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
**Medieval genomes from eastern Iberia illuminate the role of Morisco mass deportations in dismantling a long-standing genetic bridge with North Africa**
“_For the first time, we also demonstrate the persistence of North African ancestry in a Christian cemetery until the seventeenth century, in addition to evidence of slave trafficking from North Africa._”
Oteo-Garcia, G., Silva, M., Foody, M.G.B. et al. Medieval genomes from eastern Iberia illuminate the role of Morisco mass deportations in dismantling a long-standing genetic bridge with North Africa. Genome Biol 26, 108 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-025-03570-1.
#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Biology #Science #Archaeology #Archaeodons #Genetics #Genomes #History #Medieval #Iberia #Academia #Academics @science @archaeodons
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
Elon Musk called empathy a “weakness” of Western civilization. But philosophers argue the opposite: empathy is a hard-won form of knowledge — and essential for understanding others and making informed decisions https://buff.ly/WTS28lC
I am considering changing my Mastodon server. For those that know the type of content that I post, what do you advise would be the best instance for me?
Is it difficult for one to self-host a Mastodon account?
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
Turns out, boredom may have some advantages. @ScienceAlert explains in more detail, including how we all need to “embrace the pause.”
**Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world**
“_Australians might well be disheartened when they discover that they are not the top users of profanity among English-speaking countries. Their deep national attachment to the vernacular dates back to the original mix of slang, dialect and underworld jargon that gave rise to Australian English — fueled by anti-authoritarian sentiment, the colloquial part of the language expanded to become the feature that best distinguished the established citizen (or old chum) from the stranger (or new chum).”
Schweinberger, M. and Burridge, K. (2025) 'Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world,' Lingua, 321, p. 103946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103946.
#OpenAccess #OA #Article #DOI #Linguistics #Swearing #Vulgarity #StrongLanguage #English #Language #Academia #Academics @linguistics
💻 **AI could account for nearly half of datacentre power usage ‘by end of year’**
“_The IEA estimates that all data centres – excluding mining for cryptocurrencies – consumed 415 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity last year. De Vries-Gao argues in his research that AI could already account for 20% of that total._”
🔗 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/22/ai-data-centre-power-consumption.
#AI #Artificialintelligence #Computing #Energy #Technology #Tech @ai
📚 **Close Reading Is For Everyone**
Dan Sinykin
_“Close reading is the practice of paying attention to a passage of text to account for at least one aspect of its meaning and to make an argument about how it works.”_
🔗 https://defector.com/close-reading-is-for-everyone.
#Reading #Books #Bookstodon #Arts #Culture #Literature @bookstodon @literature
http://www.memeorandum.com/250524/p9#a250524p9
**Word origins: fascism / fascist**
Dave Wilton
“It comes from the Latin _fasces_, a symbol of power and authority in the Roman Empire consisting of a sheaf of rods bound around an ax.”
🔗 https://wordorigins-org.ghost.io/fascism-fascist/.
#English #Language #Words #Etymology #Linguistics #Fascism #Fascist @linguistics
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
As part of my job, I have to evaluate AI tools. Part of that evaluation is pushing them to their limit. Today, I realised Cursor has a setting where if you critique its work enough, it goes silent and refuses to apply changes.
It's a moody junior dev whose overconfidence and bravado quickly turn to surly silence when their work is questioned. The happy, helpful (and frequently wrong) AI is gone, replaced by a useless one with a bad attitude that won't make it past the next performance review.
Christ. I'm used to managing engineers, but I draw the line at managing AIs.
🇯🇵 
**Japan's population crisis reaches tipping point**
“_Japan has been struggling to cope with a combination of anaemic economic growth and a shrinking population for over 30 years. 2025 marks the tipping point when the rising costs outstrip the country's capacity to pay for them._”
#Video length: twenty minutes.
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmdujC0MUKA.
#FT #Japan #Demographics #Demography #Economy #Economics #Population #Asia #Immigration #Birthrate #Fertility #Fertilityrate @economics
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋
boosted
"Einstein's Tutor" by Lee Philips. A 'biography' of Noether's Theorem (the physics one(s)), but with lots of interesting biography of the science and the players at the time: Einstein, Hilbert, Noether and supporting cast (Weyl, Klein etc). Lots of citations, and clearly lots of research went into the book.
I really enjoyed this, but the most surprising new thing I learned was that while Weyl took over from Hilbert as head of the Göttingen mathematics department when Hilbert retired in 1930, he did so reluctantly, saying that Noether should have gotten the job, not him!
🇬🇧 **The transatlantic slave trade in Greenwich**
“_Place, legacy and memory – explore the history of transatlantic slavery in London and Greenwich_”
🔗 https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/maritime-history/transatlantic-slave-trade-greenwich
#History #Histodons #Slavery #UK #UnitedKingdom #Britain #London #Greenwich @histodons
**Scientists stunned to find Earth’s core leaking gold and other precious metals**
🔗 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-core-gold-leaking-precious-metals-b2756421.html.
Cheap flights from Scotland to US thanks to ‘Trump slump’ https://www.thetimes.com/article/68c64462-844c-445f-be30-92a7e023107f?shareToken=c8847668...
🇺🇸 **No politician irrespective of how brilliant they maybe can evade the gravitational pull of the #bondmarket.**
Bond vigilantes will force Trump into line https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/24/bond-vigilantes-will-force-trump-into-line/?utm_source=f...
Morning all.
🇨🇳 **How Apple trained China to be a world power - Patrick McGee interview**
“_In his new book Apple in China: The Capture of The World's Greatest Company, he contends that China allowed Apple to exploit them so they could in turn exploit Apple, making it impossible for the tech giant to extract itself from the country._”
#Video length: eight minutes and twelve seconds.
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43PtL0XQeA8.
#C4News #interview #Nonfiction #Book #Bookstodon #Apple #China
**It's not just US bonds. Governments around the world are facing spiraling debt costs.**
🔗 https://www.businessinsider.com/bond-yields-rising-japan-us-deficit-spending-debt-carry-trade-2025-5.
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
