Natural HistoryThe Elder Pliny, H. 1868-1944 Rackham
Natural History
by The Elder Pliny, H. 1868-1944 Rackham · first published 2022
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2011–2026first – last mentioned
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…said, would require the universe to be unimaginably big and empty, much more so than any other observation they could make at the time would suggest. If you have the time, I recommend reading Pliny’s Natural History. I think it really shows how much more open-minded these people were than we give them credit for. They just didn’t have the technology we have.
on “After the AI Crash” ↗Apropos of nothing in particular, a sentence from Pliny's Natural History: - "I myself have seen the fleece upon the living animal dyed purple, scarlet, and violet,—a pound and a half of dye being used for each,—just as though they had been produced by Nature in this form,…
on “The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times (2006)” ↗>I find it hard to believe that in the millennia of recorded observations of animals, that no one observed a single instance of rock-bashing or stick-throwing. Pliny's Natural History, which every natural philosopher and biologist in the west up until the 18th century likely read, is full of observations of interesting and apparently more than instinctual animal behavior, including…
on “Diver Snaps First Photo of Fish Using Tools” ↗This sounded interesting so I looked it up; it seems it might be a popular misconception? > The term asbestos is traceable to Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder's manuscript Natural History and his use of the term asbestinon, meaning "unquenchable". While Pliny or his nephew Pliny the Younger is popularly credited with recognising the detrimental effects of asbestos on human beings, examination…
on “When Asbestos Was a Gift Fit for a King” ↗Has there been a time when authenticity was guaranteed? Books like "English as She is Spoke", Pliny's "Natural History", "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", fanciful paintings and drawings of exotic animals, explorers' dubious memoirs, paid mourners/celebrants/demonstrators, nasty allegations against rival political/religious…
on “Hocus focus: how magicians made a fortune on Facebook” ↗…written as notes for lectures to students. Most texts written by philosophers of the day would also have included a lot more analysis. Of course, Pliny referred to the first book and others in writing his Natural History, but it ended up as a sort of Dummy's Guide to Natural History, trying to compose a really wide subject matter into a few books over 2 years, and obviously getting a lot wrong in the process. It's fair…
on “Pliny the Elder, “The Natural History”, Book I (79)” ↗I'm quite pleased with my submission: Pliny the Elder, “The Natural History”, Book I (79) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15660224
on “A True Story (150 AD)” ↗…private property / a resource. In Roman times... We know, for instance, that Elba was almost totally deforested during the Roman period to fuel the bloomeries smelting the ore and Pliny notes in his Natural History that smelting (not always of iron) had substantially reduced forest-stocks in parts of Gaul and Campagnia. Roman iron production in the eastern High Weald of England may have deforested something like…
on “Wild lynx could be reintroduced into Scottish Highlands” ↗…of pre-modern iron production was also significant. We know, for instance, that Elba was almost totally deforested during the Roman period to fuel the bloomeries smelting the ore and Pliny notes in his Natural History that smelting (not always of iron) had substantially reduced forest-stocks in parts of Gaul and Campagnia. Roman iron production in the eastern High Weald of England may have deforested something like…
on “London's Thames, once biologically dead, has been coming back to life” ↗"We all agree on the earth’s shape. For surely we always speak of the round ball of the Earth" - Pliny (Natural History, II.64). In year 77. If the earth was commonly spoken of in day to day language as the round ball, than i would assume this meant that even commoners knew that it was round.
on “Insects and other animals have consciousness” ↗…monograph, The Nature of Animal Light, summarizing early work on bioluminescence. Harvey notes that Aristotle mentions light produced by dead fish and flesh, and that both Aristotle and Pliny the Elder (in his Natural History) mention light from damp wood. > He records that Robert Boyle experimented on these light sources, and showed that both they and the glowworm require air for light to be produced. Harvey notes that in…
on “Why does the Salish Sea glow in the dark?” ↗…Moon (and Sun) and the tides became known to the Greeks, although the exact date of discovery is unclear; references to it are made in sources such as Pytheas of Massilia in 325 BC and Pliny the Elder's Natural History in 77 AD." Your [1] even says he rejected "rejected Greek thought that moonlight influenced the tides and considered that the Moon had some astrological virtue that attracted the sea." How do you conclude…
on “Tides are weirder than you think” ↗