28 OCT 2015 by ideonexus
The Old Ones
As to what the things were—explanations naturally varied. The common name applied to them was “those ones”, or “the old ones”, though other terms had a local and transient use. Perhaps the bulk of the Puritan settlers set them down bluntly as familiars of the devil, and made them a basis of awed theological speculation. Those with Celtic legendry in their heritage—mainly the Scotch-Irish element of New Hampshire, and their kindred who had settled in Vermont on Governor Wentworth...Folksonomies: otherness
Folksonomies: otherness
1 21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
CBN and ARE as Persuasive Organizations
―People say ‗[CBN] want[s] to turn America into a church,‘‖ Regent employee Ben Johnston protested. ―We don‘t. My God, we want separation of church and state‖ (Johnston interview, March 30, 2006).
Woven into Johnston‘s protest, however, is a defensiveness based on public perception of CBN as threatening the neutrality of the secular. Far more than ARE, CBN relates to what Smith describes as the ―Protestant establishment‖ that was ―routed from social power‖ (2003:26). ... 1 
notes
notes29 MAY 2014 by ideonexus
When Science Became a Profession
The possibilities of modem technology were first in practice realised in England by the energy of a prosperous middle class. Accordingly, the industrial revolution started there. But the Germans explicitly realised the methods by which the deeper veins in the mine of science could be reached. In their technological schools and universities progress did not have to wait for the occasional genius or the occasional lucky thought. Their feats of scholarship during the nineteenth century were the ... 1 notes
notesRising from the prosperous classes and the reliance on occasional genius to a methodology for producing consistent results.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mathematics is the Science of Self-Evident Things
These estimates may well be enhanced by one from F. Klein (1849-1925), the leading German mathematician of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 'Mathematics in general is fundamentally the science of self-evident things.' ... If mathematics is indeed the science of self-evident things, mathematicians are a phenomenally stupid lot to waste the tons of good paper they do in proving the fact. Mathematics is abstract and it is hard, and any assertion that it is simple is true only in a sev... 1 notes
notesBut it is still complex and it is hard.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Taxonomy as Colonial Imperialism
Coleridge pointed to this difference between an organising taxonomy and a dynamic scientific principle or law in essays in The Friend (1819). The psychology of collecting, ordering and naming specimens could also be seen as a form of mental colonising and empire-building. ‘Taxonomy after all, is a form of imperialism. During the nineteenth century, when British naval surveys were flooding London with specimens to be classified, inserting them in their proper niches in the Linnaean hierarchy... 1 notes
notesBritish scientists renaming species that were already named by the native inhabitants of the colonies as a form of oppression.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Vestigial GLO Pseudogene
And the evolutionary prediction that we’ll find pseudogenes has been
fulfilled—amply. Virtually every species harbors dead genes, many of them still active in its relatives. This implies that those genes were also
active in a common ancestor, and were killed off in some descendants but
not in others. Out of about 30,000 genes, for example, we humans carry
more than 2,000 pseudogenes. Our genome—and that of other species—
are truly well populated graveyards of dead genes.
The most fam... 1 notes
notesUsed to produce Vitamin C, alive in most mammals, but dead in humans, primates, and others.
10 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Don't Descriminate Against Species Just Because They are ...
Most human and natural communities now consist both of long-term residents and of new arrivals, and ecosystems are emerging that never existed before. It is impractical to try to restore ecosystems to some ‘rightful' historical state. For example, of the 30 planned plant eradication efforts undertaken in the Galapagos Islands since 1996, only 4 have been successful. We must embrace the fact of ‘novel ecosystems' and incorporate many alien species into management plans, rather than try to ... 1 notes
notesInvasive species are everywhere and they cannot be undone, what's important is how a species interacts with its environment.
19 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Science Virtue and its Impact on History
So proud men have thought, in all walks of life, since Giordano Bruno was burned alive for his cosmology on the Campo de' Fiori in 1600. They have gone about their work simply enough. The scientists among them did not set out to be moralists or revolutionaries. William Harvey and Huygens, Euler and Avogadro, Darwin and Willard Gibbs and Marie Curie, Planck and Pavlov, practised their crafts modestly and steadfastly. Yet the values they seldom spoke of shone out of their work and entered their...Folksonomies: history science virtue
Folksonomies: history science virtue
2 Scientists prove their virtue in their actions.
