Boomerland and Beyond

Iraq... 2014

2014-06-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

Well, this is a fine mess...what did we expect?

Approximately 100 years ago the borders of Iraq were arbitrarily drawn by the British near the end of the Ottoman Empire. These borders included ethnic Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Britain established the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932. In 1958 the king was deposed and the Republic of Iraq was declared. The Ba'ath Party staged a coup in 1963, was toppled and retook power in 1968. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979 and was removed during the 2003 U.S. invasion. We had supported Hussein in the 1980s during his war with Iran. There is no real evidence that Hussein had anything to do with September 11th, and none of the hijackers was Iraqi. There were no WMDs found. With the power vacuum created after the 2003 invasion, elements of Al Qaeda made in-roads into Iraq. It is estimated that at least 100,000 Iraqis died during our occupation, which included a Sunni/Shiite civil war.

In a nutshell, what the U.S. did starting in 2003 was forcefully remove a Sunni dictator and government, replacing same with a Shiite government. The current head of the Iraqi government , Al Maliki, is Shiite, as is the leadership of Iran and Syria. Sunni's have been effectively marginalized in Iraq. The Kurds in northeastern Iraq are just hoping to keep the ethnic fighting away from their interests, which include oil production.

In comes ISIS, a vicious Al Qaeda spin-off, whose members have been fighting against Assad in Syria, and now have made great in-roads into western Iraq. Apparently other disaffected Sunnis have joined them, not because they like them, but because they are not represented. ISIS wants to form a caliphate including parts of Syria and Iraq as a Sunni nation. Of course Syria and Iraq are fighting this insurgency.
Iran (not our friend) has sent in elite troops and probably supplies to assist Al Maliki in fighting the invaders, while Syria has apparently conducted an air raid into western Iraq, resulting in many civilian deaths.

Meanwhile, several architects of the disastrous 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq have amazingly gone on record as blaming the current U.S. president for the crisis. After the deaths of 4500 of America's bravest, the wounding of approximately 30,000 and the loss of an estimated trillion dollars of our treasure, Americans overwhelmingly say the war was not worth it, and don't want to re-enter the ethnic quagmire that has existed there for over 1000 years.

So...we broke it, bad though it was, we couldn't fix it militarily, even with extreme expense and sacrifice, and now the age-old ethnic war continues there. In the run-up to the U.S. invasion of 2003, I remember experts in that part of the world saying they didn't have confidence that our leaders really understood what could happen...

Create your own universe?

2012-11-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

The history of technological innovation and computational power suggests that, bit by bit, computerized artificial worlds will gain convincing levels of realism over time. If we humans succeed in creating computer-based sentience in the future, we may be able to program complex simulated environments with populations of simulated beings existing within a computer's hardware. Imagine "Sims" or "Second Life" with responsive, self-aware inhabitants! Imagine that whoever was running such a simulation could decide whether the simulated beings knew that they existed within a computer. Even with such programming, it is probable that most of the inhabitants would consider this possibility too unbelievable to give it much attention.

This brings me to the question, "Are we living in a simulation?"

Boomerland and Beyond

2012-11-09T14:05:00.001-08:00

Boomerland and Beyond: Well, the election is over and the people have spoken. One thing is for sure...political parties will have to consider changing demographics in the future, including increasing minority representation and the rising influence of women and the young. Our country is changing, and will not be going back. This is the new political reality and head-in-the-sand deniers will pay a heavy price in future elections. Our country will never again be almost completely governed by white males, as it has for over 200 years.
Your thoughts?

