Tootfinder

Day 19 (a bit late): Alice Oseman
As I said I've got 14 authors to fit into two days. Probably just going to extend to 30? But Oseman gets this spot as an absolute legend of queer fiction in both novel & graphic novel form, and an excellent example of the many truths queer writers have to share with non-queer people that can make everyone's lives better. Her writing is very kind, despite in many instances dealing with some dark stuff.
I started out on Heartstopper, which is just so lovely and fun to read, and then made my way through several of her novels. The one I'll highlight here which I think it's her greatest triumph is "Loveless", which is semi-autobiographical and was at least my first (but no longer only) experience with the "platonic romance" sub-genre. It not only helped me work through some crufty internal doubts about aro/ace identities that I'd never really examined, but in the process helped improve my understanding of friendship, period. Heck, it's probably a nice novel for anyone questioning any sort of identity or dealing with loneliness, and it's just super-enjoyable as a story regardless of the philosophical value.
To cheat a bit more here on my author count, I recently read "Dear Wendy" by Ann Zhao, which shouts out "Loveless" and offers a more expository exploration of aro/ace identities, but "Loveless" is a book with more heart and better writing overall, including the neat plotting and great pacing. I think there are also parallels with Becky Albertalli's work, though I think I like Oseman slightly more. Certainly both excel at writing queer romance (and romance-adjacent) stuff with happy endings (#OwnVoices wins again with all three authors).
In any case, Oseman is excellent and if you're not up for reading a novel, Heartstopper is a graphic novel series that's easy to jump into and very kind to its adorable main characters.
I think I've now decided to continue to 30, which is a relief, so I'm tagging this (and the next post that rounds out 20) two ways.
#20AuthorsNoMen
#30AuthorsNoMen

Valve are launching a new controller and a new gaming computer and a new VR headset early next year.
My main question is, don't people release these things in time for Christmas any more? Maybe it's running late.
Kinda need a media PC for the new bedroom in December. Do I want to wait until early next year? Grr. Needs to run two monitors and a projector really too, which may be tricky for a machine with only two video ports.
A VR headset that isn't owned by Facebook will be a blessed relief. Designed to run on Linux? Amazing. Hope it's brilliant.
Don't think I have much use for the controller though. Only really play games in VR these days.
Looks great! Three months too late!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmKrKTwtukE

14-year old Miles Wu just won $25,000 for a research project based on an origami fold called "Miura-ori", which is known for collapsing and expanding with precision.
"I've been folding origami as a hobby for more than six years, mostly of animals or insects," Wu told Business Insider.
"Recently I've been designing my own origami, too."
"A problem with current deployable structures and emergency structures is, for example,
ten…

14-Year-Old Wins Prize For Origami That Can Hold 10,000 Times Its Own Weight
While most 14-year-olds are folding paper airplanes, Miles Wu is folding origami patterns that he believes could one day improve disaster relief.

What is the contribution of gravitational infall on the mass assembly of star-forming clouds? A case study in a numerical simulation of the interstellar medium
No\'e Brucy, Enrique V\'azquez-Semadeni, Tine Colman, J\'er\'emy Fensch, Ralf S. Klessen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09480

What is the contribution of gravitational infall on the mass assembly of star-forming clouds? A case study in a numerical simulation of the interstellar medium
Star formation in galaxies is a complex phenomenon occurring on a very wide range of scales, and molecular clouds are at the heart of this process. The formation of these structures and the subsequent collapse of the gas within them to form new stars remain unresolved scientific questions. In particular, the role and importance of gravity at between the disk scale height and prestellar cores (100 to 0.01 pc) are still topics of debate. In this work, we conduct a case study examining the mass as…

Determination of Range Conditions for General Projection Pair Operators
Richard Huber, Rolf Clackdoyle, Laurent Desbat
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07480 https://

Determination of Range Conditions for General Projection Pair Operators
Tomographic techniques are vital in modern medicine, allowing doctors to observe patients' interior features. Individual steps in the measurement process are modeled by `single projection operators' $p$. These are line integral operators over a collection of curves that covers the regions of interest. Then, the entire measurement process can be understood as a finite collection of such single projections, and thus be modeled by an $N$-projections operator $P=(p_1,\dots,p_N)$. The most well-know…

High-Performance Imaging in a Dilution Refrigerator
Timo Eikelmann, Mara Brinkmann, Leonie Eggers, Tuncay Ulas, Donika Imeri, Konstantin Beck, Lasse Jens Irrgang, Sunil Kumar Mahato, Rikhav Shah, Ralf Riedinger
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07054

High-Performance Imaging in a Dilution Refrigerator
Nanophotonic light-matter interfaces hold great promise for quantum technologies. Enhancing local electromagnetic fields, they enable highly efficient detectors, can help realize optically connected processors, or serve as quantum repeaters. In-situ fiber-coupling at sub-Kelvin temperatures, as required for test and development of new devices, proves challenging as suitable cryogenic microscopes are not readily available. Here, we report on a robust and versatile confocal imaging system integra…

GB News pays substantial libel damages to Islamic Relief after airing false claims that the charity sent money to terrorist groups in the Middle East (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co…

GB News pays substantial damages to Islamic Relief over false terrorism claim
GB News has paid "substantial" libel damages to a UK charity an interviewee falsely claimed had sent money to terrorist groups.

Energy Efficiency in Cloud-Based Big Data Processing for Earth Observation: Gap Analysis and Future Directions
Adhitya Bhawiyuga, Serkan Girgin, Rolf A. de By, Raul Zurita-Milla
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02882

Energy Efficiency in Cloud-Based Big Data Processing for Earth Observation: Gap Analysis and Future Directions
Earth observation (EO) data volumes are rapidly increasing. While cloud computing are now used for processing large EO datasets, the energy efficiency aspects of such a processing have received much less attention. This issue is notable given the increasing awareness of energy costs and carbon footprint in big data processing, particularly with increased attention on compute-intensive foundation models. In this paper we identify gaps in energy efficiency practices within cloud-based EO big data…

Here's yet another step in the emasculation of Congress.
Here El Cheato is running a protection racket in which he imposes high tariffs but then offers relief to from those tariffs to companies that jump to a Cheato's tune-of-the-day, in this case, a reduction in certain drug prices under Medicare (presumably Part D?)
Congress should be setting these policies and doing so in a way available to all drug makers, not just certain ones favored by Cheato. But no, Congress jus…

Certain obesity drugs will cost as little as $149 and Medicare will start covering them under White House deals
Certain blockbuster obesity drugs will be available for as little as $149 per month and more Medicare enrollees will have access to them under two deals announced Thursday by the Trump administration.