The end is near, at least for this stage of the journey. Standing between me and the end of my college experience, part deux, are three classes and a semester-long internship. The internship is the most important item on the schedule in that it may point the way to a career and the return of a predictable revenue stream. The classes are intended to take the knowledge acquired over the last three years and turn theory into practical applications of research, analysis, and financial modeling, which will be the engine of a successful career.

Whatever the future holds, this experience has been worth the time, the effort, and the cost. The friendships developed with my fellow students and professors, the discovery of new knowledge, and the realization that perfection, and its sidekick total understanding, are ideals and not reality have all provided me with an understanding of things that is priceless.

Let’s get this last semester going!

Further, is it really necessary to throw him in the slammer for nine hours?

I get the broken window theory and all, but has the police force lost its measure of common sense?

These are either the scariest words ever written or the announcement of our impending immortality…

"We make a genome from four bottles of chemicals; we put that synthetic genome into a cell; that synthetic genome takes over the cell," said Dr. Gibson. "The cell is entirely controlled by that new genome."

The scientists didn’t give the new organism its own species name, but they did give its synthetic genome an official version number, Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0.

To set this novel bacterium—and all its descendants—apart from any natural creation, Dr. Venter and his colleagues wrote their names into its chemical DNA code, along with three apt quotations from James Joyce and others. These genetic watermarks will, eventually, allow the researchers to assert ownership of the cells. "You have to have a way of tracking it," said Stanford ethicist Mildred Cho, who has studied the issues posed by the creation of such organisms.

In case you missed it, scientists working for Craig Venter have created, for the first time, a completely synthetic organism by writing computer code to create the desired gene sequences, made the DNA from the code, and then transplanted the DNA in an empty cell, which was taken over by the DNA.

This is literally a turning point in the relationship between man and nature," said molecular biologist Richard Ebright at Rutgers University, who wasn’t involved in the project. "For the first time, someone has generated an entire artificial cell with predetermined properties.

Read the whole story here and ponder what this means for mankind.

One of the operas produced at this year’s Spoleto USA festival is Flora, an Opera. In the form of a ballad opera, Flora is significant because it is the first opera performed in the United States, making its inaugural appearance in Charleston in 1735 on the second floor of a tavern. Flora was presented again the next year in the Dock Street Theater, which was built specifically as a home for opera, music, and theater in response to the popularity of Flora.

How fitting that the first opera presented in the US is coming home to the newly renovated theater that was its first home.

We also heard a wonderful story from Ellen Moryl, director of the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, and the person in charge of Piccolo Spoleto, who talked about the early days of Piccolo Spoleto when Gian Carlo Menotti, Spoleto’s founding father, learned that Piccolo intended to include chamber music by young musicians. Ms. Moryl explained to Menotti that the musicians, in return for a paltry check but the priceless exposure to Spoleto audiences, were expected to perform community outreach to the children of Charleston. The maestro darkened his expression, she reported, and she feared the worst. Then, in a flash of inspiration, she responded by observing that the young performers would introduce chamber music to the kids, who would one day return the favor and buy tickets to Spoleto events. Menotti thought a bit, smiled, and gave his assent to the performances. History is full of such small actions, hurriedly decided, that result in great events.

Our class concluded with Emmanuel Villaume giving a brief history of how he came to be the Spoleto USA Director for Opera and Orchestra. Having determined early in his career to be a conductor, Villaume’s break came when he was introduced to Spiros Argiris who offered him a position as an assistant during the Spoleto Festival in Italy. One day near the end of the festival, as the orchestra was preparing to perform a Mahler symphony for the finale in the town square, Argiris told Villaume to lead the orchestra during a balance check (the process of balancing the microphones to ensure that all instruments will be  heard properly). What was supposed to be a brief interlude of conducting turned into a lengthier performance as he began to enjoy the conductor’s role. Ten minutes became twenty and Villaume “had the time of my life.” Gradually, reality returned and he brought the orchestra to a halt. Unbeknownst to Villaume, standing behind him was Argiris and the great Menotti who, had been listening to every note—and the rest is history.

So, we signed up for the bridge "walk" this year. And had a blast.

The logistics of participation are daunting because, this year, there were 40,000 participants (more than my wife’s hometown). So we developed a plan for parking and getting to the gathering location, and set our alarm clock for 4:30 AM. The masses streamed into the gathering area from all directions, but we were quickly and efficiently organized into a single line and fed onto a fleet of buses for the shuttle to Mt. Pleasant. After a brief ride, in a bus filled with happy fellow racers, we were deposited about 2 miles from the starting line. Walking in the dark, we moved purposefully to the port-o-lets (plenty of them around) and onto the coffee filling stations.

