December 11, 12

Good morning. We have a gloomy, cloudy day though little if any rain expected. The temperature will remain in the 30s all day.

Oh, my!! Scottish and American authorities may have custody of the Lockerbie bomber. I don't know how many of you were even alive in 1988 when that airliner exploded in the worst terrorist related crash in history. I was 49 then and am now staring down my 74 birthday early next year. Anyone under the age of 34 probably looked at the news this morning with a blank look wondering what the fuss was all about. And I have to amend that first sentence because authorities have custody of the "alleged" bomb maker. He hasn't been tried or judged guilty yet.

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Another Monday and almost half-past December. We have an appointment to have our computers checked out after our adventure with the scammers last week. I hope the bastards didn't leave anything on Mom's computer and they didn't have access to mine but we think cautious is the best strategy.

I couldn't get on Bloglovin' for most of last week but connected easily today so I will catch up. I don't know what is the recurring problem with them but I keep the a tab for the sites I visit most often on my computer so I can (usually) go in directly.

The attacks on the North Carolina electric substations aren't the only ones lately though it was the focus on the news. That focus has faded now that power has been restored there. But I found a reference to another situation, or rather series of situations, in the Pacific Northwest on a blog yesterday and did a bit of research on line. You can find an account at the Guardian here or do a quick Google search. Security experts interviewed on the news shows repeatedly mentioned they have seen increased chattered on-line on extremist boards about attacking the power grid.

Robert Reich posted today about a strike of academic workers in California. I hope it has some positive effect for the strikers though I don't really expect it. Thirty years ago a grad student colleague applying for jobs in California (where her family lived) described the condition of "adjunct" instructors as "gentile poverty." Five years before that, when I was an adjunct instructor at a community college in Colorado I knew colleagues who worked at three colleges as adjunct and traveled between Greeley, Ft. Collins, and Boulder to teach three classes at each institution. That was the limit for adjuncts and the pay barely made ends met without leaving any cushion for emergencies. I knew another who developed a very popular course that was always filled only to have the administration give the course to a full-time teacher who was so boring he couldn't keep his own courses filled. He was so angry he told a large number of students from another course he taught who wanted to take that one that he wouldn't be teaching it. The course was less than half full in the next semester and many of those who signed up dropped it early. The academic industry was becoming a (gentile--😠) sweat shop when I was in it. It is worse now.