30 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Hold Expertise in Esteem
Facts, evidence, reason, logic, an understanding of science -- these are good things. (Applause.) These are qualities you want in people making policy. These are qualities you want to continue to cultivate in yourselves as citizens. (Applause.) That might seem obvious. (Laughter.) That's why we honor Bill Moyers or Dr. Burnell. We traditionally have valued those things. But if you were listening to today's political debate, you might wonder where this strain of anti-intellectualism ca...Folksonomies: expertise
Folksonomies: expertise
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notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Dyson VS Sagan on Nuclear Winter
I do not wish here to get into a technical argument about the details of nuclear winter. I will merely summarize my own struggles with the technical issues. I spent a few weeks in 1985 trying to make nuclear winter go away. The phrase "go away" here is used in the sense customary among scientists. To destroy a new theory, you try to find a simple situation where the theory predicts that something happens and you can prove that the same something does not happen. Then you say that the thing pr... 1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Juan Mendez Secular Invocation
Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask you not to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state.
This room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of fr...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
1 notes
notesuan Mendez, member of the Arizona House of Representatives, delivered a humanist invocation to the Arizona House of Representatives on May 21, 2013.
22 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Representative Juan Mendez Atheist Prayer
Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask you not to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state.
This room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of fr... 1 notes
notesGiven as the opening-prayer for the start of the Arizona Legislature.
28 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
"Sagan" as a Unit of Measurement
Carl Sagan was an American cosmologist, astronomer, and absolute tireless champion of the sciences in the public sphere. He was the author, co-editor, or editor of almost two dozen science books, and the host the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos. Sagan was well known for his excitement in talking about science, especially cosmological issues, and would strongly enunciate the M sound in millions and the B sound in billions to emphasize just how big the numbers were and properly diff... 1 notes
notesFrom the trademark "Billions and Billions." "Billions" is plural, meaning greater than two, so billions and billions at minimum equals four.
18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
The "Sagan Effect"
With Cosmos, Sagan sought to put an end to the fear and to inspire the kind of wonder Hubble's lectures had inspired in the 1930s and 1940s and the Moon landing had inspired in 1969. The series was enormously successful. For the first time since Hubble, a huge audience was engaged in exploring the grand questions of life, nature, the structure of the uni¬ verse, mythology, and what it might all mean, how it might all fit together, the mystery of it all. It examined how our search for meaning...Folksonomies: science popularization science exponent
Folksonomies: science popularization science exponent
1 notes
notesThe fact that Carl Sagan was denied tenure at Harvard because of the jealousy of his peers over his public persona.
13 APR 2012 by ideonexus
What It Means to be a Scientist
In reality, scientists are just people like you and me. Most of us don't wear lab coats (I don't) or work with bubbling beakers or sparking van de Graf generators (unless they are chemists or physicists who actually work with that equipment). Most scientists are not geniuses either. It is true that, on average, scientists tend to be better educated than the typical person on the street, but that education is a necessity to learn all the information that allows a scientist to make discoveries....Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
1 It's not about how they dress or their education, but their adherence to the scientific method.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Carl Sagan's Encounter With a Dolphin's Theory of Mind
I was swimming in a large indoor pool with Peter. When I threw the pool's
rubber ball to Peter (as was natural for me to have done), he dove under the ball as it hit the water and batted it with his snout accurately into my hands. After a
few throws and precision returns, Peter's returns became increasingly inaccurate –
forcing me to swim first to one side of the pool and then to the other in order to
retrieve the ball. Eventually, it became clear that Peter chose not to place the ball
with...The dolphin began to experiment with him during a game of catch.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Big History as a Fable Part II
Sex and death evolved – processes that vastly increased the rate of natural
selection. Some organisms evolved hard parts, climbed onto, and survived on the
land. The pace of production of more complex forms accelerated. Flight evolved.
Enormous four-legged beasts thundered across the steaming jungles. Small beasts
emerged, born live, instead of in hard-shelled containers filled with replicas of the
early oceans. They survived through swiftness and cunning – and increasingly long
periods i...Folksonomies: wonder big history
Folksonomies: wonder big history
1 Carl Sagan's account of the history of our Universe continued.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Venus is Hell
Venus thus seems to be a place quite different from the Earth, and alarmingly
unappealing: Broiling temperatures, crushing pressures, noxious and corrosive
gases, sulfurous smells, and a landscape immersed in a ruddy gloom.
Curiously enough, there is a place astonishingly like this in the superstition,
folklore and legends of men. We call it Hell. In the older belief – that of the
Greeks, for example – it was the place where all human souls journeyed after
death. In Christian times it ha... 1 notes
notesVery similar to it as Carl Sagan describes the planet.
