March 25, 2018

Dear everyone,

Loyola somehow has made it to the Final Four.  There are a lot of ex-Loyolans at Christ, so everyone is abuzz with basketball fever, despite their broken brackets (This is the year where many 1^st seeds went down in inglorious defeat).  As much as the Loyola team probably is made up of “student athletes”, I really dislike the whole concept of college sports.  I heard on the radio today that the top five athletic conferences make 6 Billion dollars per year, mostly off of football and Men’s basketball.  This gives rise to coaches who make more than college presidents, over 2 million dollar salaries for commissioners of the NCAA, and a complete corrupt system.  And of course, the students are pretty much uncompensated for their efforts.  Yes, they get a ‘free’ education, provided they practice 30-40 or more hours per week (I guess science majors are out of luck).  And if they are injured they are out of school, with nothing to show for it other than an unfinished, half-assed degree and a limp or worse. Many do not graduate. I should also mention that at these mostly majority white schools, with African-American populations of about 2%, but usually 50-60% of the athletes are minorities.  I think these athletes should actually participate in university sponsored minor leagues where they can play – and be paid -- for 4 years of sports performance, after which they are guaranteed a spot at the sponsoring institution as a student.  Then, come what may, they at least have a nest egg to fall back on.

Not a whole lot has been happening at work.  My microscope broke this week.  Apparently the electricity from the wall doesn’t go immediately to the halogen bulb.  First, the wall current needs conditioning, and then the voltage needs to be stepped down from 120 V to 6 V.  So, in the base of the microscope is a circuit board, some capacitors, etc.  My circuit board, or some similar component, went bad.  The scope is about 25 years old, and Olympus doesn’t make replacement parts for this model anymore. So, I am set up with a small external controller (from Leica) to turn my light on and off.  A completely new scope (with all of the lenses and everything) costs about $20,000.  However, I just need a new base, which I could get for the bargain price of about $2000.  It might be worth doing this.  If so, I might try to get a new model condenser lens without a swing arm (so I don’t have to keep swinging this secondary lens around depending on what magnification I am using).  However, a new base might not come with a light polarizer, which is something I need to use a lot.

Cindy and I are starting to plan our trip to Japan in late September / early October.  I am trying to pay for my registration to the Neuropath Congress there, but the online registration form is pretty complex, and I have had trouble getting my credit card transactions to go through.  I’m sure it will all work out later.  We will be staying in Tokyo around Sept 22- 27, and then on to other areas – obviously Kyoto, but perhaps other places as well.

We saw “The Battle of the Sexes” last night with Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell at Bobbie Riggs. Was it really that tough to be a woman in the 70’s?  Cindy says yes (and when hasn’t it been tough to be a woman).  Clearly it is unfair for women to be paid less for the same work.  And the attitudes of Jack Kramer and other officials of the USTA! Ugh! Ugh!  Women still don’t make as much as men in tennis, 45 years later. At least they are making more than college “student-athletes”!

Love,

H.