Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
In a recent comment on my page Think Before You Convert "KYCath" (I assume that means Kentucky Catholic) there was the following: In short, Wills exposes how the original infrastructures of the Catholic Church morphed and transformed over the ages, so that original dogmas–and the understanding of their meaning thereof–changed to the point where the …
Continue reading "In Defence–Really Praise–of Scholasticism"
Political analysis and punditry can date awfully quickly. Nevertheless--and this is especially true in a place like the United States, whose structural continuity is exceptional--some pieces of political prose, especially when written in a historical context, can have relevance for several generations. One of those analyses--actually a series of essays not originally intended to be …
Tina Turner calls its quits on the U.S.: US pop legend Tina Turner, who has been living in Switzerland since 1995, will soon receive Swiss citizenship and will give up her US passport, Swiss media reported Friday. "I'm very happy in Switzerland and I feel at home here. ... I cannot imagine a better place …
Continue reading ""Proud Mary" No Longer Proud to be an American"
I guess any creature can only take so much: Two lemurs were captured early Monday morning after they escaped from their cages and one scratched a 2-year-old girl. About 2 a.m., North Miami Beach Police received the call about the lemurs which were loose near 2049 NE 173rd Street. "This is the first time I've been …
Continue reading "The Animals Finally Lose it in South Florida"
Today is Fake Inauguration Day in the United States. Our President, coming from a triumph many said would never happen, was actually sworn in yesterday. If I were him, and I wanted to stick it in the eye again to serious Christians, I would have done the thing on Sunday, the way other places do …
Continue reading "The Two Questions Many Churches Never Stop Answering I Never Asked"
Ever since the hapless Rowan Williams began his exit from the stage of Lambeth Palace, and the former oil executive Justin Welby began measuring the curtains, there has been a great deal of optimism about the future course of the Church of England. Would there be a way of putting the Communion back together again? …
One the serious disadvantages of getting a secondary education in the late 1960's and early 1970's is that one was exposed to the first wave of "hippie radicals" to escape from our institutions of higher learning with a diploma. In the intervening years the subsequent waves have been merrily doing their damage to the system …
Our objective is to develop an element with the following characteristics: Two-dimensional, two node element Euler-Bernoulli beam theory Axial stiffness (``spar'' type element) "Beam on elastic foundation'' characteristic Axial elastic resistance Although it is doubtless possible to start with a single weak-form equation and develop the stiffness matrix, it is more convenient to develop the …
I've thought about writing this for some time, but Stand Firm in Faith is doing what they do best: standing firm, in this case against the "Three Streams" concept of Anglicanism. Since I have, indirectly, been accused of holding this idea--and more recently gotten myself bogged down in an unedifying debate on the subject of …
Continue reading "Some Thoughts on the "Three Streams" Business"
The top end of the income scale, that is: A 39.6% rate applies to income above a certain threshold (specifically, income in excess of the “applicable threshold” over the dollar amount at which the 35% bracket begins). The applicable threshold is $450,000 for joint filers and surviving spouses, $425,000 for heads of household, $400,000 for …
Positive Infinity 