Modeling The Physical World
Computer Modeling – It’s more than just pretty pictures. (by Oscar Gordon)
On Public Transit
Hernando de Soto’s The Other Path illustrates how private transit services served the public’s needs and turned a profit.
Constitutional Crisis: Week 3
This week the convention discovered its first error in the procedures. They realized that asking the chair to also be the scribe (secretary) was asking too much, so they split those tasks, as I expected they would eventually do. Now the chair appoints the scribe, who becomes the chair in the succeeding session and appoints…
Constitutional Crisis: Week 2
James Hanley reports on the first official meeting of the post-zombie constitutional convention. The delegates immediately began problem solving.
Constitutional Crisis: Week 1
James Hanley recaps the first week of his Constitutional Crisis course. Spoiler: not much has happened yet, but that won’t stop him from rambling on.
Free On-Line American Government Text, Chapter 1: Defining Politics
I’m (slowly) putting together a free on-line American Government text. My reasons are: 1. American Government textbooks discourage student reading because they are stuck in an outmoded style of having 40-50 page chapters that cover the whole of a particular institution, rather than breaking coverage down into smaller, more easily digestible and referable, chapters covering…
Evidence, Absence and Burdens
Burdens of proof are always symmetrically distributed
Freedom!
The concept behind separation of powers is to prevent tyranny by not allowing political power to accumulate in the hands of a small number of people. In the U.S. we tend to see it as absolutely critical to liberty. But is it? For the textbook I’m writing, I did a quick graph comparing separation of…
Yes, You Can and Should Garden II: Selecting Site; Preparing Beds and Containers
The second installment of a series on gardening, in which we discuss selecting sites for gardens, and preparing beds and containers.
Is the “external world” real?
We don’t know and it doesn’t matter anyway.
Yes, You Can and Should Garden: Part I
An introduction to a series on how to create a sustainable, frugal, low-maintenance garden.
Update: Zombie Apocalypse
The zombie apocalypse is a go!
Zombie Apocalypse Bleg
Help me rebuild America after the Zombie Apocalypse
And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time by William Blake
Jaybird fails to properly read the lines of William Blake but discusses William Blake’s poem from the preface to Milton: A Poem for the humanities department of the Ordinary University anyway.
The Emperor Of Ice Cream By Wallace Stevens
Ordinary University has a humanities department? Who knew! Jaybird reads one of his favorite poems and talks about it.
The Cheap-Ass Gourmet Cooking School: Roasting
We start our cooking school with one of the youngest cooking methods there is: Roasting.
Space! The Final Frontier! Why do we care?
Mad Rocket Scientist looks at the science and future of humanity’s next great adventure.
U.S. Presidency IV: Institutional Change and the Modern Presidency–From Conventions to Primaries
From the front porch to front and center–how candidate selection changed the presidency.
U.S. Presidency–Snow Day!
Snow Day!
U.S. Presidency III: Re-envisioning the Presidency as the Tribune of the People
From Clerk of Congress to Tribune of the People. Thanks a lot, Obam…er, Wilson!
U.S. Presidency II: Choosing Mediocre Presidents
How we choose presidential candidates determines what kind of presidents we choose, and that’s why we got Millard Fillmore.
U.S. Presidency 1: The Presidential Debate of 1787
Presidency Syllabus. Texts: – Federalist Papers 69 and 70 – Anti-Federalists 67, 70,and 74 Abstract The lack of a national executive power under the Articles of Confederation was a major factor in the weakness and fragmenting of the American union in the post-Revolutionary era, a point recognized by James Madison and corrected in the Constitution.…
Introduction: U.S. Presidency
Introduction and Syllabus for Ordinary University’s first course, the U.S. Presidency.
Announcing: Ordinary University
Starting tomorrow, we have a new periodic feature at OT.
