans later! 🥳 You don’t gotta answer until later if you don’t want, I mean technically you don’t gotta answer at all but like. You get what I mean. Anywho!

Your cool bug fact today is that there’s exactly one oxygen atom separating pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient in Sudafed) from methamphetamine (…meth). The molecular structures of the two are EXTREMELY similar. On a somewhat related note, many organic molecules can be transformed into seemingly unrelated compounds, such as toluene (paint thinner) and benzaldehyde (artificial cherry flavor), in which two hydrogen atoms are swapped out for one oxygen. Yay chemistry! :D

~🐢

"...'yay, chemistry' is right. It's, I mean... It sure is complicated, I'll give it that."

(And I'm happy people much smarter than me are dealing with actually figuring it out...)

"But, uh... congrats, to whoever's having the birthday. I don't care too much for mine, but I know people really get into that stuff."

[thesongofsoleil]

ׂ╰┈➤ Hi my name is soleil! 𖤓 im a minor 𖤓 basic dni 𖤓 she/her 𖤓 CONAN GRAY, HOZIER, Alec Benjamin, Laufey, Mitski, Lana del Rey, ABBA, Arctic Monkeys, Queen, The neighborhood, David Bowie, The smiths 𖤓 cabin 9 𖤓 slytherin 𖤓 history, english, science > any other subject 𖤓 GREEK MYTHOLOGY 𖤓 i want to be forensic psychologist or marine biologist 𖤓 i love to read and get involved in fandoms 𖤓 DINOSAURS 𖤓 snakes are cool 𖤓 looking at the night sky/astronomy 𖤓 reading 𖤓 long care rides with headphones and a book 𖤓

ׂ╰┈➤ Marauders/Harry Potter(fuck jkr) 𖤓The song of Achilles 𖤓 All of us villains 𖤓OUABH 𖤓Shatter Me 𖤓 AGGTM 𖤓 TFOTA 𖤓 TIG/TGG 𖤓 Lore Olympus 𖤓 Grey Crow(i don’t actually know if this is a fandom or not) 𖤓

ׂ╰┈➤ HTTYD 𖤓 Fantastic Mr. Fox 𖤓 Dead poets society 𖤓 camp cretaceous 𖤓Pride and Prejudice𖤓 Flipped 𖤓 Anne with an E 𖤓 loki 𖤓 percy jackson 𖤓 Hunger Games 𖤓 Harry Potter 𖤓 Twilight 𖤓 The notebook 𖤓 10 things i hate about you 𖤓 snl 𖤓 Tangled 𖤓 award shows 𖤓

ׂ╰┈➤ Apple music(what i actually use) and Spotify bc i don’t know why my music taste is honestly it’s kinda all over the place also my airbuds

ׂ╰┈➤Currentlyies(these will probably be consonantly changing)

— Reading: Godlight

— Listening to: From Eden

— Watching: Dead Poets Society

ׂ╰┈➤ My lovely moots: @vividiangelo @apollosmusee @viivdle @midiosaamor @sugarcandydoll @starrynightsxo @deprivedofbraincellsandsleep @xoxo-lenah @agirlwiththoughtsandnegativity @helpimhopelesslyinlove @his-littlefox @art-of-fools @blackstargazer @wish-i-were-heather @marbledmoonstones @miela @love-and-books320 @rabbitholessk @thejudeduarte @thenightmareinyourcloset @shattermelyhfmlblog @ant-thebooknerd @shamelesswolfstarshipper @graaaaaayy @certifiedfantasyreader @cromulentreader @mt-jupiter @tunguszka20 @rizzgoddessans @ur-mother-is-ketterdam @marr03 @anything-for-my-moony-1971 @sweetreveriee @allisoon0930 @reggieisfit @bookish-phile @sitting-in-a-library @thebombofficial (sorry if i missed you)

ׂ╰┈➤ tags-

asks: #soleil’sasks✩

random/rants: #rantingw/sol☾⋆⁺

moots: #moots༯

tag/dash games: #taggames✧˖°

ׂ╰┈➤i got inspiration and ideas from my moots intro posts so if you are my moot and i probably used some somethings from you so here’s 🫴credit for you🫶

ׂ╰┈➤ other blog(s) -

marauders blog: @c0rl3on1s

old intro post

[1mlostnow]

A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 27th of July, is this young man's birthday. Though it was years ago he was given life, it is only today that he will be given a name.

What will the name of this young man be?

•

•

•

🐸 The Basics :

Name : Evan

Pronouns : He/Him

Age : A minor!!

Gender : Male

Sexuality : Gay

Nationality : American

Star Sign : Leo

MBTI : INTJ-T

I love nicknames, call me whatever.

I’m usually around from 8AM to 1AM CDT.

Music sideblog : @evan-radio

🐛 My Resume :

Loser CEO, the ‘weird kid’ since birth, Professional Ghostbuster, Supervillian, and Midwestern Cowboy (the fun way, not the cop way), Lab Experiment #0727

🪲 My Music :

AJJ, boygenius, Bug Hunter, Cage The Elephant, Car Seat Headrest, Crywank, Lemon Demon, Lord Huron, Los Campesinos!, MCR, Noah Kahan, ODO, Pat The Bunny, Radiohead, Rex Orange County, Seb Lowe, Sleep Token, Tally Hall, Tame Impala, Teen Suicide, TFB, The Smiths, Vundabar, Weezer :/, Will Wood/WWATT, Wingnut Dishwashers Union, and more.

🐢 Tags :

# evan speaks -> I talk. A lot. // # evan rants -> I tend to be very emotional // # evan’s memories -> nostalgia mode // # evan can’t vote -> US politics // # evan draws -> my art // # EvanRadio -> my sideblog for music // # i love my mutuals -> typically multiple mutual appreciation posts per day

🐍 Rules & Boundaries :

I’m a minor!! Don’t be weird!!

Obviously, any form of discrimination is off limits.

Cringe culture is dead, all are welcome, and I’m always open to learning.

Asks and anons are open, notifs are off so feel free to spam, but I can’t promise I’ll see it right away. Absolutely feel free to interact and ask, I will have full convos w/ you through reblogs. I answer DMs on a case-by-case basis. If you are over 18, please do not DM me.

