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...
Folksonomies: history economics banking
Folksonomies: history economics banking
  1  notes

From when bankers would hold cattle as collateral, and the cattle had calves. The calves were the interest.

28 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 Watch a Scientist's Deeds, Not Words

If you want to find out anything from the theoretical physicists about the methods they use, I advise you to stick closely to one principle: don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. To him who is a discoverer in this field the products of his imagination appear so necessary and natural that he regards them, and would like to have them regarded by others, not as creations of thought but as given realities.
Folksonomies: science practice
Folksonomies: science practice
  1  notes

To learn what makes them successful.

14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 Science Cannot be Celebrated With Poetry

The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists. Unfortunately poetry cannot celebrate them because their deeds are concerned with things, not persons, and are, therefore, speechless. When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.
  1  notes

Because science deals with things and not persons.