One aspect that this doesn’t cover is the usefulness of a theory. Theories are used to make predictions that can be tested. Those tests are themselves experiments.

To follow the analogy, we’d use the pentagon shape figure out where a point that we haven’t yet discovered might lie. We look there and try to find a point. If it’s there, our confidence in the theory is strengthened. If it isn’t, we go back several steps, fiddle with the drawing and try again. (As Kuhn pointed out, it isn’t quite that simple, but close enough for this example.)

Isaac Asimov once used the analogy of constructing a map using points of latitude and longitude. The advantage of this analogy is that you can immediately see how to make useful predictions with a map. Figure our where you want to go and try driving there. If you wind up in the middle of the ocean, you know your map is inaccurate. Make corrections and try again.

The question arises: is the map the terrain? Or in other words, is the theory a perfectly accurate depiction of the reality? The pure answer is: of course not. The pragmatic answer is: who cares?! As long as the map gets you to where you want to go, it’s good enough.

Via Open Culture

The billboard has been taken down. The CEO of Heartland explains: “The Heartland Institute knew this was a risk when deciding to test it, but decided it was a necessary price to make an emotional appeal to people who otherwise aren’t following the climate change debate.”

Emotional appeal. Because that’s exactly the way to help people make an informed decision on a factual matter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Go to Vimeo for a larger version, or PhD for still images. H/t Open Culture.

Planetary Resources is establishing a new paradigm for resource discovery and utilization that will bring the solar system into humanity’s sphere of influence. Our technical principals boast extensive experience in all phases of robotic space missions, from designing and building, to testing and operating. We are comprised of visionaries, pioneers, rocket scientists and industry leaders with proven track records on—and off—this planet.

Back to io9:

This is big news on several fronts, not the least of which being the fact that this venture stands to reinvigorate the world’s passion for space exploration. Money can be a powerful motivating factor, and all indications suggest that there a LOT of it to be made mining resources like water and precious metals from near-Earth asteroids. [...]

“If you look at space resources, the logical next step is to go to the near-Earth asteroids,” Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson told SPACE.com. “They’re just so valuable, and so easy to reach energetically. Near-Earth asteroids really are the low-hanging fruit of the solar system.”

Well, damn. I didn’t think I’d see a serious bid to mine near Earth asteroids in my lifetime. Of course, it still remains to be seen how serious this is, and then how successful it is.

Still, I’m excited. That’s your cue to tell me why this is all going to end in tears.

A video of the aurora taken in norther Finland, Norway and Sweden during 2011

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video was created using images of Saturn and its rings from NASA’s Cassini probe and Voyager mission:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The only downside is that it is so complex that it’s impossible to keep track of what’s going on. Still, it’s dynamic enough to be fun to watch.

Via io9

The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care much. They are incurious. Incuriosity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.

—Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles

For the most part it’s a standard “multiple worlds” hypothesis story, where every decision you make is made in a different way by an alternate you in another dimension. We’re all familiar with that sci-fi plot device, right?

That’s when it gets weird:

Welcome to the Infinite You.

Quantum Jumping is a visualization process where you use your mind to ‘jump’ into parallel dimensions, and gain creativity, knowledge, wisdom, skills and inspiration from alternate versions of yourself.

This happens through a phenomenon known as “thought transference.” You see, although the solidity of our world seems indisputable, Quantum Theory suggests that our physical reality is nothing but a very elaborate mirage. A super-hologram of information and energy. A Matrix.

From there we get New Thought taken to an extreme. It’s not just that the “law of attraction” will make your thoughts become reality. Instead, reality itself is nothing more than thought: “the substance of the universe, of your reality, may be nothing more than consciousness or thought.”

You can pretty much fill in the blanks from there. By using these special mental techniques, you can be richer, happier, healthier, etc.

“Sweet Home Alabama” being played on two solid-state Tesla coils: