Bethlehem Road

Steel Sculpture

2012-01-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

This "Steel Sculpture" was created 1986 by a University of Florida engineering professor for teaching structures. Over 100 other universities now have one also (see http://www.aisc.org/content.aspx?id=704). Photo from the UF Civil Engineering department web site.Where on the UF campus is this sculpture?

Reforming public schools

2012-01-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

In the January, 2012, issue of First Things, Charles Glenn's article reviews the history of public schools and argues that a wide variety of schools is needed and "Parents should be free to choose the school their children attend without financial penalty."

Typewriter history

2011-12-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

From the ASME announcement:

The Sholes & Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful mechanical writing machine, will be recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for historic significance and contribution to the progress of mechanical engineering.

Religious Freedom

2011-12-11T16:28:00.001-08:00

The Maryland Catholic Conference has an interesting document about religious freedom and how it is being attacked.Related to this is an article on "The Most Important Religious Liberty Case of the Past Thirty Years."

National Thanksgiving Proclamation

2011-11-24T08:16:00.001-08:00

George Washington's National Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789.

2011-11-20T06:52:00.001-08:00

As we enjoy the last glory of autumn, here are some verses from the Book of Wisdom to consider:

For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists, nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world. If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them. And if men were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much more powerful is he who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.

The Manhattan Declaration

2011-11-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Manhattan Declaration's key paragraph:

Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

If you agree with these points, you can sign it online.

Christianity and science

2011-10-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Returning to a topic often covered here: The October, 2011, issue of First Things has an article by James Hannam entitled Modern Science’s Christian Sources.The article provides more arguments about how Christianity did not impede the growth of science but instead provided the conditions necessary for it to start, and Hannam focuses on showing how two key myths are false: (1) "science has advanced by fighting religious superstition and making the world safe for rational inquiry" and (2) "Westerners only picked up the baton from the ancient Greeks, or, as has been more recently alleged, the Islamic caliphate." Some highlights:

Science as we imagine it today—with laboratories, experiments, and a professional culture—did not appear until the nineteenth century, but its origins can be found much earlier, in the period commonly known as the “scientific revolution.” And the “scientific revolution” was a continuation of developments that started deep in the Middle Ages among people whose scientific work expressed their religious belief.

With the exception of mathematics, in medieval Europe things were different. Aristotle’s faulty method was struck down by the Catholic Church, allowing previously forbidden ideas to flourish. The Church also made natural philosophy a compulsory part of the courses it required trainee theologians to follow. So, science held a central place in Christian centers of learning that it did not hold in Islamic madrassas. And Christianity itself provided a worldview especially compatible with experimental science.

Christianity made science a theologically justified and even righteous path to pursue. Since God created the world, exploring how it works honors its Creator.

Organ Harvesting in China

2011-10-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

Wesley Smith's description of the report by two Canadian lawyers that describes how Chinese authorities are harvesting organs from members of the Falun Gong and a call for a boycott of scientific and medical interchange with China concerning transplantation

Galileo's Story

2011-09-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of articles about Galileo and the myth of his persecution:

The Myth of Galileo: A Story With a (Mostly) Valuable Lesson for Today, by Joe Carter at First Thoughts.

The Copernican Myths, by Mano Singham in Physics Today.

World Youth Day and Religious Freedom

2011-08-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput's address at World Youth Day discusses what religious freedom really is and where one can get reliable information about the Catholic faith:

Religious freedom means being able to worship as we choose. It’s also the liberty to preach, teach, and practice our faith openly and without fear. But it involves even more than that. Religious freedom includes the right of religious believers, leaders, and communities to take part vigorously in a nation’s public life.

Punk Rock Operations Research

2011-08-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

Laura McLay's blog on operations research.

Cooking for A.J.

2011-08-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

Molly's cooking skills were featured in this article at Heavy Table. A.J. gets mentioned as well:

A.J. may even turn out to be a tastemaker like his mother. “He’s got this recipe he made up and wants to try: corn, barbecue sauce, and cucumber,” Herrmann says. “I said sure, and we’ve got all the ingredients. He eventually forgot about it, but when he remembers and wants to make it, I’m ready for him. If we’re asking kids to be adventurous, we should be, too.”

