Isotropic is …
... my personal blog.
Unless otherwise indicated, anything I write here is simply my personal, probably ill-formed, opinion and does not represent the views, beliefs, positions, or opinions of any other person or entity.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
17 Jan 2009
Today’s hubristic non sequitur
In “This Miracle Brought to You by America’s Unions“, emptywheel says They’re calling it a miracle–the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They’re detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they’re [...]
13 Jan 2009
UFOs integral to understanding humanity’s origin?
“It’s pretty hard for someone to draw conclusions on mankind when Darwin had never seen nor heard of UFOs. That’s kind of like teaching math but not understanding trigonometry.” –John Kocsis, letter to editor, St. Catharines Standard, Ontario, CA “you have achieved a discontinuity of meaning” –Fanny Mae, in Whipping Star (Frank Herbert) h/t: PZ [...]
13 Jan 2009
What is science?
Matt Springer poses that question and suggests a concise answer: Science is the testing of ideas. This is subject to ever-increasing refinement (or contention), as you can see from his post and its comments. You might consider the “scientific method” as the first-level refinement: observe hypothesize predict test That’s basically the inner loop of the [...]
11 Jan 2009
Galileo’s Eyes
Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei started an astronomical revolution by using a telescope to (among other things) discover four moons of Jupiter and thus reinforce the heliocentric view of the solar system, removing Earth from the center of the universe. Sadly, it took the Catholic Church nearly that long to forgive him for it. [...]
06 Jan 2009
Micromanagement Zombies
The always controversial (well, sometimes, anyway) Jeff Atwood has stirred up his readers again with Are You Creating Micromanagement Zombies? — basically, build teams of good people and trust them — but it’s his use of the quiz from Kathy Sierra’s BrainDeath by Micromanagement: The Zombie Function that irked a number of readers. Both posts [...]
05 Jan 2009
IYA2009 – International Year of Astronomy
“The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.” –(about) In case you need to ramp up [...]
