23 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 Nothing Exists but Atoms

The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space. Everything else is merely thought to exist. The worlds are unlimited. They come into being and perish. Nothing can come into being from that which is not nor pass away into that which is not. Further, the atoms are unlimited in size and number, and they are borne along in the whole universe in a vortex, and thereby generate all composite things—-fire, water, air, earth. For even these are conglomerations of given atoms. And it is...
Folksonomies: reductionism
Folksonomies: reductionism
  1  notes

Everything else is "merely thought to exist."

17 NOV 2011 by ideonexus

 Syzygy

No direct quote for this yet.
Folksonomies: definitions concepts syzygy
Folksonomies: definitions concepts syzygy
   notes

Pronounced "siz-i-jee" refers to planets coming into alignment in astronomy. When the Sun and Moon are lined up on the same side of the Earth, this state of syzygy creates higher and lower tides than are normally experienced.

21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 A Noble and Enlightened Way to Spend our Short Time

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.
  1  notes

Understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it.