I am writing this on Sat, 2/8. There is one pic.

Dad’s Flag

There’s been plenty of excitement here in MD, even not counting the trip to WPB. First item: Bud sold his house last Friday. Settlement went fine.

We put Dad’s flag up the SOCA flag pole. When it reaches the end of its life, it will be disposed of appropriately. The man in charge of flags is a retired Army General. I trust he knows about such things.

Danita and her colleagues interviewed the last candidate for the Science Director position. These interviews have been hard on her because the whiners and complainers feel free to come out to whine and complain in public about everything that is wrong in her research group.

I’ve agreed to give a session on computer security for SOCA residents. I will offer one session during the day, and one in the evening. Sessions will be March 7 and 10.

I read an interesting book.– “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” by Griffin. It discusses the history of modern Ping-Pong. One man, Ivor Montagu, defined the game and helped Communist China use it to gain world-wide respect and formal relations at the UN and with the US.

Personal Note: the US recognition of China was a major factor that helped Nixon end the Vietnam War just weeks after I took my pre-induction physical. After that, I took a 6-week vacation to drive around the US. When I came back, I met Danita.

The most interesting part of Griffin’s story was how China wanted to use the “Great Leap Forward” to become an overnight economic world power. Their effort resulted in a major famine that killed more Chinese than the Japanese did during WW II. Later, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, in part to get rid of Chinese leaders who criticized his Great Leap Forward. As many as 45 million Chinese died in that.

Griffin is very skilled at tying world events together. However, it’s best to take him with a grain of salt. For example, there was a Russian “botanist” Lysenko who came up with some very bad ideas for improving farm productivity. For example, he said seeds are like Communist comrades. Planting them close together will let them support each other and increase yields. Lysenko was a peasant with no scientific training. His ideas were pure bunk. But Lenin liked his politics, and he became Russia’s chief botanist. When China wanted to double farm production for their Great Leap Forward, they implemented Lysenko’s methods across the country. Griffin says these methods reduced yields and were the major factor in the famine. It’s just one example of Griffin’s very interesting stories. But other references I consulted indicate that while Lysenko certainly didn’t help the situation, it was a minor factor that made things a little worse than they already were. Whatever the imperfections of the book,  I learned a lot about historical events that spanned the globe and occurred just before and during my life time.

We’re having a bleak weekend. The temperature is a little below freezing. It’s cloudy and we have possible snow. The clubhouse is closed for the weekend while they do a major cleaning of the floor. There are no SOCA parties. I found there’s a bike swap in Carroll County Sunday, but I can’t go to that because it conflicts with a Circle concert and dinner. The concert and dinner are fine, but it kind of snuck up on me. On the bright side, since Danita couldn’t get her clubhouse coffee, we decided the only reasonable alternative was to go out for breakfast this morning. We went to Eggspectations. It’s $5 – $10 more than our normal  breakfast places. But the food is good.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.