Einstein's cosmos

PBS Religion and Ethics has a thoughtful paper on the influence of religion and philosophy on Albert Einstein's science.

"In Spinoza Einstein also found a champion for his belief in a deterministic universe that could be understood by human reason. Spinoza's pantheistic philosophy held that the cosmos was an extension of God or Nature and was therefore fundamentally immutable and strictly ruled by cause and effect. Einstein regarded Spinoza's conception of the universe so highly that he committed what he called the biggest blunder of his career in an effort to preserve his own vision of it. In 1915, he inserted an extra term, the 'cosmological constant,' into his theory of general relativity so that it would yield a static universe similar to the one described by Spinoza instead of the expanding one his calculations produced without it."

Tags: religion

Today's public service announcement


The loon (QuickTime)

Courtesy of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

The trump card falls: copyright infringement linked to terrorism

When the MPAA and RIAA dreams, what do they dream about? Ubiquitous Internet surveillance? Maybe. Tax payer funded enforcement of their copyright? They already have that. The ultimate trump card in American politics - a terrorist link to IP piracy? Well, this dream came true this week as members of the LAPD intellectual property crime unit told congress the following:

"Some associates of terrorist groups may be involved in IPR crime... During the course of our investigations, we have encountered suspects who have shown great affinity for Hezbollah and its leadership."

Tags: copyright