President Obama's Speech

I made several notes during tonight's speech. Don't be surprised if I make mistakes. I won't even claim to be Superman. I even have a few quick reactions. Good grief, this is real time blogging. Don't be surprised if I have second, third, even fourth thoughts, especially if I must go out and fight Daleks....

Obama began his speech with some platitudes. Americans used to give their fair share of work and contributions (e.g., taxes, etc.) and get their fair share of rewards. Anybody could make it in America. For some decades now that has changed. That compact has been broken. (Note: Quite a few bright people on the left and right have said similar things. I can agree with those comments.)

Obama then went on to praise small business. He noted they are the ones who create the most jobs. There is, again, significant evidence to support that claim. He advocated cutting taxes on them.

My next note is about Obama's comments on infrastructure. He compares us -- unfavorably -- with China. I will note they are far behind us and have much catching up to do. Some people think they will not be able to, especially given population patterns. He praised private construction companies, saying they will be the ones to do the work rebuilding our infrastructure. He mentions schools as needing rehabilitation. I wonder what he thinks of the people who are starting to pursue "unschooling" as a better way of learning.

Obama condemned earmarks, boondoggles and bridges to nowhere.

Obama cited bipartisan support for measures such as he is proposing in the past. I will note at this time that Speaker Boehner is not smiling, but that VP Biden is.

Obama next addressed financials. He said that debt must be stabilized in the long run. He also noted that Medicare must be reformed to strengthen it. I wonder what analysis has been done on the concept that large amounts of medical spending is useless. Far to much is spent on a person's last few months of life. When Mom had some surgery back in the 1980s, she came home and lived quite healthily and independently for nearly two decades.

Obama then mentions the low taxes on the very rich -- and uses Warren Buffet's observation that his tax rate is lower than his secretary's. Increasing numbers of people are mentioning how the very rich are making out really well at the expense of the middle class. Even some conservatives are calling it a kind of class warfare. On a similar note, he said that the tax code should not favor the best connected but those who serve the country. Again, an interesting variety of people are saying similar things, albeit in different ways.

Obama then commented that we need to out build, out educate, and out innovate all other countries as we have done in the past..

He addressed the outdated patent process. He said it must be easier for individuals and companies to get patent protection for their work.

Obama used the phrase "Made in America" to point to what he and others want to be the future of our country. Even Boehner applauded that comment. Obama said the next generation of manufacturing must take root in America. He mentioned briefly the role that scientists and engineers will take in this work.

My last note has Obama saying it's time to "cut most government spending and cut most government growth." This is clearly reaching out to Republicans.

The talk ended at 7:41 by my watch. After the speech network news switched to reports of a new terror threat that could coincide with 9/11.

That's the end of my quick notes. If it isn't up to my usual writings, please understand. I haven't done this kind of thing much.

This is what I wrote for Metro Washington Mensa's newsletter for September. I am posting everything I now write for that publication here as well.

The column follows as it appeared.

I've had an interesting month in Metro Washington Mensa. Between Mensa events and events that I invited our members to, quite a bit has happened of note.

Possibly the most Mensa oriented weekend was the last weekend in July. There was quite a bit on our calendar. I began that weekend by attending, once again, Herb Guggenheim's Salon at La Madeleine. This was, as usual, an occasion for many fascinating conversations on a variety of topics. Herb's practice of having everyone write down a question for discussion helps not only attract thoughtful members, but also sparks a variety of discussions. Even before the “formal” discussion begins, we talk about all sorts of things ranging from culture to politics to management at companies where we have worked. Or, perhaps, I should say mismanagement. Those of us in tech fields are particularly well acquainted with poor management. I've even given talks on the subject at Regional Gatherings, focusing on the mess at NASA. Two, given at Snowball in 2003 and 2004, about the Columbia accident helped set my current course in life. That Friday I do remember, among other things, I remember seeing Stefan and hearing Herb's wife Leslie briefly mention Veterans Administration health care. Since I am a veteran, I took especial note of that. I'm trying to follow up her comments now.

On Saturday I awoke early enough – with the weather pleasant enough – to head out for a six mile run. How many of you are runners – or even get much physical exercise? While our minds are good, we also need to take of our bodies. I look forward to living as long as Mom – who passed on at 93 – and Uncle Don – who made it to 92. Keeping physically active also helps keep one's mind sharp. When I am running alone, I also think about the day ahead – and more. After the run, I had a good breakfast, read some e-mail and got ready to head out.

