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
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
The words 'fiction' and 'dough' derive from the same root.
They stem from a Proto-Indo-European root that meant "to shape" and "to mould".
'Fiction' came to English through Latin and French. Its meaning now denotes something that's shaped by the mind.
'Dough', something that's kneaded, was inherited from Germanic.
Click the graphic to see the journeys these words took.
**Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility**
_“In its current version, in spite of the hype, bitcoin failed to satisfy the notion of “currency without government” (it proved to not even be a currency at all), can be neither a short nor long term store of value (its expected value is no higher than), cannot operate as a reliable inflation hedge, and, worst of all, does not constitute, not even remotely, a safe haven for one's investments, a shield against government tyranny, or a tail protection vehicle for catastrophic episodes.”_
Taleb, N.N. (2021) 'Bitcoin, currencies, and fragility,' arXiv (Cornell University) [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2106.14204.
#Bitcoin #Currency #Money #Wealth #Economics #Finance #Academia #Academic #Preprint #arXiv @economics
🗣️ **Why linguistic diversity matters**
Lorna Gibb
“Over 7,000 languages are spoken today, but nearly half could vanish by the end of the century. Globalization, migration, and political marginalization have driven this shift, hastened this loss._”
🔗 https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/why-linguistic-diversity-matters.
#Essay #Anthropology #Linguistics #Languages @anthroplogy @linguistics
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
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AI is one of the most horrific risks to human civilization in history. NOT because some imaginary super intelligent AI would take over the world, but because Big Tech CEOs are using generative AI to utterly destroy the ability of anyone to trust information. These billionaire CEOs -- who Trump accurately says are "kissing his ass" -- are "poisoning the well" of our information society, while decimating their workforces, screwing society, and smiling all the way to the bank.
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
Bluesky is cancelling accounts when foreign governments ask them to, and Threads is doing adverts soon.
The thing to understand about the corporate public messaging systems is that they do not exist to let you publish or to talk to people. That is not the point of them. That's at best just the bait laid to lure you into their trap.
They exist to make money for the shareholders. That's why Threads exists, that's why Blockchain Inc invested to keep Bluesky running.
Only one network exists in order to let people communicate as the point and reason for it's existence. Only one network has no shareholders and no owners.
Only one is fighting for the user, not the shareholder.
#fediverse
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
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Opinion | Why is the economy shrinking?
https://wapo.st/42Ghfgt
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
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Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
OPEC+ Agrees Another Oil Supply Surge for June, Delegates Say
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-03/opec-agrees-another-oil-supply-surge-for-june-delegates-say?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0NjI2ODk3MCwiZXhwIjoxNzQ2ODczNzcwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTVk1SWjdUMEFGQjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI0NDVBRjAxNDNBNzM0ODA3OEUzODc3RDcyMzlGNEY2RiJ9.7CXu0TkAQLXIXiuWKyR7nD-eml70y3UTgIhUtHHRBac
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
Also, if (as Satya Nadela claims in public) 30% of Microsoft's software is LLM-generated, then we can expect the next couple of generations of Windows and Microsoft Office to be unelievably bad. Not just enshittified for advertising and profit: but full of really idiotic security holes and bugs inserted by LLMs that were trained on their own toxic efflux by "developers" too de-skilled to understand what they were doing.
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
Marco Rubio criticized Germany. The foreign ministry hit back
https://apnews.com/article/germany-afd-jd-vance-marco-rubio-us-trump-9787d0989df4e3ff15cd626a57c7c02d?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into International News @international-news-AssociatedPress
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
If you haven't read "Careless People, A story of where I used to work" by Sarah Wynn-Williams yet, I recommend that you do. She gives a truly eye-opening (and jaw dropping) account of Facebook (now Meta) from the inside.
It is clear why Zuckerberg trying to block the publication of this book...
**Unheard Nazi tapes acquired by Aberdeen historian to be released ahead of WW2 80th anniversary**
🔗 https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/aberdeen-news/unheard-nazi-tapes-acquired-aberdeen-10153083.
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
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📖 **The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World **
#Review #BookReview #Nonfiction #History #Books #Bookstodon #Library #Ancient #Mesopotamia @histodons @bookstodon
Good morning.
**Mathematics discovers that rose petals are found to contain a unique geometry**
“_Unlike the smooth contours of other flowers, the originally curved petals of roses end up forming polygons with straight edges_”
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
May I present to you, the Potsdam Gravity Potato?
Areas of the earth where the gravitational field is mysteriously weaker (blue) or stronger (orange)
via @earthlymission
https://earthlymission.com/the-potsdam-gravity-potato/
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
The Human Genome Project cost taxpayers $3 Billion.
Within one decade of completion, it had already generated a staggering return on investment of $1 Trillion, with benefits in medicine, agriculture, energy, the environment, & more.
If you want to boost the economy, funding science is one of the best things you could do.
📸 **The top photos of the week by AP’s photojournalists**
🔗 https://apnews.com/article/top-photos-of-week-global-pictures-e73122b92aaca31723a8ce550a3b9a2d.
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
