Tootfinder

"Social Darwinism offered a moral justification for the wild inequities and social cruelties of the late 19th century — the era when, according to Trump, “we were richest.”
The Reemergence of Social Darwinism - Robert Reich
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-reemergence-of-social-darwinism

A refinement of the Lorentz local field expression with impact on the Clausius-Mossotti and Lorentz-Lorenz models
Jeroen van Duivenbode, Anne-Jans Faber
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01993

A refinement of the Lorentz local field expression with impact on the Clausius-Mossotti and Lorentz-Lorenz models
In the 19th century Mossotti and Clausius formulated an expression that relates electrical permittivity of a dielectric to the product of molecular polarizability and number density. Lorenz and Lorentz extended the use of that expression to also cover the dielectric s refractive index. These expressions successfully predict the change of the dielectric s permittivity and refractive index as a function of a wide range of its number density, using the consideration that molecular polarizability s…

I am willing to be pleasantly surprised, but... when all I see from these "major projects" is oil and gas and other 20th century backwards nonsense, I can't help but be pessimistic.
Ironically, a real "nation building" project that would be a huge benefit to Canadians would be more akin to something from the 19th century: Standing up a true public railway corporation and rebuilding a high speed electrified rail network from sea to sea to sea that could reduce transportation costs and increase flexibility and convenience for millions of Canadians and businesses including in remote communities.
But our current leadership is too beholden to existing capitalist interests and status quo business to be that bold. And they're positively allergic to anything done purely in the public interest. How dare we not include some profiteering private corporation… /sarc
#CanPoli #CdnPoli #NaitonBuilding #Transportation #rail
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/premiers-meeting-prime-minister-carney-major-projects-1.7549577

Another fascinating success story for genetic genealogy. Not exactly a #coldcase, but very interesting nonetheless. #NewJersey

new book about medicine history, "droplets" theory etc
"Science writer Carl Zimmer’s latest book is a brilliant history of medicine that takes us from Louis Pasteur’s germ theory of the 19th century to present day. Along the way, it offers an anthropological study of medical culture — a culture capable of ignoring science when it wants to. ...
"If COVID-19 spread in droplets, then it was worthwhile to keep people two metres apart, to put up plexiglas barriers around checkout stands, and make supermarket aisles one-way. Sanitizing countertops could break the chain of infection.
"But if COVID-19 was airborne, all those measures were pointless."
Bit of an exaggeration in that part of the article. The 2m distance does put you outside the densest clouds of exhaled breath, and sanitising countertops helps against other diseases. But yeah. A lot of effort wrongly expended due to the prevailing myth.
#CovidIsAirborne #books #history

On the orientation of historic Christian churches of Fuerteventura: conciliating tradition, winds and topography
Maria Florencia Muratore, Alejandro Gangui, Maitane Urrutia-Aparicio, Carmelo Cabrera, Juan Antonio Belmonte
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.18161

On the orientation of historic Christian churches of Fuerteventura: conciliating tradition, winds and topography
We present the results of an analysis of the precise spatial orientation of colonial Christian churches located in the Canary Island of Fuerteventura (Spain). Our sample consists of 48 churches, most built during the period between the Castilian conquest led by the Norman Jean de Béthencourt in the 15th century and the end of the 19th century. We examine whether the standard tradition was followed regarding the orientation of the apses of historic churches eastwards. While most of the religiou…