When does a man become a man?

When does a man become a man? Biologically, I guess it's when he can reproduce - a point in development that varies from person to person. As does when he can grow a beard. But there are other milestones: At 16, he is usually eligible to apply for a driver's license (14 years three months for South Dakota, with restrictions; 17 if in New Jersey, and variations across the spectrum in the US). The age of 18 is a good one. He can then vote! Oh, and also sign up to defend his country and maybe die in its service (17 if given signed permission by a parent or guardian, though still not able to vote quite yet.) In September 2008, 12.2% of the Coast Guard, 14.4% of the Air Force, 18.3% of the Army, 18.6% of the Navy and a whopping 36.9% of the Marine Corps were between the ages of 18 and 21, with an average across all the services of 86% of them being male. It's a lot of responsibility for those so young. Why did I pick the range 18-21? Old enough to vote and fight... ...but this man we're profiling can't drink until he's 21. Or can he? The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (23 U.S.C. § 158), only prohibits

the purchase or public possession in such State of any alcoholic beverage by a person who is less than twenty-one years of age
(or the Feds withhold highway funds for states that don't comply). But notice the wording! "Purchase or public possession". The Code section is called "National Drinking Age", but drinking was not prohibited! According to Wiki, 15 states and D.C. ban underage consumption, but 17 don't at all, and the remaining 18 have some conditions that allow it. I hope my 20 year old "minor" who can go die for his country isn't reading this! (Wiki has a summary if you want to know the laws in your state.) Note, said 20 year old already knows the law in Texas, which by the way allows that a minor can drink, not purchase, alcohol when in the physical presence of an adult parent, legal guardian or spouse - "adult" apparently meaning over 21. The car insurance companies think he's a man at 25, because that's when he's responsible enough to get out of the actuarial grouping of high risk and catch a break on those premiums. But the real kicker that floored me this past year was one few know about. I obviously didn't. It's the age of 24. My son, who owns his own house and hasn't been a "dependent" on my tax return for a couple of years was applying online last year for financial aid through FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). He called me and asked for my income information. My answer? "You don't need that." But apparently he did. The site wouldn't let him proceed without it. I checked. Twice. Then I checked the law. He was still dependent as far as federal financial aid was concerned. And up the proverbial creek without that stirring stick, because while he qualified hand over fist on his own (which he has since July 2009), factor in my income and he gets diddly. He turned 24 yesterday (an auspicious day...shares a birth date with Darwin and Lincoln among so many others) thus now is a man. By financial aid standards. And drinking age. And militarily...voting...driving...biologically. (And the dude's been growing a full beard since he was 15.) Happy Birthday, son. Welcome to manhood. Again.

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Heroification, however wrongly placed can still be good?

I knew next to nothing about the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars before reading about Rep. Harman’s resignation from Congress to be its next president, CEO and director. But I did learn some things 13 or 14 years ago about Woodrow Wilson, that prompted me to do a little checking. So I wiki’d it, and went to its site:

