Alzheimer’s – Ramsay Inc.

HOUSE CONCERTS.

Years ago, we went to Austin, Texas, home to SXSW and a concert format we’d never experienced.

A friend who knew a local musician would ask them over to play in their living room, then invite the neighbours, who each put $20 into the jar, and everyone enjoyed an evening of music, along with some basic food and drink provided by the host. That was it.

The musicians sold a few CDs, the audience got an intimate performance, and occasionally, a career got a nudge. In a world where great artists struggle to be seen online, this kind of high-touch, in-person gathering can make all the difference.

My name’s Bob and I’m an iPhonoholic.

On Tuesday, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka announced he would make a state visit to China to meet Xi Jinping.

By Thursday, however, that trip was cancelled because the Prime Minister had tripped on the stairs while looking at his phone, concussing him. He appeared on video, in a blood-spattered shirt, to tell his nation the news.

For many years now in Holland, bicyclists have been forbidden from riding their bikes while using their mobile phones because of the large number of accidents they cause. This happens especially with North American visitors who, jet-lagged and on unfamiliar ground, barely make it out of the bike rental shop without mowing down a pedestrian.

In America, at any time throughout the day, 660,000 drivers are trying to text while they drive. One in four car accidents in the US is caused by texting and driving, which means 1.6 million crashes each year.

Worse still, texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.

Why is this worse?

Meanwhile…

July 29, 2023 August 22, 2023

Big weather; big new layers of risk.

We are avid kayakers who have paddled the waters of Georgian Bay for 30 years. There’s one big risk known to everyone there: the weather. A storm can come out of nowhere and beach you, blow you off course, capsize you, or bolt you with lightning. The risk is simple and one-dimensional, though it can be deadly. Our motto has been “any rock in a storm” and it’s saved our lives.

Then five years ago, we circumnavigated Manhattan by kayak. There, the risks were exponentially higher: there’s tidal risk, there’s current risk, there’s boat traffic risk and there’s even helicopter-wash risk. Suddenly, the risks had multiplied. New York made Georgian Bay feel like a safe warm bath.

Then this past week, we planned to paddle down the Hudson River for four days, starting at Hyde Park, home of the Roosevelt Presidential Library, and landing in midtown Manhattan.

Meanwhile…

July 22, 2023 August 22, 2023

When the train runs you over, it’s not the caboose that kills you.

The caboose here is the submersible Titan which imploded with all five souls aboard on its way to visit the RMS Titanic, resting 12,500 feet below the sea.

We’ve since learned that the CEO of OceanGate Inc. which owned the Titan, viewed safety not as a costly, time-consuming necessity, but as a trivial pursuit, the enemy of innovation, a complete waste of time.

In this way, Stockton Rush is much like the anti-vaxxers who not only don’t believe the laws of physics, but dismiss them because they interfere with their political and financial agendas.

Two Canadians have led the way in calling out Rush for what he was: an aging tech-bro driven by fame and fortune, with all the moral ballast of Elizabeth Holmes.

Meanwhile…

July 8, 2023 August 3, 2023

Tags: Alzheimer’s

HOUSE CONCERTS.

My name’s Bob and I’m an iPhonoholic.

Big weather; big new layers of risk.

When the train runs you over, it’s not the caboose that kills you.

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