In the great flood of human life that is spawned upon the earth, it is not often that a man is born.
— Clarence Darrow
I posted some of my views on math on the FRIAM list – maybe also of interest to my blog readers. Re: [FRIAM] math and the mother church I can recommend the FRIAM list very much – always interesting discussions going on there. Technorati Tags: mathematics, philosophy of science
The post linked to below is actually about the safety of space shuttles, but I find another conclusion more interesting. In the news you often hear that flying is safer than all other forms of travel, and this is true on a per kilometer basis. But not on a per hour basis (passenger hours vs. [...]
Good Math Bad Math talks about how order arises naturally out of disorder and a simple way of seeing it via Ramsey’s Theorem. He uses the Theorem as an argument against creationism. As good a refutation of creationism as one can desire, I would say, as it is really evident and nicely transferable to the [...]
Hans Rosling’s 2007 talk on TED – his 2006 talk got me hooked to TED, and the 2007 talk is again very inspiring. I especially liked the means/goals distinction he presents at around minute fifteen of the talk. This and his previous talk should be made compulsory viewing for politicians. TED | Talks | Hans [...]
At Cosmic Variance there is a funny alternative-science checklist – that is, checking if you’re alternative science is a good alternative or just crackpot ideas. The main points are (and these are intended seriously, funny are the comments): 1. Acquire basic competency in whatever field of science your discovery belongs to. 2. Understand, and make [...]
Psychology Today has a summary of some nice findings which contradict many views which people like to hold of human nature: Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature Here some excerpts (read the article above – recommended): Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them) Humans are naturally polygamous Most [...]
Aubrey de Grey’s book will be out soon, am looking forward to it: TED | TEDBlog: Defeating aging: Aubrey de Grey’s handbook Technorati Tags: singularity
I nearly forgot to blog this, I was at the Symposion for Modern Physics a couple of weeks ago and wrote a summary for the university online news. Vienna Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics Technorati Tags: philosophy of science, physics
Getting cells to do interesting things might soon become a reality: Genetic Engineering – Synthetic Biology – Genes and Heredity – Cloning – Biology – Science – New York Times Technorati Tags: genetics, singularity
I thought these results had already been discovered in a previous study, but no matter, you can never shout this out loudly enough: sleep patterns differ genetically, so all you early birds out there, leave us night owls alone in the morning (this means up to about lunch time in early-bird-speak ScienceDaily: Individual Differences In [...]
