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

“The fear o’ hell’s a hangman’s whip
To haud the wretch in order;
But where ye feel your honour grip,
Let that aye be your border.”

Robert Burns died #OTD in 1836. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is in a "light Scots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. via @wikipedia

Books by Robert Burns at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/583

#books #literature #poetry

"After two centuries of improved precision, recent measurements of G are troubling. A handful of labs around the world have turned up values that disagree (SN Online: 4/30/15). The scattered values could be a sign of trouble with the measurement techniques among various groups, or there might be a more intriguing aspect."

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/newton-gravitational-constant-physics

#Physics #Constants #Gravity #Newton #Measurements

For anyone who might need it: the manuscript of pseudo-Symeon, cod. Paris. graec. 1712, was digitised and put online at some point since the last time I looked.

(Which, to be fair, was a number of years ago.)

#byzantine #greek #manuscripts
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55013443j

The assertion that LLMs are "capable of surprisingly sophisticated reasoning" is supported with a link an article @willknight wrote on the "Sparks of AGI" paper + criticism of it.

Extruding synthetic text is not reasoning. If the extruded text looks like something sensible, it is because we have made sense of it. I find it dismaying that even critical journalists like @willknight feel a need to repeat these tropes.

In French, the C in secura dropped out, which eventually gave rise to the modern French sûr, and the English word sure. If you are free from concern and worry, you may also be said to be free from doubt. And that's why you're sure.

The same development gave rise to the Dutch word 'zeker', which is a little less obviously derived from 'secura'.

#etymology #Latin #Dutch

25 beautiful nebulas that showcase the wonder of the universe.

🔗
https://www.livescience.com/space/25-gorgeous-nebula-photos-that-capture-the-beauty-of-the-universe

#universe #physics #astronomy #astrophysical #cosmos #science #livescience #nebula #nebulas #sky #stars #sun #photo #beautiful #SkyAtNight

Some Elements in the #linguistics series will be available for free for two weeks! There is definitely some interesting research in there that is worth reading! #forensiclinguistics #sociolinguistics @linguistics @academicchatter

https://www.cambridge.org/core/browse-subjects/language-and-linguistics/free-elements-in-linguistics?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=PWE_Ling_Elements_July2023

@bibliolater @bookstodon usually #fiction, because I read very little #nonfiction. However, if I do, I try to find some that I enjoy and not only think I should read, because they are good for me.