One of the more amusing moments I've had here at UTC has been the visit of the new Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Daniel Pack, to the SimCentre, where I just finished my PhD. He wanted to meet with the students; it's been a rough road for the program, and …
Brexit: Something Tells Me, It's Time to Go…
Amidst the tragedy of the Orlando massacre earlier this week, we have yet another major event facing us: the "Brexit" vote on 23 June, where the UK's voters express their wish to stay in the European Union or leave. The "Establishment" in the UK (and that, sad to say, includes the Church of England) have …
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Ending the High School "Hall of Shame"
And radically, too: National Honor Society (NHS) stoles are frequent sight at high school graduation ceremonies around the country, but one Plano Senior High School student is frustrated that he won't be allowed to wear one when he puts on his cap and gown next month. According to school practices, students are not allowed to …
Hard Currency, Soft Currency and Venezuela
@jeffspross at @theweek thinks he's figured out Venezuela's problem: But as Mark Weisbrot — the co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, who has written extensively on Venezuela and Latin America — explained to The Week, the main reason for Venezuela's troubles is likely a lot more technocratic, and a lot more banal: Namely, …
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Donald Trump and the Entourage Problem
Now that we pretty much know who the Republican nominee will be (barring some last-minute machinations) it's obvious that many "Regular Republicans" have gotten out the brown pants, as they have developed instant irregularity. We have the "Never Trump" people saying they'll stay home or even vote for That Woman From the North Side. But …
Blow it Up? Let it Collapse!
As the sun sets on yet another semester in civil engineering here at UTC, thoughts turn to what we're really supposed to be doing. A large part of civil engineering is engaged in the building, maintenance and upgrade of our physical infrastructure, which includes roads, railroads, airports, water and sewer systems, to some extent electricity …
The Danger of Oversimplifying Extrapolation from the Sciences
This interesting tidbit, from Mechanics by John C. Slater and Nathaniel Frank (both of whom taught at MIT): The existence of fundamental laws underlying the behavior or nature has furnished the guiding principle of natural science ever since. It has also formed the basis of most modern thought in philosophy, political science, economics and the …
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A Fistful of Yuan, Thirty-Five Years Out
It's time to mark another anniversary here, in this case the thirty-fifth one of my family business' signing our first contract with the Petroleum Corporation of the People's Republic of China for the sale of pile driving equipment. That may not seem like much today but then we were selling into an economy that was …
If the Country Doesn't Make It, Will You?
This election cycle has been a wild one, and we're not even halfway through the primary season. Both parties are seeing broad-based revolts in their bases. The Democrat establishment has done a better job of managing the upheaval, because they did what the Republicans did not: pick one candidate and get behind her. Bernie Sanders …
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Free Speech and the Mikado
This past weekend my wife and I got to see Lee University's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. It was a strange production; it was one of those things where the audience sat on the stage and the performers did their thing in the seats. The program regaled us with the usual politically correct …
