A Multicultural Body: The Church of God's Greatest Challenge

Now that the Episcopalians have completed their boffo performance in Indianapolis, we can turn to another large church gathering: the Church of God General Assembly in Orlando, which will be warming up this time next week.  There are many issues on the agenda, including the church's favourite parlour game: who will move up in the …

Numerical Integration of a Function in a Two-Dimensional Space, and Its Solution with Conjugate Gradient

The purpose of this piece is to document the numerical integration of a function in a two-dimensional space using the conjugate gradient method. Basic Problem Statement and Closed Form Solution The boundary value problem is as follows: $latex {\frac{\partial^{2}}{\partial{x}^{2}}}u(x,y)+{\frac{\partial^{2}}{\partial{y}^{2}}}u(x,y)=-5\, y\sin(x)\sin(2\, y)+4\,\sin(x)\cos(2\, y) $ where $latex u(x,0)=0 $ $latex u(x,\pi)=0 $ $latex u(0,y)=0 $ $latex u(\pi,y)=0 …

Making the Fifty Square Metre Apartment Look Like a Mansion

That's what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is about to do: Many will doubtless regard with skepticism the Bloomberg administration’s newly announced “micro-unit” pilot program. The administration is asking developers to submit proposals for the design and construction of an apartment building on a city-owned site in Manhattan; the city will adjust zoning restrictions there, …

When Evangelicals Were Cool: He Doesn't Know the Half of It, Musically at Least

It was a pleasant surprise to see Philip Jenkins article When Evangelicals Were Cool about what many of us refer to as the "Jesus Music Era".  Given the protracted trashing that Evangelicals have gotten since (done, in part, because they're perceived as a threat) it's nice to see someone bring up an era--the late 1960's …

Why I've Never Been Sold on "Christian Social Activism"

There were two things I was hoping to escape when I joined a Pentecostal church: social-climbing Christianity and social justice Christianity.  Silly me: I've achieved neither of these.  I deal with the former on an irregular basis.  I think my church people and pastor are aware of my rants on the subject but up to …

The Episcopal Church: Getting Out While the Getting Out Was Good

This exchange of correspondence about someone who wanted to transfer their membership to one of the "seceding" dioceses' parishes would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. Basically, the parish of the Diocese of Dallas (whose Dean's parting shot was commented on here) refused to start a "canonical" transfer of membership to one of the …

Solving a Third-Order Differential Equation Using Simple Shooting and Regula Falsi

The object of this is to solve the differential equation $latex {\frac{d^{3}}{d{x}^{3}}}y(x)-\mu\,\left(1-\left(y(x)\right)^{2}\right){\frac{d^{2}}{d{x}^{2}}}y(x)+2\,\mu\, y(x)\left({\frac{d}{dx}}y(x)\right)^{2}+{\frac{d}{dx}}y(x)=0 $ for the following boundary conditions and parameters: $latex \mu=\frac{1}{2}$ $latex y\left(0\right)=0$ $latex {\frac{d}{dx}}y(0)=\frac{1}{2}$ $latex y\left(2\right)=1$ Conventional wisdom would indicate that, because of the high order of the derivatives, this problem cannot be solved using a scalar implementation of simple shooting. However, …

What a Billionaire's Tax Means Depends Upon the Currency

The UN's latest idea for funding itself: The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries. An annual lump sum payment by the super-rich is one of a host of measures including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, currency exchanges or …

A Geologic View of Old Florida and its Coral Reefs

While reading Grabau's 1913 Principles of Stratigraphy, I came across this fascinating description of the geology of Florida and its coral reefs.  This is for the most part a summary of expeditions in the early 1850's by two of this country's pioneering geologists: Louis Agassiz and Joseph LeConte.  In addition to the outline of the …

A Tough (but Realistic) Assessment of a "Double-Minded Man", Rowan Williams

From Gerald Bray at the Churchman, the best wrap on the man and his role I have seen yet: The shipwreck of the Covenant brings us to the heart of Dr. Williams' long-term failure as archbishop. He sincerely wanted to keep the Anglican Communion together but believed that he could do this by political compromises …

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