Is China Going to Kick Our Butts?

I just read an article that scared the bejeebers out of me.

As little respect as we get, engineers are the reason the U.S. has grown economically since the end of World War II.

Engineers create products that fill (and sometimes create) needs, whether they're televisions, computers, cars, airplanes, iPods, hard drives, CD players, GPS navigation systems, carbon-fiber bicycle frames, Tivos or cell phones.

However, the U.S. graduates fewer engineers (as a percentage of total collage graduates) than our competition.

Here are the stats:

United States
Total College Degrees: 1,253,121
Total Engineering Degrees: 59,536
4.7%

Kenya
Total College Degrees: 15,620
Total Engineering Degrees: 740
4.7%

United Kingdom
Total College Degrees: 274,440
Total Engineering Degrees: 20,280
7.4%

Ireland
Total College Degrees: 18,669
Total Engineering Degrees: 2,014
10.8%

France
Total College Degrees: 275,316
Total Engineering Degrees: 34,293
12.4%

Japan
Total College Degrees: 542,314
Total Engineering Degrees: 104,478
19.3 %

Germany
Total College Degrees: 178,618
Total Engineering Degrees: 36,319
20.3 %

Taiwan
Total College Degrees: 117,430
Total Engineering Degrees: 26,587
22.6 %

China
Total College Degrees: 567,839
Total Engineering Degrees: 219,563
38.7 %

We're tied with that other economic superpower, Kenya.

The U.S. may soon not have the ability to design or build anything, but with our plethora of lawyers and mortgage brokers, we can sue you and take your house.

Al Qaeda's Declaration of War

Here's an interesting document:

Osama bin Laden's declaration of war against the United States.

The Real Olympic Champions

Bode Miller has blown yet another Olympic event today. Luckily, it’s his final event and we won’t have to endure any more of his immature antics and sophomoric attempts at wisdom.

Miller was expected to medal in all of his 5 events.

His final medal count?

Zero.

The zero medals isn’t bad. We can forgive a competitor who skied his heart out and came up short.

It’s much harder to forgive a competitor who never showed up.

Months before the Olympics began, Bode said “For me, the ideal Olympics would be to…have performances that...make people put their heads down because they’re embarrassed about how emotional they’re getting…and come away with no medals. I think that would be epic. That would be the perfect thing.”

Bode succeeded. He came away with no medals. He made people put their heads down in embarrassment, not because of his epic performances, but because we had to watch him flush away his immense talent and the unique opportunity to carve his name among the ranks of the all-time greats.

Bode also succeeded in making a lot of us not care about him any more.

I’m tired of Bode. Let’s focus on the true champions of Team USA.

1) Sasha Cohen

Sure, Sasha didn’t win the gold medal as expected.

But Sasha has more champion in her 5’2”, 95-pound body than 100 Bode Millers.

Sasha came to win. Haunted by her failure at the 2002 Olympics, Sasha has spent the last 4 years focused on winning in the 2006 Olympics. She changed coaches. She read self-help books to improve her mental toughness. She dedicated her life to being an Olympic gold medalist.

When it came down to the actual competition, she fell and came away with silver. But we can admire Sasha for her courage and mettle, despite her fall.

2) Jeret Peterson

OK. So Jeret was kicked out of Torino for fighting and didn’t win a medal in the aerial competition.

However, Jeret succeeded in doing something Bode Miller promised to do, but didn’t: he gave a performance that made observers emotional. And he came away with no medals.

Peterson pulled off an epic jump, the Hurricane, a jump no one else has ever landed successfully. During an Olympic competition!

Peterson’s landing wasn’t good enough to place him on the podium (he finished 7th), but we can admire him for pushing the envelope when he didn’t have to.

It was a true “Tin Cup” moment; Jeret didn’t take the easy lie - he went for the glory.

And glory should be the goal of every Olympian.

3) Apolo Anton Ohno

What can I say about Apolo that hasn’t been said?

The dedication, the determination, the sacrifice, the steely resolve.

The gracious acceptance when he loses.

Apolo doesn’t whine. He leaves his heart and soul on the ice with each race. Sometimes it’s enough, sometimes it’s not.

