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An ion is any atom that bears a positive or negative electrical charge. Positively charged ions are called cations; negatively charged ions, anions. The imbalance between quantities of electrons and protons gives rise to electron movement both within and between atoms. Electronics is, therefore, about the flowing motion produced by an electric charge.

A duct is pretty much any channel such as a tube, canal, pipe, or conduit by which a fluid such as water or gas, or a particle may be conveyed. The act of conveying or channeling by means of a duct or ducts gives rise to certain essential terms that we use to understand and make use of electricity. In this treatment we will consider the process by which an electrical charge is inducted andconducted.

The most basic definition of induction highlights the act of inducing, bringing about, or causing someone or something to be influenced in some way. Much of what we know, and most of our suppositions about electricity and how it behaves, is a product of inductive reasoning. Such reasoning aims at developing a theory while deductive reasoning aims at testing an existing theory. To deduce means to trace the course of something, so deduction is also an essential skill used in understanding circuitry.

Our objective, with respect to understanding electrical induction and conduction, is to trace the course of electrons as they enter into and flow through a circuit. Induction occurs when a changing magnetic field results in a potential difference, commonly known as voltage, in a conductor. This is known as electromagnetic induction. The current or voltage is called either an induced current or an induced voltage. The potential, termed voltage, is often understood by analogy to the pressure at the head end of a pipe connected to a water tower.

A stationary magnetic field will have no effect on a wire or current-loop. A moving or changing magnetic field, in proximity to the conductor, will generate an electric current. An electrical conductor is usually a substance in which electrical charge carriers, usually electrons, move easily from atom to atom with the application of voltage. Conductivity, in general, is the capacity to convey something, such as electricity or heat. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons, though in other cases they can be ions or some other positively charged species.

Just as a human conductor or leader of a musical group communicates, by motions of hands or a baton, we can think of conducting as a way of controlling as well as facilitating something akin to an orchestral score. As it is with musicians, engineers can conduct or instruct electrons to move in accordance with their own preferences. They can apply such skills for controlling intensity, frequency, and changes in tempo. There’s more than one way to design even the simplest of circuits. For example, a switch could be located between the positive terminal of the battery and a lamp, or between the negative terminal of the battery and the lamp. The choice may be influenced by the physical layout, the type of switch used, the location of other components within the circuit, or simply a coin toss.

While there sometimes are occasions where such choices don’t really matter, there are also precision applications where, as with a switch, such choices can make or break the ultimate success of your project. For example, in a high speed computer, the physical location of a component within a circuit can affect timing in ways that may or may not keep things in sync. It can subject a sensitive component to magnetic fields resulting in unintended induction of emissions from elsewhere that interfere with optimal performance. It can also cause components to overheat in ways that shorten their service life.

Michael Faraday conducted a series of tests on a wire coil in 1831. He is believed to be the first scientist and mathematician to document the relevant findings. Electromagnetic Induction is the governing principle that is used to explain how electrical generators, alternators, microphones, electric guitars, speakers, and transformers operate. The generator was an innovative industrial concept. By changing mechanical energy into electrical energy, the generator relied upon the basic principle of electromagnetic induction, that of passing an electrical conductor through a magnetic field. The motor changes electrical energy into mechanical energy. The voice coil in a microphone consists of a wire coil that moves over a permanent magnet. It is a good example of a generator, while using the same component within a speaker causes it to behave like a motor.

Understanding circuits, how they work, and the optimal use of components is at the heart of electronics. Once the reciprocal relationship between electricity and magnetism was thoroughly understood, the practical applications were virtually limitless.

The radio was another one of the early inventions that applied the science of electromagnetic waves. More contemporary developments include induction heating and induction brazing, a process used in metal fabrication where different metals are soldered or welded together to form one workable material.

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A yoke originally referred to a wooden frame. It could be fitted to a person’s shoulders to help them carry a load in two equal portions. It was used to join two animals, such as oxen, to help them work together. It refers to the bar, at the end of a wagon’s tongue, that is suspended from the collars of the team’s harness. It can be the frame from which a bell is hung or a crosspiece on the head of a boat’s rudder. it was also an arched device clamped about the neck of a defeated person when the authorities wanted to subject someone to conspicuous ridicule, scorn, or indignity.

The control wheel and column used by aviators is also called a yoke. It is used to control the plane’s elevators and ailerons to effect movement about the pitch and roll axis. Throughout history, the yoke has been a device for doing work whether it involved multiplying foot-pounds, incentivizing man or beast to fall in line, or some other means of directional control.

