Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
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 …
Continue reading "They May Not Be French, But They're Definitely Not Arab"
My attention has recently been drawn to an item in Christianity Today on "Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders." 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, …
Continue reading "Failure Requires More Than Just Being Ineffective"
Glide Memorial's Bobby Kent (Olympia 6052N2) 1976 The San Francisco Bay Area was the scene for much of what made the 1960's and 1970's what they were, and this album is right in the groove of that. Glide Memorial is one of the premier black liberal churches in the U.S. It was in the forefront …
Saw this quote from Christian inspirational writer William Arthur Ward on, of all places, Foreign Policy's website: The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. In the spirit of what I've been seeing on Facebook lately, we should want to know what the opportunist would do. …
Continue reading "The Optimist, Pessimist and Opportunist Square Off Again"
As we approach Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent next week, I thought I'd post these photos of the New Orleans Mardi Gras from around 1950. That date is approximate; the slides that either my father or mother (or both) took were undated. Nevertheless they show a New Orleans that was, in many ways, …
Among other things: Gianni Onorato, general manager of Carnival (CCL) Corp.’s Costa Crociere line, said the ship had embarked about 7 p.m. from Civitavecchia near Rome on a trip that was scheduled to include stops at ports in France and Spain. The vessel hit the rocks and Captain Francesco Schettino, after assessing the damage, decided …
Continue reading "Maybe the Costa Concordia Needed a Native Guide, Too"
One of the many things that separates me from my contemporaries is the fact that I played soccer in junior high (that designation dates me!) and high school. Today soccer is de rigeur for people growing up in these United States, but until, say, the late 1970's that wasn't the case. A good deal of …
Continue reading "The Value of Failure: A Lesson From Soccer"
This is the time of year when many academic institutions wind down their semesters. That's certainly the case with UTC where I teach. It's time to reflect on a couple of things that have transpired during the calendar year which, in their own way, deflect a good deal of conventional wisdom about those who are …
Continue reading "Of Bomb Threats, Stained Glass Windows, Truthers, Old Books and College Students"
He may not realise it, but... When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist. There's a little family history behind …
While digging through my email, I could not help but notice this, from the promotion of a new publication by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO): New and extensively researched, Bridge Security Guidelines offers guidance on bridge design for extreme events induced by man. This document provides the designer with information …
Continue reading ""Extreme events induced by man:" the new euphemism for acts of terror"