The big event on Saturday was Dave and Liz Remine's Corn Boil out in Virginia. I first got to know Liz and Dave when I joined Mensa up in New Jersey three decades ago. I remember enjoyable parties at their home. I can also remember the two of them coming to dinner parties I began organizing at local restaurants. My criteria for choosing those restaurants was fairly simple. They had to be good restaurants – and they could not be part of a major chain. Good Time Charlie's qualified. TGIF didn't. One very memorable evening started at a restaurant. We all then then proceeded to see the film Starman at a local theater. I won't discuss this evening more in this column. Just ask me about it the next time we see each other at an event. You will be amused. You will also learn a bit about one incident that pushed my politics in a libertarian direction.

I ran into quite a few interesting people at the Corn Boil. Besides Liz and Dave, there were local leaders such as much of the ExComm, Heather Poirier, her husband, and two people with whom I have another connection – the Hash House Harriers. Possibly the most interesting conversation I had at the Corn Boil, though, was with the people from Roanoke. We talked about photography a bit. They encouraged me to come down to Roanoke and do some serious photography there. I think I will in the not too distant future. I did some photography at the Corn Boil. You can see the results on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27233112@N05/sets/72157627319392996/.

That evening I returned to Maryland. I would have liked to attend Herb and Leslie's Saturday evening party, especially since they told us it would be going on into the wee hours of Sunday, but I do need my sleep – and Sunday morning I had another special event to attend.

Sunday morning into afternoon was the annual Fourth of July Crab Feast at St. Mark's. Fourth of July? You need a sense of humor. The service begins with members of the College of Crustaceans processing in, dressed in some Crab outfits and acting rather silly. You can see my photos of this event on Flickr at

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The end of the Space Age?

This started life as a column for the local Mensa newsletter. I happen to be Member at Large for Metro Washington Mensa. Our group covers Washington, DC, the inner suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, but part of the group extends out to West Virginia. Believe it or not, you can reach West Virginia in a few hours of driving. OK, maybe not at rush hour. This column might have some interest for people even in other parts of the world. This column is a response to the leader The end of the Space Age and the articles Into the Sunset and Spooks in orbit.

Here's the column -- unedited.

As I write this column, the space shuttle Atlantis is on not just its final voyage, but the final voyage of any space shuttle. The Economist magazine cover for July 2nd-8th, 2011, has on it a photograph of a shuttle orbiting Earth with the title “The end of the Space Age” on said cover. The Economist makes several interesting points in that issue. Launching humans into space is expensive – and has few benefits, if any. Robots can do the work for such things as communications satellite, weather satellites and exploration of both other planets as well as the rest of the universe.

The Economist points out that human space flight was a consequence of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Americans got really interested when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in October 1957. In 1961 John F. Kennedy set a goal of landing Americans on the Moon before the decade was out. That goal was met in 1969 with the landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on July 20th. How many of you remember that day? I watched them walk on the Moon on a Sunday afternoon into evening while I was living in Palo Alto, California. We were riveted to the TV screen. Apollo 12 lasted from November 14 through November 24th. By that time I had moved to Poughkeepsie, New York and was working as a physicist at IBM. I don't remember Apollo 12. Apollo 13 was the aborted Apollo mission. It lasted from April 11, 1970 through April 17, 1970. My strongest memory of that mission is the film “Apollo 13.” The last Apollo mission happened in December 1972. I don't remember that mission at all. That was my last semester of full time graduate work in physics. I was getting fed up with, I thought, physics. It turned out to be late 20th century academia. I discovered that when I was doing grad work in social psychology in the 1970s.

What got me interested in space again? I read the Gerard K. O'Neill's book “The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space” in 1977. I was fascinated by the idea that humans could be living in space colonies within our lifetimes. I thought I could be one of those humans. I joined a group called the L5 Society which were advocating such colonies. Why would humans want to build such colonies? One idea which had been proposed in the 1960s was to build giant solar power stations in Earth orbit to supply power to the entire Earth cheaply and cleanly. L5's slogan was “L5 by 95.” I did not know at the time how hard that would be. I learned about the difficulties in the 1980s. Still, though, by this time I was clearly committed to a future where humans lived and worked in space in large numbers for the benefit of all of humanity – at least those of us in free, technologically advanced societies.

What of the future? The two shuttle disasters revealed an agency afflicted with major problems. The loss of Columbia in 2003 resulted in an investigation that showed an agency that could not lead anymore. In fact, the agency had become – and had been for a long time – hostile in many ways to new ideas. Not Invented Here had become an acronym – NIH.

