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Avi will be here at the Plantation Club, speaking Tuesday, Nov 13 at 4:30 PM under the aegis of the Skidaway Island Republican Club. He will also appear at our home later in the day. At both meetings he will discuss and autograph his book. I urge you to attend the SIRC meeting which is open to all.
You are welcome to come to our home but space is limited and I need you to make a reservation. Hope to see you at either venue. (See 1 below.)
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A new word has evolved from the Kavanaugh hearings. At least something is new beyond what took place at "Borking" as well as 'Thomas having to swim up-Hill." (See 2 and 2a below.)
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They got to Flake. I will say no more.
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Dick
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1) Christine Ford's Expert Nonsense
Given her background in psychology, it is not surprising that during yesterday's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Ford should tell us that the laughter of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge is indelible in her hippocampus. Nor is it unusual that it took the New Republic only a few minutes to publish a characteristically biased and irresponsible article on the subject.
The most powerful moment thus far of Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee came when she was asked by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy to describe her strongest memory from the night that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. Her answer was both moving and horrifying.
"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," Ford says, her voice cracking. "The uproarious laughter between the two. They're having fun at my expense."
"You've never forgotten them laughing at you," Leahy says
"They were laughing with each other," Ford replies.
"And you were the object of the laughter?" Leahy asks.
"I was underneath one of them, while the two laughed," Ford says.
The exchange underscored how the alleged assault was both traumatizing and humiliating. It also girded Ford's credibility, which Republicans have gone to great length to attack, showing the extent to which the incident is imprinted on her memory.
Strictly speaking, Ford's claim that "indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter" is nonsense. And while one would like to be charitable, believing that Ford is simply in error, in view of what seems to be her deliberately heavy breathing and sorrowful manner and tone, we must, I think, conclude that she is being disingenuous: trying to sway everyone via "her expertise." She is acting, perhaps, on the advice of her cynical lawyers, including Democratic activist Debra Katz.
Anyway, whatever may be her motivation and intent, let us be clear: Ford's claim is ipso facto absurd. Nor should one need medical training (which Ford doesn't have) or a background in philosophy to recognize that. For what does it mean to believe that laughter is thus indelible? Does one have actual access in the implied manner to the hippocampus? Of course not! Ford's claim is rather like saying, "I have discussed the matter with my lungs, and we agree that I should give up smoking."
To be sure, Ford may indeed have been almost raped some thirty-six years ago. She may also have a firm recollection, whether accurate or no, that two men laughed during the course of that evil. But however all that may be, it won't do for her to talk of laughter being indelible in her hippocampus, if by that she means it's an indisputable fact and the rest of us are to think Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge are guilty on account of her "expert recollection." As with perception itself, so with the memory it reflects: it is common to unwittingly believe things because they suit one's interests, selectively interpreting both the past and the present to that egoistic end. This is true whether one is an "expert" or not. It would be the grossest naïveté, then, to believe that Ford, because of her training, is not prone to the general human errors, biases, and delusions. After all, it seems that what she is doing is putting her "expertise" to a rather manipulative end.
In any case, contra Shepard, "the exchange" manifestly did not underscore "how the alleged assault was both traumatizing and humiliating." Nor did it gird "Ford's credibility, showing the extent to which the incident is imprinted on her memory." From an epistemic point of view, all we really know is what Ford has alleged. We do not know whether she is right, nor do we even know she is sincere. I am not saying she is not right or not sincere: for all I know, she is. My point concerns the vital distinction between what we know and what we merely believe. It is important to understand that such a metaphysical assertion as Ford's admits of no justification, and therefore is not to be taken seriously.
Christopher DeGroot is a columnist at Taki's Magazine and senior contributing editor of New English Review. Follow him at @CEGrotius.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia.
1a) Eye on the Spine
By Avi Jorisch
Medtronic, an Irish-American medical device company, announced last Friday that it was purchasing Israel’s Mazor Robotics for a hefty $1.64 billion, the biggest exit ever for an Israeli biotech company. Mazor’s signature piece of technology, a robotic-assisted procedure, represents the future gold standard of spine surgery, which is now poised to be executed globally. Israeli innovations are improving the lives of millions of Americans and other people around the world, and this technology’s proven track record should encourage more American hospitals to adopt it.
