Back in March, when the #fediverse came together to help save us, we changed our name to “Texas Observer Lives!”
Today, we changed it back to just "Texas Observer" because we need YOUR HELP to survive into 2024! It's up to our readers to preserve the voice of progressive #Texas by joining our fall membership drive.
Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt.
She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy. Hypatia constructed astrolabes and hydrometers, but did not invent either of these, which were both in use long before she was born. In March 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians led by a lector named Peter.
A pack horse librarian delivering books in rural Kentucky in 1938. During the Great Depression, the Pack Horse Library Project was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in which the librarians, who were often called "book women" or "book ladies," delivered books to remote parts of Appalachia.
The advance reader copies of my forthcoming book have arrived and they are beauties! Thanks to @wwnortonlibrary for supporting this investigation into how we can stop culture wars in the U.S. -- by understanding their history, and recognizing psychological weapons before they harm us and our communities. #StoriesAreWeapons drops in early June but you should pre-order now! Imagine how pleasing it will be to have an antidote to culture war this hot presidential race summer. #bookstodon#books
'The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has launched The Banned Book Club... The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned. The e-books will be available to readers for free via the Palace e-reader app.'
Of course Levar Burton wants you to read banned books. Heven Haile sits down with Levar and MoveOn’s Rahna Epting to talk about it.
“When I read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time,” LeVar Burton says, “I couldn’t imagine that situation in my reality. It was a shame, right? Wow. Those poor people in that misguided society. I live in that society now. That dystopian story has become my truth.”
The Sakya Monastery in tibet has a library comprising some 84,000 books. Most are Buddhist scriptures, but there are works of literature, history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, and art. They date back centuries.
In 2011 they began to digitize the library. All books are indexed and about 20% have been fully digitized.
And here's another book I’ve just finished, for anyone who has studied (or is studying) maths. It’s a lovely gallop through the parts of mathematical history that we don’t hear about, steering away from the stories that focus on the “Great Men” of the white western world, and digging around in a far more global and diverse view of how mathematics was developed. Especially highly recommended for anyone teaching maths at any level. It’s out in a couple of weeks. #maths#books#history
By default, Elsevier surveils every page a student visits on the internet — whether it’s related to their education or a google search for nearby abortion clinics. Then, their wildly permissive terms of service say they can build profiles on individual students and sell this information to data brokers
This Douglas Adams quote from 'The Salmon of Doubt' never stops being relevant, especially in a time where we've witnessed the damage disinformation and hate speech can cause. Lives have been literally lost, both by people spreading lies during the pandemic, and by bigoted rhetoric targeting women and marginalized groups. Legitimizing such views as just "difference of opinion" instead of challenging them for what they are only causes further harm.
I just learned that libraries cannot purchase #Audible exclusives and I feel absolutely enraged. Then I found Libro.fm thanks to @pluralistic and I learned their #books are #DRM free, yours forever and a local bookstore of your choice receives part of your subscription or purchase. I tried their app and it is nicer, prettier and more user friendly than Audible, so I subscribed and picked #TheInternetCon to help seize the means of Computation ✊
In case anyone is wondering if there is any engagement on here— this is the list of every book recommended after I asked if you’d share one book you enjoyed this year. You can scroll underneath the post to see these, but I think seeing them all together shows the true awesomeness of the people on here.
Happy to announce that my next book, tentatively titled "Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media" will be published by Oxford University Press!
Read more about it, and my process of writing the book, here on #FOSSacademic
Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of.
Over 1,000 years before the internet and smartphone apps, Persian scientist and polymath Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī invented the concept of algorithms.