🦎 Fandoms and characters ->

★ Dead Poets Society

★ House MD

★ Supernatural

★ Sherlock

★ Ghostbusters

★ Homestuck

🦖 Incoming fandoms ->

★ Hannibal, Good Omens, Saw

🐊 Backseat Fandoms ->

★ IT, Stranger Things, Over The Garden Wall, Scooby-Doo

🦚 Fandom Graveyard ->

★ Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Creepypasta

🦜 Kinnies ->

★ Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock)

★ Egon Spengler (Ghostbusters)

★ Castiel (Supernatural)

★ Steven Meeks (Dead Poets Society)

★ Richie Tozier (IT 2017)

★ Rory Keaner (My Babysitter’s A Vampire)

🪛 Other Movies :

The Truman Show, Stand By Me, Velvet Goldmine, Jaws, The Goonies, Breakfast Club

🐉 Other Interests :

Reading, writing, art (drawing, painting, digital and traditional), etymology, science, history, math, forensics, biology, marching band (alto sax), sharks

🔋 Other Facts :

- I love my car like it’s my child #TOMATER SUPREMACY 🦚

- Richard Cameron Defender for life (see here)🐊

- Blog theme changes frequently 🦖

- i LOVE doing little doodles and drawings of my friends 🐢

- I love my mutuals and you guys are my best friends btw 🐍

- More mouse bites!! This vexes me! Medicine drug!! 🦎

- ADHD 🪲

- I’ve got a bad habit of viewing notifications but never responding to them, if this happens please just tag me again 📗

🦠 A Note :

I am very indecisive and this post will be edited very often (see counter below)

🧪 Dead Poets Society :

@pingunaa @ghostboyhood @wordssricochet @meekspeaks @poetsinnyc @wilsons-three-legged-siamese @midwest-quill @apparitiongnostic @de4d-poet-kisser @yourfavvgal @asclexe @lv3buzzz

If I forgot someone/if you want to be added just lmk :)) if I forgot you I’m so so sorry

Edited - |||| ||

[head-of-forensics]

Hello, im Stevie Corcoran, but I’d prefer if you called me Bird. Uh..what else do I say here?

((Just talk about yourself a little, who are you, where are you from, what do you like?))

Uhm, I don’t quite understand how to use this app? but my daughter suggested I create a blog. Some of the stories I have would “do wonders on tumblr” according to her.

Anyways, I’m Bird, my pronouns are he/him, I got my bachelors degree in forensic science at UW, I switched my major twice starting out (fine arts, psychology.)

I am single and unmarried, I have a 12 year old daughter. We live in a small duplex close to PPTH and we have two cats, Adam and Lawrence. My friend Gabi @plastic-surgeon-gabi also lives with us.

I don’t recommend asking me medical questions about the living? that’s not really my area. But please ask any forensics questions! I’d be happy to answer!!

I do, however, work in a hospital (PPTH) as a forensic scientist and teacher. My social circle consists of what my father would refer to as “the wrong crowd.”

I’ve got a large scar on the left side of my face and I’m blind in that eye. I messed around with fireworks a lot as a teen.

Some fun facts ?

• I’ve got adhd

• I’m very good at card games

• I also paint

I think that’s it? my daughter set this account up for me. I think it’ll mostly be work-rants.

((*a note : Anna was 12 in season 8, 4 in season 1))

((Okay me here ☺️ house oc ask blog :) my main is @1mlostnow and I’m Evan, he/they. I am a minor! Please no nsfw. CDT timezone. Interacting with others included in @ppth-staff so go check out those posts!! Bird speaks in regular text, I haven’t quite decided what mine will be yet. Probably blue text and double parentheses. I am also Gabi (previously mentioned) @plastic-surgeon-gabi ))

((description post #1, continuously edited))

((Lore Post))

((ever-growing staff list at PPTH))

((this will most likely be edited frequently as I develop this character))

[brodorokihousuke]

Important Blog Notes!

!! Spoilers are tagged as "(game abbreviation) spoilers", in as many ways I can think. So a spoiler for Apollo Justice Ace Attorney will be tagged as "#ajaa spoilers" as well as "#aa4 spoilers".

A general tag directory is located -> here <-

Additionally, I archive all of my posted art on @brodartrokihousuke, if you just want to see that.

I also run a DD/post-DD oriented Apollo/Murderpollo ask/rp blog at @surging-eyes-seeing-through if you'd be interested in that sort of thing. Inbox open unless I say it isn't.

Currently writing a fanfiction as well.

(Tagging as ships is fine, just don't be weird about it. I don't ship much so nothing'll really be intended as ship content unless I explicitly mention it.)

Personal/about me/whatever under the cut!

Anyways, hello! You can call me Brodoroki or Brody, though I will honestly respond to Apollo as well. I'm a 23 year old asexual/nonbinary/panromantic (he/they fine) who has been riding an Ace Attorney hyperfixation for... around 10 years now. I love anything Apollo related, though DGS/TGAA is pretty up there too.

I LOVE discussing/talking about Ace Attorney in general so feel free to send dms or asks about things!! I have played all of the games (though have not finished PWvPL and GK2) so I have opinions on all of them..

When I'm not actively playing an AA game my post schedule may be lacking or nonexistent. I'm probably not dead, just out of ideas!

Now to finish off with some facts about myself.

I am closest in age to Ema Skye & Klavier Gavin!

I'm a certified open water scuba diver!

I was originally going to college for forensic science, but am now going for geoscience/paleontology!

My partner and I are working on a webcomic called The Old Hunt!

[intrepidacious]

97 with Ran, if you'd please 😌💕

occupy my brain

pairing: ransom drysdale x f!reader

word count: 1.2k

warnings: ransom being his usual self should be warning enough. implied smut. please note that my blog is rated 18+. minors dni. ageless/empty blogs will be blocked without warning.

prompt: 97. passionately making-out against a wall

a/n: i'm not gonna lie, posting this kind of hurts for obvious reasons but i don't want to sit on the prompt forever either because it's simply too good for that. this is the part one of come on down that i was talking about.

Death had always been a passion of yours, but you’d never fantasized about it quite as vividly as you had over the past couple of weeks.

One might have thought it came with the profession, but no.

It felt truly unfair that the texts you were studying told you exactly what poisons were most likely undetectable in the average blood test, how they were to be administered, how long your victim would suffer before his inevitable demise, eyes bulging as he struggled to take another labored breath …

Instead, he let out another annoyed sigh and you rolled your eyes.

You’d been going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole for the better part of the evening and he hadn’t even opened his damn laptop.

When you first got the job as Harlan Thrombey’s research assistant, you’d been ecstatic. You’d applied for it without ever expecting a call back—after all, he was one of the most prolific writers of crime fiction alive while you barely made it into your grad program. Sure, knowledge of forensic science was somewhat of a prerequisite to any self-respecting mystery writer, but still. You were sure there were hundreds of fretting English majors begging for the opportunity, and in the end, it fell to you.

