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diagonalizable.bsky.social
@diagonalizable.bsky.social
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diagonalizable.bsky.social
Post the cover of a book you love from the 90s. (Any century!)
#BookSky #bookchallenge #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booktok #bookish #books
[Title:] Modalities--Philosophical Essays [Author:] Ruth Barcan Marcus. [from inside cover:] "Informed by her earlier ground-breaking axiomatizations of quantified modal logic...papers collected here by the distinguished philosopher...[contain] themes...such as the necessity of identity, the directly referential role of proper names as 'tags', the Barcan Formula about the interplay of possibility and existence...and alternative interpretations of quantification...[and] putative puzzles about substitutivity...essentialism...moral conflict...belief and rationality...some historical figures." [Picture in center square is of installation by Eva Hesse called "Contingent 1969". There are 8 panels cheesecloth, latex, fibreglass; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.] One of my old teachers who inspired me by her work and creativity, her example, her friendliness & kindness. Her memory was impressive: once she recited a whole children’s book to my little daughter from memory (learned decades prior when she was raising her own children).
January 25, 2026 at 12:52 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages. [author:] Penelope Reed Doob. [from back cover:] "Ancient and medieval labyrinths embody paradox...Their structure allows a double perspective--the baffling, fragmented prospect confronting the maze-treader within, and the comprehensive vision available to those without. Mazes simultaneously assert order and chaos, artistry and confusion, articulated clarity and bewildering complexity, perfected pattern and hesitant process..."
January 25, 2026 at 12:40 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Post the cover of a book you love from the 90s. (Any century!)
#BookSky #bookchallenge #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booktok #bookish #books
(title) The Logic of Provability (author) George Boolos (publisher) Cambridge University Press. [from the Introduction] "The theme of the present work is the way in which modal logic, a branch of logic first studied by Aristotle, has been found to shed light on the mathematical study of mathematical reasoning, a study begun by David Hilbert and brought to fruition by Kurt Gödel."
January 25, 2026 at 1:23 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
An Existentialist Ethics: with a new preface Hazel E. Barnes [from preface to 1978 edition] "In the present decade we have become acutely conscious of the likelihood that our basic way of life will have to be radically modified in the face of the ecological crisis. This problem, which I touched on only briefly in my concluding chapter, may dominate future discussion of ethical dilemmas. I think that a humanistic existentialist ethics is peculiarly well suited to deal with the conflicting demands of society in transition. It argues for more responsibility without any appeal to a god or universal purpose, which not all persons can accept. Holding that the human being is a free consciousness confronting an open future, it recognizes the necessity of our justifying the choices by which we make that future for ouselves and for those who come after us."
January 21, 2026 at 2:12 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
[author--] A.W.F. Edwards [title--] Likelihood: expanded edition. [from back cover--] "...classic volume on scientific inference presents his most important published articles on the subject...the appropriate axiomatic basis for inductive inference is not that of probability, with its addition axiom, but that of likelihood, the concept introduced by Fisher as a measure of relative support among different hypotheses...the author sets out to reconstruct a consistent theory of statistical inference in science...explores estimation, tests of significance, randomization, experimental design, and other statistical topics." A "classic", and fairly not recent, and ideas already out and about, but dadgumit I haven't read it yet, so why not? Bought this for a few bucks and I see on the inside cover a sticker that reads "Llyfrgell Gwyddoniaeth". Obviously some secret code. Heh
January 20, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Reposted
nws.noaa.gov
Space weather update: G4 (Severe) storm conditions first reached at 1938 UTC (2:38pm EST) upon CME shock arrival. Please continue to visit spaceweather.gov for the latest information and updates.
January 19, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Reposted
franzberto.bsky.social
It's World #Logic Day and this year, too, I plan to make valid inferences all day, while ignoring what I'm talking about and whether what I say is true. 🙂

www.unesco.org/en/days/worl...
World Logic Day
14 January
www.unesco.org
January 14, 2026 at 11:31 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
Title-- The Philosophy of Set Theory: An Historical Introduction to Cantor's Paradise Author-- Mary Tiles [from back cover: "...Cantor demonstrated the possibility of a series of transfinite infinite numbers. His methods...enabled him to derive theorems that established a mathematical reality for hierarchy of infinities...This volume offers a guided tour of...the finite universe and classes and Aristotelian logic...Tiles further examines permutations, combinations, and infinite cardinalities; numbering the continuum; Cantor's transfinite paradise; axiomatic set theory; logical objects and logical types; and independence results and the universe of sets; she concludes with views of the constructs and reality of mathematical structure." Not a recent book, 1989. The figure on the cover is an outline of someone running, and a drawing with arrows that at this moment simply puzzles me. Having read this awhile ago, I don't remember if that has significance. Maybe it's the process of running from concrete to full or empty categorizing to arrowing out of that to stacks of infinities. Or something.]
January 13, 2026 at 12:59 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
Author-- Henry Petroski Title-- The Book on the Book Shelf Blurb-- "For anyone interested in the craft of reading [this book] is a compulsive necessity" -- The New York Times Book Review. [Notice: I, poster on bluesky, did not intervene, using square brackets, in the blurb. I imagine that whoever designed the book cover inserted "this book". Is that strange? It seems strange.] [From backcover: "Henry Petroski, 'the poet laureate of technology' and author of the highly acclaimed The Pencil...now sets his sights on perhaps the greatest technological advances of the last two thousand years: the making and storing of books--from papyrus scrolls to precious medieval codices to the book as we know it, from the great library at Alexandria to monastic cells to the Library of Congress...how did books come to be stored and displayed vertically and spine out on shelves? Henry Petroski answers these and virtually every other question we might have about books..."] [I have questions about books. Isn't it fantastic that they will all be answered by Henry in this paperback? I look forward to finding out who the first person was to use books to prop one or more legs of a bed. And who was the first person to throw a book at someone?]
January 13, 2026 at 12:36 PM
Reposted
lauraleonard.bsky.social
How do you catalogue your book collection? 💬📚💙

