Midwestern Mugwump (mw)2

Cutting Edge or Stale?

The SunTimes had this interesting story on Motorola's development of Carbon Nanotube Technology and its potential to produce clear, flat, large and cheap televisions.  According to the story there is a possibility to create 42 inch screens that would sell for $400.  I'm too cheap to pay more than a $1,000 for a television - I just can't do it. 

What is odd is that while the story was in Monday's paper and does appear to reference some current events (like an upcoming convention), but the latest mention on Motorola's site is from July, 2003. 

So is the story exceptionally stale or hugely cutting edge?  I'm leaning toward stale, but you never know.  I'm just hoping that my TV holds out long enough.

First Blind MD

CNN has a story on Tim Cordes, a Notre Dame grad and the first blind student to graduate from medical school.  He was an undergrad when I was a graduate student there and though he never took a class I TA'd, people I knew that had him in class were quite impressed, not just with his academic abilities but who he was as a person.  This comes through in the article, which I think is nicely told (not overtold).  I had no idea that so much of medical diagnosis is listening - both to the patient and to the body - even a rash.

Nucular Greens

I'll admit that I couldn't finish this Thomas Friedman piece that Instapundit points to, but I found these articles on pebble-bed nuclear reactors and the growing necessity of re-considering nuclear energy to be absolutely fascinating, particularly the first article on China's enormous advances on a much safer, more energy efficient and easily constructed reactors.  Interesting stuff with practical problem solving potential. 

The Pride of France (as designed by an Englishman)

This bridge in Southern France is pretty cool looking.  I particularly liked some of these quotes:

The bridge will serve as a symbol of “a modern and conquering France,” he [Chirac] said. . . “a prodigy of art and architecture — a new emblem of French civil engineering.”

Except that it was designed by British architect Norman Foster.

Though I assume that a French company did actually build it.

While I'm 'Stalking' LFB

Just kidding - of course.

John Zimmer has has some interesting posts up recently about science, scientists, and his own vocational calling (which is very good).  He also has this interesting post relating Jacques Barzun's thoughts on connecting the Council of Trent to the later coming "Warfare Between Science and Religion."  What I found particularly interesting about the post was the invocation of Trent and not the Protestant side of the Reformation when discussing the subsequent impoverishment of our ways of reading Scripture.  I wonder why Barzun highlighted the Catholic response more than the Protestant events in this process?  What continues to amaze me about the "Warfare" thesis is how the initial "warfare" was declared by those hostile to religion and in little more than 50 years the table's had so turned that it was religion on the defensive.  The trip from John William Draper to John T. Scopes is a fascinating one. 

Barzun (and I take it John) is right about the impoverished way that we read Scripture today.  We tend to read everything as a philosophical or theological text (essentially, like an academic essay) with insufficient regard for the way it was written and the way it has been interpreted over the centuries by the Christian church.  I certainly am guilty of this.

If you are interested in issues relating science and the Christian faith, Prosthesis is also a great and thoughtful read.

Science and Poetry

John Zimmer has a pair of posts on the poetry of John Donne - including the famous Meditation XVII. He even connects Donne to questions of science and the universality of the human condition. It shouldn't be surprising, actually, artfully making those connections is what poetry and literature are all about. People like me forget this kind of thing. And if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can sign up for a "Sonnet a Day Newsletter."

Thanks John, its a nice reminder and pleasant distraction from my typical reading.

Bainbridge on Hydrogen

Stephen Bainbridge points to an article about BMW's new hydrogen prototype as well as the National Academy of Sciences report on a hydrogen economy.

He loves cars more than I do, but he also appreciates the nature of this type of research as a public good. If the rhetoric on both sides of the environmental debate were better, I would think that honest progress could be made.

On a marginally related note, I am waiting for our composter to be delivered this week - the Soilmaker (scroll down one). I love the name, it sounds "Arnoldesque." Don't worry, faithful reader(s), there won't be any "Compost Blogging." Well, maybe not much anyway.

Green Winery

Stephen Bainbridge has a link to the Ridge Winery's new building - built of straw. Unfortunately for me, clicking on the more detailed PDF at the bottom of the page seems to crash my system. I tried it twice - maybe I'll try again later, because I'm a sucker.

Related, a partner dropped in my office the other day with a copy of Bainbridge's book on Insider Trading for me to read. Not that I nor anyone we represent is doing any insider trading, just for my own edification. It wasn't even a copy of my own - it was our library's copy. But, its by the good professor and it looks like straight forward reading, so why not.

CT on ID

Christianity Today's John Wilson has a nice, though pretty long for the internet, article on the Intelligent Design debates. It doesn't actually analyze the substance of the debates, but instead comments on their tone, particularly among Christians. Its kind of a call for everyone to put down their weapons, re-assess their strategy, and re-think who their opponents are.

Its worth a careful read (more careful than this summary) and it does have some strong criticisms for a few of the most vocal participants in the debates. In particular, he lauds the ID movement for their success in pointing out the naturalistic presuppositions of science, but criticizes the excessive rhetoric that attacks those with whom people should have greater sympathy.

More on Science

There are a few more interesting posts over at Letters From Babylon regarding science - one from John Zimmer and another from Joshua Davey, one of his several talented co-bloggers. Both generally examine the implications of a strictly defined understanding of science for our larger epistemological structure, on a theoretical as well as on a practical level.

Regarding the possibility that natural and supernatural explanations of an event will conflict, John remarks that automatically defering to the 'scientific' explanation typically entails -

believing "that science in general is a more foolproof and reliable way of knowing—that science as an invented human construct is more trustworthy for correspondence to truth than the supernatural alternative. It is this latter idea that needs debunking. [debunking is pretty strong here, but I am still with him - mw2] Science is wonderful. It is very useful and enlightening. I like it very much. But it is absolutely not infallible or foolproof. It is only a model."

Josh adds to the conversation a set of questions regarding the overcompartmentalization of knowledge because such compartmentalization is an inaccurate description of our functioning epistemology - of which he is quite right. Practical considerations affect how, why and what we believe in addition to the raw power and coherence of the ideas themselves. The question of how we integrate different ways of knowing is critical particularly given that this very compartmentalization that John and I are endorsing (though I don't particularly like the use of that term) has brought about the situation in which we currently find ourselves - the privileging of naturalistic knowledge over other types. If we compartmentalize, how do you prevent one compartment from taking over - as has essentially happened with naturalism being equated with knowledge. He's right, there's a weakness here. Several rough thoughts come to mind.

One is to acknowledge that to some degree we already have this problem - science doesn't really inform us about aesthetics, ethics, and similar fields.

The second is the analogy of the Incarnation. God became man. Its a powerful image that allows us to embrace the overlap between the supernatural and the natural. God can bring about results that are extraordinary through ordinary means. There is more here than I can really explain because there is more here than I really understand.