Of course, your excitement was soon to be nipped in the bud when you met the other research assistant, who you would be working closely with over the entirety of the summer: Harlan’s very own grandson, Ransom Drysdale.

In the beginning, you tried. You really tried. But there was nothing to be done.

He was an asshole who seemed to be under the assumption that if he pressed just the right buttons, all the actual work would get done by you and simply fall into his lap at the end of the day; just the way it’d probably been all his life.

And because the first couple of times, you were playing nice and letting him get away with it, you were now stuck in this nightmare of a position. Sat on the couch in his large and strangely empty living room on a Friday night, daydreaming about extremely potent poisons.

Ransom sighed loudly again and your eyes snapped to him. He was still draped across his armchair, feet dangling off the armrest, an extremely bored expression on his stupidly handsome face.

The fact that, despite his horrible attitude, his features still had that effect on you made your blood boil even more.

"You know, if you actually did the work we agreed on, you probably wouldn’t have to sigh every five seconds," you said sharply.

An easy smirk appeared on his lips. "How else am I gonna get your attention?"

"How about by being less of a pain in my ass?"

Ransom’s eyes dipped down for a moment, only to return to yours with an amused glimmer you didn’t care for. His grin widened. "Where’s the fun in that?"

"This isn’t about fun, Ransom. This is my job. You know what that means?" Poisons and choking. "It means that certain things are expected of you."

He didn’t look particularly impressed. "Like what?"

"Like, I don’t know, research? Doing what’s asked of you instead of just being a prick?"

He snorted. "There’s just so many better ways we could spend our time," he drawled, in a tone that you could dissect all too easily.

Unbelievable.

"Keep dreaming," you muttered through clenched teeth, ignoring the way your heart twisted.

He was an asshole. You dealt with enough of those in your labs, and you made a point of not delegating any more brainpower to their presence than was necessary to get through long evenings. It was as easy as that.

Then again, none of the lab guys were quite this infuriating.

Ransom’s gaze had started wandering again, slower this time, more deliberate. You could feel a tingle go down your spine.

"We’ll see," he finally said, his voice very low.

You had to leave.

You slammed your laptop shut with a lot more force than necessary.

"You know what?" You grabbed your bag off the floor resolutely. "It’s late and I still have a lot of stuff to get done before I talk to your grandfather tomorrow, and you’re no help at all, so I’ll just get going."

He shook his head, the self-satisfied grin still not budging; for some reason, that only bugged you more. You were already half-way to the door when you heard him murmur, "Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine."

And that was it.

Your bag dropped to the floor with a resolute thunk as you turned to glare at him. "You know what, Drysdale? I don’t know why I bother with you anymore. I should just tell Harlan that you’re a slacker."

Something flickered in Ransom’s eyes, but it vanished almost as instantly as it came. "He already thinks that anyway," he said dryly, finally getting out of his damn chair to face you. "And you wouldn’t."

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"Because …" he said, taking a measured step closer. "Then you wouldn’t have an excuse to come to my doorstep anymore."

A slightly manic laugh bubbled up in your chest, jumbling your heartbeat on its way up. "Are you kidding me? I would love to never have to see you again."

Ransom tilted his head. "You’re a terrible liar." He took another step.

"What are you doing?"

You wanted to move backwards, away from him, but your feet seemed to be firmly rooted to the ground. He was close enough to touch now, and you balled your hands into fists.

Of course, he noticed. His grin morphed into something almost wicked.

"How long," he said, his voice even lower now, "are you gonna keep pretending there’s nothing between us?"

You couldn’t breathe. Otherwise, you might’ve smelled the cologne on his shirt and any last coherent thought would’ve left your body. You already found it impossible to look away from his eyes.

"There’s no us here," you said.

"Maybe you should leave, then," he answered, sounding despicably level-headed. "You know where the door is."

"I am."

Neither of you moved. The amused spark in his eye felt close enough to ignite something.

"Or," he continued, the distance between you small enough to count the freckles next to his eye, "you could stay. And we’ll see."

"Shut up," you snapped, but there was no conviction behind it. Your head was hammering.

"Or what?" he said smugly. "You’re gonna call me a prick again?"

He was too close.

"I said, shut up!"

"Make me."

It caught you off guard, that’s what it was.

You’re not sure what happened next, only that your shoulders were suddenly crashing against the wall and Ransom’s mouth was on yours, hungry, unforgiving, all-consuming.

And for some reason, instead of pushing him away, your fingers tangled in his hair and pulled him closer, tugging on the dark strands until he groaned hoarsely against your lips. His hands were large on your waist, on your neck. Slowly, his knee wedged between your thighs, pulling you closer onto him until your hips started moving on their own accord.

He kissed you like he had something to prove, and fuck; maybe he had a point. You weren’t sure. You’d stopped thinking.

Ransom Drysdale was deadlier than any poison; and much more addictive.

thank you for reading 💛 if you want to see more of my writing, check out my masterlist or follow @intrepidacious-fics for update notifications—and yes, there will be another part to this. eventually.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The seductive, science fictional power of spreadsheets

Tomorrow (Apr 30) at 2PM, I’ll be at the San Francisco Public Library with my new book, Red Team Blues, hosted by Annalee Newitz.

This week, John Scalzi was kind enough to let me write a guest-editorial for his Whatever blog about the themes in my new crime technothriller, Red Team Blues; specifically, about the ways that spreadsheets embody the power and the pitfalls of science fiction at its best and worst:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/04/26/the-big-idea-cory-doctorow-2/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/29/gedankenexperimentwahn/#high-on-your-own-supply

Yes, spreadsheets. Marty Hench (the protagonist of Red Team Blues) is a 67-year-old forensic accountant who specializes in unwinding Silicon Valley financial frauds, a field he basically invented 40 years ago, when, as a PC-struck MIT dropout, he moved from Cambridge to San Francisco to recover the stolen millions hidden in spreadsheets.

Working through this book — and its two sequels, which travel back in time to the 1980s and Marty’s first encounters with VisiCalc and Lotus 1–2–3 — I was struck by the similarities between spreadsheets and science fiction.

While many people use spreadsheets as an overgrown calculator, adding up long columns of numbers, the rise and rise of spreadsheets comes from their use in modeling. Using a spreadsheet, a complex process can be expressed as a series of mathematical operations: we put these inputs into the factory and we get these finished goods. Once the model is built, we can easily test out contrafactuals: what if I add a third shift? What if I bargain harder for discounts on a key component? If I give my workers a productivity-increasing raise, will the profits make up for the costs?

These are the questions that anyone managing a complex system asks themselves all the time. Historically, the answers have sprung from intuition, from fingerspitzengefühl — the “fingertip feeling” of how a system’s components work and what their potential and limitations are. But intuition can calcify, become a rigid set of rules that increasingly diverge from the best strategy.