'via Blog this'

The "God Particle"

2012-07-06T13:42:00.001-07:00

The apparent evidence of the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is possibly one of the biggest observations in physics. It's existence was postulated 50 years ago, and basically allows matter to have mass, which interacts with gravity, thus the galaxies, stars, planets and ourselves. In other words, a building block of the universe more basic than atoms themselves.
If you believe in God, it would be a basic tool used in creation. If you don't believe in God, it remains an elementary tool in whatever caused all this to happen after the "Big Bang" some 13.7 billion years ago!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/opinion/krauss-higgs-particle/index.html?hpt=hp_abar

Benicia, Ca. Memorial Day ceremony 2012

2012-06-22T14:00:00.001-07:00

May 28th, 2012 at the Historic Benicia Arsenal Post Cemetery, the oldest military cemetery on the West Coast. Watch the rifle salute, Air Force fly-over and Taps. You can skip thru the speeches :) Many of the graves in the cemetery are marked "Unknown" and date back to 1849.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CN5haYwafU&feature=youtu.be

Looking for a potential investment?

2012-06-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this little company that manufactures microturbines which have many applications. Just got a new order for oil shale fields. At $1.00 per share, could be exciting. Just IMHO tho.

http://www.capstoneturbine.com/

There's a last time for everything...

2012-05-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

I don't remember the last time I picked up each of my kids. There is a last time for everything. There is a last time you will eat a hamburger, or veggie burger for vegetarians. There is a last time you will drive your car...there is a last time you will feel the rain...there is a last time you will experience a kiss, or the sun on your face, or the smell of coffee, or take a step. There is a last time you will tell someone, "I love you", there is a last time you will even hear a word spoken, or a song, or a bird sing, or a baby cry. There is a last time you will see the sun rise...or set, and there is a last time you will take a breath.
Even the sun will have a last day to shine, and there will be a last star in the sky to send photons into space, and there will be a last thought by anyone or anything in the universe....
That is the way it is meant to be...so, cherish each day, each event in your life, each family member, each friend, each site, each sound, each smell and each touch. Cherish each hour, each minute, each second if you can, as they do pass by, almost unnoticed at times. None of what happens here is meant to be forever, though many run from that thought and embrace images of forever. Even our universe itself has a lifespan, and we really only have now. So I say, make each moment in your life count, feel yourself living right now...whenever you can, because there will be a last heartbeat...a final breath for each of us, and for each of our offspring some day. Try to comprehend the miracle of it all.
And it you subscribe to the multiverse theories of the cosmos, you may find yourself in an amazing place where universes have been beginning and ending in an infinite recycling of energy beyond the bounds of time as we know it. In this case, you may find your atoms infinitely rearranged so that eventually you will be reborn in another universe. And what does this mean? It could mean that right now, in this place, in this time, you have been reborn like you have been countless times before, though you do not recall. It may mean you have also been everything else a universe can conceive. It may mean that in the amazing math of the cosmos, we will be here again.
And for me...this is as close to God as I can get, though that concept complicates the problem!

Wally
Admission...this was written after a Margarita:)

Jobs....

2012-05-03T14:27:00.002-07:00

With a still tepid jobs recovery so far in 2012, just wondering where people are finding work? Manufacturing jobs seem to be picking up, but service sector employment is slow. Service sector includes a lot of low to moderate-paying jobs such as retail, restaurants, etc., but it also includes things like healthcare and IT positions.
Employers still are slow to add to the payrolls in many firms due to uncertainty about the economy. Many large companies are beating earnings estimates currently, so profits aren't the problem right now for many.
We know that the consumer is two-thirds of our economy, and without good jobs, the middle class struggles with purchasing power. This country became strong with the help of a thriving middle class that enjoyed decent wages since WWII. Education was provided to more Americans, including through the GI Bill, which I , myself, took advantage of. Strong unions correlated with improving wages and working conditions (you can look at the graphs showing reduced union membership and stagnant wages in recent decades. Meanwhile, it is true that those at the top of the economic ladder have enjoyed an increasing share of the total income pie.

So, it seems to me we need to bolster the famed American middle class again, like we did after WWII. We need to prepare our workforce for good-paying jobs, and this involves increased investment in education and training programs. We need to be the country of innovation, and I believe that is our ticket to prosperity in a global economy. Our young people need our support and encouragement as they look to the future of the American Dream.