When Jesus said “follow me,” he coupled it with the statement “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This is definitely welcome news for anyone that’s tired of getting yanked around. When God gave his son, we beheld this gentle giant of a man as the best possible example for leadership. We are fond of saying that the best leaders lead by example. And, one of the foremost qualities of a leader is that they are driven. They’re not driven like beasts of burden that are pushed but they are drawn to achieve something.

Most introductory management courses stress what’s called positive and negative KITA. The acronym means a Kick In The Ass. It is usually explained using the picture of a donkey. The rider is often depicted as holding a stick in front of the animal from which a carrot is dangled on a string. The donkey moves towards the carrot hoping to get a bite. Behind the animal is a guy holding a paddle. If the donkey is too stubborn to move, he gets whacked on the butt.

The more advanced management courses stress the fact that every time the donkey gets a bite of the carrot, his appetite is diminished and you end up with less carrot. Likewise, when the donkey gets whacked on the rear, he grows callouses back there and you had to invest a considerable amount of energy in swinging the paddle.

What’s often missing from the management curriculum is the difference between incentivizing someone and motivating them. Unfortunately, one of the biggest product lines, within those initiatives managed by custodial CEOs, is a wide variety of de-motivators. Custodial CEOs are typically not the ones that actually built any given enterprise. They are usually selected by subsequent investors to engage, surreptitiously, in activities that have the effect of siphoning off equity from the company as well as the host country.

Companies are typically formed by people that are enthusiastically working in company with one another. Authentic corporations are composed of people, associating for a common purpose, and acting corporately. Our definitions of terms such as company and corporation have been distorted over the years by certain judicial and political sophistries. And we need to understand those if we are ever to have authentic companies, corporations, and democracies.

The people that are “enthusiastically working” are at the heart of healthy families, companies, and countries. The term “enthusiasm” stems from the word elements “en’ plus “Theos.” Thus the first definition is “God within,” which is entirely consistent with what Jesus taught when he said “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” The second definition is “in God” which was delineated by Paul when he said “for in Him we live and move and have our being.”

Clearly, there are two ways to look at “corporate personhood.” Corporations are people in the sense that they are comprised of people. The deception is based upon any holding that a corporation is “a person” that is somehow in addition to, or over and above the people within, that are actually doing the work. This latter definition has been used to misrepresent the workers, drown out the diverse voices of the masses, and thus distort the social and political discourse.

Where actual citizens are held responsible for their speech, corporate speech can be delivered anonymously. Since a corporation is not “a person,” for it lacks personal responsibility while exerting excessive influence over public policy. The crosspiece that is supposed to hold the rudder for the ship of state is missing. The conceptual framework for our constitutionally grounded democratic republic exhibits decay. The team is not equally yoked nor is it usefully yoked. 

The bell of freedom and liberty is no longer suspended from the arch that is supposed to remind us of how unbridled self-assertion works to the detriment of others. The is only one remedy and it doesn’t force us to nose up or down or do a hard bank left or right. Yielding to the yoke of Jesus is the only way to be forever centered in the will of Our Heavenly Father.

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I recall an episode of The Odd Couple where Felix was in court representing his roomie; much to Oscar’s dismay. As Felix was questioning a witness about his interpretation of events, the witness said: “Well I assumed. . .” Felix cut him off saying “Ah-ha! You assumed! You should never assume because when you assume;” Turning to the white board Felix spelled out the word and then pointing to the individual syllables he said: “You make an ASS of U and ME.”

Throughout May and June of 2021, we heard governors around the country make asses of themselves as they assumed the only reason people aren’t scrambling for dead-end jobs is because of the enhanced unemployment benefits. Actual fact-finders are learning that, even when such assistance is blocked, many of the people that were unceremoniously and abruptly terminated from what were poverty-wage jobs, are starting their own businesses. They’re tired of working for employers that are intent on getting the people out of the loop through reductions in force. Intentional consumers are on the side of the workers and don’t want to help smooth any return to an outmoded economy.

McDonalds is now implementing artificial intelligence to take your order in the drive-thru. Uber is making huge investments in developing driverless cars. Walgreens has informed employees, with almost a quarter century of service with the company, that they will no longer pay insurance premiums upon that employee’s retirement. And, the most dishonest politicians, are still pushing the obvious lie that employer based health insurance is the way to go for comprehensive health care.

