September 2, 2021

A good friend called last week. She was on the Island of Hawai'i at her hotel when a visitor remarked that she was leaning to one side and when she stood up she continued to lean to this side. She was unaware of the odd stance but wound up in an ambulance to the local hospital in Waimea, air evacuated to Queen's Hospital and had a subdural hematoma evacuated with her being home again in Honokaa three days later seemingly no worse for wear -amazing! We discussed the inadequate health care system on the island and her interest that day in moving back to Oahu. She is coping with being the caregiver to my friend who is now impaired with cognitive decline while she is handicapped with congestive heart condition. After our discussion of the decline of the hotel business and her decision not to rent to people who are not vaccinated or have young children we commiserate with each other on the state of our countries disunion.  

About this time, my friend who has been emailing periodically his hopelessness related to cognitive decline, physical handicapping illness, and social isolation called to tell me that he was better and I should not worry he would kill himself. I had discussed with his daughter his latest email and my conversation with him concerning his plan to go swimming off Ala Moana Park to drown. She is well aware of the dynamics and issues concerning her father. His cognitive decline is probably associated with his near death experience when hospitalized with sepsis a few year ago. He has been referred to specialists and for rehabilitation for his peripheral neuropathy and imbalance but he stops his self care exercises and cancels his follow-up  appointments. 

Rebecca's long time friend was visiting Oahu from the mainland with his wife so we went out to lunch eating outside at Nico's. After their visit to Kauai they call and we invited them for lunch at our house to sit outside on our lanai. They were traveling using the public bus system. They were vaccinated but we were aware that the cases in Hawai'i were mushrooming from under 100 to over 1000 per day and the hospitals ER and beds were becoming filled with COVID cases. So Rebecca told them that when they entered our home for the bathroom or other reasons please wear a mask. Her friend took offense and accuse Rebecca of being a patsy for left wing liberal propaganda. Needless to write they decline our invitation which was a relief to both of us. 

Then this last week my sister five and one-half years older was admitted to the hospital in acute respiratory distress and fever and malaise with the diagnosis of COVID infection though she was vaccinated. Fortunately she has improved somewhat but remains in the hospital on oxygen. Her son and daughter-in-law are great in keeping us up to date and advocating for her at the hospital. They are taking care of her dog who is a tiny nervous bundle of energy wetting their bed and driving them somewhat nuts!  

So as Colbert declares "meanwhile..." I'm hiking twice per week, doing floor exercises twice per week, playing challenging pieces with varied success on the piano, developing and posting my hiking pictures, and reading interesting novels and books concerning quantum physics lately. I just picked up a device which I was instructed in at Queen's Hospital to understand my sleep patterns since I have interrupted sleeps and like to take naps every day. Two heart attacks, bypass surgery, a few extra stents in my coronary arteries and now atrial fibrillation I'm climbing steep slopes sometimes with rope assists and descending back down smiling. Each day is my day to enjoy, appreciate to the fullest, and share with others. 

Well, to read the newspapers my personal journeys with others illness and problems is reflected back to me. In Texas, now as a citizen if someone assists another with an abortion they can be civilly sued by someone else and the law may cause the abortion assistor to lose large chunks of money. The Supreme Court has noted the law and has nothing to say against what Texas passed. Florida's governor has mandated that masks are not mandated and if school districts persist in opposing his mandate not to mandate he'll defund their school. Texas and others are proposing draconian voter suppression laws including having observers for the Republican Party be able to harass voters before they vote. Kevin McCarthy the house minority leader has threatened telecommunication and media companies to not listen to the house select committee on the insurrections announcement that they should hold onto their information going back before the insurrection. If they comply with the committee's request they will be hounded by the Republican party and his influence in congress. COVID vaccine resistors are being fed snake oil information purveyors to take deworming medicine for livestock since someone thinks it will help. Some people endorse the view that the federal government such as the CDC are preventing proper research into the merits of using this compound. As far as I can tell there is little evidence that Invermectin can help people infected with COVID. So now our emergency rooms are  having to treat people suffering from the ill effects of this medication which does not seem to help COVID. It appears that a strong wing of the Republican  party has taken on voter suppression, anti masking vaccine denying and insurrection denying with snake oil promoting as a side line. This morning Rebecca was reading to me some of her news feed. A passenger in an airplane attacked a stewardess who was telling her to put her tray table back up. She injured her eye, chipped three of her teeth, and claimed she was attacked by thee stewardess but someone had a video to refute this claim. There are many stories of people who were infected with COVID, hospitalized with very troubling symptoms and still had their doubts later about being vaccinated. Finally, after our recent hike we were approached by two tourists from the mainland U.S.A. who asked us about the hike. Rebecca asked them if they were vaccinated as they approached us and when they said no I blurted out stay away from me! The woman said they had tested negative before their flight. We did not talk much more with them but later we had all sorts of conversations in our head directed to them about how their decision to remain unvaccinated was selfish and ill advised. The news feeds are disheartening, our poor problem solving abilities to overcome the crises of this pandemic, the devastation and mayhem associated various wars currently present, the ravages of our human activities associated with climate change, and our prejudices and self righteous attempts to prevent life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness send shivers in me.   

Pervitin was the compound placed in  chocolate bars and given to German Troops during the Second World War. Methamphetamines' was the compound promoted in the chocolate. Hitler himself was addicted and used various compounds including methamphetamines' and cocaine. Snake oil promoters and government officials have looked into LSD, methamphetamines', and other compounds to weaponize people. So far with unpredictable outcomes but no success. Orwell's 1984? 

quantum mechanics has two different laws that describe how a system changes in time.

Rule 1 says that except during a measurement, the wave evolves smoothly and deterministically, exploring every possibility.

Rule 2 says that during a measurement of position, the wave collapses around the position where it's seen, with a probability proportional to the square of the height of the wave, before the collapse.

It is only Rule 2 that mentions probabilities at all.

And, Rule 1 and Rule 2 are in catastrophic tension with each other.

Rule 1 says that there are always all possible outcomes. Rule 2 says there is only 1 outcome and it's picked out with some probability rule.

It's pretty contradictory - is there one outcome or all outcomes? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19701543

Well, Max Bohr and many other luminaries proposed the Copenhagen interpretation which ruled the physics world for many decades (and suppressed other points of view). The only way to understand the very tiny world of atoms etc. is to study by observers who use very large machines to study the very tiny. The observer then influence the observed and that's just the way it is! All sorts of theories have followed using this line of reasoning. However, Einstein and others could not accept that nature is ruled by probabilistic principle alone. So now we have the pilot wave theory and other similar theories that propose that nature is both wave and particle and the wave guides the particle. There is only rule 1. Well, this is a teaser for more to come but I need to post this since I have to pick up my grandson at school. 

We watched Nomadland last evening. An uplifting movie about independence and comrade support and more. I copied a link to review of Shakespeare Sonnet 18 and its place in the movie. Please follow the link since there's some wisdom here.  https://poppoetry.substack.com/p/so-long-as-women-can-breathe

Leonard

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