17 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
The Origin of Interest
The international trading became the most profitable of all enterprises, and great land-"owners" with clear-cut king's "deeds" to their land went often to international gold moneylenders. The great land barons underwrote the building of enterprisers' ships with their cattle or other real wealth, the regenerative products of their lands, turned over to the lender as cccollateral. If the ship did come back, both the enterpriser and the bankers realized a great gain. The successful ship ventur...From when bankers would hold cattle as collateral, and the cattle had calves. The calves were the interest.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Columbus As An Example of the Scientific Method
The role of hypothesis in research can be discussed more effectively if we consider first some examples of discoveries which originated from hypotheses. One of the best illustrations of such a discovery is provided by the story of Christopher Columbus' voyage; it has many of the features of a classic discovery in science. (a) He was obsessed with an idea—that since the world is round he could reach the Orient by sailing West, (b) the idea was by no means original, but evidently he had obtai...His hypothesis, his observations, his search for funding, his experiment, his refusal to give up certain preconceptions, and his meager life and failure to be the first.