Mary Putnam
@maryjoyace.bsky.social
I read books and collect hobbies. I also write computer programs because we still live in a society that requires money.
Beer, pinot grigio, scotch and soda, or whipped cream vodka with a raspberry izze. I like diversity in my tv time drinks.
January 17, 2026 at 4:40 AM
Beer, pinot grigio, scotch and soda, or whipped cream vodka with a raspberry izze. I like diversity in my tv time drinks.
I got myself a banjo for Christmas and it now sits behind me in my home office. I find it oddly delightful when I sneeze loud enough that the banjo rings a little in G.
(No worries, it’s just mild allergies.)
(No worries, it’s just mild allergies.)
January 6, 2026 at 7:01 PM
I got myself a banjo for Christmas and it now sits behind me in my home office. I find it oddly delightful when I sneeze loud enough that the banjo rings a little in G.
(No worries, it’s just mild allergies.)
(No worries, it’s just mild allergies.)
My beautiful black Panther turns brown when the lighting is just right.
December 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
My beautiful black Panther turns brown when the lighting is just right.
Jocelyn Bell
Name a woman you consider a genius
December 29, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Jocelyn Bell
Reposted by Mary Putnam
Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice.
Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.
Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.
My Open Letter To That Open Letter About AI In Writing And Publishing
The tl;dr before you get into this post is this: the SFWA came out, said that some AI usage was okay enough in books for the authors of those books to not to be disqualified from winning a Nebula a…
terribleminds.com
December 28, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice.
Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.
Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.
The piano and the violin are sane compared to the banjo. Why is the highest string on the low side!?!
Yes, I’m also confused by my ukulele.
Yes, I have many instruments. I love them all, but I love my piano the most.
Yes, I’m also confused by my ukulele.
Yes, I have many instruments. I love them all, but I love my piano the most.
December 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
The piano and the violin are sane compared to the banjo. Why is the highest string on the low side!?!
Yes, I’m also confused by my ukulele.
Yes, I have many instruments. I love them all, but I love my piano the most.
Yes, I’m also confused by my ukulele.
Yes, I have many instruments. I love them all, but I love my piano the most.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
My family and I, and the entire Japanese American community on the West Coast, were denied due process during our internment in WWII. It is a cherished, critical right for all people within the U.S.’s borders.
December 27, 2025 at 1:23 AM
My family and I, and the entire Japanese American community on the West Coast, were denied due process during our internment in WWII. It is a cherished, critical right for all people within the U.S.’s borders.
A Christmas hug from my favorite old cat, Panther.
December 26, 2025 at 1:58 AM
A Christmas hug from my favorite old cat, Panther.
I just gave a tiny donation to the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund, public education, the Compulsive Gamblers Assistance Fund, and the Nebraska State Fair. I also moved my chances of winning the powerball from technically impossible to realistically impossible.
December 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I just gave a tiny donation to the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund, public education, the Compulsive Gamblers Assistance Fund, and the Nebraska State Fair. I also moved my chances of winning the powerball from technically impossible to realistically impossible.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
I will keep saying this.
If you bought a calculator and it EVEN ONCE told you 2+2=5, you’d throw it out and demand a refund.
If you had an employee who lied confidently to you, and was easily caught, you’d fire them.
LLMs are the untrustworthy calculator and the confident liar.
Fire them.
If you bought a calculator and it EVEN ONCE told you 2+2=5, you’d throw it out and demand a refund.
If you had an employee who lied confidently to you, and was easily caught, you’d fire them.
LLMs are the untrustworthy calculator and the confident liar.
Fire them.
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
December 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM
I will keep saying this.
If you bought a calculator and it EVEN ONCE told you 2+2=5, you’d throw it out and demand a refund.
If you had an employee who lied confidently to you, and was easily caught, you’d fire them.
LLMs are the untrustworthy calculator and the confident liar.
Fire them.
If you bought a calculator and it EVEN ONCE told you 2+2=5, you’d throw it out and demand a refund.
If you had an employee who lied confidently to you, and was easily caught, you’d fire them.
LLMs are the untrustworthy calculator and the confident liar.
Fire them.
Would you pay for a personal trainer and then have a robot lift weights for you?
Would you pay for education and use AI* to complete your assignments?
Might as well burn your money.
*I hate this catch all term, but I understand the futility of trying to claim society is using a word incorrectly.
Would you pay for education and use AI* to complete your assignments?
Might as well burn your money.
*I hate this catch all term, but I understand the futility of trying to claim society is using a word incorrectly.
December 14, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Would you pay for a personal trainer and then have a robot lift weights for you?
Would you pay for education and use AI* to complete your assignments?
Might as well burn your money.