The mission of the Center is to commemorate the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson by: providing a link between the world of ideas and the world of policy; and fostering research, study, discussion, and collaboration among a full spectrum of individuals concerned with policy and scholarship in national and world affairs.
And...
Woodrow Wilson, nicknamed the "schoolmaster in politics," is chiefly remembered for his high-minded idealism, which appeared both in his leadership on the faculty and in the presidency of Princeton University, and in his national and world statesmanship during and after World War I.
So what is it about the two freely admitted cherry-picked quotes that bugs me? I consider James Loewen’s 1995 book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, one of the most important books I have ever read. And I have read a lot. It opened my eyes, took me out of my comfort zone, and inspired a lot more reading in areas I either abandoned or never felt an interest in. (I am left-brained, technically minded, naturally and enhanced skeptical.) For me, history was something you took in school because you had to. I chose other electives in college, because I didn’t have to. And I always had problems with the teachers’ interpretations not agreeing with my own (meaning I didn’t get as many “A”s because I couldn’t break the code of what they wanted me to say.) To me, history, as I felt about psychology - and biology, sociology, philosophy, etc. - history...was too arbitrary. But, we all seem to know the same Trivial Pursuit nuggets that pervade popular history "knowledge", regardless of whether we liked the subject or not. And there's a reason. For those unfamiliar with Loewen’s book, he surveyed the 12 most commonly sold high school American history textbooks, “only to find an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind nationalism, and plain misinformation, weighing in at an average of 888 pages and almost five pounds”, uncovering a host of blatant errors, dismal treatment of significant events (an average of three pages on the Battle of Gettysburg, one and a half of which were about Lincoln’s Address), omissions, white-washing, and {well known "News" channel personality}-izing serious lack of scholarship. I understand that most college courses will correct the damage, but how many of us studied college level history? Or if we did, which “facts” stuck with us? I grew up in a small town in Connecticut. I can’t remember what American history book we had, but given that we were a small school district in a small state, I don’t think we got much say in what the textbook companies sold us. Not unlike the problem the Texas Board of Education decision to rewrite texts visits on the small markets. Nor do I think there was much critical thought put into which books were better than others. I imagine it all came down to the best cost. So I don’t know if my textbook was one of the earlier editions of those Loewen checked, but given the small school, small state conditions it probably was. One of the (minor) reasons we homeschool is that total lack of control students of compulsory schools and their parents have over what is being taught - or not taught. Loewen does present his findings with bias and editorial. But, he did his research, presents the sources the reader can check, and his points are intuitively obvious to me. More so now than when I first read the book, because on retroflection I think/know he’s right. Writing this, I surveyed some of the comments from the 10% “one star” critics on Amazon and while you can read for yourself the mindset of the naysayers, more than 70% of the 394 reviews posted were favorable. Now, Woodrow Wilson quick shot news bites that might normally come to mind of the average person are: “he kept us out of war” (until it became obvious that the Central Powers were going to lose, and then we’d better get in and get our piece, thus the Fourteen Points - or was it really submarine attacks?); president of Princeton and the only US President with a Ph.D; a failed League of Nations; had a stroke and maybe his wife ran the government until his term ended; “make the world safe for democracy”; perhaps the Espionage and Sedition Acts, but not likely. Not covered in the glorifying textbooks of our youth is how Wilson was an outspoken racist (is that the "high-minded" part?) who undid all the desegregation his Republican (remember the times…the Republicans almost liked people back then) predecessors worked to implement, ordering the segregation of white and black federal employees. Not covered is the “world” that he wanted to make safe for democracy only included Europe; under his orders, direction or just on his watch, the US invaded Mexico 11 times, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Panama and militarily occupied Nicaragua all eight years and controlled its government, setting the tone for pretty much then on for how we are viewed in Central America (sensing a parallel with a place Middle of East?). Plus we apparently funded and militarily supported the “wrong” side of the Russian revolution. Read the book for the cites, but an excerpt dealing specifically with Wilson can be read here). I guess it's obvious now why those quotes bugged me. Anyway, I learned from reading Loewen to be more critical of things about which I know little or nothing, not just things I am interested in about which I may or may not know nothing. And I resolved to read more history - if only to unlearn what I thought I knew. I like footnotes now, which is why, off-topic, though I enjoy his work, David McCullough frustrates me because he makes statements without reference (bibliographies don’t count) which may be his summation, may be “actual” history, or may be totally off. And who has time to check? The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has an interesting Board of Trustees, including the cabinet positions of Secs of State, HHS, and Education, though I’m not sure how active they are. And Wikipedia hasn’t been updated, but it caught my eye that physician and medical fiction author Robin Cook apparently used to be one of the private citizen trustees. The Center has a very broad set of programs that do seem to work toward the ideals they profess, if attributed to one so not a hero. I encourage a tour of their web site. (They even had a lecture in 2005 on “some of the most repressive legislation with respect to free speech” being the work of Woodrow Wilson, so they don’t hide their namesake’s history.) I can't help but wonder if Rep. Harman’s strong political positions will adjust the focus of the Center, or if it’s even possible under the charter that she can. Why else would she take the job? I recommend taking the time to read Loewen’s book. It should spark at least one, "Oh, really?" I also have another by him, almost as fascinating: “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong”. It's about those brown signs on the side of the road and how we repaint (or sometimes just paint) the stories the ways we want, facts be damned.

