Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Joyce Reingold notes the following astronomical event later this week: Our Star Watch columnist Mike Lynch also advises we mark our calendars for Friday, 9/19, when — conditions willing — the waning gibbous moon will partially cover the Pleiades between 9:30-11 p.m. “It should be quite a sight to begin your weekend,” he writes. A …
Continue reading "Palm Beach Gets Mooned. And There are Stars, of Course."
As a lay person in the pew, I've always thought it would be cool to flash questions, commentary, etc., at the pastor during his (or her) sermon. (At my church, that's possible because there's a screen right in front of the pulpit, but...) Well, near Charleston, SC, one church is trying just that: I’m sure …
The New York Times finally catches up on the subject of online textbooks, many of which are free: It is that fact that can suddenly turn the good guys into bad guys, especially when the prices they charge are compared with generic drugs or ordinary books. A final similarity, in the words of R. Preston …
Continue reading "The New York Times Catches Up on Online Textbooks"
This was originally posted 11 December 2005, and is a continuation of this (with explanation.) Dr. Saul Adelman's piece in the Fall 1990 issue of the Forum was not the end of the back and forth. His hard-hitting piece did get two responses. One, from Georgia, discussed some intentional distortion of the Bible translations during …
Churches that empahsise Sunday legalism get this verse recited frequently: And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an …
Continue reading "Lehman Brothers: More Than an Ox in the Pit"
I am reposting this, originally put up 7 December 2005, for two reasons. The first is that the topic this article discusses is still very relevant. The second is that Adelman's response was quoted in James C. Alexander's book Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist, without, I might note, any reference to my original article. My …
From here, relative to his visit to France: It seems obvious to me today that laïcité (the French policy of exclusion of any religious content in the life of the state) in itself is not in contradiction with the faith. I would even say that it is a fruit of the faith because the Christian …
Continue reading "Pope Benedict XVI and Ferdinand Lot On the Christian and the State"
It looks like the Sh'ia/Sunni divide (also the Arab/Persian divide) is heating up: Slowly but surely, Arab columnists have started filing story after story critical of Iran's role in the region. That became strikingly clear when prime coverage was given to the death of General Hisham Sabah al-Fakhri, a decorated officer from Saddam Hussein's army, …
In 1976 I made a month-long trip to the UK. At the end of this I headed to Heathrow Airport for the flight back to Miami and from there home just up the coast. This piece was originally put up 11 August 2006, the 30th anniversary of my return. I'm reposting this on the seventh …
Continue reading "Blast from the Past: Coming Home from Heathrow"
After my post on what a real community organiser looks like, I'm glad that Rep. Steve Cohen (D, TN) comes from the other end of the state. He informs us that "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor." Although it's an obvious shot at …
Continue reading "Steve Cohen: Jesus Was a Community Organiser, Pontius Pilate was a Governor"
Positive Infinity 