Absolutely BRILLIANT! Review of "Everyday Engineering" by Professor Stephen Ressler

This is my 45th or so completed The Great Courses' course. This is my second completed course from Professor Ressler (the previous one I have watched and reviewed was: "Understanding the World's Greatest Structures.")

This course on Everyday Engineering (http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/everyday-engineering-understanding-the-marvels-of-daily-life.html) is just simply, in one word, BRILLIANT! The course is organised into 9 main topics:

1. House building and its own sub-systems;

2. Water supply and waste water treatments;

3. Energy supply, transmission and distribution;

4. Heating, ventilating and air-conditioning;

5. Telephone and telecommunications;

6. Simple machines around the house and their designs;

7. Automotive engineering;

8. Highway, traffic, railroad and tunnel engineering;

9. Solid waste recycling and sustainability.

It was capped by a nice real-life case study in the second half of the final lecture (lecture 36). Totally awesome!

What I like about this course includes the following points:

a. It provides a high-level synthesis (and integration) of various important and practical topics. Whilst it goes into details in some topics, the course retains the ability to keep the high-level overarching BIG PICTURE understanding in tact for viewers. For instance, the lectures describing the generation of power from mining of coal or gas all the way to transmission and distribution to individual homes, are just mind-blowingly refreshing.

b. Professor Ressler is just simply, one of the best (if not THE BEST) lecturers I have listened to, even by the very high standards of The Great Courses lecturers. His enthusiasm, his tone of voice, his ability to explain complex things simply and efficiently, and his use of practical models (as well as computer models) to enable viewer understanding, are just incredible aspects of his outstanding teaching technique. For instance, now I understand how a toilet works after I flush it, from his simple model describing the "vacuum suction" creating the pull.

c. Many WOW moments in the course of "oh I didn't know that before" feeling. Memorable examples include:  Now I understand why the need for three (or four) power lines on tall transmission lines; How cellular mobile telephone system works; How a speaker works (!) ; How to identify the location of trains automatically using some clever sensor systems.

d. It shows important applications of important engineering principles such as:

- Tradeoffs (e.g., cloverleaf highway interchange tradeoffs of automobile speed (flow) vs road safety),

- Buffer / redundancy system (e.g., in red-light system has a buffer 'pause' system to allow for drivers not stopping in time),

- The necessity of the Integration / synthesis of sub-systems (e.g., 8 or so sub-systems in house-building) needing to speak to each other,

- Constraints (e.g., most road construction is constrained to locally available fill)

- and The importance of using 'Frameworks' rather than through trial and error (i.e., standing on the shoulders of previous giants), e.g., the Otto cycle in internal combustion engine of a car.

e. A great final case study (lecture 36) integrating all of the above topics. I won't share what the final case study is - you have to view it for yourself. :)

If you are at least tempted to get this course, do it (don't hesitate!). I have learnt a lot from it. Thank you, Prof Ressler!!

My Review of the Great Courses: Beginnings of Judaism, by Professor Isaiah M. Gafni

Link to course here: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/cour...

I bought the audio version. Two or three lectures in, I realised that this is an exceptional course. This is probably my 40th or so The Great Courses purchase, so I have some relative perspective on which ones are five stars. This one certainly is one of them.

Professor Isaiah Gafni is clearly knowledgable and passionate about this subject matter, and it clearly shows. His pace, tone, variation of tone & volumes, and emotions expressed in his speaking are also excellent for audio purchasers of this course.

Although I am familiar with the Christian Old Testament (Bible), this course taught me a lot about early Judaism including the following:

1. I didn't know that post Solomon (c. 928 BC), the kingdom of Israel was split into two: The northern kingdom (10 tribes of Israel) and the southern kingdom of Judah (tribes of Judah and Benjamin). Subsequently in 722 BC the northern kingdom (capital, Samaria) was conquered by the Assyrian armies of King Sargon II, and most of its population exiled (and assimilated) to Assyria.

2. The southern Kingdom of Judah (capital, Jerusalem) was captured by the Babylonian empire in 597 BC and the first temple (completed by Salomon) was destroyed in 586 BC. Babylonian Exile occurred from 597 BC.

3. The Persian empire then defeated the Babylonian empire and in 538 BC king Cyrus allowed (and funded) the rebuilding of the second Temple in Jerusalem, as well as facilitated the return of some Jews back to Judea. The second Temple was consecrated in 516 BC, 70 years after the first Temple was destroyed..

4. Ezra and Nehemiah were instrumental in their leadership of the Jewish returnees to Jerusalem.

5. Although Persian rule was somewhat permissive and supportive(?) of the Jewish practices in Israel, the Hellenistic influence after Alexander the Great's conquest of Judea (332 BC onward) provided a stark contrast. Hellenisation cultural forces were very strong in trying to homogenise ancient cultures dominated under the Greek rule. This was a serious threat to Judaism as a culture.

6. Many Jews in this era became proficient in both Greek and Hebrew and translation of the sacred texts into Greek became the norm.

7. Judah the Maccabees and his brothers (Hasmoneans) led a rebellion in 167-164 BC against Greek Seleucid rulers. The second Temple was reconsecrated in 164 BC. The Hasmoneans ruled an independent Jewish state and kingdom from 141-63 BC, until Roman general Pompey took Judea.

8. Herod became a Roman-backed king from 37 - 4 BC, followed by his son from 4 BC to 6 AD. After that, Judea became a Roman province.

9. Learnt the difference between the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Essenes (Dead Sea (Scroll) Sects).

10. Jewish uprising in 66-70 BC was squashed by the Romans and led to the destruction of the second Temple in 70 AD. Another bloody rebellion by Simon Bar Kokhba (132 - 135 AD) was also squashed by the Romans. This ended the military rebellions by the Jews against the Romans.

11. Primarily due to he destruction of the second Temple, Judaism had to further adapt through the frameworks of local synagogues throughout the diaspora and legacies of exegesis of sacred texts led by spiritual leaders (rabbi's), leading to important traditions and documents (including the Mishnah and the Talmud's) that enabled Judaism to survive and thrive until today. Key early leaders in this rabbinic tradition were Yohannan ben Zakkai (c 70-80 AD), Rabban Gamaliel II (c 80-115 AD) and Judah the Patriach (c 200 AD onward).

All in all, this was an excellent course. I truly enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it.