These original Kirt's Cogitations™ may be reproduced (no more than 5, please) provided proper credit is given to me, Kirt Blattenberger.

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   Cog·i·ta·tion [koj-i-tey'-shun] – noun: Concerted thought or reflection; meditation; contemplation.
   Kirt [kert] – proper noun: RF Cafe webmaster.

U.S. Losing More Ground in Academia

In 1970, about 70% of the papers in the IEEE "Transactions" were written by authors from U.S. industry - the Bells, IBMs, RCAs and GEs. In 1990, only 15% originated for those sources. Robert Lucky recently wrote that upon examining the papers for the 2003 IEEE International Communications Conference, only 7% were from U.S. industry. Slightly more than half of the papers from academia came from universities outside the U.S., and most of those come from graduate students with little or no industry experience. As more and more of our technology and associated research moves overseas, the trend can be expected to continue. Simultaneously, our union-run public schools have been supplanting rigorous curriculums in math and sciences with politically correct Newspeak and Doublethink courses for the last 30 years. Cause and effect?