tonygoodson

I thought it was just me who noticed the difference in class between Man United and Chelsea, after we'd won the European Cup this week.  When Chelsea went up to collect their LOSERS medals, Peter Kenyon ("life long Manchester United supporter") the traitor who defected to be Chelsea's Chief Executive, went up to front the team and collect the first medal.  When United went up to collect their medals and cup, they were fronted by Bobby Charlton who refused to wear the medal.

That's the difference between the clubs, and it's now in Peter Kenyon's Wikipedia entry about going to collect the medal.  In fact, David Gill's (Man Utd Chief Exec) wikipedia entry looks classier than Peter Kenyon's!!  I wonder if both are being edited by Man United fans.  It's that kind of passion and detail that shows the class and long term success.

Oh the joy of winning the third European Cup.  It flows through my veins, from the first cup in '68, 10 years after the Munich air disaster in '58 (same date as my birthday), to winning the third cup 50 years after the Munich disaster, via the win in '99.  Bobby Charlton collected because he's associated with all three wins, and survived the plane crash.  And Ryan Giggs broke Bobby Charlton's appearance record in the game. Oh, and George Best's birthday as they collected the cup.

I grew up with the rich history in Manchester.  So it's the one to win.  Just two more European Cup wins to get that Liverpool (Scouse Scum) Monkey off our backs.

I'd predicted 0-0 and Chelsea winning on penalties.  1-1 and John Terry running in to win it for Chelsea was as close to my prediction as it got.  He fell over and we won.

Parkinson's Disease and Pesticides

How very interesting. Pesticide Parkinson's Link Strong

There is strong evidence that exposure to pesticides significantly increases the risk of Parkinson's disease, experts believe.
It comes as another study, published in the BMC Neurology journal, has made the link to the neurological disease.
The US researchers found those exposed to pesticides had a 1.6 times higher risk after studying 600 people.
Experts said it was now highly likely pesticides played a key role - albeit in combination with other factors.

This starts to point in Mark Purdey's direction.  Who is Mark Purdey?  He's the guy who suggested that Mad Cows Disease may have come from pesticide, by causing a high manganese and low copper environment.  And he was then starting to look into other neurodegenerative diseases which may each have a high/low mineral signature.  Alas, Mark Purdey died in 2006, but watch out for his legacy which may end up being one of the greatest medical breakthroughs.  Not bad for an organic farmer.

Imagine if the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, BSE/CJD each had an  identifiable  mineral signature, and hence could be prevented.  It makes sense doesn't it?  What I don't know, is if these diseases have become more prevalent over the last hundred years, and can they be linked to the change/increase of minerals in the environment.  And finally, can someone prove the mineral signature of each disease?  There are hints of it say for Alzheimer's with Aluminium bad and Zinc good, just as Manganese bad and Copper good with BSE (Mad Cow's Disease).  But they're not solidly proven yet, and may only be a co-factor in the cause.

It's a simple and elegant theory, I've been following for years, since I found out about Mark Purdey and his theories.

Bobby Fischer, Kevin Keegan, and Sarah Green!

I'm getting powerful vibes from the 70s.  First Bobby Fischer.  Died on Thursday.  Kevin Keegan back at Newcastle United, and now my old school has a teacher suspended for making a raunchy advert, before she became a teacher!

I'm getting strong early 70s vibes from the Time Lords!  I grew up on chess.  My Dad taught me, and then I progressed, to a fairly good level.  So Bobby Fischer is a part of my psyche, he's a part of my pre and early teens.  So is Kevin Keegan, but not as someone I worshipped, in fact he was the enemy, unless playing for England!  I don't know Sarah Green, but she's what my school wasn't about then!!

It's funny, but when Bobby Fischer dies or Kevin Keegan walks back to Newcastle it takes up more of my thinking and emotional time, than it really should.  It's my curiosity that sends me on to the internet, to Wikipedia and beyond, but then again, in the late 60s and early 70s, I had my encyclopedias, football, and chess books to lurk in.

