Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
This, from Livy, 38, 24: the Romans were conquering Galatia in Asia Minor, which the Gauls (the Romans' frequent opponent) had occupied. This incident tells us that Celtic women were as strong willed then as now: The wife of the Gallic chieftain Ortiago was one of a number of prisoners. She was a very attractive …
Continue reading "That’s One Way to Deal with Sexual Assault"
Everything is different in China: Under the breakthrough, Pope Francis recognized the legitimacy of seven bishops appointed by the Chinese government. Because they had not been selected by the Vatican, they had previously been excommunicated. For centuries, the monarchs of Europe exercised authority in the choice of bishops in their realm. The triumph of Ultramontanism …
Continue reading "Bringing Back “La Regale” in the Middle Kingdom"
Some of my readers are aware that I was involved in our long-term family business for about half of my working career, and still do work in that field. One thing I left behind, however, is industrial relations, or dealing with a trade union. Our company had one for many years in Chicago and again …
Continue reading "Amazon.com, the Company that Could Use a Trade Union"
In Randal Rouser's post on village atheism, after he lists the characteristics of village atheists, he makes the following observation: As I already noted, there are also many village Christians who exhibit similar traits. (But the way, it should not surprise us that when village Christians leave the church, they typically become village atheist.) To …
Francis Fukuyama, who predicted the "end of history" at the end of the Cold War, backtracks: Twenty-nine years later, it seems that the realists haven’t gone anywhere, and that history has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It turns out that liberal democracy and free trade may actually be rather fragile achievements. (Consumerism appears …
This video recently appeared on UK Labour's Twitter feed: This is how we re-build Britain: through businesses, jobs and communities. Watch this 👇 pic.twitter.com/4GQXBJdgQa — The Labour Party (@UKLabour) August 25, 2018 If we look at this objectively, the major difference between this and what Donald Trump is trying to do is that Trump is …
Continue reading "The Difference Between Donald Trump and UK Labour"
Elizabeth Kolbert at the New Yorker has written an interesting article about philanthropy, "then and now." "Then" was during the Gilded Age at the end of the Nineteenth century and the beginning of the Twentieth. "Now" is the age of the Silicon Valley magnates. In both cases, the recipients of the wealth are a) burdened …
Continue reading "The Solution Jesus Offered for the Wealthy Wasn’t Philanthropy"
With a new semester starting, it's only apropos to mention the back and forth I've been having about the Principles and Practices Engineering Exam, which probably seems like a pretty arcane topic...until two Kansas State academics noted that women have a lower first-time pass rate than men do. That occasioned an article by Toni Airaksinen …
In this excellent article about eventual Chinese rule of the Internet, the first goal of China is this one: Cyberpower sits at the intersection of four Chinese national priorities. First, Chinese leaders want to ensure a harmonious Internet. That means one that guides public opinion, supports good governance, and fosters economic growth but also is …
Continue reading "Sometimes Our Goals and Those of the Chinese are the Same"
The efforts so far by most of social media haven't quite panned out as expected: Silicon Valley's coordinated purge of all things Infowars from social media has had an unexpected result; website traffic to Infowars.com has soared in the past week, according to Amazon's website ranking service Alexa. Well, that didn't work, not yet at least. …
Continue reading "Banning Infowars is Easier Said Than Done"
Positive Infinity 