It’s hard to maintain a work-life balance when you’re swing shifted or having to work multiple piddly-ass jobs just to make ends meet. Some employees object to wearing a silly looking uniform that advertises to the world that the employee’s will has been completely subjugated at the whim of company marketeers. And, then there are those employees that simply don’t respect a company managed by executives too incompetent to maintain a rainy day fund.

So-called non-essential employees have had a year to think about mapping out a better life. They’ve concluded that any business person, that is unable or unwilling to pay a living wage, should move over and let someone more competent run the business. In 1997, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. It remained at that rate for ten years. In 2009 the minimum reached $7.25 per hour where it has remained for twelve years. This means the minimum wage increased by less than half the rate of inflation, about 29%, while the cumulative cost of living increased over 66% during the same period.

The Economic Policy Institute reported that, over the course of about forty years, corporate CEO pay increased 940% while the typical worker’s pay increased only 12% during the same period. Employees are often forced into conditions of peonage where they must seek nutrition, energy, housing, and other forms of public assistance while the employers are avoiding taxes and otherwise operating in parasitic fashion. The employees, as actual taxpayers, don’t want to support that business model. And what person of conscience can blame them?

The 1920s are remembered as an era of mass consumerism. The 2020s will be about Intentional Consumerism and what we choose to support. The shareholder rights movement has been led to expect every indulgence while buying low, selling high, skimming the cream and effectively sucking the life plasm out of a company for which they are holding any stock. Unlike the entrepreneurs that built the company, those on the take are not going to contribute anything that might help a company through tough times? 

Employee owned companies will undoubtedly emerge post-pandemic to challenge the parasitic business practices whereby some of the most integrity challenged among us exert an outsized influence on our public discourse and our national life. This will be a healthy thing, even though the professional backbiters employed by faux news organizations will characterize the movement as something other than healthy.

Certain justices on the United States Supreme Court have displayed an abysmal ignorance whenever they have held that corporations should have speech rights over and above those employees that have associated for a common purpose to act corporately. Whenever SCOTUS defines a company as something other than the group of people working in company with one another, the Court corrodes the democracy underpinnings of our constitutional republic.

While some justices may have minds too atrophied to learn anything new, responsible consumers can hold fake corporations accountable for the dark money contributions they make to advance public policy that actual citizens find abhorrent. While most of us are held accountable for our speech, companies should not be able to skirt accountability through court sanctioned subterfuge. It may be a big mistake to assume; but we can actively engage in a disciplined form of forensic investigation. Suppose a company is not accounting for significant expenditures. It could be an indication of engagement in corrupt political influence. We should not be giving them the benefit of any doubt. We should also not be throwing any of our hard earned dollars their way.

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The number of individual atoms contained in just one drop of water is estimated to be over one billion trillion. Some scientists hold that such a drop has the energy potential of continuously producing more than one hundred horsepower sustained over a period of two years. Now, whether or not you believe that, most researchers working within the disciplines would agree that we’ve barely tapped into the atom’s full potential. One thing is certain, energy at the the electronic stage is the basis for all materialization within the observable universe.

The hydrogen atom has one electron and one proton. The proton’s weight is about eighteen hundred times that of the electron. If the mass of this seemingly insignificant electron were somehow magnified to the point where it weighed one tenth of an ounce, and if its volume were also proportionately magnified, the volume would be just about equal to the that of the earth.

Electrons are always on the move. Ram too many of them through a skinny wire and you will cause it to glow while also producing heat. Array them in opposition to one another and you can levitate a freight train. A general or specialized understanding of electronics can be leveraged to do kinetic forms of work. And, their absence or presence can even be used to convey meaning.

Electrons move in circuits. When they are thus en-circuited, they behave in predictable ways. Once we understand how they behave, we can direct and even stop the flow. We can insure they only move in one direction or in more than one. We can store them and release them in accordance with our preferences. Such a release can occur slowly or all at once under conditions that can be pre-determined.

The first thing we need to know about electrons and protons is that they are attracted to one another. Every part of matter has an electric charge. The value of this charge can be positive, negative, or neutral. Electrons possess what we term a negative charge whereas protons have a positive charge. Their arrangement within Hydrogen gives its atom a neutral charge. Within the atom the negatively charged electron remains in orbit around the positively charged proton contained in the nucleus due to a law of attraction that insures such particles will usefully complement one another.