Even if Apolo never won any medals, he is a true Olympic champion.

Oh, did I forget to mention he won 3 medals in Torino?

Ah, the glory of victory…

We Have Forgotten How to Win

Watching the failure and hubris of certain U.S. athletes during this Winter Olympics has formed a question in my mind:

Have we forgotten how to win?

Bode Miller’s ongoing self-destruction and Lindsey Jacobellis’ ill-advised Method Air during the women’s snowboard-cross finale highlight our athletes’ lack of discipline.

As Calvin Coolidge famously said, “Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent…Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Not that Bode and Lindsey are unsuccessful. But at the ultimate test, they have failed. They didn’t win the gold medals needed to prove that they are indeed the “Best in the World” (the arrogant motto of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team). And an Olympic gold medal is the minimum requirement to make that claim.

But they are definitely lacking in determination to win. Bode would rather party than win a medal. Bode has competed in 4 events so far and has not won a single medal. As for Lindsey, well, she would rather show off than clinch the gold.

"Who is the best in the world?" Hermann Maier, the Austrian Giant Slalom bronze medalist and silver medalist in the Super-G, bellowed with a laugh. "Anyone can say he's the best."

Bode Miller is known for talking. I wish he’d stop talking and start skiing.

Come on Bode, despite what the commercials say, ATTITUDE IS NOTHING.

Why don't you stop your late-night drinking bouts and concentrate on winning a medal in your last event, the slalom?

We’re pulling for you.

********************
On the positive side, there are examples of U.S. Olympic determination, persistence, and grace:

- The other Lindsey, Lindsey Kildow’s, awe-inspiring comeback from a horrific crash during practice to finish 8th in the women’s downhill.

- Ted Ligety’s surprise gold medal in the Alpine combined event.

- Apolo Ohno’s gracious bronze medal finish to two spectacular South Korean speed skaters.

The New York Times Gratuitously Assaults Catholics, but Not Muslims

The New York Times has published an editorial regarding the Jyllands-Posten Cartoon Controversy.

In the editorial, they say, “The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.”

So, The New York Times refrains from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, yet, in this article, they prominently display a photograph showing a collage of the Virgin Mary made with “cutouts from pornographic magazines and shellacked clumps of elephant dung”.

Isn’t the Virgin Mary a religious symbol of the Catholic Church?

Isn’t a collage of the Virgin Mary made from pornographic photos and clumps of elephant dung a “gratuitous assault” on a religious symbol?

So it’s OK to show that, but they won’t publish the infamous “Muhammad cartoons”?

Kinda makes you go, hmmm…

(If www.nytimes.com requires you to log in, visit www.bugmenot.com to get a user name and password.)

Did Iran Orchestrate the “Cartoon Controversy”?

Iran is angry that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has referred the issue of Iran’s nuclear power/weapons program to the UN Security Council. This is not an unexpected development, and Iran has had quite some time to create a strategy to deal with this contingency.

To refresh your memory, the UN Security Council is made up of 5 permanent members and 10 rotating members.

The 5 permanent members are:
- The United States
- China
- France
- The United Kingdom
- The Russian Federation

The current “rotating” members are:
- Tanzania
- Argentina
- Congo
- Denmark
- Ghana
- Greece
- Japan
- Peru
- Qatar
- Slovakia

Wait a minute. Denmark?

Yes. That Denmark - the focal point of this whole cartoon controversy.

The Presidency of the Security Council also rotates. Here is the schedule for 2006:

- February - The United States
- March - Argentina
- April - China
- May - Congo
- June - Denmark
- July - France
- August - Ghana
- September - Greece
- October - Japan
- November - Peru
- December - Qatar

Isn’t it interesting that the two nations who will preside over the Security Council in June and July are the two nations at the center of this cartoon brouhaha?

Could Iran have orchestrated the protests to undermine the credibility of the Security Council, just in time for their case to be heard?

I don’t know, but it sure is interesting to think about.

I wonder how long it’ll be before some obscure newspaper (like Jyllands-Posten in Denmark) in the Congo, Ghana or Greece publishes the "Muhammad" cartoons and the protests start there…

What Paul Allen Could Have Done to Win the Super Bowl

There has been way too much discussion and whining about the outcome of the Super Bowl and how poor officiating contributed to the Seahawks’ heart-breaking loss to the Steelers. Although the ugly loss emotionally devastated me, I won’t add to the pile of whines.

