Some Thoughts on College Admission

 Back in 1960, MIT admissions required an application, mostly your address and school, a school record, and SAT scores. No essay, no list of parent funded research at some exotic location, no letter of recommendation from Nobel Prize winners, no pictures of the erstwhile student feeding starving children in some war torn country. Just grades. Also yearly tuition was $750 as was room and board. One could make that working hard over the summer so no student loans were necessary. One just had to be smart, hard working, and focused.

Thus a large group was from New York City, a lot were Jewish or friends of them. Many came from first class City schools or some quality Catholic High Schools. 

Now such students would have zero chance. The new cadre are either socially deprived, or family funded. Hard working city kids would never even get close. But it was those hardworking city kids that built trillion dollar start ups! 

We managed to get through the Vietnam War days with little disruption, although I got to know the Rosa Luxemburg SDS folks, mostly wandering down from Harvard.

The new Administrations have become social brewing pots, collecting the strangest group of social justice warriors possible. The Administration has ballooned into a social justice warrior enclave, a self perpetuating mass of hangers on who are over paid and under educated. 

What will happen to this institution? 

The Idiocy of Commencement Speakers

 I received my doctoral degrees in 1971. It was still amidst the Vietnam War and a year after the massacre at Kent State. The President of MIT, Prof Howard Johnson, just congratulated the graduates, no outside speakers, and no class Presidents. Just get the degree, show the family and friends and then get lunch! Commencement was a day for the graduates. The last thing we needed was some artificial pompous person pontificating on what we should be doing. Just get a job, avoid getting drafted, and become productive. Yet there we no jobs, Nixon had crashed the economy, the War continued, and getting productive was seeking out opportunities at McDonald's!

Come 2025 at MIT we see some Internet comedian giving advice to students who all seem clueless about the reality of life. That was followed by some political radical bemoaning her fate while apparently dissing many students who were too clueless to understand. 

Do Universities have problems? If one examines Commencements then one sees that they sure do. 

As for foreign students it is worth examining the MIT records. 

Remembering the Lost at the Battle of Surigao Straits

The following men were lost on my father's ship, DD-649, The Albert W Grant in the battle of Surigao Strait, most by friendly fire from the Light Cruiser Denver.

  Last Name                     First Name                        Position
Alexander                        Theodore Leroy           MM
Asmore                            Floyd Vernon               MM
Brannan                           Robert Joseph              EM
Cahiea                              William R.                   F
Cairns                              Clyde A.                       MM
Carlson                            Wallace K.                   CPO RM
Carson                              Clyde                            Ensign, Torpedo
Cheek                               Daniel Smith                S
Couette                            Armand N.                   TM
Cunningham                    Edwin James                MM
Davis                                Wilson Howard            CPO EM
Ellis                                  Milford                         CPO WT
Kuebker                           Kenton W.                    Bkr
Kusheloff                         Joseph Myer                 RM
Lee                                   William Danual           S
Luketic                             Anthony Rudolph        F
Markham                         Walter                          MM
Martin                              Joseph Eugene             PhM
Mathias                            Eugene                         RM
Mathieu                            Charles Akin                Lt jg Medical
McElroy                           Warren M.                    CPO MM
McGee                             James Carey                 S
McInturff                         Thomas Samuel           S
Messer                             James Henry                S
Noel                                 Claudius                       RM
Pack                                 Arless A.                      F
Rathburn                          Frederick H.                 TM
Roberts                            Earl Franklin                MM
Rothe                               Donald Terrance          F
Sarver                              Milton Dwight             S
Selleck                             William Marrtin           RM 1C
Springer                           Fred W.                        WT
Stephenson                      James Winfred             MM
Surprenant                       Donal Rosaric              CPO WT
Ward                                Francis Irvin                 CPO MM 

Weber                                                                   MM

An Observation

 In New Jersey there is a collapsed Interstate, I80.Going on a year of being closed. The reason is a set of mines under the highway which collapsed leaving "sink holes". Now if one looks at a map. they had such a few years back when the state decided to build, the Interstate went thru a town called Mine Hill! A hine perhaps that there would be trouble. But alas it was NJ's best employees who apparently did not get the hint. You see New Jersey in the early 1800s was the biggest mining state around. Duh!

BTW the Interstate is still closed. Perhaps the new Governor will take some action but do not hold your breath folks. 

BTW the NY Times finally caught on. How about the Gov!

A Great Bio on Gilson

The book by Michel, a biography of Etienne Gilson is well worth the read. Gilson was a Thomist scholar as well as a classic French intellectual. At a time when France welcomed Sartre, Gilson also played a significant role in the rejuvenation of Thomistic thought. I had studied Thomas Aquinas in college, as did most Catholic students in my day, late 50s to early 60s, before the Vatican II renovation of Catholicism. One must understand the structure of intellectual thought in this period. It was structured and had certain underlying logical assumptions that were open to later critiques. Gilson addressed these issues for the modern reader.

