Wolf's observations are, to the best of knowledge (as a kid who grew up next to a major rocket factory glorying in being tutored and living next to rocket scientists) pretty true. Cal, CalTech, the U of Arizona are some of the better known schools affiliated with the space age. MIT and Northwestern as well as the U of Chicago produced some of the math, but many of the by god rocket men… came from small Midwestern and Western schools.

I'd not seen the Wolfe piece, but do have some comments. However no definitive answer to the central question.

I doubt his arguments about Shockley and Noyce. Shockley ('36) was here in the early thirties, 20 years before the advent of solid-state electronics. And he didn't leave Bell Labs until well after the invention of the transistor. Bob Noyce ('53) graduated before the transistor was in common use, and I'd eat my hat if Grinnell had a mention of it in their curriculum when he was there. It was, in my experience in the early '50s here, established in the graduate curriculum, and a curiosity in the undergraduate program.

As for the space program, Wolfe should distinguish between the engineers who created the vehicles and the astronauts who manned them. This distinction is not often made. And when it is made, the designers and creators of all the spacecraft from the first sub-orbital flights through Apollo to the shuttle and the space station are seldom properly identified as ENGINEERS, not scientists. As you know, there is a difference!

The original astronauts, about whom Wolfe wrote, may well have come from "the boondocks", but it was the engineers at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, led by Doc Draper (MIT'26), who designed and built the inertial guidance systems for the space programs (and who jury-rigged the system to bring the Apollo 13 crew back after the explosion), and the engineers at Grumman, led by Joe Gavin (MIT'41), who designed and built the lunar lander. Engineers from many organizations and from many locations made it possible for astronauts - highly trained as they were - to do all that they did. The distinction between the machines and the operators is important, and Wolfe fuzzes it up. And it is also worth noting that a very significant fraction of the astronaut community graduated from MIT.

While I do not know what Jerry Weisner's view about the space program was in the early days of his service as science advisor to President Kennedy, Wolfe is off the mark at least in the dates. Jerry had been an informal advisor to JFK before the election of '60, was designated as science advisor before the inauguration in January '61. He certainly was not "brought in...to straighten out the space program...".

Whatever Jerry's views on manned vs. unmanned space exploration might have been, he should be given credit for persuading the president that the limited nuclear test ban treaty was essential to stop polluting the atmosphere - not to mention this nation's supply of milk - with radioactive poisons. I do believe that history will recognize that this treaty was the beginning of the turnaround in the nuclear standoff.

The Kennedy archives may shed some light on JBW's views on space exploration.

Paul Harvey on 82nd birthday.

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better. I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would. I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in, I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you, let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him. I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you earn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head. I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend. I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you-tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, its the only way to appreciate life. Send this to all of your friends who mean the most to you.

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.

Paul Harvey...GOOD DAY

There is a very strong negative correlation between gun ownership and crime rates. This is well established and well known, despite all the propaganda of Handgun Control and other organizations of that type. Why this should be so is a matter for some speculation, but it is certainly true.

Given the strong official positions of the candidates on gun control, the voting pattern is not surprising either.

Either you entrust the safety of the nation to the entire citizenry -- which means an armed citizenry -- or you entrust it to an elite who will tell you who can and cannot be armed. Me, I prefer the good sense of my neighbors to that of officials elected or otherwise, and I certainly believe I and my neighbors are safer armed than if we rely on the police to respond, and our police in the Valley are pretty good. But they aren't HERE. Given the option I prefer the police, but if someone is breaking my door down I may not have the option.

Yes, of course there are more shooting accidents where there are guns than were there are not; but that is obvious.

The real question is one of citizens of a republic or subjects of an empire. I prefer citizenship.

Two of the largest technology research universities in the United States are linking up to develop voting machines they hope will render error-prone punch cards and optically scanned ballots obsolete.

To some, the online phrase "web of lies" might seem redundant, and that's just the point at Dave's Web of Lies, where truth is merely a matter of opinion and they pass the savings on to you. Contributors include common wastrels along with celebrities - well, one celebrity, actor/author/aluminum siding salesman Stephen Fry, who posits that "Welshmen are allergic to pajamas" and apparently has nothing better to do. Other lies include "Pope John Paul II was formerly the lead singer of a Polish death-metal band" - which, frankly, we've always suspected. The searchable lie archive is said to contain more than 3,400 lies, but since we haven't the stamina to actually count, for all we know that may be a lie too. As the disclaimer says, "we cannot guarantee that our lies are not, in fact, true." Or the opposite.

Amazing bit of judicial repartee, apparently, in the midst of a discussion of the possibility of ballot counters manipulating chad. David Boies was demonstrating, physically, how difficult it would be to secret a handful of chad in his cheek.