Cascade of Mis-information

Two of my all time hero scientists died a few days ago.  I'm devastated and distraught.  They didn't both die at the same time, it's just that I realised they both died recently.  On finding out that Mark Purdey had died, I immediately looked up John Gofman's bio.  Shit, I killed him!  He died 2 months ago, on Napoleon's birthday.  How did I know?  Because yesterday I was listening to the Napoleon 101 Podcast recorded on Napoleon's birthday, and my jaw dropped when I noticed that John Gofman died on the same day as the podcast was recorded.  Not only that, but I declare 15th August as the spookiest date in my life.  Why?  My first wife's birthday is 13th August.  The current Mrs Goodson's birthday is 14th August!  So what does that say about the 15th August!!

Mark Purdey was a UK farmer who fought the UK Ministry of Agriculture and then the scientific establishment to try to prove that BSE(Mad Cows Disease) is not a disease passed on through sheep or bovine feed, but a chemical imbalance either set off by organophosphates, or an environmental chemical imbalance.  In the case of BSE or CJD, it's a high manganese/ low copper footprint.  What's even more fascinating is that Mark Purdey also suggested that other neurodegenerative diseases may also have a mineral imbalance footprint.  Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  In the case of Alzheimer's, it a high aluminum and low zinc, I think.  Has this brilliant and radical hypothesis died with Mark Purdey.  Was he zapped?  Ironically, he died from a brain tumor.

John Gofman was a genius scientist, combining several skills and talent, to make significant breakthroughs in 4 areas of science.

1. As a young scientist he was one of a small group to manufacture weapons grade plutonium for the Manhattan Project.  He still has (had!!) patents for it.

2. He made some of the first links between low grade nuclear radiation and the threat to our health.  In other words, previously, only direct Hiroshima type high level radiation was thought to be a threat, and not a bit of radiation wafting across a Utah desert after a test, or a few soldiers placed within miles of an explosion!!  We take this thinking for granted now, but John Gofman was one of the first to prove the threat.

3.  In the late 50s and early 60s, he showed causes of heart disease from cholesterol.

4.  And finally, his work on low grade radiation as a threat to our health, was his latter day work.  I believe his research and writings on the threat of medical X-Rays, is the single most important health issue of the last 50 years.  We don't know what causes plaque build up in arteries and hence heart disease.  Gofman has a radical suggestion, that medical X-Rays cause micro-lesions in arteries, which enable plaque build up.  Did you know that many of the scientist who hung around Chernobyl, to do the clean up and research after the melt down, died prematurely of heart related diseases and not cancer related diseases.  Makes you wonder.

How the hell did I get into all this death yesterday?  Well, I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, so I read Scott Adams' (Dilbert) links to an article in the NY Times about "Cascades".  This is where the belief of one person influences another who influences another, and it then cascades.  Very dangerous in the scientific and medical community, because it leads to everyone believing the same thing, and nothing will shift them.

In this case it's fat in the diet, which has cascaded to become the norm, that fat is bad for us, or at least too much fat is.  But according to the article, this has never been proven!  It doesn't say what is bad for us in our diet, but from what I know, the only thing which has been scientifically proven is, too many calories are bad for us, not too many "bad" calories.

Well let me tell you, John Gofman and Mark Purdey are two the greatest for resisting the cascade.  I wont forget either of you. I hope both your legacies live on. 

Against Method - Paul Feyerabend

I just followed a trail that's led me to Paul Feyerabend, a philosopher of science.  Here are a few great quotes from him and about him in his Wikipedia entry;

For is it not possible that science as we know it today, or a 'search for the truth' in the style of traditional philosophy, will create a monster? Is it not possible that an objective approach that frowns upon personal connections between the entities examined will harm people, turn them into miserable, unfriendly, self-righteous mechanisms without charm or humour? "Is it not possible," asks Kierkegaard, "that my activity as an objective [or critico-rational] observer of nature will weaken my strength as a human being?" I suspect the answer to many of these questions is affirmative and I believe that a reform of the sciences that makes them more anarchic and more subjective (in Kierkegaard's sense) is urgently needed. (AM, p.154)......

