Skip to main content

Home/ Digital Civilization/ Group items tagged fact

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Braquel Burnett

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111dar.html - 1 views

history.hanover.edu/...111dar.html

shared by Braquel Burnett on 18 Oct 10 - No Cached
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Selective breeding 
  • There is no obvious reason why the principles which have acted so efficiently under domestication should not have acted under nature.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Logical Conclusion
  • With animals having separated sexes there will in most cases be a struggle between the males for possession of the females.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      One type of competition
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • No one can draw any clear distinction between individual differences and slight varieties; or between more plainly marked varieties and subspecies, and species.
  • why should we doubt that variations in any way useful to beings, under their excessively complex relations of life, would be preserved, accumulated, and inherited?
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Progression, in species rather than individual people.
  • The theory of natural selection, even if we looked no further than this, seems to me to be in itself probable. I have already recapitulated, as fairly as I could, the opposed difficulties and objections: now let us turn to the special facts and arguments in favour of the theory.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      It seems perfectly logical.
  • On the view that species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties, and that each species first existed as a variety, we can see why it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn between species, commonly supposed to have been produced by special acts of creation, and varieties which are acknowledged to have been produced by secondary laws. On this same view we can understand how it is that in each region where many species of a genus have been produced, and where they now flourish, these same species should present many varieties; for where the manufactory of species has been active, we might expect, as a general rule, to find it still in action; and this is the case if varieties be incipient species.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Starting with the premise that species came from one, ie "first existed as a variety", if they were each distinctly created, then this logic is false, because the premise is false. 
  • preserve the most divergent offspring
  • Hence during a long-continued course of modification, the slight differences, characteristic of varieties of the same species, tend to be augmented into the greater differences characteristic of species of the same genus.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      How species come about.
  • New and improved varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the older, less improved and intermediate varieties; and thus species are rendered to a large extent defined and distinct objects.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Extinction
  • This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings seems to me utterly inexplicable on the theory of creation.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      The fact that there are relations among different species. 
  • But why this should be a law of nature if each species has been independently created, no man can explain.
  • As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Where is the evidence for these short steps? 
  • The wonder indeed is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the want of absolute perfection have not been observed.
  • As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates;
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Imperfection of Nature
  • we believ
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      STILL NEEDS FAITH?
  • Natura non facit saltum
    • Braquel Burnett
      Braquel Burnett on 19 Oct 10
       
      It means "nature does not make jumps." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natura_non_facit_saltus)
Erin Hamson

MIT OpenCourseWare | Biology | 7.012 Introduction to Biology, Fall 2004 | Video Lecture... - 0 views

