 Plato & Aristotle |
Before we get started with tonight's show, if you are not already familiar with the Hubble telescope's ultra-deep-field images of galaxies, which Richard refers to near the beginning of his talk below, you may wish to first watch this video: The Most Important Image Ever Taken (6:13). In this video, we find that a little tiny portion of the sky, that until these images we thought was dark, actually contains on the order of ten thousand galaxies (of the roughly hundred billion galaxies that we think exist, each with on the order of a hundred billion stars, which works out to about 10²² stars in total, for those of you keeping score at home).
So now, tonight, without further ado, for your delectation, here is Dr. Richard E. Rothschild's excellent talk: The Universe is Rated "R" for Violence (46:03), in which he, a professor of physics at the University of California in San Diego, discusses the changes that are happening on huge scales within known existence, of which neutron-star thermonuclear flash-burning is perhaps my favourite. And you may well say, but Vitruvius, metaphysics is above or beyond physics, so why are we doing physics tonight? Well, it's because I disagree with that taxonomy. I think that meta-foo includes foo. I don't want to argue about it, if you don't agree, just ignore me and watch the videos, already.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
interesting, I was looking at your collection of curves, slide rules and... well all of it except for that election predictor.
super interesting really, S.I.
Glad you liked that, Marc. The TimeSaver #26 french curve is indeed
interesting, and of course the Novo-Biplex 2/83 N is truly a work of art.
You are right, vitruvius, to begin with 'the real'. As Aristotle said in the very first words of his Metaphysics: "All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses...."
He continues, that we advance from sensation through memory, experience and art, to theoretical knowledge. And,
"we do not regard any of the senses as Wisdom; yet surely these give the most authoritative knowledge of particulars. But they do not tell us the 'why' of anything - e.g., why fire is hot; they only say that it is hot'.
So, knowledge begins and must answer to, reality.
As for the violence of the universe, the basic nature of the universe is that constant transformation of energy/matter from one form(s) to another form(s) ..Partly random, and partly relational. Fascinating. Thanks
This according to the communist/socialist NFU;
"The RCMP are investigating allegations Conservative MPs interfered with Canadian Wheat Board director elections, the National Farmers Union said yesterday.
The RCMP said in a news release it's probing complaints from the NFU alleging that a voters list for the Wheat Board was improperly accessed and used by unauthorized people."
Vitruvius that collection brings back so many memories. I'll always remember sketching a drawing, sending it to a draftsman who labored for several hours to produce an ink version. Templates were such a must! Then checking and fixing, all in ink (sometimes pencil). Pencil was easier and cleaner! Oh! the awful ammonia smell of those blueprint machines! One copy at a time. My, we killed a lot of trees. Today it's done with mouse clicks and a big printer, in minutes no less. I don't miss the Gestetner either!
Aye, ET, or as Pope Benedict XVI mentioned in his Regensberg Lecture:
But what do I know? I'm an amystical phenomenological nondeterministic mechanist.
Another 5 star effort by Mark Steyn. This man's skill continue to amaze me.
Mark Steyn: The 'oldest hatred' lives, from Gaza to Florida
In Toronto, anti-Israel demonstrators yell "You are the brothers of pigs!," and a protester complains to his interviewer that "Hitler didn't do a good job."
More at: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hamas-gaza-jewish-2277487-muslims-state
in the name of shameless self-promotion, i'm back blogging again. feel free to peruse...
http://timesofwpg.blogspot.com/
Vit:
Very good.
Admit it...You were overwhelmed by the urge to educate...
That's OK, somebody has to keep trying, Kate shouldn't have to do it all by herself.
BZ, and thank you for the upcoming series.
First philosophy is not metaphysics but, rather, Aristotle's Physics.
"Partly random, and partly relational".
Yet all of it Planned and Executed with Infinitesimal Precision.
*sigh*
I should remember not to post commentary after too much food, conversation, and wine.
Just finished reading this earlier Vitruvius.
Webb telescope to replace hubble
The $3.5-billion James Webb Space Telescope, named after a key figure in the Apollo moon program, is being designed to see the first stars that formed in the universe; peer into cosmic dust clouds to observe the creation of planets; and gain new insights into the mysterious dark matter that is driving the movement of the galaxies.
