First Blog

If North Korean (NOKO) dictator Kim jong un cared about his people, he would feed them, not go about launching expensive missiles which can do his country no good, except court the enmity of his neighbors and the world. Kim wants his own life more than anything, but I fear if he senses his end is imminent, he may do anything, and I mean anything.  USA and even China should be careful here.  The only possibility to end Kim’s regime is a sudden coup from within. Kim knows this well. What NOKO wants .  Attention, benefit deals, a place on the world stage for Kim.  Possibly a screen for China. What China wants .  A distraction.  As long as NOKO is being the bad boy, outrageous, and blustering, who pays attention to what China is up to – such as building military islands in the South China Sea?  Banking sanctions?  Phooey.  Just move the money around.  China is already prepared for this.  The only peaceful recourse for the USA is to exact tariffs on imported Chinese produced go

This past week I visited Washington DC as part of an NSF grant.  It was all about creating more science, technology, engineering, and math majors.  Acronym: STEM.  This NSF STEP toward the STEM advocacy program is successful, and the grantees and grant administrators are highly motivated.  The meeting was excellent.  New ideas were presented; old ideas were reaffirmed; alternative ideas were presented.  It is acknowledged that more STEM majors are wanted and are needed.  For the USA, this is correct.  Make no doubt. The foundational question was how to get them? As usual, the keynote speaker cited the well known facts that USA students do poorly, actually very poorly, on international exams in these subjects, particularly math.  So, these sad facts loomed in the background. In short, the basics question was:  How do we get more people to pursue STEM degrees? Remarkably, there is no clear consensus on how this may be achieved.  The NSF project directors wanted us to report out