BUT I DIGRESS

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“BUT I DIGRESS“ consists of “HEAD TREKS” that represent the conversion of random thoughts, sometimes in the form of “QUICK TREKS” , observations, philosophies and rants into a form of modern cursive expression better known as computer keyboarding. From time to time these thoughts are also summarized under the heading “IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN: QUESTIONS I CANNOT PRESENTLY ANSWER.” IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN: QUESTIONS I CANNOT PRESENTLY ANSWER -Whether today’s celebrity worship is an ongoing mental illness or merely a fad that will at some point, if not suffer a deserved demise, then at least, be blessed with the curative medicine of a society of higher intelligence? -Whether in temperate climates the normal passage from spring to summer to autumn to winter and back to spring again will be viewed as an historical pattern of climate change or alternatively, a barrier to the ideologies of many climate “scientists”? -Whether I will ever be able to comprehend how a judicially

IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN: QUESTIONS I CANNOT PRESENTLY ANSWER - Whether Canada’s increasing “nanny state” governance will serve to retard the future efficient use of individual brain cells? - Whether it will ever be understood that leaders make, often many, mistakes on the road to accomplishment, but that those who never attempt such will never make mistakes…………..or achieve anything? - Whether the long standing and scientifically recognized rhythms of El Niño and La Niña weather cycles will be treated as normal cycles of climate change or impediments to the ideologies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? - Whether September 2017 Irma hurricane’s death toll of less than 100 represents a significant improvement over the 9,000 deaths in the Galveston, Texas hurricane in 1900, 2,500 deaths in the 1928 Florida hurricane, 1,200 deaths in the 2005 Katrina hurricane, or just more dramatic media reporting that implied that Irma exerted the greatest toll………EVER!? -

HEAD TREKS: A Reflection On Addition & Subtraction

A Reflection On Addition & Subtraction It is October 23, 2017 and today a couple became first time parents and with that some friends of ours grandparents. Today also however, a friend of ours became a widow. Today a child is born and a friend lost. Today at birth, a new life is created on the same day that death extinguishes a full other one. Today there is joy on the one hand and grief on the other. Today a new heart beats while a mature one is silenced. Such are the competing factions of happiness and sorrow. Such are the emotional struggles when they must be simultaneous. Such are the components of addition and subtraction that define the realities of life cycles. Such are the ingredients of reflection. Copyright © 2017 Ian de W. Semple

HEAD TREKS: Complicating Simplicity

“Does dividing middle class into “upper” and “lower” segments contradict the concept? …..like having hips and a chest without a waist.” A recent newspaper article by a learned academic (pun intended) dwelt on the concept of “middle class” in Canada and probed the apparent growing separation of such into an “upper” minority and what amounted to a fading but growing “lower” variety. Employing a plethora of statistical data, the article’s intent appeared to be to locate the new “centre” of the middle class under a trend whereby growth of income in the upper middle class has exceeded that of both the lower middle class and the very rich “one percenters.” The premise of the article, aside from tax considerations, appears to have been that what was normally a unified middle class is under separation and that the majority of that class are falling farther and farther behind their upper middle class cousins. Nowhere were any explanations proffered to explain this growing trend of

QUICK TREKS Canadians undergoing the after effects of recent Caribbean hurricanes certainly deserve our sympathy. But why do they think that their government has to rescue them from their personal misfortunes? Oh, I forgot. Entitlement operating within the parameters of the Nanny State mentality. If America is so racially unjust, how is it that some 70% of players in the National Football League and 74% of players in the National Basketball Association are black, and for the most part multi-millionaires? Perhaps their kneel-downs should be in thanks for the opportunity they have had to flourish within, however imperfect as are they themselves, a democratic environment that offers the opportunity for achievement through personal effort and not the myth of government handout. If America is so racially oppressive, why do these players stay? Could it be, dare I inquire……..the money? Just asking. Did Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team, the world’s wealth

HEAD TREKS: Modelling and The Media

HEAD TREKS: Modelling and the Media “There is no greater enemy of ideology than science.” No, not that modelling where Millennials are seen to be prancing around in a show of stylish clothes of vapid elegance; sometimes as outerwear, sometimes as underwear, and occasionally just showing their wares with no wear on at all. The modelling in this small musing refers to modelling as undertaken by a computer under the direction of, and with inputs from, its user. In general terms, there are two types of computer modelling. Ethical modelling endeavours to predict certain events or behaviours based on the input of historical empirical data, whose past patterns may be predictive of the future. With regard to weather, computer modelling attempts to create future casts (formerly known as forecasts before the advent of political correctness and modern illiteracy) based on inputs of historical patterns. Theoretically, the more empirical inputs the modelling uses, the more accurate