Tuesday night and Wednesday morning will be tense, and I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this up here in Canada, where we don’t even get a vote.  That said, I have to make an attempt to condition myself against what I feel to be the worst-case scenario, that being the election of someone I profoundly wish to be gone.  I’ll say nothing more on that.

But what if it doesn’t go “my” way?  What then?

I guess I could just hunker down and assume the worst of everything will be on its way.  But I have to remind myself that sometimes, actually a lot of times, the Americans surprise me, both as a nation and as a people.  So, while doom and gloom might be the easiest stick to reach for, I don’t think there’s any harm in considering how we might just get through this moving forward, despite who wins.

Continue reading “US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND HOW EVERYTHING MIGHT TURN OUT ALRIGHT REGARDLESS OF THE RESULT” →

My goodness, I could sure use some good news.  I feel like I’ve been carping on this, that, and the other thing, like, forever.

But then science and technology jumped into my world, at least a little bit, and I found something entirely encouraging.

Eyesight is such a key part of the living experience.  Yes, people can still interact with their environment having lost their sight, or having never been gifted with it in the first place.

But as much as we can adapt, it would still be preferable to have sight rather than not.

And now, it’s theoretically possible to restore sight using a combination of genetics and optics, giving people afflicted with sight-loss an opportunity to experience the visual sense of the world again or even for the first time.

This new technology involves a partnership between gene therapy and light stimulation.  And oddly enough, a virus.

The virus in question is known as an adenovirus, one that can usually cause symptoms resembling a cold or other respiratory ailments.  But in this case, it can help.

The essential aspect behind this technique is the patient’s retinal cells and how they can be modified by injecting them with a light-sensitive protein from, well, red algae if you must know.  This makes the neurons of the patient’s optic nerve more photoreceptive.  That’s the genetic part.

The light stimulation comes from wearing special glasses that record the world around the patient before projecting those images onto the patient’s retina.

It’s not going to be the same as regular vision, although maybe we can get there down the road.  But when you have no vision at all, then it sounds to me to represent a bit of a breakthrough.

And that, friends, I’m going to call good news.

What’s in a name?

One hundred and fifty-five years ago, the Canadian government initiated a program to mitigate what it described as its “Indian problem.”  The plan called for the creation and operation of what became known as residential schools.  Interestingly, the schools were run by faith-based organizations, like the United, Presbyterian, and Catholic Churches.

And they were brutal.

Native children were forcibly removed from their reserve homes and brought to remote locations, making escape a difficult proposition.  They had their hair cut off, were soaked in kerosene to remove lice, and were forced to speak English, upon pain of physical beating if they didn’t or were caught speaking their indigenous languages.  They were taught how to speak, write, and worship as a white person would, although at least two of those three were almost universal failures.

They were taught to eat properly, conduct themselves properly, and even walk properly.  I know first-hand the story of a girl beaten by nuns for the sin of being “pigeon-footed.”  That girl was five when taken from her parents.  She returned home at age eighteen, both parents dead, other siblings dead, and caught in a wasted in-between, not being able to speak either English nor her indigenous language well enough to be considered fluent in either.  She was lost, broken, traumatized, and alone.

But there was one thing she learned to do very well in the thirteen years that she passed in “custody.”  She learned how to hate the people who put her there and kept her there.  The people who did this to her.

She would never trust them for as long as she lived.

Continue reading “WHAT’S IN A NAME? JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING.” →

The Chicago Blackhawks limped into Crypto.com Arena yesterday afternoon to play the Los Angeles Kings, a day after dropping a should-have-won game against the San Jose Sharks the night before.  The Hawks played well against the next-to-last-place Sharks — Chicago having the honour of last place in the overall NHL standings — at least well enough to win, but they came up short, something that’s happened a lot so far this season.  In short, they laid the proverbial egg.

Going up against the Kings looked imposing, LA having a team much better at present than the still-rebuilding, yet veteran-laden Blackhawks.  Losing to the Sharks was a downer, and losing to the Kings would be a downer too, yet perhaps a more understandable one.

Chicago did not disappoint.  The laid another egg — Blackhawks being one of the more prolific egg-producing clubs in the NHL to date — and for the first fifty minutes gave no sense that they were going to be competitive, watching the Kings control the puck, win the battles, control the face-off dot, and generally ride roughshod over the Hawks.  Having a two-goal lead, 2-0, midway through the third seemed almost to be a guarantee that Chicago fans would witness what they’ve witnessed several times already this year, an empty-net, extra-skater mad scramble at the end that comes up empty.  And that’s exactly what their fans got.  Sort of.

Continue reading “HAWKS PREVAIL IN LA SHOOT-OUT” →

The United States has embarked on a search for a new air-to-air platform to replace what is already a formidable lineup of such beasts.  They’re looking at, among other things, a so-called sixth-generation of crewed fighter aircraft, meaning a craft that is flown by a real live person sitting in the cockpit.

The US Navy has already started production — and in a pinch deployment — of its next-generation fighter, the F/A-XX, the intended replacement for the F/A-18 Hornet currently aboard America’s fleet of aircraft carriers.

Not to be out-done by the navy, the United States Air Force has fielded its designs for a version of a Next Generation Air Dominance —NGAD — fighter of its own.  It’s not currently as advanced as the USN’s program, to the delight of the navy — inter-service rivalry and all that — and to the chagrin of air force generals.

Continue reading “AMERICA ALREADY HAS A NGAD FIGHTER. IT JUST HAPPENS TO BE A BOMBER(S).” →

The BRICS family of nations got together this past week to talk about steps they might take to remove themselves from the influence the west has, and primarily America has, over the affairs of the world.  BRICS, standing for Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa, is an organization of nations that resent the influence of the United States in world affairs.  Other nations that have membership are Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates, but they didn’t make the cut for the title acronym. Countries like Saudi Arabia have been invited but not yet joined, and NATO ally Turkey even attended the get-together last week.

What a pleasant collection of authoritarian dictators that must have been.

Originally put forward by Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a counterweight to NATO, the European Union, and other groupings deemed controlled by the Americans, these nations resent the fact that they have to follow the “international rules-based order,” which for them is code for doing what America wants.  Several of the members have faced the clout of US-led sanctions, Russia and Iran being the two most recent.

They even talked about coming up with their own currency to get away from dependence on the American dollar, and to a lesser extent, the EU’s euro.  Good luck with that.

Continue reading “BRICS A GATHERING OF “FRIENDS WITHOUT LIMITS.” JUST WATCH YOUR SIX.” →