We've discovered other problems. First off, humans cannot live in space – at least at the present time. We and the Russians have sent several hundred humans into space for periods that have lasted several months and, in a few cases, more than a year. All of the people who have spent even that short a time in space have come back much weaker, needing years to get back to the normal human strength. These are people who are in excellent condition for most humans. Anyone who takes a multiyear trip to Mars will, most likely, come back in even worse shape. Living there would be impossible.

We can also look at Antartica. Humans first discovered Antartica in 1820. 1820? It took that long for humans to sail that far south. The continent was ignored for the rest of the century. Humans first paid real attention to Antarctica when Scott and Amundsen raced for the South Pole a century ago. Amundsen's team won, reaching the pole on December 14, 1911. Scott's team reached the pole, but died on the return. This could be viewed as the early 20th Century equivalent of the race to the Moon. It cost much less than Apollo. Humans did not really make any strong efforts regarding Antarctica until after World War II. We now have some bases there for research and some adventurous tourists.

The Space Age, then, must be finished – as finished as the Roman Empire. Perhaps it is. Perhaps we will only use the “inner space” of communications satellites, weather satellites and other things connected to the real well being of humans. We may send off a few robots to explore elsewhere and a few orbital observatories to look at the rest of the universe. “Star Trek”, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and more will be viewed as 20th Century myths. Awhile back on Facebook I commented “If you had told a resident of Haight Ashbury in 1969 that none of the space exploration stuff in “2001: A Space Odyssey” would have come true 40 years later but that General Motors would be in bankruptcy and that Lincoln would be selling luxury, high end pickup trucks, they would have told you to cut back on the LSD and go talk to the nice people down at the Free Clinic.” Karen Caron and Jody Carlson liked that quote. A couple of space cadets didn't even get it.

I will say, though, that the First Space Age is finished. With real reform, we may be able to build a real future for humans in space. Open democratic reform, though, is needed. Open democratic societies do a much better job of really advancing human civilization. Such societies are open to new ideas and new people. They are better at creating real progress. They are better are solving problems over the long haul. They respect their people and try to make lives better for all. We all know they fail at this all too often, Still, though, they are the best kinds of societies that humanity has created so far. Winston Churchill once said “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” Those solar power satellites are looking increasingly possible. People are struggling for real reform in tech fields. I know – I am one of them.

I will close by comparing three years: 1621, 2011 and 2525. Those of you old enough to remember might remember the song “In the year 2525” back in the 1960s. I have it on a CD. It was look at a future of fantastic myths -- and possibly dark times. It was very different from what we have today. What about 1621? That was the year John Donne became dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England. A few years back I read the book “A Cambridge Companion to John Donne.” Why? I was curious about a man I am descended from. I was stunned about how similar I was to this great man who lived four centuries ago. I'm not is his league, but I was surprised about how we thought and felt about things. Now, let's compare our times. If I could take a time machine back to 1621 and tell Donne about a typical day for me, he would be thoroughly surprised. Listen to stereo? I could even take a small one back to show him. Drive a car? Live in an air conditioned house? Communicate via the Internet? He would learn much about the great accomplishments of humans in the past four centuries – and be surprised at how similar today's humans were to those of the 17th Century. What will 2525 be like? As far ahead of ours as ours is from 1621? Or more like 1621? Our descendants will know.

That's enough for now. Feel free to bring this up at any Mensa event or elsewhere. I try to be open to everyone.

Beer and Me

I had my first drink at a fraternity party at Rutgers when I was a freshman. It was beer. The upperclassmen played a game. The object of the game was to get freshman drunk. I was the first loser. I got really sick. Friends helped me back to the dormitory. The next morning I phoned my father. Dad normally had lunch at the Rutgers Alumni Faculty Club. He took me there for lunch that day. We had a serious talk about alcohol.

A few weeks later I was in New York City with friends. Back then 18 year olds could drink legally in New York. My friends ordered beer. Remembering both what my father told me and also remembering that my father enjoyed a scotch, I surprised everyone by ordering scotch. I liked the taste. I discovered I enjoyed moderate drinking.

Years later in California I discovered wine. I found out I liked drinking wine with dinner, again moderately.

I kept up my usually moderate consumption of wine and scotch whiskey for years. I did upgrade my taste in whiskey to The Glen Livet when it became available. I also tried and liked other brands. One old girl friend said Langavulin was an aphrodisiac. Guess what we drank when we were alone?

