Rubin nails it on this one: For those waking up this morning (January 2) wondering if the House passed the Senate bill, the answer is yes, they did. Thus, the country goes over the tax portion of the fiscal cliff, albeit a lower cliff than it was a few days ago. Other fiscal cliffs remain …
The Two Underlying Assumptions Behind the Opposition to Gun Control
The turn of the year is generally a time when I try to reflect on serious issues of a broad nature. My first one was on my sorry contemporaries the Boomers, who are as much a plague now as they were six years ago. But there have been other topics: the Muslims, the Manhattan Declaration, …
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Use of Netwon’s Method to Determine Matrix Eigenvalues
The problem here is to develop a routine that will determine one or more eigenvalues of a matrix using Newton's method and considering the eigenvalue problem to be that of a nonlinear equation solution problem. The simplest way to illustrate the problem and its solution is to use a 4 $latex \times$4 matrix. Let us …
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Rev. Ian Mitchell: The American Folk Song Mass
(FEL 7401-M) 1967 The 1960's were a time of ferment and change in the U.S., and, then as now, institutions had a hard time keeping up with them, let along getting ahead. One attempt to do so was The American Folk Song Mass, performed by the Canterbury Choir at Northwestern University under the direction of …
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The Fading Glory Problem Affects the Prediction of Hurricane Sandy
A few months ago I ran a piece entitled Fading Glory, where I made the following observation re the place where I'm working on my PhD in Computational Engineering: One of the things my advisor oriented us about were the substantial computer capabilities that the SimCentre has. “Substantial” is a relative term; at one point …
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Math and the Middle East: Some Things Never Change
Every now and then you'll hear a news item about someone's math problem being controversial (involving slavery, etc.) This gem has been around for a long time: it comes from Marvin Marcus' A Survey of Finite Mathematics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1969). It's purpose is to illustrate the use of combinatorial matrix theory, and (stripping …
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The Christmas Story, from the Cofraternity Version
Now it came to pass in those days, that a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken. This first census took place while Cyrinius was governor of Syria. And all were going, each to his own town, to register. And Joseph also went from Galilee out …
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It's Hard to Admit When You're Inferior, Especially When You Are
I am amused at the persistence of the New York Times editorial Asians--Too Smart for Their Own Good? AT the end of this month, high school seniors will submit their college applications and begin waiting to hear where they will spend the next four years of their lives. More than they might realize, the outcome …
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The Africans, Emboldened by Options
For instance, the Chinese: China is the largest financier on the entire continent. Chinese corporations, financial institutions, and the government have invested billions of dollars in large new dams, for example. And why? Indeed, many African governments prefer China as an economic partner over Western countries for a number of reasons. First, China's own development …
Peter Giardina: Song of Solomon
(Music Mountain MMP-PG-1001) 1975 Every now and then an album comes along which, at least in part, takes your breath away, and this is one of them. It is skillfully done, laced with the mellotron, that 1960's and 1970's instrument that's at once the product of technology and yet difficult to digitize, and profoundly spiritual. …
Positive Infinity 