A Perfect Game

2011-07-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

David B. Hart's article, A Perfect Game (First Things, August, 2010) is an ode to baseball and an effort to describe why it is perfect.

[Baseball] requires a whole constellation of seemingly bizarre physical and mental skills that, through countless barren millennia, were not only unrealized but also unsuspected potencies of human nature, silently awaiting the formal cause from beyond that would make them actual. So much of what a batter, pitcher, or fielder does is astonishingly improbable, and yet—it turns out—entirely natural. Clearly, baseball was always intended in our very essence; without it, our humanity was incomplete. Willie Mays was an avatar of the divine capacities that lie within our animal frames. Bob Feller’s fastball was Jovian lightning at the command of mortal clay.

He also compares it to the oblong game (football, soccer, basketball, etc.): "a contest played out on a rectangle between two sides, each attempting to penetrate the other’s territory to deposit some small object in the other’s goal or end zone."

Comparing baseball to even the most complex versions of the oblong game is like comparing chess to tiddlywinks.

Loving your car

2011-07-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Brigid Schulte writes about her love for her old Volvo (and others who love their cars).

The soccer player who wants to be a priest

2011-07-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Chase Hilgenbrinck left behind a pro soccer career to be a priest. He is now a seminarian at Mount St. Mary's.

Measuring faculty workload

2011-07-14T17:43:00.001-07:00

Efforts to Measure Faculty Workload Don't Add Up, a recent article by Alison Yin in the Chronicle of Higher Education, discusses the (perennial) debate between state legislators (and others) who want to know how many classes university faculty are teaching and the university faculty and administrators who argue that such measures are woefully incomplete:

Faculty productivity, or the lack thereof, is a common concern raised by politicians and others looking for inefficiencies and waste in higher education, especially when budgets are tight. Lawmakers often go out of their way to contrast the everyday employee who works 9 to 5 or longer at the office, or who pulls extra shifts doing manual labor, with the stereotypes of the elitist academic who teaches one or two hourlong courses a few times a week, takes summers off, and travels to far-flung places in the name of research.

Experts and professors in general say they don't mind the measuring of faculty work. What they're against is so much of what they do being left out of the equation. They are concerned about data elements that are incorrect, misleading, and not complete enough to allow outsiders to get an accurate picture of how professors use their time inside and outside of the classroom.

Unfortunately, the article fails to point out that a root cause of this debate is that each group has a different understanding of the objectives of a contemporary research university. Essentially, it comes down to whether universities should have (and faculty should spend their time in) classrooms or research labs. Until everyone agrees on what research universities should be doing, the arguments over measurements will continue unabated.

Not the novel by Anne Perry

2011-07-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

This blog shares a name with but is not connected with Bethlehem Road, the 1991 Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel by Anne Perry.

Book reviews for parents

2011-06-27T16:49:00.001-07:00

Common Sense Media search page.

Bad Books for Kids: A Guide to the World of Youth Literature & What You Can Do About It from Touchstone Magazine.

Book reviews for parents and
Teen Lit: Now Without Witches! from Focus on the Family.

St. Mary's in Joplin, Missouri

2011-06-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

“The neighborhood around St. Mary’s was scoured clean,” said Bishop James Johnston of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Bishop Johnston was preparing to travel to Joplin today with the director of Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri. “Our biggest challenge will be addressing the needs of the grade school, which was just flattened, and pastoral care for families in the parish.”
All that remained of the church were some walls and a large cross.

Choices in Majors

2011-06-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

At the Wall Street Journal, Harvey Mansfield complains about "meathead" majors.

In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In colleges today, choice is in and requirements are out. Only the military academies, certain Great-Books colleges and MIT (and its like) want to tell students what they must study. Most colleges offer a cornucopia of choices, and most of the choices are bad.

(For the complete piece, do a Google News Search for "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors.")