We face many challenges, but Americans have faced difficult challenges before. Though it is not perfect, the USA is still the most amazing country on the planet for many reasons. We have many accomplishments, and some misadventures, but the framework set out long ago for our country has captured the imagination of millions who have come here to participate in our democracy. Now, if we could just get Congress to work together occasionally for the overall good of the country, rather than succumbing to ideological battles that accomplish nothing for the rest of us. Compromise has always been part of the political landscape in order to do the work of policy-making, and compromise is in extremely short supply now. I really don't see that our representatives deserve their pay and generous benefits at this time.

Anyway, your thoughts and comments are encouraged, and let us know how you are doing in your pursuit of the American Dream these days.

Wally

New Post for the "Marines of Morenci"

2012-03-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Should be able to read this article. This is an amazing story from the 60s about a group of kids from a small town in Arizona who went to Vietnam.
http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2011/11/decades-after-vietnam-community-preserves-memory-of-morenci-nine/

Why are gas prices so high?

2012-03-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

We all want to know why it costs so much to fill up the tank now. Oil demand will probably reach a record this year as developing nations in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East increase demand. Traders are also worried about supply disruptions, especially with regard to nuclear tensions with Iran. Iran is the world's third largest exporter of crude oil!
How are gas prices set? Producers sell to refiners on exchanges at set prices. Then the oil is refined into components including gasoline. The gas is sold to distributors on exchanges pegged to wholesale gas prices. Finally, gas stations set prices based on how much they have to pay, or how much they anticipate paying in the near future. Gas stations don't really make much on gas, as they want you to come into their stores to buy stuff.
Investments in oil futures contracts by traders has risen dramatically in the last decade. Most are betting that oil prices will rise, and this has probably inflated the price of oil and, of course, gasoline. But some traders bet on oil going down, which offsets the price some. One thing that has increased because of increased speculation is price volatility
Politicians can't really do too much to affect prices because oil is a global market. Increased drilling will contribute only small relative amounts to the world's oil supply, no matter what you hear. Over the last three years, domestic oil production has increased and gas prices have still risen. Releasing oil from strategic reserves would only provide temporary relief. Politicians could agree to lower gasoline taxes at the pump, and insist on more fuel-efficient cars or subsidize alternative-fuel vehicles. The first new fuel efficiency standards since 1990 have been agreed to by the Obama administration and automakers, with further toughening in 2016. US vehicles are already more efficient, with gasoline demand falling for the past year. That means that without efficiency standards, we would be paying much more to fill our tanks now.
Prices are high, mainly because of limits on how much oil can be quickly and easily brought to market. But many new reserves of oil have been found around the world. Canada, for instance, has enormous reserves, and they are increasing production. The arctic region is projected to have around 25% of the world's known reserves.
Analysts believe oil will never again stay much below $60 per barrel for an extended period. When prices do fall, producers stop developing oil until there is increased demand and higher prices. There is currently a boom in exploration, which is sure to increase supply in coming years, but, for now, the reality for us will be high prices for gasoline. A broad-based approach to our energy needs is worth considering for the future. Solar, wind and natural gas will undoubtedly be a larger part of our future energy use.

Info thanks to Associated Press March 22, 2012.

Wally

A new poem for you...

2012-03-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

ODE to the MULTIVERSE

This time I am me
Before I cannot see
Ahead is yet to be

But this time I am me...

I was a weary slave to you
And many times your master free
I mostly was not human kind
During my eternity...

For eons I was water
Filling some great sea
I took my turn as grains of sand
And granite panoply...

I often lived as your life
And played you well, you see
I've been all others you might know
But this time I am me...

I drifted down as snowflakes falling
I ended up a germ or pea
I sometimes was hot magma flowing
Or an ancient Redwood tree...

