And life continues. After a long spell of very cold weather it has decided to warmup. And of course my computer (the hp laptop) has decided to go on the blink. I now have to redo all my lessons for Monday and Tuesday on my Mac.. from scratch... This is going to be a long frustrating job as all my notes and old whiteboards are on the pc.

Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was indeed a long frustrating job and took essentially all of Sunday to accomplish. Off this early morning at 6 am to bring my troubled pc to Credenda offices in PA for sorting out.

Out of my little corner, the world continues to go its own way and I keep reading the 'news' and wondering where and how it will all sort itself out. I see the United States sliding blithely and obliviously into either disintegration(I think most likely) or ongoing life as a 2nd rate power in the world, like Russia is today. While much is right and good about it, the things that are not are so big as to overwhelm the good. I am also afraid that the US will drag Canada down with it, and more afraid of what will happen to the rest of the world while the US goes down thrashing and flailing about.
The good: (1) the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and well; people all over are brimming with new ideas
The bad:(1) living with fear as a driving force in national life and politics produces only reactions no action; the physical infrastructure of the country - roads, bridges, highways, railways, water and sewer, trash disposal -- all continue to crumble and hardly anyone seems to notice. (2)The public education system, elementary, secondary and tertiary, all are sliding into disfunction; much of the elementary system, especially in urban centers is already pretty much a total failure. The secondary system does not seem to be far behind and the tertiary system, which has been a world leader and able to make up for the failures under it, is itself starting to crumble badly given the various financial crises it faces, and the nature of much of the funding that it does receive.(3) Congress has almost ceased to function as a viable entity, it is so tied up in partisan warfare and drowning in lobbyists and their money.(4) The seemingly overwhelming power now being wielded by big business, with the result that democracy, political and economic, suffers badly. Small voices, often with very important and valuable things to say, get cut out of the conversation as the 'independence' of the media vanishes. Will net neutrality survive the next few months and if it does not, the great commons that is the internet will vanish with it.