@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems2025-09-05 10:41:07
"""
In the sixteenth century, lunacy was a constant theme that was never questioned. It was still frequent in the seventeenth century, but started to disappear, and by 1707, the year in which Le François asked the question ‘Estne aliquod lunae in corpora humana imperium?’ (Does the moon have any influence over the human body?), after lengthy discussions, the university decided that their reply was in the negative. In the course of the eighteenth century the moon was rarely cited among the causes of madness, even as a possible factor or an aggravation. But right at the end of the century the idea reappears, perhaps under the influence of English medicine, which had never entirely forgotten the moon, and Daquin, followed by Leuret and Guislain, all admitted the influence of the moon on the phases of maniacal excitement, or at the least on the agitation of their patients. But what is important here is not so much the return of the theme as the possibility and conditions necessary for its reappearance. It reappears entirely transformed, filled with a new significance that it did not formerly possess. In its traditional form, it designated an immediate influence, a direct coincidence in time and intersection in space, whose mode of action was entirely situated in the power of the stars. But in Daquin by contrast, the influence of the moon acts through a whole series of mediations, in a kind of hierarchy, surrounding man. The moon acts on the atmosphere with such intensity that it can set in motion a mass as heavy as the ocean. The nervous system, of all the parts that make up the human organism, is the part most sensitive to atmospheric variations, as the slightest variation in temperature, humidity or dryness can have serious effects upon it. The moon therefore, given the important power that its trajectory exerts on the atmosphere, is likely to act most on people whose nervous fibres are particularly delicate:
“Madness is an exclusively nervous condition, and the brain of a madman must therefore be infinitely more susceptible to the influence of the atmosphere, which itself undergoes considerable changes of intensity as a result of the different positions of the moon relative to the earth.” [Daquin, Philosophie de la folie, Paris, 1792]
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)
@cdarwin@c.im2025-07-01 22:59:27
This is part of the overall assault on knowledge that the administration is undertaking.
Everything that has made this nation a shining beacon in any way whatsoever is being dismantled
-- with the worst aspects of American history being held up as aspirational.
Please call Congress if you are able.
🛰️🧪
@dennisfaucher@infosec.exchange2025-09-01 11:05:35
White sausage party in the desert 🙂
Burning Man 2025 census: Middle-aged, highly educated, mostly white
#BurningMan
@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2025-06-24 10:01:27
Azerbaijan gives eight journalists prison sentences ranging from 7.5 to 15 years, as part of a series of media trials set to obliterate independent reporting (Committee to Protect Journalists)
https://cpj.org/2025/06/8-journalists-g…
@arXiv_condmatmtrlsci_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-03 13:23:43
Non-Ferroelectric to Ferroelectric Phase Transition in epitaxial Y:HfO$_2$ via Rapid Thermal Annealing Induced Nitrogen Doping
Soumyajyoti Mondal, Asraful Haque, Binoy Krishna De, Shubham Kumar Parate, Pramod Kumar Yadav, Arup Basak, Kaushal Tiwari, Bhagwati Prasad, Pavan Nukala
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02229
@UP8@mastodon.social2025-07-09 19:03:08
🍫 Cacao agroforestry in Belize hits the sweet spot for people and nature
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/cacao-agroforestry-in-belize-hits-the-sweet-spot-for-people-and-nature/
@iam_jfnklstrm@social.linux.pizza2025-06-12 05:57:18
Defend the right to arrange pride parades in Hungary, support Amnesty int. https://www.amnesty.se/agerahub/ungern-forbjuder-prideparader-krav-att-lagen-upphavs/
@arXiv_eessIV_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-08-12 08:03:13
Sea-Undistort: A Dataset for Through-Water Image Restoration in High Resolution Airborne Bathymetric Mapping
Maximilian Kromer, Panagiotis Agrafiotis, Beg\"um Demir
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07760
@arXiv_astrophHE_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-07-14 09:43:22
Measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum above 2.5 EeV using 19 years of operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory
Diego Ravignani (for the Pierre Auger Collaboration)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08573
@arXiv_astrophHE_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-07-11 09:57:11
The Scintillator Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Collaboration
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07762 https://