What I want to talk about is the failure of Seahawks fans to properly support our team and what billionaire owner Paul Allen could have done to remedy it.

As everybody knows, sports teams feed upon the energy from their fans in the stands. The Seahawks were at an immediate disadvantage in Detroit. Too few Seahawks fans made the 2000 mile trek to support our team. Estimates have been made that 80-90% of people at the game were Steelers fans, which leaves only 10-20% of the crowd rooting for the Seahawks.

Maybe it’s Seattle’s nouveau riche, quick-stock-option-millionaire-take-the-money-and-run culture. Seattle season-ticket holders just couldn’t resist the quick buck and sold their Super Bowl tickets for huge profits. Unfortunately, most of those tickets ended up in the hands of Steelers fans.

Here’s what I wish Paul Allen would have done.

Paul could have brought the 12th man (sorry Aggies) into the game by buying up huge blocks of tickets and giving them away to Seahawks fans in a sweepstakes.

Winners of the tickets could have been flown to Detroit on Paul’s personal 757. They could have been housed on Paul’s 416-foot yacht, the Octopus, anchored on Lake Erie. If he needed more room, he could also use his 302-foot yacht, the Tatoosh, and his 198-foot yacht, the Meduse.

Having a crowd of screaming Seahawks fans could have made the difference in the game and made the poor officiating irrelevant. And it wouldn’t have cost him THAT much, considering he’s the 7th richest man in the world.

If Paul had done that, he would have become an NFL legend!

Anyhow, that’s what I would have done if I were “Paul Allen for a day”.

(I don’t want to trivialize what Paul Allen has done for Seattle by buying the Seahawks and doing what needed to be done to get them to the Super Bowl. My hat’s off to him! And there’s always next year…)

The Cartoon Controversy Continues

The Blogosphere is humming with rumors that demonstrations against the infamous Jyllands-Posten “Mohammed” cartoons have been stoked to full flame by the distribution in the Middle East of not only the 12 original cartoons, but also an additional 3, much more offensive, cartoons.
Here’s a link to the dossier that was allegedly distributed in the Middle East by Danish clerics. Some pages are missing.

Is any of this true?

I don’t know, but I wanted to provide the link for my readers to let them see it for themselves. As usual with anything found on the Internet, it’s best to take this information with a grain of salt.

Yes, Virginia, Islam is the “Religion of Peace”

Muslims worldwide protested after Danish, Norwegian and French newspapers printed a series of cartoons about Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. Muslims believe physical depictions of Mohammed are blasphemous because they lead to idol worship.

Muslims continually complain Islam is unfairly depicted as a violent religion, when instead it is a “religion of peace”.

Protestors worldwide showed that Islam is indeed the “religion of peace” when:

1) Armed Palestinian gunmen stormed a European Union office in the Gaza Strip and threatened to kidnap European workers if Denmark and Norway did not apologize.

2) Demonstrators took to the streets chanting “Death to France” and “Death to Denmark”.

(It’s refreshing to hear them wishing death to someone other than the United States.)

3) Protestors set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria.

4) In the West Bank, Palestinian demonstrators burned a Danish flag and chanted "We will redeem our prophet, Muhammad, with our blood!".

(Sounds pretty peaceful to me. I think they got this idea from Gandhi.)

Muslim leaders have stepped forward to calm the teeming masses.

Here's an example of their soothing words:

"We should have killed all those who offend the prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully," said Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of Hamas.

I’m glad he’s showing restraint. (Note: Hamas won control of the Palestinian government in recent elections.)

Apparently, the concept of “peace” means something different in the Arab world than it does to us.

Fearing for their lives, the cartoonists have gone into hiding.

After the riots in France and this furor over a bunch of cartoons, Europe is finally waking up to the the violent incompatibility between Islam and not only freedom of speech, but other freedoms European societies provide for their citizens.

Because of this changing attitude, it is probably becoming less and less likely Turkey and its predominantly Muslim population will be allowed into the European Union. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.