[Speed Gibson,
Monday August 22, 2005 at 11:57pm]
Next Big Thing - Week 25
Professor Brian Huffman of the University of Wisconsin, River Falls was featured today. His first hour was a gem of epistomology and common sense. I wish I had recorded it, for any number of points he made.
For example, he cited how anti-nuclear power types point out that "those pipes will eventually rupture." How about giving the engineers a little credit? The protesters can think these things through but the designers (mechanical engineers) can't? As a counter-example, he talked about airplane wings, made of alumninum and magnesium. Structurally, it's only a question of when, not if, that these wings will fall off the fuselage. But the engineers also desgined the measurement, inspection and replacement methods that detect the hairline fractures long before they are a threat to the safety of the airplane.
Another good piece of thinking regarded Bill Maher, who believes a six grade education should make atheists of us all. Huffman counters that Maher's own religious education is what never got past the sixth grade, a great rejoinder, and he went on from there to discuss God and science quite well.
All good stuff, but the stuff of lectures. It was more like a scientific version of the late Fulton J. Sheen, so enjoyable but not the basis of the traditional talk radio dialogue. Indeed, his points were so well presented that it probably made listeners fearful to call in, even if they think they agree. He took no calls in the first hour, and only a few in the second hour.
So while I felt that I learned something, and I liked it very much as a lecture, it missed the target of actual talk radio. My grade: a B minus.
For example, he cited how anti-nuclear power types point out that "those pipes will eventually rupture." How about giving the engineers a little credit? The protesters can think these things through but the designers (mechanical engineers) can't? As a counter-example, he talked about airplane wings, made of alumninum and magnesium. Structurally, it's only a question of when, not if, that these wings will fall off the fuselage. But the engineers also desgined the measurement, inspection and replacement methods that detect the hairline fractures long before they are a threat to the safety of the airplane.
Another good piece of thinking regarded Bill Maher, who believes a six grade education should make atheists of us all. Huffman counters that Maher's own religious education is what never got past the sixth grade, a great rejoinder, and he went on from there to discuss God and science quite well.
All good stuff, but the stuff of lectures. It was more like a scientific version of the late Fulton J. Sheen, so enjoyable but not the basis of the traditional talk radio dialogue. Indeed, his points were so well presented that it probably made listeners fearful to call in, even if they think they agree. He took no calls in the first hour, and only a few in the second hour.
So while I felt that I learned something, and I liked it very much as a lecture, it missed the target of actual talk radio. My grade: a B minus.