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WT students design a miraculous hand

This has to be one of the more amazing stories I’ve read in some time.

Four West Texas A&M University students have designed a prosthetic hand that will help young patients with limb disorders.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/texas/article/College-students-design-pioneering-prosthetic-hand-5198270.php

They used fishing line, a bungee chord and a three-dimension printer to design the prosthesis. Alex Parra, an engineering school graduate who worked on the project called it a “humbling experience.”

No kidding, Alex.

“It helped us realize we are blessed by having everything that we have,” he said.

Let projects like this one, and others that young people are doing every single day, serve as proof that our world will be doing just fine when the next generation takes over.

The WT students worked with a 10-year-old girl, Aly Hunt, who has congenital defect in her left hand. The original design was developed in South Africa. They worked with a prosthetist at Scottish Rite Hospital, who helped them complete the project.

Aly is able to do many physical activities with the prosthesis, such as playing golf, tennis and the violin.

The prosthetic hand also allows for some dexterity, enabling it pick up items with movable fingers.

Every generation since the beginning of time has feared the future of the world when they’re no longer on the scene. It’s amazing, then, that we’re still around to keep lamenting the future.

Well, I am fearing the future a lot less after learning of this amazing accomplishment. Well done, WT students.

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Drug overdose brings down another shining star

My worst fears have come to pass … allegedly.

Word came out this morning that the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead in his apartment. I hate admitting this, but my very first thought — once my head cleared after seeing the news — was that he overdosed on something.

I returned this afternoon from running some errands with my wife and just learned that police and EMTs found him with a needle sticking out of his arm.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/02/showbiz/philip-seymour-hoffman-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

My initial mourning over the loss of this amazing talent has now given way to disgust.

What a waste!

It’s hard for me to process news like this at times. Hoffman joins a long list of celebrated public figures — mainly athletes and entertainers (although one could argue they are the same thing) — who’ve taken one hit too many.

I won’t even begin to list the names of those who have wasted themselves into oblivion. We all know who they are.

Hoffman’s death at the age of 46 just underscores the perversion that popular culture too often seems to breed.

All these individuals who have so much going for them cannot handle the fame that they chose to seek.

Yes, I mourn for the people who loved this man. That’s where it ends.

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Pipeline won’t affect climate … so let’s build it

My environmentalist sensibilities have been taxed by this debate over whether to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the middle of the United States.

My inclination is to oppose such a thing because, the theory goes, it would emit too many carbon-based pollutants and harm the planet’s climate.

Then comes this government report that says the pipeline’s effect on the climate is negligible.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/02/02/obama_running_out_of_reasons_to_reject_keystone_xl_121434.html

Oh, what to do?

I believe President Obama should rethink his opposition to it and allow its construction.

The report comes from the U.S. State Department, which heretofore had been on the right wing’s hit list of nasty federal agencies. Now State has declared the Keystone project poses no serious environmental threat, which pleases proponents of the pipeline. They contend the project will create jobs and will strengthen U.S. energy policy.

The pipeline would carry oil pulled from western Canada tar sands to Nebraska, where it would then be sent through existing pipelines to the Gulf Coast, where it would be refined. Much of it would be exported abroad. Some of it would be used here at home.

Its job creation potential is huge, which of course is what the president wants. It also brings those vast tar sands reserves into play, relieving North America of the need to import oil from faraway nations, such as those in the volatile and explosive Middle East.

Is it a win-win deal? Not just yet. But it’s getting closer to becoming one, based on the State Department’s assessment of minimal environmental impact.

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Immovable object vs. irresistable force

First, allow me to state the obvious: Football and baseball are vastly different sports, requiring dramatically different skills from those who participate in them.

Now let me declare one similarity: It is that teams with great offensive weaponry can be defeated by teams with great defensive skill.

One baseball axiom holds true, which is that “Good pitching usually beats good hitting any day.” I’ve seen it over many years watching baseball games. The 1963 World Series is my favorite example, when the powerhouse New York Yankees were shut down by the Los Angeles Dodgers; the Yanks had Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris swinging big bats, while the Dodgers had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale throwing heat from the mound. LA won in four straight.

Now, about today’s Big Game, the Super Bowl. The Denver Broncos possess the NFL’s top offense. The Seattle Seahawks own the league’s best defense. One is irresistible, the other is immovable.

I am now venturing into something about which I know nothing, but the laws of physics seem to suggest — to me at least — that the immovable object is harder to move than it is to shut down the irresistible force.

It pains to me say this, given that I’m a long-time American Football Conference fan — going back to the days of the old American Football League, of which Denver was a founding franchise — but I’m thinking the Seahawks have the edge here.

