Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (/ˈfrɑːnz ˈboʊ.æz/; July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942)[2] was a German-American[3] anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology".[4][5] Studying in Germany, Boas received his doctorate in psychology, specializing in the psychophysics of perception, and did post-doctoral work in geography. He participated in an expedition to northern Canada where he became fascinated with the culture and language of the Baffin Island Inuit. He went on to do field work with the indigenous cultures and languages of the Pacific Northwest. In 1887 he emigrated to the United States where he first worked as a museum curator at the Smithsonian, and in 1899 became professor of anthropology at Columbia University where he remained for the rest of his career. Early life and education[edit] Franz Boas was born in Minden, Westphalia. Post-graduate studies[edit] He returned to Berlin to complete his studies. Fin de Siècle debates[edit]
Dyson sphere Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and hence captures most or all of its power output. It was first described by Freeman Dyson. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life. Different types of Dyson spheres correlate with information on the Kardashev scale. Since then, other variant designs involving building an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction under the name "Dyson sphere". Origin of concept[edit] Feasibility[edit] Some ideas to build a fixed-in-place 'Dyson sphere' are currently beyond humanity's engineering capacity. Variants[edit] Dyson swarm[edit] Dyson bubble[edit]
Marvin Harris Marvin Harris (August 18, 1927 – October 25, 2001) was an American anthropologist . He was born in Brooklyn, New York . A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism . In his work he combined Karl Marx's emphasis on the forces of production with Thomas Malthus 's insights on the impact of demographic factors on other parts of the sociocultural system . Over the course of his professional life, Harris drew both a loyal following and a considerable amount of criticism. In his final book, Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times, Harris argued that the political consequences of postmodern theory were harmful, a critique similar to those later developed by philosopher Richard Wolin and others. Early career [ edit ] Being born just before the Great Depression , Harris was poor during his childhood in Brooklyn. Theoretical contributions [ edit ] Criticisms and controversies [ edit ] Academic career [ edit ] Harris became the author of seventeen books.
Kardashev scale Measure of the evolution of a civilization according to its energy consumption Energy consumption in three types of civilization as defined by Sagan's extended Kardashev scale The Kardashev scale (Russian: Шкала Кардашева, romanized: Shkala Kardasheva) is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use. The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964[1] and came to bear his name. The scale is hypothetical, and regards energy consumption on a cosmic scale. Various extensions of the scale have since been proposed, including a wider range of power levels (types 0, IV to V) and the use of metrics other than pure power (e.g., computational growth or food consumption). Kardashev first outlined his scale in a paper presented at the 1964 Byurakan conference, a scientific meeting that reviewed the Soviet radio astronomy space listening program. Categories defined by Kardashev[edit] Type I[edit]
Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (Arabic pronunciation: [wædiːʕ sæʕiːd]; Arabic: إدوارد وديع سعيد, Idwārd Wadīʿ Saʿīd; 1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, a literary theorist, and a public intellectual who was a founding figure of the critical-theory field of Post-colonialism. Born a Palestinian Arab in the city of Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine (1920–48), he was an American citizen through his father.[3] Said was an advocate for the political and the human rights of the Palestinian people and has been described by the journalist Robert Fisk as their most powerful voice.[4] As a public intellectual, Said discussed contemporary politics and culture, literature and music in books, lectures, and articles. Biography Early life Edward and his sister Rosemarie (1940) At school Said described his childhood as lived "between worlds", the worlds of Cairo and Jerusalem, until he was twelve.[19] In 1947, he attended the Anglican St.
