iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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MBA Library @nmbluk.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Time to celebrate our photosynthesising pals as today is #WorldAlgaeDay Please enjoy these illustrations from 'Nereis Britannica; or a botanical description of the British marine plants, in Latin and English: accompanied with drawings from nature' by J. Stackhouse, 1795

Antique two-page botanical plate with text and labeled watercolor seaweed illustrations titled Capillary Fucus.

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MBA Library @nmbluk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Continuing with the cephalopod love it's #NautilusNight To shell-ebrate we have this beautiful illustration of the shell of the chambered nautilus, taken from the 18th Century book on shells by GW Knorr

Two colored scientific illustrations of nautilus shells in cross-section, showing spiral chambers and handwritten labels.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

For Indigenous Peoples Day, my 1834 edition of the autobiography of Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa, aka Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk indigenous people, one of the earliest Native American autobiographies ever published.

A book opened up. In the left the frontis is an engraved portrait of Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa I western, period clothes with a high collared coat. On tbe right is the title page: LIFE MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAK OR BLACK HAWK, EMBRACING THE
TRADITION OF HIS NATION-INDIAN WARS IN WHICH HE HAS BEEN ENGAGED-CAUSE OF JOINING THE BRITISH IN THEIR LATE
WAR WITH AMERICA, AND ITS
HISTORY-DE-SCRIPTION OF THE ROCK-RIVER VILLAGE-MAN-NERS AND CUSTOMS-ENCROACHMENTS BY THE WHITES REMOVAL FROM HIS VILLAGE IN 1831.
WITH AN
ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSE AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE LATE WAR, HIS
SURRENDER AND CONFINEMENT AT JEFFERSON BARRACKS, AND
TRAVELS THROUGH THE UNITED STATES.
DICTATED BY HIMSELF.
J. B. Patterson, of Rock Island, III. Editor and Proprietor.
BOSTON
1834.
#booksky

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

“The vision outlined in the report is compelling and urgent, but it is not complete. It underrepresents a key component of ecosystem interconnectivity: the microbes, viruses, fungi, pollen, allergens, and other biological particles in the air, collectively called the aerobiome.” 🌎 👇

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Eos @eos.org · 11/10/2026

“We lack the basic understanding to map and predict aerobiome composition, much less to detail its roles in Earth system functioning.” eos.org/opinions/lif...

eos.org

Life in the Skies Links Ecosystems Near and Far. It Deserves More Attention. - Eos

Our understanding of Earth’s biology and its responses to environmental change is limited by an incomplete picture of the planet’s dynamic aerobiome.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Had to bring plants in because it’s snowing ❄️ ⛄️

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Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 11/10/2026

After FDR's death, she chaired the UN commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says economic security is a human right. That's the idea we carry forward: an economy should give everyone real security and a say in the decisions that shape their lives.

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Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 11/10/2026

Eleanor Roosevelt was born 142 years ago today. Far beyond First Lady, she was one of the most consequential policy voices of her century, traveling the country as FDR's eyes and ears and fighting to make the New Deal reach the people with the least power to demand it.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I have a large historical scientific art collection in my personal library. It’s a hobby of mine.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I was going to do some more sciart Sunday posts, but I don’t think it’s a thing.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sciart Sunday: Detail of another plate from the same book in the quoted post (Kunstformen der Natur) with a close up view of a diatom species. Diatoms are one of the two main classes of phytoplankton and their varied and beautiful silica cell walls are called frustules. 🦑 🌊

An illustration of a diatom species. Circular and incredibly detailed geometric patterns.

#oceanlife

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sciart Sunday: A plate from Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel labeled “Bryozoa”, a variety of marine and freshwater (or both) aquatic invertebrate animals. In this case, the species are part of the Gymnolaemata class of marine bryozoans. Coin for scale. 🦑 🌊

An illustration of many Bryozoa species, dramatically white against a black background. The shapes are intricate and varied with geometrical patterns.

#oceanlife 🐙

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sciart Sunday: Plate from the second volume (1754) of Herbarium Blackwellianum Emendatum et Auctum by botanist Christoph Jacob Trew, a German edition of Scottish botanical artist & engraver Elizabeth Blackwell’s ‘A Curious Herbal.’ Held up to light to show the watermark & pattern of the laid paper

An illustration of a Dracontium species. The inflorescence is colored maroon and two stems branch off with a semi-circle of spear shaped leafs. Part of its root structure is depicted separately. The vertical striped pattern of the laid paper is visible.

#botany #botanical #botanicalart #18thcentury

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sciart Sunday: A hand-colored stone lithograph of a nine banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) in my copy of the royal octavo edition of, "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" by John James Audubon & Rev. John Bachman (Volume III, 1854). 🦊

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sciart Sunday: Plate from my copy of “The Macrlepidopetra of the American Region. Div II. Faura Exotica: Vol. 5, The American Rhopalocera” by Adalbert Seitz, published in Stuttgart in 1924. 🦋

A page from an oversized book with colored, mostly browns and oranges, wings spread top
views of a variety of moth species from the genus Anisota, a variety of North American silk moths.

