blueZhift Blog

My little staple head is doing just fine today. No one would ever know all of the drama that my youngest son caused yesterday after banging his head on a radiator and precipitating yet another largely uncoordinated dash to the ER involving seemingly far more blood than was necessary. But he’s okay now and playing happily, now with a few staples in the back of his head to close the inch long (2.54cm) gash.

It’s really amazing to see how indestructable and unstoppable the little guy is. I think he’d make a great racer!

Whoa, talk about adding insult to injury! India is demanding that the H1-B visa cap be raised to 195K. Now I can understand jobs going overseas because of cheaper labor there, even if I don’t like it personally. But for another nation to demand that we allow more of their workers to come here and take jobs that there are plenty of Americans willing and able to do is just insulting. India is doing pretty well in the current outsourcing climate, IBM is about to add 14K jobs in India (while cutting 13K in Europe and the US), so to demand more is really to overplay their hand and invite a backlash. Maybe they aren’t getting enough online poker spam to understand how to play the game.

There’s yet another story at CNet about the declining representation of women and non-Asian minorities in tech jobs in the U.S.. Well duh, tech jobs have been flying overseas for the last several years. When the massive bloodletting of outsourcing began, it was very likely women, minorities, and older tech workers who lost their jobs first. In an interesting twist, in Illinois at least, the age discrimination laws essentially require that a mix of employees be laid off along with older workers in order to avoid trouble. So as long as the workers with less seniority (and in jobs more likely to be outsourced, like coding) were getting the axe anyway, they decided to unload the higher salaried older tech workers as well.

The thing I continue to find interesting about stories like this, is their failure to state the obvious question. Why should women and minorities pursue career fields that at present appear to have little future? The big corporations are really not interested in developing talent here at home when they can get something that is at least good enough overseas for far less money. Being an American is a liability these days in tech because it means you cost more than most companies want to pay. Even if you took no salary, paying for  benefits still makes you more costly than a worker in India or China. I won’t be telling black kids to go into jobs that won’t be there once they finish school. I’ll be telling them to use their talents to start their own companies rather than work for companies that are ultimately not interested in the well being of their workers or their country.

I just got back to my office after my lunch time walk. The weather is great and the streets are full of tourists and office workers. The streets are also full of pretty good looking people of a variety of shapes and sizes. Observation has convinced me that the vast majority of people are attractive given the right presentation. So don’t believe what Hollywood says! Everyone does not have to look like hot actor A or sexy actress B to be all they can be! Most of the time looking nice just means paying attention to the colors and fashions that are most suitable for one’s body type.

The other thing that occured to me walking about was the large proportion of women out there with, well…really large boobs! Geez, is this the land of livin large or what? Now I understand why my Asian brothers got so nuts over the women they met in college. I’m not a large breast fan myself, but I was a bit shocked at how much was just "out there" on the street today.

Yay! School is out for summer, no more homework to check and no more yelling encouraging the kids to do well in school! After a rough year, the kids pulled out the bottom of the ninth, full count, bases loaded come from behind victory that is the stuff of American legends. Jessica made the honor roll, won an award for excellence in Japanese, and had good standardized test scores. Jacob got 4 A’s and scored very high on his tests (high 90s, a frickin genius!), only missing the honor roll because he talks too much in class… And Vanessa ended a completely stellar K-year with great praise from all of her teachers. Best of all, the lovely WillowBrow, who doesn’t at all buy into the come from behind victory, was a  very very happy mommy. She did a lot of work with Jessica to make it all happen.

The kids did great, all winning prizes in the household Scholar’s Cup for their excellent school performances. Now I don’t have to feel guilty if I allow them to have some fun! Now we can all get down to some serious gaming!

Another sign of summer in Chicago is the arrival of downtown street performers. Silver Man has been around for years, just imagine a man with a short afro, formal jacket, sunglasses, and top hat all painted silver. He stands on a silver box motionless like a statue. If you want him to move, just put some money in the jar. You can usually find Silver Man near the Water Tower park south of the Michigan Avenue Borders.

This year Silver Man has some competition! Today I saw Robot Boy standing outside of the Michigan Avenue Apple Store. He’s very much like Silver Man, but he looks like a version of those boxy robots in the sci-fi serials from the 50s. And I had the impression that he/she is a little younger than Silver Man.

Yes, summer is here in Chicago, just in time for the last day of school! Yay! No more checking homework! 🙂

When I heard that Michael Jackson was found not guilty on all charges, I was genuinely surprised. Given that Jackson has got to be one of the most despised public persona’s in the U.S. these days, I was sure the jury would find it easy to convict him based on distaste. But I guess the system has proven that it works, as long as you are rich that is! Even though the evidence was circumstancial and testimony contradictory, I don’t believe that the average Joe would have escaped conviction without a team of expensive high powered lawyers. And maybe Michael Jackson’s fame helped him as well.

So Jackson is free to await the inevitable civil trial… If I were him, I would spend a bit of time doing some low impact touring outside of the U.S. and a little relaxing. He has a lot of issues to work out (as does his accuser) and now would be as good a time as any. But lay off the "Jesus Juice" a bit and don’t start hangin out with O.J.!

Here’s something I got a few days ago from the BDPA mailing list. It’s one of those articles that doesn’t contain any real surprises, but still makes your jaw drop when you realize what has happened. I’m one of the relatively few African Americans who has a PhD in physics, and I didn’t know this stuff. On the one hand, it saddens me that more black kids aren’t going into science and technology because I enjoy it so much. But on the other hand, career prospects in science and technology aren’t as good as they are in the professions. So who can blame bright kids for preferring to become physicians, lawyers, and business people?

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Black Women in Science & Technology

U.S. Rep. Eddie B. Johnson Pushes Resolution To Support Black Women InScience & TechnologySource: Jet Publication date: 2005-05-23Arrival time: 2005-05-25

Dropping the name of "Katherine Johnson" in a speech on the House ofRepresentatives floor, Texas Rep. Eddie B. Johnson was not surprisedthat few of the lawmakers had ever heard of the Black scientist. Eddie B. Johnson

This was the reason Rep. Johnson introduced a resolution there torecognize the achievements of minorities and women in science andtechnology and encourage a new generation of young women to continue in their legacies.

A physicist, space scientist and mathematician, Katherine Johnson gained a minute in the national glare in 1970 when she was instrumental in formulating calculations that helped the crippled Apollo 13 return home safely. A fuel tank explosion and computer system failure that almost derailed the ship was detailed in Tom Hanks' film, Apollo 13.

"Unfortunately, many young African Americans are unfamiliar with thesefacts, " Rep. Johnson continued in her speech. "Very little literaturedocumerits African-American women and their place in science.

"To increase the numbers of AfricanAmerican youth pursuing science,especially young women, it is critical that we provide them strongscience role models to admire and emulate," she insisted.

She noted African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans as a groupconstitutes 24 percent of the U. S. population but only 7 percent of the total science and technology workforce.

Currently, less than 1 percent employed science engineering doctorateholders are African American, she added.

Identifying the female minority pioneers in this field, the lawmakerdescribed Dr. Ella Moore, the first AfricanAmerican woman to receive adoctorate in natural science in 1933. She received the degree inbacteriology and served as the head of the department at Howard Medical School from 1947 to 1958.

In the field of space exploration, Dr. Mae Jemison, a medical doctor and first Black woman in space, now directs a TV show to promote science among students.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, according to the lawmaker, was not only thefirst African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but was also the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in any field from that school.

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