02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Science is a Relay Race
Indeed, there is a particular problem with finding endings in science. Where do these science stories really finish? Science is truly a relay race, with each discovery handed on to the next generation. Even as one door is closing, another door is already being thrown open. So it is with this book. The great period of Victorian science is about to begin. The new stories are passed into the hands of Michael Faraday, John Herschel, Charles Darwin …and the world of modern science begins to rush...
1 It is difficult to know where to end a story about science, because the discoveries never cease and will continue into the future.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Space Flight May Mature Us as a Civilization
In all the history of mankind, there will be only one generation that will be first
to explore the Solar System, one generation for which, in childhood, the planets
are distant and indistinct discs moving through the night sky, and for which, in old
age, the planets are places, diverse new worlds in the course of exploration.
There will be a time in our future history when the Solar System will be
explored and inhabited. To them, and to all who come after us, the present
moment will be a piv... 1 
notes
notesIt's the first step in realizing our place in the bigger picture.
04 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Difference Between the Internet and the World Wide Web
It seems that most people, even intelligent and well-informed people, are confused about the difference between the Internet and the Web. No one has expressed this misunderstanding more clearly than Tom Wolfe in Hooking Up:
I hate to be the one who brings this news to the tribe, to the magic Digikingdom, but the simple truth is that the Web, the Internet, does one thing. It speeds up the retrieval and dissemination of information, partially eliminating such chores as going outdoors to the mai... 1 notes
notesHillis notes that people equate the www with the internet, failing to realize they are actually very different things, with www being just one thing out of many running on the internet. He compares it to people equating electricity with electric lights, and failing to realize all the other applications the invention makes possible.
