05 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
Don't Neglect Your Future You
There is one person whose wants and needs you routinely ignore, opting instead to tend to your own immediate desires, and that person is future you. When it comes to making decisions that will have some effect on your long-term health or happiness — for example, whether or not to go to the gym today, in keeping with your New Year’s resolution — current you is always finding a new way to steal from future you. It’s time the two yous got better acquainted.
This concept in itself may n... 1 
notes
notes17 AUG 2016 by ideonexus
Mastery-Based Learning
Also known as mastery learning, competency-based learning is a growing focus of education conversations. The premise is that students learn best by mastering a particular learning goal before moving on to new material that builds on that goal. Instead of a group of students all moving from one topic to the next with varying degrees of understanding, each student continues to work on a topic until he or she has mastered the content. Because students of the same age advance through the curricul...Folksonomies: education technology
Folksonomies: education technology
1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Chris Allen Secular Invocation
Let us give thanks for all that we have, cherish and possess–especially for the capacity to care and love, to improve ourselves, our families and community.
Whatever one’s viewpoint, either derived from faith or from reason informed by science, having the capacity to appreciate and thank others is ingrained in the DNA of The Human Condition.
We give thanks to the volunteers, the heart and soul of our community, who donate their time and talents to help the less fortunate.
And, in this ...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
1 notes
notesChris Allen, president of Florida Humanist Association and humanist celebrant and chaplain, delivered a secular invocation at the Orlando City Council meeting on June 23,2014.
01 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The 12-Note Octave is Too Good to be True
[Playing notes on a piano] One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine... Ten... Eleven... Twelve...
12 different pitches, and then back to where we began. Incredible! Fantastic! The mystical number 12. There are 12 hours in the A.M. and 12 hours in the P.M. The new day begins at 12 midnight. There are 12 months in a year. Both the Western and Chinese Zodiac have 12 signs. Further, the Chinese use a 12-year cycle for reckoning time. There are 12 eggs in a dozen. 12 d... 1 notes
notesThe number 12 seems so perfect, but a 12-note scale made of 3/2 ratios brings the circle around to a point a little sharper than the the next octave.
19 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Science is Culture
...science, like art, is a cultural expression that makes a nation worth defending. Like great art and great music, its true value lies in exploring the unknown. Today, the opposite argument, the commoditization of science, is virtually the only one heard. It has metastasized from the smaller-minded appeals of the cold war to all of human learning and higher education. Education and knowledge are no longer values of truth and beauty that make life worth living, they are means to the ends of g... 1 notes
notesScience has values, it provides meaning, and it can quickly be destroyed through tyranny.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Candles and Animals Both Need Oxygen
If a small animal and a lighted candle be placed in a closed flask, so that no air can enter, in a short time the candle will go out, nor will the animal long survive. ... The animal is not suffocated by the smoke of the candle. ... The reason why the animal can live some time after the candle has gone out seems to be that the flame needs a continuous rapid and full supply of nitro-aereal particles. ... For animals, a less aereal spirit is sufficient. ... The movements of the lungs help not a...Folksonomies: physiology respiration
Folksonomies: physiology respiration
1 notes
notesQuoting John Mayow.
08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Formation of Grains of Sand
On the basis of the results recorded in this review, it can be claimed that the average sand grain has taken many hundreds of millions of years to lose 10 per cent. of its weight by abrasion and become subangular. It is a platitude to point to the slowness of geological processes. But much depends on the way things are put. For it can also be said that a sand grain travelling on the bottom of a river loses 10 million molecules each time it rolls over on its side and that representation impres...
1 Miraculous in numbers.
25 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Science is More Than Lone Geniuses
The progress of science depends less than is usually believed on the efforts and performance of the individual genius ... many important discoveries have been made by men of ordinary talents, simply because chance had made them, at the proper time and in the proper place and circumstances, recipients of a body of doctrines, facts and techniques that rendered almost inevitable the recognition of an important phenomenon. It is surprising that some historian has not taken malicious pleasure in w... 1 notes
notesIt is mostly individuals in the right place at the right time and happy accidents.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Virtue of Gratitude
We have no difficulty reminding the 4-year-old to “say thank you” when Grandma hands her an ice cream cone, but in other situations—especially when a religious turn-of-phrase is generally used—we often pass up the chance to teach our kids to express gratitude in naturalistic terms. Instead of thanking God for the food on your table, thank those who really put it there—the farmers, the truckers, the produce workers, and Mom or Dad or Aunt Millicent. They deserve it. Maybe you’d lik... 1 notes
notesWe have real people all around us to be thankful to.
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Chemistry VS Biology
I came to biochemistry through chemistry; I came to chemistry, partly by the labyrinthine routes that I have related, and partly through the youthful romantic notion that the natural sciences had something to do with nature. What I liked about chemistry was its clarity surrounded by darkness; what attracted me, slowly and hesitatingly, to biology was its darkness surrounded by the brightness of the givenness of nature, the holiness of life. And so I have always oscillated between the brightne... 1 notes
notesChargaff relates how he was drawn to Chemistry for its clarity surrounded by the unknown and later biology for its lack of clarity but surrounded by the known.
