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| Galileo Day, February 13th. Reminds me of Fox news and the Science Guy |
In 1633, February 13th (I'm writing this so you can make plans), Galileo, the astronomer and math guy, was before the Inquisition in Rome for suggesting that the sun was the center of things and we orbited around it. The church thought and found otherwise and Galileo spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
When he wrote about this stuff, the town I live in was settled but not organized (that was 7 years later) but think of it; folks were walking around here, exploring a new world, and the fellows back home were trying Galileo for heresy.
The title, "Ebb and Flow" was an original set of proofs that he observed - the tides rise and fall on a regular and predictable pattern and it was the moon, not the sun, that did it...there was more to it than that of course, but the idea that science was observation, measurement, math, geometry and lots of other things wrapped into one, and if Galileo was correct - which he was - then a universal clock was not only possible but practical and that would yield navigation not only by latitude but the bonus of longitude (pole to pole lines) as well.
So here we sit, on a little neck of land that took all kinds of navigation to find and "re-find" by others, and one of the prime movers in scientific history was, at nearly the identical moment, nearly burned at the stake.
Let's call February 13th, Galileo Day. I'll organize the parade.