Top 10 misused English words

2011-06-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

A list of the top 10 misused English words at Listverse.

I welcome any attempts at a single sentence that uses all 10 words incorrectly.

Hat Tip: First Thoughts.

EPA administrator defines engineer

2011-06-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

According to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson:

An engineer is somebody who can formulate a problem and then solve it.

2011 Baseball predictions

2011-05-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

Bruce Bukiet used a mathematical model to predict the number of wins of every team in the major leagues.

News from 1972

2011-05-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

The Pittston Dispatch carried the following flashback from 1972:

Three Pittstonians were on hand at ceremonies launching the nuclear aircraft carrier Nimitz at Newport News, Virginia. Along with Congressman Dan Flood were the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Committee John Garrity, of Port Griffith, his wife the former Mary Marek of Dupont, and Michael Clark, who was the legislative assistant to Congressman Flood.

The group met with Navy Secretary John Warner and Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the atomic powered submarine the Nautilus. According to its web site, “the Nimitz measures more than 18 stories high from keel to masthead and has a total length of 1,092 feet. Carrying a full compliment of 5,800 officers and crew and 85 combat aircraft, its enormous 4.5 acre flight deck serves as the launching pad for the supersonic jets of Carrier Air Wing 11.”

General Chester W. Nimitz became one of the first submarine commanders; he built the submarine base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he assumed command of the Pacific Fleet. When it came to fighting the war, Nimitz said, “It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it is not fought on U.S. soil.”

To see photos of the launching of the Nimitz go to www.navsource.org/archives/02/68.htm.

X-Cons

2011-05-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Joe Carter coins a new term to describe the culturally and politically conservative members of Generation X. Among his observations:

X-Cons are pragmatic idealists. We have strong faith in religion, small government, and the free market. Yet we are not Utopian and have no illusions that politics will make life much better (though we believe government can make it much worse).

Wyoming Catholic

2011-05-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Wyoming Catholic College is a Catholic college and, in the words of George Weigel,

a by-product of the most striking exercise in unintended consequences in the history of federal higher education funding.

The New Roman Missal

2011-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

The new liturgical year, which starts November 27, 2011, will bring with it the Third Edition of the Roman Missal.

Hat tip: Dad.

A reflection on Good Friday

2011-04-22T18:04:00.000-07:00

From Joe Carter's post about notifying the next of kin when someone in the military dies:

Over two millennia ago, the greatest “casualty call” in history spread throughout a small Roman province in the Middle East. The news that the truest friend, the most beloved son, the gentlest teacher anyone had ever known had been crucified must have spread like wildfire through the land, sparking the most profound grief our universe has ever known. From this side of the calendar we can’t begin to comprehend the magnitude of loss that must have weighed on the hearts of Christ’s followers, family, and friends. We look backward on Good Friday, seeing it from the perspective of the glory that came on Sunday morning. But they saw only the darkness and pain, the loss of hope and bewilderment; they saw nothing but heartbreak.

Scrabble Baseball Team

2011-04-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

A team of professional baseball players whose first and last names are acceptable Scrabble words (via The Washington Post).

Professors and Politics

2011-04-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

Nami Schaefer Riley's views on professors and politics (from The Washington Post, April 3, 2011):

A significant portion of the professoriate sees engagement in politics as part of the job description. ... The academy has not become politicized because of a few radical professors. Rather, entire departments and university administrations see the goal of higher education as political.

The Art of the Spreadsheet

2011-04-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

David Greusel's post on The Art of the Spreadsheet encourages us to take a broad view of creativity:

What we miss when we limit creativity to "the arts" are the innumerable ways that humans express their creative nature in all kinds of work: in spreadsheets, in repairing things, in devising helpful gadgets, in combining recipes, in shopping, in tax accountancy. There is no realm of human endeavour in which creativity does not come into play.

Patron saint of teachers

2011-04-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday (April 7) was the feast of Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, a French priest who founded the first Catholic schools and is the patron saint of teachers.

A memorable game

2011-04-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

On April 9, 1994, we saw the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards. Here is the box score.