...The Hubble has provided images of galaxies dating back to about one billion years after the Big Bang, but the Webb's ability to peer farther into space will allow scientists to observe the universe at an even earlier stage of formation. That's because looking deeper into space also means you're looking further back in time.
...Positioned 1.5 million kilometres from Earth - four times farther out than the moon (the Hubble is just 600 kilometres above the planet) - the Webb will be equipped with a multilayered sun shield the size of a tennis court.
"It's like a giant beach umbrella," Mr. Decker says.
The telescope and its heat-sensitive instruments will remain in constant shade - with the sun, Earth and moon always on the opposite side of the massive unfolded solar shield. The temperature in the shade is expected to dip to minus-225 Celsius - perfect operating conditions for the Webb.
"In my opinion these valiant attempts to shield metaphysics from the threat of from modern science are in vain. They rest on the claim that since the proper subject of metaphysics is "being as being," this subject can be known to be real independently of natural science. Aquinas maintained, against the whole Platonic tradition and in contradiction to Scotus, Suarez, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Kant, that the proper object of the human intellect is indeed being, but changeable being. [21] Furthermore he held that metaphysical being is known only by analogy to this changeable, physical being. [22] It follows necessarily that a valid metaphysics cannot be independent of natural science by which these analogates are critically known. It even supposes the other special sciences that also presuppose natural science. As Aquinas says, "This science [metaphysics] that is called "wisdom", although it is first in dignity is nevertheless last to be learned." [23]"
http://www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/ti99/ashley.htm
'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
By STEPHEN MOORE
Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.
More At:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
Multicultural Office Party
Here's an hilarious video that completely mocks Kumbaya liberals!
As one of the G&M's own commenters noted;
Why didn't they use this headline ?
------
G & M EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS PLUNGE!
Work Force Battered
---------------
http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090109.wglobemailcuts0109/BNStory/Business/home
Vit
Thanks for that. I look forward to more Saturday night speaker series.
Regarding tonight's offering.
Meta-thingics are nothing without things...or thangs...such as the case may be.
Perspective is a key.
Syncro
We all know that the fanatics who flog a one-sided interpretation of the Mideast conflict (or any other political issue) are extremists that cannot be trusted. It is possible to criticize Israel on many counts, but to completely ignore the viciousness of Hamas or Hezbollah at the same time is to mark oneself as a hypocrite.
One little trick used to make Israeli policies look bad is to trot out a handful of extreme left-wing Jews to criticize it. The protests in Toronto this week have included some of the usual suspects in that regard: professional windbag Judy Rebick and musician Anton Kuerti, for example.
One of them is a loathsome woman named Ursula Franklin, who has been a longstanding shill for the phony peace movement for decades. A glance at her Wikipedia page indicates that she must set some kind of record for the use of anti-concepts, which extremists use to sow confusion for the purpose of gaining political power.
This alleged advocate of peace managed to come up with an interpretation of 9/11 that likened it to a natural disaster, a "political earthquake", i.e., one that omitted all reference to ethics and, for that matter, violence. This is like discussing the Holocaust while omitting to mention that mass murder is evil. She has denounced "marketeers" as "occupying forces", even though capitalism, which is based on voluntary exchange for mutual benefit, is the political system that encourages peace, while socialism frequently results in rivers of blood, as both theory and history prove. She says these "occupiers" suffer from "moral dyslexia", which is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. She has advocated for a "peace tax", which is a contradiction in terms, since taxes are by their very nature a form of violence. She also signed a letter opposing help for faith-based schools in Ontario, which maintained the anti-concept fiction of "inclusion" for the policy that actually excludes parents who wish to have control over the education of their children, as opposed to delivering them over to the extremists who infest the public schools.
Even a distinction (found on the Wikipedia page) between holistic and prescriptive technologies, the latter being associated with the division of labour while the former allegedly allows craftsmen to control their work, is pretty much derived from Marx. Were it not for capitalism and the efficiencies of the division of labour, she would probably have had to tend goats for a living somewhere instead of researching physics.
