Is it common for people with dementia to interpret thoughts as memories?
We cared for my husband’s father who suffered advanced dementia and in the early stages, he really suffered confusion about the present more than the past. So I don’t recall him ever thinking that a thought was a memory. He was very clear on his earlier travels for example. But he lost his English which was the last language he learned as a young person. He was Ukrainian and used to speak 7 languages and yet was confused with English so we had to hire someone who spoke Polish - that he remembered! As well, I was always impressed with his memory for song (many caregivers report this).One thing the brain does well is to try to fill in the gaps in our understanding. For example out of the corner of our eye we see a flash and our brain may interpret it as a bird, when really it was a tree branch moving. People who suffer macrodegeneration in their eyes report that their brains fill in ‘odd interpretations’ for what they think they see. Perhaps this is what happens with a random thought - it is confusing so the brain names it as a memory?Below - on the left is a scan of someone with frontotemporal dementia compared to a healthy brain on the right. The brain shrinks. One time my father-in-law fell and hit his head and had what they call an ‘awakening’. He could remember everything and so we sat and talked with him for a long time because we knew it would not last. The next day he woke up not remembering any of us. In fact, he was puzzled why ‘strangers’ were taking such good care of him. I share this because there is so much we don’t know about memory, how it is created, preserved and retrieved. So even though a person’s brain shrinks, and there are problems with retrieving what is stored there - do we ever really lose what is stored there? Or do we just have problems with accessing our memories? There is so much to learn and discover in the decades to come!
Is the Russian Army overrated? Is it possible that they are actually not as strong as the media say?
The ‘media’ is a complex thing; don’t draw generalisations.The Russian military is certainly one of the strongest in the world. Most people tend really to forget that there are only actually a few militaries that are capable of external, over the border, actions in foreign territory.Russia almost certainly has the strongest single military in Europe. Its forces is vastly larger and better funded than those of any other European state. Though some European countries have strengths that surpass it in some areas, such as the UK now moving to possess two, true aircraft carriers, Russia has the strongest military.The issue comes to what we say when we say ‘overrated’. How strong does the Russian military appear to be? Websites such as global firepower (2018 Military Strength Ranking), consistently rank Russia as a nation who’s military might is second only to the US. Aside from the US, only China really currently has a military that in a war fought on paper could triumph.When we compare the Russian military to the US military, it often seemingly comes out far behind. Russian troops have no where near the funding or equipment that Americans troops have. Though Russia has huge numbers of planes and tanks, the equivalents of those that the US has are often only possessed in numbers far fewer than the US; Russia’s sixth generation fighter the Sukhoi Su-57, which has suffered from delays, is being bought in small numbers (current purchase numbers are projected to be 12 in the whole of 2019 and when the economy was good orders were only planned to be 55 in the first 4–5 years of operation). America’s sixth generation fighter the F-35, which has suffered from even more delays, is now being cranked out; the Americans have taken delivery of about 350 aircraft (though some will be handed on to allies) of all three variants. They will have more F-35Cs in their Marine Corps by 2030 than Russia will have fifth generation fighters.However we must remember that this is the US military; as the joke goes the largest air force in the world is the US Air Force; the second largest is the US Navy. In comparison to everyone else Russia is operating a highly potent military.Something is ‘overrated’ only subjectively; Russia’s military is certainly powerful, but ‘overrated’ is entirely what you make of it.
What do you imagine fate has in store for President Trump after he concludes his term in the Oval Office?
He will most likely die in his bed or on one of his golf courses of natural causes. He will not have spent any time in jail. Here’s what I hope happens to his legacy.He will be regarded as a unique failure in every sense. No successor will seek to emulate his frank appeal to racism, xenophobia, or sexism. He will be regarded as a freakish anomaly running counter to American Enlightenment principles. He will be acknowledged to have been venal, corrupt, and ignorant. He possessed a singular skill of divining and appealing to the worst fears and prejudices of a sizable minority of the country at a vulnerable time in our history.He will be regarded with horror as a president who openly disdained liberal democracy and the rule of law. An American president who actually abhorred democratic institutions. An American president who constantly lied and sowed discord in the nation he was elected to lead. An American president who gave aid and comfort to an adversarial, fascistic nation, while undermining our democratic allies. A person who colluded with said adversary to line his pockets, but who improbably and to his own surprise wound up in the Oval Office.He will be regarded with embarrassment and contempt, especially by Republicans who will vilify him as a rogue. He will be a cautionary tale - this is what happens when we take our values and precious freedoms for granted. Never again will we allow ourselves to become such frightened and easily manipulated fools.If this doesn’t happen, we are finished as a force for good in this world.