Looks like variety night once again for this column, boys and girls, because there was so much happening that I find worthy of caustic commentary.
Students at a university in Maryland were instructed to "unplug" for a day as part of a social survey. That meant no pixels, pad, pods, phone, ?puters or players for 24 hours. No texts, no cell phone calls ? no nothing of that sort. Just face-to-face old-style contacts.
The professors who conducted the experiment discovered to their dismay that a large percentage of the students were truly addicted and they showed the sure signs of addiction just like the other addicts. They suffered anxiety attacks after a few hours of 小蓝视频 removed from their electronic toys. Some even experienced significant heart palpatations and those who had lost the basic skills of actually 小蓝视频 able to talk with another person for more than two minutes, and were incapable of reading or engaging in some type of physical activities were, in actuality, lost souls.
The professors sent out the warning that our society has to be equipped to deal with this new social reality. There is a new addiction out there.
Second commentary.
What is with our poor besotten military? Just when I thought we were restoring some credibility on the international military scene thanks to our Armed Forces activities in Afghanistan and the Mideast Gulf waters and elsewhere, along comes the news that those second-hand submarines we bought from England 12 years ago that have seen about 12 hours of actual duty and 11 years and 11 months of dry dock retrofitting and repairing, are still not seaworthy, nor are they armed!
These were the subs, if you can recall, that had a tendency to submerge very efficiently. But resurfacing? Not so good. That's not a good thing. So they fixed and repaired. They had one fire on board that I believe cost a life or two. But the navy and the military complex would not admit defeat with these submarine lemons. Seems now that the torpedoes we had on hand to put aboard these subs aren't compatible. Twelve years and they're just finding that out now? For $120 million they can readjust the torpedoes or for $100 million and another year in dry dock, they can readjust the four submarines to accept the torpedoes. Hard to believe, eh?
So if that is what it is, what do you think is going to happen with those second-hand F-35 jets we are supposedly having to buy from the United States used jet lot for $20 billion or more?
I say let's spent $10 grand on a biplane and give the pilot a deer rifle and see how that works out! I hope someone took those F-35s out for a test spin before they signed the cheque.
Finally, I was going to devote a column to the passing of a friend Gary Hyland, a member of the Moose Jaw writing mafia. Gary succumbed to ALS last week. I was going to attempt a tribute, but then realized that so many of his well worded friends would be providing literary tributes much more eloquently than I could ever muster. Guys like me who admire stuff that guys like Gary write, can only hammer away with words hoping that some of them fall in where they're supposed to fall. Guys like Gary selected and placed them carefully and effectively. The writing community, family and friends will miss him ? a lot. But we will carry on. Or as Gary once said to a group of fellow writers who had gathered for a working week in Fort Qu'Appelle let's go mangle and massacre a few metaphors guys' and write something happy!?
Good advice from a friend who is now in that farewell place.