Dissimilar particles are thus seen as complimentary exhibiting mutual attraction whereas like particles are repulsed, in effect pushing against one another. This attraction or repulsion gives rise to the constant movement of the electron . Within humanly designed electronic circuitry are various components that exert some influence with respect to this movement. However, the first circuit we must consider is not man-made. It is the electron’s orbit around the nucleus of the atom.

When we visualize the atom, we see two main features; the atomic nuclei with its component parts and the electron system. The electron system, because it is characterized by the movement of electrons, is our primary area of interest in the study of electronics. Electrons move, not only along the orbital paths around the nucleus, but they can also move between orbits. When electrons change orbits, moving closer to or away from the atomic nucleus, they emit or absorb tiny but measurable amounts of energy. Such units of energy are quantified in precise amounts that are designated quanta.

Quantum exhibit a vibratory or wavelike behavior that, together with the phenomena of orbital shifting, gives rise to a field of study known as Quantum Mechanics. Although the laws of physics are unchanging, definitions within the sciences are continually evolving. The study of electronics therefore may or may not include these quantum mechanics. Traditionally, it has focused on the movement of electrons between individual atoms.

When atoms have a full complement of electrons orbiting the nucleus, they are considered neutral. When the more complex atoms become either positively or negatively charged, due to missing electrons or by having too many electrons, this encourages and explains another type of movement. Thus far we have considered the movement of electrons along the orbital path together with their movement between orbits. Now we will consider their “spin” together with the way they jump between individual atoms.

We have already noted that like charges repel each other while unlike charges attract. Since this is the all important gist of the matter we will reinforce the concept by stating it another way. Two negative charges repel one another, while a positive charge attracts a negative charge. At the heart of electronics is the movement caused by this attraction / repulsion phenomena.

It should also be noted that some materials facilitate such movement. They are called conductors. Other materials resist or block such movement; they are called resistors and insulators. Whether a given material has conducting or insulating properties is a matter of atomic structure. A simple atom, like Hydrogen, is not likely to ever give up its electron without a fight because, after all, it only has one. Copper is a far more complex element that has twenty nine electrons. Because some of these are moving along an orbit relatively far from the nucleus, the outer electrons are loosely held and can be thrown off. New research has also shown that electrons leave these outer orbits tangentially much like the way a ball, thrown by a child, would leave a merry-go-round.

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One of my favorite TV characters was the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live. Her facial expression had all the warmth of a descending hatchet and appeared as though it was ultimately achieved through a lifetime of sucking on green persimmons. To many of us, enthusiastic about matters of faith, she represented an outmoded type of churchianity that was, not only amusing but, wholly foreign to us. It was simply unattractive as its adherents slavishly sought to suppress their innermost desires while attempting to obey and conform to rules of living that only made life more burdensome.

By contrast, the Gospel of Jesus strengthens us through the constant spiritual renewing of our minds and hearts. As we become increasingly responsive to Divine Leading by the Spirit of Truth, our inner soul transforms us, much like the small amount of leavening by which the whole loaf becomes leavened. When we are endowed with the power to advance the perfect will of God, we experience a new way of living that is joyous, gracious and, most importantly, acceptable in his sight.

When Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he was not minimizing the importance of the work. He was instead highlighting the fact that we would be working in concert with a great number of celestial associates and earthly cohorts that could make any heavy lifting seem light when compared with going it alone. When we are admonished to become equally yoked, we should also give some thought to being usefully yoked.

Coordination is an English word that stems from the Latin term ordo meaning order. Our dictionaries define coordination as “the organization of the different elements in a complex body or activity so as to enable them to work together efficiently”.

The Body of Christ is understood by analogy to the human body. When things are working as they should, we enjoy good health. When they are not, we group our various ailments into the all inclusive category of dis-ease. One of the books I always recommend to people dealing with cancer is titled The China Study. The book summarizes a huge research project focusing on cancer and nutrition. The study was conducted by individuals with a sincere reverence for the scientific method. The book’s conclusion also just happened to dovetail with my highest and best understanding of intelligent design when the authors summarized their findings with the statement: “Give the body what it needs and it will do the right thing”.

What can we, as individual human beings, contribute to the Body of Christ on earth so that it will more efficiently and effectively exude the health and happiness it exemplifies, thereby becoming even more attractive to our friends? The answer is not likely to be found in either green persimmons or recitations, but rather through the sincerest form of prayer. It is not obtained by denying ourselves and praying “Not my will but Your will be done.” It is though the sincerest form of appreciation in which we proclaim “It is my will that Your will be done.”

