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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Dodecahedron, Irrational Numbers, Philosophy, Polygons, Pythagoreans, Quotes, Regular Solids, Science on February 23, 2021|
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There can be an infinite number of polygons, but only five regular solids. Four of the solids were associated with earth, fire, air and water. The cube for example represented earth. These four elements, they thought, make up terrestrial matter. So the fifth solid they mystically associated with the Cosmos. Perhaps it was the substance of the heavens. This fifth solid was called the dodecahedron. Its faces are pentagons, twelve of them. Knowledge of the dodecahedron was considered too dangerous for the public. Ordinary people were to be kept ignorant of the dodecahedron. In love with whole numbers, the Pythagoreans believed that all things could be derived from them. Certainly all other numbers. |
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So a crisis in doctrine occurred when they discovered that the square root of two was irrational. That is: the square root of two could not be represented as the ratio of two whole numbers, no matter how big they were. “Irrational” originally meant only that. That you can’t express a number as a ratio. But for the Pythagoreans it came to mean something else, something threatening, a hint that their world view might not make sense, the other meaning of “irrational”. |
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— Carl Sagan |
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On This Day In: |
2020 |
The Butterflies Are In Trouble |
2019 |
The Deep Center |
2018 |
Oh, Heaven (Too) |
2017 |
Now Pausing Makes Sense |
2016 |
Just Spicy |
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Only One Part |
2015 |
Positive Acts Of Creation |
2014 |
One Thing Is Clear |
2013 |
Corrections |
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See Greatness |
2012 |
Gemutlichkeit |
2011 |
Back On The Asphalt |
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Proverbs, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Austen Acoustic Dreadnought, Guitar, Music, Orangewood, Quotes, Turkish Proverb on February 20, 2021|
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This afternoon, my wife and I both got our first COVID vaccine shots! We’re also scheduled for our 2nd shots towards the end of March. Two weeks after that we should be “fairly” safe from COVID. So far (after 6 hrs), the only after-effects are a little shoulder soreness at the injection site. |
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It is important for everyone to understand: the vaccines do NOT prevent you from getting COVID or from developing long-term COVID related illnesses OR transmitting COVID to others. The vaccines are only supposed to prevent you from getting “seriously” ill and dying. We got the Pfizer version which is 95% effective at preventing “serious” illness and was 100% effective preventing deaths during trials. We still do not know how long the vaccines remain effective and / or if we will need periodic boosters (like the annual flu shots). |
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The bottom line is that even after we have reached some level of local / state / national / worldwide herd immunity, we will probably need to keep wearing masks and maintaining “some” social distancing. We just don’t know enough yet and we will have to follow the science / data when it becomes available… |
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On This Day In: |
2020 |
Decide, Support, Vote |
2019 |
Aware Some |
2018 |
Know Any Christians? |
2017 |
The Only Thing I Can Give… |
2016 |
Wiser But Less Cocksure |
2015 |
Not Today |
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Wicked |
2014 |
…Am Too |
2013 |
Credible? |
2012 |
Both |
2011 |
Risking Hidden Linkage |
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, Serendipity and Chaos, tagged Discovery, Novelty, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn PhD on February 7, 2021|
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Philosophy, Quotes, Science, The Rule Of Scientific Development, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn PhD on January 28, 2021|
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Posted in Economics, Environment, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged #46, Carl Sagan, Economics, Paris Agreement, Paris Climate Accords, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science on January 24, 2021|
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Posted in Education, Faith, History, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Darkness, Faith, History, Philosophy, Politics, Prayers, Predicting The Future, Quotes, Science, Superstition, United States on January 20, 2021|
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I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. |
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— Carl Sagan |
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[Perhaps, having seen the corruption and malevolence of the Trump Administration, the next four years can see the beginning of an American renaissance… I hope so. As I prayed four years ago: “I may not agree with all (or any) of this President’s policies, but I pray he makes America a better place.” Hopefully #45 was the “just” the darkness before the new day’s dawn. KMAB] |
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On This Day In: |
2020 |
Posting As A Continual Exercise |
2019 |
Border Security – Yes, Border Wall – No |
2018 |
Supporting Survival Values |
2017 |
Inauguration Day 2017 [Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right! — KMAB] |
2016 |
Or A Pot Of Gold After The Storm |
2015 |
One, Two, Three… |
2014 |
Lend Your Hand |
2013 |
Amnesty, n. |
2012 |
Best Resolv’d |
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The Clock Is Running |
2011 |
Magic |