I use @thestorygraph.com but thinking I might track the titles I own via spreadsheet too. Is there software for this that beats a simple spreadsheet? Looking at Book Buddy but it’s iOS only and I’d like platform freedom. Reading about Libib and others
January 8, 2026 at 10:47 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
Title-- Towards a Phenomenological Axiology: Discovering What Matters. Author-- Roberta De Monticelli. [from the back cover-- ] "This [book] was prompted by the persuasion that the fragility of democracy, and the current public irrelevance of the ideal principles which support it, largely depend on the inability of modern philosophy to overcome the well-entrenched skepticism about the cognitive power of practical reason. The book begins with a phenomenology of cynical consciousness, continues with a survey of still influential theories of value rooted in [1900s] philosophy, and finally offers an outline of a bottom-up axiology that revives the anti-skeptical legacy of phenomenology, without ignoring the standards set by contemporary metaethics." 2021
January 8, 2026 at 10:45 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
Title-- Burdens of Proof: Cryptographic Culture and Evidence Law in the Age of Electronic Documents. Author-- Jean-François Blanchette. [from inside cover--"...Blanchette examines the challenge of defining a new evidentiary framework for electronic documents...In the mid-1990s, cryptographic signatures formed the centerpiece of a world-wide wave of legal reform and of an ambitious cryptographic research agenda that sought to build privacy, anonymity, and accountability into the very infrastructure of the Internet...Blanchette describes the trials of the French bureaucracies as they wrestled with the application of electronic signatures..." Not a recent book, 2012, but there it is TBR.]
January 8, 2026 at 10:34 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
#Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
[title:]Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: the many faces of anonymous [author:] Gabriella Coleman [blurb:] "Essential reading" [from inside cover:] "...The narrative brims with details unearthed from within a notoriously mysterious subculture, whose semi-legendary tricksters--such as Topiary, tflow, Anachaos, and Sabu--emerge as complex, diverse, politically and culturally sophisticated people. Propelled by years of chats and encounters with a multitude of hackers..."
January 6, 2026 at 2:35 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
Wushu Basic Training. By Bow-Sim Mark. The Chinese Wushu Research Institute Book Series No. 5. [Of historical interest: She is the mother of Donnie Yen, here pictured as well when he was younger. You may have seen the young Donnie running around Boston in the 80s, where this book was purchased.]
January 5, 2026 at 2:38 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Post 15 books you read in 2025 that you recommend. One book per day for 15 days, in no particular order.
No explanations, no expectations, just covers.
#15booksin2025challenge #Booksky #bookchallenge #readingchallenge #readersky 💙📚 🔎📙#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕#buchliebe
Mystery Guild Lost Classics Omnibus [Title:] The Nero Wolfe Primer A B C And Be A Villain Black Orchids Champagne For One [Author:] Rex Stout
January 5, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Reposted
timothysnyder.bsky.social
In 2026, we can’t take the easy path by giving in to despair. We have to keep doing something to be ready for the moment the right combination of events align and we can see a better future.
January 3, 2026 at 10:30 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
[Title:] Ethical Formation [Author:] Sabina Lovibond. [From the back cover:] "...[Lovibond] elaborates and defends a modern [circa 2002] practical-reason view of ethics by focusing on virtue or ideal states of character that involve sensitivity to the objective reasons circumstances bring into play. At the heart of her argument is the [guess who] idea of the formation of character through upbringing; these ancient ideas can be made contemporary if one understands them in a naturalized way. She...explores...implications [of the ancient ideas], weaving [in Derrida & Austin]. [She] discusses...critical employment of shared norms of rationality...[and attitude] grounded in hostility to the 'universal' [as] ... two modes of resistance to an existing ethical culture". [The focus on formation is of eternal interest.]
January 4, 2026 at 1:49 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
#Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
[Title with words arranged in 3 directions:] The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations. [Author:] Dietrich Dörner. [ German title: Die Logik des Misslingens. Translation to English by Rita and Robert Kimber.] [First published 1989, this paperback English translation from 1996.] [Cover design Leslie Goldman (from back cover), or, cover design by Suzanne Heiser (from copyright page, so probably the 1989 publication), photo is a crashed steam engine, twisted railroad track, two suited men one jacketed man observing the mess. In 2026 this seems like a metaphorical whathaveyou.] [From the back cover:] "...Dörner identifies the roots of catastrophe, the small, perfectly sensible steps that set the stage for disaster. In incisive analysis of real-life situations and often hilarious computer simulations he helps all those involved in any kind of strategic planning recognize and avoid such logical yet devasting errors."
January 4, 2026 at 1:21 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
The Dialogical Roots of Deduction: Historical, Cognitive, and Philosophical Perspectives on Reasoning. [author:] Catarina Dutilh Novaes. [Cover illustration is from Tree Roots and Trunks, 1890, by Vincent van Gogh.] [from back cover:] [Drawing on]...philosophy, history, psychology, cognitive science, and mathematical practice...[Novaes argues] for an overarching conceptualization of deduction as a dialogical practice...[Her account] highlights the deeply human and in fact social nature of deduction, as embedded in actual human practices..."
December 31, 2025 at 3:49 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
#Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic. Revised Edition. Richard A. Epstein. [from back cover:] "...Epstein's classic book [kinda old, 1967,1977]] on gambling and its mathematical analysis covers the full range of games from penny matching, to blackjack and other casino games, to the stock market (including Black-Scholes analysis). Epstein is witty and insightful, a pleasure to dip into and read and rewarding to study."
December 31, 2025 at 3:39 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
Defending Science--within reason: between scientism and cynicism. [Author:] Susan Haack [2007 announcement for the original 2003 book:] With a New Preface by the Author [from back cover] "...generously illustrated with examples from the history of science, this new and original approach to familiar questions about scientific evidence and method tackles vital questions about science and its place in society...[offering] a balanced understanding of the value, and the limitations, of the scientific enterprise."
December 30, 2025 at 12:47 AM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
#Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR shelf.
[On the spine:] Georges Simenon A Maigret Trio HBJ Harcourt Brace Jovanovich [title page] Georges Simenon A Maigret Trio Maigret's Failure Maigret in Society Maigret and the Lazy Burglar [HBJ in a box] A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. New York
December 29, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted
princess-vimentin.bsky.social
I whole heartedly agree!