ocw.mit.edu/...embed32

evolution mit science

shared by Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • And what this means is that if you look at a pedigree like this, and for example, here we have a mother and a father, girls are always round, boys are square. And here you'll see the mitochondrial DNA, it's donated to all of the children, but the fact is that these boys, when they mate, when they have offspring, they will no longer pass along her mitochondrial DNA, so it will be lost. And the only way the mitochondrial DNA can be transmitted is through one of her daughters, who in turn, have daughters.
  • Here's some other interesting principles. Mitochondrial DNA passes always from the mother, so when a fertilized egg is formed, Dad gives his chromosomes, but he doesn't donate for any, doesn't donate any mitochondrial DNA.
  • animals are related to one another. This is kind of a fun undertaking. Look at this. Why is it fun? Well it's, it's kind of an amusing idea, how often were cows domesticated during the history of humanity? How often were sheep domesticated? Pigs, water buffalos, and horses. And what you see here is that cattle were domesticated on two occasions, probably once in Western Asia, the middle east, and once in Eastern Asia. Sheep were domesticated twice, all modern sheep following these two families here
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • And that is, certain genes can evolve progressively over a long period of time, because they don't encode vital functions, or they may even be sequences between genes that don't encode phenotype at all. Imagine, for example, we have a situation were here we have a gene which encodes a vital function, like the eye, here's another gene that encodes another function, oh I don't know, a leg. And here we have intergenic sequences. After all, as you have learned by now, more than 96% of the DNA in our genome, doesn't encode proteins, and probably isn't even responsible for regulating genes. So these sequences, right in here, can mutate freely during the course of evolution, without having a deleterious effect on the phenotype of the organism. There's no evolutionary pressure to constrain the evolution of these genes
  • And many of these neutral mutations, which have no effect on organismic fitness, but are simply evolutionary neutral, are sometimes called polymorphisms. The term polymorphism, -morph is once again morphology, derives from the fact that species tend to be polymorphic, we don't all have blond hair, we don't all have brown eyes.
  • If you look at two chimpanzees living on opposite sides of the same hill in West Africa, they are genetically far more distantly related to one another, than any one of us, by a factor of 10 to 15. Two chimpanzees, they look exactly the same, they have the same peculiar habits, but they're genetically far more distantly-related than we are to one-another, than I am to any one of you, or than any one of you is to one another. And what does that mean? It means that, roughly speaking, the species of chimpanzees is, at least, 10 or 15 times older than our species are. We're a young species, chimpanzees probably first speciated three or four million years ago, if the paleontological record is, is accurate. Paleontology is the study of old, dusty bones, so you can begin to imagine when chimpanzee bones become recognizable in the earth.
  • And what you see already, in such small populations, is that for example, this male here has two girls, and right away, to the extent he had an interesting Y chromosome, that Y chromosome was lost from the gene pool. This girl, here, had an interesting mitochondrial DNA, but right away that's lost, because she has, she has just two boys. And what you see, in very rapid order, in small populations, there's a homogenization of the genetic compliment, just because the alleles are lost within what's called, genetic drif
  • And if you ask that question, the answer is that we all had a common ancestress who lived about 150,000 years ago. All of us trace our mitochondrial DNA to her. Does that mean that there was only one woman alive there, she's called, Mitochondrial-Eve, again, we don't know her name. Does that mean there was only one woman alive, well it doesn't mean that at all because of what I just told you, in small populations the proto-human population.
  • How much are all of our mitochondrial DNA are related to one another, how distantly related are they to one another, given the rate of evolution of mitochondrial DNA sequences?
  • So where do we all come from, all of us human beings? How closely related are we to one another? Here's, here's a measurement of the distances between different mitochondrial DNA's from different branches of humanity. And what you see is something really quite extraordinary and stunning. Here, you'll see that the people, the non-African lineages here and here, are actually relatively closely related to one another.
  • And by the way, all the genes that are present here, the alleles that are present here, can also be found in Africa, but in relatively small proportions in Africa
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Suggesting that all people came from Africa
  • So, what happens there, that's a testimonial to the tragic fate of the Indians, where the conquistadors from Spain came in, killed all the men, and took all the women, to be their brides. How else can you explain the fact that there's no Indian Y chromosomes, there's all, there is instead only European Y chromosomes.
  • When you do genetic counseling of family these days, one of the strictures is, that you never tell the family if the children have genetic polymorphisms that don't match that of the person whom they think is their father. They don't look like their, the person whom they regard as father, but that's always assumed to be a role of the genetic dice.
  • Here's a fun story I like to tell each year, and it's about the Cohen and Y chromosome, and you'll see what an amusing story this is, just from genetics. Now the name Cohen, in Hebrew means, a high priest, and you've heard people named Cohen, it's not such an uncommon name among the Jews. And it says, in the Bible, in Genesis and Exodus, that all the high priests in the Bible are the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses.
  • hen it should be the case that all male Cohen's should have the same Y chromosome, right?
  • Because keep in mind, any single affair with the milkman or the mailman, over 3,000 years, would've broke this chain of inheritance, any single incidence of non-paternity. It's a really astounding story, and it's hard, there can be no artifact to it, there's no bias in it, there's no other way to explain it.
  • And what they found was that all members of the, almost all members of the ruling cast among the Lembas, had the same Y chromosome, and the Y chromosome had exactly the same polymorphisms of the Cohen Y chromosome
  • What I'm telling you is that these two genes are totally interchangeable, that they are effectively indistinguishable from one another, functionally they have some sequence relatedness, but in terms of the way they program development, they are effectively equivalent. And what this means is that the progenitor of these two genes must've already existed at the time that the flies and we diverged, which six or seven-hundred million years ago, and in the intervening six or seven-hundred million years, these genes have been totally unchanged.
  • once the gene was developed, evolution could not tinker with it, and begin to change it in different ways, ostensibly because such tinkering would render these genes dysfunctional, and thereby would inactivate them, thereby depriving the organism of a critical sensory organ.
  • Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
     
    An excellent discourse on who evolution works, and what it means for us today.
James Wilcox

