On Sunday, I indicated that my life had three 27-year periods after the age of 5, and provided details of the first trio, but only got through high school.  Today, I will complete this initial educational cycle with Stanford University, an important learning experience in the Hawaiian sugar industry, then graduate school. So in 1958 I left Hawaii for the first time. My brother by then was working at the Naval Civil Engineering Center in Port Hueneme, California.  I stayed with his family that summer, for he secured for me a summer job at this center. Stanford was a challenge, for I was below average, again, in all facets of life, sociologically, economically and intellectually. There were no Black students, Hispanics were not yet even identified and I was the only student of Japanese ethnicity. Actually, there was one Black in 1891, the year the school opened, Ernest Houston Johnson.  He graduated in 1895 in economics, but sadly died of tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of ...

Before the nostalgic topic of the day, the latest on what is happening in the Israel-Iran War. The fact that Israel actually had the audacity to bomb Iran was a shock. The Iranian response came, but was weaker than expected. So far, after four days. Iran:  220 deaths, with 1,000 injured.  Don't believe what they report. Israel:  24 deaths, 600 injured. The Iron Dome defense does have U.S. participation, but still allows maybe 5% of drones and missiles to penetrate. Incidentally, Trump wants a  Golden Dome for America  at a  cost of $175 billion . Won't be easy, for Israel is 400 times smaller than the USA.   Much of the hardware came from the U.S. in many billions of dollars since 2011 . The critical contention is that the difference between the iron and golden ones is like comparing a kayak to a battleship. This is not a war for territory.  Israel just wanted to eliminate their most serious existential threat, that of extinction, and felt th...