I ran in desperate fear of dying
I fought courageously
I was your battle weary friend
As well as your arch enemy...

I collapsed into a plasma
I was a singularity
I felt the birth of a universe
I outran gravity...

Endless times I have repeated
Boundless in infinity
All other times I can't recall
There is no memory...

So this time I am me
Before I cannot see
Ahead is yet to be
But this time I am me

Wally Stephens
Revision 3/18/12

CNBC $Million Challenge...

2011-12-10T11:51:00.001-08:00

Anyone play this recently? $1Million in play money awarded to start, went several weeks with hundreds of stocks and funds to trade and compete with. I ended up in 95th percentile with over 600000 participants, but so many awesome traders ahead of me. I think you had to have a lot of time to trade to have a chance to win. Some people turned $1Million into over $2Million! Grand prize was $1 Million! I didn't make any real money, but it was fun. They'll probably do it again.
Wally

Jon Huntsman's daughters....

2011-12-01T13:57:00.001-08:00

Jon Huntsman's secret weapons....three of his daughters! For a Republican, I kinda like this guy. He could come roaring out of the GOP pack considering the baggage many of them have. Anyway, his daughters are humorously tweeting and making videos in an unconventional approach to their dad's campaign. Very interesting!
See what you think ...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/jon-huntsman-daughters-again-143834092.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYVB2hc0HA

GOP views on science...

2011-11-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

It is astonishing to me to hear some of the comments from GOP candidates regarding evolution and global warming, for instance. Glad to know I'm not alone. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg can't believe what he hears. Read on....at least some people are still willing to use their brains...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/mayor-bloomberg-denounces_n_1076879.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

What are your thoughts?

Wally

End to the war in Iraq....

2011-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

So many thoughts come to mind about this. My son, Ted, has served with the Army in Iraq twice, so I have a personal interest in the matter. Most Americans didn't have a close connection to the war, and were asked to make no sacrifice. It wasn't part of their daily lives, and ended up not even being front page news. Perhaps because it dragged on for so long...almost 9 years since the 2003 invasion.

Why did we go there? The Bush administration gave various reasons for such a momentous undertaking. We were told that they most likely had weapons of mass destruction (they didn't). We were told they had something to do with September 11th (they didn't). None of the Sept 11th hijackers was Iraqi, but several were Saudis, one of our allies over there, supposedly). Al Qaeda in Iraq didn't gain a foothold until after the US invasion and subsequent power vacuum. We were told that Saddam Hussein was a very bad guy (he was), but certainly not the only bad guy in the world.

What has been the cost to us? Most importantly, we have lost almost 4500 of our finest young people since the March, 2003 invasion. Over 30,000 of our military have been wounded,( thousands are amputees or blind). Iraqi deaths are not well documented, but estimates range from over 100.000 to over one million. We have lost around $1 trillion of our treasure (much of it borrowed from places like China). By the way, a trillion is a million times a million, if you can wrap your head around such a number.

What are we left with? Well, Saddam is dead, and there is some semblance of elected government in Iraq, though sectarian violence continues to this day. Many there do not like the US, with al Sadr, who represents around 1 million Shiites, recently stating that if the US doesn't leave when agreed to, more violence will surely erupt. Iran has gained influence in Iraq, and there is evidence that they have encouraged violence and caused US casualties as they support the Shiite ethnic group, (The Iranian leadership is no friend of the US). The Iraqi government has refused to give immunity from Iraqi law to Americans who serve there, (the last straw for us apparently). So, thanks, but good riddance. We will apparently keep our Embassy staffed in Bagdad, and hope that they can remain safe.