By contrast, spreadsheets yield a set of crisp, instantly tallied answers to any question you put to them. Change the input and watch as that change ripples through the whole system in an eyeblink. If you’re adding three more people to your camping trip, will the amount of additional water require renting another vehicle? No need to guess: just check and see.

This has a lot in common with science fiction, a genre full of thought experiments that ask Heinlein’s famous three questions:

What if?

If only, and

If this goes on…

These contrafactuals are incredibly useful and important. As critical tools, science fiction’s parables about the future are the best chance we have for resisting the inevitabilism that insists that technology must be used in a certain way, or must exist at all. Science fiction doesn’t just interrogate what the gadget does, but who it does it for and who it does it to:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/20/love-the-machine/#hate-the-factory

One of science fiction’s key methods comes from sf grandmaster Theodore Sturgeon: “ask the next question.” Ask a question, then ask “what happens next?” Do it again, and again, and again:

https://christopher-mckitterick.com/Sturgeon-Campbell/Sturgeon-Q.htm

This technique produces excellent, critical ways of interrogating technological narratives — check out this delightful example of the possible pipeline from self-driving cars to ransomware gangs to mutual aid societies to the reinvention of the train:

https://dduane.tumblr.com/post/715940904747352064/you-can-make-your-mercedes-ev-go-faster-for-60-a

The commonalities between sf and spreadsheets don’t stop there — sf and spreadsheets share pitfalls, too. A spreadsheet is a model and a model is not the thing it models. The map is not the territory. Every time a messy, real-world process is converted to a crisp, mathematical operation, some important qualitative element is lost.

Modeling is an intrinsically lossy operation. That’s why “all models are wrong, but some models are useful.” There is no process so simple that it can be losslessly converted to a model. Even the actions of the nanoscale transistors in a microchip, which toggle between “0” and “1,” are rarely in a state of “no voltage” and “voltage.” That clean, square-wave line that’s used to describe what happens in a chip is a lie — that is to say, it is a model.

The wave isn’t square, it’s a squiggly line that hovers around zero and around one. Under normal circumstances, “zero” and “zero-ish” is a distinction without a difference. But when computers go wrong, it’s sometimes because a sufficiently ambiguous “zero-ish” acts like a “one.” That’s true all the way up the stack. On engineering diagrams, the nanoscale lines that electrons travel along inside a chip are represented as sharp paths, the kind of thing a Tron-cycle would lay down. But in the real world, we get all kinds of weird effects at that scale — electrons sometimes tunnel through those lines, performing a spooky quantum trick that reminds us that Newtononian physics are also just a model.

Every real-world phenomenon contains qualitative and quantitative elements, but computers can only do math on the quantitative parts. This creates a powerful temptation to incinerate the qualitative and perform operations on whatever dubious quantitative residue is left in the crucible, often with disastrous results.

Remember during lockdown, when a pair of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign physicists produced a model of covid spread that predicted that the campus could safely reopen, predicting no more than 500 cases over the entire semester and no more than 100 cases at any one time? The physicists were openly contemptuous of their epidemiologist peers, saying that this kind of model making lacked the “intellectual thrill” of real science.

UI was so swayed by the crisp, precise model that they invited students back to campus — only to shut down again in a matter of weeks, with 780 active cases on campus and more rolling in every day.

The model reduced qualitative factors — like the propensity of undergrads to get drunk, take off their masks, and lick each others’ eyeballs — to a quantitative probability, using the highly precise, scientific technique of taking a wild-ass guess. That guess was wrong. The campus reopening was a super-spreader event.

Any model runs the risk of hiding the irreducible complexity of qualitative factors behind a formula, turning uncertainty into certainty and humility into arrogance.

Think of how we replaced contact tracing with exposure notification. Contact tracing has a qualitative foundation: public health workers establish rapport with infected people, win their trust, and get them to fully enumerate the places they’ve been and the activities they participated in.

By contrast, exposure notification measures whether two Bluetooth radios were within range of each other for a predetermined interval. It substitutes signal strength for a person’s own understanding of their experience. Now, people can be wrong about their own experience — we lose track of time, we misremember emotionally charged events, and so on — but that doesn’t mean we can substitute Bluetooth measurements for personal experience.

That’s why, despite all the clever privacy-preserving math and interesting analysis, exposure notification was a bust, something between a distraction and a false-confidence-generating disaster. Contact tracing ended the 2014 ebola outbreak. Exposure notification just wasted a lot of time:

https://locusmag.com/2021/05/cory-doctorow-qualia/

It’s just too easy to forget which parts of a model are based on guesses and which parts are based on ground truth. And even if you can keep track of those differences, it’s even harder to re-check the model’s ground truth to determine whether the underlying factors have changed. That’s how we got into so much trouble with collateralized debt obligations, which were supposed to be “risk-free” mortgage derivatives that could be safely insured and invested in.

The formulas behind CDO hedging were designed by some of the world’s smartest mathematicians and physicists, who simply assumed that market actors — from loan-originating bank officers to insurance underwriters — would act in reliable, predictable ways. They were so very wrong that they brought the world economy to the brink of ruin:

https://www.wired.com/2009/02/wp-quant/

This is also science fiction’s failure-mode: any science fictional “ask-the-next-question” exercise represents a series of guesses or speculations or maybe possibilities — but when you combine that guesswork with the deceptive certainty that comes from inhabiting a cracking story, it’s easy to mistake “guessing” for “prediction.”

Prediction is hard, especially about the future. The assumptions that go into a prediction are always incomplete, not least because human beings have free will and agency and can change the circumstances that go into the assumptions. The very best science fiction embodies this principle. I’m thinking here of the likes of Ada Palmer, an historian and sf writer whose deep historical knowledge informs her sf and her pedagogy at the University of Chicago:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/10/monopoly-begets-monopoly/#terra-ignota

Palmer is famous — even notorious — for her annual four-week undergraduate LARP in which students re-enact the election of the Medicis’ Pope. It’s four weeks of alliances, betrayal and skullduggery by the students, each of whom is enacting the agenda of a real-world Cardinal or other power-broker.

The final investiture is done in full costume at the university’s massive faux-gothic cathedral, and going into that climax, of the four candidates, two are always the same, because the great forces of history are bearing down on that moment to ensure that the champions of the two dominant power-blocs are in the running. But the other two? They’re never the same — because the agency of the actors jockeying for power change the outcome, every single time, in absolutely unpredictable ways.