She does the usual diversionary yapping about "speaking truth to power", but every word she says is really geared toward obtaining power for the same kind of mass murderers who ran the Soviet Union for seven decades. Genuine advocates of freedom and peace will want to steer well clear of scum like Franklin.
2008 = 0.24
>>>> Lowest figure since 1959.
What's up with that?
...-
""Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide - Mauna Loa"
"Annual Mean
Growth Rate
Mauna Loa, Hawaii"
year ppm/yr
1959 0.95
[...]
1998 2.93
1999 0.94
2000 1.74
2001 1.59
2002 2.56
2003 2.25
2004 1.62
2005 2.53
2006 1.72
2007 2.14
2008 0.24
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
But, MSM says "that a contraction is looming".
Economist say, ""What it tells us is the Ontario economy was very weak but it did manage to avoid a contraction."
The "contraction" of a "tiny growth"? The "tiny growth" of a "contraction"?
Is that the birth of a "looming" economoron?
...-
"Tiny growth kept Ontario out of recession"
http://www.ottawasun.com/Money/2009/01/10/7977851-sun.html
MSM says, "reasonable people" are asking the "same question":
Where is Goreacle hiding?
We have this question for you: "If the planet is over-heating, why is central Europe frozen?"
Speak Goreacle.
...-
"It's amazing how any cold snap gives a warm glow to those optimistic few who still cling to the hope that global warming is all a load of hot air.
But the icy grip that much of Europe found itself in this week was so impressive, it made some reasonable people ask themselves the same question. If the planet is over-heating, why is central Europe frozen?"
"http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/news-gossip/cold-snap-stops-elbe-and-flow-1597748.html
"Mesopotamia West | Star Columnist Blames the Jews
You have to read this column in the Toronto Star by Thomas Walkom to believe it. He says Canada’s foreign policy is being dictated by Jews because in ridings where “there is a significant Jewish population” support for Israel is “a make or break issue.”
There’s no suggestion in the column that support for Israel from both the Government and the Liberal Party is because Israel is defending itself against ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks! No, it’s all “identity politics” according to Walkom."
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2009/01/11/daily-blogger-sunday-january-11th-2009/
...-
More from Walkom: His retreat to the Dark Ages with Allah/Moh as his Guide.
"The shocking confessions of a digital age Luddite"
[...]
"So three cheers for old technology. New technology may be fine for enthusiasts. Some early 20th-century auto buffs liked to personally adjust the timing on their Stutz Bearcats. But these days, most drivers just want their cars to work. Which is all that I ask of my computer.
Eventually, I expect that I'll return to the Internet. There are plenty of bright people in the world. Over time, someone will figure out how to make computer-based communication as simple, cheap and efficient as the 1970s telephone.
Until then, however, I'm taking a cyber-break. If you've heard what you think is a good joke, you'll have to ring me.
Or write a letter.
Thomas Walkom's regular national affairs column appears Wednesday and Saturday. He can be reached at work via twalkom@thestar.ca. But don't bother trying him at home."
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/479595
When dealing with punks, there's no time to be a liberal
By David Warren, The Ottawa CitizenJanuary 11, 2009 5:04 AM
In Toronto, on Thursday, I witnessed a little incident of some value to the interpretation of world affairs. It happened on a crowded westbound King Street trolley, trapped at Yonge Street by the early rush hour crowds. (Ottawans may envy any kind of functioning transit service.)
Three young men, whom one might characterize as voluntary members of the underclass from the way they were dressed (expensive ghetto gear), jumped the back door of the trolley, in order to avoid paying fares. It is the sort of thing people just get used to in a decaying society. The drivers have their hands full processing paying customers through the front entrance, and can hardly be expected to guard the rear.
But in this case, the driver more than noticed what was happening, apparently through his rear-view mirror. He shut the front doors, stalled the car, and elbowed his way through the standing passengers to confront his unpaid guests. "I've got bad news for you punks," he declared, loudly. "I am not a liberal." Upon being told this, they left the car peacefully. Though I should add that, this being Toronto, the passengers looked more astounded by the driver's declaration than by the punks' behavior.
