via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Of course, while we're alive, new parts of us are constantly coming into being. But for adults, the child we once were died long ago. That is one of the realizations that I find soothe the fear of death.
Category: Zeitgeist
This is the amazing design for NASA’s Star Trek-style space ship, the IXS Enterprise – The Washington Post
NASA engineer and physicist Harold White announced a few years ago that he was working on a potentially groundbreaking idea that could allow space travel faster than the speed of light. Yes, like in “Star Trek.” And now, to boldly go where no designer has gone before, Mark Rademaker — who is collaborating with White — has … Continue reading This is the amazing design for NASA’s Star Trek-style space ship, the IXS Enterprise – The Washington Post
Intelligent Crows Flunk Causality Test But Babies Pass
You drop a block onto a box, and a toy pops out. If a baby was watching you, she could deduce that your action caused the happy arrival of the toy, because she understands cause and effect. She’d also realise that she could trigger the same event by placing a block on the box herself, … Continue reading Intelligent Crows Flunk Causality Test But Babies Pass
The evidence crisis
I reviewed Jim Baggott's book a while back, saying that I thought he had made many crucial points that I hoped the theoretical physics community would heed. Science, by getting away from evidence, risks entering a kind of Neoplatonic phase. I still say speculation is fine, as long as it's clearly labeled, but when the … Continue reading The evidence crisis
I Was Promised Flying Cars – NYTimes.com
AS an astronomy-obsessed kid in the 1970s, I subsisted on a steady diet of science fiction. It promised a future filled with technological wonders: talking computers, bionic limbs, flying cars. Forty years later, though much of that future has arrived, it’s still missing what I consider its most important ingredient. Sure, we’ve got the iPhone’s … Continue reading I Was Promised Flying Cars – NYTimes.com
The ethics of allowing uncontacted natives to remain uncontacted
This video has also been around a while, but I just saw it this weekend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLErPqqCC54 Watching this, I had three conflicting sets of emotions. The first is amazement that there are still tribes in the wild that have not yet been contacted by the outside world. I find that remarkable. The second is a feeling of … Continue reading The ethics of allowing uncontacted natives to remain uncontacted
NASA – The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
This NASA document has been around for a while, but it remains relevant. If you're going to engage in space travel, you have some unyielding scientific and engineering realities to contend with. This article is a bit dry, but it's a pretty good introduction into the realities of spaceflight. Tyranny is a human trait that … Continue reading NASA – The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
Daily chart: March of the middle class | The Economist
Meant to share this last week, since it tied into my post about the state of our civilization, and the difficulty of keeping the broad sweeps of history in sight, but it fell between the cracks until now. The world is becoming a better place...slowly. TWO decades ago the extremely poor accounted for more than a … Continue reading Daily chart: March of the middle class | The Economist
The multiverse as a scientific concept — part II
Lava, not water, formed canyons on Mars
Every so often we get a reminder that all scientific conclusions are provisional. The canyon-like scars which line Mars' crust are seen by many as evidence for liquid water. But a study now suggests that a different kind of fluid – one much less hospitable to life – may actually have carved these features. via … Continue reading Lava, not water, formed canyons on Mars
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