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Science

Submission + - Why the Arabic World Turned Away From Science (thenewatlantis.com)

Geoffrey.landis writes: "The historical period that we call the dark ages, from perhaps 600 to 1200 AD, was the golden age of Islamic science, when great advances in science and technology were taking place in the middle east. But somehow, as the west experienced its renaissance, the blossoming of the age of science, and the founding of the modern technological world, the Arabic world instead turned away from science. Muslim countries have nine scientists, engineers, and technicians per thousand people, compared with a world average of forty-one, and of roughly 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, only two scientists from Muslim countries have won Nobel Prizes in science. Why? In an article "Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science" in The New Atlantis, Hillel Ofek examines both the reasons why Islamic science flourished, and why it failed. Are we turning the same way, with a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and dogma shouting down the culture of inquiry and free thinking needed for scientific advances? Perhaps we should be looking at the decline of Islamic science as a cautionary tale."

Comment Kill DST! (Score 1) 475

It wasn't so bad when I had only one or two clocks to adjust. However, nowadays everything in the house has a clock in it! The microwave, the stove, the dvr, the radio, my wake up clock, etc., even my car has an analog and a digital clock. It takes about a week to make sure I've adjusted them all after the time change! It's starting to get a little better with most internet connected devices, like the cable box and my smartphone, because they automatically update themselves.

Comment Re:My favorite article. (Score 1) 185

I used to love Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar in BYTE magazine. He used to write about all of these hardware/software projects to control your house or other gadgets you could make for yourself. The funniest column however, was how he accidently locked himself out of his house with his homebuilt alarm system activated and a souffle in the oven. You can see a version of the story by searching for "Computer On Guard".
NASA

Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By 148

c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."

Comment Re:I blame the American Dream (tm) (Score 1) 1104

It' really the Democrats, with the feckless consent of the Republicans who are to blame for starting this in the first place. They were the ones who changed the lending laws during the Clinton Admin. to allow sub-prime lending to people who couldn't qualify under normal requirements. No money down, no credit checks, no proof of income, that sure makes for a great loan. Then they forced the banks to make these loans or they would have been labeled racist or discriminatory against the poor. Then to ensure the money flow, the Fed kept interest rates artificially low, which encouraged lenders to go hog wild. Then their greed set in and it became a pyramid scheme, where they kept selling bundled sub-prime loans to the securities markets, to get enough cash to write even more bad loans. Well the pyramid is falling and the taxpayers are going to hold the bag. We need new blood in D.C.; vote against all incumbants and party hacks NOW! Forget Obama and McCain, we need Sarah Palin for President! Ahh, I feel better now!

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