Monthly Archives: February 2016

Science denial today

Posted on February 25, 2016 by BigBill

In my last post I talked about how, during the 1500s, the church leaders persecuted the astronomers Galileo and Bruno for their observations that the earth was not the center of the universe. Galileo recanted and was confined to house … Continue reading →

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The Enlightenment and the scientific method

Posted on February 20, 2016 by BigBill

A while ago I wrote about how, when DARPA funded research leading to distributive computing and our effort to land a man on the moon drove the search for ever-more-powerful and energy-conserving computing capability, no one could possibly have envisioned … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and philosophy, Science | Leave a comment

History, heliocentrism and hubris

Posted on February 18, 2016 by BigBill

Any kid of 8 in the US who’s paid the least amount of attention in school knows that the sun is the center of our solar system and that the earth revolves around it. This is of course  contrary to … Continue reading →

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Space is really, REALLY big!

Posted on February 11, 2016 by BigBill

It’s nearly impossible to get a grasp on how truly vast space is. I got interested in space when I was a little kid growing up in Illinois farm country. I had a map of our solar system on my … Continue reading →

Posted in General commentary on the world as I see it..., Science | Leave a comment

Electric trains and delayed gratification

Posted on February 5, 2016 by BigBill

When I was a kid (I think maybe 11), my brother Jim and I decided we wanted to have an electric train set. We looked at the different sizes (called “gauges”); HO gauge is sized in between the two other … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, General commentary on the world as I see it... | Leave a comment