Times are changing. Now that most of the white middle class just sticks its boys in front of computer games for most of childhood and youth, their daughters are getting better educations, more chance for college, and more chance to become engineers.

Speaking of engineers, I have totally unrelated story to tell. My husband just watched a DVD about when the terrible tsunami damamged the nuclear reactor in Japan. The control room was without power - the usual supply and the back-up supply had been destroyed by the tsunami. The engineers desperately needed to know the temperature and pressure of the core, but the gauges could not work.

Then one of them got an idea. They took the batteries out of all their cars, hooked them up together and used them to operate the gauges.

Quiet heroes, if you ask me.