interweaving ideas
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NEMO Science Center: Why the World Works
Conducting a Charge from the Plasma Ball to a Florescent Light When we were first putting together displays for Port Discover, LuAnne Pendergraft was regularly correcting us when we referred to it as a children’s science museum. This was not a museum, this was a center. It was an active place, a place where kids…
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Seed Software
A short while ago, I commented on Kevin Kelly debunking Kurzweil’s singularity, citing the fact that an all-powerful AI can’t simply infer solutions to all our problems through Cartesian means. Interestingly enough, another kk post, The Forever Book, hypothesizes writing a basic text from which a newcomer to a subject could begin the process of…
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Published at the EE&LQ
An article I wrote showcasing some new development work we put out into production has been published in the Winter 2008 issue of Engineering, Electronics & Logistics Quarterly. My article starts on page 38. EE&LQ Article
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Birds of Paradise and the Human Condition
Came across this enchanting Alfred Russel Wallace quote while watching Attenborough in Paradise: I thought of the long ages of the past, during which the successive generations of [the King Bird-of-Paradise] had run their course — year by year being born, and living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye…
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NEMO Science Center: Codename DNA
The NEMO Science Center in Amsterdam was my first opportunity to see science education in another country. NEMO is by far the largest and most unique science center I have ever experienced, with huge interactive displays and a delightful, playful architecture. I was also impressed with how deep much of the material went. There was…
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Intelligence is Expensive
A recent study at the Universite Laval in Quebec found that students consume 203 to 253 more calories after 45 minutes of activity requiring intense thought than students who relaxed for the same 45 minutes. Although the brain accounts for less than 2% of a person’s weight, it consumes 20% of the body’s energy. That’s…
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Hybrid Space
When we use a cellphone, we and the person on the other end of the line are two distant points in space that are brought together, ear to ear. Television connects us visually and audibly with places and people all over the world. Video, audio, and pictures connect us with moments in time. With computers,…
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A Monument to Knowledge: The Jefferson Room at the Library of Congress
This is by far the best kept secret of all the amazing cultural attractions on the Washington DC mall. If you appreciate knowledge, Enlightenment values, and science, then you MUST spend an afternoon in this room, appreciating every nook and cranny. America’s Founding Father’s were very wise individuals with a strong appreciation for education and…
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Happy Birthday Isaac Asimov, Supporter of English Spelling Reform
The Science Fiction author, author of over 500 SF and general science books, Vice President of Mensa, and President of the American Humanist Society would be 88 today. Isaac Asimov Credit: Rowena Morrill License An interesting fact about Asimov and other great minds like Richard Feynman, was that they were supporters of reforming the spelling…
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20090101 00:00:01
Our calendar is not perfect, which is why we have leap years and leap seconds. While our New Year started on January 1, 2009 at 00:00:01, other calendars had a different take on this moment in time: Julian Day 2454832.500011574 Julian Calendar 2008 December 19 Hebrew Calendar 5768 Teveth 5 Islamic Calendar 1430 Muharram 4…
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2008 Year in Science Review
Science Etcetera 2008 Tag Cloud Via TagCrowd CNN making the boneheaded decision to dump its science unit, the Origin of Blue Eyes fitting another interesting piece of the human origins puzzle into place, and “Dwarf Planets” becoming “Plutoids” earn an honorable mention for science news in 2008, and the Large Hadron Collider will make next…
