Sunday, 24 February 2008
knowledge for sake of action
Knowledge for the Sake of Action - Science and Torah - Science Is Torah.
In my last few posts and comments on them, I proposed that most
secular study such as the sciences and most of the humanities are
necessary to get to Yediat Hashem - Knowledge of God - which is the
objective of humanity. Rambam often tells us that we learn Halacha to
know how to do the Mitzvot which help us perfect our personality and
thinking so that we can understand the sciences from a perspective
that will lead us to God. In this sense, the Mitzvot and the Halacha
that teaches us how to perform them are tools that precede and at best
are equal in importance with the necessary sciences. The most telling
statement is in MN 3:51 where he presents the allegory of the king
living in the inner chambers of the palace and his subjects looking to
find the way in. He places the Halachik authorities who have no
philosophic inclination in the courtyard circling the palace, together
with those who learn the basic laws of logic and Math.
"Those who arrive at the palace, but go round about it, are those who
devote themselves exclusively to the study of the practical law. They
believe traditionally in true principles of faith, and learn the
practical worship of God, but are not trained in philosophical
treatment of the principles of the Law, and do not endeavor to
establish the truth of their faith by proof... My son, so long as you
are engaged in studying the Mathematical Sciences and Logic, you
belong to those who go round about the palace in search of the gate."
He places the scientist who has no philosophical training in the
antechambers together with those who seek to understand the proofs for
God.
"Those who undertake to investigate the principles of religion have
come into the antechamber; and there is no doubt that these can also
be divided into different grades... If you however understood the
natural things you have entered the habitation and are walking in the
antechambers."
However, there is one additional point that is not accepted by all who
read Rambam but is to me clear like day. The objective is Yediat
Hashem but not for knowledge alone. Knowledge of God is equated with
Olam Haba and with the highest levels of experiential attachment to
God - Deveikut - and "Kiss of Death" - Mitat Neshikah. Knowledge of
God however is not the ultimate objective but a stepping-stone and has
as its own objective the emulation of God. When one knows God through
His actions and analyzes them properly, he can understand what God
wants from us and what our role is in the universe. That is the
meaning of the 13 attributes of God that we declaim as part of our
Teshuvah process.
"Our Sages call them Midot (qualities), and speak of the thirteen
Midot of God ... only the thirteen Midot are mentioned, because they
include those acts of God which refer to the creation and the
government of mankind, and to know these acts was the principal object
of the prayer of Moses." (MN 1:54)
In other words if man wants to perfect himself, in the process of
searching for God he has to meditate on God's action or attributes so
that he can emulate them. As Rambam states many times "good" is the
promotion of existence and continuity. When we say God is good by
definition, we are saying that He is the reason and First Cause for
existence. If we want to do "good", there is only one approach;
emulate God who is good by definition and do our part in promoting
existence and continuity.
After explaining in MN 3:54 that -
"The fourth kind of perfection is the true perfection of man: the
possession of the highest, intellectual faculties; the possession of
such notions which lead to true metaphysical opinions as regards God.
With this perfection, man has obtained his final object; it gives him
true human perfection; it remains to him alone; it gives him
immortality, and on its account, he is called man... And that the
religious acts prescribed by the Law, the various kinds of worship and
the moral principles which benefit all people in their social
intercourse with each other, do not constitute the ultimate aim of
man, nor can they be compared to it, for they are but preparations
leading to it."
Rambam makes the point that Knowledge is not enough.
"The prophet [Yirmyahu 9:22-23] does not content himself with
explaining that the knowledge of God is the highest kind of
perfection... The prophet thus, in conclusion, says, "For in these
things I delight, says the Lord," i.e., my object [in saying this] is
that you shall practice loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness
in the earth. In a similar manner, we have shown (MN I: 54) that the
object of the enumeration of God's thirteen attributes is the lesson
that we should acquire similar attributes and act accordingly. The
object of the above passage is therefore to declare, that the
perfection, in which man can truly glory, is attained by him when he
has acquired--as far as this is possible for man--the knowledge of
God, the knowledge of His Providence, and of the manner in which it
influences His creatures in their production and continued existence.
Having acquired the knowledge he will then be determined always to
seek loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, and thus to imitate
the ways of God."
Clearly, Rambam does not stop at knowledge of God alone. Humanity's
objective is to figure out how to act appropriately and perform its
role in creation through knowledge. I believe that this point is the
most important idea in Rambam's thought and without it, we miss the
greatest insight he teaches us. Only the intellectually perfected man
can know what his role is in creation and act appropriately. That
person is represented by the prophet and Moshe the greatest and unique
prophet is the paradigm of such a human being. Moshe gave the world,
through the Jewish people, the eternal Torah, the divine approach to
man's perfection. In practical terms, Judaism sees human knowledge as
a way of serving God by acting to fulfill His wish that each component
of the existence He created play its role in the continuity of His
creation.
The limits of human knowledge and the implications thereof will be the
subject of my next post.
oliver kamm
Oliver Kamm
I have been enjoying the blog of Oliver Kamm. Kamm is a true
rationalist. Most of my readers will be aware that people who call
themselves rationalists tend to be suffering from more delusions
than most. They have simply substituted what they took to be one
set of myths (usually religious) for another set (usually
reductionist and political). Kamm is far more clear-eyed. In fact,
the only illusion he allows himself is that he is a member of the
political left. And yet his main literary activity is to puncture
the bubbles that make up the worldview of certain members of
mainstream left.
For some of this group, to call yourself leftwing requires that you
hold to certain propositions. These include that America is to
blame for most of the world's problems, that the Soviet Union was a
glorious experiment that went wrong and that the Palestinians are
entirely innocent of the causes of their suffering. Economically,
you must be anti-globalisation, against free trade, in favour of
protectionism (which you call fair trade) and impatiently awaiting
the collapse of capitalism. On the domestic front, you must hate
Margaret Thatcher, laud the Trade Unions, believe that the
Argentine battle cruiser, the Belgrano, represented no threat to
the British fleet when it was sunk during the Falklands War and
blame the Middle Classes for everything that is wrong with the
British education system.
As far as I can gather, Kamm does not subscribe to any of these
propositions. Nor, I should hasten to add, do many people in the
Labour Government, which could be described as social democratic
but never as socialist. The Labour Party's activist base, on the
other hand, is well to the left of the leadership.
So Kamm is a liberal who delights in destroying the myths of the
left (and occasionally the far right too, although he restricts
himself to holocaust denial debunking in this respect). Anyone who
enjoys forensic prose coupled with high intelligence laced with a
Tabasco of arrogance will find his blog well worth perusing. He is
especially strong on the continuing legends of the Cold War,
especially those that seek to show a moral equivalence between the
democratic United States and the tyranny of the Soviet Union.
Like many other signatories of the Euston Manifesto, on one subject
he is quite misguided. As an atheist, he occasionally feels a need
to be rude about religion. This has also led him to praise the
recent books by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. I can
only assume that this is one area of study where he is not as well
briefed as he is in modern history and contemporary politics.
Consequently, he is unable to distinguish between useful
scholarship on the subject and the rhetoric that he despises in
other areas. Not that he would convert; but he should be aware that
the history and science of religious belief bears little
resemblance to Hitchens' and Dawkins' caricature. Sadly, I don't
think he would consider brushing up on theological questions would
be a valuable use of his time and so this flaw in his thinking is
likely to be maintained.
Click here to read the first chapter of God's Philosophers: How the
Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science absolutely
free.
: Posted by James : Permanent Link :
Comments:
_________________________________________________________________
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
See links to this post
frontiers of junk science global
Frontiers of Junk Science: Global warming snow job melting?
"According to a recent National Center for Policy Analysis report,
last year's declaration of impending doom from the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the form of its
Fourth Assessment Report was based on opinion instead of science. As
hard data continues to emerge, global warming becomes increasingly
difficult to defend. Hundreds of highly qualified scientists and
climatologists unrelated to the UN's IPCC pocket-science squad are
contesting the assumption of so-called "experts" that CO2 is the
primary force driving climate change. A number of scientists discount
the warming theory entirely. In fact, many believe that the globe may
be getting cooler--and some of them are putting their money where
their mouths are. Believing that the world will be cooler in ten
years, a pair of Russian scientists have even waged a $10,000 bet with
British climate "expert" and global-warming alarmist James Annan.
Meanwhile, China is battling its coldest winter in a century. Scores
of people are dead and millions are stranded. Will Leftmedia shills
report the events there with newfound skepticism for global warming?
Don't count on it."
-The Patriot Post
posted by HeavyHanded at 6:56 PM
1 Comments:
* Hi. nice blog.Ihad already posted my resume in many job sites.Now
I think that your blog
is best for free job posts
thanks........
By Blogger Manikandan, at 8:47 AM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
2006_10_01_archive
Are hard science fiction readers squeamish?
Science fiction author Chris Moriarty (most recent book: Spin Control)
has an essay on his web site about "hard" science fiction. He points
out that until recently some considered the biological sciences were
considered to be too "fantastic" to be science fiction. He speculates,
though, that perhaps part of the problem that the biosciences have had
in being accepted into the "hard science fiction" realm is that
descriptions of biology (particularly human biology) make some readers
uncomfortable.
Hard sf may be a broad field and getting broader daily -- I
remember when people said C. J. Cherry's Cyteen wasn't hard sf
because cloning was 'fantasy science' (5) -- but it will always be
a genre written by and for people who are passionate (albeit at
times foolishly passionate) about science and technology.