Like any other model, sf is wrong, but sometimes useful. Thinking about jetpacks and flying cars is “useful” insofar as it gets us to interrogate how we think about cities, about mobility, about privilege and geography. But it’s not a prediction. Worse, the endless tales in which flying cars are presented a fait accompli is a gift to grifters raising money for the objectively stupid idea of flying cars. After all, we all know flying cars are inevitable, so it’s basically a risk-free investment, right? With flying cars just around the corner, wouldn’t it be irresponsible to build a city with mass-transit instead of helipads?

There’s a whole range of thought-experiments that got transformed into predictions and then certainties: self-driving cars, “general artificial intelligence,” infinite life-extension, space colonization, faster-than-light travel, cryptocurrency, etc etc.

Spreadsheets don’t just lead their users astray — they also trick their creators. The very same people who transform wild-assed guesses about hairy, unknowable outcomes into neat mathematical relationships are perfectly capable of acting as if those relationships are based on fact, rather than supposition. The Great Financial Crisis wasn’t just about people who didn’t understand the uncertainty in the hedging algorithm going all-in — the people who made those models were also fooled by them.

It’s very easy to get high on your own supply. I’ll never forget the sf convention panel I was on with Robert Silverberg about sf’s supposed predictive value, where the subject of Robert A Heinlein came up, and Silverberg sniffed, and, in that trademark bone-dry way of his, said, “Ah yes, ‘Robert A Timeline.’”

Sf isn’t just full of writers who mistake their suppositions for predictions — the canon is full of tales in which brilliant people can and do predict the future, with near-perfection. Think of Hari Seldon, the hero of Asimov’s Foundation series, who is able to forecast the future several millennia out. Or Heinlein’s first-ever story, “Life-Line,” in which a genius inventor destroys the insurance industry by creating a computer that can predict your exact date of death using statistical methods.

There’s something wild about this phenomenon, in which writers make stuff up and then assume that anything that cool must also be accurate. One tantalizing explanation for this comes from EL Doctorow’s (no relation) essay “Genesis,” from his 2007 collection “The Creationists”:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/41520/creationists-by-e-l-doctorow/

Doctorow tells the history of the Genesis story, which the Hebrews plagiarized from the Babylonians. In Doctorow’s telling, the Babylonian mystics who made up the Genesis story assumed that it had to be true, because they considered themselves to be nowhere near imaginative enough to have come up with something as great as Genesis. An idea that amazing had to be divinely inspired.

I like this because it’s a story of being led astray by humility, rather than hubris.

Imaginative exercises — whether or not they are assisted by mathematical models and self-updating digital spreadsheets — are powerful tools for thinking about the future we want, and to guide our attempts to make that future come true. All models are wrong but some models are useful, of course!

I’m on tour with Red Team Blues right now — I’m writing this post while waiting for my flight to San Francisco, where I’m appearing at the public library with Annalee Newitz tomorrow (4/30) at 2PM:

https://sfpl.org/events/2023/04/30/author-cory-doctorow-and-annalee-newitz-conversation-red-team-blues

One especially fun stop on this tour will be on May 5, at the Books, Inc in Mountain View, where I’ll be talking about the book with Mitch Kapor, the creator of Lotus 1–2–3, who knows a thing or two about spreadsheets:

https://www.booksinc.net/event/cory-doctorow-books-inc-mountain-view

The tour is bringing me to Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, DC, Gaithersburg, Toronto, PDX, Nottingham, Hay, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Berlin — I hope to see you!

https://craphound.com/novels/redteamblues/2023/04/26/the-red-team-blues-tour-burbank-sf-pdx-berkeley-yvr-edmonton-gaithersburg-dc-toronto-hay-oxford-nottingham-manchester-london-edinburgh-london-berlin/

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Mountain View, Berkeley, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet with green-on-black, low-res type; its center has an irregular vignette revealing a space station.]

[somesherlockvariant]

Welcome nerds.

Welcome to my study blog. I am starting uni this semester and decided I want to make a student blog. Why tf not. This will just be a little place where all my notes will go.

About me and the content,

My name is Rèmus, and I'm majoring in forensic science a BSc! Studying in Canada.

Current classes (the info i will be posting are from) are: Biology |, Chemistry |, Physics |. And maybe Calculus | 👀

In the search tab of my blog you can search either of those and the posts will come up! Everything will be tagged.

Ofc leave comments, ask questions, or add to the post. We're just here to have fun being studious.

[dangerprone2000]

Hey Guys! Here’s Chapter three of my new fic! Hope you enjoy it. 💗

Chapter three.

Bleach. A small amount discreetly strained into a test tube in the chemistry laboratory. It was easy to find, just look in any cleaning cabinet and mix the vial with a little alcohol to create chloroform, a quick solution to the need to evacuate the laboratory in less than five minutes. But not before slipping a pair of lab coats into his backpack during the chaos. Nothing too dangerous, Fred reminded himself, it only took a couple of minutes for the chemistry teacher to identify the sweet smell coming from one of the test tubes, hopefully they´ll think it was an error in the labels.

And the job of the janitor was a small price to pay.

The idea had come to him the night before while watching a science program on television, although it was not his favorite topic, he had to take a dive if he wanted to solve this mystery. Now all that was left was to wait.

They had planned it all that morning. Fred picked up Daphne a little earlier that day and had explained to her the plan he had put together in his wonderful head.

When leaving school, they would wait in the van for the transportation of new bodies, and during the shift change of the forensic examinators, they would go in to steal the report. They leaving without being seen was entirely another story.

The bell rang, sending all the students in different directions.

Daphne hurried to get up, while Fred quickly picked up the backpacks from the floor, walking towards the exit, in a desperate attempt to get to the truck as soon as possible, avoiding Velma, Shaggy or Scooby in the process.

“Wait Fred!” Velma yelled at them, making her way through the group of students. “Where are you going? “I’ve been trying to talk to you guys the whole day.”

“Um, uh, we- we are just…”

“Studying for our SATs” Daphne cut out.

“Without me?” Velma stared at them blankly, taking a moment to readjust her glasses. “Someone reached out to me, leaving a message on my blog. There’s a mystery for us to solve, and they are giving a reward of one thousand dollars.”

Fred dismissed her, shaking his head. “I really do need to study for my exams, otherwise, the wrestling team is kicking me out.”

“C´mon Fred! It’s one thousand dollars!” She insisted, looking at them in disbelief, “they will give us all the details once we accept to solve it. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity for us to people start taking this as a serious business.”

Fred and Daphne exchanged weird looks.

“I'm sorry Velma.”

She frowned. Since Daphne got sick and recovered magically, they both became odd and awkward, sneaking out of their classes and avoiding them during lunch.

