jim_nj, I'll let Melinda speak for him/herself, but Mel is in the business.

Below are the names of the high-school students who will compete for a spot on the team representing the United States at the 51st International Chemistry Olympiad in Paris, France, July 21-30, 2019. Ridings Bald, The Westminster Schools, GA, Georgia Local Section Jenny Cai, Park Tudor School, IN, Indiana Local Section Anugrah Chemparathy, Dougherty Valley High School, CA, California Local Section Allen Ding, Stevenson High School, IL, Chicago Local Section Andrew Feng, Canyon Crest Academy, CA, San Diego Local Section Michael Han, Dougherty Valley High School, CA, California Local Section Edward Jin, Arnold O. Beckman High School, CA, Orange County Local Section Alex Li, Lexington High School, MA, Northeastern Local Section Albert Liu, North Hollywood High School, CA, Southern California Local Section Anton Ni, University High School, CA, Orange County Local Section Yajvan Ravan, Churchill High School, MI, Detroit Local Section Ananthan Sadagopan, Westborough High School, MA, Central Massachusetts Local Section Yannik Singh, Carmel High School, IN, Indiana Local Section Nicholas Tsao, St. Mark’s School of Texas, TX, Dallas Fort Worth Local Section David Wu, Westview High School, CA, San Diego Local Section William Xu, Thomas Jefferson High School For Science and Technology, VA, Chemical Society of Washington Aaron Xue, Oklahoma School for Science and Mathematics, OK, Oklahoma Local Section Iris Yan, Carmel High School, IN, Indiana Local Section Albert Zhu, Solon High School, OH, Cleveland Local Section Alec Zhu, Lexington High School, MA, Northeastern Local Section How many do you think have immigrant parents?

Your weekly Clarice: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/arrogant_conceit_and_pratfalls.html

PBMs? Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

AUBURN, CA—Local 36-year-old man Nate Ripley, who identifies as six-year-old... Hey! Why pick on us here in Auburn?

WSJ one-liner: Fiat Chrysler withdraws merger offer for Renault.

In other news, James Holzhauer lost on Jeopardy! today. That ends a 31-game winning streak where he won $2,462,216. That is second only to the legendary Ken Jennings, who won $2,520,700 over 74 games back in 2004.

First?

jim, I won't get too far out into the weeds, but Deming's approach to statistical process analysis was applied far too broadly. The Great Yellow Father required that these methods be applied to fundamental R&D -- we HAD to have a statistician on every project. Very inappropriate, and it took me the better part of a year to learn that I had to ignore Corporate.

The Japanese became masters of quality control recognizing quality control experts from the US W. Edwards Deming. Great ideas, but he ruined companies too.

TWIP: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/06/the-week-in-pictures-its-mueller-overtime-edition.php

Bach, Chaconne, Partita No. 2, Hilary Hahn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqA3qQMKueA I've been going through Busoni's piano transcriptions of this one these days, and it is good to hear the original one. It is very intense, and Hahn is wonderful.

DrJ, hope more grants are headed your way! No, but I think a decent-sized contract will happen. Life. It would be great without customers!

when to use "jibe" and when to use "jive" I'm relieved of my role as English usage Nazi! Thanks! And yes, you are right.

The ones [German cars] built before the wall came down were mostly bulletproof. That's right, but I think you misattribute the cause. In 1990, the year the Berlin wall came down, Lexus introduced their Mercedes clones (actually in 1989). Lexus built a quality product, but at a much lower cost. Until Lexus, Mercedes engineered the car, and then priced it. After Lexus, they set a price point, and then did the engineering to meet it. That was a HUGE change in culture. So yes, Mercedes started outsourcing to locations that had lower-cost manufacturing. They had to, to drive down the price of their cars. And it was to their detriment. But it kept them alive. BMW did the same thing. Cost point, not engineering point. FWIW, I've only owned three cars in my life. All were/are German, with two Fords and one Mercedes. All were pre-Lexus (or unification). All were wonderful. My current one, the 1987 Mercedes, still will last for a very, very long time. I'm done with NSF for the day. Goodness they work us hard!

*no time*

It is an interesting world. I just spent an hour or so talking with a conservative Catholic from Portland OR, who is black. In Alexandria VA. I'm at an NSF panel, and have to time for visits, sadly. But a conservative? From Portland? Really? He agrees that Portland is totally f**ked up these days.

How could anyone not love baritone sax? Love it. I still prefer "Down to the Nightclub" but that's just me. I've played "You're Still A Young Man" too many times.

My pleasure, jimmyk!

Iggy! I thought I was the only Tower of Power fan here! Asian grilled chicken stir-fry Grilled Teriyaki chicken here -- pretty similar. For Megan: Brahms Violin Concerto, Hahn/Järvi/Frankfurt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFl9xuYP5T8

Thanks for the good wishes! This is a small grant, so Jim is right: it covers beans and rice. And it also means that there are more grants to be written. I have a couple of ideas...

Buckeye, The funding rate for grants these days is about 10%. You do the numbers! I do better actually, as my funding rate since 2014 is about 50%. Funding comes in waves, though, so it is hard to build a sustained program.

We are not developing enough STEM oriented talent in this country and are going to pay a price. Depends. I think the distribution of degrees is skewed. Computer Sciences, Electrical Engineering, and AA-level programming needs more people. Henry can comment better, but at the moment it is a software/hardware world. In life sciences, at least at the graduate level, there are simply too many people. The Universities turn out more PhDs than there are opening either in academia and in industry. That leads to the perpetual post docs and adjunct teaching positions, both of which are terrible ways to live. Even though grants have become terribly competitive, Universities have staffed up with faculty to grab whatever grant money they can. It leads to faculty writing, and writing, and writing grant after grant after grant. It is a waste of time. I don't think it is helpful to talk about STEM. That simply is too broad a category that includes CNC programming, med tech, social media, biological chemistry, and enology. The fields are very different. FWIW, my new grant started yesterday.

Unfortunately doing well on LSAT's has nothing to do with being a good lawyer. That's true. My ex aced the LSATs, and was a terrible lawyer before leaving the law for graphic arts, of all things.

a-mom was accepted into a six-year MD program by the Medical school at Michigan ("Inteflex"). So to say that she doesn't have a college degree is true, sorta, but not really. She just doesn't have an undergraduate degree -- her program went straight to the MD. Another friend of mine went the same route. Michigan doesn't offer it any longer -- I've no idea why.