(5) Actually, I think there may be another, non-political factor
behind the longstanding reluctance to include stories based on
biology in the hard SF cannon. Part of it is a straightforward and
perfectly understandable aesthetic impulse; until the advent of
genetic engineering and mathematical biology, there was a truly
deplorable absence of equations in most biology texts, which made
biology-based sf stories a hard sell for the numerophilic hard-cord
hard SF fan. However, I can't quite buck the suspicion that part of
hard SF's historic biology phobia was mere squeamishness. The kind
of squeamishness so entertainingly encapsulated in the old Star
Trek episode, Amok Time, where Spock precedes a highly euphemistic
discussion of salmon spawning procedures with the shamefaced
admission that his illness "has to do with biology . . . Vulcan
biology."
Is that true? It certainly sounds plausible to me. I've certainly met
"engineering types" that are much happier in a simple universe made up
of numbers and circuits and metal than the fluids and squishiness of
the biological world.
Oh, and the dialog from Amok Time"? Here is a sample of the dialog
where Spock dances around the basics of Vulcan biology:
"There are precedents in nature, Captain... the giant eel-birds of
Regulus Five. Once each eleven years, they must return to the
caverns where they hatched. On your Earth, the salmon. They must
return to that one stream where they were born, to spawn - or die
in trying."
"But you're not a fish, Mr. Spock-"
"No - nor am I a man... I'm a Vulcan. I had hoped I would be spared
this, but the ancient drives are too strong. Eventually, they catch
up with us... and we are driven by forces we cannot control - to
return home, and take a wife... or die."
(pause) "I haven't heard a word you said - and I'll get you to
Vulcan, somehow."
- Spock and Kirk
It's silly dialog, but I suspect it was written as much to get around
television censorship of anything having to do with s-e-x as
squeamishness on the part of the writers and fans. I could be wrong,
of course, since Star Trek has a long history of really crappy
biology. (But happily for me, lots of blog fodder).
glow in dark kitties science silliniess
Glow-in-the-Dark Kitties: Science, Silliniess, or Just Plain Scary?
Through genetic manipulation, South Korean geneticists have been able
to not only "turn-on" the fluorescence protein in cat embryos, but
have also successfully cloned the animal.
A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at
Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing
altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science
and Technology said.
Source: South Koreans Clone Cats that Glow in the Dark
While the ability to glow-in-the-dark in and of itself isn't a
significant medical advancement, the ability to clone genetically
altered animals is. This is big news in the fledgling field of genetic
medicine, as it is now possible to create the ultimate control group
for testing: exact copies of animals afflicted with diseases that
humans suffer from (cats and humans share more than 200 of the same
afflictions).
Other applications of the technology:
* genetically engineering livestock that emit less methane
* cloning endangered species, slightly reconfigured to adapt to
altered or new habitats
* designer pets and flourescent foodstuffs
Some would argue that all of these possibilities raise important
ethical questions, but I would counter that the overall question of
whether or not genetic engineering is ethical has been settled since
humanity first started to selectively breed livestock, pets, and
produce; the rest is just details.
Consider what happened when transgenic artist Eduardo Kac commissioned
the engineered breeding of Alba, a glow-in-the-dark rabbit from French
geneticists. A firestorm of protest by animal rights activists who
dubbed the process "abusive" caused the French team to renege and keep
the animal rather than turn the rabbit over to Kac.
Whether or not living out her life in seclusion (Alba is not
accessible to the general public and whether or not the animal is
still alive is unknown) as a lab specimen has given Alba a better
quality of life than she would have had otherwise is a very poignant -
and, to date - unanswered question. Because Alba isn't accessible to
the public, whether or not she suffered any ill side effects from the
genetic manipulation that made her glow in the dark is also unknown.
Given that Kac intended the animal to be the family pet and to
showcase his family's relationship with the animal as a form of
artistic expression, my personal opinion is a resounding "no." While
it may well be true that the science used to create Alba could have
been better applied elsewhere, the effort expended to protest her
"abuse" would have been better spent protesting Kentucky Fried
Chicken, veal producers, or some other enterprise that engages in the
halloween posts
Halloween posts
It's been eons, but yes, I'm still alive -- just busy! Sorry for not
blogging for, well, three months, and thanks to those who emailed me
asking me to come back. I didn't even realize I had fans!
Over at Scientific American's 60 Second Science blog, I wrote a
festive Halloween post about the effects of costuming on human
behavior -- i.e., does Halloween make us go a little crazy? Check it
out here.
The site has another great Halloween post about what science says
about the supernatural. And you can probably guess what that is.
she blinded me with science
She blinded me... with science!
Excerpt from recent email from a friend:
... we were on the way back into the big mall complex proper [at
the Flatiron Mall in Denver, CO], passing by various stores in the
outdoor section. We were passing by a spa that I had barely
registered in my brain on the way to lunch--they had a dry erase
board with a listing of their services, such as Botox and facial
waxes. I forgot about it as soon as I passed it.
Well, *this* time, ____ pointed out an item midway down the board,
which said, "DNA STEM CELLS".
I stared at it, racking my brain for any recollection of salon stem
cell use, but came up dry. So I walked in, and asked the three
women of various ages, in lab coats, for more information. The
older of the trio, a middle-aged woman with wavy blonde hair, said,
"You have stem cells in your skin, and as you age, those stem cells
don't work as well. We replenish your stem cells using bovine stem
cells from amniotic fluid to rejuvenate the skin."
"... Bovine?"
"Yes, because they are the most similar, molecularly, to our own."
"Ah. .... and, um, how do you, uh, apply, these stem cells?"
"We massage them into the skin." (Demonstrating, waving her fingers
in circles around her face without quite touching the skin.)
"... So, you're saying that you ... replenish ... the stem cells
... by topical application?"
"Yes."
" ... I see. ... Yes. ... Thank you, have a nice day."
I left the spa and joined ____ outside, and walked a bit before
practically collapsing with laughter and trying to keep myself from
having an aneurysm. It would have been fun to delve deeper, just to
see (such as: how do you keep these stem cells? Exactly how do the
stem cells cross the epithelial barrier? What molecules, really,
are you talking about?), but I had stuff to do.
My friend, who is a developmental biologist, subsequently sent me a
link to Clinique Reneux's "CryoStem Skin Therapy(TM)" FAQ, which
contains much hilarity.
_________________________________________________________________
UPDATE: On further Googling, it appears that this scam is perpetrated
by "The DNA Health Institute" (warning: odious Flash page), a company
led by erstwhile homeopathic charlatan Noel Aguilar, "Ph.D.". "Dr."
Aguilar has evidently gotten tired of giving talks at Rotary Clubs and
writing "forwards" [sic.] for books on "magnetic healing". I would be
very interested to know where Noel Aguilar got his Ph.D., and in what
field, and what his thesis was. If he actually is a Ph.D., that means
his doctoral thesis is on file in some university library somewhere,
and you should be able to order a copy. [DEL: I suspect it would be
"interesting" reading --- in sociology, or English, or some other
field completely unrelated to cellular biology. :DEL]
Note, also, that the CryoStem literature suggests the treatment has
received FDA approval. However, a search through the FDA's catalog of
approved drugs for "cryostem", "cry", and "stem" reveal no hits ---
even though the claims made for CryoStem definitely meet the (B)
clause of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, section 201(g)(1)'s
standard for drugs: "articles (other than food) intended to affect the
structure or any function of the body of man or other animals". If
promoters of this drug are not simply lying outright, but merely
stretching the truth, then the most they could have done is submit
reports indicating that CryoStem meets the minimal safety requirements
for cosmetics, with no evaluation of efficacy. (Drugs must be both
safe and effective; cosmetics need only be safe, or carry a warning
label).
Incidentally, this all serves as further evidence for my working
hypothesis that only charlatans or the incredibly insecure actually
write "Ph.D." after their name, or call themselves "Dr." (unless they
are licensed, practicing medical doctors). Go to any top ten
university department in any field, and you'll find few people who do
either, except as a joke, or when they need to impress somebody
especially thickheaded (e.g., Congress).
_________________________________________________________________
UPDATE': In comments, Inky notes:
I looked at the Rotary Club link. It says that:
Today there is a Hahnemann Medical College of Homeopathy. Dr.
Aguilar attended, and earned a degree there.
...
Also: apparently the majority of homeopathic .. erm, instituions,
are either named after Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathic
quarkery. Otherwise, they conveniently put in "Homeopathy", like
the Canadian Academy of Homeopathy.
Thus, there is not just *one* Hahnemann Medical College of
Homeopathy. Locations gleaned from the first page of Google
searches include: Pennsylvania, Heikunst, New Delhi, and Bhopal. I
suppose Dr. Aguilar went to PA.
Also, a correspondent helpfully writes, via email:
According to _Dissertation Abstracts_, nobody named Noel Aguilar
has received a Ph.D. from an accredited North American institution
--- and their records go back to some point in the 1800s. In fact
there are only 140 Aguilars in their data base, which includes some
European schools (I don't know since when but at least since the
1990s), and none of them have names which could plausibly be
versions of Noel Aguilar, e.g., "N. Aguilar". So there are three
possibilities: (1) He got his degree abroad. (2) He got his degree
from a non-accredited institution. (3) He just made it up.