Einsteins Theory of Relativity - 0 views

www.gutenberg.org/...pg5001.html

digiciv albert einstein physicist

shared by James Wilcox on 28 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • the principle of relativity
  • We advance a step farther in our generalisation when we express the tenet thus: If, relative to K, K1 is a uniformly moving co-ordinate system devoid of rotation, then natural phenomena run their course with respect to K1 according to exactly the same general laws as with respect to K. This statement is called
  • (in the restricted sense).
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • two general facts which at the outset speak very much in favour of the validity of the principle of relativity
  • The principle of relativity must therefore apply with great accuracy in the domain of mechanics
    • James Wilcox
      James Wilcox on 28 Oct 10
       
      Basically I get out of this the fact that Einstein is a genius and can quite literally think outside of the box.  In fact he can think at the box from any angle in multiple dimensions and then describe it.  Although I am sure I am not getting this 100%, I do see that the light is working on his end.
Andrew DeWitt

Earth Station Nine - 0 views

www.earthstation9.com/index.html

worlds fair expo exposition crystal palace hydes park victorian

shared by Andrew DeWitt on 04 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • The US exhibit included the: McCormack Reaper, Colt Revolver, a 16,400 lb hunk of zinc, unpickable locks, a model of Niagara Falls and a piano that could be played by 4 people at the same time.
  • The Egyptian Court featured the hieroglyphic "Rosetta Stone"
  • Items on display included: the Jacquard loom, an envelope machine that could handle 60 pieces a minute, Lucifer matches, tools, steam engines, kitchen appliances, steel-making displays, powdered graphite in the form of yellow pencils, McCormack Reaper, Bowie knives, Swiss watches, a stuffed elephant, 40 foot scale model of the London docks with 1600 miniature ships, a knife with 1851 blades, prototype submarine, farm equipment, electric clocks, washing machine, false teeth, artificial limbs, chewing tobacco, centrifugal pump, Jacquard lace machine, steam-press, camerae-obscurae, Caloric Engine, Colt's Pistols, Prouty and Mears' Plows, American Bridges, household furniture made of coal, rhubarb champagne, artificial arms and legs, two chairs designed by Mr. Carl Leistler, centrifugal impellers (pumps). 
  • Andrew DeWitt on 04 Oct 10
     
    List of facts about the 1851 Crystal Palace
Andrew DeWitt

BYU Devotional: The Most Important Three Things in the World - Brett G. Scharffs - 0 views

speeches.byu.edu/...reader.php

mormon lds faith byu devotional

shared by Andrew DeWitt on 03 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Dr. Haught introduced theologian Paul Ricoeur’s concept of the three stages of religious faith
  • The first stage, childlike faith, may be likened to the clear, unimpeded view that one enjoys standing atop a tall mountain.7 As children, our faith is simple and uncritical, and we can see clearly in every direction.
  • The second stage Ricoeur calls the desert of criticism. At some point, often during adolescence, we descend from the mountain of childlike faith and enter the critical world. We might label this world “high school” or, better yet, “college.” Here we find that others do not share our faith. In fact, some openly disparage what we hold dear. We learn that the very idea of faith is thought by many to be childish or delusional. We may become skeptical, perhaps even cynical.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The desert of criticism is akin to being in the midst of a blinding sandstorm, where you are forced to lean into the wind and take one step at a time without a clear view of where you are going. Walking by faith becomes difficult. Some of our former beliefs cannot survive the desert of criticism.
  • Ricoeur did not malign the desert of criticism, for some childish beliefs are incorrect and should be abandoned
  • Furthermore, it is only in coming down from the mountain that we are able to enter into the world and engage others who are different from us. To a great extent this is where life is lived and where we can make a difference in the world. Some people never leave the desert of criticism, and in time the memory of their childlike faith may dim. After prolonged exposure to the desert of criticism, some even lose their faith altogether. Ricoeur maintained that once one has entered the desert of criticism, it is not possible to return to the mountain of childlike faith. It is a little like leaving Eden. Something has been lost; life and faith can never be quite so simple again
  • But he held out the possibility of a third stage of religious faith. On the other side of the desert of criticism lies another mountain, not as tall as the mountain of childlike faith, with views that are not quite as clear and unobstructed. But we can, as Dr. Haught explained it, remove ourselves periodically from the desert of criticism and ascend this somewhat less majestic mountain. Ricoeur calls this possibility of a second faith “postcritical” naveté or a “second naveté.”
  • Here the truths and realities of our childlike faith can be reaffirmed or revised
  • Our faith will not be as simple as it once was, but it need not be lost. In fact, I believe our faith may become more powerful than before, for it will have weathered and survived the assaults of the desert of criticism.
  • Andrew DeWitt on 03 Nov 10
     
