Do no harm but take no shit

me: yeah i know, they’re all primary colors, it’s perfect

When you go for an MLS (Master’s of Library Science, which is a thing, and which is usually required for “professional-level” library work [which is also a weird and contentious concept that I won’t go into here]), one of the things you study is the organization of information. This deals with how to determine what a book or other material is “about"—a concept we tongue-in-cheek call “aboutness"—and how to convey that to a potential user of the item and make it easy for them to find. Things like keywords and subject headings, do I put this book about how often wild birds attack aerial drones in with books about birds or with books about technology, if its a fictional novel do I put fantasy in it’s own section or mix it in with all of the other fiction, so on and so on.

OP is organizing books by how they would look for them. OP’s partner is thinking in terms of aboutness. This is a system that works for OP because it’s their personal library: they know basically what books they own and they only own books that are relevant to them, and if they know what the book looks like, that can be a quick way to find it.

In a library that assumes the public (or people who do not own that particular collection of books) are using the collection, that doesn’t work. Books are often re-issued in multiple covers, or re-bound in new covers when they get worn out, and if the user doesn’t know what the book looks like or is expecting a different cover, they’re lost. That’s why non-personal libraries used standardized cataloging systems like the Dewey Decimal System or Library of Congress System to organize a book by what it’s “about”, and then put books about the same or similar topics together, marked with labels and signage so a person unfamiliar with the book or collection can find their way to it.

Basically, OP’s system works for their own personal library, because it’s best suited to how the primary user—OP themselves—looks for books. OP’s librarian partner is coming from a background of thinking in terms of a public-facing collection, where aboutness is the key criteria and communicating it to a user unfamiliar with the collection is the priority.

pros: yay! i finally look like a guy! people think im a man!

I’m 33 now, and I still discover a new joke every time I reread it.

*starts thunderously knocking on the doors of heaven*

In the UK, the book of the peerage is called Burke’s Peerage. Burke sounds like berk, which means a silly/annoying person. So Terry took ‘twerp’, another word for a silly or annoying person, and replaced the e with u. 

Trans silvas very simply translated into german would be über den Wald

Trans silvas -> Transsilvanien -> Überwald

The Venturi Effect is a scientific term referring to the acceleration of a liquid through a narrow tube (like a jet).

Selachii is a classification of sharks. (I discovered this when my stepson got really into sharks)

The Malleus Maleficarum is a very real, very nasty and absolutely batshit insane book from late 15th-century Germany, basically laying out the procedure for catching, torturing, and executing witches. Its title translates to The Hammer of Witches. The other titles are Pratchett's inventions.

via @nevertrustanoracle

For those wondering, what happened was that we were playing the Discworld board game and the host was reading out one of the cards. It was the first time any of us had heard the brand name "Burleigh and Strong-in-the-Arm" spoken out loud and every single Discworld reader at the table had a Reaction.

The first published study about climate change (that I am aware of-- feel free to point out if there's an older one) is an 1896 paper by Svante Arrhenius. He pointed out the link between the greenhouse effect and changes in atmospheric CO2.

Plate tectonics, which the geoscience community now recognizes as near indisputable, was a fringe theory until about the 1960s.

The Golem: What is it, really?

In Jewish folklore and mysticism, the Golem is an animated being crafted from mud or clay and brought to life through sacred words, letters, and ritual. Rather than just a folklore monster, the Golem represents a profound spiritual mirror: a symbol of human potential, the dangers of unbridled creation, and the delicate balance of the universe.

In Kabbalah, creating a Golem was the ultimate test of a mystic’s spiritual alignment and mastery over the universe's building blocks.

Ancient texts teach that the universe was created out of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, viewed as spiritual DNA or cosmic energy channels. To create a Golem, a mystic walked in precise circles around the clay shape, chanting specific combinations of these letters. If the mystic made even a single error in pronunciation or intention, the ritual could fail catastrophically, turning the destructive energy back on the creator.

Traditionally, the Golem is brought to life by writing the Hebrew word Emet (אמת - Truth) on its forehead. To deactivate the Golem, the first letter (Aleph) is erased, leaving the word Met (מת - Dead). Truth is the ultimate animating spark of the universe, and the line between vitality and absolute nothingness is incredibly thin.

While a Golem can move, follow orders, and protect, it lacks a Neshama (the higher, divine soul) and speech. It possesses only Nefesh, the basic animalistic life force. Lacking a moral compass or emotional intelligence, it acts as a raw, unfiltered mirror of its creator’s psyche. If the creator is motivated by fear or anger, the Golem inevitably manifests that chaos.

On a personal level, the Golem represents our raw impulses, anger, and defense mechanisms. We often build emotional armor (a Golem) to protect ourselves from trauma or external threats. But if we leave that protective anger running on autopilot without mindfulness, it eventually grows too big to control and begins to destroy our inner peace and relationships.

How do you see the Golem manifesting in your own life?

Shabbat Shalom 🪞🤍

Somebody on Twitter pointed out that the Big Finish companion Hex is canonically from the year 2021, so when he occasionally abbreviates the word "suspicious" to "sus," it's probably an Among Us reference.