You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

Richard Feynman 

The difference between “learning” and “learning” is important to understand.

(via sciencesoup)

… people — I mean the average person, the great majority of people, the enormous majority of people — are woefully, pitifully, absolutely ignorant of the science of the world that they live in, and they can stay that way … And an interesting question of the relation of science to modern society is just that — why is it possible for people to stay so woefully ignorant and yet reasonably happy in modern society when so much knowledge is unavailable to them?… I think we should teach them wonders and that the purpose of knowledge is to appreciate wonders even more. And that the knowledge is just to put into correct framework the wonder that nature is.

Richard Feynman on the role of scientific culture in modern society

This is essentially what we’re doing here, right?

(via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours each year waiting in line. The dominant cost of waiting is an emotional one: stress, boredom, that nagging sensation that one’s life is slipping away. The last thing we want to do with our dwindling leisure time is squander it in stasis. We’ll never eliminate lines altogether, but a better understanding of the psychology of waiting can help make those inevitable delays that inject themselves into our daily lives a touch more bearable.

Alex Stone on the psychology of why waiting in line Is torture. For an antidote, consider the art of delay.

Chances are that at least one person who reads this will be doing so on a mobile phone while waiting in line.

(via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

Some Rules for Students and Teachers from John Cage and Sister Corita Kent

(via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

In other words, a sizable portion of the U.S. population accepts as a given that an unseen world of magical paranormal power exists, and all that remains is to discover how to take advantage of it. Some pay handsomely in that vain — I mean this in both senses of the word — pursuit.

Personality traits, psychological motivation, flawed cognition, emotional instability, local demographics, social influences — all these could contribute to what might be called Lack of Reason Syndrome. Let’s add as well: basic ignorance. But experimental psychology has yet to fully explain why essentially rational beings seem to need to be at least a little irrational.

America, the Beautiful (And Nutty): A Skeptic’s Lament

James Randi opines on the supernatural tendencies of the modern American and a call for renewed skepticism at Wired.

Source: Wired

“We’ve always argued ‘do what’s best for the kids, teach good science.’ The nice thing about evolution is that we can also say ‘and by the way, if you try to teach creationism/intelligent design, you will be sued and you will lose, because all the case law is against you’. There’s nothing comparable with climate change. There’s no constitutional protection against bad science.

What we have to do is persuade people, help them understand what is good science, and why their kids should learn good science.”

- Eugenie Scott

She’s executive director for the National Center for Science Education, commenting on launching support for teachers tackling climate science in classrooms.

More: Science education group decides it’s time to tackle climate change

Source: Ars Technica

O RLY? Not to pick on you, but … When your brain fires that particular pattern of chemical signals and neurons that we call “love”? That’s science. That uncontrollable passion? Sexual desire? Even kissing! That’s science. And music? The translation of carefully timed and arranged vibrations in the air, combined in particular ratios of frequencies that we find naturally complementary? That’s science.
View Separately

O RLY? Not to pick on you, but …

When your brain fires that particular pattern of chemical signals and neurons that we call “love”? That’s science.

That uncontrollable passion? Sexual desire? Even kissing! That’s science.

And music? The translation of carefully timed and arranged vibrations in the air, combined in particular ratios of frequencies that we find naturally complementary? That’s science.