Mash Tuns

I took this photo today, inside the South African Breweries' Newlands Brewery. This is a row of mash tuns, nearly two floors high, which is vessels used in the first step of creating beer. Here, malted grains are mixed with hot water to activate enzymes that convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars ...

POSTSCRIPT: Would I recommend a visit? No. That place is too hot! However, it is very interesting.

Proximity Sensor

Capacitive proximity sensors pick up the miniscule charge on the human body. Usually they have one of two types of front end: a sensitive transistor pre-amplifier, or an RC oscillator with a very small value of C. Whatever the case may be, their front ends use active components. I today submitted a capacitive proximity sensor to publishers, which almost entirely strips out the front end -- using no active components in this section of the design. OBSERVATION: My method is better than existing methods, and if published, will undoubtedly change capacitive proximity sensors forever. Watch this space.

Magnum Opus 50% Off

My magnum opus Everything, Briefly -- in my view way overpriced -- is until 30 November being sold for a reasonable price -- namely 50% off. To take advantage of this, go to the website below. Click on BUY. Then Add Coupon CONFSHIP. If you select Media Mail, shipping is free. OBSERVATION: An ideal Christmas gift, perhaps, for a thinker. 

https://wipfandstock.com/9781666734935/everything-briefly/ 

Friendliness, Empirically

There is a Church which I have happened to say is unfriendly. Today I sought to establish empirically whether this was so. I decided that, as I entered the Church, I would smile and greet every person within range. Here are the results. Out of sixteen people, six returned my friendly greetings. Five more were passive -- there was simply no response. Five appeared to be hostile: they turned their heads, or glared at me as though I had done something anti-social. There was one surprise. My plan was to greet people -- however one person greeted me -- before I was able to greet them. OBSERVATION: Thus I'm not sure, on the basis of the science, whether this Church is unfriendly. However, one might go too far if one called it friendly.

Innovative Electronics

I tried some innovative electronics this week. What happens when I do innovative electronics is sometimes inexplicable. I intended to develop an innovative motion sensor. This worked. It detected a finger moving at about half a metre -- an ordinary result. However, it inexplicably -- and reliably -- switched when I touched the top of the table two metres away. OBSERVATION: If I were deliberately trying to invent that, I doubt that I could -- yet I invented it unintentionally.

World Religions & Cults

I taught World Religions & Cults this past semester -- a university level course. My students averaged 85.7% through the semester. I met yesterday morning with the academic dean. I said that the marks seemed a bit on the high side to me. He looked over the file, thought for a moment, then said, "We would expect nothing less." OBSERVATION: It wasn't because the course was easy. World Religions & Cults covered vast ground, with difficult concepts -- and in the end, a thorough exam. The image is an auto-collage of photos I took throughout the semester. You may click on it to enlarge.

African Christian Leadership

Earlier this week, I reflected on the difference between Christian leadership curricula in the USA and Africa. I'll be more specific. In 2011, I wrote a paper on the subject: What is African Christian Leadership? I studied American and African Christian leadership curricula. In Africa, from Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Togo, and Uganda. The aggregate emphasis of African curricula is shown in the diagram on the right (click on it to enlarge). It will be seen that the typical Western emphases come last.

Highest Readership

It isn't always possible to tell what has made my blog a sensation. Sometimes there is no clue in the blog statistics -- as is the case today. The day has a while to run yet, and my blog has hit its highest ever readership for a day -- the highest in nearly 20 years. At the moment, more than 14,000 views since midnight last night. OBSERVATION: It's probably that post.

Drugs Raid

Wife E is a house mother. Tonight the house was raided for drugs. E was there. It was a large raid, involving more than ten police officers. Everything was turned upside down. The owner of the house came round -- and was arrested. But the police found nothing. Which is not surprising, because the house is occupied only by young Christian women. OBSERVATION: It could have been a malicious tip-off.

POSTSCRIPT: the trouble is, the mostly male police force arrived in plain clothes, without ID or search warrant, at a young women's home. They trashed the home, then claimed that they were actually looking for a gun. Some of the young women had exams to write the next day.

Kim Jong Un (Not)

Yesterday I invigilated, with three other seminary staff, a hall full of students writing seminary exams (pictured). Contrary to first impressions, Kim Jong Un has not taken up seminary studies. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

POSTSCRIPT: Somebody dollied up my photo of "Kim Jong Un" with AI.

Social Commentary Continued ...

It seems hard to believe that we live in a metropolis. I wrote in a previous post that I needed an academic hood: colour gold. We don't have that hood, they said, but come in, and we can choose the shade of gold, and make one up: our address is on our website (shown). This address took me to a glazier's. Funny, said the glazier, everyone comes here for academic apparel. Their own website address was wrong! I found the place, several kilometres away. I passed through a steel gate (open), another steel gate (locked), a heavy wooden door (locked), I passed six CCTV cameras, and three PIR detectors. OK, now we would choose the gold. They vanished for some 20 minutes rummaging for gold. Like this? they asked. But this wasn't just gold -- this was the hood itself! I'll buy that, I said. That'll be R450, they said -- after they had quoted me R250 by e-mail. Well, all right, R450. Consistency is not a mainstay of Africa. However, before I could buy it, they'd need to call the boss. The boss said, "I'm busy. I'll call you back." They said to me, "Sit down." Some time after, the boss called back. Now they couldn't operate a POS terminal. Could I? Well, there's always a first time. I succeeded in making the payment. Printout please. I printed a receipt. Merchant copy, please. I printed out a merchant copy. They handed me the merchant copy and kept the receipt. 

Ping Pong

It's just a pretty picture. I took it this evening in a common room while waiting to invigilate some 20-30 students for seminary exams. OBSERVATION: I just happened to get the focus, exposure, and composition here about right. I am not always so lucky with all-manual shots, as this one is.

Leadership Training

What's the difference between American and African Church leadership training? I have studied both. In America, Church leadership training tends to focus on the leader. In Africa, it tends to focus on aspects of ministry: pneumatology, homiletics, ecclesiology, prayer, and so on. To put this another way, in Africa one may not see much about leadership in a Church leadership curriculum or textbooks. In America, one will.

Random Traffic Lights

This is what I call a proof-of-concept: it works. It is a set of random traffic lights -- which I have since mounted neatly in a project box. I did it for a friend -- and, knowing his disdain for our ruling ANC, I included a special "ANC button". Press it, and the traffic lights begin to randomly load-shed -- which is, cut out. OBSERVATION: I shall submit the design now to a publisher.

POSTSCRIPT: The random traffic lights were snapped up for publication, with the usual slippery acceptance: "This will be considered for publication in the next available issue."

It's a Cult

I was discussing with a minister today whether the Prosperity Gospel is a cult. In my lectures on Religions and Cults, I made the call to call it a cult. Its main problem, I said, is that it takes the standard biblical progression of justification → sanctification → glorification, and effectively removes sanctification. The minister I was with today was concerned first about its reinterpretation of Scripture. OBSERVATION: The Prosperity Gospel is huge in Africa. According to the Pew Research Centre, more than half of Christians in most sub-Saharan countries believe in the prosperity gospel.