Robotic Medicine could put Doctors out of Business

   How close to the day are we when in fifteen minutes you can get a full medical GPS. You slip into a tube, it not only scans you, but takes your vitals, takes blood, urine, stool, saliva, sweat, skin and hair samples, and even does minor surgery by sampling fluids in your gut. It does muscle-tension readings, blood-circulation readings, bone-density readings and scans your brain. It monitors your heart and measures your breathing and samples your breath.
   And, of course, examines your DNA.
   Everything is then computer analyzed on the spot, and the computer runs out the details of how to get from here to there -- telling you what you need to do to overcome all your health problems.
   All for a $1.95.
   Well, it'll cost more than that, of course. Let's hope the price isn't too steep. But, my point is, we probably all ready have the technology for such a machine. All that needs to be done is for someone to make it and market it.
   Dr. Robot. I wonder if such a health-monitoring machine might be common in every home some day.
   And, since this probably already is possible, one wonders if the medical profession is putting the kabitz on it. It could put doctors out of business.

When You See Racism, Speak up, but Speak Softly

   If we would solve racism, we must have the right dialogue. Those who feel they are discriminated against should be encouraged to speak out. Softly.
  When there is a chance their accusations are false, then even softer.
   Having dialogue can mean lashing out, wildly. Having the right dialogue means being gentle. It means being willing to discuss something in order to find out if you are wrong.
   I have said that those who make accusations should be called out, but those making false accusations should be treated more gently than those making the accusations knowing that they are false accusations. So, you would ask, how do you know if the accusation is sincere, or insincere.
   You don't, often.
   Still, speaking out is critical. Those who are racists will continue in their ways unless someone tries to persuade them to be otherwise. Those who are not corrected continue on their way. Seldom does a person change unless someone or something causes them to change. So, speak up when you see racism. Point it out. Help those who are being racist to understand what they are doing.
   But, be gentle, sometimes even with those who know they are being racist, or those who knowingly make false accusations. Sometimes, they are blind to their wrong-doing and need but for someone to point it out. If you point it out harshly, though, they will recoil and lash back. But, if you are gentle, you are more likely to reach them.

False Accusations must be Stopped if Racial Tension is to be Ended

   If you are going to stop racial tensions, you've got to stop the false accusations, as well. If there were no racism, but there still were false accusations, you would still have racial tensions.
   What is the solution, then? Part of the answer is that false accusations should be called out, even as racism itself is. This is a tender thing, for sometimes a person makes an accusation, honestly believing he or she is being discriminated against. While it should be pointed out to them that they are wrong, I don't know that it should go so far as being a rebuke. Treat them tender, for it should not be forbidden to say you believe someone discriminated against you if you honestly believe that. So, when I say they should be called out, I mean only that they should be corrected.
   Other times, false accusations of racial bigotry come from those simply trying to make mileage off those accusations. They seek to get their way or hurt others with their false accusations. The rebuking here should be firm.
   And, to solve this problem, we should teach ourselves. We should have messages warning how serious it is to make false accusations. Television messages. Radio spots. Internet advertising. The messages should point out the harm done when someone makes a false accusation, how their reputation is tarnished, how they are branded as a racist when they are not one.

 
 

If We Were Given to Considering Our Faults, Would we Spot this One?

   What if we were an introspective nation, a repentant one, a land that sought out its faults and sought to change them?
   What if we were reflective of our sins, analyzing our shortcomings?
   No, I don't so much mean our individual sins. It is the societal faults I speaks of.  Would you say racism is a fault? What then, if we reflected on it, recognized it, and decided that if this flaw existed -- if there were patterns of racism running through us -- then we must do something to change.
   What if when we saw it among ourselves, pangs of remorse grabbed at us? What if we didn't let go of it just because we, as individuals, didn't see it as our personal problem? Rather, what if we could see it as a societal problem, and we took the attitude that if it was society's problem, it was our problem, for this was our society, and what flaws it had were ours to help change?
   Now, those who know the steps of repentance, understand change doesn't come without recognition and desire to change. It doesn't come without remorse. If we, as a nation, do not feel remorseful, if we don't recognize it as a problem, it is not something we will repent of. If we suggest racism is not overly common, or if we brush it off, not wanting to discuss it, then solving it will not get done. If we let other issues take us from this one, if we don't stop long enough to work on this, we will remain a racist nation.
   Racist nation? I use the term to suggest we have some. How dominant it is should not be too much an issue. If we are serious about solving the problem, we do not wait until it reaches a certain level, we work on what we see, however much that is.
  This issue -- racism -- is not one we should shun. It is one we should own, as a society, as a people. If we do not own up to it, if we do not confess to it, so to speak, it will remain sin and flaw upon us.

