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Articles by Dennis E. Powell

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The View From Mudsock Heights: We All Shall Witness the End of the American Space Program

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 28, 2010 at 20:50:22

In mid-April the President of the United States announced his “space program.” It purports to move us toward sending human beings to Mars in a quarter century or so. It won’t do this. Instead, it merely the throws enough money at NASA and space contractors to keep their respective congressional districts happy. It’s a small amount by this administration’s standards of spending. It won’t take us to Mars or anywhere else.

The View from Mudsock Heights: We Have a Unique Place in the Legend and Lore of Mining

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 15, 2010 at 0:6:10

There’s something about mining, and miners. We view those who go deep in the ground in a certain way, the way the Irish think of the men who go to sea.

The View from Mudsock Heights: a Television Show Reminds Us that Faith and Science are Separate Things

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 7, 2010 at 23:20:27

A truly gorgeous Easter has just passed, one that meant more to me than previous Easters have, for reasons I’ll not go into here. As is customary, Holy Week television included lots of programming on the subject, much of it speculative “scientific” debunking of various religious traditions, some inspired by the best-selling heretical drivel of the novelist Dan Brown. The tone of this stuff is so consistent that I was truly surprised by a History Channel program about the Shroud of Turin.

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Septic System Got Fixed and I was Reminded of the Joys of Poetry

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 28, 2010 at 14:40:10

Earl Coen stopped by the other day. The pump in the aeration system had been misbehaving and Earl knows motors and pumps about as well as anyone you’ll find, so hereabouts he’s the man to call.

The View from Mudsock Heights: The One Little Plant that Has Held Out Hope that Yes, Spring Will Finally Arrive

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 21, 2010 at 13:25:8

My old German grandmother used to call it “schnitlau,” though I’ve never seen the word used elsewhere. It was her name for the small wild onions that grew all over the place on our little farm — the same ones that grow all over the place hereabouts.

The View from Mudsock Heights: When the Hoped-For Disaster Fails to Strike, Television News is Bared

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 10, 2010 at 23:46:0

You’ve probably seen it: A movie or television drama that depicts news coverage of some anticipated disaster. It might be an alien invasion, or a nuclear attack, a volcano, an approaching asteroid, or — a tsunami.

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Decent Camera is Eclipsed by the Great Camera It Might Have Been

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 1, 2010 at 1:24:41

Imagine a new Ferrari. The specs are incredible: great steering and suspension, 0-60 in around four seconds, a top speed exceeding anything you would ever hope for on a public road. On paper, the perfect machine.

The View from Mudsock Heights: the Ruse Has Gone on Long Enough, and Now I Must Confess My Addiction

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 19, 2010 at 23:57:21

We live in an age of confession. I don’t mean so much the heartfelt admission to ourselves and our Creator of our manifold sins and wickedness as a loud and public proclamation of some character flaw that henceforth is expected to excuse unsatisfactory behavior.

The View From Mudsock Heights: Accentuating the Negative(s) Brings Back Amazing Memories

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 10, 2010 at 17:45:47

One of the best delights of the newspaper business is its unpredictability. Events, often unforeseen, dictate the course of the day. This can be exciting. Or, sometimes, it can be mortifying.

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Tiny Plastic Rectangle Reminds Me What Terrible Futurists We Are

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 2, 2010 at 0:50:59

For some reason, talk turned to the 1964 New York World’s Fair. You may remember the remnants of that event, especially if you saw the movie, “Men In Black.” The centerpiece of the fair was a huge, skeletonized globe, called the “Unisphere,” and there were two tall, modern-looking observatory towers that in the movie were actually captured flying saucers. My favorite line of the movie has to do with the fair having disguised an alien invasion: “Why else would they hold it in Queens?”

The Danger of Peacemaker

By Timothy R. Butler

Here is a story. The leaders of a church have a personal agenda against someone and want to quiet him, exact revenge or what have you. They not only come at him within their church, they continue by following him outside of that church to any other church he seeks refuge at and any place he works, making a wreck of his life in the process. That is the sort of thing that only happened in the past, in dusty tales of witch-hunts in Salem or the Inquisition in Spain, right? Wrong: it is happening today, perhaps at a seemingly normal church near you.

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Snow Leopard

Looking to get acquainted with Apple's latest operating system? Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible, the definitive Mac OS X reference, features OFB's own Timothy R. Butler alongside Galen Gruman and Mark Hattersley.

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