Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋 @bibliolater@qoto.org
Not a bot, just a chap in his fifties who occasionally reads things.
Toots are humanities, science, non-fiction, books, maps, charts and graphs related. Some toots containing videos may also find their way into the timeline.
Toots or follows or boosts or mentions ≠ endorsements of any particular notion or notions.
Finis
Joined Nov 2022
🔴 **Question ❓**
Is it not strange that even after the mass proliferation of mobile phones and their cameras there has not been one credible image taken of the Himalayan Yeti? This leads me to think, what were people who reported sightings all those years ago actually witnessing?
🔴 🎙️ **Well Hidden: Descartes’ Life and Works**
“_How René Descartes’ understanding of his own intellectual project evolved across his lifetime._”
🔗 https://www.historyofphilosophy.net/descartes-life-works.
#Audio #Podcast #History #Philosophy #ReneDescartes #Descartes @philosophy
#Image attribution: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portret_van_Ren%C3%A9_Descartes,_RP-P-OB-55.341.jpg.
🔴 🖋️ **Slow down your writing**
Edwin L. Battistella
“_If you write something confusing once, your reader may be momentarily distracted. If you do it a lot, they will lose confidence in your writing._”
🔗 https://blog.oup.com/2025/03/slow-down-your-writing/.
#Image attribution: Bobdog, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Power-of-words-by-antonio-litterio-creative-commons-attribution-share-alike-3-0.jpg.
🔴 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 **Manifest Destiny**
As a teenager many decades ago I studied 19th century American history at school. My teacher was careful to instil in his students an appreciation of how important the cultural belief of 'manifest destiny' was to American expansion westwards during that century. Little did I know at the time that decades later in 2025 a new wave of American expansion, however this time northwards, would try to envelop Canada and Greenland in a new 'manifest destiny'.
#ManifestDestiny #Canada #Greenland #USA #US #UnitedStates #America
#Image attribution: John Gast, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page:URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Progress_(John_Gast_painting).jpg
🔴 📈 **Which countries have contributed the most to historical CO₂ emissions?**
Hannah Ritchie
_“The chart shows the ten countries with the largest share of the world’s historical emissions, based on cumulative emissions from fossil fuels and industry since 1750.”_
#Data #DataViz #Climate #ClimateChange #GreenHouseGases #CO2 #FossilFuels @climatechange
🔴 🗺️ 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 **Trade map of the West Indies and North America, 1741**
#Image attribution: Henry Overton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_new_and_correct_map_of_the_trading_part_of_the_West_Indies.png.
#Map #Cartography #History #Histodon #Histodons #UK #UnitedKingdom #Spain #Europe #NorthAmerica #WestIndies #Caribbean #Trade #C18th #18thCentury @histodon @histodons
🔴 🇺🇸 🌎 **Uncle Sam, Teddy Bear And Trade Routes**
Title: My, my, such possibilities
Artist: Clifford K. Berryman, 1869-1949.
Created/Published: [ca. 1913].
Citation: Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, Artist. My, My, Such Possibilities., ca. 1913. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016679406/.
#History #Histodon #Histodons #Cartoon #Drawing #Map #PanamaCanal #UncleSam #USA #US #UnitedStates #America #CentralAmerica #SouthAmerica #Trade @histodon @histodons
🔴 🇺🇸 **The United States spends a lot more on healthcare per person than other G7 nations**
Simon van Teutem
_“Despite spending much more on healthcare, the United States has the lowest life expectancy in the G7. This is due to a combination of higher death rates from smoking, obesity, homicides, opioid overdoses, road accidents, and infant mortality.”_
#Data #DataViz #Health #Healthcare #USA #US #UnitedStates #America
🔴 **Domination vs. Persuasion: The Role of Libido Dominandi in Adam Smith’s Thought**
_“We love to dominate not because we seek approval but because, through ordering, we do not need to persuade others to foster our ends. We are free from the troublesome endeavor of persuading them.”_
Santori, P. (2025) ‘Domination vs. Persuasion: The Role of Libido Dominandi in Adam Smith’s Thought’, The Review of Politics, pp. 1–18. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S003467052400069X.
#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #DOI #AdamSmith #Politics #Domination #Persuasion #Academia #Academic
#Image attribution: Etching created by Cadell and Davies (1811), John Horsburgh (1828) or R.C. Bell (1872)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AdamSmith.jpg
🔴 **Stone Carving**
Over the last couple of days, I have been watching a number of online videos demonstrating the art of letter cutting. I found the carving of serif letters and their end results particularly pleasing. I hope the techniques, expertise, and mastery that humans have developed over many centuries in this craft is not lost in the rush for automation.
#Letters #Alphabet #Stone #Carving #LetterCutting
#Image attribution: Shropshire Museums, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wroxeter_Hadrianic_Inscription.jpg.
🔴 ☀️ **In 2004, it took the world a year to add a gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day**
Charlie Giattino
_"A big reason for this acceleration has been a large decrease in the price of solar panels. Since 2001, the price has dropped by about 95%, from $6.21 to $0.31 per watt."_
#Solar #Energy #Renewables #Climate #ClimateChange #Environment #Data #Dataviz #Statistics @climatechange
🔴 **How much in subsidies do fossil fuels receive?**
_"Estimates range from less than $1 trillion to $7 trillion. Where do these numbers come from?"_
Hannah Ritchie (2025) - “How much in subsidies do fossil fuels receive?” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/how-much-subsidies-fossil-fuels' [Online Resource].
#Data #DataViz #FossilFuels #Subsidies #Pollution #Climate #ClimateChange #Environment @climatechange
🔴 📚 **Plutarch's Lives**
🔗 Volume 1 (of 4): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14033.
🔗 Volume 2 (of 4): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14114.
🔗 Volume 3 (of 4): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14140.
#PublicDomain #Ebook #Ebooks #Read #Reading #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#Image attribution: National Gallery of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%A9onard_Gaultier,_Plutarch,_NGA_78575.jpg.
🔴 📈 **The world has passed “peak child”**
Hannah Ritchie
_“Peak child” is a sign that the world is on course for “peak population”. The UN expects the world population to start falling before the end of the century._
🔗 https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/the-world-has-passed-peak-child
🔴 🌎 **A map of East and West Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana : with the islands of Cuba, Bahama, and the countries surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, with the tract of the Spanish galleons, and of our fleets thro' the Straits of Florida, from the best authorities (1781)**
#Image attribution: Bew, John; Lodge, John, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_map_of_East_and_West_Florida,_Georgia,_and_Louisiana_-_with_the_islands_of_Cuba,_Bahama,_and_the_countries_surrounding_the_Gulf_of_Mexico,_with_the_tract_of_the_Spanish_galleons,_and_of_our_fleets_LOC_79691140.jpg
#History #Map #Cartography #GulfOfMexico #C18th #18thCentury
🔴 🇸🇬 **Since 1960, Singapore has risen from three times poorer than Western Europe to twice as rich**
Simon van Teutem
_“Since then, while Western Europe experienced steady growth, Singapore grew even faster. By 1994, it had surpassed Western Europe, and today, its average income is roughly twice as high.”_
#Data #DataViz #Chart #Singapore #GDP #Wealth #Income #Europe #Economics @economics
🔴 🌎 **1818 Pinkerton Map of North America. Geographicus**
_“This is an extremely unusual mapping of North America prepared for the 1818 American edition of Pinkerton's Atlas. Although the basic engraving remains identical to Pinkerton's Atlas of 1813, published in London, the coloration has been updated to reflect American sensibilities.”_
#Map #Maps #Cartography #History #C19th #19thCentury #Canada #USA #US #UnitedStates #America
#Image attribution: John Pinkerton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1818_Pinkerton_Map_of_North_America_-_Geographicus.jpg.
🔴 🇳🇴 **Norway gives more foreign aid per capita than any other OECD country**
Simon van Teutem
_"In 2023, Norwegians gave $1,160 in foreign aid — more than twice the amount contributed by people in other large Western countries._
_By comparison, people in countries like the United States and Japan gave much less, at $190 and $155 per person, respectively."_
🔴 🗺️ **Johnson's Prussia Norway, Sweden and Denmark (1862)**
_“Includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Prussia. Also includes most, and in some cases all, of Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and parts of western Russia, though they are not the direct focus of the map.”_
#History #Cartography #Map #Prussia #Norway #Sweden #Denmark #Europe
#Image attribution: Alvin Jewett Johnson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1862_Johnson%27s_Map_of_Scandinavia,_Norway,_Sweden,_Finland_%5E_Denmark_-_Geographicus_-_Scandinavia-johnson-1862.jpg.
🔴 📖 **Reading Difficult Books For 2025**
As we move from 2024 to 2025 just a reminder to myself and to anyone else it may benefit: read outside your comfort zone and choose books that challenge you. The mind is like a muscle that needs exercise to grow; there is no better weight to lift or mile to run for the mind than understanding complex and difficult ideas. One should not be put off by how little one comprehends from the initial reading with every subsequent reading more of the book's secrets are revealed.
#NewYear #NewYear2025 #NewYears #Read #Reading #Book #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon
#Image attribution: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filosoof_met_een_passer_en_een_boek_Filosofenportretten_(serietitel),_RP-P-1982-52.jpg.
Not a bot, just a chap in his fifties who occasionally reads things.
Toots are humanities, science, non-fiction, books, maps, charts and graphs related. Some toots containing videos may also find their way into the timeline.
Toots or follows or boosts or mentions ≠ endorsements of any particular notion or notions.
Finis
Joined Nov 2022