Therefore, I conclude that "Dr." Aguilar most likely got his "degree"
from a non-accredited school specializing in homeopathy.
2007_12_01_archive
It Seems I'm a Materialist (surprise, surprise)
What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Materialist
Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything
that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force
that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained
by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be
understood by its smaller elements.
Materialist
94%
Modernist
69%
Postmodernist
69%
Fundamentalist
44%
Existentialist
44%
Romanticist
25%
Cultural Creative
good book about creationism and
Good Book about Creationism and Science
I just finished reading Massimo Pigliucci's Denying Evolution:
Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science. I highly recommend
this book as one of the best refuations of creationism out there.
Also, he gives a very nuanced view of what science can and can not
elucidate. While it won't change the minds of any die-hard
creationists, it is a good book for those on the fence (or those who
simply want to learn about science and evolution).
One point Massimo makes is that creationists are not stupid-this is
something many angry blue-staters seem to ignore. Rather, they are
biblical literalists and they fully understand the implications of
accepting (and denying) evolution. He concludes with the observation
that "Darwin has made a compelling case for scientists, but not yet
for the general public, that our species is neither the pinnacle of
creation nor the direct handcrafted job of a god....Perhaps in another
century or two, few people will find it strange to be the cousins of
chimpanzees and bonobos. Until then, we need to fight not in defense
of a particular theory, but for the privilege of attempting to
understand the universe."
It's going to be a long fight.
UPDATE: This morning, the Wall Street Journal published a story about
an evolutionary biologist who teaches at a fundamentalist college:
those experiences haven't stopped Prof. Colling -- who received a
Ph.D. in microbiology, chairs the biology department at Olivet
Nazarene and is himself a devout conservative Christian -- from coming
out swinging. In his new book, "Random Designer," he writes: "It pains
me to suggest that my religious brothers are telling falsehoods" when
they say evolutionary theory is "in crisis" and claim that there is
widespread skepticism about it among scientists. "Such statements are
blatantly untrue," he argues; "evolution has stood the test of time
and considerable scrutiny."
His is hardly the standard scientific defense of Darwin, however. His
central claim is that both the origin of life from a primordial goo of
nonliving chemicals, and the evolution of species according to the
processes of random mutation and natural selection, are "fully
compatible with the available scientific evidence and also
contemporary religious beliefs." In addition, as he bluntly told me,
"denying science makes us [Conservative Christians] look stupid."
Prof. Colling is one of a small number of conservative Christian
scholars who are trying to convince biblical literalists that Darwin's
theory of evolution is no more the work of the devil than is Newton's
theory of gravity....But Prof. Colling has another motivation. "People
should not feel they have to deny reality in order to experience their
faith," he says. He therefore offers a rendering of evolution fully
compatible with faith, including his own...
He finds a place for God in evolution by positing a "random designer"
who harnesses the laws of nature he created. "What the designer
designed is the random-design process," or Darwinian evolution, Prof.
Colling says. "God devised these natural laws, and uses evolution to
accomplish his goals." God is not in there with a divine screwdriver
and spare parts every time a new species or a wondrous biological
structure appears.
Unlike those who see evolution as an assault on faith, Prof. Colling
finds it strengthens his own. "A God who can harness the laws of
randomness and chaos, and create beauty and wonder and all of these
marvelous structures, is a lot more creative than fundamentalists give
him credit for," he told me. Creating the laws of physics and
chemistry that, over the eons, coaxed life from nonliving molecules is
something he finds just as awe inspiring as the idea that God
instantly and supernaturally created life from nonlife.
Prof. Colling reserves some of his sharpest barbs for intelligent
design, the idea that the intricate structures and processes in the
living world -- from exquisitely engineered flagella that propel
bacteria to the marvels of the human immune system -- can't be the
work of random chance and natural selection. Intelligent-design
advocates look at these sophisticated components of living things,
can't imagine how evolution could have produced them, and conclude
that only God could have.
That makes Prof. Colling see red. "When Christians insert God into the
gaps that science cannot explain -- in this case how wondrous
structures and forms of life came to be -- they set themselves up for
failure and even ridicule," he told me. "Soon -- and it's already
happening with the flagellum -- science is going to come along and
explain" how a seemingly miraculous bit of biological engineering in
fact could have evolved by Darwinian mechanisms. And that will leave
intelligent design backed into an ever-shrinking corner.
The Mad Biologist: I've never understood why Biblical literalism is
such an issue. Revelation may be divine, but the humans to whom
experienced revelation were not. Literalism posits that man hasn't
learned/discovered/had revealed anything in two millenia. If God had
basic science fix in virology
Basic science fix in virology
Lots of good on line resources compiled here. (Via Life Sciences
2007_09_01_archive
On Greed
Greed is one of the deadly vices in old-time Christianity. Not so much
in some of the newer interpretations seen among the fundamentalists in
the United States. I've read about churches where the sermons are all
about how Jesus will give the faithful more stuff in this life, too.
Does that remind you of the old Janis Joplin song about her asking God
for a Mercedes Benz and a color tv?
When did greed turn into a virtue? Probably quite a long time ago,
because capitalism does require it to be rehabilitated. But it's the
combination of greed and ignorance that has fueled the housing markets
crisis; greed mostly on the side of the sellers of loans and ignorance
mostly on the side of the buyers of loans, though not completely.
What IS greed? I'm sure there are good definitions to be found by the
click of the mouse, but I don't want to know what they are because
then this post would end right here. It's more fun to try to figure a
definition out of the pure air that floats inside my head.
The first aspect of my definition would be that greed doesn't really
apply to, say, a starving person's dreams about fantastically
excessive meals. That person is not being greedy; only starving. In a
similar vein, a poor person wanting to buy a modest house he or she
can't really afford is not greedy. Thus, wanting something very much
is not in itself a sign of greediness. We all have dreams and desires
and needs.
The second aspect then has to do with the inappropriateness of certain
dreams or desires. If you already have enough food and enough shelter
and so on but you still want more then you are probably greedy. Now,
this is not a definition from traditional economics course where a
consumer is always assumed to be on the road to ever higher levels of
consumption and only held back by the inevitable constraints of money
and time. But in reality people do sometimes sit down and say, in a
quiet and zen-like voice: "I have enough material possessions."
Note that the question of what is "enough" is not something easily
determined from the outside. But clearly one can have too many
cheesecakes and even too many Rolls-Royces. The sad part of greed is
that a genuinely greedy person will never be satisfied, by definition.
Perhaps that is what made the early Christians view greed as a vice:
it hurts.
How do greed and ignorance dance together, then? I pointed out those
two as the culprits in the housing market collapse. Ignorance in that
context has to do with three things: First, most mortgage-seekers have
very little understanding of interest rates and defaults and so on.
Those are hard topics to understand without some training. Second,
humans tend not to take the long view in general, and even less so
when times are hard right now, say. If you live in a crisis, you want
to struggle your way through that crisis and then think of the rest of
your life. But if life is nothing but a crisis after crisis, well, you
will live in the short-term by necessity. Focusing on the near future
makes things like balloon loans seem harmless, and an adjustable rate
mortgage something really helpful. But today turns into tomorrow and
so on, and suddenly you can't afford the new higher interest rates and
bankruptcy beckons.
Third, the mortgage lenders also suffer from ignorance. They may be
aware of their greed, at least some of them. But they may be ignorant
of the overall effects of their individual acts. It wouldn't matter if
one lender seduced borrowers into bad loans, but it does matter when
many, many lenders do that at the same time. The outcome is a lot of
people working in the lending industry losing their jobs.
If you watch commercials on television or ads on the net you know that
greed is encouraged every day of our lives. There is always a solution
to something that should bother you, and the solution is achievable by
just paying some money. It was only a few days ago that I learned I
could get a 500,000 dollar mortgage for less than a thousand a month!
Honest. Of course I didn't read the small print on the offer, and by
now the offer has disappeared into the Orwellian Memory Hole.
The short point of all these musings is that we have to decide how to
deal with greed. Is it the engine that drives the society? Or is it a
vice? And whose greed is it that matters here?
|
Posted by: echidne / 9/01/2007 03:51:00 PM
Stolen Hope Blogging And Some Saturday Echidne Musings
From Phila.
Did you ever see the Woody Allen movie called Zelig? It's a
mockumentary about a man named Zelig in the 1920s America who
supposedly had the ability to mirror the people he was with. Thus,
when he was among gypsies he turned into a gypsy. When he was among
psychiatrists, he started talking like one, and when he was next to a
fat man he also became fat. Except that he didn't do any of these very
convincingly.
I think my writing is like Zelig, always trying to bend itself to some
rules but never quite making it. That's why I like this here blog. No
writing rules, heh.
2006_09_01_archive
Cringely was Right!
Robert X. Cringely (host of PBS's NerdTV) wrote an interesting op-ed
piece in today's New York Times. In it he argues that when it comes to
designing rechargable batteries, consumer safety takes a back seat to
battery power. He explains how Sony (the manufacturer of the
lithium-ion batteries that have recently been recalled) knew about the
exploding potential, but charged ahead anyway. He shows how safety
standard used by industry, the M.T.B.F. (mean time between failure) is
a sham measurement that tells you nothing about the likelyhood that
your battery will explode.
However, industry is not the lone, uncaring villian here. They are
merely responding to market forces.