Now just how do we discern that will? We’re not infallible. We sometimes get it wrong. But we do have some big clues and rules of thumb. For example we know that the attributes of God are more likely to be seen through our highest and best understanding of His truth, His beauty, and His goodness. The central truth of the Jesusonian Gospel is that “The Kingdom of God is within you”. The beauty of his ministry is to be seen in his exemplary life with beautiful symmetry together with the quality of coherence conveyed through his teachings. Jesus always highlighted goodness and was also quick to point out that “there is no one good but God.”

If we are ever confused about what constitutes Truth, we should proactively distance ourselves from those who exhibit a reckless indifference to the truth. If we have been corrupting our sense of beauty through a failure to evolve beyond our animalistic instincts, we should proactively cultivate an appreciation of higher spiritual values. If we routinely conflate malevolence with benevolence, we can and should choose those good things that will favor ushering in an era of light and life over any sustained orgy of darkness and death.

We all have our Deuteronomy moments wherein God presents us with the ultimate choice. He said: I set before you life and death. Therefore choose life. We don’t evolve independently of time and so our life and death choices are, to some extent, incrementalist. The super-saturated sugary snacks in the Type II Diabetes aisle at the grocery store together with the tar and nicotine available through the assisted suicide department at the drug store clearly represent such an incremental approach to life versus death.

While sowing seeds of self-denial has value in the personal quest for a quality life, there are also choices we can make that don’t cause us to feel like we’re giving up all the things we like best. There is something truly exhilarating about maintaining a steady climb out, letting gravity and inertia have their way with the poor habits we’ve left behind. The Fruits of the Spirit are sweet.

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In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was promoting glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”) in an attempt to overcome the Soviet Union’s economic stagnation and stunted growth. These initiatives promised the “utmost respect for the individual citizen and favorable consideration for protecting one’s personal dignity.” By creating a dependable and effective mechanism for accelerating economic and social progress, Gorbachev hoped to encourage initiative and creative endeavor.

As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 and as that country’s de-facto head of state from 1988 until 1991, Gorbachov gained authority to create joint-stock companies out of state enterprises. The shares became available on stock exchanges. Gorbachev was instrumental in diminishing the role of the Communist Party in governing the state. The party’s official role was ultimately removed from the constitution, in a way that enraged some and inadvertently led to crisis-level political instability with a surge of regional nationalist and anti-communist activism. A failed coup attempt in August of 1991 was followed by an acute food shortage. On December 26, the Soviet Union was dissolved.

There were then fifteen new countries, of which the Russian Federation was only one. Roughly 45,000 state enterprises had been controlled by the Soviet Union. Upon its dissolution the planned economy was displaced by a market economy. The large scale privatization of state owned assets flowed primarily to form the financial, energy, and industrial sectors.

Opposing forces insured that Perestroika had more than one unintended consequence. As Russia’s planned economy transitioned from one in which the means of production was held by the state, to one in which work collectives gained a greater role in running enterprises, the country stumbled. It experienced what The Guardian newspaper described, on August 16th 2001, as “the most cataclysmic peacetime economic collapse of an industrial country in history.

Gorbachov’s benevolent vision for the country had been thwarted at almost every turn as the country became divided by winners and losers. The well positioned were able to leverage conditions that were not readily understood by the rank and file. Although Russia’s citizens were generally well educated, most were overly specialized. The university system, while rigorous, provided certifications that were not all that portable as most regions within the USSR were dominated by a single industry or employer, the equivalent of company towns. No national provision was made for basic social services and few employees or front-line managers had any firsthand experience with decision making in a market economy.

Self-centered forces wasted no time in turning Mikhail Gorbachev’s, and Boris Yeltsin’s shared vision into a variety of schemes to exploit the poor. What was intended as an equal distribution of national wealth became concentrated within the ranks of upper management as the starving masses were caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Cash strapped workers relinquished whatever they may have held of any value, including personal shares, settling for fire-sale prices just so they could buy foodstuffs. When they did scrape up a little cash, they faced the bleak reality of purchasing power that was dramatically reduced.

In 1995 a Loans for Shares program was adopted by the government of Boris Yeltsin to address a severe fiscal deficit. The auctions were largely controlled by favored insiders and were, therefore, devoid of competition. The same banks that were retained by the government to conduct the auctions ended up winning them and the assets were leased at prices just slightly over the minimum starting bid. Voters in Russia described the process using a term that translates to what our urban dictionaries have coined as grabification.