Five Seconds of Every #1 Pop Single

2011-03-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

A forty-six-minute-plus medley of every Number One since 1956.

Kitchen in the Market is open

2011-02-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Molly (the Tastebud Tart) and her business partner Tracy Morgan open Kitchen in the Market,

a shared commercial kitchen for caterers, producers & manufacturers, mobile food trucks, and others ... scheduled and private classes ... a retail store [with] a carefully chosen assortment of chefs tools, cookbooks & magazines, and - best of all - grab-and-go nosh, including many dishes created by our chef/tenants.

KITM is at the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis.

Renuart leads Haines City to win

2011-02-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

Haines City High School won this year's Polk County High School Academic Tournament on Thursday. Jacob was selected for the All-County team that will compete at the state competition.

Swahili Our Father wins Grammy

2011-02-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

The lyrics to "Baba Yetu" are the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. A recording by the Soweto Gospel Choir became the first song written specifically for a video game to win a Grammy award.

Adults with college degrees

2011-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Interactive map showing the percentages of adult (and subgroups such as males) with bachelor's degrees by county over the last 70 years. From the Chronicle of Higher Education (hat tip: First Thoughts).

Beaumont Family video

2011-02-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

This video from 1986 is a story about my talented cousins, the Beaumont Family. Featured are my Aunt Margaret and my grandparents, Joe and Rose Herrmann. Numerous other family members appear throughout.

The Challenger Accident Weather

2011-02-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Weather's Role in the Challenger Accident, by Andy Cox, Space Weather Correspondent, The Weather Channel, goes beyond the cold that froze the O-rings.

The Theology of Calvin and Hobbes

2011-02-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

Table of Contents to essays by Richard Beck on The Theology of Calvin and Hobbes.

Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code

2011-02-06T06:37:00.001-08:00

Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code describes a statistician in Toronto who figured out how to buy only winning lottery tickets.

Monster Mini Golf

2011-02-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

Mike and I played a round at Monster Mini Golf in Jessup (sorry, COLUMBIA), Maryland.

One of the holes had a spinner that randomly assigned you a handicap or advantage - I got "Tee off using the handle of the golf club," and Mike got "If you make a hole-in-one, score it as 0." The holes were generally easy (except the awful #17!), but I would have preferred more of the random penalties/awards to add some interest.

Hint: on Saturday get there early enough so that you start play before the birthday party groups do.

Rethinking the Five-Second Rule

2011-01-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

Article about a study of the five-second rule.

Via First Thoughts.

The decline effect

2011-01-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

Two articles by Jonah Lehrer in The New Yorker discuss the decline effect and the selective reporting in science.

The first article argues that finding the truth is harder than we think:

The decline effect is troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that’s often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe.

The second one discusses some of the letters that Lehrer received.

Via Dennis L.

New business model for healthcare

2011-01-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

Article about Cleveland Clinic and Medstar in today's The Washington Post.

From the article by Lena H. Sun:

The Cleveland model is a combination of royalties from licenses of technologies to established companies and the sale of shares in spin-off companies. Royalties from licensing generate about $10 million yearly, but overall revenue is increasing significantly, said Chris Coburn, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Last week, Boston Scientific paid $78 million for a Cleveland Clinic spin-off that is developing a system that uses deep-brain stimulation to treat traumatic brain injury.

How to reform college football

2011-01-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Sally Jenkins suggests six easy steps (The Washington Post, January 10, 2011).

Why does it need reform? Because it is "an illegitimate system in which nearly the half the top-level college football teams in the country were excluded before the first kickoff ever went up," she goes on to explain in another column today.

How to declutter and clean

2011-01-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

Article in the Wall Street Journal on one woman's experience with different spring cleaning methods.

Via Nicole Coomber's Symbol and Sustenance.

History of Engineering

2011-01-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

The October 2010 issue of ASEE Prism had Robin Tatu's review of Engineers: A History of Engineering and Structural Design by Matthew Wells.