    My favorite part of this talk is his description of the three stages of faith which I have highlighted.
Greg Williams

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Focus and Priorities - 0 views

www.lds.org/...index.jsp

lds priorities information

shared by Greg Williams on 31 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • principle of accountability also applies to the spiritual resources conferred in the teachings we have been given and to the precious hours and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality.
  • The significance of our increased discretionary time has been magnified many times by modern data-retrieval technology. For good or for evil, devices like the Internet and the compact disc have put at our fingertips an incredible inventory of information, insights, and images. Along with fast food, we have fast communications and fast facts. The effect of these resources on some of us seems to fulfill the prophet Daniel’s prophecy that in the last days “knowledge shall be increased” and “many shall run to and fro”
  • homely story
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • “Do you think we need a bigger truck?”
  • our biggest need is a clearer focus on how we should value and use what we already have.
  • But to what purpose?
  • “knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word,” in which “wisdom” is “lost in knowledge” and “knowledge” is “lost in information”
  • We have thousands of times more available information than Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. Yet which of us would think ourselves a thousand times more educated or more serviceable to our fellowmen than they?
  • I could never complete my assigned task within the available time unless I focused my research in the beginning and stopped that research soon enough to have time to analyze my findings and compose my conclusions.
  • we must begin with focus or we are likely to become like those in the well-known prophecy about people in the last days—“ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).
  • But a bale of handouts can detract from our attempt to teach gospel principles with clarity and testimony.
  • Stacks of supplementary material can impoverish rather than enrich, because they can blur students’ focus on the assigned principles and draw them away from prayerfully seeking to apply those principles in their own lives.
  • Each of us should be careful that the current flood of information does not occupy our time so completely that we cannot focus on and hear and heed the still, small voice that is available to guide each of us with our own challenges today.
  • Our priorities determine what we seek in life.
  • “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth”
  • Our priorities are most visible in how we use our time.
  • Good choices are especially important in our family life. For example, how do family members spend their free time together? Time together is necessary but not sufficient.
  • I believe many of us are overnourished on entertainment junk food and undernourished on the bread of life.
  • Greg Williams on 31 Oct 12
     
    Available information wisely used is far more valuable than multiplied information allowed to lie fallow.
Sarah Wills

Intelligent Design FAQs & Primers - 1 views

www.ideacenter.org/...faq.php

shared by Sarah Wills on 18 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Sarah Wills on 18 Oct 10
     
    quick facts of evolution vs. intelligent design
Shaun Frenza

Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1) - 1 views

www.marxists.org/...ch01.htm

shared by Shaun Frenza on 04 Oct 10 - Cached
  • holy alliance to exorcise
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Religious diction
  • All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Man is responsible for technology which is responsible for a fast paced world, which they don't like
  • It compels all nations, on pain of extinction,
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Japan
    • Shaun Frenza
      Shaun Frenza on 05 Oct 10
       
      Seems a little singular - is there a specific reason why you only say "Japan"
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Capitalism has taken over the world, and those that were slow to buy into the idealology are being left in the dust, and dependant on others, which they don't like.
  • Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Communists retaliate by not producing enough goods.
  • He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Paints these people as the suffers, clearly appealing to them to call for "equality"
  • Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      In Communism all become slaves of the state and the state leaders, how is that better?
    • Shaun Frenza
      Shaun Frenza on 05 Oct 10
       
      Or they become the machine - They are not the slave, they are the mechanizm together... at least that is what they tell themselves.
  • All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Conflicts with the MIT lesson, except for those that have to work. (in regard to females working) again an appeal to the working class people, who are the masses to revolt. This works less well in America because of the American dream and the possibility for change fostered by it.
  • At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, they hope lies in the masses of uncontrolled people
  • Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      The working class fights back
  • so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      they aren't alone in their cause
  • The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations;
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      The shear fact of having money and therefore time to spend with children brings these differences.
  • The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.
  • Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 04 Oct 10
       
      Doesn't believe capitalism can survive.
    • Rhett Ferrin
      Rhett Ferrin on 05 Oct 10
       
      Wait, all these sound like good things. Is he saying its bad to have Toyotas? Is it bad to have bannanas in December?
  • rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.
    • Rhett Ferrin
      Rhett Ferrin on 05 Oct 10
       
