Category Archives: science

amusements, quotes, science

Defining the Normal

From the Feedback column of New Scientist, 4 December 2011 …

Composing witty error messages has long been one of the ways […] in which geeks try to show their human side. We’re not so sure what species of side is exhibited by the geeks responsible for the nLab, a website devoted to “collaborative work on Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy” in the context of “category theory”, which is … er … a set of mathematical tools for describing general abstract structures in mathematics and relations between them. And the general abstract relations between those relations, and so on up …

It is perhaps inevitable that the holding page they have prepared for times when the nLab site isn’t working […] announces that it is […]

“currently experiencing some difficulties due to local fluctuations in reality. The Lab Elves are working hard to patch reality. In the meantime, edits on the nLab have been temporarily disabled since the fundamentals of mathematics may vary during these spasmodic variations. Normal service will be restored once we are sure what ‘normal’ is.”

beliefs, medical, personal, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week

Just three this week …

It is good to rub and polish your mind against that of others.
[Michel de Montaigne]

Our life depends on others so much that at the root of our existence is a fundamental need for love. That is why it is good to cultivate an authentic sense of responsibility and concern for the welfare of others.
[Dalai Lama]

I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control and at times I’m hard to handle, but if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.
[Marliyn Monroe]

beliefs, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week

This week’s rather scrawny crop …

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign – that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
[Jonathan Swift]

The more we learn about irrational beliefs, the clearer it becomes that they are perfectly normal
[Editorial, New Scientist, 13/11/2010]

You can’t have a light without a dark to stick it in.
[Arlo Guthrie]

You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.
[From the film Kingdom of Heaven (2005)]

amusements, current affairs, history, quotes, science

Quotes of the Week

Thin pickings again this week, partly I suspect as I’ve not been reading as much due to this ****ing cold I can’t get rid of. Anyway here are the best four …

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
[Thomas Huxley]

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
[Somerset Maugham]

War divides pretty neatly into the twin activities of “fighting” and “running away”.
[Ben Miller; The Times, Eureka; 11/2010]

Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?
[Al Boliska]

science, sexuality, thoughts

Wanky Science

Those of you who share my convictions about the importance of openness in sexuality and body image my like to read this short article on the Science of Masturbation from Newsweek.

The basic tenet of the article is that there is a lot of scientific evidence that masturbation is good for the species and for passing on your genes – and that isn’t a counter-intuitive as it sounds. Unfortunately, and despite being written by a woman, the article deals almost exclusively with male masturbations; you girlies get only a paragraph at the end.

Even if you don’t share my convictions you maybe ought to read it – it may change your views. And if you have boy children it may help you (and them) come to appreciate and understand something which is an important part of male sexuality and not something to be hidden in the broom cupboard.

amusements, current affairs, medical, quotes, science, thoughts

Quotes of the Week

A rich vein of quotes this week. Here are some of the best …

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.
[Sir Barnett Cocks]

It is a primitive form of thought that things either exist or do not exist.
[Sir Arthur Eddington]

We [doctors] do things, because other doctors do so and we don’t want to be different, so we do so; or because we were taught so [by teachers, fellows and residents]; or because we were forced [by teachers, administrators, regulators, guideline developers] to do so, and think that we must do so; or because the patient wants so, and we think we should do so; or because of more incentives [unnecessary tests (especially by procedure oriented physicians) and visits], we think we should do so; or because of the fear [by the legal system, audits] we feel that we should do so [so called covering oneself]; or because we need some time [to let nature take its course], so we do so; finally and more commonly, that we have to do something [justification] and we fail to apply common sense, so we do so.
[MS Parmar, “We do things because”, British Medical Journal Rapid Response, 2004, March 1 quoted in Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton & Iain Chalmers, Testing Treatments: Better Research for Better Healthcare]

A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows public opinion.
[Chinese proverb]

I am proud that our country remains the scourge of the oppressed. Freedom is once again on the march, as the good people of America join together to wave it goodbye.
GEORGE W BUSH
[Craig Brown; The Lost Diaries]

Born to American-Indian parents, he spent his formative years in abject poverty in Ireland, nibbling on crusts in a tepee in the exclusive slum area of Limerick. Though there were no books in the family home, he occupied his childhood reading the tepee’s assembly instructions over and over again, and in this way gained an unsurpassed command of the English language, as evidenced by his early Tepee Trilogy: Lay the Fabric Flat (1968), With the Long Side Facing Up (1972) and Now Set the Pole in an Upright Position (1975).
[Craig Brown; dust-jacket of The Lost Diaries]

Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.
[Jules Feiffer]

Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring non-profit business. And I mean this in a good way.
[Lori Gottlieb]

personal, quotes, science, thoughts

On Homework

1 Comment

The following is from Scientific American of October 1860 (yes you did read that right!) and reprinted in the October 2010 issue. Methinks some of my friends out there may appreciate it!

Against Homework
A child who has been boxed up six hours in school might spend the next four hours in study, but it is impossible to develop the child’s intellect in this way. The laws of nature are inexorable. By dint of great and painful labor, the child may succeed in repeating a lot of words, like a parrot, but, with the power of its brain all exhausted, it is out of the question for it to really master and comprehend its lessons. The effect of the system is to enfeeble the intellect even more than the body. We never see a little girl staggering home under a load of books, or knitting her brow over them at eight o’clock in the evening, without wondering that our citizens do not arm themselves at once with carving knives, pokers, clubs, paving stones or any weapons at hand, and chase out the managers of our common schools, as they would wild beasts that were devouring their children.

arts, history, science

Things

Now here’s something for the nosey and the magpies amongst us.

The Wellcome Collection in London wants your Things. Yeah not very specific is it! Well that’s the point.

Henry Wellcome was one of the world’s greatest collectors. On display in [the] Wellcome Collection you will find more than 500 objects from his original collection of over one-and-a-half million, spanning centuries and continents.

And now the collection is running a “community project” (my expression, not theirs) to add a modern perspective to this collection.

The project runs from just Tuesday 12 October to Friday 22 October. You are invited to go along between these dates (except Monday 18 October; the Wellcome is closed on Mondays) to give or loan a “thing” as long as it is smaller than your head. If you can’t get there in person you can always send in a photograph of your “thing”.

Alternatively you can go along just to gawp at the trash exotica other people have given.

But what should you take along? Well anything as long as it is no bigger than your head (there are a few other sensible restrictions like no explosives; see the terms & conditions) although the advice is to take a “thing” which has meaning for you. It doesn’t have to be valuable, or beautiful, or collectable … just something with meaning for you. And if that means you can’t bring yourself to part with it then by all means loan your “thing”.

This sounds like a fun project, much in the spirit of Keri Smith’s How to be an Explorer of the World.

More details on the Wellcome Collection website.

Now to decide what I take along …

“Things” runs from 12-22 October (except Monday 18 October) at Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE. Opening hours: 1000-1800 (Thursdays until 2200; closed Mondays).