galileo_sidereus_nuncius_pg1_1.jpg
DSC02146.jpg, Kerry Burgess 06/16/2019 Spokane
DSC02152, Kerry Burgess 06/18/2019 Spokane
DSC02166, Kerry Burgess 06/19/2019 Spokane
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sidereal_Messenger
Wikisource
The Sidereal Messenger
The Sidereal Messenger (1610)
by Galileo Galilei
There is certainly something very noble and large-minded in the intention of those who have endeavoured to protect from envy the noble achievements of distinguished men, and to rescue their names, worthy of immortality, from oblivion and decay. This desire has given us the lineaments of famous men, sculptured in marble, or fashioned in bronze, as a memorial of them to future ages; to the same feeling we owe the erection of statues, both ordinary and equestrian; hence, as the poet says, has originated expenditure, mounting to the stars, upon columns and pyramids; with this desire, lastly, cities have been built, and distinguished by the names of those men, whom the gratitude of posterity thought worthy of being handed down to all ages. For the state of the human mind is such, that unless it be continually stirred by the counterparts of matters, obtruding themselves upon it from without, all recollection of the matters easily passes away from it.
But others, having regard for more stable and more lasting monuments, secured the eternity of the fame of great men by placing it under the protection, not of marble or bronze, but of the Muses' guardianship and the imperishable monuments of literature. But why do I mention these things, as if human wit, content with these regions, did not dare to advance further; whereas, since she well understood that all human monuments do perish at last by violence, and invented more imperishable signs, over which destroying Time and envious Age could claim no rights; so, betaking herself to the sky, she inscribed on the well-known orbs of the brightest stars—those everlasting orbs—the names of those who, for eminent and god-like deeds, were accounted worthy to enjoy an eternity in company with the stars. Wherefore the fame of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Hercules, and the rest of the heroes by whose names the stars are called, will not fade until the extinction of the splendour of the constellations themselves.
But this invention of human shrewdness, so particularly noble and admirable, has gone out of date ages ago, inasmuch as primeval heroes are in possession of those bright abodes, and keep them by a sort of right; into whose company the affection of Augustus in vain attempted to introduce Julius Cæsar; for when he wished that the name of the Julian constellation should be given to a star, which appeared in his time, one of those which the Greeks and the Latins alike name, from their hair-like tails, comets, it vanished in a short time and mocked his too eager hope. But we are able to read the heavens for your highness, most Serene Prince, far more truly and more happily, for scarcely have the immortal graces of your mind begun to shine on earth, when bright stars present themselves in the heavens, like tongues to tell and celebrate your most surpassing virtues to all time. Behold therefore, four stars reserved for your name, and those not belonging to the common and less conspicuous multitude of fixed stars, but in the bright ranks of the planets—four stars which, moving differently from each other, round the planet Jupiter, the most glorious of all the planets, as if they were his own children, accomplish the courses of their orbits with marvellous velocity, while all the while with one accord they complete all together mighty revolutions every ten years round the centre of the universe, that is, round the Sun.
But the Maker of the Stars himself seemed to direct me by clear reasons to assign these new planets to the famous name of your highness in preference to all others. For just as these stars, like children worthy of their sire, never leave the side of Jupiter by any appreciable distance, so who does not know that clemency, kindness of heart, gentleness of manners, splendour of royal blood, nobleness in public functions, wide extent of your influence and power over others, all of which have fixed their common abode and seat in your highness,—who, I say, does not know that all these qualities, according to the providence of God, from whom all good things do come, emanate from the benign star of Jupiter?
https://www.psychologistworld.com/superstition
Psychologist World
Superstition
How Skinner's pigeon experiment revealed signs of superstition in pigeons.
"They may seem unlikely candidates for psychological analysis, but pigeons have given a revealing insight into how animals, including humans, can be bound by superstition..."
The Superstition Experiment
In the Summer of 1947, renowned behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner published his study on a group of pigeons that showed even animals are susceptible to the human condition that is superstition.