Warm-Blooded Plants and Freeze-Dried Fish by Freeman J. Dyson At that time most of the shuttle missions were carrying unmanned satellites into orbit for various purposes -- some scientific, some commercial, and some military. These launching jobs could just as well have been done automatically. Only a few of the shuttle missions really need people on board, to do experiments or to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, for example. It would have made sense to reserve two shuttle ships with all their hotel equipment for missions in which people were essential and to use the other two for satellite-launching jobs. After failing to eviscerate the shuttle, I wandered into the museum of the Johnson Space Center, where there is a collection of rocks that astronauts brought back from the Moon. It seemed like a miracle. Things have changed since then. The Europa Ocean NOTHER place where life might now be flourishing is in a deep ocean on Jupiter's satellite Europa. If warm-blooded plants exist on Mars, they may or may not be easy to see. Confusion of Aims
Lynn Conway Lynn Conway (born 1938) is an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, trans woman, and activist for the transgender community. Conway is notable for a number of pioneering achievements, including the Mead & Conway revolution in VLSI design, which incubated an emerging electronic design automation industry. She worked at IBM in the 1960s and is credited with the invention of generalised dynamic instruction handling, a key advance used in out-of-order execution, used by most modern computer processors to improve performance.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Early life and education[edit] Conway grew up in White Plains, New York. Early research at IBM[edit] Gender transition[edit] While struggling with life in a male role,[15] Conway had been married to a woman and had two children. Career as computer scientist[edit] Conway joined the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and associate dean of engineering. Home life[edit]
Mars sample return mission Sample return concept A Mars sample return mission (MSR) would be a spaceflight mission to collect rock and dust samples from Mars and to return them to Earth. Sample return would be a very powerful type of exploration, because analysis is freed from the time, budget, and space constraints of spacecraft sensors.[1] All of Earth's laboratories could potentially study a sample.[1] According to Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society, a Mars sample return mission is often described by the planetary science community as the "holy grail" of robotic space missions, due to its high expected scientific return-on-investment.[2] Over time, several missions were planned but none of the proposed missions got beyond the planning phase. MSR was the highest priority Flagship Mission proposed for NASA by the Planetary Decadal Survey 2013-2022: The Future of Planetary Science.[3] Scientific value[edit] History[edit] SCIM[edit] NASA-ESA plan[edit] NASA proposals[edit] Additional plans[edit]
Camille Paglia Overview[edit] Paglia has said that she is willing to have her entire career judged on the basis of her composition of what she considers to be "probably the most important sentence that she has ever written": "God is man's greatest idea."[11] Paglia's Sexual Personae was rejected by no fewer than seven different publishers (not unusual, in and of itself), but when finally published by Yale University Press, became a best seller, reaching seventh place on the paperback best-seller list, a rare accomplishment for a scholarly book.[5] 'Paglia called it her "prison book", commenting, "I felt like Cervantes, Genet. Personal life[edit] For over a decade, Paglia was the partner of artist Alison Maddex.[21][22] Paglia legally adopted Maddex's son (who was born in 2002).[13] In 2007, the couple separated.[23] Education[edit] According to Paglia, while in college she punched a "marauding drunk,"[20] and takes pride in having been put on probation for committing 39 pranks.[17] Career[edit]
The Dialectic of the Nature-Society-System | Fuchs | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society Abstract There are four logical possibilities for conceiving the relationship of nature and society: the reduction of society to nature, the projection of nature into society, dualism, and a nature-society-dialectic. This differentiation results in four different approaches. Nature is a self-organizing system that produces an evolutionary hierarchy of interconnected systems with specific qualities. Keywords nature; society; social theory Lucía Sánchez Saornil Lucía Sánchez Saornil (December 13, 1895 – June 2, 1970), was a Spanish poet, militant anarchist and feminist. She is best known as one of the founders of Mujeres Libres and served in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA). Early life[edit] Raised by her impoverished, widowed father, Lucía attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. At a young age she began writing poetry and associated herself with the emerging Ultraist literary movement. Political activism[edit] In 1931, Lucía Sánchez Saornil, who had been working as a telephone operator since 1916, participated in a strike by the anarcho-syndicalist labor union, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), against Telefónica. In 1933, Lucía was appointed Writing Secretary for the CNT of Madrid, producing their journal in the run up to the Spanish Civil War. Mujeres Libres[edit] Exile and hiding[edit] Lucía's tombstone epitaph reads, "But is it true that hope has died?"