So, was it worth it? The war divided Americans as it was waged, and President Bush will long be remembered for it. I remember the same division regarding a war I served in. Perhaps with the passage of more time, we will be able to write a better assessment of whether the war was necessary, or indeed a success in some ways. In the meantime, I dare to harbor the thought , for instance, that we could have accomplished more in Afghanistan much earlier if we had not been sidetracked. Most of us understood the reasons for going to Afganistan, I would guess. It ended up taking almost 10 years to bring Bin Laden to justice. Now, with the advent of the Arab Spring, could we have accomplished regime change in Iraq in a much less costly way? Many will argue the point, but it is a fair question, I think.

What do you think?

Wally

Bitchen Kitchen!

2011-10-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this show yet on the the Cooking channel?
Hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oy8sIN3oow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ohmMkiD9Z58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBlhpw2-giw&feature=fvwp&NR=1

More from Jackie Evancho

2011-10-14T10:44:00.001-07:00

Jackie Evancho singing from "Phantom"
http://abc.go.com/watch/clip/the-view/SH002253950000/PL55/VD55131029/jackie-evancho---all-i-ask-of-you/moments?rfr=google

Listen and enjoy!

Mom's ashes...

2011-10-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

We're taking Mom to her final resting place tomorrow. What I mean to say is we're taking that small amount of matter that once composed her failing earthly body. My sisters and I have waited over 3 years to do this final thing for Mom. We're taking her where she told us she wanted to be, though she confided she was really just returning to the oblivion from whence she came.

She gave up religion many years ago, and expected nothing but this all-too short life. I have to say she was brave and strong in her philosophy to the end. She did not seem afraid to face the end. She loved her family more that anything and would have given her life for one of us, I'm sure. To leave us behind was the worst part of it. She did not expect to meet us again in a heaven, a concept that gives comfort to millions of humans. Toward the end, I asked her if she wanted to believe again, but she said it would be a lie. She was true to herself, and could not be false to us. Though she had an uncanny ability to form strong bonds with her children and grandchildren, she finally was willing to lose them when the misery of her predicament outweighed all else.

She was maddeningly intelligent, and well-read, and could discuss almost any subject. Years ago, she would stay up all night, if need be, to listen to the imaginings of one of her kids, and occasionally polish off a bottle of vino in the process. She had been a beautiful young woman during the war, and told us some of the tales, but some she kept for herself, I'm sure. By far her strongest trait was being involved and worrying about her family, each and every member. While in the nursing home she would try to keep track of where each one of us was and what we were probably doing, who was going to work, who was coming home, who was travelling, who was home with family, and who might be in harm's way. She was definitely a champion worrier as well.

I'm not saying Mom was perfect. She was subject to the same human condition that afflicts us all. But I am saying that she left something here with us...and each of us in the family knows what I mean. It is the intense, tenacious, irreversible bond that she made sure was formed with each of us, now embedded in our memories, tying us to her forever, or at least until we leave this all behind when our time comes. Does it matter now that she was like that? Perhaps all we have to do is look at ourselves and our own families to find the answer. I think I understand a little more now what she was doing. Maybe Mom didn't believe in heaven, per Se, but amazingly she lives on everyday in each of us, her kids her grandkids and her great grand kids. In that way she really never has totally left this earth, at least for awhile more.

So, we are taking her ashes tomorrow to her favorite place...and I know we will feel her presence there as we wipe the tears away.

We love you, Mom....always will.

Your Son,
Wally

9/11 Ten years later...

2011-09-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

Where are we at after 10 years? We all remember the grief and anger generated that day. The biggest response by the U.S. was two wars, with a cost now of over $3 trillion, and thousands of lives. This was not money we had, but was financed solely through borrowing, the first wars in our history to be paid for by credit alone, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Before the wars, we actually had a budget surplus, and fairly good employment numbers. These expenditures contributed very little to stimulating our domestic economy. Bush-era tax cuts further deepened the hole, and continue to this day. It seems apparent that debt now constitutes the most significant threat to our security, and not Al Qaeda. It is a fact that, even those in Congress who stated opposition to the Iraq war did little to oppose the spending.

