Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Everyone wants family pictures. To get past the usual studio shots, my mother brought out Bernice Ransom, portrait photographer of socialites, to make some of my brother and myself at our home.In her advertisements, Ransom claimed that "children...pets...home sittings...our special 'cup of tea'!" What she didn't tell everyone was that, with a cat, the first …
Continue reading "In The Picture: An Applehead Siamese Cat Shows Off"
This from Anglican Mainstream, showing that ecclesiastical bureaucracies are frequently part of the problem and not the solution: So, the following Tuesday, the Women of Purpose met for a fund-raising. From within their Fellowship they raised 2.6 million shillings. When they approached one of the clergy at All Saints’ Cathedral, Kampala, about making an appeal …
Originally posted 26 April 2006. I'm reposting it as it's relevant not only for evaluating George Bush's legacy, but Bill Gothard's as well. George Bush is in a tight place these days, with poll numbers falling as fast as gas prices are rising (the two, unfortunately, are related.) So how did this come about, especially …
In a recent address on this subject, TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reveals the biggest problem in her position on the property: I will continue to uphold two basic principles in the work some of us face in dealing with former Episcopalians who claim rights to church property or assets. Our participation in God's …
Continue reading "Katharine Jefferts Schori Needs to Take the Money and Run"
From this: Apple has always only competed in the middle-to-high range of the computer market. But it was never the case, historically, that Apple sold a majority of middle-to-high-end computers. Even given that NPD’s numbers represent only retail sales, is there any reasonable doubt that Apple’s share of the non-retail market for $1,000+ computers is …
Continue reading "Microsoft’s Long Decline. Another High Five for the Mac World."
Originally written and posted March 2005. Since that time, Bernie Maddoff has made one of the clubs featured in this piece famous (if impecunious,) so I've rewritten it a bit. The following year I got to play golf at the Ridgeway Country Club, a formerly "Jewish country club" in Memphis, TN, which opened its membership …
Continue reading "Join the Club. Maybe Not! A Strange Tale of Two Worlds in Palm Beach"
In describing a "camp for atheists" (that's not an entirely accurate generalisation, but it's close) Ruth Gledhill notes the following: At Camp Quest, children will be led to believe that science, which forms the main substance of their instruction, is incompatible with religion and religious beliefs, not because a scientific education makes this fact self-evident …
Continue reading "Atheism Isn’t Self-Evident From a Scientific Education"
She is, to use the old military expression, keeping her powder dry: Hillary Clinton says running for office isn't on her "radar," but she still has an eight-person political team and sports two overflowing campaign war chests. Her team transformed the former Democratic White House contender's massive campaign debts into a $3 million mountain of …
Continue reading "Hillary Clinton: Still Running for Office"
People who grow up in what used to be called the "Gold Coast" (Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties) take for granted their natural surroundings. From the standpoint of most of the rest of the country, South Florida is an exotic paradise. Growing up in that "paradise" has been a defining event for me: it's …
Continue reading "Around South Florida at the Turn of the Unix Era"
Sarah Hey lays the law down: Everyone who has been commenting any length of time here is well aware that we don't allow comments exhorting people to leave TEC or stay in TEC, nor do we allow comments castigating either decision... But for ourselves, we are so determined to have a blog with a larger …
Positive Infinity 