Generally speaking I stop this time of year and commemorate an event of which you, the reader of this blog, are the beneficiary (?). On 1 July 1997 I uploaded the pages of my first website, called then The Wave Equation Page for Piling and now vulcanhammer.net. I duly editorialised the tenth anniversary of that …
The Tithe in Old Palestine
I recently came across a fascinating book entitled The Handbook of Palestine by H.C. Luke and E. Keith-Roach. Produced in 1922 by the British Mandate government which had just taken control of the country after a long Ottoman Turkish rule, it’s a fascinating snapshot of the Holy Land beginning its transition to the State of …
Underscoring the Dangers of Mao Tai (and Vodka)
The idea that Mainland China and Taiwan should be connected by a 124-km long tunnel got this reaction: "The tunnel proposals were made after banquets and alcohol," Hu Sheng-Cheng, an economist at Academia Sinica, Taiwan's most renowned think tank, told Asia Times Online when flatly dismissing the tunnel idea. Taiwan must already spend huge sums …
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Taking a Position on Yoga Isn't Simple
It's getting complicated out there: A spate of unsavory controversies in the United States is cracking up yoga's wholesome image, with accusations of financial fraud, sexual misconduct and copyright issues involving asanas (positions) plaguing the community. As a result, India, the land where the physical, mental and spiritual discipline of yoga began in ancient times, …
Advice to Graduates: Go Where the Future Is
Last week I did a "commencement address" to college students. Today I take on their high school counterparts. I have accumulated a decidedly incongruent academic career, by current standards at least. After enduring the offspring of this country's premier zip code at the Palm Beach Day School (now the Palm Beach Day Academy,) I went …
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Stating the Obvious
Note the sign to the right. You think we need one like this for our fiscal condition?
They Used to Put Posters Like This in the Dry Cleaners in the Soviet Union
I have to admit it: I was amused when the poster at the right appeared on Drudge, who linked with this article, which likened Obama's use of the "Forward" theme with its use in socialist/communist contexts. First: the slogan "Forward" does have strong roots in the history of communism. Whether we will see iconography like …
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Advice to Graduates: Past Performance is Not a Guarantee of Future Returns
It's the time of the year when most people graduate from whatever school they're graduating from. This is a hypothetical graduation address, this week aimed a college students. I'll take on the high school students in a subsequent post. These days college--especially undergraduate studies--is a long, expensive undertaking, usually accomplished by a large amount of …
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They May Not Be French, But They're Definitely Not Arab
The Old Grey Lady needs some education in ethnicity re comments like this: The effects of this exclusionary mindset are palpable. France today has Europe’s largest Islamic minority, making up nearly 10 percent of its population. Yet Muslims remain a people apart, as documented in 2011 by a research team recruited by the Open Society …
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Failure Requires More Than Just Being Ineffective
My attention has recently been drawn to an item in Christianity Today on "Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders."Â Having spent proportionately as much time in ministry work as anyone dealing with leadership issues and leadership training, I can say that the whole issue of leadership has become something of an obsession in Christian circles, …
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Positive Infinity 