#sciart #bugs #butterflies #bugsky

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

“Over the next few months, the Los Angeles Review of Books will publish a series of essays by writers and scholars of Afghan heritage who are excavating forgotten, neglected, silenced, or unseen traces of Afghanistan in US history and culture and beyond.” Looking forward to this 👇

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Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

"It’s astounding how infrequently Afghans’ humanity and history show up on American radar." @leilanadir.bsky.social on empire, and American amnesia: lareviewofbooks.org/article/afghani…

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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

We really need to make Meng's Big Data Paradox central to teaching, don't we? Researchers don't know this stuff bc they have never been exposed to it. But it is fundamental. (Link to paper PDF statistics.fas.harvard.edu/sites/g/file...)

3. Compensating for quality with quantity is a doomed game.
3.1. A law of large populations? Under a probabilistic sampling, a central
driving force for the stochastic behaviors of the sample mean (and alike) is the
sample size n. This is the case for the Law of Large Numbers (LLN) and for the
Central Limit Theorem (CLT), two pillars of theoretical statistics, and of much of
applied statistics because we rely on LLN and CLT to build intuitions, heuristic
arguments, or even models. However, identity (2.3) implies that once we lose control of probabilistic sampling, then the driving force behind the estimation error is
no longer the sample size n, but rather the population size N. Specifically, (2.3)
and (2.5) together imply that
(3.1) Zn,N ≡ Gn − GN

VSRS(Gn)
= ρR,G1−f
f σG
1−f
n S2
G
= √
N − 1ρR,G.

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Rob Cruickshank @robcruickshank.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Turns out these guys are real

A fish like a child would draw, no fins, just a tail an eye and a little smile

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Albrecht Dürer was a fairly skilled engraver. He carved this image onto a flat block of wood.

The Virgin Surrounded by Many Angels is a 1518 woodcut print by German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. “The scene depicts the Coronation of the Virgin, the final event in the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. The Virgin Mary is shown about to be crowned as Regina caeli (Queen of Heaven). - source Cleveland Museum of Art.
Image in the public domain.

#art #arthistory #artsky #renaissance

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Apropos of nothing, Arwen was over 2,700 years old when she met 20 year old Aragorn at Rivendell.

A seated winged figure in classical clothes holding a compass in her lap is staring intensely into the distance.a winged cherub is sitting over her right shoulder. This is a detail of Melencolia I, a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer.
Image in the public domain.

#tolkien #booksky #lotr

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

”Every one [Lenni Lenape], young & old, feels compassion for their misfortune; to laugh or scoff at them would be considered as a crime.” For World Mental Health Day an excerpt from my 1819 copy of, ‘An Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian (sic) Nations’ by John Heckewelder.

A page from an over 200 year old book.
"CHAPTER XXXV.
INSANITY.
INSANITY is not common among the Indians; yet I have known several who were afflicted with mental derangement.
Men in this situation are always considered as objects of pity., much more so to insult or molest them. The nation or colour of the unfortunate object makes no diference; the charity of the Indians e-tends to all, and no discrimination is made in such a be.."

Mentalhealthday

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

An early morning photo of the moon, Jupiter, and Mars at an angle on the ecliptic.

Stars and planets and the moon against black sky

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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“This recent dump of papers on Tuesday destroyed the careers of early-career mathematicians. We've had whole research programs wiped out on Tuesday by their dump … they have all the mathematicians research programs in their training data” - Tristan Buckmaster on OpenAI solving unsolved math problems

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring #BookWormSat

Thomas Moran - Under the Trees, painted in 1865.
A painting of a grove of trees with fall colors forming a window with mountains visible.
Image via Wikipedia

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Alone, Poe ~ ‘From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were—I have not seen As others saw—I could not bring My passions from a common spring— From the same source I have not taken My sorrow—I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone— 1/3 #BookWormSat

Woman in black hat and jacket over a grey /silver gown with white skirts and white gloves stood amongst autumn leaves with trees in autumn colours behind her. She is holding a basket? of autumn leaves. Painting.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

When having a skinny neck is a natural selection disadvantage (unlike the fish’s invisibility).

Detail of the print in the quoted post. An aquatic animal with a long skinny neck is getting bit in the neck by a larger aquatic animal. The outline of a fish below them.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Since I had the book out, here’s the print in the quoted post up close to get a better look at the details of the hand coloring. The coin is to provide scale. 🪶

An illustration of a peacock sitting in a tree with its green, psychedelic tail feathers drooping down.

#birdsky #sciart

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“Animaux perdus (extinct animals)” A hand-colored illustration after art by Louis Auguste de Sainson from, “Dictionnaire Pittoresque d'Histoire Naturelle et des Phénomènes de la Nature” published from 1833 to 1840 and edited by French entomologist Félix-Édouard Guérin-Méneville. Coin for scale. 🦕

colored illustration of a multitude of different species including dinosaurs and marine life in a shallow sea, avian life including more dinosaurs and insects, and a variety of marine and land plants.

