31 OCT 2018 by ideonexus
Insights on Being Well-Read
What is the true point of a bookish life? Note I write “point,” not “goal.” The bookish life can have no goal: It is all means and no end. The point, I should say, is not to become immensely knowledgeable or clever, and certainly not to become learned. Montaigne, who more than five centuries ago established the modern essay, grasped the point when he wrote, “I may be a man of fairly wide reading, but I retain nothing.” Retention of everything one reads, along with being mentally i... 1 
notes
notes21 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
Anecdote of Shamans Responding to Star Trek
DI for documenting his journey to shamanism in the 1994 book Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of African Shaman. He writes about the proverbial dive into the rabbit hole as he was studying with the elders of his community and balancing his newfound wisdom with his Western education. Some paints a picture of a different path to knowledge that contradicts the norms of Western conventions. According to him. the Dagara have no word for the supernatural. "For us, ... 1 notes
notes22 AUG 2016 by ideonexus
The Whole Child Mantra
Recently, I have been struck by the research concerning mindfulness. Just allowing our children time at the beginning of the day to meditate seems to do wonders in focusing them for the day. Even something as simple as repeating a phrase seems to alter our brainwaves and wire us for success. So I posit, after all we know, both through research and our own experiences, that we check ourselves every day and ask, Did I support the whole child today?
Let it be our mantra—healthy, safe, engaged...Folksonomies: mindfulness whole child
Folksonomies: mindfulness whole child
1 notes
notes07 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Expanding the Scope of School Subjects
We should not retreat to a curriculum advisory
committee and ask, “Now where should
we fit this topic into the already overloaded
curriculum?” Although we cannot discard all
the fragmented subjects in our present school
system and start from scratch, we can and
should ask all teachers to stretch their subjects
to meet the needs and interests of the whole
child. Working within the present subject-centered
curriculum, we can ask math and science
teachers as well as English and social studie...Folksonomies: education whole child
Folksonomies: education whole child
1 notes
notes12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Magical Number Seven
What about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For ... 1 notes
notesOccurs in many cultural artifacts, but there is not obvious profundity to the number.
09 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Wonders of Science
The steam-engine in its manifold applications, the crime-decreasing gas-lamp, the lightning conductor, the electric telegraph, the law of storms and rules for the mariner's guidance in them, the power of rendering surgical operations painless, the measures for preserving public health, and for preventing or mitigating epidemics,—such are among the more important practical results of pure scientific research, with which mankind have been blessed and States enriched. 
1 A survey of them and how the improve the quality of life in the 1850s.
23 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Untouched Forests as Temples
Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature: no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body. 1 notes
notesDarwin remarks on the wonders filling untouched forests he explored in his voyages.
16 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Creator Put the Sun in the Center of the Universe
Copernicus, who rightly did condemn This eldest systeme, form'd a wiser scheme;
In which he leaves the Sun at Rest, and rolls
The Orb Terrestial on its proper Poles;
Which makes the Night and Day by this Career,
And by its slow and crooked Course the Year.
The famous Dane, who oft the Modern guides,
To Earth and Sun their Provinces divides:
The Earth's Rotation makes the Night and Day,
The Sun revolving through th'Eccliptic Way
Effects the various seasons of the Year,
Which in their Turn for... 1 notes
notesBecause this makes more sense according to Richard Blackmore... Little did he know the Sun would soon be ousted as the center.
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 beau...Folksonomies: philosophy naturalism
Folksonomies: philosophy naturalism
Everything in nature is interesting and significant.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mysteries are Served by Science
Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one - million - year - old light. A vast pattern - of which I am a part... What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth tha...A poet who cannot write about the wonders of science because they understand how it works is a poor bard.