My friends might say, “Oh, sure, but you’re from the Pacific Northwest. You’re going to root from the team from that part of the country.” Hold on. I grew up in Portland and there existed then — and perhaps it remains — a huge civic rivalry between the cities. Portlanders think little of Seattleites. We see the Queen City as snobby and full of itself. Seattle residents look down their noses at Portland, even though the Rose City has become every bit as cosmopolitan and trendy as Seattle.

But I’m thinking now, just a few hours before kickoff, that the immovable object is going to dig itself in and hold the irresistible force to perhaps just a couple of touchdowns.

Final score? Please, don’t hold me to this. Let’s try 20-17, Seattle.

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Church and state do need separation

1 Comment

Occasionally discussions about blog posts do get out of hand, or they twist off into unintended directions.

Such was the case involving a recent item I posted on this blog involving the teaching of creationism in Texas public schools. Here’s the link:

http://highplainsblogger.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/creationism-has-no-place-in-classroom/

But in the comments responding to the blog as it appeared on Facebook, a couple of the respondents decided to declare that the Constitution doesn’t state categorically that there must be a “separation of church and state.”

I’d like to clear the air a bit on this matter.

I agree that the Constitution doesn’t use the words “church and state separation.” But as with a lot of principles contained in that wonderful document, the interpretations of what it actually says are quite clear.

The First Amendment says, among other things, that Congress shall make no laws that establish a state religion. I’ve read it, oh, about a bazillion times in my life. I know what the Founders meant when they wrote that. They intended to keep church business out of state business. They didn’t want our government to be dictated by religious principles.

They created a secular nation.

There well might have been plenty of debate among the Founders about whether to allow a state religion. It doesn’t matter, in my view, what they debated. What matters now, more than two centuries later, is what they approved when they sent the Constitution out for ratification by the 13 states that comprised the United States of America.

Thus, church and state separation is implied in the Constitution’s First Amendment, just as the “right of privacy” is implied in the Fourth Amendment.

What’s more, Texas happens to be one of 50 states that now comprise the U.S. of A., even though it once seceded with tragic consequences. My point about the candidates for Texas lieutenant governor wanting to teach creationism in our public schools still stands.

Teach science in schools and religion in church — and keep church and state separate.

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Christie ‘scandal’ getting pretty darn curious

My friends on the right are outraged at the “mainstream media’s” addiction to the Chris Christie “Bridgegate” scandal.

They’d better get used to it, because it doesn’t appear as though it’s going to wither away any time soon.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/chris-chris-new-jersey-george-washington-bridge-scandal-david-wildstein-102977.html?hp=t1

A letter has surfaced now that suggests Christie knew at the time that one of his key aides ordered the closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge, the busiest span in the world — and that it might have been in retaliation for the refusal by Fort Lee, N.J.’s Democratic mayor to endorse the Republican governor’s re-election effort.

The letter’s assertion contradicts Christie’s statement that he didn’t know anything until he read about it in the press.

This is what happens when a high-profile politician who portrays himself in a certain manner is accused of doing things that run counter to that public image. Christie, who many people believe wants to run for president in 2016, has cast himself as a hands-on, no-nonsense chief executive. If that’s the case, then how could he not know that his chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, would order the lanes closed, resulting in a horrendous traffic bottleneck.

Now we learn about alleged misuse of federal relief funds dedicated to help New Jersey residents recover from Superstorm Sandy.

No one has accused Christie of ordering lane shutdown himself. Frankly, I don’t think he would be so stupid.

However, this controversy is beginning to take on a life of its own the way other controversies have grown into full-blown scandals.

Two examples stand out: The Watergate burglary in 1972 turned from a criminal investigation into a constitutional crisis involving presidential abuse of power; Whitewater turned from a probe into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate ventures into a scandal that involved a presidential dalliance with a White House intern and his lying under oath to a federal grand jury about whether he did those nasty things with the young woman.

It’s looking as though, regarding Gov. Christie’s involvement in this bridge lane-closing, that history may be about to repeat itself.

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GOP differs on immigration? Imagine that

This is about the least-surprising political news of the week: Congressional Republicans meeting this week at an annual retreat are displaying sharp differences over how, or even whether, to move ahead with immigration reform.

Here’s a word to the wise: Do it for the sake of your party’s survival, if not for the sake of millions of de facto Americans who have been living in the shadows, many of them since they were children brought here illegally by their parents.

House GOP split over forging ahead on immigration this year

House Speaker John Boehner is beginning to make sense these days and is pushing back against the hard-line tea party wing of his GOP House caucus. He wants to reform the nation’s immigration policies, which already have been approved in the Senate, but have been stalled in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

Others within his caucus want to move immigration forward as well, but as usual they’re being stymied by the radical right wing that believes giving a “pathway to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants is tantamount to granting amnesty to lawbreakers.