From the review:

This sort of contextualized overview enlivens Wells’s study of Baroque England’s penchant for “dismemberment” – the systemized study of parts, reassembled into wholes; the 18th-century struggle to devise a theory of elasticity; the technical idealism that suffused Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire building; and the frenzy of American industrialization, during which “almost every possibility for advantage was grasped at.”

It sounds, therefore, that this history is quite different from Henry Petroski's histories of particular artifacts, which focus on the never-ending challenge of overcoming a design's shortcomings.

The Parable of the Miners

2010-12-21T17:57:00.001-08:00

The Parable of the Miners, by Patricia Snow, discusses how the rescue of the Chilean miners earlier this year can be seen as a parable of how God saves us.

But for Christians, and especially for Catholic Christians, who share the faith of the miners themselves, this was a profoundly Christian event, understandable both in its details and its overall scope only in Christian terms. It was a teaching moment, rich in theological references. It was a kind of parable, worth considering as an Advent reflection, with its strong movement from darkness to light.

Via On the Square.

The Digital Story of the Nativity

2010-12-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

Saw this humorous take on the Nativity story yesterday on First Thoughts and thought it was cool, but when I mentioned it to my family, my mother-in-law said she had seen it last week!

More Unwritten Laws of Engineering

2010-12-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

Part 3 of 3 has tips regarding personal and professional behavior in the workplace.

Links to Parts 1 and 2 can be found in my earlier post.

Via Mechanical Engineering Magazine.

200 Hundred Years of Human Health

2010-12-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

A very cool visualization showing how countries' wealth and health have changed over 200 years.

Via First Thoughts.

True Size of Africa

2010-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

A map designed to show the true size of Africa.

Via Keith.

Greatest Mathematicians

2010-12-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

A list of the Top 10 Greatest Mathematicians.

Via First Thoughts.

billions of bills

2010-12-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

You would think that they would fix the problem before printing 1.1 BILLION $100 bills, some (but not all) of which have mistakes.

(Thanks, Mike!)

Comments on George Bailey

2010-12-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

Joe Carter (in On the Square today) has an article about George Bailey, the protagonist of the classic film It's a Wonderful Life. Carter discusses Bailey and Howard Roark, from Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead.

Carter' conclusions:

What makes George Bailey one of the most inspiring, emotionally complex characters in modern popular culture is that he continually chooses the needs of his family and community over his own self-interested ambitions and desires—and suffers immensely and repeatedly for his sacrifices.

and

Capra’s underlying message is thus radically subversive: It is by serving our fellow man, even to the point of subordinating our dreams and ambitions, that we achieve both true greatness and lasting happiness.

College admissions, beyond the No. 2 pencil

2010-11-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

College admissions, beyond the No. 2 pencil is an opinion piece by Robert J. Sternberg (provost and senior vice president of Oklahoma State University) in today's Washington Post Outlook section about admissions tests to assess creative, analytical and practical skills and general wisdom. It is based on the author's theory of successful intelligence.

Sternberg has also written College Admissions for the 21st Century.

The Unwritten Laws of Engineering

2010-11-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by W. J. King was first published in 1944 as three articles in Mechanical Engineering magazine, which is excerpting laws from the book, presented in three articles just as in 1944, with comments from contemporary authorities.

Part 1: WHAT THE BEGINNER NEEDS TO LEARN AT ONCE

Part 2: RELATING CHIEFLY TO ENGINEERING MANAGERS

Academic Ostpolitik

2010-11-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

Articles by and about Todd Hartch (a history professor at Eastern Kentucky University who wrote a letter opposing the university's decision to extend benefits to domestic partners akin to those available to married couples): Hartch's experience in his own words (from Public Discourse) and End Academic Ostpolitik (from First Thoughts).

America has been taken over by a New Elite.

2010-10-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Outlook section had a piece by Charles Murray on the "New Elite."

Far from spending their college years in a meritocratic melting pot, the New Elite spend school with people who are mostly just like them -- which might not be so bad, except that so many of them have been ensconced in affluent suburbs from birth and have never been outside the bubble of privilege. Few of them grew up in the small cities, towns or rural areas where more than a third of all Americans still live.