From Vladimir Putin’s perspective, Russia had lost its national wealth and 2 million square miles of territory under humiliating circumstances. Although thoroughly pissed, he was perceived by Yeltsin as loyal. He commanded the FSB, a successor to the KGB, as Director. He was later appointed as Prime Minister with Yeltsin declaring “There will be no vacuum.” Vladimir Putin was uniquely positioned, early on, to benefit personally from the rise of the oligarchs.

As the gamesmanship over vouchers and loans for shares played out, one such grabber, an oil oligarch, ran afoul of Putin and was put on trial. Putin had then arranged for the oily Defendant to be seated in a cage at the center of the courtroom. According to the prevailing legend, one by one the other oligarchs came to Putin and asked: “How do we stay out of cages?” Putin’s answer: “Fifty percent.”

With all the ink in the water, no one, except Vladimir Putin, knows exactly how he acquired his vast wealth or whether he is, in fact, the richest person in the world. We do know that between 1993 and 1997, as Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Division, Putin organized a transfer of the assets of the former Soviet Union and Communist Party to the Russian Federation. Accordingly, he knew where all the real value was and, as a former Lieutenant Colonel of the KGB, he also knew where the bodies were buried. Consider that in light of the way he works the levers today.

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Computers are mathematical processors. And, because information in almost all forms can be reduced to a binary form, computers can handle far more than math. Through the Internet of Things, we’ve come to rely on a variety of small devices to exercise control over our environment. These devices are generally referred to as microcontrollers and microprocessors.

While definitions within an evolving language are in constant flux, there is also the evolution of the devices themselves that insures we are always trying to somehow focus on a moving target. Those of us that have been working within the industry since the advent of desktop computers would, on occasion, lament “Took a short nap; woke up a dinosaur.”

Despite the fuzzy line between the definitions, the functionality, and the utility of microcontrollers and microprocessors, the basic difference is nuanced. The microprocessor typically refers to a Central Processing Unit or CPU that is an essential component within any computer system. The CPU has the computational capabilities built in. Microprocessors typically require support hardware and a specialized layer of software, an intermediary known as an operating system. Your iPhone uses one called iOS whereas your Android phone uses, well, Android.

Everything a computer does is in accordance with a set of instructions called computer programs. Microprocessors carry out many millions or billions and soon, perhaps, trillions of instructions per second. When integrated with an almost limitless variety of high end sub-systems such as memory, displays, and other peripherals they can evolve into really big enterprise class computers. Such complexity and performance may, or may not, be desirable depending upon your intended use. A microcontroller typically refers to a somewhat de-featured computer system on a single chip. It contains an integrated processor, a small amount of memory, and programmable input/output ports. Tese are used to interact with things, like sensors and actuators. Many of the instructions are embedded into the chip while the chip itself may be embedded into larger control systems.

If you were running a greenhouse operation that required inventory management and cost analysis, you would likely opt for something expandable that could run a spreadsheet or display complex graphics, you might want to consider a full fledged laptop or desktop computer. If you still need such capabilities, without dedicating your trusty go-to workstation for specialized tasks, you might want to dedicate a modestly priced microprocessor system like the Raspberry Pi.

If your tasking is more focused upon simple operations, such as monitoring the amount of sunlight coming through the greenhouse windows, then you could use a simple microcontroller like the Arduino Nano or Uno as a data logger. Microcontrollers can also be used for simple decision making. Suppose the sunlight coming through the windows is insufficient for your seedlings. This condition could trigger some action by the microcontroller such as running your artificial lighting just enough to compensate for the shortfall.

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could also monitor the color of the light coming through the windows and run the compensatory lighting at the precise color and amount of time your plants need for rooting, stemming, branching, and flowering. You could also use the microcontroller to monitor and mix nutrient solutions. You could control the gas envelope while also regulating atmospheric pressure. Microcontrollers can do a lot more than function as smart thermostats.

Whether or not you can get away with using a controller type device as opposed to an enhanced processing device, depends upon the extent to which you can break down your tasks. For example; If you wanted to separately monitor the light coming from the East, West, North, South, and overhead windows, you could use separate sensors and microcontrollers at those locations to log the data. Then you could poll those microcontrollers with a more capable system while bringing historical data into your decision package. 

