Quote ” (And PS Claire, I volunteer the kitten for a re-run of Schrödinger’s Cat – in the name of Science, you understand.)”-fg

Ok. That’s interesting! A re-run.

The past history, with no history, of a past history. Could kitten really claim a past history of a past history, if a re-run was run, with a kitten that would re-run and accelerate to the point that would be past the past history, or would the run before the re-run, in which the past of the past history was the run, run past the re-run of the past history?

Or does it just like Kitten Nibbles?

Claire

If a God did create the Universe, we can infer that he has powers beyond our imagination, and has essentially (within the universe) infinite power. Therefore God’s conception of elegant mechanism would presumably be in terms outside of our conception. Although that could leave us with evolution as a surface level by-product, only elegant to our interpretation! And then there’s instant creation! That’s always a nifty trick.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/335256922_bd314c7aab.jpg

Over the past 15 years I have met some fascinating people at Essex Unitarian Church (Kensington), including a BBC documentary-maker and Ted Gaebler, author of Reinventing Government. The Unitarian chapel in Hampstead has been advertised on its noticeboard as “Heaven for heretics”. Information on Unitarian congregations and special-interest groups can be found at http://www.unitarian.org.uk

There are, of course, other religious and philosophical movements that are both socially progressive and scientifically literate, the Religious Society of Friends and the Liberal and Reform synagogues being the obvious ones. The problem seems to be that, in order for religions to attract the attention of the media at present, they need to be run by and for bigots, which is why no newspaper requesting a “Muslim” point of view bothers to consult the Ismailis.

Plants-In-Motion

As for phototropism, Plants-In-Motion has some very nice time-lapse photos of the phenomenon, along with other plant motion.

The earliest microscope was essentially a drop of water, I think. Again difficult to ban…

Let me describe as apocryphal – instead of taking the effort to check – the claim that one of Galileo’s inquisitors pronounced that there was no need to look through Galileo’s telescope at his claimed wonders to know that they weren’t really there. I have an idea that it wasn’t satellites of Jupiter but imperfections on the Moon that upset them, but, as I say, I ain’t checking. Because the Moon was in the heavens, it ought to be perfect, like any other heavenly thing. Aristotle said so.

One of my favourite quotes is from Economist John Maynard Keynes, in response to accusations of inconsitencies in his arguments/thinking he replied “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

For years, I was quite happy with my view of sperm as being little tadpole like dudes bouncing along looking for an egg. But when I was advised to freeze some sperm before an operation, I kept asking loads of questions – I wanted to know more., like how do you count sperm?
The kind doctor took me into the lab to see my sperm swimming around on a screen.
My anthropomorphising of sperm was a perfectly acceptable model of how sperm worked for my day to day needs, but staring at those little speedy fellas on the screen and realising that they have no eyes, no sense of the world and that I had no concept of how the fuck they worked really had a profound effect on me and I suddenly developed a thirst for knowledge of the micro.

The reductionist view of the world – the aim that everything should be explained as simply but as correctly as possible gives us a project that will last at least long as humanity, there is no time where we will just down tools and declare a new compete religion. And that’s an amazing and beautiful thing.
Watching the power of 10, like a shot of morphine fills us with numbing high of a seemingly coherent universe shortly followed by a lingering nausea as it’s simultaniously too large and too small to comprehend. We probably even realise that there is contentment with a macro level of understanding but that’s no longer a possibility. We’ve started so we must finish.

Maybe watching this at the turn of a new year is helpful…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

Brilliant: I wants one. We have a Lidl nearby. Thanks.

Best wishes for the season.

Ray and Clare

(And PS Claire, I volunteer the kitten for a re-run of Schrödinger’s Cat – in the name of Science, you understand.)

Actually, all said and done I only live a little west of twon – just beyond the M25 and that’s good enough to see some remarkable ’shit’. Nothing like real darkness though.

Having started an astronomy club at school we’re still waiting for our solar filter, the sun being one of the few stars worth looking at from London.

cheers

Ken

And a merry Newtonmass to you all!

Bob