These clowns ought to listen to the likes of border state governors, such as, say, Republican Rick Perry of Texas. He’s as conservative as most of the tea party wing in the House, but he understands better than they do that those who are brought here as children, have grown as Americans and know the United States as their country deserve a chance to work their way toward citizenship.

I’m hoping the speaker will continue to push back against the wacko wing of his House caucus. Immigration reform is a must for the nation. Whether it helps the Republicans is of little concern to me. I just want to bring 11 million American residents out of the shadows.

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Creationism has no place in classroom

Paul Burka is absolutely correct in criticizing the four Republican candidates for Texas lieutenant governor and their insistence that creationism should be taught in Texas public schools.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/last-call-candidates-lieutenant-governor

The Texas Monthly editor/blogger took note of their “genuflection” to religious doctrine and said quite correctly that the biblical version of Earth’s creation should be caught in church.

It’s long bothered me that some have held creationism — which essentially is scripture’s version of the world’s beginning as told in the Book of Genesis — on the same level as evolution. One of my former journalism colleagues is fond of referring to evolution as a “theory” in the same vein as creationism. Well, it isn’t.

Yes, evolution is a “theory” but it is substantiated by mountains of scientific data that suggests that the planet was created over billions of years. Paleontologists have uncovered countless fossil remains of prehistoric creatures that aren’t mentioned in the Bible. T-Rex et al aren’t in the Good Book, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist.

I won’t go on and on about evolution.

Nor will I say the Bible is incorrect. I happen to believe in both notions, that evolution and creationism aren’t mutually exclusive.

I also happen to believe that one of them should be taught in school, the other one should be taught in church.

One is based on science. The other is based on faith.

I just wish the four Republicans who want to be our next lieutenant governor would understand that as well.

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Grandbaby officially set to start motoring

This flash arrived yesterday from Allen, Texas: Emma Nicole has taken her first step.

OK, you’re asking: What’s the big deal? Emma happens to be our granddaughter, courtesy of our son and daughter-in-law. She lives about six hours away just north of Dallas.

It pains me that we cannot be there to watch her take off like a sprinter now that she’s officially on her feet. We’ll get there soon enough.

Emma happens to be about one week shy of turning 11 months of age. Depending on who’s telling you this, she’s either (a) getting on her feet quickly or (b) is starting to walk at just about the right age.

Indeed, it’s been a long time since my wife and I have welcomed this kind of news. It’s been about, oh, 38 years, which is about the time the younger of our two sons — Emma’s daddy — pulled himself up off the floor and started motoring through the house.

My wife and I have laughed over many years about how our sons managed this feat. They did it differently, which goes to illustrate how different they are temperamentally. Son No. 1 just hoisted himself off the deck and started walking, then running — quickly. Son No. 2 would stand, take a step and then plop down on his padded rear end; we would laugh, making him laugh and then he would do the same thing repeatedly.

That was so long ago, but the memories are burned indelibly into our minds. Kids have a way of doing that, yes?

Time will tell — and probably quite soon — just how little Emma is going to proceed from here. I do know that life will not be the same for her parents or her two much older brothers, who have been as wonderful and doting on their little sister as one can possibly imagine.

I’ll offer this word of advice to those two fine young men: Stay on your toes, boys. You’ll now need to be alert every waking minute of every day for as long as little Emma is nearby.

I offer the same advice to her parents.

This is a game-changer. Bring it, little girl.

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Italian court makes mockery of itself

Amanda Knox is living in Seattle, while a court in far-off Florence, Italy, has reaffirmed a murder conviction — from which another Italian court had acquitted her.

Many of us know the story of the young woman dubbed “Foxy Knoxy” by the British tabloids. She and her former boyfriend were convicted of murdering Knox’s roommate in 2007. The case drew international attention and became the stuff of tabloids all around the world.

A court then overturned her conviction in 2011. She came back to the United States.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20140130-amanda-knox-s-murder-conviction-upheld-on-appeal.ece

Prosecutors decided to appeal the acquittal and today then won.

I am left to wonder: To what end?

They aren’t likely to extradite Knox back to Italy. She’ll stay in this country and won’t serve any time for a crime from which an Italian court already has acquitted her.

I am acutely aware that Italian justice doesn’t resemble the U.S. judicial system — which prohibits a criminal defendant from being re-tried for the same crime. If Knox’s case had been heard in this country, her acquittal would stand forever.

Whatever happens in this case, the Italians look ridiculous in pursuing this case. It’s not a laughing matter, given that we’re talking about a case involving someone’s death.

This court decision, though, borders on the preposterous.

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