Word of the Day



temerarious \tem-uh-RAIR-ee-uhs\,
adjective:

Recklessly or presumptuously daring; rash.

Temerarious comes from Latin temerarius, "rash," from temere, "rashly, heedlessly."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Future of Energy: A Realist's Roadmap to 2050

Image
Which technologies will finally free us from oil? The Future of Energy This December, when representatives from 170 countries meet at the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen to replace the expiring Kyoto climate treaty, the smart money predicts unprecedented collaboration. American political change coupled with spiking carbon dioxide levels could inspire a communal project on a scale not seen since World War II. A consensus, backed by science, is emerging among the international community that by 2050 we need to reduce emissions of C02, methane and other greenhouse gases to approximately 80 percent lower than they were in 1990. It will mean a wholesale reinvention of the global energy economy; anything less could result in catastrophe. Here's how we'll get there. To reach this goal will require a two-pronged approach. First, we have to get serious about the small stuff: better insulation, tossing the incandescent light bulbs and, yes, inflating our tires all th...
Read more

Where did the Universe come from? Part 1: Einstein's Big Blunder

100 years ago, Albert Einstein published three papers that rocked the world.  These papers proved the existence of the atom, introduced the theory of relativity, and described quantum mechanics.    Pretty good debut for a 26 year old scientist, huh?    His equations for relativity indicated that the universe was expanding.  This bothered him, because if it was expanding, it must have had a beginning and a beginner. Since neither of these appealed to him, Einstein introduced a 'fudge factor' that ensured a 'steady state' universe, one that had no beginning or end.    But in 1929, Edwin Hubble showed that the furthest galaxies were fleeing away from each other, just as the Big Bang model predicted.  So in 1931, Einstein embraced what would later be known as the Big Bang theory, saying, "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened....
Read more