To find out if YOU are in the New Elite, take the quiz.

For Christians in College

2010-10-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

This month's First Things has an open letter to young Christians on their way to college by Stanley Hauerwas:

To be a student is a calling. Your parents are setting up accounts to pay the bills, or you are scraping together your own resources and taking out loans, or a scholarship is making college possible. Whatever the practical source, the end result is the same. You are privileged to enter a time—four years!—during which your main job is to listen to lectures, attend seminars, go to labs, and read books.

Good Business

2010-10-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's Newsweek has Joel Schectman's brief article on social entrepreneurs. The articles cites TOMS Shoes and Organic Valley dairy co-op as examples.

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

2010-10-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

From the October 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, Tony Schwartz's Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time discusses increasing productivity by managing our body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

An Honored Engineer

2010-10-08T16:48:00.001-07:00

Mike visited a national monument that honors Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish engineer who designed Fort Saratoga and other defenses in New York.

Ambivalence

2010-10-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

That is Why So Many People Can't Make Decisions.

Hat tip: Linda Schmidt.

The Bucs were rolling in 1979

2010-10-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

While I was waiting in the dentist's office yesterday, I flipped through the current issue of Sports Illustrated, which had a "Vault" piece on the Buccaneers first taste of success in 1979.
Ah, Ricky Bell, Doug Williams, and the Selmon brothers...
Check out the cover or read an HTML version of the article.

The original article is on page 30 of the magazine (click on "View this issue").

The Deadly Choices at Memorial

2010-09-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

New York Times article by Sheri Fink on how patients were killed at a beleaguered New Orleans hospital.

The Case for Marriage

2010-09-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Editorial highlighting important aspects of traditional marriage.

Hat tip: First Thoughts.

Under which God?

2010-09-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

Mike and I are reading American Babylon, by Richard John Neuhaus, and this post about American's civil religion seemed highly relevant.

Labor Day

2010-09-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Had a beautiful Labor Day today and enjoyed it by going into the city. Stopped at Georgetown Cupcake's store on M Street to pick up our order, met my aunt Mary Sue and cousin Jonathan (a medical student at the GWU medical school), and had brunch at Peacock Cafe (they have great Eggs Benedict and French toast). Later, we saw the the Madeleine Albright Collection of pins at the Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle).

Listened to part of the Nationals' 13-3 victory over the Mets on the way home.

Utah

2010-09-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in Utah, where I taught a three-day short course on Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Management at Hill Air Force Base. I stayed in the suburban hamlet of Layton, which reminded me of Bowie, Maryland, right down to the shopping centers with Target and Lowe's.

After the third day of class, I had some time to explore. First I quickly toured the Hill Aerospace Museum, which has a great collection of military aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and helicopters, including a Bell TH-13 similar to those that brought injured soldiers to the 4077th in M*A*S*H.

Then I continued north, on the advice of one of the students in my course, and drove up to Ogden. I toured the city's historic Union Station and the Eccles Rail Center next to the station, which has some impressive locomotives and rail cars. The city is not from from Promontory Summit, where the transcontinental railroad was completed, and was an important railroad junction. Today the station is a collection of museums and the Union Grill, where I had the carrot soup and the meatloaf for dinner.

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

2010-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

A graphical representation of how doctoral research expands our knowledge base.

The Probability of God

2010-08-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

British theoretical physicist Stephen Urwin uses Bayes' Theorem to model belief in the existence of God.

See also the post at First Things.

The quantity D is the ratio of two probabilities; in particular, D equals the probability that the evidence occurs given that God exists divided by the probability that the evidence occurs given that God doesn't exist. Of course, these probabilities are subjective probabilities.

Hate to wait

2010-08-08T17:35:00.001-07:00

Article in The Washington Post travel section today by a man who hates to wait when traveling:

I have a fantasy of air travel, and it goes like this: I cab to the airport with my pre-printed boarding pass in hand, go through an efficiently moving security line and get to the gate just as the flight is starting to board.