Science is not simple.
It is so easy to oversimplify something to a point to where it fits a narrative.

Recall that RFK Jr’s MAHA report misrepresented the conclusions of scientific papers to fit the narrative.

We have to fight back.

🧪 www.statnews.com/2025/12/22/r...
Researchers have a moral obligation to push back when their studies are twisted to promote false health claims
NewsGuard has collected 1,000 provably false statements in its False Claim Fingerprints database. Many involve misrepresented research.
www.statnews.com
December 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
Choose 30 books, one-per-day, no particular order, that you’ve read that were written by women.
#BookSky 📚 #bookchallenge 🔎 📙
#readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
#buchsky #buchliebe
Democratic Reason: politics, collective intelligence, and the rule of the many. [Author:] Hélène Landemore. [from the Prologue:] "...what if the reason we use majority rule in the first place is because it is in general a reliable decision procedure? Immediate objections spring to mind, offering examples of deeply mistaken majorities...Another objection runs even deeper, challenging the very notion that there could be a right or wrong answer to political questions....For democracy and democratic decisions to be fully justified, if not legitimate, it seems there has to be something more to it than the values it embodies...The collective intelligence of the citizens--what I call more broadly 'democratic reason'--might in fact be distinct from individual reason writ large...The ideas of wisdom of the crowds and the collective intelligence of regular citizens have...been slowly gaining ground....In light of these [and other] evolutions, I now see my book as a product of its time, gathering a 'knowledge' already present in popular and academic culture, albeit distributed over many sources and many individuals, and expressed in so many different forms as to lose clarity. [This book] gathers, organizes, and synthesizes this common and tacit knowledge and turns it into a coherent argument for democracy. My hope is that it also adds to this knowledge by putting forward a new argument in favor of democracy based on the correlation between inclusive decision making and cognitive diversity."
December 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
diagonalizable.bsky.social
#Booksky #bookchallenge #books #readers 👀 📖 #booklovers 💕📕📗📘💕
💙📚 Covers of books on your TBR/TBRA shelf
Educating for an Ecological Civilization: interdisciplinary, experiential, and relational learning. [Editors:] Marcus Ford & Stephen Rowe, eds. [from the back cover:] "The new form of civilization we so urgently need will require new ways of thinking and relating--ones that are more socially responsible, ecological, 'mindful', and coherent--and new ways of educating ourselves. The essays in this volume describe features of an emerging, relational vision of civilization and some of the educational practices it suggests." [I seriously doubt the contributors to this volume meant "emerging" to indicate "totally new on earth". I think it's meant in the sense of their perspectives emerging to contribute to an ongoing process.]
December 25, 2025 at 12:58 PM