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News Briefs 09-07-2014

Exorcizamus te, omnis immunde spiritus!

Quote of the Day:

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas … If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.

Carl Sagan

Editor
  1. Hi guys, I’ve been lurking
    Hi guys, I’ve been lurking this site for a few months now and I finally decided I could render myself useful in some way.

    The Oculus Rift story links to the article about the light in the universe, so there’s a double there.

    Don’t worry, I intend to participate in the topics here, but not now ’cause it’s 4.20 AM here, so I’m going to sleep, if I manage to.

    Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my language.

    Cheers!

    1. Thanks!
      [quote=jules93]Hi guys, I’ve been lurking this site for a few months now and I finally decided I could render myself useful in some way.

      The Oculus Rift story links to the article about the light in the universe, so there’s a double there.

      Don’t worry, I intend to participate in the topics here, but not now ’cause it’s 4.20 AM here, so I’m going to sleep, if I manage to.

      Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my language.

      Cheers![/quote]

      Thanks! Link fixed.

    2. Bienvenido!
      Welcome to The Grail! Don’t worry, this site is very accommodating to us non-English natives –you should’ve seen my first comments when I was a noobie 😉

  2. Voyager 1…
    ” NASA scientists have estimated that Voyager 1 will emerge from the Oort Cloud in 14,000 to 28,000 years.”

    This really hammers home just how gargantuan our universe is, and sort of…nullifies ANY claim that Voyager is in interstellar space.

  3. Deepak Chopra
    Not a fan, personally, of Deepak Chopra, though I do admit to not having investigated his metaphysical musings in depth. His link with the New Age movements is just a turn off. I know he may be touching on a lot of things we talk about here but I think that’s what makes me all the more dislike him as an advocate for alternate theories of consciousness.
    He kind of reminds me of evangelical religious people. I may agree, in principle, with their core ideas and derision of mainstream thought, but the way they talk and carry themselves leaves much room for doubt and (rightful) criticism.
    His twitter fight with Cox was childish and unprofessional, though Cox was just as bad. (Seriously, is this how intellectuals discuss problems? This is why we can have nice theories…)

    Quote from article:
    “Quite why he thinks that thought couldn’t just be what happens when molecules move around inside the brain is never interrogated.”

    ^It’s statements like these that make wish that science writers took philosophy seriously. Does he know what would be needed in order to make strong emergence work?

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