Apparently that didn't sit well with Scalia, who'd himself apparently encountered chad when he was an election worker in the 1950s, and who believed that the consistency of this chad differed from those he'd seen himself. And according to the tapes, Scalia asked:

"Pardon me, Boies, is that the chad I knew that you chew?"

There are several men sitting around in the locker room of a private club after exercising. Suddenly a cell phone on one of the benches rings. One of the men picks it up, and the following conversation
ensues:

"Hello?"

"Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"

"Yes."

"Great! I am at the mall two blocks from where you are. I just saw a beautiful mink coat. It's absolutely gorgeous!! Can I buy it?"

"What's the price?"

"Only $11,000.00."

"Well, OK, go ahead and get it, if you like it that much ... "

"Ahhh, and I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the 2001 models. I saw one I really liked. I spoke with the salesman, and he gave me a really good price ... and since we need to exchange the BMW that we bought last year ... "

"What price did he quote you?"

"Only $60,000 ... "

"OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."

"Great! But before we hang up, something else ... "

"What?"

"It might look like a lot, but I was reconciling your bank account and . I stopped by the real estate agent this morning and saw the house we had looked at last year. It's on sale!! Remember? The one with a pool, English Garden, acre of park area, beachfront property ... "

"How much are they asking?"

"Only $450,000 - a magnificent price...and I see that we have that much in the bank to cover ... "

"Well, then go ahead and buy it, but just bid $420,000. OK?"

"OK, sweetie ... Thanks! I'll see you later!! I love you!!!"

"Bye ... I do too ... "

The man hangs up, closes the phone's flap, and raises his hand while holding the phone and asks to all those present: "Does anyone know who this phone belongs to?"

Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder.

Word just in this morning from a building in the capital of the world's oldest democracy dedicated to the rule of law, the proposition that government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, and that every person's vote must count and be counted is that the democracy survives and continues. Further word from the same location is that just outside the same building it is cold this morning in Moscow.

Searched there for - apple blossom time

..."The Lobby Number" from "Up in Arms" by Danny Kaye (1944). It was reissued on many of Kaye's Decca LPs in two parts. The original (with slightly altered lyrics) was issued on Sountrak's soundtrack of the film...

And the new president of the Columbia University Women's Rugby Football Club is.... Marlow Lynne Schindler.

Despite my telling them I may not be there in the fall I still got elected.... hmmmm go figure. It makes me feel loved.

My last day of classes went reasonably well. Um except that I slept through half of my Anthro class and then when I got back to my room I spent four straight hours writing a seven page paper for CC. (A lovely piece comparing Hobbes and Machiavelli's theories of state development, available upon request) At least we got pizza in CC, and apparently most of what I missed in Anthro was class businness and review from the last session, which I fully attended.

Last weekend was fun though. Since I spent the weekend before in my room focusing on those two monster papers from hell I basically gave myself last weekend off from all work, except CC reading and an anthro assignment.

…I also talked to … Brad. … He's very into comp sci stuff but we also talked about political science, and I gave my best defense ever for why I'm studying it. I wish I could remember exactly what I said because I impressed me. Anyone, I was going to take off when a skinny, blonde boy started engaging me in conversation. His name is David. He's from New Zealand. I made him talk about rugby even though he didn't much want to. He also told me the rules for cricket and tried to explain why a unicameral government and sovereignty under the Queen really weren't so bad. He's quite liberal in his political views, but he's obviously got some national pride. He's on his summer break from some university in Auckland where he's a poli sci major. He's spending his break as a ski instructor in Vermont….

The next day I went to the Museum of Natural History with my friends Tom and Shannon. Tom I know from marching band, Shannon I had art hum and both sections of anthro with. We did pretty well at the museum. The packet really wasn't that difficult and we got done in about two hours. I'm glad I did it with people so it went faster and was more entertaining.

Member initiation was Friday night at ADP. Blah, blah, blah secret ceremonies. It was fun. I got to read during one of the ceremonies. Everyone dresses nicely. There's another party afterwards, but this time just for members. Then Saturday I did what reading I had to do, but for the most part I slept in anticipation of rugby banquet. Like I already said, I got elected president. I gave the forward award which I received last semester to Kate Audage, a rookie this year from Californian. It was really fun to give it to her because she's a good player but also just a really nice girl. She's kind of like the ideal rookie, she's great at communicating with the rookies and vets alike. She always carries a cell phone. She's super considerate. She's going to be treasurer next year….

Sunday I slept until 3 and then went to an emergency meeting of the marching band. They're thinking about not letting us have Orgo night in Butler (the library) this year. They want us to have it in Lerner (the student center) instead. That's just wrong. The point of orgo night is disrupting studying in the reading room the night before the first Organic Chemistry final. That meeting took about two hours, I won't go over everything we discussed, but we should know the verdict by tomorrow evening so I'll keep you guys posted.