Skinner conducted his research on a group of hungry pigeons whose body weights had been reduced to 75% of their normal weight when well-fed. For a few minutes each day, a mechanism fed the birds at regular intervals. What observers of the pigeons found showed the birds developing superstitious behavior, believing that by acting in a particular way, or committing a certain action, food would arrive.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39565
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Radio Address to the Nation on Prayer in Schools
February 25, 1984
My fellow Americans:
From the early days of the colonies, prayer in school was practiced and revered as an important tradition. Indeed, for nearly 200 years of our nation's history, it was considered a natural expression of our religious freedom. But in 1962 the Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision prohibiting prayer in public schools.
Sometimes I can't help but feel the first amendment is being turned on its head. Because ask yourselves: Can it really be true that the first amendment can permit Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen to march on public property, advocate the extermination of people of the Jewish faith and the subjugation of blacks, while the same amendment forbids our children from saying a prayer in school?
When a group of students at the Guilderland High School in Albany, New York, sought to use an empty classroom for voluntary prayer meetings, the 2d Circuit of Appeals said, "No." The court thought it might be dangerous because students might be coerced into praying if they saw the football captain or student body president participating in prayer meetings.
Then there was the case of the kindergarten class reciting a verse before their milk and cookies.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201410/why-were-so-superstitious
Psychology Today
Why We're So Superstitious
Research shows why we believe a lucky hat or chair can make all the difference.
Posted Oct 11, 2014
Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.
Fulfillment at Any Age
Superstitions are one of the most fascinating, yet least studied, of our everyday behaviors. You’ve probably got a few of your own, and if you’re a die-hard sports fan, the chances go up astronomically. When game day comes, ardent fans may insist on wearing a beat-up old cap (perhaps facing backward), eating a certain meal cooked in a certain way, or making sure to orient themselves in a particular way in front of the TV. You’re probably familiar with at least one person like this; maybe it's you.
But you don’t have to be a sports fan to be subject to such idiosyncratic quirks in your everyday routine: Maybe you’ve got an important presentation at work, which obviously requires that you wear your lucky watch. Or you want to make sure that a date goes well, so you hum to yourself a song that’s always seemed to lead to a good time.
We may not even be fully aware of the many little rules that we follow in order to ensure that life goes the way we want it to. Without even realizing it, for example, you never once step on a crack while striding on the sidewalk—and you skirt around any ladder that’s propped up against a building.
To understand the meaning of these behaviors, let’s begin with some definitions:
A ritual is an action that we repeat because of its symbolic value. Religions define the rituals that believers are supposed to conduct, for example, and many of them have developed over centuries of being steeped in tradition if not religious law.
A superstitious behavior can include rituals you engage in to produce a specific outcome. We learn superstitious behaviors through a simple reinforcement process. The basic principle behind reinforcement is that when a certain action appears to lead to a desired consequence, we repeat it. Most behavior we learn through reinforcement involves a reasonably straightforward process linking cause and effect. This is the basis for operant or instrumental conditioning. With superstitious behavior, we perform an extraneous action that happens to accompany the behavior that's truly being reinforced. Now that extraneous action—the superstitious behavior—itself becomes reinforced.
The lucky watch you wore the day you gave the presentation of your life, through superstitious conditioning, now becomes immortalized as a reason for your success. You wish to avoid jinxing future situations, so from now on, or until it wears out completely, you won’t go near an important meeting without it. If for some reason the battery dies the night before one of those big occasions, you may be convinced it’s an omen that you’re doomed to fail.
The watch, in reality, would have had little relation to your success other than perhaps helping you get to the meeting on time. And in most cases, superstitious behaviors have an even more tenuous relationship to outcomes. Here’s where sports fans and their superstitions come into the picture. It makes no difference whatsoever to the outcome of a game what anyone but the players, coaches, and perhaps the cheering fans at the field actually do. The participants have no way of knowing which hat you’re wearing, or which way you’re wearing it. Even if they did, it wouldn’t affect the score, much less how well they played.
article continues after advertisement
So why, if our behaviors have no connection to the outcome of an event, do we act as if they do?
Kent State University researcher Shana Wilson and her colleagues (2013) decided to investigate the common, but relatively under-researched area of sports fan superstitions. The team believed that underlying superstitious behavior was the uncertainty hypothesis, the notion that when people are unsure about an outcome, they try to find a way to control it.