Beer, however, remained off limits to me. That first experience really affected me. I tend toward moderation in most things most of the time. I was that way even in my 20s. One friend of mine -- a part of the flower child scene -- said to me with real respect "You're with us -- but only part way."

Then in 1987 I went to England for the World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton. It was my first trip to England -- but far from my last. My cousins Harry and Anita met me at Gatwick. They are not only relatives of mine, but also friends. On the way up to Nottingham, Harry stopped at a pub. In the pub he asked me if I would like to try one of their beers. Friendly person that I am, I said yes. Harry ordered best bitter all around. I really liked the taste of that beer.

Some months later I threw a party at my home in New Jersey. One woman I was friends with brought a six pack of Sam Adams beer. I was amused by the "Brewer, Patriot" label. When she left, she left behind a couple bottles of Sam Adams. Some days later I tried a bottle. I liked it as well. It was so much better than Budweiser it wasn't funny. I added a beer now and again to my alcohol consumption. I even bought a six pack now and then.

In 1989 I returned to England, this time for a simple trip to see more of the land of my ancestors. I told Harry my beer story at one point. He was very amused.

In the 1990s I worked at Goddard Space Flight Center. I got involved with the running group there. Because once I won a trophy for my performance in a 10K -- time of 45:20 -- I bragged about it in a letter I sent out with my Christmas card. In May of 1993 my cousins invited all the family to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration of their parents wedding. At that party my cousin Don -- a real athlete in high school -- turned to me at one point and said that he could not run a 10K that fast and that he had run 4 marathons. He said with real conviction that I had at least one marathon in me.

In 1996 I did run -- OK, slowly -- the Marine Corps Marathon. I had one strong memory besides finishing that marathon. Around mile 17 I saw a physically attractive woman wearing a T shirt proclaiming her to be a member of the White House Hash House Harriers -- The Drinking Club With a Running Problem. The only reason I did not crack up laughing was because it was only mile 17.

In June of 1998 I ran the Race for the Cure 5K. I wasn't even out of breath. While I was waiting for my friends to catch up, I saw a couple of people wearing Hash T shirts. I walked over and introduced myself and asked about the group. Mother Chalker told me the hash was into exercise and fun. He handed me a paper with contact information on it.

The next Friday, according to the phone announcement, there would be a full Moon run. The announcement said the start would be at My Brother's Place -- a bar/restaurant in DC. The announcement also said to look for the degenerates.

I showed up that Friday. I thought to myself if these people are degenerates, most Americans belong in intensive care. I had a good time. I started making friends. Oh -- I was very amused by the consumption of beer at the closing circle. I became a hasher -- and now a more regular, but almost always moderate, beer drinker. Hashing has definitely improved my life.

For over a decade now I have been involved in St, Mark's Episcopal Church. While the church tends to be more liberal, anyone is welcome to come. St. Mark's also has a tradition called Pub Lunch after the 11:15 service on Sunday. It is a friendly time. We even brew our own beer. Rick Weber, our brewmaster, is even the Bishop's Brewmaster. One of our sayings is "Come for the wine. Stay for the beer."

It has now reached the point where I might be a connoisseur of beer. I like, for instance, a good IPA. Recently I discovered at a Rutgers event the microbrewery Starr Hill's Northern Lights IPA. The physicist/astronomer in me was obviously drawn to the name. The educated beer drinker that I have become has me really liking this IPA better than others. It is a bit scary to now have a favorite even in a specialty brew.

That's all for now. Soon I must leave for a New Jersey State Society event at the Capitol.

Happy Independence Day!

Today, July 4th, is the 235th anniversary of the day the Continental Congress adopted our Declaration of Independence. There is much more here and here.

In one very interesting way I began being touched when I went to St. Alban's Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 26th. I went because I was invited. People at St. Alban's are involved in all kinds of things -- including the DC art scene. That Sunday they celebrated St. Alban's Day. The service concluded with a hymn sung to honor St. Alban. The music was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I was especially moved by that. Oh -- that is the artist in me speaking.

I found out about an organ recital -- those words do not begin to convey the wonderful concert I heard about at Washington National Cathedral some days ago. Today I went. The concert began with Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" followed by the National Anthem. The concert concluded with Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever." After the concert I wandered through the gift shop and purchased "America the Beautiful" by the Choirs of Washington National Cathedral. I can now actually claim I own a CD of patriotic American music.