Prince of Denmark's March

2010-08-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

The processional at our wedding 15 years ago was Prince of Denmark's March.
See the Wikipedia entry and this nice video.

View from Flattop Hill, Anchorage

2010-07-22T06:58:00.001-07:00

Forest and mountain near Denali

2010-07-22T06:54:00.001-07:00

What is "diversity"?

2010-07-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Russell K. Nieli explores how the academic embrace of "diversity" is limited to certain groups.

Hat tip: First Thoughts.

Parking underground

2010-07-17T14:52:00.001-07:00

Mom Garrity sent me this link to a video describing an automated underground parking lot in Europe. It is an impressive system. The plans at the end give some hint of how they get cars out from the back row.

Denali National Park and Preserve

2010-07-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

We spent a couple of nights at Denali. (The mountain is still known as Mount McKinley, but the park name was changed about 30 years ago.) We toured the large visitor's center, saw an excellent movie about Denali, saw the dog sled demo, walked some of the many trails, and saw lots of wildflowers, especially fireweed. It was rainy and cloudy on Sunday; on Monday we had a beautiful day for a drive and could actually see Mount McKinley from the Parks Highway.

As Mike Warner does when writing about national parks on his blog, I'll presume to rate the park.

Visitor's Rating (ratings out of 5)
Fun -- 4 -- scenic drives, hikes, movie, dog sled demonstration.
Beauty -- 4 -- forests (taiga), mountaintop views, wildlife, if you're lucky; views of the tallest mountain in North America on very nice days.
Significance -- 2 -- no important historical events or buildings, but the history of the park itself is interesting.
Facilities and Displays -- 5 -- outstanding visitor's center, bookstore, campgrounds, trails of all kinds, all in good condition.
Overall: 4 -- a national park as large as a state with the tallest peak on the continent; outstanding facilities and activities; stuff for everyone from families with kids to serious backpackers; quality of the views depends upon the weather; some parts of the park are hard to visit.

Time required: one could spend weeks camping and hiking through the place; at least a full day for the typical visitor.

Accessibility: it is in the middle of Alaska; the drive from Anchorage takes about five hours. Once you are there, most facilities are easy to reach, but private vehicles are not allowed past the 15-mile mark on the park road. Buses serve other sites farther down the road.

Scientists have opinions

2010-07-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday's Outlook section included a piece by Chris Mooney about how scientists misunderstand the public.
(See also his full report.)

He failed to note that scientists have opinions too, which prompted me to write a letter to the editor, which appeared today in The Washington Post. In general, his piece and his report betray an attitude that scientists know best.

Catholic higher education

2010-06-23T17:43:00.000-07:00

The Archbishop of Denver offered his views concerning Catholic higher education earlier this year:

The genius of a Catholic education is to anchor the yearnings, the brilliance and the glory of the human mind in the greatness of God. Man has no security outside the guarantees of God’s love. If we deny Him, we deny ourselves. If we do not know Him, we cannot know ourselves.

And he hopefully provides this quote from St. Augustine:

Bad times, hard times -- this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times. Such as we are, such are the times.

Harry's performance as Seeker

2010-06-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Minneapolis, I had the great pleasure to stay with my brother Keith, his wife Molly, and their son A.J. We visited the fascinating Mill City Museum, and Keith showed me his useful and well-done addition to the Wikipedia entry on quidditch: Harry's performance as Seeker.

Father and son to serve in priesthood

2010-06-13T16:43:00.001-07:00

Article in the Baltimore Sun about a widower and grandfather who has become a priest. He has four children, one of whom is already a priest.

Remembering the fallen

2010-06-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

At Dover Air Force Base, Memorial Day is every day, from the The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. (Via GetReligion.org.)

America's new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control

2010-05-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

Title of an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Arthur C. Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future."

Two excerpts:

...a new struggle between two competing visions of the country's future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise -- limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution.

