It is not true that there is no check on a majority government. The Supreme Court of Canada is a check on the power of majority government and has in recent years very much functioned in that role. That being said, parliament can use the "not withstanding" clause to curb the check, but to say there are no checks on a majority government is not strictly true.
In practice, it is true, but majority governments have, in Canadian history, acted relatively reasonably given the amount of power they do have...
Full disclosure: I am familiar with the researchers and had an opportunity to participate in this project. The work is ongoing.
This research is woefully underfunded at present and based on solid research done in animal models. One could also ask, "Why write stories about humans going to Mars? They've not designed/built any of the hypothesized vechiles."
The answer is, in the current scientific climate, this kind of story is not a non-story, but the difficulty in attracting funding in this area even for very promising project.
It took about 5 minutes for me, but had to be *total* dakness. So dark I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. This was in a lab where we were doin nuclear emission spectroscopy (just gas discharge tubes). Any outside light would pollute the results, so the lab was really dark until we turned on the juice.
During that period I could see as clearly as i'm seeing this screen flowing sheets of glowing pastel paint sliding down a wall that wasn't there.
Not true hallucinations of course--by definition if you know it's not real it's not a hallucination. Phosphenes I think they were called.
Anyhow, very beautiful and unusual. I don't think my lab partners saw anything--at least they didn't say they did. Or they were afraid people would think they were nuts.
Later i blacked out my dorm room & reproduced the effect. And learned it's really hard to produce absolute darkness. Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes! And black paint is not as opaque as it seems.
5 minutes is not long enough to fully adapt the human visual system see: http://www.visualexpert.com/im...
5-8 minutes your cones (the photoreceptors concentrated in the central visual field that are used to encode color) and 20+ minutes for the rod (what we use to see in low light situation) to full adapt.
Phosphenes are normal and can be produced by placing slight pressure on the eye.
Also interesting dark adaptation can be done independently in each eye. Black out one eye for 8 minutes or so (easier to do than a whole room) then open both your eyes. It is a fun and a little disorienting experience if done correctly.
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It is not true that there is no check on a majority government. The Supreme Court of Canada is a check on the power of majority government and has in recent years very much functioned in that role. That being said, parliament can use the "not withstanding" clause to curb the check, but to say there are no checks on a majority government is not strictly true. In practice, it is true, but majority governments have, in Canadian history, acted relatively reasonably given the amount of power they do have...
Full disclosure: I am familiar with the researchers and had an opportunity to participate in this project. The work is ongoing. This research is woefully underfunded at present and based on solid research done in animal models. One could also ask, "Why write stories about humans going to Mars? They've not designed/built any of the hypothesized vechiles." The answer is, in the current scientific climate, this kind of story is not a non-story, but the difficulty in attracting funding in this area even for very promising project.
It took about 5 minutes for me, but had to be *total* dakness. So dark I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. This was in a lab where we were doin nuclear emission spectroscopy (just gas discharge tubes). Any outside light would pollute the results, so the lab was really dark until we turned on the juice. During that period I could see as clearly as i'm seeing this screen flowing sheets of glowing pastel paint sliding down a wall that wasn't there. Not true hallucinations of course--by definition if you know it's not real it's not a hallucination. Phosphenes I think they were called.
Anyhow, very beautiful and unusual. I don't think my lab partners saw anything--at least they didn't say they did. Or they were afraid people would think they were nuts.
Later i blacked out my dorm room & reproduced the effect. And learned it's really hard to produce absolute darkness. Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes! And black paint is not as opaque as it seems.
5 minutes is not long enough to fully adapt the human visual system see: http://www.visualexpert.com/im... 5-8 minutes your cones (the photoreceptors concentrated in the central visual field that are used to encode color) and 20+ minutes for the rod (what we use to see in low light situation) to full adapt. Phosphenes are normal and can be produced by placing slight pressure on the eye. Also interesting dark adaptation can be done independently in each eye. Black out one eye for 8 minutes or so (easier to do than a whole room) then open both your eyes. It is a fun and a little disorienting experience if done correctly.