Introduction to Engineering

At the age of 30 and with a BA in 'soft sciences' and an MBA with a focus on management I have become increasingly hungry to get some actual real science and math into my liberal arts flooded mind.

So, before leaving my job and dedicating my body and soul to science, I thought it prudent to learn more about the fundamentals of engineering a field in which I have often been impressed by its practitioners.

I went on Amazon last night and purchased the following intro to engineering books:

1- "Introduction to Engineering" Paul H. Wright
2- "Introduction To Engineering Design and Problem Solving" Arvid R. Eide
3- "Engineering Fundamentals : An Introduction to Engineering" Saeed Moaveni


Anyone have any thoughts on the quality of these books/authors?

The Risk of Marrying While Still in Yeshiva

As the distance, in both time and ideology, grows ever farther from my years as a post-highschooler studying in a religious zionist yeshiva in Israel it has become clear to me the unfortunate cost on people within Yeshivas of dating and marrying while still in the grips of the intense, and dogmatic, Yeshiva experience.

I leave most of my conversations with Yeshiva Bochers today with a feeling of both cynicism and envy for the absolute confidence in their black and white vision of the realities of this complex world. While I see Yeshiva as an incredible opportunity to immerse oneself in torah - these 20 year old kids are just beginning to expose themselves to the world of thoughts and ideas, if these kids decide to continue on to university Yeshiva will become a component of establishing themselves as individuals, yet, while they are immersed in the Yeshiva they are of the belief that this alone can sustain and allow for the full development of their potential.

It is this feeling, the desire to freeze this moment of perceived perfection, that is a motivator for them (promoted greatly by their rabbis) to try to irrevocably fix this moment as the basis for their entire being ---- what better way to do this then to decide to marry a woman who is looking for that type of man.

Once married, it is very difficult to turn back. These kids will get married, have children and, all the while, begin to realize that the world is not as they originally saw it -- but what do you do now? your locked in to the premise with which your wife married you.

I do not see this as some grand rabbinic plot, however, I do believe that there is a subtle understanding that if you want to 'lock' these kids in to a world view that you espouse, what better way then finding him a good shidduch

Why Don't Secular Israelis Jaywalk? Why Do Hareidim ?

Returning from a late night dental floss run to the supermarket - the streets in my neighborhood were nearly empty of car traffic - that being the case, I was struck by the fact that at both lights that I needed to cross to return home there was a group of rowdy teenagers waiting for the sign to turn for the light to change in order to cross at the corner.

Being a native New Yorker, I did not think twice about crossing the street as soon as I saw no cars coming - but it got me wondering why, in this country where no one (especially drivers) exhibit any sign of patience, it seems that most people wait for the little red guy to go away before they will cross the street.

So a quick google search turned up this blog which then brought me to a fascinating study published in New Science Magazine that made a different point all together: the study found that Haredi Jews (known to most as ultra-Orthodox)were 3 times as likely to Jaywalk then the average Israeli.



The researchers hypothesis to explain the results were:

"Rosenbloom thinks that ultra-Orthodox faith might contribute to this cavalier behavior by making people respect religious law more than state-imposed rules. It is also possible that religious people take more risks because they are more fatalistic and have less fear of death"

I think her first point is on to something, large portions of Haredi society do not seem to actively embrace the halachic concept of Dina D'malchuta Dina (the law of the kingdom is the law)

However, I do think that her second point is way off the mark as one need only look at the time, effort and money that many in Hareidi society are willing to invest in ensuring that they and their loved ones receive the best medical attention possible (while all my evidence is anecdotal, it is clear to me that they account for a disproportionate % of those who elect to use 'sharap' or private medical service (which means a lot $$) rather then settle for the health care provided by Israel's universal health coverage plans.

Its Never Too Late for Braces

At the age of 29 I have elected to become a 'metal mouth' - a bit later then most but, in retrospect, I had enough complexes in high school without the braces.

My very capable orthodontist spent the morning wrestling the titanium and steel into place and I have spent the better part of the afternoon trying to wrestle the pasta I ate for lunch out of the newly settled ore -- this promises to be an enjoyable 14 months.

Understanding the Life of My Father-in-Law z'l

A New Yorker article on Malcolm Glazer (controversial owner of Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Bucs) included this following quote that brought to mind my father-in-law and the way he faced every day (New Yorker online has not published the piece):

"If you have a father who dies when you are young, you don't trust the future anymore...you were cheated once, you'll probably get cheated again...Death is right around the corner, waiting to grab anyone in this room. Watch out. Walk fast when you go out of the house here, so he doesn't grab you"

Friedman at his Best:

This Friedman column from Feb 1st (Times select) has a very insightful comment about why fundamentalism seems to consistently emerge as the leading force once the dust settles after the fall of a middle-eastern dictatorship

How so? Let's start with Iron Rule No. 1 of Arab-Muslim political life today: You cannot go from Saddam to Jefferson without going through Khomeini -- without going through a phase of mosque-led politics.

Why? Because once you sweep away the dictator or king at the top of any Middle East state, you go into free fall until you hit the mosque -- as the U.S. discovered in Iraq. There is nothing between the ruling palace and the mosque. The secular autocratic regimes, like those in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Iraq, never allowed anything to grow under their feet. They never allowed the emergence of any truly independent judiciary, media, progressive secular parties or civil society groups -- from women's organizations to trade associations.

The mosque became an alternative power center because it was the only place the government's iron fist could not fully penetrate. As such, it became a place where people were able to associate freely, incubate local leaders and generate a shared opposition ideology.

The Hamas Victory: A Leading indicator

“Look at the wives of the generals, he said.“Many of them are wearing traditional head scarves. This was not so ten years ago. And this tells you where we are heading. When the women of EgyptÂ’s pro-Western military elite are dressed like that, you know that the Hamas victory is not about Palestine. It's about the entire Middle East.

This quote is from a short interview in last week's New Yorker by Ari Shavit. While the count today is 'only' Iran and Palestine the spread of Ifundamentalistntalist regimes seems to only be gaining power throughout the region - Mullah Omar will soon have many places welcoming him with open arms.

Hamas Election: fundamentalism Trumping Thomas Freidman-ism

With Hamas' recent overwhelming victory in the Palestinian elections Israeli media is full of details on the dangers of Hamas and their desire to wipe Israel off the map.

What scares me most about this new reality is the stark way in which it makes clear that the majority of Palestinians are religious. Why this scares me is because the Thomas Friedman argument of giving economic hope to the deprived being the best way to fight terrorism and conflict falls apart when you introduce religion.

After death where does all the knowledge go?

My family experienced a tragic loss last week when my wife's father died suddenly after suffering a major stroke at home.

My father-in-law was an extraordinarily unique and talented individual that had an almost visceral aversion to taking anything that was handed to him, rather he needed to create his own opportunities in life and overcome all challenges through his own sheer ingenuity (and stubbornness).

Since his loss I have not been able to stop thinking about the question: what happens to all of a man's knowledge when they die? my father was a true renaissance man with a depth of understanding things as varied as how to build the ideal wood-burning stove to having nearly memorized the complete works of Uri Tzvi Greenberg . So where does all this knowledge go or is simply lost to the world?

It is a fact that energy never dissipates and the religious amongst us believe that the soul finds a new home but I cannot help but feel that the knowledge of this man will forever be lost to this world -- the thought makes me profoundly regret not having worked harder to try and capture more of it.