Games are like any unscripted situation—no one knows the results until it occurs. Although this is what makes sports (and reality shows) so exciting, it also drives fans to distraction. They want to know the outcome, and they want that outcome to be favorable. But they also do know realistically that they can’t control it, and this is the crux of the superstition. If I can’t actually influence an event’s outcome, but I think I can (through my superstition), I’ll at least feel a little bit less anxious.
For many people, not having control over an outcome is a frightening proposition. The more important these uncontrollable situations are, the more likely you'll try to dream up ways to control their outcome even though it may be unrealistic.
Sports fans, for all the ribbing they take, do have some decidedly positive mental health advantages over non-fans. Evidence cited by Wilson and her co-workers supports the idea that fans who strongly identify with a team, particularly a local one, are less lonely, feel happier, and feel better about themselves. They also have closer social ties with their fellow fans. Part of the boost that loyal sports fans feel is their sense of being part of something larger than themselves. Loyal fans, compared to the fickle variety, are likely to support their team regardless of its won-loss record. I suspect that they may actually take pride in being so loyal, and that this loyalty itself becomes part of their identity.
article continues after advertisement
Still, even though loyal fans may not “care” if the team wins every game, they are still more likely to feel that something’s at stake in each game’s outcome. Therefore, their sense of anxiety may be higher, which in turn increases their level of frustration at not being able to control that outcome. The only recourse loyal fans have to “helping” the team win is to dig into their bag of superstitious tricks and pull out the stops, from lucky clothing to lucky snacks to good-luck charms.
With this background, Wilson and her fellow researchers predicted that loyal fans would be more likely to display superstitious behavior before high-stakes games. They questioned a sample of 176 college undergraduates, presenting them with a sample vignette to read describing the outcome of a game. Half the participants had stated that they were highly identified with the team; the other half reported that they were not. In one version of the vignette, the game was close; in the other, it was a rout.
As the researchers predicted, participants who strongly identified with their team were more likely than those who weren’t to engage in superstitious behaviors. However, it made no difference to them whether the game was close or not. Loyal fans are more superstitious regardless of the odds that their team will win or lose.
In a larger study of fan identification and superstitious behavior, Murray State University’s Daniel Wann and colleagues (2013) examined the question of how much loyal fans thought their superstitions counted in determining the game’s outcome—and indeed, the most loyal fans felt that they could influence the game’s outcome by adhering to their strict superstitious practices. The most prominent superstitions involved clothing, but the loyal fans also believed that the game’s outcome could be influenced by what they ate or drank, whether they watched the game (or the most crucial plays), and whether they carried good-luck charms.
article continues after advertisement
Sports fan or not, the more you feel that your life is determined by factors outside your control, this research would argue, the more likely you'll become superstitious. Although there’s no true harm in having one or two superstitious beliefs or behavior, the problem comes when you fail to distinguish between outcomes you can control and those you can’t. Your lucky watch will not really get you ahead at work, nor will humming a song ensure that a blind date will like you.
The upshot of this research is that it’s important to distinguish between the controllable and uncontrollable events in your life. Like an avid fan, you might feel that the higher the stakes, the more your superstitions will bring about a win. But like the players fans root for, in the end, it will be your actual efforts and abilities that bring the success you seek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
Moon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Moon's average orbital distance is 238,856 mi
The Moon makes a complete orbit around Earth with respect to the fixed stars about once every 27.3 days (its sidereal period). However, because Earth is moving in its orbit around the Sun at the same time, it takes slightly longer for the Moon to show the same phase to Earth, which is about 29.5 days
Radius = 238,856
238,856 x 2 = 477,712
Diameter = 477,712
Circumference = pi x diameter
Circumference = 3.1415926536 x 477,712
Orbital distance = 1,500,776.5
If the orbital distance traveled is 1,500,776.5 miles and if the orbital period is 28 days then the distance traveled per day would be about 53,599 miles.
If the orbital distance traveled per 24 hour period is about 53,599 miles then the orbital distanced traveled per *hour* would be about 2,233 miles.
- posted by Kerry Burgess 12:33 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Wednesday 19 June 2019