Until about 15 years ago, spinal surgery was a lot like grasping in the dark. In order even to understand what procedure was necessary, doctors had to open up the spine. But a leading Israeli robotics professor, in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic, developed a procedure that uses advanced artificial intelligence to help doctors perform previously unthinkable surgeries.
Moshe Shoham teaches at the Technion, the so-called MIT of Israel. In the late 1990s, Shoham began studying the spine because of its critical role in human mechanics, with the idea that the latest robotic technology could help doctors in the operating room. One of the first things he learned about spinal surgery is that it can be a nerve-racking experience not only for patients, but also for doctors, who often place large screws into small slots in the vertebrae by hand. If the doctor is slightly off, there is a high risk that the patient will be paralyzed for life. These types of procedures often require extensive tissue dissection and can result in blood loss and infection.
Yet Shoham believed that if a more accurate procedure could be developed, the probability of swift recovery would increase. While researching the issue, Shoham was shocked to discover that during about 2 to 3 percent of spinal surgeries, patients suffered nerve damage, which can result in weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching and paralysis. To his mind, that was unacceptably high.
In 2000, Shoham approached the Technion’s incubator – whose mission is to provide startups with operational support, management training and office space – and started a company, today known as Mazor Robotics. After four years of research and development, he began testing a robot capable of assisting surgeons in the operating room. He started with cadavers at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel and the Cleveland Clinic in the United States. Shoham and his team set out to prove their invention could reduce operating room time, minimize invasive surgeries, reduce the risk of infection and blood loss, and expedite recovery. The system wasn’t meant to replace surgeons, but to help them achieve a better result.
By the end of 2004, not only did Mazor have a fully working product called SpineAssist, but it had been approved for sale by health authorities in Europe and the United States. “I was really astonished,” says Shoham. “We got it quite early.”
Shoham and his partners created a unique imaging system. Prior to surgery, the patient undergoes a CT scan of the spine. On the day of the procedure, doctors take another two X-rays of the spinal column, one from the back and another from the side. A technician then merges the two sets of images using SpineAssist’s algorithms to create a three-dimensional blueprint. This allows surgeons to accurately see the spine in a way that was never possible before. After examining and approving the system’s recommendations, the doctor implants the screws using Shoham’s robot, which can accurately insert a spinal implant and reduce the danger of damaging nerves and vital organs. Finally, the system directs surgeons to the exact spot where they need to operate.
The holes for the screws can be placed within one millimeter of the desired location – about one-fifth the width of a human hair. This accuracy enables surgeons to reduce the chances of damage to the spinal cord and blood vessels during the operation. “With the robot we can be very precise,” says Dr. Andrew Cannestra, a neurosurgeon at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, who specializes in minimally invasive procedures. “It’s difficult to get the screws into the bone because there’s just not that much real estate. . . . The robot allows us to put the largest screw possible into the smallest space.”
The system also has the added benefit of lowering radiation exposure during surgery for both patients and surgical teams. According to Mazor, use of the robot means that surgeons can now carry out procedures they would previously never have attempted – from spinal fusion to biopsies for suspected tumors. Medical procedures will never be the same.
Mazor has continued to win over doctors and patients, one procedure at a time. More than a decade after it received permission to sell its product in the United States and Europe, surgeons around the world are performing over a hundred operations a week using its technology. And not one patient who has undergone a procedure with Mazor’s robot has been crippled or experienced any kind of nerve damage.
There are currently just under 100 U.S. hospitals utilizing Mazor’s artificial intelligence. The robot’s success speaks for itself, and every major medical center that performs spine surgery would be wise to integrate the technology as quickly as possible.
Avi Jorisch is the author of Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World (Gefen Publishing). He is also a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the Israel Project.
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2) During a Senate hearing investigating whether Brett
Kavanaugh is likely to have committed sexual assault, Senator Cory Booker
asked Kavanaugh's accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, to please stop
interrupting his 2020 presidential campaign speech.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but I was grandstanding for my voter base, and I would
appreciate it if you would stop interrupting me," he said Dr. Ford attempted
to answer one of his questions. "I am here for one reason and one reason
only: to rile up Democrats and get my name out there, so I can beat out all
the other possible candidates for the nomination coming up here."
When Ford stuttered and attempted to reply, Booker held up a finger. "Ma'am,
I was very clear. I expect you to remain silent as I pursue various lines of
questioning that are designed solely for me to get some good soundbites up
on my social media accounts as soon as possible. Are we clear?"
"I! AM! SPARTACUS!" he concluded.
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