One might think that we'd be working on safer technologies, and we
are, up to a
point. Safer lithium-ion batteries are available, but computer and
mobile phone
manufacturers, now duking it out in a market based on talk time and
battery
life, have decided that we don't really need them. And judging from
the reckless
way we use these devices while driving cars, the manufacturers are
probably
correct about our risk tolerance.
This, to me, is just another example of why the libertarian think
tanks are wrong when they say that market forces will eventually lead
to better safety.
After reading that, I saw this little article over at ScienceDaily. It
talks all about a new advance in electrode technology for lithium-ion
batteries. It reviews the basic science of how a li-ion battery works
and then explains what the new technology does differently. It hypes
how the new technology will lead to batteries that hold more charge
and last longer.
And then at the very end, almost as an afterthought, it says:
There's an added bonus in that replacing a proportion of the cobalt
used in the
traditional lithium-cobalt-oxide electrodes with manganese improves
safety by
reducing the risk of overheating.
science as map of world
Science as a Map of the World
While the constructionist depiction of science as just one among many
crafts which man engages in is clearly extreme and absurd, the
principles which underlie such a claim cannot simply be swept under
the rug and ignored. Science, as well as scientific knowledge is a
largely man made construal of nature rather than some mirror of
reality which the scientists "unearth." Where the constructivists went
wrong is in not acknowledging the manner in which reality strongly
constrains such construals. Yes, we can only begin to reason about
reality once a contingent and corrigible classification scheme and
fundamental assumptions is in place, but this does not change the fact
that there is an objective reality which such schemes are about. While
there may be no one, True, God's-eye conceptual scheme available from
which to view this objective reality, the very fact that there is an
objective reality to which all conceptual schemes refer entails that
some conceptual schemes are better than others.
But what does "better" mean in this context? By "better" we simply
cannot mean "true", for truth, universality and knowledge are all
things that only makes sense within a conceptual scheme. There is no
meta-scheme in which one conceptual scheme can be defined as true in
any meaningful way. Thus, the problem of scientific knowledge as
platonic truth is three-fold:
1. We have no established method for discovering truth.
2. We have no way or recognizing truth when or if we do discover it.
3. Truth is a concept which is constructed rather than discovered.
In other words, we have no way of finding what truth is in the book of
nature, we have no way of recognizing truth even if we do happen to
find it in the book of nature, and worse still, there is no one, true
book of nature at all. The same can also be said for rationality,
objectivity, knowledge and science.
This, however, seems to leave the door wide open for an anything-goes
chaos in the realm of science. After all, how are we supposed to know
what is and is not science if there is no cosmic dictionary or
prewritten book of nature which can be consulted? Who gets to decide
what is and is not science, and how can we know if they are right? Why
is dark matter fair game in the science class room, but intelligent
design or even flat out young earth creationism not? These are not
easy questions to answer in a definitive manner.
The fact is that whether a theory is scientific or not is decided
primarily (exclusively?) by the scientific community itself. This
community does not arbitrarily grant the status of science to one
theory while withholding it from another equally "good" theory.
Rather, they ask questions concerning testability, falsifiability,
explanatory power, consistency, scope, etc.
What, in turn, justifies these criteria? Principle underlies the
principle of science? The answer is fertility. Does a theory work to
control and predict phenomena with greater consistency, accuracy and
scope? Does it raise workable problems? Fertility is what justifies
the scientific assumption that the natural world is a closed system as
well as methodological naturalism in general. Dark matter is
considered to be a potentially fertile theory and is thus accepted as
a scientific theory, while intelligent design is not.
Fertility, it should be noted, does not overcome the three-fold
barrier to truth which science faces, nor does it claim to. Fertility
does not establish one conceptual scheme as being true, nor does it
make the existence of such a scheme more plausible. Fertility, we have
seen, is not a reliable indicator of whether some theory is true or
not. Fertility is interpreted as a somewhat reliable path to truth,
although it is doubtful that such a metaphor even makes sense given
the other two barriers which science faces. Indeed, it would be more
accurate to say that fertility is seen as a reliable path to
fertility.
In this respect Philip Kitcher's metaphor of science as "mapping"
reality is convenient and compelling. A map is about the world, but no
map can ever be the one "true" map of the world, for such a map would
be the world itself. Thus, road maps, detail maps, oil field maps,
topological maps, whether maps, etc. are all different ways of
modeling or mapping the world, none of which can be said to be the
"true" map. Additionally, truths of the world, indeed, the very world
itself can only be encountered and described relative to the
assumptions and schematics which structure any given map. How good or
how fertile a map is, is determined in large part by what we want to
do with it, but even more so by the actual nature of the objective
world which the map is supposed to model.
Filed in: science
# posted by jeff g : 5:52:00 PM
Comments:
�� �� �� ���� � �� ���� ��� ��� �� �� ��� ���� ���� ���� ���� ��� ���
�� ��� ���� ��� ����� ���� ���� ��� �� �� �� �� �� � ��� �� � �� ��� �
�� �� �� � �� �� � �� �� �� � �� � � � �� �� �� �� ��� � ��� �� � ���
� � �� �� � �� � � � ��� �� �� �� ��.����
# : 1/23/2008 2:54 AM
�� ���� �� ���� � �� � � �� � �� �� � �� � �� �� �� � � � � ��� � � �
� � � �� � ���� ��� �� � � � � �� � � �� � � �� �� �� ���� ��� �� �� �
� �� �� ���� �� ���� �� ��� �� ��� ��� ��� � � � � � �� � �� � ��� ���
��� �� ���� ��� ��� �� �
# : 1/23/2008 2:56 AM
:
____________________
:
____________________
:
____________________
[_]
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2007_01_01_archive
The Genetics of Magic
The year-end edition of the British Medical Journal always covers
topics that are typically overlooked in the biomedical literature
during the rest of the year. This year Sreeram V Ramagopalan and
colleagues have published a review of the literature* on the genetics
of magic, "Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic
effects". Their conclusions:
Results Magic shows strong evidence of heritability, with familial
aggregation and concordance in twins. Evidence suggests magical
ability to be a quantitative trait. Specific magical skills,
notably being able to speak to snakes, predict the future, and
change hair colour, all seem heritable.
Conclusions A multilocus model with a dominant gene for magic might
exist, controlled epistatically by one or more loci, possibly
recessive in nature. Magical enhancers regulating gene expression
may be involved, combined with mutations at specific genes
implicated in speech and hair colour such as FOXP2 and MCR1.
They even propose a model of enhancer-driven gene regulation in
individuals displaying the magical ability phenotype:
Now, like all good modern journals, BMJ allows comments on their
articles (called "rapid responses" to make them sound less Live
Journally, I suppose). One of the commenters has an excellent
suggestion: a follow-up article on the heritability of Jedi powers. A
tough research project since it would require sitting through Episodes
I-III and reading the massive array related literature, but someone
should definitely do it!
* The literature in this case being the Harry Potter series of books
friday flash fiction white out
Friday Flash Fiction: White Out
Almost another disasterous no-show for me this week. I had a story
that I've been working on for a couple of days, and yesterday it was
finished. Until I had an inspiration last night of a way to improve
and expand the main character. So I added another 200 words today,
taking it close to the 1000 word limit. It's still flash fiction, but
much longer than I post most weeks. I'm not satisifed with it though.
The concept is almost brilliant, but I don't have time to do it
justice and it needs more work to get it right.
Fortunately I have another FFF idea that's been lurking for a couple
of weeks, so I dashed that one out in 300 words today. I'm quite
pleased with it, though a bit more time to polish would be nice;
that's the idea of FFF though, so here it is:
White Out
By Gareth D Jones
From nuclei created by their engineers, each warrior began work on
their own craft of crystal. They were warriors, but they were also
artists. They guided the crystal growths into marvellous and
intricate patterns, building fractal delights in the form of stars
and lace networks. Principles of engineering were not abandoned
however; despite their delicate appearance each craft could safely
hold a soldier and his armament.
Engineers wandered among the vast crowds of hard-working men,
checking for structural rigidity and aerodynamics. As the work drew
to close the Grand Marshal addressed the gathered horde, his voice
amplified by crystalline receptors.
"The world below is ripe for the taking!" he said. There were
cheers from near and far, echoing and re-echoing from the myriad
smooth surfaces. After a moment, quiet descended again.
"Weather conditions are perfect," the Marshal continued, "We will
not be detected." He paused to survey his men with great pride.
"Board your craft!"
Innumerable soldiers scrambled into their seats, cheering and
yelling encouragement to one another. The Chief Meteorologist
peered over the edge of their immense platform at the massed grey
clouds below. He nodded at the Marshal.
"Launch!" The Marshal commanded. Thousands of crystalline craft
fell from the platform and began their descent.
###
Nose pressed up against the damp, cold glass, Keeley stared hard
into the darkness outside. Pools of orange light from the street
lamps fought against the bitter cold in an attempt to make the
street look cheerful. Suddenly, something caught her eye, briefly
visible as it swirled from darkness to light and back into the
dark. She stared even harder for a moment, just to be sure, until
the lone swirl became a flurry.
"Daddy! Daddy!" she called over her shoulder, "Daddy! It's
snowing!"