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Wikileaks and a Swiss bank list

On Monday, Rudolph Elmer is said to have turned over to Wikileaks names of US, UK and Asian celebrities, lawmakers and business-folks who may or may not have been trying to avoid paying taxes. Apparently, the data are confusing even to those used to dealing with such, so release won't be soon. Still, it will be interesting to see who is in the Heidi Fleiss Black Book of off-shore accounts. Most particularly if there are any prominent (and current) US lawmakers.

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Early computing memories

I took an unexpected walk down Nostalgia Lane yesterday when I stumbled across my copy of The Best of Creative Computing, Vol. 2 in my library. I know at one point, I used to have Volume 1, but I think it disappeared long ago in one of my many moves. Creative Computing was founded by David Ahl in 1974 for the hobbyist and home/personal computer enthusiast as a more accessible version BYTE. I subscribed for several years (though I didn’t have a personal computer and did all my work on mainframes and an IBM 1140 via...punchcards!) and learned a lot on programming from its pages. I copied, adapted, and created from the programs Ahl and his contributors provided in each issue. The Best of that I still have was published in 1977 and has articles from 1974 through 1976 , grouped in topics on technology, programming theory, quite a bit on computers in education, humor and puzzles, resources, (as mentioned) programs (whoa – open source!) for different applications and games, hardware of the day and reviews. When I was young, I was more interested in the programming and puzzles. Still have that interest, but I this time read with increasing interest and amazement several of the other articles. One of the first pieces on technology in the collection looked at video discs (this was 1975 – before Betamax and VHS). Alfred Bork, from UC Irvine, wrote a piece called “Videodiscs – The Ultimate Computer Input Device?” I decided to look up Mr. Bork and found that the entire three (apparently a third came out after I stopped subscribing) volumes of the Best of Creative Computing here, so you can read Bork’s article yourself here. If you follow the next few pages, you’ll see a side-by-side of Philips-MCA’s laser disc with RCA’s (failed) competing videodisc. Cutting edge discussions with eerie future parallels pepper the compendium: - page 68, “Information Anyone?” by Bill Griffith of Boston College opens

With the CIA collecting information on private citizens (Why don’t they stick to overthrowing foreign governments?), commercial credit companies recording the contents of your trashcans and your seven year old using words like “software” and “hardware” and “PL/I”, is it any wonder you wonder?
Hmmm...CIA (Homeland Security, FBI, etc.) – check; credit…recording…trash = targeted ads from cookies and internet use – check; seven year old using foreign words - always going to be a check there…. - Two pages later, a Charles Winn voices an opinion lamenting “The Government Dinosaur”, and offers a vision that could have been written today (need to outsource to private sector) and pre-sages some things that have become a reality (electronic voting – though not quite as envisioned, firewalls – though not called such – to prevent tampering and misuse, use of radio/television to gage the pulse of the constituents), and was a little wishful in hope (instant demographics from the public recreating a true democracy – in use for “reality” shows...but not where it really matters, massive data availability which would render lobbyists unnecessary – yeah, right!). - David (Ahl) comments on the problems of the new Electronic Funds Transfer System and having to pay fees for services rendered, though no service was actually performed! Should the urge take you, I recommend checking out an interesting Way Back look at how some of us learned computing, what we were using, and the way of the future (circa 1976): ads for computers and printers, Star Trek (of course!), computers in teaching geometry, [Hunt the] Wumpus 2 – again, open source, a review of the HP-25 (go back one page for a review of the Magnavox Odyssey). I have a feeling at least one reader (contributor) will enjoy the flashback.

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A Cyclical Universe?

I like the proverbial "outside the box" thinking, and you don't get much more outside the box than this interpretation of patterns found in the cosmic background radiation. The beauty of science is that it is a well-constructed box we're trying to get outside of, and it is logical plausible thinking that gets us there. The math behind theories like this involves tensors and the like that my courses in partial differential equations touched on so many years ago, and that I was forced to play with on a graduate level in fluid dynamics somewhat later, but still also so many years ago. I neither remember any of it, nor knew it well at the time. Amazing stuff, this theoretical physics. Science does have all the answers. We just don't have all the science.

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