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Battle of Britain Day, Sunday, Sept 15, 1940 + 79 years

Today marks the 79th anniversary by date and day, of “the thirteen hours that saved Britain” (and the world): Again, food for thought to awaken us to sobering lessons of history. END

The growth of the Internet, 1990 – 2019

Of general interest — and especially observe the rise of China, India and Nigeria: Food for thought. END PS: Jawa points to some interesting points of data with images worth highlighting. First, number of sites (where approx. 200 mn are regularly active): Likewise, it is noted by tekeye that “[d]espite there being over 1.5 billion websites only a few hundred dominate the Internet. Less than 1 million, or 0.1%, account for over 50% of web traffic. To get an idea on how much such a small percentage of the total websites dominate look at The Internet Map.”

What about claims that robots can become spiritual?

Merritt promptly converts the hypothetical question about salvatin for aliens—which depends, of course, on the assumption that Martians are beings much like ourselves—into: Are you there, God? It’s I, robot. Read More ›

Natural philosopher insists, science is deeply imaginative

Okay but the multiverse crowd does not lack imagination. Nor do those who have convinced themselves of panpsychism. The thing about imagination in science is that it must be disciplined. If it isn’t, it ends up competing with fiction, without the style. Read More ›

Remembering a 9-1-1 hero: Rick Rescorla

Sometimes, we need heroes to awaken our souls. Here, is a genuine hero — the man who literally predicted what happened on a fateful day in September 2001 and set out to save lives. He saved 2700 that day and was last seen heading back up, looking for stragglers. Wikipedia’s summary is a start: Cyril Richard “Rick” Rescorla (May 27, 1939 – September 11, 2001) was a British-born military officer, police officer and private security specialist who was a British paratrooper during the Cyprus Emergency and a United States commissioned officer in the Vietnam War. He rose to the rank of colonel in the United States Army and eventually became head of security at Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Read More ›

Half-billion-year-old predator is the mother of all spiders?

Researcher: "Evidence is converging towards picturing the Cambrian explosion as even swifter than what we thought," says Aria. "Finding a fossil site like the Burgess Shale at the very beginning of the Cambrian would be like looking into the eye of the cyclone." Read More ›

Researchers: Exoplanet, 2x the size of Earth, has not only water but possible rain clouds

Most exoplanets, we are told, fall into this size range and it is not yet known if it has a rocky surface, considered important for life. Here's a roundup of some things we know. Read More ›