The End
2005_12_01_archive
Circus of the Spineless
Circus of the Spineless #3 is up on Urban Dragon Hunters. All things
invertebrate, for your creepy-crawly pleasure...
posted by coturnix @ 9:50 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
What is Blogging All About
Colin McEnroe's blogging course up in Connecticut is coming close to
the end. Several of the students have really taken off with this, new
to them, form of communication. They are posting like mad, they are
commenting on each others' blogs, discovering cool other blogs and
websites, and I am sure they will continue blogging long after the
class is over. I urge you to go and look at the comments on the class
blog and follow the links on the sidebar to student blogs to see their
posts. They have built quite a little mini-community of their own,
with a number of us voyeurs in the bleachers.
For the last class (which, I am assuming, is convening tonight), they
spent some time figuring out what to discuss, as there was no
predetermined assignment. In the end, they want to talk about what
blogging is, where it is heading, and especially what is the meaning
of the word "personal" when applied to a blogger.
Elin of Nileblog compares blogging and writing: "But it feels good to
blog, because we get to express ourselves as fully and completely as
we want. And no one interrupts. Or walks away. Instead, we get to
write it, so it feels full and permanent (even if only in cyberspace).
I think that's a good thing." She initially defines 'personal" as
'intimate' and loves how easy it is to find like-minded people in the
blogosphere. She then makes an interesting comment about the bloggers
in the basements of their parents' homes on this post on her
classmate's blog Bill's Blither.
The Screamin' Memey has finally learned how to do the links properly,
although the photos still overlap each other. Has the class built its
own anthill in the swarm of the blogosphere?
Transgenderedtrash of Don't do the crime if you can't..... disagrees
it's a swarm and is being generally pessimistic about the future of
blogging.
Christopher Michael of Metablognition has a rare angle on the blogs -
how do they both reflect and affect the way we think and function.
Then, he points to an interesting study (PDF) about teen use of the
Internet (19% of online teens keep a blog and 38% read them) and adds
a couple more to bolster his case that blogs will have effects on teh
cognition of its users, especially on those growing up blogging.
Semper Gumby cuts through the noise and disagrees with all of his
classmates on the meaning of "personal".
Eric on Don't hate, prestidigitate is exploring blogs as journeys, as
well as the conflict between anonymity and community. Is each blog, or
blogosphere as a whole, trying to go somewhere? Perhaps travel from
anonymity to community?
Brett of Nonsense has taken to blogging perhaps more than any of his
classmates, spilling out the details of his dates, emotions, politics,
and everything else, so he may have a diffent take on what is
"personal". He's also figured out recently how to make his blog look
all nice and pretty with some technical know-how I don't have. Is the
journey really the emergence of personality?
John of Jean DuBlog thinks that blogging is changing the meaning of
the word 'personality' and there is a difference between changing
topics and changing voices.
Erin thinks that there is a competition between online and offline
social life (and she failed to post het Friday Cat Photo). And she
points out that someone in that class discovered this article that
argues that posting a Friday Cat photo helps your readers remember
your blog better (so they''ll come back).
I hope they post some more after class meeting tonight, post their
final papers online for all of us to read, and I also hope they all
keep blogging.
Update: They had their class and some have added new posts:
Screamin' memey disagrees with Mark (transgendertrash).
Eric podcasts his final thoughts.
Shante of Blogging For Beginners added three quick posts in a row: No
one is alone, truly, Why lack of anonymity has ruined my love life and
some more on the personal....
Matthew of Perpetual Perpetuity started his blog as a kind of a time
capsule. It is maddening that some of the students have additional,
'personal' blogs that I cannot find and read...
JP of A Novice Blogger's Thoughts posts the first initial reaction. I
hope more is coming...
Finally, Colin, on his personal blog, nails the whole "personal"
thing.
posted by coturnix @ 9:51 AM | permalink | (2 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Blog Against Racism Day
Today is the Blog Against Racism Day. You should write something on
the topic today and send a link to your post here.
As someone growing up in Eastern Europe I feel woefully unprepared by
life experiences to write about this topic. Actually, I have mentioned
race here only a couple of times, and have written only one post
specifically about it. I don't feel I should try to write again about
something I have not lived through or even thought through
sufficiently to be able to avoid all the potential pitfalls. So, just
science du jour
Science du jour...
NYT has this article on the "science of services", whatever that
means.
An ex-colleague of mine wonders: why is this article in the Business
section of NYT?
I won't whine (in this post, anyway) about why this is not a science,
but will merely lament NYT's lack of critical reporting: there's no
discussion of operations research, industrial engineering, "management
science", and other mathematical/engineering/business school
disciplines (sciences and non-sciences) that subsume this field of
deep scientific inquiry many times over.
god inc sold to scifi channel
GOD Inc. sold to the SciFi channel!
I've previously posted videos by Mr. Deity. Another YouTube series of
the same genre that I've been a big fan of is God Inc. The premise is
that God runs his affairs just like a typical bureaucratic company,
with all the petty bickering and office politics.
The good news is that it's been picked up by the SciFi channel.
taking christ out of christmas
Taking the Christ out of Christmas
Philadelphia Weekly has an article about the local atheist movement
here in Philly.
Philadelphia's atheist story has a cast of characters that wouldn't
look out of place in a Robert Rodriguez movie scripted by a
resurrected Tennessee Williams. We will meet a large-breasted
exotic dancer and atheist intellectual who loves watching the
Christians she debates try to maintain eye contact (check out
Kelly's blog here -- JP). And a little girl who, while the adults
upstairs are holding a seance, bangs on the basement ceiling with a
broom and flashes the lights on and off by removing and replacing
the fuses (check out Margaret's homepage here -- JP). We'll meet
right-wing libertarians and left-wing liberals, woolly agnostics
and hardcore "nontheists," students, professors of philosophy, moms
and dads and YouTubing, blasphemous T-shirt-wearing punk rock
troublemakers. The only things they've all got in common are: a)
they don't believe in God (or Santa or the Flying Spaghetti
Monster) and b) they're your neighbors.
The article talks mostly about Margaret, the Tree of Knowledge, and
the RRS, but mentions other Philly atheist groups.
In Philadelphia alone there's the Freethought Society, the Humanist
Association of Greater Philadelphia, the Ethical Society, the
Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, the 100-member
First Church of Atheism and a bunch of internationally known
troublemakers who call themselves the Rational Response Squad
(RRS).
Just don't assume they all get along. Hang out with atheists long
enough, and you'll hear agnostics referred to as "idiot atheists"
and "chickenshit fence-sitters."
The author, Steven Wells, even mentions my local meet-up group.
The atheists of the Philadelphia Atheists Meetup Group, meeting in
the Cos� on 12th and Walnut in late November, might be mistaken at
first glance for anarchists or some other species of modern urban
troublemaker. They have a look of healthily dissatisfied,
computer-savvy malevolence about them. They look like they probably
don't spend too long coordinating their wardrobes.
I'm sure that last dig was aimed at me since he was giving me dirty
looks when he interviewed me (just kidding, he was very professional).
The article is well worth reading, but I need to post two more quotes
from it because they show why it's important for these (our) groups to
be around and what we're still up against. One quote is about sabotage
done to the Tree of Knowledge and the other is about the absence of a
certain founding father here in the cradle of American liberty.
In the coming weeks the tree of knowledge will be repeatedly
vandalized. One creative soul will remove all the restraining ropes
on one side, presumably so the tree will topple into the nativity
scene in the first high wind.
Philadelphia's Thomas Paine--the revolution's great
propagandist--wrote Common Sense, a blistering attack on the
absurdity of regarding the Bible as anything other than bad history
on great drugs. For this sin of intellectual honesty he was
physically and verbally assaulted, libeled, slandered and, but for
the efforts of America's atheists and freethinkers, would've been
written out of American history entirely. To this day, thanks to
Christian opposition, there's no statue of Paine in Philadelphia.
science fiction work in progress
Science Fiction/ What ever happened to Stuie Steinkritz ?
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
I do not know for certain that each and every one of this group are
for science fiction collectors.The Algot Erikson bookplate was done in
Sweden in 1940 .The Vepstas bookplate has a comic book theme.It was
designed by Henrietta Vepstas for her brother.The Morehouse bookplate
amuses me so I included it.
The Sallume plate was designed for Antioch Bookplate by Ed Emsh.
I do not know if Ray Bradbury uses a bookplate in his own books.When I
wrote to him in 2001 and asked him to send me his own bookplate , this
is what he sent.I have a very special fondness for Ray Bradbury as he
was the very first Science fiction writer I recall reading.Taking a
trip down memory lane I also recall a fellow student in my public
school in Brooklyn, whose name was Stuart Steinkritz ? He was, as I
recall a nephew of Leslie Nielson , the actor. Using a pen name, he
actually got published in one of the Science Fiction pulp magazines.I
think that's pretty impressive for a 12 year old.
Although I can't be sure about the exact spelling of his last name I
do recall the acronym he taught me B.E. M. (Bugged Eyed Monsters)
The late John Brunner used a bookplate designed by Jim Barker.The
designer's name is hard to make out but you can click on the image for
enlargement. Porcupine books in England
websales@porcupine.demon.co.uk has a number of books from Mr.
Brunner's library with his bookplate, priced at $20.00 + They are nice
people to deal with.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' bookplate does not come up for sale very
often.About ten years ago, I tracked down his grandson and was able to
purchase my copy from him. If a copy is offered to you from a
reputable source, buy it.
Arthur C. Clarke's bookplates show up from time to time on Ebay. They
seem to sell in the $25.00 + range.
L.Sprague de Camp used this very distinctive triangular bookplate.I
purchased it from Tom Boss, a bookseller in Wellesley , Mass. several
years ago.He may possibly have more copies.
