Reflections of an Old Man

In order for a group of people to act in concert a common set of emotions needs to prevail. It could be as simple as fear, running away from a threat, like a fire or marauding enemy. Or it could aggression, based on hate of a common enemy. Or, it could be liking someone, something or ideas agreeable to individuals. In the past, considerable resources were required to create messaging that would reach a whole lot of people and massage their minds in favor of the message, so the state tended to have the upper hand, creating servants for its causes. The state was followed by large corporations that have grown into formidable entities under the umbrella of capitalism. Then along came the joker in the deck: The Internet. And people with financial resources realised that here was a platform that could potentially reach billions of people who would be susceptible to their messaging. They also realised that money could be made by creating platforms for small operators to use to get their messa...

What has being towed in glider got to do with virus spread? Let's see: Some years ago I took glider flying lessons at a local airport where a tow plane was used to get the glider up to 2000 feet above ground level before the tow rope was released. The hardest part of that flight was to stay steady behind the tow plane as it took off and worked its way skyward. Especially if there was a bit of wind and turbulence to contend with. Sitting in the front of the glider cockpit with the instructor behind me, the towplane was literally dancing on the windscreen in front of me, as I desperately tried to keep it centered by moving the stick and rudder pedals. After many flights and lots of wild dances behind the towplane, I finally cottoned on to the fact that my reactions to towplane movements ahead of me were way too slow. When I really focussed on what that plane was doing and instantly corrected the glider's direction to suit, the towplane became docile on the windscreen in front of...

Very simple: The number of people infected with COVID far exceeds anything that has happened in recorded history. With that kind of base, the probability of more virulent variants increase by an order of magnitude, compared to what has happened in the past. Thankfully, work on vaccines and other measures against this new enemy goes across national boundaries in order to speed up and reinforce our response. At the beginning of WWI it was generally thought that it would be all over in a couple of months. The carnage lasted for 4 years plus another couple added on for the 1918 flu pandemic. That might be a realistic timeline this time around as well.

Using nuclear technology to power deep space exploration is an obvious answer to the energy supply question. And it is, and has been, applied for some time now in deep space and on Mars rovers. One problem with nuclear power is radiation both on instruments and humans in close proximity to the source. In deep space this problem can be solved by letting the nuclear power generator float at some distance from the spacecraft while providing electrical power to the craft. As we do here on Earth, a nuclear power source could be housed away from the operational site on Mars and the Moon. And as a matter of interest, nuclear powered submarines from several nations are currently operating 6 months at a time under water, generating their own oxygen from sea water.

Think about this: Governments across the the world have pumped trillions of dollars into the world economy over the last year, a lot of which have ended up parked in accounts somewhere. That money has been used to buy and sell goods and services, but it has not been extinguished and is looking for ways to multiply. So, when things open up again, the money will likely start moving like a tsunami in the world economy, causing an economic boom of unprecedented size. The nineteen twenties boom comes to mind. It followed in wake of WWI and the 1918 Flu Pandemic. The bubble burst in 1929 and was followed by the Great Depression.

Back in the fall of 1966, as a young electronics technician and newly arrived immigrant in Sydney, Australia, I got a job with an American company called Honeywell to work on digital computers. These were data processing machines occupying a whole floor in downtown office buildings, with humming air conditioning systems. Enter the space race which started some 10 years earlier with Sputnik, and the need to miniaturize electronic components to make space vehicles progressively smarter. It didn't take long for printed circuit boards in commercial computers to be loaded up with integrated circuits, and the rest is history: A laptop today will do the same amount of work as a 1966 mainframe computer occupying a whole office building. Fast forward to 2021: Today, Perseverance is sitting warm and snug on the frigid surface of Mars after a perfect landing yesterday and capable of operating for some 14 years based on output from its on-board plutonium based nuclear power cell. Based on a tr...

Some background from Wikipedia: "Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump attended Fordham University for two years and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He became the president of his father Fred Trump's real estate business in 1971, which he renamed The Trump Organization; he expanded the company's operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. He owned the Miss Universe brand of beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015, and produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015." What does this tell us? Donald Trump absolutely loves being center stage, and will do anything to get his kicks, including being tried for insurrection against...

As the third wave of COVID is showing up in Newfoundland, causing that province to scramble for safety, a timely question arises: What is this thing? I don't buy the "escaped from a bat theory". Covid is just too good at dividing and conquering us. The virus plays on existing societal divisions and amplify them. In doing so, it creates perfect conditions for uncontrolled spread as it gets more virulent and sneaky. I can only conclude that we are literally dealing with an alien attack by an enemy who will not show his face, while he causes chaos and anger among his victims. And instead of demonizing the enemy, as we do in a conventional war,. we are demonizing each other for the benefit of the real enemy on the chessboard of life vs death.