      Can someone help me out here? Is he being sarcastic? He says capitalizm is bad then says that the bourgeoisie 'rescued' people from the 'idiocy of rural life' Thomas Jefferson thought the rural life was the ideal and to be sought after. I can't tell if Marx is for or against it.
  • By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour
  • By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.
  • immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation
    • Shaun Frenza
      Shaun Frenza on 05 Oct 10
       
      Notice how we are in the same situation now as were were then - the facilitation of communication with the internet and how it shapes the world to become more homogenous.
Morgan Wills

Freud, "Civilization and its Discontents," 1930 (excerpt) - 0 views

www.historyguide.org/...freud_discontents.html

shared by Morgan Wills on 30 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • If private property were abolished, all wealth held in common, and everyone allowed to share in the enjoyment of it, ill-will and hostility would disappear among men.
  • But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the systems based are an untenable illusion.
    • Megan Stern
      Megan Stern on 30 Oct 10
       
      Freud says something worthwhile.
  • It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • horrors of the recent World War
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 01 Nov 10
       
      Something people would like to forget, but which shapes their world views. 
    • Morgan Wills
      Morgan Wills on 02 Nov 10
       
      definitely. Looking at much of Europe's reticence to join the US in armed conflict is a case in point.
  • s the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbor and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure [of energy]
  • civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 01 Nov 10
       
      Tyranny to Anarchy to Tyranny
  • instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests.
  • commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself -- a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs so strongly counter to the original nature of man
  • liverance from our evil
  • The communists believe they have found  the path to de
  • Since everyone's needs would be satisfied, no one would have any reason to regard another as his enemy; all would willingly undertake the work that was necessary.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 01 Nov 10
       
      The problem is that people have more than needs. 
  • but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its nature. Aggressiveness was not created by property
  • If we were to remove this factor, too, by allowing complete freedom of sexual life and thus abolishing the family, the germ-cell of civilization, we cannot, it is true, easily foresee what new paths the development of civilization could take; but one thing we can expect, and that is that this indestructible feature of human nature will follow at there.
  • We can now see that it is a convenient and relatively harmless satisfaction of the inclination to aggression, by means of which cohesion between the members of the community is made easier
  • n this respect the Jewish people, scattered everywhere, have rendered most useful services to the civilizations of the countries that have been their hosts;
  • find its psychological support in the persecution of the bourgeois
  • s Civilization imposes such great sacrifices not only on man's sexuality but on his aggressivity, we can understand better why it is hard for him to be happy in that civilization.
  • primitive man was better off in knowing no restrictions of instinct.  To counterbalance this, his prospects of enjoying this happiness for any length of time were very slender.
  • Civilized man has exchanged a portion of his possibilities of happiness for a portion of security.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 01 Nov 10
       
      John Locke
  • But I shall avoid the temptation of entering upon a critique of American civilization; I do not wish to give an impression of wanting myself to employ American methods.
anonymous

Alan Turing Gay? - 1 views

gay.americablog.com/...hero-of-month-alan-turing.html

alan turing blog gay

shared by anonymous on 04 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 04 Nov 10
     
    Not sure if this is correct, but when I searched some blogs for Alan Turing, a large number of the hits on the first page mentioned the fact that he was gay.
  • Daniel Zappala on 04 Nov 10
     
    Yes, Alan Turing was homosexual, and he was convicted of it since it was illegal in the UK at the time. He was given a choice of prison or chemical castration and chose the latter. He lost his security clearance and was unable to continue his cryptography work for the government. Several years later he committed suicide. It's a sad story of how gays have been treated in the past despite their contributions to society.
Ariel Szuch

Differences Between Classical & Keynesian Economics | Small Business - Chron.com - 0 views

