Physicist Werner Heisenberg said, “When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first.” As difficult as turbulence is to understand mathematically, we can use art to depict the way it looks. Natalya St. Clair illustrates how Van Gogh captured this deep mystery of movement, fluid and light in his work.
“A free society best functions with a free press (and free citizens) that seek to expose, understand, explain what’s really happening in its darkest corners. But for good reason, there isn’t a public interest defence for everything. For instance, journalists have asked me if weapons and assassinations are also available on the dark net. I’m sure they are, but I’m not willing to try to find out. There’s a strong public interest in knowing, I think, but I’m not prepared to risk it. ”
“Waterboarding is sometimes described as giving victims the sensation of drowning. Those who have been subjected to the technique say it’s no facsimile. Six years ago, the late Christopher Hitchens voluntarily subjected himself to waterboarding so that he might report what it’s like. “You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning”, hewrote, “or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure”. Mr Hitchens lasted only seconds before he ended the session: “Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me”, he wrote. “Believe me, it’s torture”.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/02/republicans-and-waterboarding
“Poland has long sought to eliminate the misleading phrase from historical and newspaper accounts since it suggests the country, which was occupied by Nazi Germany during the second world war, was responsible for concentration camps on its territory.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/poland-plans-ban-phrase-polish-death-camps?CMP=twt_gu
This is an interesting article which highlights the relationship between theoretical and experimental physics. Theories are proposed that make certain predictions, as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity did, but the available experimental know how and technology of his day made some of his predictions impossible to confirm or deny. As time has gone on, certain predictions Einstein made have come to have experimental, observable evidence to support them. One of those predictions about the existence of gravitation waves, made over a hundred years ago, now has some evidence to support the prediction.
“More generally, it means that a century of innovation, testing, questioning and plain hard work after Einstein imagined it on paper, scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einstein’s universe become manifest.”
More on this recent discovery along with a discussion of the value of such scientific discovery.
“Too often people ask, what’s the use of science like this, if it doesn’t produce faster cars or better toasters. But people rarely ask the same question about a Picasso painting or a Mozart symphony. Such pinnacles of human creativity change our perspective of our place in the universe. Science, like art, music and literature, has the capacity to amaze and excite, dazzle and bewilder. I would argue that it is that aspect of science — its cultural contribution, its humanity — that is perhaps its most important feature.”
Other predictions Einstein made that were later proven correct.
http://discovermagazine.com/2015/april/12-putting-relativity-to-the-test
And a great video from the Tonight Show explaining what all this is about.
“Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.”
Great for examples for the human sciences.
“The Hidden Brain project helps curious people understand the world – and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.”
How do these images illustrate the role that perspective plays when it comes to knowledge? When it comes to learning about History?
“For much of the world, the visual history of the Vietnam War has been defined by a handful of iconic photographs: Eddie Adams’ image of a Viet Cong fighter being executed, Nick Ut’s picture of nine-year-old Kim Phúc fleeing a napalm strike, Malcolm Browne’s photo of Thích Quang Duc self-immolating in a Saigon intersection.
“Many famous images of the war were taken by Western photographers and news agencies, working alongside American or South Vietnamese troops.
“But the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had hundreds of photographers of their own, who documented every facet of the war under the most dangerous conditions.”
http://mashable.com/2016/02/05/another-vietnam-photography/#.vGRaZ2NPkqi
1. Room for Debate: Is It Wrong to Watch Football?
This first link is from the New York Times’ Room for Debate series. Here, four experts discuss the question about whether it is ethical to watch football.
“How can fans enjoy watching a game that helps ruin players’ lives?”
2. The Ethicist: Is it Wrong to Watch Football
From the New York Times’ series, The Ethicist.
“What you are concerned about involves one disquieting aspect of one specific sport. You want to know if it’s ethically acceptable to watch a game that is dangerous to the athletes who participate. And the answer to that query is yes.”
3. Aaron Hernandez suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age
From the Washington Post, an article that details that brain damage suffered by a young and prominent NFL star who was also convicted of murder. If this type of brain damage is possible from playing the sport, should it be legal? If it legal, with the consent and full information of those playing, is it ethical to watch this sport?
4. The Federalist: Now That We Know Football Hurts Athletes, Should We Keep Watching?
“It’s time for football fans to consider the morality of a sport that turns young athletes into middle-aged corpses, racked by dementia and disabilities.”
“How long can an activity that may carry with it the likelihood of an awful life-shortening ailment continue to hold the imagination of the country? Those who believe football is too big and too popular to ever be cast aside should remember that only 80 years ago, boxing reigned alongside baseball as the country’s only true national sport. Even a half century ago, when Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion, boxing was still immensely popular even if, unlike in previous generations, the percentage of youngsters who boxed was tiny. Today, it still exists and manages to hold a niche of the sports market, but it is a marginal endeavor derided for its brutality that increasingly few American care about.”
http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/03/now-know-football-hurts-athletes-keep-watching/
5. Reason Magazine: Is Watching Football Unethical?
From a Libertarian perspective, how should we view the ethics of watching football?
http://reason.com/blog/2015/01/07/ethics-of-watching-football
6. I’m the Wife of a Former N.F.L. Player. Football Destroyed His Mind.
He chose the sport, but he did not choose brain damage.
TOK Topics 