And then, Fred rejected her mystery…

“Okay,” Velma said, wiping the determination from her face. “I guess Shaggy and I can also make use of the time to review some things.”

Velma Dinkley, who was an expert at putting puzzle pieces together, she, who was an expert in mystery and an intellectual of clues, had set out to discover what was happening between Daphne and Fred.

There was something fishy going on and she was determined to uncover it.

“C´mon Shaggy. Cardio is good for you anyway.”

She gave them a darting look, and then left.

Fred took a deep breath, feeling a spark of hope that they may get out of this trouble undefeated.

***

The wait was tense and tedious, charging the air with nervousness.

They had waited for the transport van for hours when the doctor on duty finally came out.

The transfer truck must have been approaching and they had a short window of time to conduct the robbery before the new doctor arrived.

Fred turned the knob on the service door, attempting to enter the facility.

“It's closed,” he said. “We can try to enter through the hospital.”

She gave him a head shake “Staff will ask you for a credential.”

“Well- I… I think we should have planned this better. Maybe we can pick the lock.”

Daphne spoke with her chin up “I think I know how to do that” she loved to feel useful more than she loved feeling pretty.

Daphne was intelligent, artistic, gracile, she knew how to paint and play the piano, she loved musical theater and photography... but those were hobbies that she was never able to practice, since to be honest, in the search for mysteries, they were not very useful. At least she was still danger prone. And being a magnet for problems had led them to live their best adventures...

“We can use a couple hair pins to open it.” She said, removing a couple off her hair “It looks like a simple lock.”

Daphne unfolded one pin, inserting it into the base of the lock, and turned it, maintaining tension while she engaged a second pin as a lockpick.

“One click and Voila,” she said, pushing the door open in front of them.

The morgue was almost empty, except for the a few bodies. It was very cold, and some lights were flickering, giving the place a gloomy, eerie air.

Crystal Cove was a quiet town, with very few deaths, most of them from natural causes, however it did not make the place more comforting. Finding herself so close to death gave Daphne goosebumps.

“We must avoid Joey, the medical examiner on duty” Fred muttered, grabbing Daphne´s Hand. “You know, I don't think he's used to seeing living people walking around.”

But the jokes did not seem funny enough to laugh in a place like that.

“Jesus Christ, Fred. I can’t believe we are entering this place like amateur burglars”

Nothing was random. Except of course, having to pick the lock. One more crime added to the list wouldn’t make a difference...

The cold penetrated her bones, making her shiver as they walked along the hallway, where a small room was set up: a table, a couple of chairs, and a small filing cabinet. A type of refrigerator with metal cubicles arranged for each body was on the opposite side, next to an examination table surrounded by a curtain of transparent plastic material placed over a drain.

“I overheard my father once talking about Joey and his bad habit of falling asleep at work” “You have no idea about the conversations I have heard from my room…”

Daphne walked over to the rickety old wooden filing cabinet, hurriedly searching for the folder with Amanda's last name.

Blue paint peeled off at the edges, rust corroding the metal handles.

Bailey…Barker…Barnes…Beck.

Bingo.

She grabbed the folder, giving it a Quick Look when they heard steps from behind.

Daphne was suddenly frozen, glued to her place, listening to the tick and tack in slow motion.

“Quick” Fred hissed, snapping awake almost instantly, tossing a shaking Daphne onto his back and into the closest door he found, sending the yellow folder to fly across the room.

It was a small cleaning closet full of bottles with transparent and dark liquids, terribly stinky towels, a couple of boxes with gloves and other utensils as sharp as unknown.

“Shit. What do we do now?” He shook Daphnes shoulders gently.

“I lost the folder” her response was slow, like honey running through a dropper. “It flew out of my hand. I lost the folder. I lost it.”

Fred grabbed her hands, squeezing them softly, somehow, hyper aware of her hand in his, and the way their knees touched. “Did you manage to read anything?”

She shook her head.

“It is handwritten. And in bad calligraphy. The worst calligraphy I’ve ever read “

“Daphne…” Fred begins, and that's when they hear the gunshot echo through the place.

What happened next was catastrophic.

Fred jumped, crashing the glass on the shelves, spilling all the liquids on himself and on Daphne, who couldn't stop shaking.

The sound of another gunshot drowned out her screams, filling Fred’s body with both dread and adrenaline.

What should he do next? Should he play the hero and stand up for whatever was happening outside the closet, or stay right where he was, protecting his best friend with it?

Another shot, followed by another ask for help.

“I’m sorry Daph, I can´t just stay here and ignore what’s happening.”

“Freddie, please” She begged, tugging her fists on his shirt “there's nothing we can do against a gun.”

He felt like a coward.

They stood in silence just holding each other for what looked like an eternity, their eyes watering for the strong, sharp odor permeating their clothes, making it difficult to breathe.

“We must get out of here. Now. Before we start choking on formalin”

“This doesn't smell like formalin” she said, robotically “if it were, our skin would be burning right now. “It’s Maybe some kind of antiseptic.”

“Whatever it is we have to go before the police arrive.”

Fred's phone chimed in his pocket.

“Daph” it was a message from his father. “Whoever did this also got Charlie Cooper killed.”

Fred's hands encircled her, guiding her out of the janitor’s closet.

Her chalk-white face was drained of all emotion. “The other medical examiner, right?”

Fred agreed.

“He was found dead in his car, with a ton of cash with him.” “It looks like he was desperate to leave Crystal cove”

Outside, Joey was crumpled to the ground, with three bullet holes in his chest.

“Gunshots. That’s not very witchy, is it?” Fred said, grabbing the yellow folder from its place, under a metal cubicle.

The blood was smeared all over the walls, spurting from Joey's chest, soaking his shirt, deep red splatters coming from his lips.

“We shouldn't leave him like this” Daphne said, her breath sharp and fast. She closed her eyes, wanting to rip the acrid dress off her skin.

Maybe if she closed them long enough, she would find herself wrapped in the blankets in her room, waking up from that horrible nightmare.

Fred looked down, unable to meet her eyes. He felt guilty of all this slaughter, wanting to close Joey´s eyes with one hand, but his face was so full of blood it would leave fingerprints. They would be difficult to check, but still… Instead, he covered him with a gray tarp that he had seen in the Janitor´s closet. He knew well that disturbing another crime scene would only make his situation worse, but he couldn't just walk away and let his body go cold with that horrible expression of fear burning in his brain.

Even if they found his fingerprints on the tarp, they would have enough time to uncover the mystery… as long as it took to find a new medical examiner.

And there was something else, a feeling of camaraderie and complicity growing between them, in the privacy of the Van, Fred took her hand again.

