Gabcast! DB Blas: Mobile Dispatch #15

Hamilton's Cafe's grilled cheese sandwich was reviewed in today's Union-Tribune.

The review described the sandwich as "a gift from God" because it's stuffed with "avocado, bacon, smoke ham, apple slices and such."

I haven't yet tried the grilled cheese (despite the fact I work a shift at Hamilton's), and to describe anything as a "gift from God"--especially food--makes the simple sandwich very tempting.

At the padres game.

Gabcast! DB Blas: Mobile Dispatch #14

Hong Kong Airport 2008

On April 7, 2008, I boarded an airplane in Hong Kong to return to the States. And on this particular flight to San Francisco, seated next to me, was an American post-doctorate researcher from M.I.T. She was conducting research in Singapore.

Singapore, she said, is spending a lot of money attracting the best and brightest minds to build their research capabilities, and that is why she was in an airport in Hong Kong. She went on to say that great results from research investments will be coming from Singapore in the future, and that the future for the best and brightest minds are in places like Singapore, China, and India.

In Thomas Friedman's column, he writes that most Americans have no idea that the United States is no longer the research leader of the world.

We, according to Friedman, are no longer the leading inventors of the ideas and concepts for the future. Many of the smartest Americans are headed to countries in Asia from where they can conduct research that our government no longer funds. There are many negative consequences to our government's decision to divest itself from academic research.

Friedman says we need a president who can tell us the truth. We need someone who can tell us "we are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country".

Telling (and hearing) the truth is always painful; however, living on lies is even more tragic.