This is an exceptionally readable biography of Gilson, from his youth until his final days. It discusses his interactions with other French intellectuals, his move to Toronto, and his position as a 20th century Thomas alongside Maritan. I would strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in Gilson and this period. Regrettably I am not a Thomist but bent more towards Ockham. Where Aquinas integrated Aristotle into the theology and philosophy he presented, it was Ockham who made a break in many ways to what we see today. Aquinas became a saint and Ockham was excommunicated, albeit by a heretical pope.

Understanding Thomism is facilitated by Gilson more than Maritain in my opinion. Thus understanding the man and his life is a sine qua non to understand the Church and its beliefs. One should remember that Leo XIII, the image of who the current Bishop or Rome uses, made Thomistic thought the sole path for Catholic learning. Gilson's views may be a path to understanding that nexus.

Are you out of your mind!

 The Guardian notes that Leo XIV announces that Leo "opens the doors" for Ukraine and Russia can negotiate at the Vatican. Someone must have forgotten about history. The Guardian notes:

Pope Leo confirmed to Giorgia Meloni his willingness to host in the Vatican the next round of negotiations to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Italian prime minister said on Tuesday. “Finding in the Holy Father confirmation of the readiness to host the next talks between the parties in the Vatican, the prime minister expressed deep gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his unceasing commitment to peace,” said a statement from Meloni. Leo, elected two weeks ago, said on 14 May that the Vatican could act as a mediator in global conflicts, without specifically mentioning Russia’s war against Ukraine.

 Now the Russian Patriarch in Moscow has unbroken lineage from the earlier Patriarchs in history. Unlike the Patriarch, the Bishop of Rome, AKA the Pope, has a massively disrupted lineage. There have been multiple Popes, Anti Popes, heretical popes, and of course the Borgias! Hardly the most sanctified lineage. For example John XII, an Avignon Bishop of Rome, never having set a foot in Rome, was declared a heretic! One of many. The list of issues is endless.

Thus to consider Putin, relying on the support of the Patriarch in Moscow, to entertain the kindness of Leo seems ate first glance to be a dunderheaded step by one oblivious of history. It would be akin of some grand Mullah to agree to negotiate under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem!

This was dead from the get go. But more importantly it shows how little the West even tries to understand Russia. It shows further that such lack of understanding leads to hostility. 

MIT Government Funding and Foreign Students

 MIT is a land grant college. Over its almost 150 year history it has supported the US in various ways such as the Rad Lab, Lincoln Lab, the Instrumentation Lab, and recently such efforts as Koch Lab, Whitehead, and others. Much of the success in technology has come from these efforts. MIT's Government funding is now close to $2.4 billion annually. However it has some 30% of its almost 12,000 students are foreign. 

Now I have been a member of the above mentioned Labs over the years. I have also been in the EECS Department as student and faculty as recently as 2012. However I noticed that by 2012 none of my doctoral students were US citizens, many from the PRC. But worse was the fact that these students were funded from US Government contracts many even from DoD related contracts! One fears that in a remake of the film Tora Tora Tora we see an Admiral Yamamoto saying not that he went to Harvard but to MIT and learned all he could under a DoD sponsored contract while earning a doctorate. While one suspects the American student, say a Feynman double, was not admitted since he did not make the DEI match and was from New York City! 

In my opinion the current Administration may have a point but the point is mired in details which seem to be a blind spot. In the 60s it would have been unheard of to have a large cadre of Soviet grad students funded by DoD! But the parallel today is not only thought of but implemented. Details do count. Perhaps that is a step to understanding what these students are doing and from whence they came.

More critically is why we do not have more American students. Are these 30%, or 3600 foreign students that much better than American students? Could I no longer qualify, even after life's accomplishments to gain admission.  

There is clearly a critical national problem here. Are we educating possible national adversaries at the costs of the taxpayer. Are these putatively a threat of our own making? How does this compare to other countries? Does the PRC admits 30% of their students from the West? Hardly. I have argued this for decades just to see it compounded by the putative adversarial mix of students.

More Bears

 

They are awake and checking things out. Yes, snow in May!

State Farm and New Jersey

 Just got a notice from State Farm stating:

If the subsequent filing is approved for the full amount requested, when combined with the previously approved rate increase, the average policy will see a rate change of +147.0%. The impact of these filings on your rates may vary substantially, depending on the terms of your policy and your individual circumstances. 

