11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Science, Not Knowledge, is Power
A science is not mere knowledge, it is knowledge which has undergone a process of intellectual digestion. It is the grasp of many things brought together in one, and hence is its power; for, properly speaking, it is Science that is power, not Knowledge.., Science is knowledge digested.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Stanley Kubrick Sought Insurance Against the Discovery of...
During the filming of 2001, Kubrick, who obviously has a grasp for detail,
became concerned that extraterrestrial intelligence might be discovered before the
$10.5 million film was released, rendering the plot line obsolete, if not erroneous.
Lloyd's of London was approached to underwrite an insurance policy protecting
against losses should extraterrestrial intelligence be discovered. Lloyd's of London,
which insures against the most implausible contingencies, declined to write such a
policy....Because it would ruin the premise of his film 2001.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Natural Laws are Universal
...the order of the Universe is not an
assumption; it's an observed fact. We detect the light from distant
quasars only because the laws of electromagnetism are the same
ten billion light years away as here. The spectra of those quasars
are recognizable only because the same chemical elements are
present there as here, and because the same laws of quantum
mechanics apply. The motion of galaxies around one another
follows familiar Newtonian gravity. Gravitational lenses and
binary pulsar spin-...The laws of nature are comprehensible and the same across the Universe.