New Horizons by Max Roy

                 Our World Is A Puzzle! Today my son came to my rescue. He bailed me out when I had a problem on my computer. I couldn’t access my regular desktop. My desktop holds all my treasures, writings, current and past are stored there. All corners of the universe that I want to access, I do that from my desktop. How could it disappear on me? It seems I committed the error of not closing my Google window when I use it. The result! I had hundreds of open Google windows and my computer rebelled by, without warning, refusing access to my desktop. Why, I don’t know, but apparently that is a no-no. This was a most unfriendly act. My son, Daniel, bailed me out and I’m not likely to make that mistake again. But I will make plenty of others. I also have an Apple phone which I use to make telephone calls with. These days one can do so many things with one’s phone. You can do things like check on your health status, find the best way to get somewhere you have not the least idea abou

    Living Longer: The State Of The Art Where are we going in the process of re-shaping the world that our bodies inhabit? We still have Ebola and we don’t yet know the answers. We still have some resurgent measles because some people won’t vaccinate their kids. We still have Cancer, so complex that there are many avenues to explore. We have that and other illnesses that can rebound on us because these plagues learn to develop resistances to tools we have discovered to fight them. COVID has reared its head taking us where? We may always have to   face these. But something new is happening. Although we don’t yet have all the answers, our wise and devoted researchers, examining the very nature of what makes for life within us, are learning to change our individual insides, down to the level of our DNA, to give us the answers we seek to defeat disease and even ageing. Part of the answer has been our increasing capacity to process quantities of data that we could never have handled i

    What We See Sometimes Depends On What We Believe! Growing up I remember that we all used the expression that “seeing is believing”. To be sure something was true we wanted to see results in the flesh. It turns out that we were wrong. In fact, what we see, can often depend a lot on what we believe. Recent events have brought that home to us in the most dramatic way. If one wants the world to believe any story you want them to believe, AI, false pictures and a false narrative repeated over and over again, can work. But to do the job properly one has to prepare the ground well in advance. It is dispiriting to see material in the media with spurious claims against Israel totally ignoring the crimes of Hamas against both Jews and Palestinians. This continuous stream of anti-Israel propaganda may persuade some that there may be a grain of truth in oft-repeated lies. This is obviously a concerted campaign motivated by malicious intent. By now, the world is well acquainted with what

        Don’t We Have To Be Optimistic? I have always thought of myself as an optimistic guy. Like many of the readers of this newspaper, growing up things were tough. My parents were immigrants to this country who came here in the “Twenties. My dad came here as a young man and never had   a formal education. But he ended up as a stationary engineer through home study. Isn’t that the story of the great American dream? I had to work my way through college. But, after some experience as an economist, I started a farmer-controlled company that is still guaranteeing farmers profitable returns after almost fifty years of operation.. I quit my job as a senior executive of a large corporation to take on that risky job. I was optimistic that I had the knowhow to solve that farmer company’s problems. I was, some said, foolishly optimistic, but I’m proudest of what I did there.. I quit that because the job conditions had changed to something I didn’t like, .The most interesting part of the

  “Reaching Out Of Sight”* The best about humanity is reaching out of sight. The best about humanity is seeking out the light,                                Beyond wearying and searing, searching for the light.,                                                                                                                             Probing unknown secrets in the darkness, without fright,                      Attacking with our energies, fears there, yet in spite,              Beyond strife, or with a knife, ever seeking sight. Hunger for believing, which path will be the right,                    Spending human lifetimes in the direction of the bright,                                  Ever searching, and researching, lighting up the night.                                                Whether universe or microcosm, bring light into that night,                                                             Mysteries within us, reaching way beyond our height,        

  Traveling Behind The Curve I am a senior, out there dealing with   the world of today. And others of you out there who have found, somehow, that, like me, you have missed the technology boat that seems to have sailed on without us.   We have been missing lots of stuff going on around our ears while we thought we were following a path that seemed to us to be on the main stream. There was static which we tried our best to ignore. Now we find that we are definitely behind the curve. Billions of people are hooked into a universe of which we have little consciousness. We know it is going on. We sometimes have to ask those who are more in the know to help us when we find ourselves in trouble.   Confronting the challenge of actually launching ourselves into that world is something we are sometimes fearful of taking on. Look at some of the stuff going on! Have you heard about artificial intelligence or A.I.? Somewhat mysterious, this speaks to systems that work for us by culling info

            Finishing The Job In Gaza On October 7 th , Israel paid painful price of the policy and intelligence errors of the past. It also experienced a galvanizing shock which united its people to face an existential crisis. The people appreciate that Hamas must be totally eradicated from its territory if they are to look forward to any future security in their homes. What has been tolerated to avoid war can no longer be allowed. By now, the world is well acquainted with what occurred in Israel on October 7 th . There was a surprise attack by Hamas from the Gaza strip. About 1200 were killed and over 250 individuals were taken back to Gaza as hostages. In US proportional terms it was as if nearly 40,000 people were murdered in one day and 10,000 were kidnapped. Owing to those 3000 deaths, the US started a war which lasted twenty years over that provocation. Unsurprisingly Israel declared war on Hamas. Israel appreciates that it lives in a dangerous neighborhood but it has been

                                        RAINING ON MY PARADE So the weather takes for us a turn, Weakened sun and much more rain. The balcony garden increasingly fern, Flowering plants are on the wane. Hummingbirds humming round my feeder, Despairing the loss of richer finds, Frost and fog, as seasons teeter, Darkened shadows play with minds. World events now raise our passions, Emotions rise to fever pitch, Millions now on sparer rations, Poorer now who once were rich. Hopes of peace have flown away As martial music fills the air, Contentment, once in full array, Hopes no longer ours to share. Its raining now on our parade, Prospects flown that seemed so bright, Evil marching where once we prayed, Blood the price to save the right Of children playing safe in sun, Of people living fuller lives, Of happy times and fam’ly fun, Rewards in full for he who strives? When will come the sun again? When will come the sun again?