*I hate this catch all term, but I understand the futility of trying to claim society is using a word incorrectly.
Would you pay for education and use AI* to complete your assignments?
Might as well burn your money.
*I hate this catch all term, but I understand the futility of trying to claim society is using a word incorrectly.
Celebratory crepes and chai after completing a criminal procedure final. Next up studying for the admin final.
December 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Celebratory crepes and chai after completing a criminal procedure final. Next up studying for the admin final.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”
December 7, 2025 at 2:11 PM
“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”
Reposted by Mary Putnam
If every one of my followers here signed up for my newsletter at the new annual 20% sale rate I would make nearly $4 million and disappear off the face of the Earth (after fulfilling the obligation of writing the issues first of course). #promise
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...
Holiday Sale for BAN subscriptions
A 20% discount off the price, and you can also get this as a gift for someone else
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:13 PM
If every one of my followers here signed up for my newsletter at the new annual 20% sale rate I would make nearly $4 million and disappear off the face of the Earth (after fulfilling the obligation of writing the issues first of course). #promise
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/holiday-sa...
My version of studying for finals often includes extra reading that was not assigned to keep my brain in topic without getting bored. I like this sentence from page 171:
“Democracy should mean more than that we elect our dictators.”
“Democracy should mean more than that we elect our dictators.”
November 29, 2025 at 5:25 PM
My version of studying for finals often includes extra reading that was not assigned to keep my brain in topic without getting bored. I like this sentence from page 171:
“Democracy should mean more than that we elect our dictators.”
“Democracy should mean more than that we elect our dictators.”
Reposted by Mary Putnam
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Mary Putnam
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
A dream denied: My 54-year quest to publish a short story in F&SF ‹ Scott Edelman
www.scottedelman.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Did you read my post from last week about how contract woes caused me to withdraw an accepted story from F&SF, ending my 54-year quest to be published in that magazine? But wait (as the saying goes) — there's more! Scroll down at the link for an update. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...
Called to reschedule a dentist appointment & got what was obviously AI made to sound like a human. I know the intent is efficiency, but the cost is me feeling like I'm not worth enough to bother getting a real human. I would prefer a prerecorded automated system that wasn't pretending to be human.
November 17, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Called to reschedule a dentist appointment & got what was obviously AI made to sound like a human. I know the intent is efficiency, but the cost is me feeling like I'm not worth enough to bother getting a real human. I would prefer a prerecorded automated system that wasn't pretending to be human.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
November 10, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Reposted by Mary Putnam
I sort of forgot to mention that my podcast, It's Storytime With Wil Wheaton, had a wonderful test season earlier this year, and new episodes are on their way!
I will return on October 29th, with a spooky story.
You can find me wherever you get your podcasts, or at patreon.com/storytime
I will return on October 29th, with a spooky story.
You can find me wherever you get your podcasts, or at patreon.com/storytime
Get more from It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton on Patreon
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of the Podcast
patreon.com
October 24, 2025 at 11:40 PM
I sort of forgot to mention that my podcast, It's Storytime With Wil Wheaton, had a wonderful test season earlier this year, and new episodes are on their way!
I will return on October 29th, with a spooky story.
You can find me wherever you get your podcasts, or at patreon.com/storytime
I will return on October 29th, with a spooky story.
You can find me wherever you get your podcasts, or at patreon.com/storytime
That is it. I give up on humans.
October 22, 2025 at 11:58 PM
That is it. I give up on humans.
Having just finished reading American Epic by Garrett Epps, I would like to share with anyone who stumbles into this part of the internet, a paragraph he wrote about the 25th amendment.
The book was written in 2013.
The book was written in 2013.
![A paragraph from American Epic about the 25th amendment to the US Constitution ending with this thought: "Fletcher Knebel, the author of Seven Days in May, evoked [the possibility of a mad president] in another novel called Night of Camp David, imagining a deranged president who tries to annex Canada and Scandinavia and form a new nation called Aspen."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tloa6rmexfjeqrgoaa5xpe5x/bafkreicyd6mtcoy6mcwbbdcl5qvenfv6qdpk3p7woxovelvbo63xvtjbxm@jpeg)
October 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Having just finished reading American Epic by Garrett Epps, I would like to share with anyone who stumbles into this part of the internet, a paragraph he wrote about the 25th amendment.
The book was written in 2013.
The book was written in 2013.
Seeing the words taint and Wade on the same page of a study guide on criminal procedure just makes me want to call off my day of studying and go rewatch Deadpool.
October 12, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Seeing the words taint and Wade on the same page of a study guide on criminal procedure just makes me want to call off my day of studying and go rewatch Deadpool.