During this time, America's manufacturing jobs have withered. Infrastructure spending at home was placed on the back burner, while the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse and alternative energy leader was not given enough attention. We now struggle to fund education, our unemplayment rate is stubbornly high and our leadership in innovation is at risk. With gas at about $4 per gallon, it is a hardship for many to fill their tanks. Without a serious change in our energy policy, we continue to import at least 60% of our oil from other countries, with much of it coming from Saudi Arabia (the country that spawned 15 of the 19 September 11th perpetrators). And, to top it off, our political sniping and gamesmanship, after a brief pause just after 9/11, has resumed its intensity, and contributed to a currently dysfunctional government.

So, an important question might be the following:

Was our response to the events of 10 years ago the best one? It has been said that the ultimate goal of Al Qaeda was to elicit such a response, and to inflict great damage to our once strong economy. If that is true, could we say now that they have succeeded in a way?

With the amazing rebirth of buildings and memorials at Ground Zero, the rebuilding of the damaged Pentagon, and the new memorial in Shanksville, Pa. to honor the United Flight 93 heros, we see the American spirit still seems as strong as ever. Let us now hope that our political leaders can work together on a plan to allow that spirit to gain strength and fluorish as it has in the past. We have faced great challenges in our history, and America has alway risen to the occasion. Let this knowledge guide our leaders in our current crisis, no matter what their political persuasion. Let's let them know we are all still Americans.

What is your take?

Wally

The Poor American Worker on Labor Day...

2011-09-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Perhaps this has been the worst decade for American workers in the past century. Private sector wage gains during the last decade are even below wage gains for the decade of the Great Depression! This amounts to about 4% over the past 10 years when adjusted for inflation, ( it was 5% from 1929 to 1939). Big corporations are creating more jobs outside the U.S. as their profits hit records. The median CEO pay at 350 big American companies has soared 11% to over $9 million during the last year alone, and bonuses have increased an average 19.7% (not including stock option awards)!

The United Auto Workers Union recently agreed to new hires receiving about half the pay of older Ford workers, while the CEO's options are now worth about $200 million. Ford also reinstated merit pay raises and matching 401 K contributions for salaried workers last year, while excluding hourly workers. Consider that nearly a century ago Henry Ford paid his hourly workers about 3 times the typical factory hourly pay, inviting criticism from other executives. But Henry Ford understood that his workers were also consumers, and they were able to afford the Model Ts they were producing. When jobs and wages are under assault, as they are now, Americans cannot keep spending, and we have a stagnant economy. The ratio of corporate profits to wages is currently higher now than at any time since before the Great Depression. Jobs and profits are off-shored by large corporations to avoid wages and taxes here. At the same time, a billionaire, Warren Buffet, said recently that America's rich need to pay more. Buffet stated that, with available tax loop holes, his effective tax rate is about 17%, which is a lower rate that his workers pay. Something is very wrong. I believe we need to eliminate many of the loop holes that favor a few, and restructure the tax code to ensure everyone pays a fair share to keep our country strong and competitive

So, on this Labor Day, who is celebrating? Who will come to the aide of the American worker? If left to the large corporations, no rescue is occurring or planned. Conservatives recite the mantra that the private sector will take care of all this, and government is evil and must become insignificant in our lives, (unless your talking about government regulation of the womb). Let me ask you, do you believe, if left to their own devices, that will happen? Do you think this whole unwinding of the great American middle class will have a happy ending without some kind of intervention?

Tell me what you think!

Happy Labor Day, America...

Thanks to information from Robert Reich in the SF Chronicle, 9/4/11.

Wally

The Marines of Morenci...

2011-08-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

As a Vietnam vet, I always have a great interest in stories of the many experiences from that war. This one I recently found, and I believe it holds great interest for all of us. It is an amazing story from a small mining town in Arizona. The article is from Time Magazine, January 5, 1970:
The article says it all...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943116,00.html

"The Wall" http://www.thewall-usa.com/names.asp

Wally

American men....employment status check...