 Yes, 147% increase! Last year it was 50%. Cumulatively that is well over 225% increase. And I have a 2 year old Honda with only 4,000 miles! I guess it is all those under 30 males crashing into us older folks. Solution, not allow any male under 35 to drive!

Oh yes, the Gov and his cronies, remember the guy that sent all the old folks sick into nursing homes with the result of massive deaths, well he could stop this but alas he seems to be on his last legs. 

So avoid NJ at all costs!

 

Another Gilson Masterpiece

 Etienne Gilson, the French Thomist, has written many excellent works. This work summarizes many of Leo XIII writings. It includes the writings but Gilson's summaries are exceptional in detail but are brief and to the point. As one looks at Leo XIV, who has indicated he looks back to Leo XIII, this becomes a timely text. Leo XIII was a strong anti-socialist, as he defines socialism. He was a strong supporter of property rights and the rights of workers. An interesting mix. Leo XIII advocated universal adherence to Thomistic philosophy, abjuring the philosophers of the 19th century.

Overall it is an exceptionally clear work and worth reading in our current environment. One may disagree yet knowing what the views are helps.

The FAA and Gross Incompetence

 In 1972 I began some work at MIT Lincoln Lab on advanced air traffic control systems. It ran the gamut from radars, tracking and airport surface traffic control. In 1977 I was seconded to the FAA to work on AirSat, and using GPS. At the time I lectured on GPS at GWU, and I gather I was one of the few experts in the area. I spoke with Congress to incorporate GPS as well as advanced ATC systems. Strangely the greatest opponent was Senator Kennedy and his staff. I guess he finally concurred.

Now fifty years later we are no further ahead than in the mid 70s. One example of this mess is the MIT Lincoln Lab group who has spent fifty years and billions working on this. A leader in the group asserts that their major achievement is:

... is invested in cultivating a strong culture of innovation and is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion across the Laboratory. She currently serves as the Executive Sponsor for the Lincoln Laboratory Hispanic/Latinx Network employee resource group

It seems that this person is more involved with DEI things than getting the billions of dollars of technology working.  As the NY Times asserts:

 The Federal Aviation Administration said that the outage, which affected communications and radar displays at the facility in Philadelphia, occurred just before 4 a.m. and lasted about 90 seconds.
A similar outage of about 90 seconds last week, on a Monday afternoon, upended travel at the airport, leaving controllers with no way to communicate with pilots and keep planes from crashing into one another. Several controllers working that afternoon were distressed by that episode and took time off, which resulted in several days of low staffing at the facility, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations.

 Now loss of telecom connectivity is a demonstration of gross incompetence in my opinion and my experience. In building my fiber network in Eastern Europe I demanded fail safe systems. Diversity touting and redundancy. If the FAA moved things to Philly then there should have been several alternate route for a fail safe system. Instead, after five decades we are still providing a mid 20th century system. Heads should roll, publicly. The Secretary of Transportation should not spend time saying what is wrong but fix it from day 1 on the job. Stop the Press announcements and solve the problem. 

One simple solution is that there should be no politicians in charge, just operations thugs, solving problems, cleaning out the stables, and no press meetings. Also stop the praise of their DEI efforts, lives are at risk.

 

It's a Shame

 The NCI has abandoned its web page. They note:

Due to restructuring and reductions in force at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Cancer Information Highlights bulletin will no longer be published.  

At most it was a 1 person job. It was powerfully useful in understanding what NCI was up to. I think they may be cutting too deeply.

"Sweetheart"

 The article in the NY Times presents just the tip of human arrogance in medicine. It begins with elder speak, the way medical support workers deal with their customers, or shall we say patients. 

When I first started to study medicine I got a copy of Harrison's, a Bible of Internal Medicine. The first chapter told physicians how to speak with patients. One called them Mr or Mrs or Miss Jones etc. Never call a patient by their first name unless you are colleagues and even then one called each other Doctor.

What has happened are the following:

First the employees speaking this was are the lowest paid care givers. They are generally uneducated, paid minimal wage and use this speak as a way of dominating the people in their care. It is the only time in their lives they can give orders or even denigrate others when they have often been denigrated.

Second in the olden days the physician was a god. All answered to the physician and the patient received equal treatment. Now the physician is terrified of the Administrators, generally uneducated but politically connected and over paid managers and moneymakers of medical institutions.

Third, the loss of RNs, professionals in medicine and the explosion of the uneducated care givers means that no one is trained to do anything professionally.

 My general approach is to not become a weakling but to dress properly, be well groomed, speak clearly and if necessary speak down to those trying to be in control. All it takes is a bit of astute medical questioning. Yet the first instance almost always is an interface with the "sweetheart" babes especially in New Jersey!