Archive for the ‘ Science ’ Category

Loss of Virtue

The loss of virtue is the worst loss we can suffer. I believe it is one of the causes of obesity. Scientists will scoff at this connection, but this is one area where science is severely deficient – it will not make values important, when they clearly are. We are plagued with many mysterious illnesses (mental and physical). [ READ MORE ]

Science Has Indeed Created Life

Not really, of course, but close enough it doesn’t make any difference. When I was in High School, back in the Fifties, I was the President of our Science Club. Our Science teacher was a creep that liked to fondle the girls, but we overlooked that because he was the Science teacher and that made [ READ MORE ]

The Half-World of Science

This is taken from The Condition of Man by Lewis Mumford, beginning on page 243: — Science opened up the external world and bad it welcome; but shut out the self; it enlarged the horizon but contracted the center. Here lay the beginning of a deeper split in the Western personality. The separation of positive [ READ MORE ]

A Theory of Everything in Twenty Minutes

  • April 25th, 2012
  • Posted in Science

TED – Brian Greene Brian Green has become the media representative for much of the new thinking in physics – a role he seems to relish. I have read both his books, he has been able to condense both of them into this TED talk, without distorting them too much. Think of this as a magic show, [ READ MORE ]

Emergent Properties

I am through reading The Age of Insight, and it will be deposited in the trash, where must of my reading ends up. It was valuable for the first part, a historical review of Viennese Expressionism (with excellent color illustrations) and its discussion of Art History – both entirely new subjects for a kid who grew up [ READ MORE ]

Turning People Into Machines

I continue reading The Condition of Man by Lewis Mumford. This is from the section Automatons as Subjects, on page 177: The aim of despotism was to make men fit more subserviently into the pattern of a larger machine: the state or the factory or the bureau. By diminishing the intensity of human responses By [ READ MORE ]

People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say

Yahoo News Science is finally telling us something useful about ourselves. But something most people do not want to hear: The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed [ READ MORE ]

Other People’s Suffering

NY Times Once again, once I poke my nose into a subject, I get overrun by other people doing the same thing. I just complained that Science had not been much help in understanding ourselves – and here are some scientists weighing in with some solid stuff. “Greed is a robust determinant of unethical behavior,” [ READ MORE ]

Inside and Outside

Life has a center; each organism and each group has its own internal organization. Death occurs when they no longer function cohesively. Humans have the unique ability to operate outside of themselves. This is what has made us great – but, taken too far (as it always has been) has been our downfall. Most people will agree with [ READ MORE ]

Vermilion Cliffs

National Geographic I miss the desert, living as I do now on the edge of a rain-forest. But I get the National Geographic magazine every month, delivered from my Miami address by air-mail. It is one of my luxuries. I take time to read it – not just look at the photographs – and the [ READ MORE ]

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