2011-08-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

Since the early 1970s, the portion of American men who work and their median wages have been eroding. For decades, this effect has been made more bearable for families due to increasing numbers of women entering the workforce. During the housing bubble of a few years ago, the problem was masked by boosts in the male-dominated construction trades, which employed millions. When the real estate bubble burst, so did the prospects for droves of men. The percentage of men with jobs fell to 63.5% in July this year (it was 63.3% in December, 2009. These numbers are at their lowest levels in available records since 1948! Within the category of prime working-age men between 25 and 54, 81.2% held jobs in July. For perspective, consider that in 1969, the year I returned from Vietnam, 95% of men in this category had jobs! Drilling down a bit we find that men who still have jobs are getting paid less. Median, inflation-adjusted wages for men between 30 and 50 dropped 27% from 1969 to 2009 to about $33000/yr now. This means that median earnings capacity for men has gone back to levels not seen for decades.

What is happening? Let's look at some other facts. Women, who have made up a majority of college students for about 30 years, (now at 57%), are managing to adapt better to a data-driven economy that values education and collaboration more than muscle. Before you object, let me say that women have not surpassed men in average earnings power. Women earn on average about 16% less than men and still disproportionately contend with gender discrimination and career interruptions related to raising children. In addition, men and women have endured job losses in our current economy. In July, 68.9% of women aged 25 to 54 held jobs. (Contrast this figure with 1969, when fewer than half of women in this age group had jobs outside the home.) Currently, however, men are more likely to be included in the long-term unemployed.

For men, there is a polarization occurring, with those at the top of the education and income scales seeing their incomes rising, while those in the middle falling farther behind. In order to cut costs, corporations have been off-shoring manufacturing and other jobs. Higher skills are needed for the increasingly mechanized production jobs that remain. Efforts to streamline management have resulted in fewer middle management jobs for workers.

After WWII, college attendance increased to keep up with a more complex society. But graduation rates stopped growing for men in the late 1970s, for reasons not fully understood. One explanation may be that draft deferments were no longer relevant after the end of the Vietnam war. Women, however, achieved college degrees in ever-greater numbers, pursuing positions in the expanding healthcare industry and other service-sector and business areas. You could say that women, over all, have been better able to adapt to our changing economy. Millions of American men, who have relied for decades on decent-paying manufacturing jobs, seem to be having the hardest time adjusting to a new reality. Unfortunately, the solution is education and retraining, but the current political environment in this country does not look promising. Our public education systems are strapped, and even once-sacred Pell grants may be sacrificed. How do we get our leaders to agree that the only way to solve this problem is to remove financial roadblocks to continuing education and training? If we can't compete with labor, we must compete with education and innovation. I believe we must develop a long-range plan to keep the famous American middle class strong, and to continue to lead the way.

What is your take?

Statistics thanks to Mike Dorning, SF Chronicle August 28, 2011.

Simulation and the Universe...

2011-08-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

The history of technological innovation and computational power suggests that, bit by bit, computerized artificial worlds will gain convincing levels of realism over time. The question is not whether simulated worlds will be created by our descendants. It is already being done. What is unknown is just how complex and realistic the worlds will become. If we humans succeed in creating computer-based sentience in the future, we may be able to program complex simulated environments with populations of simulated beings existing within a computer's hardware. Imagine "Sims" or "Second Life" with responsive, self-aware inhabitants! Imagine that whoever was running such a simulation could decide whether the simulated beings knew that they might exist within a computer. Even with such programming, it is probable that most of the computer inhabitants would consider this possibility too unbelievable to give it much attention. They would not be able to see past their own universe.

