Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋 @bibliolater@qoto.org
Not a bot, just a fifty-year-old male who reads occasionally.
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
@Edent I did not know that one has to pay in order to download the application. I wonder how this will impact consumer willingness to use the item?
@kaiarzheimer You are welcome.
Bibliolater 
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A jarring new data point came earlier this month when #Germany’s #Volkswagen reported its first quarterly loss in at least 15y from joint ventures and associates, chart @WSJecon https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/how-china-is-becoming-a-money-pit-for-foreign-automakers-in-charts-4ae2e119?mod=hp_lead_pos9
Bibliolater
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#China was a gold mine for global #automakers a decade ago. Not anymore -- “very few people are making money” in #China, #GeneralMotors CEO Mary Barra told investors in July, chart @WSJecon https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/how-china-is-becoming-a-money-pit-for-foreign-automakers-in-charts-4ae2e119?mod=hp_lead_pos9
@kaiarzheimer It appears the link to the article is broken.
**Why we say “OK”**
"_Young intellectuals in Boston came up with several of these abbreviations, including “KC” for “knuff ced,” “OW” for “oll wright,” and KY for “know yuse.” But thanks to its appearance in Martin Van Buren’s 1840 presidential re-election campaign as the incumbents new nickname, Old Kinderhook, OK outlived its abbreviated comrades._"
#Video length: five minutes and twenty one seconds.
#History #Word #Words #Language #Languages #Linguistics @linguistics
Why we say “OK”YouTube
@wiseguyeddie Read it as part of the school curriculum many years ago. We were also shown the film based on the novel that starred Cary Grant as Atticus Finch. I still remember the book and film many decades later.
**Tom Gauld on how to manage your unread books pile – cartoon**
#Read #Reading #Book #Books #Bookstodon #Cartoon @bookstodon
**Where does punctuation come from?!**
"_In this episode I trace the punctuation we use every day as far back as I can._"
#Video length: eighteen minutes and fifty five seconds.
**Detectorists’ finds rewrite history by unearthing the real story of money**
"_A study of ancient coins has shifted the focus of Europe’s economic history from the Greeks and Romans to the Arabs_"
#Opinion #History #Histodon #Histodons #Archeology #Money #Economics #EconHist #Europe #Arabs @histodon @histodons @econhist
I hope they were good memories.
**Tolkien’s Norse Mythology Inspiration**
#Video length: fifty eight seconds.
#Read #Reading #Tolkien #Norse #Mythology #Book #Books #Ebook #Ebooks #Bookstodon @bookstodon
Thank you to everyone that took part in this #poll. The non-partisans carried the day.
@mitchell I am not sure but I do not think so.
Bibliolater
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(jgg)
Depends. Who are you? Can you write? The most important is the second one. A boring life, well written, can be interesting. Terrible writing is terrible, period.
**Is the act of writing an autobiography pretentious?**
#Question #Poll #Polls #Writing #Book #Books #Bookstodon #AskFedi #AskMastodon @bookstondon
**Is Milei’s Radical Plan to Save Argentina Working?**
"_After eight months in office, Argentine President Javier Milei has slashed spending on social security, public wages and consumer subsidies. His austerity measures have won praise from former US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Milei also remains largely popular at home, with approval ratings above 50%. But painful reforms can only stay popular for so long. To win midterm elections next year and hang on to power, Milei must lift a cobweb of capital controls to restart the slumping economy without fanning inflation further._"
#JavierMilei #Milei #Austerity #Inflation #Economy #Economics #Economist #Politics #Argentina #SouthAmerica #LatinAmerica @economics
Bibliolater
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The Bernoulli numbers are defined like this:
x/(1 - e⁻ˣ) = B₀ + B₁x + B₂/2! + B₃/3! + ....
and if you grind them out, you get
B₀ = 1
B₁ = 1/2
B₂ = 1/6
B₃ = 0
B₄ = -1/30
and so on. The pattern is sort of strange.
They're connected to hundreds of interesting things. For example if you want to figure out a sum like
1³ + 2³ + 3³ + ... + 10³
or
1⁸ + 2⁸ + 3⁸ + ... + 1,000,000⁸
you can use a formula that involves Bernoulli numbers. The video here explains it.
But where the hell did this function x/(1 - e⁻ˣ) come from?
If D means derivative:
(Df)(x) = f'(x)
then 1 - e⁻ᴰ is a so-called 'difference operator':
((1 - e⁻ᴰ)f)(x) = f(x) - f(x-1)
which you can show using the Taylor series for f. So D/(1 - e⁻ᴰ) is about derivatives versus differences, and its inverse is about integrals versus sums. This lets you reduce sums like those above to integrals... 𝑖𝑓 you know your Bernoulli numbers!
But x/(1 - e⁻ˣ) also shows up when you compute the expected energy of a quantum harmonic oscillator in thermal equilibrium!
Let's work in units where ℏ = 1. Say we have a quantum harmonic oscillator whose allowed energies are 0, 1, 2, 3, ... etcetera. What is its average or 'expected' energy at temperature T? Let x = 1/T. Then its expected energy is
x/(1 - e⁻ˣ)
So the quantum harmonic oscillator secretly knows about Bernoulli numbers.
What does this fact really mean??? I don't know. I once read a book called Triangle of Thought about a conversation between Alain Connes and two other mathematicians, and he said this fact explained a lot of stuff. But he didn't go into any detail, so I'm left looking for clues.
**The scone pronunciation map of Britain**
_...a recent YouGov study of more than 54,000 Britons finding that 51% say they pronounce the word to rhyme with ‘gone’ but 45% saying they pronounce it to rhyme with ‘bone’._
https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/50339-the-scone-pronunciation-map-of-britain
#YouGov #Poll #Food #Pronunciation #Map #Dialect #English #Language #Linguistics #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #GreatBritain #Britain @linguistics
Not a bot, just a fifty-year-old male who reads occasionally.
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
