Category: News and Commentary

It Has Been a While…

Some people blog because they need to write. Some have no other creative outlet. Others do it as part of their life’s framework, as part of their daily work. I began doing it to force myself to write in a disciplined way. I had slipped from my everyday technical writing into more of a management…

More Butterflies And Tipping Points: Memes

Internet self-publishing (blogs and personal web sites) has introduced a genuine element of volatility into the cultural/political/civilization system we all share. This happens as memes (A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. From the Greek meaning to…

Touchdown!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow for the safe return of the Discovery crew. We had touchdown at Andrews Air Force Base this morning at 8:11 EDT. There were visible sighs of relief from the news people (I was watching Fox and NBC) as the shuttle rolled to a safe stop.      …

Liftoff!

Discovery is off. At 10:39 a.m. EDT the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Launch Pad 39B on the historic Return to Flight mission STS-114. As the nomenclature shows this is the 114th Space Shuttle flight. It is also the 31st flight for Discovery. The mission is scheduled for 12 days and is supposed to touchdown…

Butterflies And Tipping Points

Matt Wrechard at the Belmont Club has been characterizing the Terri Shiavo situation as a “butterfly effect” in that it will have far reaching and currently unknown effects well beyond its absolute significance. One specific section at the end of his posting struck me. Even the symmetry of political orientation was momentarily broken. Robert Novak…

Political Correctness Turning Universities Into New Cloisters

Peggy Noonan is often an insightful commentator. Her last Wall Street Journal piece, I’ll Link to That, comments on several current events, but the one that struck me was her observation on the ongoing flap surrounding Larry Summers, the president of Harvard. It all started when Summers suggested that there might be sexual/genetic reasons why…