10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Automation Improves Safety
The airports with their self-check-in kiosks and restaurants full of iPads are staffed by thousands of human workers (most using mano machine can do? Or, like operating an elevator and driving a car, is it because at first we don't trust machines to do a job where lives are at risk? Elevators became much safer as soon as the human operators were replaced. The human-hating Skynet from the Terminator movies could hardly do a better job of killing people than we do killing ourselves with cars. H...Folksonomies: automation
Folksonomies: automation
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notes
notes06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Jefferson Sees Science Beginning a Revolution
Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people. An insurrection has consequently begun of science talents and courage against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty and vice, could not be rest... 1 notes
notesAgainst privilege and rank.
05 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Questions Without Answer
Daddy,' she says, 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?'
Steadfastly, even desperately, we have been refusing to commit ourselves. But our questioner is insistent. The truth alone will satisfy her. Nothing less. At long last we gather up courage and issue our solemn pronouncement on the subject: 'Yes!'
So it is here.
'Daddy, is it a wave or a particle?' 'Yes.'
'Daddy, is the electron here or is it there?'
'Yes.'
'Daddy, do scientists really know what they are talking about?'
'Yes!' Folksonomies: questions conundrums
Folksonomies: questions conundrums
1 notes
notesExample of an inquisitive child asking the hard questions of science.
02 FEB 2012 by TGAW
What We Can Celebrate About Malcolm X on May 19th
Malcolm’s not a static intellectual figure — his mind journeyed throughout his life, he held firm to his principles but was also strong enough to re-evaluate his beliefs and change when he deemed change is right. He was far from a flip-flopper who moved because it was politically expedient — and thankfully not an intellectual mule who refused to change when he uncovered new information and perspectives. Malcolm was intelligent and bold enough to be open-minded. His courage to be a truth...Folksonomies: malcolmx selfcorrectingalgorithm
Folksonomies: malcolmx selfcorrectingalgorithm
1 notes
notesMalcolm's evolution of thought and his own self-error correcting mechanism is something that should be embraced and celebrated.
23 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Problems Encountered While Walking Along the Street
If you walk along the street you will encounter a number of scientific problems. Of these, about 80 per cent are insoluble, while 191/2 per cent are trivial. There is then perhaps half a per cent where skill, persistence, courage, creativity and originality can make a difference. It is always the task of the academic to swim in that half a per cent, asking the questions through which some progress can be made. 1 notes
notes80 percent are insoluble, 19.5 percent are trivial, and 0.5 percent require hard work to solve and that is the realm of the academic.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Shelley Sonnet on Ballooning
Bright ball of flame that thro the gloom of even
Silently takes thine ethereal way
And with surpassing glory dimmst each ray
Twinkling amid the dark blue depth of Heaven;
Unlike the Fire thou bearest, soon shalt thou
Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom,
Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glow
A watch-light by the patriot’s lonely tomb,
A ray of courage to the opprest and poor…Folksonomies: poetry ballooning
Folksonomies: poetry ballooning
1 The balloon as a "ray of courage."
10 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Patience, Attentiveness, and Thoroughness are Naturalist ...
Each branch of natural history
study demands its special abilities: the superior ear of
the birdwatcher, the attention to minute detail of the
entomologist, the courage of the herpetologist wading
into swamps full of poisonous snakes. But some “field
skills” are nearly ubiquitous. Perhaps the most
important are patience, perseverance, thoroughness
and attentiveness. The birdwatcher searching for that
one rare gull on a pond among seven hundred
common ones may have to watch for hours in bi... 1 notes
notesWithout them the naturalist would miss the rarities in nature.
30 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
What is the Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of enlightenment.Folksonomies: enlightenment sapere aude
Folksonomies: enlightenment sapere aude
1 notes
notesThe maturation of mankind into a daring world of self-education.
17 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Ronald Reagan's Memory Problems
President Ronald Reagan, who spent World War Two in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he apparently confused a movie he had seen with a reality he had not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr Reagan told an epic story of World War Two courage and sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer - that made quite an impression on me, ... 1 notes
notesReagan recalled things as real that happened only in his movies, what does this mean for humans and major policy decisions?
17 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Charles Dickens on Visions
I have always noticed a prevalent want of courage, even among persons of superior intelligence and culture, as to imparting their own psychological experiences when those have been of a strange sort. Almost all men are afraid that what they could relate in such wise would find no parallel or response in a listener's internal life, and might be suspected or laughed at. A truthful traveller who should have seen some extraordinary creature in the likeness of a sea-serpent, would have no fear of ...Folksonomies: skepticism
Folksonomies: skepticism
1 notes
notesThe problem with visions only experienced by a single person.