Hats off to the crew at Dunkin’ Donuts. The place was warm, jumping, and the wait brief. And the coffee was delicious. It has to be their biggest day, in terms of sales, and they were ready! We lingered as long as we politely could in the warmth, but soon it was time to move on closer to the "corral". In the distance, we could see the starting line, and the announcers were revving up the crowd, but we knew we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Ten minutes after the start, our section  began to move, in fits and starts, and slowly.

As we crossed the line, our friend from Asheville took the lead. Sandra, a veteran run/walk competitor, led us through the crowd at a brisk pace. After a few minutes, she let on that she had, not too long ago, participated in a race where they walked 26 miles the first day, and 14 miles the second day! My wife and I were both impressed and somewhat concerned at this news, knowing that we risked the possibility of humiliation on our very first walk. But she took mercy on us, and we settled into a steady 17 minute per mile pace.

And finally, the bridge loomed into view. With no noticeable change in pace, we proceeded up the incline. We had practiced, so it wasn’t bad, but I kept a close watch on my heart rate monitor. The ticker never got above 130, and soon we were at the top. At this point, things went downhill. The rest of the walk-run lay below us, and the crowd seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief. Sandra kept us moving smartly, and the miles (kms) flew by. Past water stations, pit stops, and bands, the crowd surged to the finish line. At there it was, the Finish Line. For us, thanks to Sandra, it was 1:45:12 from start to finish. I think we were surprised at how easy, and fun, the entire event was. I admit to a little soreness, and maybe a nap this afternoon, but there is nothing that makes me regret our decision to participate.

Bottom line: 1,021 calories burned, 6.2 miles walked, and great conversation along the way. We’ll do it next year, for sure.

Media bias is everywhere you turn. Even in football. Why, you can’t even pick up the paper or turn on the television without hearing or reading the latest sob story about the miraculous return of New Orleans, and by association, their formerly woeful football team. What a load of balderdash.

This blogger remembers when the Colts were known as the Dolts, which is an equally effective pejorative that reflects the gross inadequacies of the team of then. The national media didn’t embrace their suck, or memorialize their escape from the lowest tier of NFL competition.

I guess I understand the disrespect. I get that the city of Indianpolis doesn’t present the kind of image that New Orleans projects with such pride. There aren’t a lot of Indiana maidens raising their shirts for beads, and Broad Ripple is not even a distant relation to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.

But I digress. Colts as underdogs works for me. Just as Peyton et al whipped the Bears in 2007, so shall they crucify these Saints in 2010. In this time of economic uncertainty and unease with our national identity, we need to return to our roots; good, solid mid-western values that helped our people forge their national identity. Not party, hard work. Not glitz, plain vanilla.

Go Colts!
 

I know the answer to the question, but I don’t like it…so I ask it again, in the hope that someone will offer a different answer. That is, why is the Super Bowl played on Sunday night?

Let me list just a few of the almost infinite inconveniences that the schedule imposes on the game’s loyal fans.

First, the Indianapolis school district asked the state education poobahs for permission to start school two hours late on Monday morning, in anticipation of a Colts victory. The reasoning, of course, based on the assumption that joyous fans, the parents of the students and drivers of school buses, will be up very late  celebrating a victory. Or, at the very least, they will be up very late celebrating the playing of the game, if you know what I mean. The buzzkillers in the state organs said no. Typical bureaucratic myopia. They don’t care because, as state employees, they have an unlimited number of sick days (with pay) that they can use for all sorts of celebratory excesses.

Second, the rest of America will be suffering from the effects of a late game. Absenteeism, lowered productivity, and general sluggishness will be the character of next Monday, unless you live in the hometown of the winner, in which case no work will be done at all (except in the Indianapolis schools, should they win).

Third, for those citizens who actually feel a sense of responsibility, a Sunday night game means that they can’t enjoy the festivities and the host’s lavish spread of craft beers and tasty hors d’oeuvres because they know that somebody will have to pick up the slack at the office on Monday. Such noble souls will, at the very least, suffer from the lack of sleep arising from the night game.

Why can’t they play the game on Saturday night? It’s not as if the coaches and players really need another day to prepare; their work has been done and they are ready to go. A Saturday night game would allow for a complete evening of revelry, no matter the result, and would give the all fans a day to recover from the excesses. Our nation, which really can’t afford a day off in this economy, would report to work recovered, rested, and refreshed, ready to discuss the nuances of the game, the ebb and flow of fortune, and gossip about the endless stories of their friends’ nutty behavior.

A win-win, I say.