For my English cousins, I will now repeat a story I read a number of years ago. An Englishwoman claimed that the English had never lost a war. An American challenged her on that, noting the outcome of the American Revolution. She simply replied "English colonists fighting for English rights against a German king!" I'm still learning history. It's a relatively new interest for me. David Howarth concluded his book "1066: The Year of the Conquest" with this paragraph:

Yet those children, or their children, won a victory in the end. They never became Norman; they remained most stubbornly English, absorbed the invaders and made of the mixture a new kind of Englishness.

The history of 1066 is very depressing. What William the Bastard and his men did to England is unspeakable. Still, though, those words ring true for me, the American who is descended from fine English people on both sides of my family.

Soon I will leave for a concert in Greenbelt. I had planned to spend this evening in DC photographing the fireworks display. The weather currently is less than good. There might be thunderstorms. For obvious reasons I do not want to risk my fancy camera in such weather. I just paid $255 to get it fixed. I don't want to damage the camera. The last repair, I am told, was normal. Modern technology does have its drawbacks.

Some Thoughts About the Bishop Election

All, I this is the text of an e-mail I sent to Maureen, David and Rick --our representatives in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington convention some days ago. For those of you who read this blog and are not Episcopalians, please try to understand the primary audience for this missive -- and the others on this topic.

Here's the e-mail:

I have been thinking about the upcoming bishop election. We do have five excellent candidates. I will discuss some of my thoughts about each in alphabetical order by last name.

Ronald Abrams has an interesting history. He's a native New Yorker who has spent much of his career in the South -- including one stint where he had significant dealings with the military. I was impressed with the fact that, while he sees value in the new technologies for communications, he thinks that personal contact is more important. You might be surprised, but I agree with him on that. You would not believe what I have read on the Internet -- and from people who don't come off as nuts as soon as you meet them. We are still learning how to communicate decently over electronic devices. Remember in 1811 the fastest way to get a message from New York City to Philadelphia was via men on horseback and an overnight stop in Trenton, N.J. People had more time to think back then. Our communications technologies may have evolved -- but we humans have not. Abrams came off as friendly and quite interested in strengthening our church with some good ideas on how to make this happen. Reaching out to the young especially with things like Theology Pubs has real merit. Getting our youth to think about their futures and our church is also a good idea.

Mariann Budde has had significant experience in Minnesota with turning around parishes that had fallen on hard times. I was very interested when she mentioned that the Episcopal Church does not have any sort of "brand" to the general public. We can change that. She seems aware of the problems with Washington National Cathedral -- possibly the church that is most identified with the Episcopal Church. We need a strong, healthy cathedral Given her interests, knowledge and overall energy, I think she would do well in bringing the cathedral back to health.

Let me interject a note about our lack of public attention at this point. I will cite one recent example here in Maryland. Former Governor William Donald Shaefer died in April. The man was not only respected as a great governor and before that mayor of Baltimore, but the man was positively loved. "He Cared." is on the front cover of the program of the celebration of his life. I am rather well informed about Maryland politics. Besides the Democratic Party, I am on the Episcopal Public Policy Network. When did I learn Shaefer was an Episcopalian? When I read his obituary. That is appalling.

Samuel Candler is a real Southerner -- but a very open minded one. He's led large churches that are doing well in this world. He seems able to communicate well with a wide variety of people. We need people such as him. I was quite impressed that he responded to my request for a joke with one that was funny. Later on we had a chance encounter during which he spoke appreciatively about my request. He recognized what I was getting at by making such an unusual request. In general he seems quite prepared to handle the real challenges of being Bishop of Washington, leading Episcopalians, interacting with politicians and the general public.

Jane Gould is originally from this area. I wonder if, for some reason, she is seeking to return. Boston is a fine area, but she might miss things about DC. I will note, though, that this area and diocese is sufficiently attractive in so many ways I won't hold the fact that she would be returning to the diocese of her youth against her. In some ways that makes her a strong candidate. I was very impressed that she manages to be both the priest that leads a quite multicultural parish and be Episcopal Chaplain at MIT, Tending to the spiritual needs of engineers and scientists who are willing to participate in a religion is quite a challenge.

John Harmon is a priest in our diocese. He. along with Jane Gould, probably understands our diocese best at present. He's also described himself as a product of Episcopalian education. He knows his way around DC politics -- both local and national. While he describes himself as a life long Episcopalian, his accent gave me the idea that he was born outside of the U.S. and spent some time living there. I could be wrong, of course. He is sharp and aware of both the challenges and opportunities we have with our church.

