verywide.net » Science

Knowledge and Doubt

Moody — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:56:38 +0000

The following material, in this and related posts upcoming, draws extensively upon the writing of philosopher Walter A. Kaufmann, whose 1958 book, Critique of Religion and Philosophy, I have lately been re-reading. I have attempted to provide my own take on the material, putting it into my own words, with the idea of saying what [...]

Tree of Æons

Moody — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:53:54 +0000

From so humble a beginning as the blind dance of chemicals may represent, from out of the depths of unconscious ages in life’s Ultima Thule, the Tree of Life arose from the primordial chaos, sui generis, to grow through countless ages, to diversify its fruits, to send tendrils of spiral DNA, winding and raveling, into [...]

Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin!

Moody — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:46 +0000

In 1868, on the Isle of Wight (renowned for its dinosaur fossils), the talented photographer Julia Margaret Cameron took the picture of Charles Darwin you see here. Today is his birthday. Were he alive today, he’d be 200 years old. One can imagine that his beard would be all the longer and whiter and his [...]

Time and Distance

Moody — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:52:36 +0000

Now is the time to break out that copy of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygène or maybe your Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline CD. Did you get it? O.K. Good. Put it on, and let’s take a trip…

Out into the big, lonely universe.

The next time it’s dark and clear out, go outside [...]

The real process of science

Moody — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:00:16 +0000

Excellent: The real process of science

Tip of the hat goes to science writer Carl Zimmer for pointing folks to this simple, interactive (Flash), nicely comprehensive diagram of how science works. For those of us who respond well to visual representations of things (like processes), this is perfect.

Of course, the diagram is just one part of [...]

Comment I made on StumbleUpon

Moody — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:03:06 +0000

How I wish I could claim to be surprised by the number of ignorant and stupid comments I see on “teh intarnets”–but I can’t. The ridiculously virulent form of foolishness that can reduce otherwise decent people to a manic and bellicose condition of trollishness is so widespread around here that I am more surprised when [...]

Apx. 99.9% sure I’m right about this…

Moody — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:55:10 +0000

Let’s try to put it as simply as possible and see if everyone can understand it, shall we?

Science has nothing to do with “God”. Science deals solely with the empirical universe as it may be observed, recorded, studied, tested, etc., utilizing whatever tools may be created to do so, as well as our innate human [...]

Evolving, A Mind

Moody — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:34:33 +0000

“You can’t be a rational person six days a week … and on one day of the week, go to a building, and think you’re drinking the blood of a two thousand year old space god.”—Bill Maher

Let’s make one thing clear from the outset: Whatever I might prefer, I shall have no say in whether [...]

Astronomy Domain

Moody — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 00:05:06 +0000

Occasionally, you run across a useful, powerful, fun and educational application that just wows you with its strengths, with all the thought that went into it, and with its ease of use. The good feelings are increased even further when you get to download and use it for free, with no restrictions. It’s enough to [...]

Al Gore’s Message

Moody — Mon, 01 May 2006 05:55:11 +0000

...Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth arrives on the scene ready to both stir and confront a controversy that is, in reality, a controversy formed of spin and misunderstanding and not a genuine controversy. And so, too, it arrives on the scene in need of a supportive audience.