Having said that, I do take your point – that the more widely such infamy is publicised the less likely it is to take root and spread its poison.

http://www.presstv.com/pop/wmp.aspx?id=55153

Indeed! Just think of the adulation accorded to Derrida, let alone Chomsky … ;-(((((

-think about Edward Said’s ideas in ME studies and history studies generally…

Indeed! Just think of the adulation accorded to Derrida, let alone Chomsky … ;-(((((

Exactly. This is of course my point, which you amplify so well. Readers have to accept that in all texts there will be a bias (and I have worked with scientists who could not agree on very much or for very long). Only by building up some familiarity with the subject can one hope to sive the wayward and at times downright mendacious from broadly accepted facts. Wikipedia’s problem stems from open access and a resulting free for all (and a determined and malicious intent to distort and mislead). But then I suspect any long established library could produce volumes whose authors firmly believed in ’subject races’, the innate intellectual inferiority of women, or theories long consigned to the dustbin of history.

I must thank you for your thoughtful, informed response.

ABout the portuguese language, I meant non native speakers. It’s amazing how many people I have met who could either speak or at least understand it (thanks mostly to Brazil).

A penedo is a big big big rock.

Antonio Gedeão was the pseudonym of Romulo de Carvalho, who was a teacher of physics. His most famous poem is ‘Pedra Filosofal’. Unfortunatelly I can’t find a translation. This is one of the most beautiful poems I know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Gede%C3%A3o

(here is a good example of why wikipedia is a success…sorry for the fact that the article is a stub, but that reflects the lack of interest in the portuguese culture and the degree of isolation of the portuguese society where people seem not to realize how important it is to get our voice heard abroad by translation into english what we want to say)

I appreciate very much the authors that come from the natural sciences but have no problem in diving into literature or the social sciences. Unfortunatelly the opposite is very rare. People from the social sciences tend to be very resistant to making an effort to understand the other fields of knowledge. I know people with PhD who cannot even make a simple mental calculation and that impresses me.

the case of Galileo is particularly interesting because he challenged the authority not only of the church and the bible, but also of Aristotle. This is an inspiration to me because I find so many authors in political science being treated just like Aristotle was treated when Galileo was a student: their theories treated as unchallengeable dogma…

Fabin, hay que ler el poema completo!

sorry for my lousy english and even worse spanish and for my display of ignorance in physics.

I don’t speak Portuguese (of course many people speak it – Brazilians for a start, all 120 (?) million of them), but I tried reading the poem with the help of the start Fabian provided. Didn’t get very far, however linda it is ;-(