Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

A
s I was writing this post, I realized that it was almost over--Valentine's Day, that is, and it is already over for those who live on the east coast. So belatedly I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day with their loved ones, if they have them. And for those who don't, I wish them a good day nonetheless, and a good karma.

However, the next day being the 15th of February for most of you, I'll give you a trivia. It's Galileo's Birthday! Here was a man who helped to rediscover what ancient Greeks already knew (that the Earth was round and that it went around the sun) and set in motion the discovery of all classical laws of physics. Ancient Greeks were far from deploring the fact that the Earth was orbiting the Sun, because that made them believe they were part of the heavenly body, as opposed to simply being in the center with all things orbiting them.

As someone who actually did experiments observing how things work rather than make assumptions, he broke through Plato and Aristotle's thinking that experiments were unnecessary and that thinking was all that was required to understand the world. After all, if you were talking about Aristotle, you know he was a bit of an idiot for thinking that the world was made of air, fire, water, and earth. He didn't even do any experiment. He, as a disciple of Plato, who was the disciple of Socrates, were simply overly charming Greek philosophers who disregarded observations in favor of a mythical belief of the world, because thought supposedly create all things.

You could say they brought us the Dark Age, or you could say the Dark Age was already there inside each of us. Very philosophical, no?

In any case, Galileo provided an important milestone in making observations.

The point I'm driving at is "You can't make TVs or computers with air, fire, water, or earth!"