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Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Abba Eban, Alternatives, History, Learning, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Teaching, Wisdom on January 8, 2021|
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Posted in Environment, Faith, History, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Environment, Faith, God, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Winter, Ozone Layer, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science, Technology on January 4, 2021|
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Since this series’ maiden voyage, the impossible has come to pass: Mighty walls that maintained insuperable ideological differences have come tumbling down; deadly enemies have embraced and begun to work together. The imperative to cherish the Earth and protect the global environment that sustains all of us has become widely accepted, and we’ve begun, finally, the process of reducing the obscene number of weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps we have, after all, decided to choose life. But we still have light years to go to ensure that choice. Even after the summits and the ceremonies and the treaties, there are still some 50,000 nuclear weapons in the world — and it would require the detonation of only a tiny fraction of them to produce a nuclear winter, the predicted global climatic catastrophe that would result from the smoke and the dust lifted into the atmosphere by burning cities and petroleum facilities. |
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The world scientific community has begun to sound the alarm about the grave dangers posed by depleting the protective ozone shield and by greenhouse warming, and again we’re taking some mitigating steps, but again those steps are too small and too slow. The discovery that such a thing as nuclear winter was really possible evolved out of the studies of Martian dust storms. The surface of Mars, fried by ultraviolet light, is also a reminder of why it’s important to keep our ozone layer intact. The runaway greenhouse effect on Venus is a valuable reminder that we must take the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth seriously. |
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Important lessons about our environment have come from spacecraft missions to the planets. By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has spent in sending ships to other worlds. It is our fate to live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time, one of the most hopeful chapters in human history. |
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Our science and our technology have posed us a profound question. Will we learn to use these tools with wisdom and foresight before it’s too late? Will we see our species safely through this difficult passage so that our children and grandchildren will continue the great journey of discovery still deeper into the mysteries of the Cosmos? That same rocket and nuclear and computer technology that sends our ships past the farthest known planet can also be used to destroy our global civilization. Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil. It is as if there were a God who said to us, “I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It’s up to you.” |
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— Carl Sagan |
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On This Day In: |
2020 |
Still Willing |
2019 |
Another Prayer |
2018 |
After Silence |
2017 |
Are You Looking Forward To A Trump Presidency? |
2016 |
Three Errors From Eureka |
2015 |
Limiting Choices |
2014 |
Praise The Lord And Pass The Hypocrisy |
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That Sound |
2013 |
Still Waiting For Answers |
2012 |
Informal Leadership |
2011 |
A Little More Progress |
2010 |
Bec’s Gone Again… |
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Daniel J. Boorstin, Discovery, Ignorance, Illusion, Knowledge, On Obstacles, Philosophy, Quotes on November 29, 2020|
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Posted in Education, Quotes, Reading, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Exploration, Quotes, Reading, Science Fiction, Scientific Literature, Scientists, Solar System, Ten-Year-Olds on November 28, 2020|
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Daniel J. Boorstin, Education, Grammar School, Kindergarten, Knowledge, Learning, Philosophy, Quotes on November 25, 2020|
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Posted in Faith, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Belief, Facts, Faith, Freedom, Greatness, John W. Gardner, Moral Commitments, Philosophy, Quotes, Truth on November 20, 2020|
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Since man is a moment in astronomic time, a transient guest of the earth, a spore of his species, a scion of his race, a composite of body, character, and mind, a member of a family and a community, a believer or doubter of a faith, a unit in an economy, perhaps a citizen in a state or a soldier in an army, we may ask under the corresponding heads — astronomy, geology, geography, biology, ethnology, psychology, morality, religion, economics, politics, and war — what history has to say about the nature, conduct, and prospects of man. It is a precarious enterprise, and only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed. |
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— Will and Ariel Durant |
From their book: “The Lessons Of History“ |
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On This Day In: |
2019 |
How #45’s Father Raised Him For Incompetence |
2018 |
Describing #45 – “The Loser” – As A Successful Businessman |
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Raking – #PresidentIdiot Proposes Full Employment For California |
2017 |
Federal Deficit, National Debt And Tax Cuts For The 1% |
2016 |
Picky, Picky, Picky |
2015 |
Another Limitation On Religion |
2014 |
Enduring |
2013 |
Tell Me More… |
2012 |
Passing… |
2011 |
Fake It ‘Til You Make It |
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