Why systems engineering? How can that help? Isn’t it enough to let the engineering disciplines do their work and then put the project together? Systems engineering takes a systems view of the design. It provides more than a simple connection of disparate parts. Systems engineering looks at three systems – …

By David Long and Zane Scott The late Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, famously said “all politics is local.” In that phrase he called to the surface a characteristic of politics that was often overlooked but always true. In the same way, we …

Willie Nelson getting ready to perform. Farm Aid 2009. Photo by Larry Philpot www.soundstagephotography.com On April 29 Willie had a birthday. “Maybe I didn’t love you- Quite as often as I could have” sings the just turned 80 year old legend, Willie Nelson, in his classic “You Were Always on …

In his work, On Rhetoric, Aristotle offers instruction on the art of persuasion. He identifies three modes or “offices” of persuasion. In Greek they are ethos, logos, and pathos. In order to cast a persuasive argument, Aristotle posits that we must construct from all three elements. In order to be …