Who is Online

We have 426 guests and no members online

 

Most Read Articles

Most Recent Articles

Member Login

Terms of Use

 

The owner of this website is Richard McKie, hereafter called the site owner.

This website contains information, documents, pages and images prepared by or for the site owner.

If you are offended or upset by any material appearing on this site or on a linked website please contact the site owner.

All due care has been exercised but the site owner does not warrant or represent that the information is free from errors or omission, or that it is exhaustive.

The information is made available on the understanding that the site owner takes no liability (including but not limited to liability by reason of negligence) to the users for any loss, damage, cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on the information; whether caused by reason of error, omission or misrepresentation in the information; or otherwise.

Nothing on this website is to be taken as advice and users should themselves verify all information and statements made before repeating them to others or talking any action on them whatsoever.  It is your responsibility to conduct your own investigations and enquiries, and make your own decisions, concerning the information on this website or that retrieved from linked websites.

Changes in circumstances after the time of publication may affect the accuracy of the information. The information may change without notice and the site owner is not liable in any way for the accuracy of any information printed downloaded or stored by a user.

The site owner does not:

  • represent that the material appearing on this or, on websites linked to this website, is complete, accurate or up-to-date;
  • accept responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense that you might incur as a result of using or relying on any of this material;
  • endorse any of the linked websites nor guarantee that links will be unbroken or that the linked websites are available.

Conversely, the fact that this website is not linked to another website does not imply non-endorsement or criticism of that website.

There are no articles in this category. If subcategories display on this page, they may have articles.

Travel

Canada and the United States - Part2

 

 

In Part1, in July 2023, Wendy and I travelled north from Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington, and then Vancouver, in Canada, from where we made our way east to Montreal.

In Part2, in August 2023, we flew from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, down to Miami, Florida, then Ubered to Fort Lauderdale, where we joined a western Caribbean cruise.

At the end of the cruise, we flew all the way back up to Boston.

From Boston we hired another car to drive, down the coast, to New York.

After New York we flew to Salt Lake City, Nevada, then on to Los Angeles, California, before returning to Sydney.

Read more: Canada and the United States - Part2

Fiction, Recollections & News

Alan Turing and The Imitation Game

 

The movie The Imitation Game is an imaginative drama about the struggles of a gay man in an unsympathetic world. 

It's very touching and left everyone in the cinema we saw it in reaching for the tissues; and me feeling very guilty about my schoolboy homophobia. 

Benedict Cumberbatch, who we had previously seen as the modernised Sherlock Holmes, plays Alan Turing in much the same way that he played Sherlock Holmes.  And as in that series The Imitation Game differs in many ways from the original story while borrowing many of the same names and places.

Far from detracting from the drama and pathos these 'tweaks' to the actual history are the very grist of the new story.  The problem for me in this case is that the original story is not a fiction by Conan Doyle.  This 'updated' version misrepresents a man of considerable historical standing while simultaneously failing to accurately represent his considerable achievements.

Read more: Alan Turing and The Imitation Game

Opinions and Philosophy

The race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine

 

 

 

 

As we all now know (unless we've been living under a rock) the only way of defeating a pandemic is to achieve 'herd immunity' for the community at large; while strictly quarantining the most vulnerable.

Herd immunity can be achieved by most people in a community catching a virus and suffering the consequences or by vaccination.

It's over two centuries since Edward Jenner used cowpox to 'vaccinate' (from 'vacca' - Latin for cow) against smallpox. Since then medical science has been developing ways to pre-warn our immune systems of potentially harmful viruses using 'vaccines'.

In the last fifty years herd immunity has successfully been achieved against many viruses using vaccination and the race is on to achieve the same against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19).

Developing; manufacturing; and distributing a vaccine is at the leading edge of our scientific capabilities and knowledge and is a highly skilled; technologically advanced; and expensive undertaking. Yet the rewards are potentially great, when the economic and societal consequences of the current pandemic are dire and governments around the world are desperate for a solution. 

So elite researchers on every continent have joined the race with 51 vaccines now in clinical trials on humans and at least 75 in preclinical trials on animals.

Read more: The race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine

Terms of Use

Terms of Use                                                                    Copyright