This brings me to the following question: "Are we living in a simulation?" This idea actually has a long history, dating back to the 1960s when it was suggested by computer pioneers Konrad Zuse and Edward Fredkin. The probability is that our descendants will create huge numbers of such ever-more complex simulations, perhaps with conscious, self-aware inhabitants if computational powers are great enough. The numbers of such inhabitants made of chips and bytes would eventually greatly outnumber the flesh and blood humans. The reasoning that follows is perhaps disturbing. If the ratio of simulated beings to real beings is tremendous, then statistics suggest that it is more likely that any sentient being in the universe is part of a simulation. In other words, it is most likely that you, I and everyone else on Earth are all living in some kind of simulation! Unfortunately, human logic alone is not sufficient to ensure that this scenario is not the case.

Anyway, disturbing though it may be, this reasoning has not been discounted by some very intelligent humans. If it is true, let's hope whoever is running our program doesn't tire of it completely and pull the plug! At least give us enough time to play God with our own simulated universes! Maybe that's all this is about? If so, I choose to see the humor in it!

Thanks to Brian Greene, author of "The Hidden Reality"

"Yellow Ribbons" in our minds...

2011-08-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

"You'll never go home on your left"
"YOU'RE RIGHT!"
"You'll never go home on your left"
"YOU'RE RIGHT!"
"You had a good home but you left"
"YOU'RE RIGHT!"
"You had a good home but you left"
"YOU'RE RIGHT!"
"You're left, you're left, you're left right left"

I find myself singing this in my mind as I started jogging again recently. The drill sergeants set up the cadence and lyrics for our marching/running in formation, and we (about 200 of us in the company) supplied the loud retorts. I'm sure it was designed to keep us together left and right, build camaraderie, and increase our endurance. Now I find it keeps me going when I want to stop. I think it takes my mind off the reality of exhaustion, and distracts me for awhile.

Actually, the best song was "Yellow ribbon", and in 1967 those of us in Basic Training were all males. As you probably know, it starts like this:

"Around her waist she wore a yellow ribbon...she wore a yellow ribbon for her lover far away"
"Far away"
"FAR AWAY"
"Far away"
"FAR AWAY"
"She wore a yellow ribbon for her lover far away"

Now, the drill sergeants got bored with those lyrics and made up their own, which added great interest and humor to the song. (I'll leave it to your imagination where she wore the yellow ribbon). There were actually several places, and some of them really got our minds off the pain of running for miles.
(Not that I silently recite those variations now to take my mind off running!)

That was 44 years ago....my God!

The Draft...

2011-08-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

In March of '67 I drove down to the local draft board to check on my status. Since I left community college after one unremarkable semester and got myself a job in an oil refinery, I had passed the physical, and was now classified 1A (ready to be drafted). After all the stories I had heard from my dad, uncles and others about WWII, I figured this was just my turn to stand up to my fears and prove myself. The country needed warm bodies for Vietnam. My girlfriend at the time was with me, and she pleaded with me not to do anything rash. I told her not to worry as I shut the car door. Once inside, I was greeted by a middle-aged woman.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"I would like to know when I will probably be drafted," I stammered.
She took my name, and looked for it in a large list of names.
"At the current rate, you will probably be called sometime this summer," she said, matter-of-factly.
I thought about it for a moment, then said something that surprised me...
"I don't really want to wait around for that, so when can you take me?"
Without any noticeable reaction, she said, "I can put you at the top of the list. You will probably go next month."
I asked her to make it so, which she apparently did.
Back in the car, my girlfriend had tears in her eyes. She knew. Maybe she also knew it would be the end of us? I didn't know that, though.
In April, I reported to Oakland as ordered for induction into the Army. It was a stomach-wrenching morning, as I recall...one for the books. I took the oath, which I kinda had to, and learned that all inductees that day would travel to Fort Polk, La. for basic training. We had to look on a map to remember exactly where Louisiana was. We were not generally a sophisticated bunch.
That was the beginning of events that would change me, and, I suppose, the millions of my fellow draftees forever, for better or worse. I was homesick already as I girded for what was to come.

To be continued...

Wally