#oceanlife 🦑 #sciart

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Amazing geometric details inside the Toshhovli Palace, Uzbekistan built for the ruler of the Khiva Khanate from 1830-38. The Islamic architecture features tessellations similar to the tiles in the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain that inspired M. C. Escher.

A print of a column inside a room with incredibly intricate designs and geometric patterns and tiles throughout including tessellations.

#architecture 🖼️

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

French painter and draughtsman Jean-Antoine Watteau was born OTD in 1684. A sample of his work from my copy of a folio featuring French drawings from the private collection of German-Dutch collector Franz Koenigs. You can see why Watteau was considered a master of the Trois crayons technique. 🖼️

Bust-length portrait of a young lady and study of a hand
She is seated, turned to the left, and is turning her head to the right while looking downwards. She wears a small cap and a low-necked dress with a necklace. To the right is a study of her right hand, which is to be imagined resting in her lap.

#art #artsky 🇫🇷

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Shaw, Grant👇, Lincoln, and other defenders of the Republic are all spinning in their graves

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“OMNIA RELINQVIT / SERVARE REMPVBLICAM” (He left behind everything to save the Republic) Robert Gould Shaw was born OTD in 1837. He died age 25 while leading the African American volunteer 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during its July 18, 1863 assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. 🗃️

The Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading members of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863, to depart the city to fight in the South.
Image and description is Wikipedia.

history

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Ironically as I type this, social media is the worst. Look how much AI generated slop memes are like and shared almost every moment in your timeline.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“Literacy is declining sharply across the West. In the era of vertical video, who has the time or concentration to read a long article let alone a whole book? As we lose the ability to read long-form text, we might also be losing the capacity for democratic deliberation & self-governance” #booksky

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The wild roses are hips now. Chock full of vitamin C and bioflavonoids btw.

A bright red rose hip with blurred green vegetation behind it.

🌱 🌹

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John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Neil Landman, Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, reflects on his journey into paleontology, the aesthetic beauty and biology of #ammonites, and his groundbreaking research on post-impact survival near the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction boundary.

youtu.be

Dr. Neil Landman: A Career Studying Ammonites and the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction

YouTube video by Paleontological Research Institution

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New York Botanical Garden @nybg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The diversity of food plants is one of humanity's most important resources. By connecting the people who conserve it with those who grow, study, improve, prepare, and use it, the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants is helping keep more options on the table for the future.

nybg.org

Uniting Botanic Gardens and Genebanks Around Food Plant Diversity | New York Botanical Garden

Colin Khoury is the Global Conservation Lead Coordinator of the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants. With increasing threats to plant diversity limiting our options for developing healthier and more resilient food systems, new papers in Plant...

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

A bike thread from a few days ago. No bike infrastructure at the time either, but quite literally zero cars to worry about 👇

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Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences @igaiw.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Our Journal welcomes new contributions to the history of science and knowledge in Arabic-Islamic contexts. We invite research articles including critical editions, and studies of manuscripts and instruments Send your paper to: igaiw@uni-frankfurt.de #CallForPapers #HistoryOfScience

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“The Bulletin focuses on three main areas: nuclear risk, climate change, & disruptive technologies.” Founded by a group of former Manhattan Project scientists in 1945. Einstein and Oppenheimer helped create the broader Board of Sponsors. They set the Doomsday ⏰ 👇

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UBC Oceans @ubcoceans.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Shorebirds live and migrate along the world’s coastlines. Over the last several decades, coastal development has led to the loss of shorebird habitats in many areas of the world, driving population declines in multiple species. theconversation.com/rising-seas-...

theconversation.com

Rising seas threaten the world’s migratory shorebirds

Shorebirds undertake some of the world’s most impressive migrations — but as sea levels rise, the habitats that they depend on are expected to shrink.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

For the administration that berates Europeans for not defending “Western thought” and “Western civilization,” that defending apparently does not include the works of Beccaria, Voltaire, Bentham, Dickens, Hugo, etc. etc.

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bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

About 1.041 × 10²³ kilometers from earth. If you flew there in a jet flying Mach 2 it’d only take you about 4.85 quadrillion years to get there.

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licia @astra99.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

MeerKAT & Webb just located the host galaxy for FRB 20240304B, the most distant Fast Radio Burst ever. It's from a small dwarf galaxy 11 billion light-years away, bursting when the universe was only 3 billion years old. Really makes you rethink FRB origins.

spaceinafrica.com

South Africa's MeerKAT and NASA's Webb Identify Host Galaxy of Most Distant Fast Radio Burst

Astronomers, using the MeerKAT radio telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, have identified the host galaxy of FRB 20240304B, the most distant Fast Radio Burst (FRB) ever detected. This powerfu

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