Before Francis Crick died, in 2004, he gave Eagleman some advice. “Look,” he said. “The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea, because then he’ll fight and die for it. The way real science goes is that you come up with lots of ideas, and most of them will be wrong.”
…
“Part of the scientific temperament is this tolerance for holding multiple hypotheses in mind at the same time,” he said. “As Voltaire said, uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.”
David Eagleman and Mysteries of the Brain : The New Yorker (+)Jamie Anne Royce (+) Things You Should Know Before You Date A Writer | Thought Catalog
This goes for any art discipline. I will [art] about you if I’m in love with you.
Mitt Romney jokes at a campaign stop in Michigan. (via theatlantic)
I usually ignore the whole “LOL Romney is out of touch” commentary because some examples are stretches— but this? This says it all, really.
I’m grateful that not every Republican subscribes to the “Us versus The Other” gameplan that has been employed ever since Obama began campaigning for the 2008 election— because it’s a dangerous game that activates and approves a very dangerous mentality in people… but enough people do subscribe to make me concerned.
I don’t know where to begin. It makes me uncomfortable.
(Source: larmoyante)
Why do we spend at least 1,000 times more money protecting ourselves from terrorism than we do protecting ourselves from gun violence? I’m not necessarily suggesting that we spend less on anti-terrorism programs. Like everyone else, I am grateful there have been no mass casualty terror events since 9/11. I’m just wondering, instead, what possible justification there could be for spending so relatively little to try to reduce the casualties of gun violence. […]
Our government has asked us consistently since 9/11 to sacrifice individual liberties and freedom, constitutional rights to privacy for example, in the name of national security. And we have ceded these liberties. Yet that same government in that same time hasn’t asked anyone to sacrifice some Second Amendment rights to help protect innocent victims from gun violence.
Jill Tarter on our connection to the cosmos
NPR, Fresh Air » Jill Tarter: A Scientist Searching For Alien Life
…It’s a great place to grow up as a creator because there’s no intellectual hierarchy. I remember going to a party in New York about 35 years ago. They all called me Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
I said, “You, ma’am, your name and phone number? And you, sir, your phone number? And you, sir?”
And they said, “Why are you taking our phone numbers?”
I said, “Because the night we land on the moon, you’re going to get called.”
I was in London when we did. I called three of them, and when they answered I said, “Stupid son of a bitch,” and hung up.
—Ray Bradbury
“Sci-Fi For Your D: Drive.” Newsweek 13 November 1995: 89. (+)