That last hug lasted a little longer than it should have.

[creaturefrom0uterspace]

Greetings, People of Tumblr.

I’m Sammy! I’m pretty new to the whole blog thing. I struggle a lot with social anxiety in real life and online. I’ve created this account in hopes of getting over it and maybe making some friends. I’m still figuring out Tumblr etiquette so bear with me. Feel free to message me or send asks about anything!

⇩more under cut ⇩

☮︎ About Me ☮︎

Pronouns: He/Him

Neurodivergent (Autistic & C-PTSD)

Queer

INTP

✮ Big Special Interests ✮

Comedy

Computer Science

Cowboys

Copaganda Shows

Crime/Investigation/Law Enforcement

Cryptids

Dogs

Extraterrestrials

Forensic Science

Paranormal Phenomena

Psychology

𖦹 Main Fandoms 𖦹

Columbo

Ghostbusters

The Blues Brothers

Martin and Lewis

Monk

Psych

Sam and Max: Freelance Police

SNL

Star Trek: The Original Series

Me! ^ (Picrew Credit)

Letterboxd <3

Live Long and Prosper 🖖

[sapphic-horror]

SÉVERIN — HY / GORE — 20

a horror beyond your understanding <3

intro !!

my main pronouns are hy / gore but the full list can be found here; mutuals are welcome to use he / she; nh terms preferred! i'm a butch xenic transmasc sapphillean aro lesboy girlboy; i use more than just these terms but these identities are all very important to me i love horror in general, stardew valley, minecraft, analog horror/args, biology, forensic science, bones, & many other things

ask game here! (link)

byi !!

i use slurs i can reclaim positively, including other historic terms containing slurs. all reclaimed slurs will be tagged as '[letter] slur/word' or '[letter] slur/word reclaimed'. queer will not be tagged as a slur, DO NOT tag my posts as 'q slur' (you may tag them as other terms, just not as a slur)

i tag other triggers as '[trigger] tw' or '[content] cw'

i am autistic, have cluster b pds (borderline/antisocial), c-ptsd, did, & some other things i am not comfortable listing; i experience paranoia, dissociative amnesia, & low empathy— no pref. for singular or plural terms, DO NOT call us sysmates or headmates, i use i/we interchangeabley

disabled, chronic pain, & photosensitive— most flags should be eyestrain friendly but i make no guarantees; if something needs to be tagged as eyestrain lmk!

i id as alterhuman/non-human; i use nh terms as a way to cope with trauma & dehumanization

this isn't a syscourse blog, i reblog posts from both pro-endo & anti-endo blogs, DO NOT ASK ME MY OPINION ON SYSCOURSE

dni !!

basic dni criteria

terfs EXPLICITLY get blocked on sight

zionists, including neutrals

fans of the following; harry potter (any jkr related media included), dsmp/qsmp, dream, tommyinnit, jschlatt, hazbin hotel/helluva boss and wilbur soot

anti good faith labels; anti xenos or neos

demonize cluster b disorders (including npd & aspd), use the term 'narc abuse' (or similar terms), demonize people who experience psychosis, demonize people with osddid, or other heavily stigmatized disorders

anti-anti or proshipper

transx/transid (transspecies, chronosian, & folks with biid/bdd can interact) or 'radqueer' / pro/complex/neutral-contract harmful paraphilias (pedophilia, zoophilia, necrophilia, etc.)

heavy religious blogs (christian); personal comfort

i will. . .

good faith identities (lesboy, gaygirl, gaybian, etc.)

alt/new versions of flags

themed flags

extremely specific terms

xin (x-in-nature) terms

neurogenders

alterhuman/otherkin/therian/transspecies flags

terms relating to gore, horror, the undead, cannibalism, etc.

might do reclaimed transx/transid terms (i.e., transautistic meaning a trans person who's autistic)

if it's not on here, ask!

i won't. . .

tranx/transid terms (non-reclaimed)

nsfw/18+ or paraphilia terms

non-traumagenic terms

terms relating to slurs i don't/can't reclaim

flags for disorders I don't have or am public about having

flags exclusive to cultures I'm not apart of

intersex or tfem related flags (i'm perisex tmasc)

some religious terms

theme flags based on/of real people

extremely bright/neon flags (i.e., extreme eyestrain)

ANYONE (REGARDLESS OF IF YOU'RE ON MY DNI OR NOT) MAY USE MY FLAGS!

PLEASE CREDIT ME SOMEWHERE IF YOU USE MY FLAGS (VIA LINK, ALT TEXT, ETC.)

[killerandhealerqueen]

Hi!  I’m Sass.  I'm 25 years old with a bachelors in Forensic Biology, a masters in Forensic Investigative Science, and a Ph.D. in Killer and Healer. Think of me as your friendly neighborhood forensic science expert!

This blog is a hodgepodge of everything that I love but mainly I post/talk about Killer and Healer (hence the username).  Hell, I practically run the Killer and Healer fandom here on tumblr and over on ao3 but that’s because these fucking idiots have gripped my heart and have refused to let go.  But this blog is multifandom, so you’ll find other dramas on here as well (and anything else that catches my fancy).

I do also liveblog a lot of the dramas that I watch, so if you like watching me scream and lose my fucking mind in posts, then this is definitely the blog for you.  Also, whenever I finish dramas, I always give my honest opinions of them at the end so you’ll know if the drama is worth watching (it’s how I’ve gotten a lot of my friends to watch shit).  Also, all dramas that I’ve finished and enjoyed will be on my Drama/Movie Masterlist with links to the dramas so y’all can enjoy them too!

I am also a writer and do headcanons.  I mainly write for Killer and Healer, but you can find what fandoms I write for here.  My ao3 is linked in my blog, but you can also find it here.  Writing is a big passion of mine, so you will probably see me talking about the random ideas that pop into my head every now and then or you will see me talking about new fic ideas.  Also, I’m currently working on probably the largest WIP ever, 恨君不似江楼月 | Killer and Healer.  It’s a rewrite of the drama Killer and Healer because the ending was bullshit and I took it upon myself to give us all the happy ending we (and the characters) fucking deserve. You can find my fic and headcanon masterlists here and here.

My ask box and DMs are always open if you want to talk about whatever, my blog is a safe space for everyone, and there is no judgement here.  HOWEVER, if you’re a TERF, queerphobic, a pedophile, or just a straight up asshole, you are not welcome here and I will not hesitate to fucking block your ass; do not try me

Don’t be afraid to tag me in things or mention me in stuff because I love seeing things and being included (and I will do my best to include you all in things).  It makes my day knowing that people think of me or have included me in things.

