#knowledge for knowledge's sake

[goodgrammaritan]

"It's so cutting edge it's almost useless."

"Then why do you care?"

"I said almost. And it's knowledge; utility isn't the point."

Remember the Dust by E. Jade Lomax

[forgottenbones]

Complex, cumbersome and obsolete words in the English language (ergo, you don’t really need these)

Acersecomic - a person whose hair has never been cut (x)

Enantiodromia - The tendency of things to change into their opposites, especially as a supposed governing principle of natural cycles and of psychological development. (x)

Infandous - unspeakable or too odious to be expressed or mentioned (x)

Montivagant - Wandering over hills and mountains (x)

Noegenesis - the production of new knowledge from sensory or intellectual experience (x)

Scripturient - having a strong urge to write (x)

Ultracrepidarian - noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise (x)

Vernalagnia - a romantic mood brought on by spring (also known as spring fever) (x)

[leftist-ideas-n-resources]

All of the lyrics to the most traditional nursery rhymes with their origins, history and meanings. The most popular nursery rhymes are Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Sing a song of sixpence and Hey diddle diddle! Every child loves being told nursery rhymes.

[leftist-ideas-n-resources]

Let's Look At the Gruesome World of Victorian Medicine

Come join me for a tour through the Victorian era's cities and hospitals, and meet one of the most famous and eccentric surgeons of the era. How bad was the ...

[islayedmydragonwithbooks]

The end of man is knowledge, but there is one thing he can't know. He can't know whether the knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be killed, all right, but he can't know whether he is killed because of the knowledge that he has got or because of the knowledge which he hasn't got and which, if he had it, would have saved him.

Robert Penn Warren

[schoolpoint]

Basic research is performed without thought of practical ends. It results in general knowledge and an understanding of nature and its laws. This general knowledge provides the means of answering a large number of important practical problems, though it may not give a complete specific answer to any one of them. The function of applied research is to provide such complete answers. The scientist doing basic research may not be at all interested in the practical applications of his work, yet the further progress of industrial development would eventually stagnate if basic scientific research were long neglected.

Science the Endless Frontier

(A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, July 1945)

[schoolpoint]

"Citing data from a recent report from Food and Water Watch, the AP noted that nearly 25 percent of the funds for agriculture research now come from corporations, foundations and trade groups, an all-time high. Meanwhile, federal support has dropped to 15 percent, the lowest level in nearly two decades."