Harlan Ellison uses a bookplate printed at Gnome press from a design
by Ed Cartier.The late Andre Norton used a similar bookplate.
H.P.Lovecraft- A word of caution if offered an association copy with a
Lovecraft bookplate. Mr. Lovecraft's cousin ,Wilfred B. Talman
originally designed the bookplate. Several years ago The Necronomicon
Press reproduced the plate and distributed it.I see them from time to
time on Ebay. There is no easy way that I know of to distinguish these
reproductions from the originals. Let the buyer beware.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
It is Monday February 5th. I had hoped to complete this posting
yesterday but real life interfered. I want to thank all of you who
participated in my Ebay bookplate auction.The bidding was frantic and
24 of the 25 items listed were sold. I think this blog contributed to
the many new bidders who participated. I plan to have my next
bookplate auction sometime in March.If you would like to be notified
just send me an Email :
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
H.G.Wells- He had at least two bookplates.The one he definitely used
is item #44 in London Bookplates by Brian North Lee "From the library
of H.G.Wells at 13 Hanover Terrace Regent's Park London (with
facsimile signature). Label within an ornamental border"
The one illustrated above is from my collection and was designed by
Robert Saldo. I do not know is whether the Saldo plate was ever
affixed to any books in H.G. Wells' library.Some bookplate designers
created "honorarium " plates without the knowledge or consent of the
owner. It gave them a certain amount of prestige to claim they had
designed a bookplate for a well known person. As can be seen from the
Saldo advertisement, he promoted the fact that several celebrities of
the 1930's were his clients.
A final note-This has nothing to do with the science fiction theme.
Quite by chance I discovered several interesting bookplate groups on
the Flickr photo sharing site.If you click on the words Science
Fiction in the title, at the beginning of this posting it will lead
you to the Flickr search engine.
wired science
Wired Science...
What's inside with Chris Hardwick (MTV's Singled Out, anyone) and
Rainn Wilson (Duh, The Office). This is some PBS show, strange and
interesting at the same time. Can you guess the mystery product?
[3x7swa]
Join the Blog Rush.
key stats on stem from nsb
Key Stats on STEM from NSB
"Students from financially poorer families or whose mother had less
formal education entered kindergarten with lower levels of mathematics
skills," according to the National Science Board's (NSB) Science and
Engineering Indicators 2008. This is one of many STEM
education-related observations in NSB's most recent Indicators
publication, released this week. The publication is meant to lay out
the "data and trends" within science, engineering, and technology, on
a biennial basis. Each publication includes a separate companion piece
that offers the Board's perspective on the policy implications of that
year's Indicators (all of these materials are available for free
online: the full Indicators here, the brief companion piece on policy
here, and a "Digest" summary of key statistics from the Indicators
here). The companion piece includes three policy recommendations:
enhancing Federal funding of basic research; encouraging greater
"intellectual exchange" between academia and the business sector; and
developing new data to track the economic effects of globalization.
Though issues related to these recommendations were the most salient
points in NSB's unveiling of the Indicators, there was a story behind
the story for the STEM education community.
Below, we will list some selected high and low points of that story,
all of which are direct quotes from the publication, unless otherwise
noted. The statistics generally come from the "highlights" section of
chapter one of the Indicators (pages 1-4 to 1-6), but will be cited
when drawn from another section, or from the Digest. Please visit
chapter one, titled "Elementary and Secondary Education," for more
complete information. The sections below are broken into the following
categories (all taken directly from the text), and within each
category there are subheadings which are italicized:
-Student Learning in Mathematics and Science
-Standards and Coursetaking
-Mathematics and Science Teacher Quality
-Professional Development of Mathematics and Science Teachers
-Teacher Salaries, Working Conditions, and Job Satisfaction
-Transitions to Higher Education
______________________________________________________________________
Student Learning in Mathematics and Science
All student groups made gains in mathematics and science during
elementary and high school, but performance disparities were evident,
and some gaps widened as students progressed through school.
Students from financially poorer families or whose mother had less
formal education entered kindergarten with lower levels of mathematics
skills and knowledge than their more advantaged peers. Substantial
racial/ethnic gaps in mathematics performance were also observed.
In 2005, U.S. fourth and eighth grade students outperformed those
tested in the 1990s in mathematics, and fourth grade students improved
in science.
Widespread increases in mathematics from the 1990s to 2005 were not
matched in science. Since 1996, the first year the current national
science assessment was given, average science scores increased for 4th
graders, held steady for 8th graders, and declined for 12th graders.
Standards and Coursetaking
In 2006, slightly more than half the states required 3 or more years
of both mathematics and science courses for high school graduation.
Students in more than 40 states were required to complete at least 2
years of both mathematics and science in high school; 3 years was the
most common requirement for both subjects, in effect in just over half
the states.
State development of course content standards has progressed in recent
years and standards continue to be reviewed and revised.
All states had issued content standards in mathematics and science by
2006-07, and 35 states had schedules for reviewing and revising those
standards.
Trends from 1990 to 2005 show increases in advanced coursetaking;
growth was especially strong in mathematics.
Class of 2005 graduates completed mathematics courses at far higher
rates than their 1990 counterparts in all categories except
trigonometry/algebra III.
As the school's poverty rate diminished [i.e., as income level
increased], [high school] graduates were more likely to complete many
of the advanced mathematics, science, and engineering courses [e.g.,
only 16.8% of students in schools with a high poverty rate completed
trigonometry or algebra III, versus 26.2% in schools with a very low
poverty rate; similarly, only 49.6% in high poverty rate schools
completed chemistry, whereas 67% completed chemistry in low poverty
rate schools; see tables 1-9 and 1-10 below for more details]. For
some subjects, a significant different existed only between schools
with very low poverty rates and all other schools (Indicators, page
1-23).
Mathematics and Science Teacher Quality
Most mathematics and science teachers have the basic teaching
qualifications of a college degree and full state certification.
At least 75% of 2003 mathematics and science teachers with less than 5
years of teaching experience participated in practice teaching before
their first teaching job.
The majority of public high school mathematics and science teachers
had a college major or certification in their subject field, that is,
they were "in-field" teachers. Infield teaching was less common in
middle schools than in high schools.
In 2003, 78%-92% of mathematics, biology, and physical science
teachers in public high schools were teaching in field. Out-of-field
teachers (that is, teachers teaching their subject with neither a
major nor certification in the subject matter field, a related field,
or general education) ranged from 2% of physical science teachers to
8% of mathematics teachers.
The proportion of in-field mathematics and science teachers in middle
schools was lower (33%-55%) than in high schools (78%-92%). About
3%-10% were teaching out of field.
Teachers in schools with low concentrations of minority and low-income
students tended to have more education, better preparation and
qualifications, and more experience than teachers in schools with high
concentrations of such students.
Mathematics and science teachers in low-minority and low-poverty
schools were more likely than their colleagues in high-minority and
high-poverty schools to have a master's or higher degree and to hold
full certification.
Mathematics and science teachers in low-minority and low-poverty
schools were more likely to teach in field than their colleagues in
high-minority and high-poverty schools.
New mathematics and science teachers (those with 3 or fewer years of
teaching experience) were more prevalent in high-minority and
high-poverty schools than in low minority and low-poverty schools.
Professional Development of Mathematics and Science Teachers
Participation in induction and mentoring programs was widespread.
In 2003, 68%-72% of beginning mathematics and science teachers in
public middle and high schools reported that they had participated in
a formal teacher induction program or had worked closely with a mentor
teacher during their first year of teaching.
Teacher participation in professional development was common. However,
various features of professional development identified as being
effective in bringing about changes in teaching practices were not
widespread.
Teacher Salaries, Working Conditions, and Job Satisfaction
Attrition from teaching was typically lower than from other
professions and attrition rates of mathematics and science teachers
were no greater than the overall rate. Many were satisfied with being
teachers and planned to stay in the profession as long as they could.
In 2003, 90% of mathematics and science teachers said that they were
satisfied with being teachers in their schools, 76% planned to remain
in teaching as long as they could or until retirement, and more than
66% expressed their willingness to become teachers again if they
could start over.
In academic year 2003-04, about 59% of the public secondary schools in
the United States reported vacancies in mathematics teaching
positions, and of these nearly one-third said that they found it "very
difficult to" or "could not" fill those vacancies (Digest, page 19).
About one-third of public secondary schools with vacancies in
mathematics [32%] or physical sciences [31%] reported great difficulty
in finding teachers to fill openings in these fields, whereas 22% of
schools reported that this was the case in biology/life sciences
[similarly, 31% in ESL, 32% in foreign language, and 31% in special
education] (Digest, page 19).
Science and mathematics teacher salaries continue to lag behind
salaries for individuals working in comparable professions and the
gaps have widened substantially in recent years.
In 2003, the median salary for full-time high school mathematics and
science teachers was $43,000, lower than the salaries of professionals
with comparable educational backgrounds such as computer systems
analysts, engineers, accountants or financial specialists, and
protective
service workers ($50,000-$72,000). From 1993 to 2003, full-time high
school mathematics and science teachers had a real salary gain of 8%,
compared with increases of 21%-29% for computer systems analysts,
accountants or financial specialists, and engineers.
In 2003, 53% of public middle and high school mathematics and science
teachers said that they were not satisfied with their salaries.
Transitions to Higher Education
Over two-thirds of all U.S. high school graduates enroll in
postsecondary education immediately after graduation, although
immediate enrollment rates for low-income families are lower (Digest,
page 18).
Between 1975 and 2005, the percentage of students ages 16 to 24
enrolling in college immediately following high school graduation rose
from 51 to 69%, with increases evident across all income levels
(Digest, page 18).
Over 80% of high school graduates from high-income families attend
college immediately after graduation, compared with 54% from
low-income families (Digest, page 18).
______________________________________________________________________
Science and Engineering Indicators, Chapter 1, Appendix Table 1-9
*Click to enlarge.
Science and Engineering Indicators, Chapter 1, Appendix Table 1-10
*Click to enlarge.
Labels: nsb, science and engineering indicators
Contact the Triangle Coalition
SUBSCRIBE to the Legislative News
* Click here to subscribe
Legislation Tracker
* FY2009 APPROPRIATIONS
* FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS
* COMPREHENSIVE STEM EDUCATION BILL DATABASE
* America COMPETES Act
* H-1B Visa Reform
* Higher Education Act (HEA)
* Higher Education Sustainability Act (HESA)
* No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
* No Child Left Inside
* TEACH Act
Return to Current News
Previous News Items
* NCLB and the Courts
* Omnibus Bill Funding Levels for STEM Education
* Omnibus Spending Bill Passes House and Senate
* New Omnibus Spending Bill to Come to House Floor F...
* Refresher on STEM Education Funding Levels
* Anticipated Omnibus Bill Faces Opposition, Impasse...
* Promising STEM Education Programs in House HEA Bil...
* Labor-H Veto Override Fails
* Head Start Passed With Ehlers' Science, Math Requi...
* Miller Verifies, NCLB Will Indeed be Put Off Until...
Archived News
* April 2007
* May 2007
* June 2007
* July 2007
* August 2007
* September 2007
* October 2007
* November 2007
* December 2007
* January 2008
* February 2008
Useful Resources
* Bill text, overviews, etc. (THOMAS)
* Common Legislative News acronyms
* Congressional voting records
2007_02_01_archive
Death, Taxes, and Grad School
One of the many differences between me and my friends who got "real
jobs" after college is how Uncle Sam (and his state- and city-level
brethren) decide we should be classified in the tax code. Since it's
getting to be that time of year again, I figured I'd try to relate
some of the confusion I've experienced because of the
non-intuitive-ness of it all.
Back in high school and college, I got a W-2 at the end of the year
for any job I held, listing how much had been withheld from my
paycheck for federal and state tax, etc. All it took to do my taxes
(and get my refund!) was the aptly named 1040-EZ.
In grad school, I was lucky enough to be awarded a fellowship. There
is a difference in the way the federal government regards the various
forms of grad-student income.
Princeton required me to TA for one semester, and that year I had a
combination of fellowship and salaried income, so I remember that mess
particularly fondly.
Permit me to explain:
If you're TA'ing a class (or, as Princeton calls it, acting as an AI
or a preceptor), that is considered salaried work, so you still
receive a W-2 and have federal and state taxes withheld. There is no
money withheld from fellowship income at Princeton. (Is this different
anyplace else?) That means I don't get a W-2.
Instead of the 1040-EZ, I have to use the tax tables to estimate what
my tax will be for the coming year and send in a stub with a check to
the U.S. Treasury quarterly. Then, I have to use a 1040-A form to
report my estimated payments and deduct that from my calculated tax.
There's a fine if you don't pay a certain amount of estimated tax in
advance, so that's why I don't just pay up in one chunk on April 15th.
The state-level taxes have the potential to add another layer of
complexity, but I've been lucky because fellowship stipends are not
taxable in the state of NJ, so I'd always get a little bit of a refund
there. I grew up in NJ, so I didn't bother changing my residency or
anything, either. (Now that I live in PA, I need to look into whether
I'll owe tax at state level). City-dwelling grad students, how
complicated is the tax situation for you?
Just for kicks, I'll link to Princeton's tax requirement sheet. I
don't think you need to have an on-campus IP address to access it.
You always hear tell of random grad students who don't pay their
taxes, figuring that it isn't worth the government's time to audit
someone who only makes 19K a year. Good luck with that. I don't have
zombies in orange jumpsuits
Zombies in orange jumpsuits!
Who knew that Filipino prisoners could dance like that?
They also do a version of Hail holy queen from Sister Act (but I like
the zombies better)
2006_03_01_archive
Indian Science Blogging
It appears that Scian Melt is running again. Issue #14 is up on Topix
of general interest.
posted by coturnix @ 9:44 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
History Carnival
History Carnival #26 is up on World History Blog.
posted by coturnix @ 8:14 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
New Carnival!
The inaugural Carnival of Biotechnology is up on Biotech Blog.
posted by coturnix @ 6:23 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Tar Heel Tavern - call for submissions
GingerRivers will be hosting the Tar Heel Tavern # 54.
The theme is grace. How do you define grace? Where do you find it?
What, or whom have you seen it in? This tavern will focus on grace, on
these questions. Write a poem, a short essay, send in a photograph
with a caption ~ whatever you choose. Post your entry on your blog.
Submit it to Tar Heel Tavern by sending an email with "Tar Heel
Tavern" in the subject field of your e-mail to: gingerivers AT yahoo
DOT com
Send: The name of your blog; The title of the post; The URL of your
post. Additional blurb about it is also a nice touch and may be used
to introduce your entry. Send the entries by Saturday 2/25 at 9PM and
the Tavern will be up on Sunday morning.
posted by coturnix @ 3:24 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Looking for Science on "Science And Politics"?
With so many miscellaneous posts here, sometimes I get asked where is
science on this blog and where is politics on this blog. Nobody digs
through the Archives of course, and with 1414 posts here, it is hard
to sift through all the carnivals, memes, quizzes, cartoons,
linkfests, blog-friend shout-outs, navel-gazing, meta-blogging etc.
Not to mention that Blogger does not automate categories, so I am
always 3-4 months behind in doing it manually.
The blogging gurus suggest that one should often link back to old
posts. I do that, actually, quite often, mostly in posts about
politics. I noticed that, when they moved to their new digs at SEED,
several science bloggers posted their lists of "best of" posts. I
found those lists very useful. I never dug through their archives so
this was an easy and quick way to get to know their older stuff.
I have recently compiled a list of "best of" political posts here, so
now I should do the same for science. This is an attempt at such a
"best of " list, putting together the best of science blogging both
from "Science And Politics" and from "Circadiana". I hope you find it
useful.
I often just report on new cool research with no commentary. Sometimes
I add a brief comment of my own:
Do We Also Taste Just Like Chicken?
Bipolar Disorders
Zebrafish Research at BU
Circadian Rhythm in Visual Sensitivity
Melanopsin
I Am Seeing Red
Beached Whale Recycling
Now this is some cool science!
How Period and Timeless Interact in Fruitflies
Circadian Rhythms, or Not, in Arctic Reindeer
Persistence In Perfusion
Ah, Zugunruhe!
Ants are amazing!
More often, I use the reports on new research to make connections to
the Big Picture, or to other areas of science or beyond:
Malaria and Melatonin: Co-evolution Around The Circadian Clock
Diversity of insect circadian clocks - the story of the Monarch
butterfly
Serotonin, Melatonin, Immunity and Cancer
Revenge of the Zombifying Wasp
Lithium, Circadian Clocks and Bipolar Disorder
Some hypotheses about a possible connection between malaria and
jet-lag
Penguins have to rush sex - 'quicky' is the new norm
Sometimes it is not new research, but blog posts, books, articles, or
some old historical stuff that prompts me to write a long post:
What Are Gonads For (Among Else)?
Evolution Project And A Truly Fair And Balanced Fox
Lysenko Gets A D-Minus On My Genetics Test
The Mighty Ant-Lion
Did A Virus Make You Smart?
Development of the human sleep patterns
Science of Fiction, or, why we still read Sherlock Holmes
Diurnal rhythm of alcohol metabolism
Circadian Clocks in Microorganisms
Lunar Rhythms in the Antlion
Circadian Rhythms in Human Mating
What is a 'natural' sleep pattern?
Clocks in Bacteria I: Synechococcus elongatus
Do sponges have circadian clocks?
Clocks in Bacteria II: Adaptive Function of Clocks in Cyanobacteria
Sometimes I even post my own hypotheses or even my own unpublished
data:
Does circadian clock regulate clutch-size in birds? A question of
appropriatness of the model animal.
Influence of Light Cycle on Dominance Status and Aggression in
Crayfish
Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals
I have no qualms about putting in my two cents in controversial areas
of science:
More On Female Orgasm
Does Tryptophan from turkey meat make you sleepy?
Sleep Schedules in Adolescents
More on Adolescent Sleep
Of course, science reporting in the media drives me crazy, sometimes
strongly enough to write about it:
Sixth Sense? Give Me A Break!
Sex On The Brain of the science reporters
I like to review whole lines of research in plain English:
(Non) Adaptive Function of Sleep
Bipolar? Avoid night shift
Clocks, Migration and the Effects of Global Warming
Seasonal Affective Disorder - The Basics
My most popular post ever, on all of my blogs, is this one, combining
the recent research, review of whole lines of research over the
decades, and social and personal relevance of such research:
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep
I have written several times on topics related to science education:
Teaching Scientific Method
Some Thoughts On Use Of Animals In Research And Teaching
Dr.Love-of-Strange, or How I Learned To Love The Malaria...