Free enterprise brings happiness; redistribution does not. The reason is that only free enterprise brings earned success. Earned success involves the ability to create value honestly -- not by inheriting a fortune, not by picking up a welfare check. It doesn't mean making money in and of itself. Earned success is the creation of value in our lives or in the lives of others. Earned success is the stuff of entrepreneurs who seek value through innovation, hard work and passion. Earned success is what parents feel when their children do wonderful things, what social innovators feel when they change lives, what artists feel when they create something of beauty.

South Dakota

2010-05-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

As I have been to the state a couple of times and enjoyed both visits greatly, this piece on First Things caught my eye: in South Dakota Dreamin’ R. R. Reno discusses the positive and hopeful cultural and political climate in South Dakota:

Thus my optimism, encouraged by my experience on the Great Plains. Most of us do not want to live in the political equivalent of a housing project administered by remote bureaucrats. Nor do we want to live in the political equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange where every dimension of civic life has a selling price. And because we don’t, if we are reasonably vigilant and energetic, odds are we won’t.

The (lack of) news from Nashville

2010-05-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, Nashville experienced a tremendously damaging and deadly flood (the same weekend as the Gulf oil spill and the Times Square attack). I have heard on the country music stations of some country music stars donating money and organizing benefit concerts but read little about it in the paper. Getreligion.org addresses the issue in an article about the lack of media coverage.

Liker on Toyota

2010-05-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

Jeffrey K. Liker, a professor at the University of Michigan, has written an article about the situation at Toyota and their response to their problems.

Herrmann Building Dedicated

2010-04-18T13:52:00.001-07:00

As previously mentioned here, St. Leo decided to rename its mail center after Stephen Herrmann. Pictured are family members at the dedication ceremony.

Do Movie Critics Matter?

2010-04-18T13:46:00.001-07:00

Do Movie Critics Matter? An article in First Things about the role of movie critics and the rise of self-published movie reviews and review aggregators on the World-Wide Web.

The essay is adapted from a speech given by Armond White, chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, at the group’s annual awards banquet on January 11, 2010.

More about Aunt Barbara

2010-04-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

More about coverage of her efforts.

Aunt Barbara and the Census

2010-03-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has an article about Aunt Barbara's effort to get everyone in San Antonio counted in the census.

The Essential Engineer

2010-03-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Review of The Essential Engineer, by Henry Petroski. Review by Thomas Hayden, The Washington Post, Sunday, February 28, 2010.
From the review:

Petroski reminds us, quite rightly, that while scientists may ring the warning when it comes to potential disasters, "warnings are not solutions -- nor are they necessarily a death knell. It will be the optimistic engineers who hear the warnings not as doomsday scenarios but as calls to tackle significant problems."

Betty Herrmann

2010-02-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Betty Herrmann died February 25, 2010.

From the obituary:

For many years Betty worked for Joe Herrmann’s, Inc. (Saf-T-Gas) and later served as secretary to the president of Saint Leo College. Betty was married to Stephen C. Herrmann in 1968. They lived in Atlanta, GA for 24 years before retiring to Blanton in 1991, where they grew citrus, owning and maintaining a tangerine grove. Betty was widowed in 2001. She was kind to animals and fed wild birds. Betty will be dearly missed by all who knew her.

I was at Tech during the time that they lived in Atlanta, and they were very kind to me and invited me to dinner multiple times, including at holidays like Easter when I couldn't get home. May they both rest in peace.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the
Stephen Herrmann Scholarship Fund at Saint Leo University.
(How to make a gift.)

Curling and operations research

2010-02-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

We've watched a good bit of curling during the Winter Olympics, and I keep thinking that one could apply operations research to make better decisions in a game.

Apparently I'm not the first: see the article by Kostuk and Willoughby on a long-running dispute in curling.

Bobby Cremins

2010-02-23T14:43:00.001-08:00

Column by John Feinstein about Bobby Cremins.

"Bobby Cremins is still doing his thing at College of Charleston," The Washington Post, Sunday, February 21, 2010.

Tribute to Calvin and Hobbes

2010-02-19T18:05:00.000-08:00

A tribute to the authenticity of Calvin and Hobbes.

Via First Thoughts.