Friday, October 11, 2013

Things to do: Way of St. James

Way of St. James: The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi: "The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating back to about 1772 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world."

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Drake equation

Drake equation: "The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy."

Friday, August 30, 2013

Mapping: Cadastre

Cadastre: "A cadastre (also spelled cadaster), using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country. A cadastre commonly includes details of the ownership, the tenure, the precise location (some include GPS coordinates), the dimensions (and area), the cultivations if rural, and the value of individual parcels of land."

PotD: Chinese room

Chinese room: "The Chinese room is a thought experiment presented by John Searle in order to challenge the claim that it is possible for a digital computer running a program to have a "mind" and "consciousness" in the same sense that people do, simply by virtue of running the right program."

WotD: Recusancy

Recusancy: In the history of England and Wales, recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services. The individuals were known as "recusants".