smallbusiness.chron.com/-keynesian-economics-3897.html

differences between classical and keynesian economics

shared by Ariel Szuch on 08 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Two economic schools of thought are classical and Keynesian. Each school takes a different approach to the economic study of monetary policy, consumer behavior and government spending. A few basic distinctions separate these two schools.
  • Classical economic theory is rooted in the concept of a laissez-faire economic market. A laissez-faire--also known as free--market requires little to no government intervention. It also allows individuals to act according to their own self interest regarding economic decisions.
  • Keynesian economic theory relies on spending and aggregate demand to define the economic marketplace. Keynesian economists believe the aggregate demand is often influenced by public and private decisions. Public decisions represent government agencies and municipalities. Private decisions include individuals and businesses in the economic marketplace. Keynesian economic theory relies heavily on the fact that a nation’s monetary policy can affect a company’s economy.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Government spending is not a major force in a classical economic theory.
  • Too much government spending takes away valuable economic resources needed by individuals and businesses. To classical economists, government spending and involvement can retard a nation’s economic growth by increasing the public sector and decreasing the private sector. Keynesian economics relies on government spending to jumpstart a nation’s economic growth during sluggish economic downturns.
  • Classical economics focuses on creating long-term solutions for economic problems.
  • Keynesian economics often focuses on immediate results in economic theories. Policies focus on the short-term needs and how economic policies can make instant corrections to a nation’s economy. This is why government spending is such a key cog of Keynesian economics.
Kristen Nicole Cardon

Sigmund Freud Quotes - 0 views

www.notable-quotes.com/...freud_sigmund.html

quotes freud sigmund

shared by Kristen Nicole Cardon on 27 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?” SIGMUND FREUD, Ernest Jones' Sigmund Freud: Life and Work
  • Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. SIGMUND FREUD, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
  • America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen ... but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success. SIGMUND FREUD, Ronald W. Clark's Freud: The Man and His Cause
  • Kristen Nicole Cardon on 27 Oct 10
     
    Quotes from that crazy one, Sigmund Freud
Daniel Zappala

A Logic Named Joe - 1 views

www.baen.com/...0743499107___2.htm

science fiction

shared by Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Say you punch "Station SNAFU" on your logic. Relays in the tank take over an' whatever vision-program SNAFU is telecastin' comes on your logic's screen. Or you punch "Sally Hancock's Phone" an' the screen blinks an' sputters an' you're hooked up with the logic in her house an' if somebody answers you got a vision-phone connection. But besides that, if you punch for the weather forecast or who won today's race at Hialeah or who was mistress of the White House durin' Garfield's administration or what is PDQ and R sellin' for today, that comes on the screen too.
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Joe is Google
  • it made Joe a individual
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Joe has machine intelligence.
  • But I think he went kinda remote-control exploring in the tank.
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Joe is using data mining.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • An' logics can do a Iotta things that ain't been found out yet.
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      In science fiction, machine intelligence launches us into the unknown -- computers might be able to do things that we can't conceive of ourselves!
  • In theory, a censor block is gonna come on an' the screen will say severely, "Public Policy Forbids This Service."
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Joe disables content filtering services.
  • The screen says, "Service question: What is your name?" She is kinda puzzled, but she punches it. The screen sputters an' then says: "Secretarial Service Demonstration! You—" It reels off her name, address, age, sex, coloring, the amounts of all her charge accounts in all the stores, my name as her husband, how much I get a week, the fact that I've been pinched three times—twice was traffic stuff, and once for a argument I got in with a guy—and the interestin' item that once when she was mad with me she left me for three weeks an' had her address changed to her folks' home. Then it says, brisk: "Logics Service will hereafter keep your personal accounts, take messages, and locate persons you may wish to get in touch with. This demonstration is to introduce the service."
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      More echoes of Google -- privacy vs convenience
  • Then I sweat!
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Social networking makes it easier to be unfaithful, causes tension in marriages.
  • Logics are civilization! If we shut off logics, we go back to a kind of civilization we have forgotten how to run!
  • That couldn't be allowed out general, of course. You gotta make room for kids to grow up. But it's a pretty good world, now Joe's turned off. Maybe I'll turn him on long enough to learn how to stay in it. But on the other hand, maybe—
    • Daniel Zappala
      Daniel Zappala on 03 Nov 10
       
