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GOLDSTREAM NEWS GAZETTE - Wednesday, March 13, 2013
LETTERS Amalgamation an answer to conflict concerns Re: Conflict concerns (News, March 6) Tri Met, the City of Portland Oregon transit authority, is governed by a seven member board representing each of the seven districts served. None of the board members are politicians. Could this be to avoid conflict of interest? If the urban West Shore was part of an amalgamated metropolitan city – as the mayor of
Metchosin has suggested recently – the recreation facility would be a city unit with no need for additional governance and resulting problems of conflict of interest. John Olson Colwood
Pilgrim garden a loss, Willing could be utilized Re: Community laments loss of gardens (News, Feb. 20) Really sorry to see another local source of food disappear. There are so many benefits to
Letters to the editor
urban community gardens including health gains for participants, educational opportunities, economic benefits, environmental benefits, cultural opportunities, community building, youth engagement, crime prevention, and urban improvements. The City of Langford has a large, community garden plot at Willing Park in the Happy Valley area. The garden was operated by volunteers for years, but did not have access to water and was not served by public transit. Now the park is surrounded by new
developments that probably have connecting bus service and a water main close by. The garden area is deer fenced but is becoming overgrown with grasses and invasive species. A small group of locals tried to resurrect the garden in 2010, but there were not enough committed people to get it going again. The growing conditions at Willing Park Community Garden are excellent so hopefully the Pilgrim gardeners could go there. Ron Rayner Langford
The News Gazette welcomes opinions and comments. Letters should discuss issues and stories covered in the News and be 300 words or fewer. The News Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for style, legality, length and taste. The News Gazette will not print anonymous letters. Please enclose phone number for verification of your letter’s authenticity. Email: editor@ goldstreamnewsgazette.com
OPINION
Modern electronics enable deeper mind-to-mind talk Duke University scientists have connected the brains of two rats by wire. So Brian Dodson reported in Gizmag. The rat-pairs scored 65 to 70 per cent in earning rewards – drops of water – for correctly conveying flashing-light and dooropening information to one another. Smart rats may point the way toward achieving stronger co-ordinative human brainpower through linking brains together by wireless. This sounds scary, but stronger brainpower arguably could help us make the world safer. The researchers are now trying to interconnect several rats. Could a “brain-net” become a super-brain? Neurobiologist Miguel Nicolilis and colleagues hope to find out. Could an array of biological brains, networked together with a high-performance computer, outshine individual humans and
G.E. Mortimore Think about it offer workable solutions to global problems, just as IBM’s Big Blue outshone human champions in playing chess and answering Jeopardy questions? Priest-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was tuned in to this idea before the spread of computers. He postulated three levels of being: geosphere, biosphere and noosphere – the realm of thought. The enquiry raises echoes ranging from global and United Nations, to local and Capital Regional District. The optimistic view is that people have
started to mobilize in quiet strength against such neglected dangers as the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. Another strike will happen again, unless action is taken to find the undiscovered space-rocks and divert them – maybe with nuclear pushers or lasers. Currently only $3 million a year is invested in asteroid research – one half of one per cent of the budget for cleansing polluted sites in the U.S.A. But the balance may change as the result of a meteor hit in Russia and an asteroid near-miss, Feb. 15. Scientific peoplewatchers doubt that the popular mindset can be changed by deliberate, calculated action – action to convince us we must shield Earth from remotely foreseen asteroids, for example. Most of us don’t
care. But modern electronics have enabled faster, deeper mindto-mind talk than ever before. So the old rules may be out of date. Flexible, co-ordinated strategies may evolve, beyond the scope of orthodox government or commerce, to reduce the harm or danger of asteroid hits, economic breakdown, nuclear war, ethno-linguistic hatred, global warming, destruction of fish and forests, road-traffic gridlock, drug addiction, dementia, violent crime and mass starvation. I like to guess that such world-saving plans are already taking shape, but what do I know? Nothing. I draw some pleasure from the notion of talk between species – like human to rat, guinea pig, goldfish or chimpanzee. Maybe future generations of kids will enjoy conversations with their pets. I would have been
John Horgan
delighted to know what was passing through the minds of my white rats – or get some inkling of the thoughts in the heads of the wild rats and other animals I have met since childhood. A puzzling two-way parade of rats passed along a rafter in a building where com-
panions and I took our meals in Sri Lanka. Where did the rat commuters go, and what brought them back? Probably I will never know. Some fish have sense-channels that humans do not have. They feel electric vibrations in the water. I feel uneasy about
trading thoughts with goldfish or electric eels, or even with hippos and giraffes. To my grandchildren, however, it may seem a natural process. • G.E. Mortimore is a longtime columnist with the Goldstream News Gazette. editor@goldstream gazette.com
Randall Garrison, MP ESQUIMALT–JUAN DE FUCA We’re here to help constituents with Federal government programs and services. ADDRESS:
A2–100 Aldersmith Place Victoria V9A 7M8
HOURS:
10am–4pm, Monday–Thursday or by appointment
PHONE:
250-405-6550 Randall.Garrison@parl.gc.ca 250-405-6554
EMAIL: FAX:
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!
www.randallgarrison.ndp.ca
MLA Juan de Fuca
Goldstream Foodbank welcomes… any non-perishable food as well as personal care items and pet food. Please drop off donations at 761 Station Avenue between 9:30am and 2:30pm, Tuesdays or Wednesdays the first 3 weeks of the month. Your local grocers also have drop-off boxes for donations.
TUNA
John Horgan, MLA Juan de Fuca Community Office Mon–Fri 10am–4pm 800 Goldstream Avenue, Victoria, BC T: 250 391-2801 john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca www.johnhorgan.ca