Think Outside The Box (The Cutest Response to Creationism Ever!) « Exploring Our Matrix February 13, 2012
Posted by aquillam in Science.Tags: creationism, evolution, Philosophy, religion
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Think Outside The Box (The Cutest Response to Creationism Ever!) « Exploring Our Matrix.
This is indeed a very cute response to creationism.
How deep the Universe | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine January 17, 2011
Posted by aquillam in Astronomy, MichiganAstro.Tags: astronomers, astronomy, HST, observing, Philosophy
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Sometimes, when I was teaching and we were talking about the size or age of the universe, a student would make some comment like “is that all?”
I usually responded to that with a blank look. “What do you mean, is that all?”
I forget sometimes that the universe is so big that most people don’t even realize that they can’t possibly imagine how big it really is.
Sometimes, it takes a Bad Astronomer to remind me.
Daily Post Curmudgeon January 2, 2011
Posted by aquillam in writing.Tags: Philosophy, writing
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I am not participating in the daily post challenge. Not even the weekly post.
It is not because I don’t believe in the aphorism “to write more, write more” because that is quite true. The more often I spend time writing, the more writing I tend to do. And reading. Writing always makes me read more, usually whatever I’m writing about. There’s a Billy Collins poem about how reading poetry makes him want to write poetry, which makes him want to read poetry, which makes him… so I know I’m not the only one.
Nor is it because I don’t have the time. In truth, I write enough to post once a week. I might even have enough to post daily. And I’m not a complete hack. Yeah, I can’t resist the occasional bad haiku, and sometimes there’s a paragraph or two that I don’t proofread (or worse, I do proofread, but I can’t see that I’ve written something backwards.)
No, my problem is the premise: to post for the sake of posting. It is one thing to write every day. I do that, and I have the scraps of paper everywhere to prove it. However, it is something else to post something for the sake of posting something, to make your writing public and ask all your friends and followers to read it and praise you for your ability to put words together. Even if it’s well written, a hundred other people have a post on the same topic. How original is that? There’s a reason most of my writing is still on paper scraps.
I have better things to do with my limited free time than to write (or read) a post that has been posted for the sole purpose of being able to say “300 days in a row! I’m awesome!”
I’m sure you do to.
Challenge for 2011: Want to blog more often? — Blog — WordPress.com.
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine December 25, 2010
Posted by aquillam in Astronomy, MichiganAstro.Tags: astronomy, astrophotography, citizen science, instrumentation, Philosophy, Science, telescope
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This was just too lovely not to share.
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine.
Also, I rather like the debate about the difference between professional and amateur astronomers going on in the comments.
Sideways Orion 