Mayor Don Scott of the Wood Buffalo municipality, which includes Fort McMurray, and his council have defied an order from the Province to transfer ambulance dispatch services to Alberta Health Services. This following a stalemate in negotiations between AHS and the mayors of several major Alberta cities. Health Minister Tyler Shandro simply rubber stamped the position taken by senior AHS bureaucrats, hoping the issue would go away, forcing a centralized service upon the municipalities in question. His lack of mature judgement is again shining through (a common feature of members of the Kenney government). He hasn't cottoned on to the fact that Mayor Don Scott served as a cabinet minister in a previous conservative government in Alberta and has a big popular following in the Fort McMurray area. The stage is set for another Kenney government debacle.

Just heard on the local news that Alberta's Energy Minister Sonya Savage has come up with yet another coal extraction policy for the headwaters of Alberta's rivers. It is reportedly to be "unveiled" in the next week or so. That in face of opposition to the previous recently introduced policy to shave off mountain tops and dump them into the nearest valley in order to get at coal seams. No public consultation, of course. "No, no, no! We, the duly elected rookie politicians, who just walked off the street a couple of years ago, know how to do our job. Just watch us!" Yes Sonya, the whole world is watching you. Not just us here in Alberta. And especially the people who sit on the world's money bags. Hadn't thought of that one, eh?

Yesterday's announcement that people coming into contact with the new variants of COVID are required to self isolate for 24 days, rather than 14, will simply send more people underground and avoid testing unless they become seriously ill. So, on the surface it looks as if AHS is doing its job, but all they are actually doing is to drive the problem under ground. And that is what literally happened here in Canada between 1918 and 1920 during the prohibition days. (Funny how 1918 keeps cropping up). There were stills everywhere and liquor was served in all kinds of nooks and crannies, including under ground level. Oh dear, history repeating itself all over again!

Back in the 70ies, during the heady days of "flower power", long haired hippies used to sit in a circle, pass the joint around and solve the problems of the world. All the while collecting the dole from the government and trading some dope for an extra buck. Fast forward about 50 years and they are still doing it, except now they have grey hair and ride in private jets to Davos and other holiday destinations while collecting the dole from private foundations. Our Precious Justin, being a second generation hippie, just announced his new marvellous plan for solving Canada's vaccine problem in statement with a familiar theme: "We are going to". Remember, he "was going to" change the electoral laws, make sure that our aboriginal communities have drinkable water, etc. What he actually did was to legalize dope, so that everybody else can join him at the table when the joint is passed around and dream about how they are going to re-shape the world according ...

Just heard Dr. Hinshaw's daily update on COVID numbers that are slowly subsiding here in Alberta, as elsewhere. But, alas, so are also the daily number of tests conducted. Testing here in Alberta depends on how many people come forwards on a voluntary basis and have come down from a peak of around 20000 per day to the present 7000 per day. The big question is: Are less people coming forwards because there is less symptomatic spread of COVID, or are they reluctant to come forwards because of all the hassle involved with contact tracing etc. The good doctor does not seem to have asked herself that question, one answer to which would suggest that there could be a lot of COVID spread taking place undetected. I tend to lean in that direction as the new variants make inroads. The outcome could be a third wave in the spring.

As we watch divisions emerge within societies right across the globe, in part driven by fallout from the pandemic, it might be a good idea to look back in time for similar developments. On this issue, I can bring some fairly direct experience to the table as I was born in 1943 at the height of WWII in German occupied Norway. The war literally came in with my mother's milk and it has shaped who I am. It also gave me the incentive to study what happened in Norway during those war years, and how people were affected. When asked about the war, my mother told me: "We didn't know what freedom was until we lost it" (to the German invaders and their Norwegian collaborators). She told me a story of going from the city where she lived to visit relatives on a farm some distance to the south and returning on the train, hiding a dozen eggs in a parcel under her coat, as rationing was being strictly enforced. How did we get there? During the Great Depression of the 1930ies, sharp d...

We humans, more than any other species known to us, shape our landscape according to our will. Each culture settles on chosen ways to do so resulting in distinct kinds of landscapes. On the 'mindscape' side it is really no different, but what most of us probably have not considered is that this can be just as deliberate a process as the creation of a physical landscape. It doesn't 'just happen', and the sneaky aspect of this mindscape creation is that we are, by and large, unaware of it taking place inside our heads. During a traditional war we send missiles and other kinds of hardware against each other to inflict physical and material damage upon the perceived enemy. The new and potentially marvellous tool we call "the Internet" is now being used as a platform to inflict damage upon our mindscapes, by turning people against each other within nations, thus making them less able to withstand external aggression. That is why most nations today have newly es...