24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
A Star for Everyone Who Ever Lived
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber
the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet
Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred
billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this
Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and...Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
Folksonomies: speculation science fiction
1 
notes
notesIn just our own galaxy.
08 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Individual Cannot Escape Reliance on Society
The individual cannot escape his dependence on society even when he acts on his own. A scientist who spends his lifetime in a laboratory may delude himself that he is a modern version of Robinson Crusoe, but the material of his activity and the apparatus and skills with which he operates are social products. They are inerasable signs of the cooperation which binds men together. The very language in which a scientist thinks has been learned in a particular society. Social context also determin... 1 notes
notesEveryone is connected to everyone else, no matter how secluded. Even our motivations, to become a CEO or a Scientist, stem from the society in which we are born.
22 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Being in a Car Affects Our Sense of Personal Space
Psychologists have noted that people driving a motor car react in a manner that is
often completely unlike their normal social behaviour as regards their territories. It seems that a motor vehicle sometimes has a magnifying effect on the size of a person’s personal space. In some cases, their territory is magnified by up to ten times the normal size, so the driver feels that he has a claim to an area of 9 to 10 metres in front of and behind his motor car. When another driver cuts in front o...Folksonomies: perception personal space
Folksonomies: perception personal space
1 notes
notesThe car magnifies our personal space perception, making us angry when others violate it.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science and Education Feed One Another
The progress of the sciences secures the progress of the art of instruction, which again
accelerates in its turn that of the sciences; and this reciprocal influence, the action of
which is incessantly increased, must be ranked in the number of the most prolific and
powerful causes of the improvement of the human race. At present, a young man,
upon finishing his studies and quitting our schools, may know more of the principles
of mathematics than Newton acquired by profound study, or discovere... 1 notes
notesProgress in one secures progress in the other.
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Geology is a Healthy Science
Apart from its healthful mental training as a branch of ordinary education, geology as an open-air pursuit affords an admirable training in habits of observation, furnishes a delightful relief from the cares and routine of everyday life, takes us into the open fields and the free fresh face of nature, leads us into all manner of sequestered nooks, whither hardly any other occupation or interest would be likely to send us, sets before us problems of the highest interest regarding the history o...Folksonomies: geology
Folksonomies: geology
1 notes
notesIt gets you out in the open air and trains you in virtues of observation.
09 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Fascination Found in Manure
...after my first feeling of revulsion had passed, I spent three of the most entertaining and instructive weeks of my life studying the fascinating molds which appeared one by one on the slowly disintegrating mass of horse-dung. Microscopic molds are both very beautiful and absorbingly interesting. The rapid growth of their spores, the way they live on each other, the manner in which the different forms come and go, is so amazing and varied that I believe a man could spend his life and not ex... 1 notes
notesDavid Fairchild describes the endless forms of mold found here.
21 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Looking to the Present to Understand the Past
In using the present in order to reveal the past, we assume that the forces in the world are essentially the same through all time; for these forces are based on the very nature of matter, and could not have changed. The ocean has always had its waves, and those waves have always acted in the same manner. Running water on the land has ever had the same power of wear and transportation and mathematical value to its force. The laws of chemistry, heat, electricity, and mechanics have been the sa...Folksonomies: induction
Folksonomies: induction
1 notes
notesOceans have always had waves, streams have always worn down rocks, and other natural laws have always been the same throughout time.
17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Shattered Glass as a Metaphor for Taxonomy
Let us suppose that we have laid on the table... [a] piece of glass... and let us homologize this glass to a whole order of plants or birds. Let us hit this glass a blow in such a manner as but to crack it up. The sectors circumscribed by cracks following the first blow may here be understood to represent families. Continuing, we may crack the glass into genera, species and subspecies to the point of finally having the upper right hand corner a piece about 4 inches square representing a sub-s...
1 The smaller pieces you smash it into, the more specific the classification. TODO: I don't understand the "4 inches" part at the end concerning sub-species.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Art Imitates Nature
The function of Art is to imitate Nature in her manner of operation. Our understanding of "her manner of operation" changes according to advances in the sciences.And our understanding of nature changes through science. So science informs art.
19 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
How Euclid Became a Physician
Let me tell you how at one time the famous mathematician Euclid became a physician. It was during a vacation, which I spent in Prague as I most always did, when I was attacked by an illness never before experienced, which manifested itself in chilliness and painful weariness of the whole body. In order to ease my condition I took up Euclid's Elements and read for the first time his doctrine of ratio, which I found treated there in a manner entirely new to me. The ingenuity displayed in Euclid...Folksonomies: wonder mathematics
Folksonomies: wonder mathematics
1 notes
notesBolzano reads a mathematical doctrine by Euclid when he is ill and immediately feels better.
