Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Synchro Tennis is a Real Slice

No doubt about it, I was as skeptical as any sports fan could possibly be when I first heard synchro tennis would be introduced at the Olympics.

I wondered, quite vocally, what is the point of synchro tennis? You play tennis. You are an accomplished player. Now, why would you want to synchronize your playing with a teammate? What does it prove? What do you gain? What do sports fans gain?

It seemed arbitrary and utterly pointless to me and something that should be reserved for any eventual Synchronicity Games.


However, after watching the athletes perform, I am entirely convinced the sport is worthy of my attention.

The players, in teams of two, call out their strokes and with lightning quickness, execute incredible and precisely timed shots as mirror images of each other. In doubles tennis, players can move anywhere on the court and are not required to mirror each other’s strokes.

In synchro tennis, the two players on each side of the net can only move within their side of the half court. Teams consist of one right-handed player and one left-handed player. Their opponents, on the other side of the net, one right-handed and one left-handed, must respond together with speed, agility and grace to the identical shots coming their way.

The synchronicity of the players is rather astonishing. I am certain I could never think as quickly as these synchro tennis players, not to mention move as quickly.

The down-the-line, backhand slice executed by the British team to win the inaugural gold medal was absolutely brilliant. As the two balls were struck by their Spanish counterparts, the British captain called the return shot. In a matter of a millisecond, the two British players simultaneously positioned themselves with perfect footwork, and gracefully sliced their respective balls back down the line.

If you did not see the game live, I hope you get to see the highlights.

I can hardly wait until beach cricket is introduced at the next Olympic games and, if it’s anything like synchro tennis, it’s sure to be a smashing success.

 

Monday, July 19, 2021

Click Went My Switch

Listen to pharmaceutical ads on television; most of the disclaimers are downright scary.

Yet, a whole slew of pharmaceutical companies popped out of the woodwork with leading edge, perfectly safe, somewhat tested, COVID vaccines they all developed seemingly overnight. Evidently, these vaccines all came with no scary disclaimers, or side-effects.

 

“Perfectly safe”, droned the politicians and physicians, in unison.

 

Seems unlikely to me.

 

Oh, wait, there is that one COVID vaccine that can cause blood clots and has cost far too many people their lives. Why was that risk not mentioned in a disclaimer? There are those other COVID vaccines that contain nanoparticles of polyethylene glycol which have triggered anaphylaxis in an unfortunate few who happen to be allergic. Why was that risk not mentioned in a disclaimer?

 

Don’t the scientists and politicians have a responsibility to be transparent, or do pandemics permit dispensing with transparency?

 

Instead, the government and medical community insisted, very paternalistically, all the vaccines are perfectly safe and “the right vaccine for you is the one that you’re offered.”

 

I don’t think so. I will choose the vaccine I get and if I can’t choose the vaccine I get, I won’t get one. Period.

 

How dare they tell me what I have to have injected into my body? How dare they tell anyone they must accept the risk, however statistically unlikely, of clotting, or death?

 

I found that arrogance infuriating. Click went my switch. I decided I will not get any vaccine; at least, I would wait until I was convinced it was right for me.

 

How is it possible that no one has been held accountable for the tragic deaths of the women in Canada, the UK, Australia and elsewhere? Shouldn’t Astrazeneca, or the politicians who so cavalierly endorsed its safety, be held accountable? Shouldn’t someone be held accountable for the clotting issues people have endured?

 

There were hundreds of millions of dollars up for grabs. Every pharmaceutical company in the world was salivating, eager for their piece of the pie. In spite of compressed testing times and incomplete results, many managed to get a share of the millions of dollars being spent by governments. Of course, after spending millions of dollars to pay for these vaccines, governments felt the need to push as aggressively as possible to get the shots into arms.


I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was some deal whereby the government purchased vaccines from pharmaceutical companies that agreed to chip in for the cost of propaganda campaigns.

 

Social distancing, masking and hand washing might have been able to get it done, but there was no enforcement and most people are too idiotic to comply. They can’t even wear their masks properly or follow the arrows in grocery store aisles! Some gym, restaurant, and other business owners went above and beyond, but most did not.

 

Aggressive propaganda campaigns have been bombarding us with didactic ads, preaching about social responsibility as the politicians very likely keep their fingers crossed in hopes snowballing peer pressure would help get it done.

 


As people marched obediently off to vaccination clinics, the moronic announcements just kept coming. In most instances, they contradicted what we were first led to believe. The announcements seemed arbitrary and haphazard.

Now, suddenly, the vaccines that needed constant super freezing can be stored at regular refrigeration temperatures for one month.

Now, suddenly, you can mix vaccines from different pharmaceutical companies.

Now, suddenly, the recommended interval between shots has been extended.

Now, suddenly, the recommended interval between shots has been shortened.

Now, suddenly, it’s perfectly fine to extend the expiration dates on vaccines.

 

As she outlined the newly shortened interval time between first and second COVID shots, the woman registering me for my first shot on Saturday summed it up nicely, “C’est du n’importe quoi.” It’s whatever.

 

Since hand washing, social distancing and masking seem to have gone out the window, jabs may well be the only way out of this now. Certainly not my first choice.

 

At the height of the pandemic, I watched a CNN documentary on the COVID vaccines. It offered a glimpse into what different pharmaceutical companies had done to develop their vaccines. 

 

On Friday, two things happened that made feel like I would eventually have no choice but to succumb to the intense propaganda pressure and take the jab. I won’t elaborate on what these two things were, or who was involved. Everyone is being brainwashed into thinking they have a moral obligation to save society by getting the jab. Many believe that anyone who does not comply is failing in their social duty to save society.

 

Travel, work, friendships and much more, seem to be at stake.

 

I caved-in to the pressure and conformed, indirectly and reluctantly falling victim to the propaganda machine created by the politicians. I don’t trust what they say or do. In order to make sure the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on vaccines are not wasted, they invested in bandwagon propaganda.

 

If they had been forthcoming about the risks of vaccines, or endorsed the right of people to choose between vaccines, maybe I would feel differently. Instead, true to their oily nature, politicians were frothing at the mouth, and still are, eager to conjure up the perception that everything returned to normal on their watch, making them worthy of retaining power.

 

Truth be told, I don’t entirely trust pharmaceutical companies. Some may argue their motivations are pure, but when so much money is at stake, purity almost certainly becomes tainted to some degree.

 

Messenger RNA vaccines supposedly teach our cells how to make a protein, or part of a protein, in order to initiate an immune response inside our bodies. Admittedly, incredible technology. I sincerely hope there are no side effects related to cell manipulation that emerge down the road and, ideally, the vaccines vanquish the variants.

 

As far as the politicians are concerned, they can stick it.