I’m reading Steven Johnson’s The Invention of Air, which is primarily about the Joseph Priestley, the great chemist and adviser to the American founding fathers. Along the way, Johnson quotes historian Tom Standage: “The impact of the introduction of coffee into Europe during the seventeenth century was particularly noticeable since the most common beverages of […]
Coffee and the Enlightenment Read More »
Popular Science‘s “Looking Back at the 100 Best Innovations of 2009.”
Bridge over the Colorado River Read More »
Intellectual systems and movements are defined philosophically by means of their characteristic claims in the five major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, and politics. As historical movements, they are defined by the time of their formulation and most vigorous activity. So in the following table I offer a definitions of pre-modernism and
Defining modernism and pre-modernism Read More »
The boy who harnessed the wind — a 14-year old who decides to design and build a windmill to bring electricity to his remote village in Malawi. A deeply human story of initiative, ingenuity, and independence. And here is the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, at Amazon.
I just sent my first email from 36,000 feet, flying somewhere over Iowa or maybe Nebraska now. Which means we should all watch that excellent Louis CK video again: We live in a time of wonders.
High technology — very, very high Read More »
At the Explaining Postmodernism page, the Index, Bibliography, and Acknowledgments are now online.
Index and Bibliography for Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
At a hotel recently I was zooming up in its sleek elevator to my room when I noticed something: no 13th floor.
The 13th floor and other superstitions Read More »
Prior to the discovery of germ theory and antiseptic, women frequently died of puerperal fever in the maternity ward at the University of Vienna Hospital. Enter Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian-born physician working at the Vienna hospital, one of the world’s leading medical establishments. Carl Hempel’s account of Semmelweis’s false starts, failed hypotheses, and eventual success
In class: Semmelweis as epistemological hero Read More »