I think St. Mark's will be able to work well with any of these candidates. This is my first time actually paying attention to the internal politics of the Episcopal Church, at least regarding election of a bishop. I may even be able to rank the candidates in my eyes before the election. Yes, in one sense I am a good Episcopalian in that I have been a cradle Episcopalian born to cradle Episcopalians. Now I am starting to pay attention about the way things currently work in our diocese. I think I have much to learn. I also suspect I have much to offer.

Mensa and the Larger World

This started life as a column for the local Mensa newsletter. I happen to be Member at Large for Metro Washington Mensa. Our group covers Washington, DC, the inner suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, but part of the group extends out to West Virginia. Believe it or not, you can reach West Virginia in a few hours of driving. OK, maybe not at rush hour. This column might have some interest for people even in other parts of the world.

Here's the column -- unedited.

During my time as Member at Large – and even before –I've participated a bit in discussions about Mensa, especially our Metro Washington section, and the larger world. Some of us have noticed that we don't seem to have as many Saturday evening parties as we once did. Other activities have scaled back. People we used to see often and know well we now see rarely or not at all.

Some of these things can be considered normal. Some bright young people join Mensa in hopes of finding a similarly bright mate. Even some older people become active in Mensa for similar reasons. Just because you are, for example, over 70, does not mean you have completely lost interest in romance, for example (using a gentle term). The actor Tony Randall had, by all reports, a long happy marriage with his first wife. She was not able to have children. She died. What did Tony do? He eventually remarried to a woman 50 years younger than him. He became a father for the first time at 75 – yes, 75. In any event, some of the people who join Mensa for such reasons will become less active with the larger group after having achieved their goal. There are other social reasons for joining Mensa that, once the need has been met, may lead to less activity in the larger group.

There are other things at work as well. Some times an organization is born and grows to be large and active, but then people drift away for other activities. People may join a ski club in their 20s or 30s, but move on to other kinds of groups (e.g., a sailing club) in their 40s and 50s. A teenager may join a model rocket club but move on to a professional society by the time they are 30. People in Mensa could drift off to a local astronomy club, an arts organization, a fraternal organization such as the Elks, and so forth. When things like this happen, the leadership of the organization in decline – as well as the active membership – may want to learn why such things are happening and, if they truly value the organization, work on changes that will make the organization healthy again.

Today, however, there are factors at work that are affecting too many independent groups. It doesn't seem to matter whether the group is a civic organization such as Rotary, a social organization such as Mensa, or even various religions. Membership and activity are declining in too many places.

Let's look at the lives of our members.

I have in my role as Member at Large attended both Gen X and Gen Y events. Gen Y people have sometimes raised the point that they are very busy – too busy. Demands of work or school or both are very high. Too many young people don't even have enough time for a good night's sleep. The organizations for which they work want not just 40 hours/week, but 60, 70, 80 – and sometimes even more. That kind of schedule crowds out other kinds of things. Recently in a Rutgers alumni magazine I read how young graduate students would put in the long hours in the library and laboratory working to advance science – and also some time at a second job to bring in some needed money. This isn't healthy for those young people or the larger world. It isn't even healthy for the school that demands such sacrifices. People get tired from too much work. They make mistakes . They fail to notice important things. There are many reasons why people used to work only 40 hours/week.

Some of our older members face different kinds of challenges. Large numbers of people in their 50s are losing their jobs. Some have put the number as high as 40%. – and that was before the economy got so bad. People in their 50s used to have some sort of financial freedom. They'd saved their entire lives. Their children were grown and out on their own. Between loss of work and helping children with bills from their schooling, a good bit of that financial freedom has been lost. When someone goes from traveling to the Annual Gathering, favorite Regional Gatherings – or trips to Europe – to worrying about finding odd jobs to put food on the table, don't expect nearly as much social activity during remaining free time – even if it very low cost. This doesn't even consider what such a life does to free time.

What can we do about this kind of thing? Some of you know I am active in a variety of groups. Last month I wrote about St. Mark's. Some of you have seen my art on display in various galleries and other exhibit spaces (think Artomatic). I've occasionally brought up professional groups with a technical focus. Then there is political activity. I know I am not the only MWM member active in politics. Mensans are brighter than most people. Most of us are better educated as well. We can speak up in public forums better than most people – at least quite of few of us can.

We can also learn more about this social problem. One place to start is Take Back Your Time, an organization with a website at http://timeday.org/.

That's enough for now. I am quite willing to discuss this and related things at any of our events.