11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
We Have Hunter-Gatherer Brains
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty. 1 
notes
notesAttempting to work in a modern world where some hoard their comforts and other go without.
05 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Our Purpose is to Expand the Realm of the Known
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory glance at the history of the biological sciences during the last quarter of a century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowled... 1 notes
notesJust a little bit in each generation.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Biology is Too complex for Mathematical Explanation
There is a strange disparity between the sciences of inert matter and those of life. Astronomy, mechanics, and physics are based on concepts which can be expressed, tersely and elegantly, in mathematical language. They have built up a universe as harmonious as the monuments of ancient Greece. They weave about it a magnificent texture of calculations and hypotheses. They search for reality beyond the realm of common thought up to unutterable abstractions consisting only of equations of symbols...Folksonomies: biology mathematics
Folksonomies: biology mathematics
1 notes
notesThe biologist is inundated by a mass of facts.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Herschel Sees Spirituality in Science
To the natural philosopher there is no natural object unimportant or trifling … A mind that has once imbibed a taste for scientific enquiry has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations. One would think that Shakespeare had such a mind in view when he describes a contemplative man finding
Tongues in trees — books in the running brooks
Sermons in stones — and good in everything
Where the uninformed and unenquiring eye perceives neither novelty nor beauty, he...Folksonomies: philosophy naturalism
Folksonomies: philosophy naturalism
1 Everything in nature is interesting and significant.
11 SEP 2011 by TGAW
Vonnegut on Family Values and Extended Family
When I celebrate the idea of a family and family values, I don't mean a man and a woman and their kids, new in town, scared to death, and not knowing whether to shit or go blind in the midst of economic and technological and ecological and political chaos. I'm talking about what so many Americans need so frantically: what I had in Indianapolis before World War Two, and what the characters in Thornton Wilder's Our Town had, and what the Ibos haveFolksonomies: vonnegut extendedfamily
Folksonomies: vonnegut extendedfamily
06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Romantic View of Birth
You're lying in bed in the labor room of the hospital and you're about as exhausted, as utterly worn out, as you'll ever be. Giving birth is this peculiar combination of determination and compulsion. It's you pushing, and you push in a more concentrated, focused way than you've ever done anything, but in another sense you don't decide or try to push or even want to. You are just swept away by the action. It's like a cross between running a marathon and having the most enormous. shattering, ir... 1 notes
notesA beautiful description of the idealized version of labor and bonding with the newborn.
06 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Lincoln on the Enthronement of Corporations
As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless (emphasis mine). 1 notes
notesThere is a valid dispute as to whether these words were actually Lincolns, or if they were fabricated to support a political campaign 20 years after his death; regardless, they are prescient words eloquently spoken for their time, no matter the speaker.