Have a nice day!

[nyrarachelle-plays]

If you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog! (no pressure! ❤️)

I gotta stop hoarding asks...(yall make me nervous lmboo 🫣), but okay let me see, (1) I'm naturally shy, but I've come to enjoy getting out of my comfort zone to prove to myself I can do certain things, (2) I'm a Midwest Princess, born and raised, & (3) in high school, I performed and presented HIV gene therapy, microbiology research—but one of my degrees is in psych, neuroscience, and forensic science 🤭

[theystillhavepayphones]

about me! ღ

── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

hi !!

my name is amy, and i am a senior in high school. this blog is just a place for me to talk about my life and fandom stuff.

my favorite tv shows are: criminal minds, shameless, new girl, and greys anatomy !

my favorite music artists are: fleetwood mac, lana del rey, bucks fizz, childish gambino, abba, the beatles, the smiths, prairie pavement, and the 1975 !

i don't watch a whole ton of movies, but i do love how to lose a guy in 10 days and 500 days of summer

my favorite subjects are math and science! in college, i want to double major in microbiology and forensic science. i'm super passionate about science and always enjoy learning more about it.

i'm really excited to meet people on here who share my interests. here are my socials!

instagram

tiktok

my ask box

thank you so much for reading ! i'd love to find some mutuals

[elliepassmore]

Gory Details review

4.5/5 stars Recommended if you like: science, National Geographic, nonfiction

This book is an easy-to-read science nonfiction book focusing on some of the more gross and squeamish questions people have. It covers things from feet washing ashore to the science and lifecycle of blowflies to the psychology of disgust to menstruation. It's very easy to digest the science Engelhaupt includes in this book, and I believe some, if not all, of the chapters were pulled from her blog of the same name.

For those curious, the science in this book is more on the 'gross' side than the 'gory' side. There's a lot about body fluids but surprisingly little about blood and guts. I found it an interesting and light read, and ended up treating the sections like chapters since they were so easy to get through.

Having just taken a forensic anthropology class for fun, I was hoping for a little bit more of the science behind some of the topics. I enjoyed the variety, but definitely felt like some of the chapters were just in there for the novelty of it but that they lacked substance. I wanted to know more about the phenomena Engelhaupt was describing and that fell a little flat for me. That being said, I definitely think the later chapters are the strongest part of the book. By that point I think she must've found her stride and went into a lot more detail in some of those chapters than she did in the beginning of the book.

In terms of science nonfiction, this isn't the most rigorous text I've read, but it is interesting. It's a fun read and something I would recommend if you want a surface level overview of some of the gross facts of life. It also provides some nice facts you can use to surprise/gross out your friends (one of my friends enjoyed my new gross facts so much, she even asked if she could borrow the book when I was done).

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello Steph!!

I just wanted to say how overwhelmingly happy I am that I've found someone who is still 'at it' after so long…

Ever since I was little, I wanted to study forensic science just like my mother was, I've since decided i'd like to study a double degree in criminology and criminal justice/psychological science.

i'm in year 12 now, and we are finishing up the last of our units before our external exams at the end of October. counting down the days has me looking back on my past and life in general while also looking ahead to a hopeful future of academia in honour of my mother... you could say i'm sentimental (hehe). sorry, i'm getting way off-topic. anyway, our last English unit is looking at representations of death. And by chance, my lovely english teacher introduced us to the wonderful world that is sherlock.

Honestly, sherlock and john - the whole universe, really - have saved my life. I had got myself in a really bad way and was struggling. The media, theories, and possible research from all of the renditions of sherlock, including the original text, gave me something to occupy my mind with. It ended up reigniting my love for learning and criminology/psychology.

Even more so, i'd say it was the fandom that saved my life. From hilarious old theories on tumblr to the fandom's general crack and chaos, it made me smile and brought back some joy when i could see it nowhere else.

i'd like to thank you personally. simply put, your blog and, more specifically your fanfic recommendations are the reason i am still here today. reading through them has helped me to laugh and cry when i needed it the most.

i'm getting to a much better place and finding my feet again. But I wouldn't have made it to this point without you and the fandom. so thank you. thank you so unbelievably much Steph.

... so yes, many of the blogs I've come across have long been inactive. So it's lovely to see the fandom still thriving :) i think i'd like to be you when i grow up. thank you again! <3

Have a lovely day!!!

Warm regards, Baie x

p.s: a note on johnlock... (after we watched the hounds of baskerville in class) my first exposure to sherlock was actually the bbc series which i binged. twice. then read acd's novels. somehow, the possibility that johnlock was not cannon never crossed my mind? like idk. maybe my view of love is skewed, but i tend to think love manifests in so many different regards. and to me, john and sherlock look at each other like a couple of old married best friends. so imagine my supprise when i made my way to the online discourse on the matter!! seeing people trying to prove their relationship exists was so odd to me at first. anyway yeah, point being, i'm asexual, so seeing a relationship dynamic portrayed in such a way that resembles my own relationship is very comforting. i love johnlock and the fandom to pieces <3

HI BAIE!!

OMG I am SO SORRY that I took so long to reply to this quick-reply ask, UGH.

First off, thank you SO MUCH for your unbelievable kindness in this ask. I am humbled and undeserving of such praise, but I am SO honoured that my blog has played a major role in your fandom experience. It always shocks and humbles me to read such praise.

Secondly, thank you so much for sharing your fandom story. I too had a lot of life-changing things happen because of this fandom, and I wouldn't change that for the world. It helped me understand myself in ways I never would have without it, helped me cope with a lot of family drama, got me through a sexuality crisis, encouraged me to finally seek the therapy and diagnoses I really needed, and just... helps combat the loneliness, honestly. My blog keeps me busy, so it does feel like a joy to work on it and KNOW that people enjoy being here as much as me.

I feel you on the asexuality, and on the personal interpretation of their relationship, and I do get it. I think for me it's just I spent SO MUCH TIME analyzing their characters that the only logical outcome of the series Pre-S4 was canon Johnlock. But alas, LOL.

This fandom is a fantastic place, and good golly I would not wish my neuroses on anyone to "be like me" LOL. I'm only still around because I have weird obsessions and I love running this blog and being a beacon for newcomers and old friends alike. BUT I am humbled that you aspire to be like me, so thank you <3 But you should be like YOU, because there's only one of you, and we admire you for that!!

THAT ALL SAID, good luck on your studies, sounds SO exciting! You'll be amazing!!!!!

Thank you again for this beautiful ask; now that I had a chance to sit down and read it, I am floored and sobbing, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Thank you so much <3

Have a fantastic day, Lovely! <3