So, the questions that arise concerning controller versus processor based systems, and about which of those systems is best, has one easy answer; both. They are each ideally adapted to different sets of tasks. Microcontrollers don’t require operating system software for simple decisions. And yet they are able to execute specific instructions when certain conditions are met. The instructions used to program such devices are, in the case of the Arduino, called sketches, a term used to convey the simplicity of programming them.

Microprocessor systems are especially useful when much of the problem solving is unanticipated or more complex. The operating system would likely prove to be more flexible while things are still being worked out. Of course, evolution marches on and development platforms are available for microcontrollers. The controllers are still usually programmed by full fledged handheld, laptop, or desktop systems. But once those instructions are effectively downloaded to the microcontroller or embedded device, you can be off and running with an inexpensive, standalone system to make your world more enjoyable and manageable.

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I recall reading long ago that the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven are sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. That really didn’t resonate with me at first because I believed then, as I do now, that we are justified by faith and faith alone. Of course, over the years, we each learn that faith is more about the perfection of purpose than it is about any certitude we may enjoy. In fact, our deliverance from the uncertainties of time is wholly dependent upon the loyalty aspects of faith.

I’ve since given much prayerful consideration to those early lessons on sincerity. I believe they refer, first and foremost, to the quality of our faith-submission. After all, even atheists often seem to value the things of God such as his goodness. They just don’t acknowledge or recognize the Originator, the First Source and Center of All. Jesus addressed that very point when he said: “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God.” Indeed, all Truth, all Beauty, and all Goodness originate with the Author and Finisher of our faith.

It seems to me that people of faith have modes of perception that non-believers clearly lack. We see Our Father’s Truth, Beauty, and Goodness as scintillating pearls arrayed along a drawstring that pulls us nearer to the heart of God. So, if we are in agreement, that the first part of the sincerity test is the authenticity of our faith, the second would likely be in our responsiveness to Divine Leading. 

I’ve often heard it said that prayer is not about getting your way. It’s really about taking God’s way. In that light, many of us have struggled with the various concepts of destiny. Pre-destination and fore-ordination seem, at first glance to be at odds with any doctrine of free will. However, upon close examination, we begin to discern the fact that God knows us better than we know ourselves and, because of this, He’s our ultimate Thesis Advisor.

As we mature in our faith, we eventually realize that our inherent attributes appear to align with and support a higher calling, a first-best destiny. Now we are all free to interpret this as somehow in accordance with God’s plan. And we are certainly free to accept or reject any part, or all of it. The question before each of us is always one concerning whether or not we will choose to take full advantage of our God-given opportunities.

So the third sincerity test in my estimation would be centering on this last question. Many of yesterday’s Hell fire and brimstone preachers would have us believe that God would corral us into his camp by means of manipulation and by leveraging our fears. Such a base motivator is unworthy, and likely offensive to, Our Loving Father. His program is never one of coercion and it is best understood as one of attraction rather than promotion.

Affinity marketers push the notion that a shopper’s rewards card will help to insure customer loyalty. Think about that the next time you buy something from that store’s competitor simply because it’s a dollar cheaper. Such an experience could also serve as a constant reminder that, while there may be incentives for living, God is more focused upon your true motivations.

A person of good will can be instrumental in bringing others closer to God. Those possessing a thin vernier of religiosity, one that is more of a fashion statement than a witness, usually lack any deep abiding devotion to Our Father or his supreme values. The truly faithful are always the ones whose commitment is voluntary, wholehearted, and sophistry-proof.

When we pray in the light of scientific facts, philosophic wisdom, intellectual sincerity, and spiritual faith, we are not engaging in a process whereby we treat Our Father as if he’s just one big cosmic vending machine catering to our every indulgence. We are also not seeking some unfair advantage over our fellows. We are instead appealing to Our Universe Sovereign just as Jesus taught his disciples—honestly, unselfishly, with fairness, and without doubting.

Without sincerity, we are like cancer cells running amok within the Body of Christ. It is unlikely that, within such a state, we would advance anything of true value while we may be causing tremendous amounts of damage. Ask yourself, what is your opinion of someone you perceive as less than sincere. Would you vest any significant amount of trust in such a person?

A sincere person is the one we tend to rely upon, even when they are occasionally wrong. If they are well motivated, we can count on them to realize they’ve made a mistake and take corrective measures. We are all learning. Jesus promised the Spirit of Truth to help drive out all serious human error. The open question is whether we will be responsive to such Divine Leading.