Russian Influence on Who is in White House Might go back to 1963

   All this talk of the Russians affecting the U.S. election, and now this: Russia may have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And, no, this is not a story just for the National Enquirer.
  History, the television channel, has new evidence KGB operatives met with Kennedy's killer about eight weeks before the assassination. For the first time on camera, the KGB operative relates how he met with Lee Harvey Oswald.
   That's a KGB agent, no less, saying the KGB met with Oswald. If I understand it correctly, the agent, himself is the one who met with him. I'm surprised the agent is still alive. We are coming up on the 100th anniversary of Kennedy's birth (May 29). He was murdered Nov. 22, 1963. That's almost 54 years ago.
   With our intelligence community looking into Russian influence in our elections, and with some talk suggesting they might have been doing this before 2016, we should wonder if their influence on who occupies the  White House goes back more than half a century.
    I wonder if our intelligence community should be looking into this, anew, as part of the current investigation. Just how far back does the Russian influence go?

Adventures in the World of Dreams and Seems

   From the World of Dreams and Seems (as in, seems we could do this, if we really wanted to):
   What if Utah was so ambitious about technological advancements that if something was done someplace else in the nation, Utah figured it could do it, too.

   If Detroit made an automobile, Utah would turn around and make its own. If someone in Illinois discovered a new particle, then Utah would say, Well, if it takes an energy collider to make such discoveries, then let's get one, so we will be in position to make such advancements.

   If a company sprouted up in California making a great electric car (that would be Tesla, wouldn't it), Utah would respond with a company of its own.

   This kind of competition exists internationally, with China and other countries seeking to out-do the U.S. economically. And, if you will notice, the country that aspires to match other countries does achieve. Think of the space race, and of how it resulted in each country making achievements.

   So, why not Utah, as a state, take up such an attitude?

   And, not just in economics. What if Utah sought to be at the forefront of everything from heart science to immigration? Actually, I'm not sure if there isn't some of that spirit present, already, but it certainly could be compounded.

   And, it doesn't seem such a bad thing to seek to be the leader.
   Too ambitious? I don't know if anything negative would come of our efforts. In the World of Dreams and Seems, it seems it would spark our economy, adding jobs and GSP (gross state product).

(Note: This is a rewrite of a blog from six years ago today.)

There is Power to Lift Our Nation's Character in Overcoming Racism

    Racism? If a nation is infected with it, how much damage does it do to those who are infected? How much does it hurt us, the people who are infected?
   For, it surely is a disease; It spreads from one person to another.
   I cannot but think of the good that would be done to us, as a people, and to us, as a nation, if we were to overcome racism. In it lies the seeds of hatred. If you learn to hate black people, you will be more inclined to hate, in general.  In conquering racism, we gravitate more towards being a people who love all and who treats everyone justly. If we, as a society, love black people if we are white people and white people if we are black people, that will translate into individuals being more inclusive and loving in their relations with family, acquaintances and strangers.
   I think of the murders and the mass murders committed by those who hate other races. If we, as a nation, got racism out of our bones, some of this would wear off on those who are inclined to such murders and mass murders.
   I did refer to racism as a disease, did I not? The more it spreads, the more it is likely to infect those who could become inclined to murder.
   So, there is power to lift our nation in overcoming racism.
   You can build the character of your nation by overcoming racism. If we would be a great nation, one of great character, we should aspire to overcoming the racism within us.