While going through some things, ran across this: The drawing is interesting to technology history buffs, but look at the note in the upper right hand corner: Superseded by new tracing 8/18/15 Just last year? No, just last century... Note: referring to drawings as "tracings" is very old school, but I can remember that terminology …
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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The Aggie Who Knew How to Get Ahead With a Professor
First: congratulations are in order to my Texas A&M classmate Ray Rothrock, who won this year a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Association of Former Students. He majored in a good but highly unpopular subject--nuclear engineering--and then turned around and did very well. Although I didn't name him at the time, it's now or never: …
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Those Vanishing Episcopal Parishes
Every so often I begin a reading of the Bible through. I try to vary the translation I use, so I've read translations such as the Vulgate, Louis Segond, Reina-Valera, New American Bible, Douay-Rheims, CCD and of course the Positive Infinity New Testament. This time I had a copy of the original TEV New Testament …
Jesus Christ, the Way Up
From The World of Mathematics, this quotation from the British mathematician Augustus de Morgan: I commend my future with hope and confidence to Almighty God; to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I believe in my heart to be the Son of God but whom I have not confessed with my lips, …
If You Can't Do the Math, You Can't Do the Science
And the math is problematic these days: The average performance of the nation’s high school seniors dropped in math from 2013 to 2015, but held steady in reading, according to results of a biennial test released Wednesday... “This trend of stagnating scores is worrisome,” said Terry Mazany, the chairman of the governing board for the …
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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 …
You Really Can Do Biblical Preaching From a Lectionary
Recently my wife and I ventured to Regent University for me to deliver a paper. While there we got the chance to view one of the University's new acquisitions, namely a Torah scroll from Yemen.The fact that a Christian university could acquire such a donation is a sign of the times: Evangelicals are about the …
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Why I Don’t Use Salutations in Emails
Recently one of my academic colleagues posted this piece on her fb page about how students should properly email their professors. One of the recommendations is as follows: Dear [1] Professor [2] Last-Name [3],... Right off the bat, here’s where you can establish that you view your relationship with your professor as a professional one. …
Positive Infinity 