Bibliolater 📚📜🖋📐 @bibliolater@social.cleverlibre.org

On a new instance, so it’s #introduction time. My background is in 18th and early 19th century British history, although I started with early modern Europe interests, and those traditions of scholarship had a deep influence on my work. I wrote the Coastal History blog for many years, which evolved into my current role as a journal editor (Coastal Studies & Society, published by Sage). In 2023, I’ll finally finish writing my methods book (aimed at upper-division undergrads and Masters students).

This map shows only people. It is a beautiful illustration of where people are concentrated.

If you squint, you can see Australia and New Zealand.

Map by Alasdair Rae https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/3d-map
Third in a 🧵 of #2022TopToots

Ephemeral beauty: 19th-century self-taught photographer Wilson Alwyn Bentley (1865–1931), a Vermont farmer, was the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. ❄️ During his life-time, he photographed over 5,000 individual snowflakes, capturing the transient ❄️ ❄️ beauty of the tiny crystals.🤗❄️ [Snowflake photographs by Wilson Bentley, winter 1902]

Incendiary: #JohnToland and the birth of the #IrishEnlightenment – https://www.irishphilosophy.com/2013/09/18/incendiary-toland/

#IrishPhilosophy #Deism #Freethinking #JohnLocke

French astronomer, mathematician, Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, was born 17 December 1706
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/a-feminist-newtonian/

Terrific column by LA Times' @hiltzikm looks with appropriate distaste at Big Publishing's campaign to ban book ownership (what it all boils down to), especially by libraries, in the e-book era. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-12-08/which-last-longer-ebooks-or-physical-books-the-answer-may-surprise-you

"Most assume writing systems get simpler. But 3,600 years of Chinese writing show it’s getting increasingly complex" -- https://theconversation.com/amp/most-assume-writing-systems-get-simpler-but-3-600-years-of-chinese-writing-show-its-getting-increasingly-complex-194732

#linguistics @linguistics

Slippery when wet isn’t always true.

A new study of #friction between a small sphere & a flat surface reports higher friction for dry vs wet conditions. The researchers show that hydrogen bonding explains the quirky result.

“This paper adds some new & interesting twists to the very complex & fascinating behavior of water,” says Robert Carpick of #UPenn.

#water #physicsmagazine #sciencemastodon #physicsnews #sciencejournalism #sciencenews #physics #academicmastodon

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v15/196

Public Service Warning

Mastodon has a very big surge of new users right now. There's no way to tell if it will be sustained, but at this early point it looks similar to Nov 18 when when Musk pulled the employee purge.

It is very challenging for system administration to accommodate so many new users. If your server starts to struggle, it is not broken and will get sorted out.

We're all in this together. It's our social network. Be patient. What we are building is amazing.

#twittermigration