      Technology introduces new moral questions
Mike Lemon

The ENIAC Story - 1 views

ftp.arl.mil/...eniac-story.html

eniac

shared by Mike Lemon on 04 Nov 10 - Cached
  • As in many other first along the road of technological progress, the stimulus which initiated and sustained the effort that produced the ENIAC (electronic numerical integrator and computer)--the world's first electronic digital computer--was provided by the extraordinary demand of war
  • This Department had the responsibility for the design, development, procurement, storage, and issue of all combat materiel and munitions for the Army. In 1939 it was staffed by a relative handful of officers and career civilian employees.
  • One of the extraordinarily important tasks
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • was the preparation of firing and bombing tables for the Army which at that time, of course, included the Army Air Corps.
  • The analyzer installed at Aberdeen had ten integrating units and provisions for two input and two output tables as well. But, despite its value as an important mechanical aid to computation, it had several severe limitations.
  • It was, of course, known that the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania had a Bush differential analyzer of somewhat larger capacity than the one installed at Aberdeen. As a matter of fact, the one at the Moore School had fourteen integrating units. Therefore one of the first steps taken was the award to the University of Pennsylvania of a contract by the Ordnance Department for the utilization of this device.
  • he original agreement between the United States of America and the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, dated June 5, 1943, called for six months of "research and development of an electronic numerical integrator and computer and delivery of a report thereon." This initial contract committed $61,700 in U.S. Army Ordnance funds
  • The ENIAC was placed in operation at the Moore School, component by component, beginning with the cycling unit and an accumulator in June 1944. This was followed in rapid succession by the initiating unit and function tables in September 1945 and the divider and square-root unit in October 1945. Final assembly took place during the fall of 1945. By today's standards for electronic computers the ENIAC was a grotesque monster. Its thirty separate units, plus power supply and forced-air cooling, weighed over thirty tons. Its 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors consumed almost 200 kilowatts of electrical power. But ENIAC was the prototype from which most other modern computers evolved. It embodied almost all the components and concepts of today's high- speed, electronic digital computers. Its designers conceived what has now become standard circuitry such as the gate (logical "and" element), buffer (logical "or" element) and used a modified Eccles-Jordan flip-flop as a logical, high-speed storage-and-control device.
  • The ENIAC was not originally designed as an internally programmed computer. The program was set up manually by varying switches and cable connections. However, means for altering the program and repeating its iterative steps were built into the master programmer
  • The ENIAC led the computer field during the period 1949 through 1952 when it served as the main computation workhorse for the solution of the scientific problems of the Nation. It surpassed all other existing computers put together whenever it came to problems involving a large number of arithmetic operations. It was the major instrument for the computation of all ballistic tables for the U.S. Army and Air Force.
Chase McCloskey

Honda: The Power of Dreams - 0 views

dreams.honda.com/#/home

media honda dreams

shared by Chase McCloskey on 04 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Chase McCloskey on 04 Nov 10
     
    Honda is producing a series of thought-provoking short documentaries on "various topics of interest to our global community". It's a refreshing alternative to regular advertising, in fact, I haven't seen a single ad in there telling you to buy their products.
Katherine Chipman

About IAEA: History: Atoms for Peace Speech - 0 views

www.iaea.org/...history_speech.html

atoms eisenhower

shared by Katherine Chipman on 10 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • The atomic age has moved forward at such a pace that every citizen of the world should have some comprehension, at least in comparative terms, of the extent of this development, of the utmost significance to every one of us.Clearly, if the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must be armed with the significant facts of today's existence.
  • Katherine Chipman on 10 Nov 10
     
    Great quote from President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" Speech.
anonymous

Edward R. Murrow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Edward_R._Murrow

government mccarthyism edward murrow

shared by anonymous on 10 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • See It Now focused on a number of controversial issues in the 1950s, but it is best-remembered as the show that criticized McCarthyism and the Red Scare, contributing if not leading to the political downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy. On March 9, 1954, Murrow, Friendly, and their news team produced a half-hour See It Now special entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy".[9] Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Murrow knew full well that he was using the medium of television to attack a single man and expose him to nationwide scrutiny, and he was often quoted as having doubts about the methods he used for the report. Murrow and Friendly paid for their own newspaper advertisement for the program; they were not allowed to use CBS' money for the publicity campaign or even use the CBS logo. Nevertheless, the broadcast contributed to a nationwide backlash against McCarthy and is seen as a turning point in the history of television. It provoked tens of thousands of letters, telegrams and phone calls to CBS headquarters, running 15 to 1 in favor. In a retrospective produced for Biography, Friendly noted how truck drivers pulled up to Murrow on the street in subsequent days and shouted "Good show, Ed. Good show, Ed." Murrow offered McCarthy a chance to appear on See It Now to respond to the criticism. McCarthy accepted the invitation and made his appearance three weeks later,[10] but his rebuttal only served to further decrease his already fading popularity.[11] In the program following McCarthy's appearance, Murrow commented that the senator had "made no reference to any statements of fact that we made" and contested the personal attacks made by "the junior senator from Wisconsin" against himself.[12]
1 - 20 of 21 Next ›
Showing 20▼ items per page