In my humble opinion -- shared with all those with some elementary understanding of the art of policing -- the leading cause of anti-social behavior is permission. People, and young punks especially, will do things that even they know are malicious because no one will stop them....
(Via SWJ; NYT warning) David E. Sanger, U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site
President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials...
From the Gunslinger:
"A man seeking to join an West Texas Sheriff 's Department is being interviewed."
"The Deputy doing the interview says: "Your qualifications all look good, but there is an attitude suitability test that you must take before you can be accepted."Then, sliding a service pistol across the desk, he says:"Take this pistol and go out and shoot six illegal aliens, six meth dealers, six muslim extremists, and a rabbit. "
"Why the rabbit?"
"Great attitude," says the Deputy. "When can you start?"
(Via SWJ) Joby Warrick, Iran Using Fronts to Get Bomb Parts From U.S.
The Iranian businessman was looking for high-quality American electronics, but he had to act stealthily: The special parts he coveted were denied to Iranians, especially those seeking to make roadside bombs to kill U.S. troops in Iraq...
Iran in the past two years has acquired numerous banned items -- including circuit boards, software and Global Positioning System devices -- that are used to make sophisticated versions of the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that continue to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, according to documents released by the Justice Department and a new study by a Washington research institute. The deadly trade was briefly disrupted after the moves against Dubai companies in 2006, but it quickly resumed with a few changes in shipping routes and company names, the officials said...
Slovenia, -49 coldest temp, EVAH! They are telling people with piercings not to go outside.
via Drudge
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/5026/2/
Thanks for that, Irwin. LOL!
The French!
(From ibloga.blogspot.com):
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference
that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian,
Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception,
he found himself standing with a large group of Officers
that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped
their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that,
whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn
only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have
to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking
French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe
it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans
arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
German Police remove Israeli Flag from inside a private residence, during Muslim terrorist protest, to the cheers of the Muslims:
jewishodysseus.blogspot.com/2009/01/german-police-join-jew-hating-muslim.html
youtube.com/watch?v=LiQxfRaXPVE&eurl=http://jewishodysseus.blogspot.com/2009/01/german-police-join-jew-hating-muslim.html
It's much too long since we've heard from Prof. Karsh.
Efraim Karsh, What's Behind Western Condemnation of Israel's War Against Hamas?
No sooner had Israel opted to stop Hamas' attacks on its civilian population, after years of self-imposed restraint, than it was confronted with a tidal wave of international indignation. With a unanimity that has become all too familiar when it comes to the world's pronouncements on Israel, politicians, the media, NGOs, and church leaders across the globe took their cue to denounce this legitimate act of self-defense by a sovereign democracy against one of the world's most extreme terror organizations, overtly committed to its destruction, which for years had been raining down thousands of rockets and mortar shells on civilian communities (not to mention the long string of suicide bombings)...
irwin daisy, echoing Charles MacDonald, LOL. I've passed this on esp. to a uber-liberal friend for his uber-conservative daughter who lives in Texas!
Charles MacDonald: Thanks for the Karsh. I've read a couple of his books and have saved a few of his articles in my archives. He's terrific, eh?
Proof that Al Gore is the root cause of global warming.
Point - Al Gore created the internet
Point - Google searches cause global warming according to a timesonline article.
Therefore Al Gore created global warming.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece
Yes, MND, Karsh is superb. I'd like to hear from him more often.
We should begin with Aristotle's Logic as a basis, because in order to figure out what is real, you need to be able to screen out what is not. I call this my "Bullshit Filter", Logicians call it "The Principle Of Non Contradiction".
This principle is the foundation of Western Civilization, as it is the foundation of philosophic and scientific method. It is also the basis of Irony, which is something you are particularly good at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_noncontradiction
"Movies illustrating the nonlinear perspective of climate variability from neural network methods"
http://www.ocgy.ubc.ca/projects/clim.pred/Movie/index.html
MND, Charles MacDonald:
Karsh's book 'Islamic Imperialism' is a must read. Flying in the face of Said's, 'Orientalism' b.s.
Garth's saying goodbye?
http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2009/01/11/goodbye/#comments
Not sure we believe it.