Insights into Science from Richard Feynman

Hardly anyone captures the essence and ethos of science more eloquently than The Great Explainer. In 1966, the National Science Teachers Association asked the great Richard Feynman to give an address that answers the question, "What is science?" The answer comes true to character:

And so what science is, is not what the philosophers have said it is, and certainly not what the teacher editions say it is. What it is, is a problem which I set for myself after I said I would give this talk.
After some time, I was reminded of a little poem:
A centipede was happy quite, until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?"
This raised his doubts to such a pitch
He fell distracted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.
All my life, I have been doing science and known what it was, but what I have come to tell you--which foot comes after which--I am unable to do, and furthermore, I am worried by the analogy in the poem that when I go home I will no longer be able to do any research.

Later in the speech, Feynman hones a more answer-like answer:

[I]f you are going to teach people to make observations, you should show that something wonderful can come from them. I learned then what science was about: it was patience. If you looked, and you watched, and you paid attention, you got a great reward from it -- although possibly not every time.

Later:

[Science] teaches the value of rational thought as well as the importance of freedom of thought; the positive results that come from doubting that the lessons are all true.

He closes with a keen point for his audience of professional science educators:

Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation.

8 tips on writing from Kurt Vonnegut

1. Use the time of a total stranger (the reader) in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things a)reveal character or b)advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them so the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

My favorite essay, entitled "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast," comes from the chapter on logic. In it, George A. Dunn and Brian McDonald write:

When it comes to the curious conditions of Wonderland, Alice's efforts to make sense of the nonsensical pay off with dividends. But that's because the nonsense is only provisional, only on the surface, beneath which a diligent investigator like Alice is able to discern perfectly intelligible, albeit unexpected, rules of cause and effect.

[...]

Once Alice has learned what these rules are, she can count on them to operate as dependably as any of the laws of nature that obtain in our world. They only seem nonsensical to us because our experience of our world aboveground and on this side of the looking glass has burdened us with a slew of preconceptions about what can and cannot be accomplished by ingesting the caps of gilled fungi.

[…]

It is to Alice's credit that she doesn't hesitate for a moment to discard her preconceptions when she comes across situations that patently refute them. In doing so, she encounters an admirable quality to encounter reality on its own terms, a receptive cast of mind that many philosophers would include among the most important "intellectual virtues" or character traits that assist in the discovery of truth.

For a parallel meditation on the importance of being able to step away from assumption, cultivate doubt, and find pleasure in mystery, see yesterday's related exploration of the necessity for ignorance in science.

Zac Freeman: An Artist Transforming Junk

Zac Freeman started creating assemblage artworks of this type in 1999.

All artworks are made entirely out of collected junk, found objects, and general trash.

By glueing the bits of junk to a wooden substrate, Zac is able to form an image, usually faces, which only can be seen at a distance.

This stunning concept is quite the time consumer.

I was interested in communicating through visual representation in apparent 2-dimensional space and through the actual objects used for the medium in 3-dimensional space. – Zac Freeman

It is very important that he incorporate the actual objects into the art as opposed to a picture or rendition of it because it better expresses the intention of the artwork.

Freeman feels the junk is more powerful being present. It is an actual thing to be reckoned with that existed in this time and place and carries energy in and of itself.

See more of his work here

Open Letter

To Liar Cameron,

Please find below our suggestion for fixing the UK 's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire
Ten million job openings - unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car.
Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage -
Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university -
Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week .....
And there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

Also.....
Let's put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.

They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.

They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.

Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens.

Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay £600.00 per week and have no hope of ever getting out.

Design for small spaces: A Trendy cabinet that turns into stools

For apartment dwellers worldwide, finding space to do practically anything can be a challenge, particularly for seemingly superfluous needs like entertaining.

Most of us don’t have seating space for more than ourselves, let alone our friends.

Eindhoven grad Rianne Koens has come up with a pretty ingenious solution to this problem, and it’s good-looking too.

The design is simple: it’s a wooden cabinet that converts into sturdy stools and side tables.

The mismatched drawers of this multifunctional cabinet are stacked, each with foldable legs, so when unstacked, they can serve as stools and coffee tables to make it easier to accommodate guests.

The design, called Oturakast, was inspired by the hospitality of the designer’s Turkish in-laws (otur means “to sit” in Turkish) as well as by Dutch design (kast is “cabinet” in Dutch).

According to Koens, the design is an “elegant replacement for the stackable stools in western households.”

This cabinet is not only a space-saver for those of us who have the common storage and space issues of apartment living, but it’s also considered and stylish.

Clever ideas to make your life easier

Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes.

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Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls).

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Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band.

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Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bedlinen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match.

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Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music.

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Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.

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Add this item to your beach bag. Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily – who knew?!

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Attach a velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.

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Look up! Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.

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Gotcha! Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose.

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Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid.

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For those who can’t stand the scrunching and bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.

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Forever losing your bathroom essentials? Use magnetic strips to store bobby pins (and tweezers and clippers) behind a vanity door

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A tip for holiday packing. Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty soles rubbing on your clothes. And you can find them in just about every hotel!

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A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy. Magnets hold the plastic cups down to make them tip-resistant.

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Bread tags make the perfect-sized cord labels.

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Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones – so much more fun and easier for kids to eat. Definitely doing this!

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Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper bag. Much healthier and cheaper than the packet stuff.

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Brilliant space-saver: install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles. Genius!

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Win friends at breakfast with this heart-shaped egg tutorial. Aww shucks!

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Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough over the top and voila – you have cookie bowls for fruit or ice-cream. Click here for recipe.

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Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing sunburn relief.

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Gutter garden: Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.

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Use egg cartons to separate and store your Christmas decorations.