The only losers in my scenario would be the travel packagers and hotels who feast on each team’s fans and the corporate sponsors. Because, in case you didn’t already know, no hotel will have any rooms available, said rooms having long since been sucked up by the aforesaid packagers in a 3 night block at an enormously surcharged nightly rate that no rational individual would agree to pay. Such greed, implicitly condoned by the NFL, and willingly borne by Fortune 500 companies paying off their best customers and providing a perq for the uppermost levels of management, deserves, at the very least, our enduring contempt in this age of renewed thrift and budgetary restraint.

So, to the NFL, I scream "Give the Super Bowl back to the Fans!

This could be me, but it’s not. It is an intrepid Iowa blogger taking advantage of free wifi, at whatever cost. Picture courtesy of The Hawkeye.

Unlike last year, Christmas Day finds the ground clear of snow after two days of drenching rain, 20 mph winds, and temperatures in the high thirties. In other words, the worst of winter without the kindness of a snowscape. There are flurries at this moment, with the high today of 22, so we may yet  have a white Christmas.

The wonders of the 21st Century just provided us in Iowa a nice chat with them in South Carolina via Skype. What a great tool that is…and my in-laws are demanding that we put it on their desktop. Tomorrow we will be invading Staples for to buy a webcam for their desktop. Henceforth, we will be able to chat with them at least weekly (gulp).

Last night the in-laws invited their closest friends to join us for Christmas Eve supper. Yours truly was the appointed chauffeur, who drove to various ends of town to retrieve Eleanor (91), and the lovely couple Bob (84) and Margi (90). Walkers and wheelchairs took up the third seat. While the median age of the table was probably about 40, the mean had a pretty serious rightward skew. But fun was had by all, and the Christmas Spirit flowed smoothly between the generations.

Now it’s football games, judicious exchanges, and endless nibbling on forbidden foods.

Reporting from Iowa………..

Nobody has asked me what suggestions I might have for two of the most vexing problems of the time, but in a moment of clarity at 3:00 AM this morning I received these messages and am now compelled to report them to you, dear reader.

Bonuses

Obama may regard them as "fat cat bankers", but you won’t hear those words pass my lips. Having said that, there is something slightly obscene about the enormity of the bonuses being doled out by our country’s investment banks. $20 Billion for the top guys at Goldman Sachs? A federal pay czar establishing salary levels? One look at the salary discrepancy between the average federal employee and Joe the plumber in Alabama should be enough to tell us that this model can’t be good in the long term. Fox guarding the hen house, etc.

Military leadership in combat, and Infantry officers in particular, should provide the guiding principle on the bonus conundrum. Their operating principle is that they don’t eat until all the troops have been fed. Ergo, the "fat cat bankers" don’t get their bonuses until all of their employees get a bonus. And the bonus should be the same percentage for all pay levels. At most places I visited during my working life, the typical bonus on the warehouse floor was 1 week’s pay, and in really good years might have been a bump in their profit sharing plan percentage. If it’s good enough for the shop floor, shouldn’t it suffice for the executive suite? If they want to spread the $20 Billion around, spread it evenly. It’s called leadership.

Deductibles

Ahh, health insurance. What a goat rope. No legislative solution will ever be better than common sense, and that unfortunately is why our political leaders in Washington cannot craft any legislation that will improve our predicament. But the same principles suggested in the bonus solution inform.

For example: Assume that Goldman Sachs, or any Fortune 500 company, or a state agency, or the insurance agency on the corner all have a health plan for all of their employees. Rates for employees are based on marital status; single, married, family. Doesn’t matter how old you are, how many children you have, or how much your employer pays you…the rates are standardized based on family size. Typically, your employer pays a percentage of the actual premium, and you pay the balance.

The problem lies in the amount that different employees pay out of pocket. Most plans that I’m familiar with have an individual deductible, a family deductible, an 80/20 split of medical expenses up to some value, and co-pays for ancillary coverages like prescription drugs, office visits, etc. The receiving manager in the warehouse and the CEO have the same plan. But the receiving manager makes $24,000 annually, while the CEO makes $240,000, has a car allowance, a company credit card for entertainment, and other related perqs.

It occurs that the CEO, and maybe the CFO, the CIO, and other top executives could afford to bear a slightly heavier burden than the receiving manager. Why can’t health plans have a means test wherein employee expenses are scaled according to annual compensation? Why should an employee making 10 times more than another employee have the same out of pocket medical expenses? Sounds like a another leadership issue.

There….that didn’t take 2,000 pages plus amendments plus millions of dollars spent by lobbyists. And it sure does make sense, at least to me.