Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
The Great Library Rescue of Timbuktu (atavist.com)
99 points by stevenmays on June 30, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 13 comments


If you want to help, the US-based organization supporting the efforts in Timbuktu (that I volunteered for a couple years back to set up their website and digital fundraising) is T160k: https://t160k.org/campaign/libraries-in-exile/


The story opens with the destruction of hundreds of ~15th century manuscripts. I, for one, would like to know what they were, what was in them and an explanation of what has been erased from the world, for all people, for all time for what may be the most oxymoronic reason ever conceived.


I recently learned about the book "Beyond Timbuktu" http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050822 but still haven't read it. It seems a good introduction to the subject.


The irony of course is that jihadists seeking to burn down libraries will unwittingly desecrate copies of the Quran.


I wonder how they explain that away.


Easy. They don't.


[flagged]


> Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.

> Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face-to-face conversation. Avoid gratuitous negativity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


Does an ethics course provide some sort of framework to think about questions like this? (as a thought experiment?)


That hopefully was sarcasm. Poe's Law.


I'd like to think so, too. Even as attempted humor, though, I just didn't see any way that was going to end up in a conversation worth having.


Check their post history tho.


I lost 4 karma points. I have now 88.

To be honest though, it would be a nice moment to discuss the creation of dystopian situations by organized AND unorganized irresponsible biological adults who declare there feelings/instincts undiscussable by a diety and thus end the conversation, long before the Flamethrowerbrigade can appear. But as long as cause and effect are timewise detached enough, such irresponsibilitys are non-discurse worthy it seems. It could also be a nice place to discuss other factions who declare there feelings absolute and holy undiscussable, thus ending any conversation. It could also be a masterpiece about how everyone in his corner, beeing smug gets nobody anywhere in rich countrys and civil wars going in poor countrys.

But it shall be none of those. Thus a change of program is needed:

The Following is the american first amendment as a poem,written with twelve Socks around each hand: mmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmMMMMMMmMmmmmmMMMM mmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmMMMMMMmMmmmmmMMMM mmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmMMMMMMmMmmmmmMMMM To discover truth, one must viciously attack ones own felt certaintys. Im certain moderation was right here.


Are you feeling ok.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: