By JIM NICHOLS One of them is just a wordless diagram and the other a short set of words and numbers, but both convey valuable information. The diagram is someone’s rendition of a side view of an automobile engine. One must look carefully at the dashboard to see what it is. This is the “check engine light” in the car;

By JIM NICHOLS In an academic ethics class, one of the important initial topics is the identification of “duties we owe other people.” That is, if we are going to function together, there are certain behaviors that we should be able to expect from one another. This is a list of common-sense items such as promise keeping, justice (fairness), and

By JIM NICHOLS Geiger-Muller counters have been in use for decades. As the least expensive device to determine the presence of ionizing radiation, they have served useful purposes in both peace and war. Ionizing radiation is a type of energy that is potentially damaging to human tissue; it is, frankly, dangerous. There is no human sense that detects this type

By JIM NICHOLS Apparently, the man’s car got stuck in reverse gear. When he arrived at the small local auto repair shop in Arkansas, he had backed his car several miles into town and to this shop. Since this was a place I used (the only shop in town brave enough to work on VWs in the early 1970s), I

By JIM NICHOLS As we have seen in the Roe versus Wade arguments, sometimes personal and moral decisions wander into legal areas and the water becomes muddy quickly. Precedents are set and then arguments begin concerning whether precedents are binding or not. The making or rejection of laws, to simplify matters, seems to add complications rather than clarifications. A recent

By JIM NICHOLS I suspect I am not alone in being confused about some topics. Some are personal, but others are larger and, frankly, global. Perhaps if I wrestle with one of them in writing, some clarity may come. Maybe you can offer some aid. I suspect my naiveté on the problem will be obvious. Let me present my confusion

By JIM NICHOLS Two of them were sisters; the third was clearly a friend. All were five or six years old and were in front of me during a recent worship service. They were cute the way little girls can be cute; their long hair was tied up with colorful bows or ribbons and they each had on a pretty

By JIM NICHOLS The four males were clearly trying to impress one another—or at least three of them were. “I like to play baseball,” said one. “It has such a long history, and everyone plays it at some time in their life. Developing the skills and strength to ‘hit a round ball with a round bat and hit it squarely’