My first high-school teaching experience
Great Men, History of Science
Great Men, History Of Science, Take Two
Teaching Evolution Successfully
Teaching Biology To Adults
An attempt at communicating science to lay audience on a blog
Teaching Biology Lab - Week 1
Teaching Biology Lab - Week 2
Teaching Biology Lab - Week 3
When Should Schools Start in the morning?
Teaching Biology Lab - Week 4
I have reviewed some books:
Books: Collapse by Jared Diamond
Books: Biased Embryos and Evolution by Wallace Arthur
Tomasello - Part I
Tomasello - Part II
Books: Evolution's Rainbow by Joan Roughgarden
I have listed science-related books on occasion:
Holiday Reading: Science Books
Reading Recommendations: Books about Clocks and Sleep
Essential Science Fiction
What Is Lab Lit?
I have mused about the way science and Internet are connected:
Blogs and the Future of Science
Quorum Sensing and the Blogosphere as a Superorganism
Science BloggerCon?
Some bloggers bash Creationists every day. It's not my style, but I
could not resist taking a stab at it myself a few times:
Definition Of Theory As In Theory Of Evolution
Evolution/Creation Discussions on DailyKos
Why Creationists Need To Be Creationists
Do We Need An Anti-Creationist Think-Tank?
Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology
Reverend William Paley's Circadian Clock
On Bush' Endorsement of Intelligent Design Creationism
And Creationism is not the only pseudoscience I paid attention to:
What This Blog is NOT About: Biorhythms
I came here from Yugoslavia 15 years ago, but I still have one ear out
to the news from over there. Sometimes, they make news in science...or
pseudoscience, that warrant blogging about:
I Take This Personally
Saga Continues
Serbs Like Darwin After All
Darwin In Serbia, He Said, She Said
More On Darwin In Serbia
Astrology Academy in Serbia
A new meaning of 'having a buzz'
Anti-Darwinian Lunacy in America: View from Serbia
A Pyramid in Bosnia?
Update on the Pyramid in Bosnia
This was so long, I had to split it into four parts. I wrote it in
1999 so it is six years out of date and both science and the
philosophy of science have moved on since then, but it is well
referenced and it is an interesting snapshot of the Zeitgeist, as well
as the only time anyone put together heavy-duty history of science,
philosophy of science, evolutionary biology and chronobiology all in
one place:
What Would Darwin Do (WWDD)
WWDD1: Darwinian Method
WWDD2: Darwin On Time
WWDD3: Whence Clocks
WWDD4: Power of Darwinian Method
Circadiana is a science-teaching blog-to-be, so you can learn the
basics of chronobiology there:
What Is Chronobiology
Basic Concepts and Terms
Clock Evolution
On Methodology
Forty Five Years of Pittendrigh's Empirical Generalizations
Circadian Organization
To Entrain Or Not To Entrain, That Is The Question
Circadian Organization In Mammals
Circadian Organization in Non-Mammalian Vertebrates: Birds
Circadian Organization in Japanese Quail
Entrainment
Phase-Shifting Effects of Light
Constructing a Phase-Response Curve
Using The Phase Response Curve
Interpreting The Phase Response Curve
PRC Atlas
Short History of Clock Genetics
Seasonality
Photoperiodism - Models and Experimental Approaches
One of those posts, a simple, educational post with not great axe to
grind may actually be the most valuable one after all. Why? Because it
is a reference in a scientific paper! Do you know of any other blog
posts that have been cited in scientific literature?
Blog-post as a scientific reference
And of course, this blog being titled "Science And Politics",
sometimes I try to connect science and politics in various ways:
Political Brain
Political Brain No.2
Political Brain No.3
Candidates' Circadian Profiles
Early To Rise Early To Bed...
God, Genes and Conservatives
Genocentrism Aids Anti-Abortion
Lefty and Righty excesses of pseudo-science
Political Affiliation on Campus
Fear = Bad; Anger = Good
Should Republicans be allowed to have (or adopt) children?
I have collected links when more-or-less important events happened:
Size Does Matter, or Does It?
Penis Blogging Week Continued
One-stop shopping for blog responses to the NYT series on Intelligent
Design Creationism
It's Over in Dover
Darwin Day Blog Celebrations
I tried to teach Bart Simpson algebra seven years in a row...
I like giving shout-outs to my blog-friends, including science
bloggers, so here are a few link-fests:
Evolution/Creation Debate
Evolution of the Intelligent Blog Design
IDC Blog Craze
Evolution Today
Link-Love: Weekend Science Blogging
Link-Love: A little bit of science blogging
Link-Love: some more science blogging
Link-Love: science-blogs down the alphabet, Part III
Link-love: more Alphabet Soup of science blogs
Link-Love: science-blogs down the alphabet, Part V
Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs
Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs - Part VII
Link-Love: Science Blogs Qs and Rs
Link-Love: Continuing with the Alphabet of Science Blogs - Part IX
Link-love: Catching up with the shifty alphabet of science blogs
Or do you just want to look at pretty pictures of strange critters?
Monday Cool Insectivore Blogging
Coturnix- Japanese Quail
Cockroaches
Quail
I have hosted a number of science-related carnivals:
Tangled Bank #19
Tangled Bank #51
Circus of the Spineless #6
I And The Bird #19
Animalcules, Volume 1, Issue 4
Grand Rounds #47
Grand Rounds v.2 n.20
Skeptic's Circle #5
Skeptic's Circle #23
...and many more...
Finally, I have written personal posts that are science-related and
this one is my all-time favourite:
How To Become A Biologist
which also got published on LabLit.com as
How to become a biologist
See also some others:
I, Coturnix
Where Did My Son Get His Smarts?
From The Mouths Of Babes...
At The Science Fair
My Equestrian Past
39
posted by coturnix @ 2:14 PM | permalink | (2 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Tangled Bank
Oldies music edition of the Tangled Bank is up on Aetiology!
posted by coturnix @ 11:16 AM | permalink | (2 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
How to frame the anti-choice movement
MJS on Corrente Wire has a great post, called Democratic Talking Point
Oracle Appears as Vaginal Schematic, that makes an interesting
suggestion - make the anti-women crowd squirm by talking bluntly about
vaginas, penises and other organs they rather not know exist.
posted by coturnix @ 10:25 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Obligatory Readings of the Day
Lots of them today:
A Change In The Wind: Largest Insect Epidemic in North American
History:
That's according to the Canadian Forest Service. Hat tip to the
Washington Post, for an excellent story about the spread of the
Mountain Pine Beetle, a tiny little critter that for eons has been
controlled by cold winters...but no longer.
"It's pretty gut-wrenching," said Allan Carroll, a research
scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria, whose studies
tracked a lock step between warmer winters and the spread of the
beetle. "People say climate change is something for our kids to
worry about. No. It's now."
Dr.Biobrain: God's Big Kick and Faith After Death.
Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk: A Qualified Defense of Standardized Testing
in Higher Education.
Archy: Beware of frozen mammoths - part 2: The admiral and the
mammoth.
Sean explains the way a computer solved a problem without running it
at all in: Quantum interrogation
Echidne and Amanda rip into John Tierney and he gets what he deserves.
Environmental Action Blog: Americans Will Support Gas Tax Increase
If...
I applaud every excuse to post a picture of Scarlett Johanssen, as in
Anatomically modern gentlemen prefer blondes on Archaeoblog. Update:
Here is another blonde cave-woman.
Global Warming, the only issue that is REALLY serious, as it is global
and long-term and irreversible, ranks dead last in a recent survey of
what the government should focus on: Matt Nisbett reports.
Everything made its way into science fiction. Even my old oft-repeated
harping that conservatives are hierarchical and liberals
individualistic. See Musical Perceptions: The evils of hierarchy. I'll
have to get some Octavia Butler stuff to read soon.
Mahablog has been on the roll lately. See Obliviousness on healthcare,
Rights, Facts, Comments and Kibble on abortion, and The Bush Policy
Flow Chart on Rovian politicking, among else.
posted by coturnix @ 9:52 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Carnival of Education
Carnival of Education #56 is up on The Education Wonks.
posted by coturnix @ 9:19 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
2006 BlogAds blog survey
After the great success of the Blogads blogosphere surveys of 2004 and
2005, Henry Copeland of BlogAds is launching the new, 2006 survey. Go
here and answer some questions. (For Question #23 put "Science And
Politics" if you want)
posted by coturnix @ 8:49 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Quotes on Counting
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that
counts can be counted.
- Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955
Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the
number of apples in a seed.
- Dr. Robert H. Schuller
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our
blessings.
- Eric Hoffer, 1902 - 1983
It's not the quantity, but the quality of friendships that counts.
That's the difference between 'counting off' and 'counting on.'
- Jimmy Tom
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very
wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible
to count them accurately.
- Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900
If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
- Jean Paul Getty, 1892 - 1976
From Quotes of the Day
posted by coturnix @ 7:17 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a
Comment | permalink
Carnival of the Liberals
[sm394514.png]
Want this badge?
Carnival of the Liberals #7 has been posted at Throw Away Your TV.
Jeff has done an outstanding job with the usual eclectic, informative
and witty selection of quality liberal blogging but has added his own
special twist. Throw Away Your TV is a video blog and as such Jeff has
gone out of his way to choose a video quickclip to highlight every
post in this edition. The video clips are often times funny, sometimes
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)