FeuchtBlog

Meteorology: An Introduction to the Wonders of the Weather, by Robert Fovell ★★★

This Teaching Company series was a set of 24 half-hour lectures on the science of meteorology. Fovell covers most introductory aspects of meteorology, including the basics of how weather occurs, clouds form, atmospheric circulation, global weather events, hurricanes and tornados, etc. Fovell ends with two lectures explaining in quite simple terms how models are being developed to try to forecast the weather, focusing especially on predicting the path of hurricanes. Fovell’s teaching style is very dry. He does not have the enthusiastic bounce of Filippenko, another Teaching Company lecturer. Fovell’s explanations as to how various weather events occur, such as the development of tornados, just did not seem entirely plausible. This is probably the state of the science of meteorology rather than Fovell explaining poorly. Fovell made abundantly clear how poorly forecasters are at predicting weather events. He used the example of the path of the hurricane Rita, which various models gave a 100 mile spread as to where the hurricane would hit land one day before the event. Such wide spreads limit the usefulness of predicting, since most models showed Rita going straight to Houston, and it went instead to the Texas/Louisiana border, quite a significant way away. This is a series worth watching to learn the basics of what the weatherman needs to know. It is not a series to get you excited about Meteorology.

Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World, by Benjamin Schumacher ★★★★

This was a hard series to rate, in that, while holding my interest, I fell asleep at the end of about all 24 of the lectures. Schumacher was not boring, so I couldn’t fault him. He also generated enough interest on my part to pull out some light reading books by Richard Feynman on Physics, and enquire about more substantial quantum mechanics textbooks. He brought back memories of Physical Chemistry which I took for one year in college, in which we used the essentials of quantum mechanics quite heavily for our calculations, but of which the third term was spent doing simple solutions of the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom. It seemed a little strange trying to teach quantum mechanics without mathematics. So, it ended up being more a “Quantum Mechanics for Psychology Majors” class, something which nobody could really take seriously. Dr. Schumacher covered the history of quantum mechanics, some of the basic ideas, and discussion of how quantum mechanics differs from how we see and experience the macroscopic world. I found the discussion of his work in quantum informatics to be most interesting. Should he edit this course for a new edition, I would like to see him a) include more mathematics, even if it is not totally understood, b) speak more about the history of quantum mechanics, especially in the most recent several decades, and c) include more discussion of sub-atomic work, such as quarks, muons, etc. and discuss how they tie into the quantum mechanics discussion, and d) discuss more fully how relativity and quantum mechanics conflicts and interacts in understanding the universe.

The Origin of Civilization, by Scott McEachern ★★

This series by the Teaching Company is about archeology, and the discoveries of archeology in various parts of the world, including Africa (esp. Northern Africa/Cameroon and the great Zimbabwe), Egypt (though formally a part of Africa), the mid-east, India, China, and Central/South America (Mayan and Incan civilizations). Scott first spends six lectures detailing his philosophy for doing archeology. During this time, you get a delightful flavor of his biases, and intentions for doing archeology. Dr. McEachern spends most of his time working in Northern Cameroon, digging up ancient garbage.

You are not given a historical perspective in this study. Compared to an excellent Teaching Company series on the origins of civilization by Kenneth Harl, this series leaves you swimming a bit. You are told considerable amounts about what kinds of food are thought to have been eaten by ancient civilizations, and perhaps what sort of structures for housing they may have built for themselves, but that is it. The remainder of what we are left with is pure guesswork. Much of this guesswork presupposes that ancient civilizations might have been similar to the various cultures and civilizations you see today. Unfortunately, that gives you no information at all, except the obvious, that is, that mankind has remained similar over the course of its short history. I really don’t find it fascinating to imagine that people ate similar foods in ancient times as today, and that famines might have happened. Scott lacks better stories to tell, and though he is careful not to extrapolate to wildly, extrapolate he still does, and refuses to remain silent where the evidence is only foggy or unclear. He seems to suggest social structures based on remnant housing and graveyard goods, yet this could be utterly deceiving. In the end, I’ve learned very little about what we are to think about ancient civilizations, other than that they had analogous social systems and political constructs as we have today. It was very challenging actually making it through 48 1/2 hour lectures in order to glean this truth. This course has also persuaded me to stay far away from archeology.

Is there any benefit that I see for archeology? Yes. When we have purported historical narratives from the past, archeology might help substantiate the legitimacy of these stories. This is particularly true of the fall of Troy, the stories of Greece, historical narratives from China, etc. Most importantly, archeology could assist is further substantiating the veracity of Scripture. Yet, McEachern dares not tread on such a subject, even when it would have been entirely admissible. As an example, he is overwhelmingly astonished at how early urbanization occurred in civilization, yet Genesis suggests specialization (and thus urbanization) from very early times. He is amazed at the amount of trade occurring in ancient times, yet much Scripture speaks of international trade and commerce from quite early on. It is chronological arrogance that overwhelms some of the thinking of Scott that does not allow him to constructively best put together the data at hand.

I could not recommend this series to anybody, except for those who are deeply interested in archeology and the various schools of thought. Scott is not difficult to listen to, but his content would have a hard time grasping most people’s interest.