In this way, sincerity can be seen as the master key. It unlocks the provisioning whereby God has granted all that we need to be increasingly more effective in our respective ministries. Such ministries serve to advance the will of God in the hearts and minds of human kind. And we know, based upon our experience, in just a closer walk with Thee, that this is the best way we can love others as Jesus loved and continues to love us.

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The fall of the Soviet Union was a vindication for the strategy of the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles. His plan to bankrupt the Russians through an arms race, a space race, and any other competition the adversary could not afford, eventually made it possible for Ronald Reagan to successfully challenge Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall.

Pitting a deep economy against a shallow economy, while effective, had significant costs beyond the economic. There was no shortage of individual stake holders in the old Soviet order that were outraged, including one Vladimir Putin. They found ways to make themselves feel better by indulging in grudges as they worked to redirect certain new equities, intended for Russian citizens, while enriching themselves.

The United States still struggles to manage the monetary debts it incurred over the course of the cold war, we are also paying the high reputational cost for impetuous behavior such as the 1953 coup d’état in Iran together with the 1954 coup d’état in Guatemala. While these events typically go unacknowledged over the course of our high school history classes, many U.S. citizens are surprised when, while traveling abroad, they discover our country is not seen as an honest broker in those regions of the world.

The reputational cost is exacerbated by the least intelligent and most boisterous within the MAGAlomanic factions. People around the globe have come to believe that if you are Asian, African, or Central American you will never gain the approval of the most inbred SOBs occupying the North American continent. And they’re not just talking about genetics. As master propagandist of the Nazi regime and dictator of its cultural life for twelve years, the selective inbreeding and hate mongering of Joseph Goebbels, was achieved through an earlier manifestation of the big lie. He said:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

While MAGAlomania may be defined as Goebbelian twist on statecraft, the state of denial has now manifest on an epidemic scale within the USA. Of course, the big lie did not originate with Stephen Miller, Joseph Goebbels, or Adolf Hitler. They may have summoned it and embraced it, only to become subservient to it. It is the legacy woven throughout human history that was best encapsulated by the Rolling Stones with the lyric: “Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints; when heads is tails just call me Lucifer cause I’m in need of some restraint.”

Unbridled liberty is the legacy of Lucifer. It is, in effect, the license to rape, pillage, and plunder. It is always a matter of subjugating someone else. Liberty that is unintelligent, unconditioned, and uncontrolled invariably leads to the abject bondage of someone. To differentiate between true and false liberty, we must learn to balance freedom with self-control, to develop self-mastery.

At issue is truthfulness. Is it ever ok to mislead someone who may rely upon your word to their detriment? Those who participated in the racist riot of January 6, 2021 in Washington, are now using reliance on the alternative facts from faux news as an affirmative defense in courts of law. Pseudo-Christian pastors are actively deceiving the masses. When, in the Book of Job, God asked, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?,” one might reasonably conclude that he was talking about the anti-immigrant, anti-mask, anti-vaccine pretenders that are turning their congregations into death cults.

Now that Putin’s harem is out of the White House, he is protecting the big lie in his own country by, as Goebbels prescribed, repressing dissent. Anyone sympathetic to Alexi Navalny is now an outlaw within Putin’s domain. Here, in the United States, Liz Cheney or anyone else advocating for a more traditional conservatism or republicanism is similarly subject to attack by the hoards of Hell, absolute enemies of our constitutionally grounded democratic republic. When every cop is seen as criminal, they are bludgeoned on the capital steps with flagpoles. When all the sinners are saints, they corrupt the likes of Liberty University. When heads is tails, voter suppression is sold as voter integrity.

A scholar’s parrot may talk Greek and rehearsing those that have traded their Christian witness for a masquerade is simply a matter or rote learning. This phenomena, where the most ignorant are quite literally the most arrogant, is not unique to the United States. But the USA has no excuse. It has a public education system where critical thinking skills are increasingly moving front and center.

Whether we will actually use the intellectual disciplines, to build a more perfect union, remains to be seen. In the meantime we can avoid the contagion and those intent on spreading it through their reckless indifference to the truth.

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In this segment, we continue our discussion with Ramona Johnson. This time focusing on whether equal justice under law can become real.

Among the points raised within this segment are the racial profiling and poverty factors as they result in an unequal application of justice. These contentious issues are making some citizens to distrust the people occupying positions of honor and trust. And there are politicians whose statements have raised doubts as to whether “equal justice under law” is even an aspirational statement within the legislature, the judiciary, or the executive branch of government.