....One of the criteria for evaluating scientific theories that Feyerabend attacks is the consistency criterion. He points out that to insist that new theories be consistent with old theories gives an unreasonable advantage to the older theory. He makes the logical point that being compatible with a defunct older theory does not increase the validity or truth of a new theory over an alternative covering the same content. That is, if one had to choose between two theories of equal explanatory power, to choose the one that is compatible with an older, falsified theory is to make an aesthetic, rather than a rational choice. The familiarity of such a theory might also make it more appealing to scientists, since they will not have to disregard as many cherished prejudices. Hence, that theory can be said to have "an unfair advantage"......

.......Feyerabend described science as being essentially anarchistic, being obsessed with its own mythology, and making claims to truth well beyond its actual capacity. He was especially indignant about the condescending attitudes of many scientists towards alternative traditions. For example, he thought that negative opinions about astrology and the effectivity of rain dances were not justified by scientific research, and dismissed the predominantly negative attitudes of scientists towards such phenomena as elitist or racist. In his opinion, science has become a repressing ideology, even though it arguably started as a liberating movement. Feyerabend thought that a pluralistic society should be protected from being influenced too much by science, just as it is protected from other ideologies.

Just brilliant, and it identifies what makes me angry with Sense about Science with so called scientists, well meaning, but in many cases totally lacking in Intuition as to what is right.

And have a read of the reviews on Paul Feyerabend's autobiography 
Looks like a very interesting and complex guy.  Two more books to read.

A Dose of Tony Benn

I've been inspired by some left-wing rhetoric.  There's nothing like that old war-horse Tony Benn to get you going. You either love him or hate him.  I love him.  I've seen him talk many years ago.  He makes such sense if you listen.  Who wouldn't we want a welfare state, good health care, good free education, fair taxation.  Sounds like Cuba!!
There are no mainstream centre-left parties in the UK, Australia, or the USA.  They're all fighting for the centre-right ground.  I'm sick of the current political horizon, give us some choice.  It's so bad here in Australia, you'd prefer even Johnnie Howard to what Labour has to offer, or is frightened to offer.  Let's see what Kevin Rudd the new Labour leader has to offer.  Probably not much.

Why can't we have  centre-left policies.  Does that really have to bankrupt a country?  I don't get why spending the money on infrastructure instead of bombs is a dud economic policy.  Do bombs really have a better economic return?  I'd much rather see infrastructure, water, air, transport, telecomms, nationalised and run by the government.  By all means have private enterprise run on the infrastructure and sell services using the infrastructure, but some things are too big and risky for commercial enterprises to take on, and we the population suffer, and in some cases aren't able to compete with countries who centrally invest in say, the latest telecomm infrastructure.  It's not just a shareholder payback thing.

Anyway, have a listen to Tony Benn, and either be inspired or angered.

And if Tony Benn doesn't do it for you, then try a dose of Father Bob or Jason Calacanis.

George Best dying

It's very difficult to describe to the many what the few of us feel.
You had to be around at the time.
I was a child of the 60s.  George Best was there almost from the day I was born (1961).
The hero of the 60s, so as a kid growing up south of Manchester, it courses through my veins.
He was a part of growing up. 
George Best football boots. 
E for B and Georgie Best.
That's where George Best has his hair cut.
That's Georgie Best's house.
That's Georgie Best's bar.
That was Georgie Best's car.
My Mum's met George Best.

As a kid you take his football skills a bit for granted, but you know to give the ball to Georgie.
You watch Benfica players scythe him down in the '68 Cup Final.
You cycle past his house to see if he's there.
Years later you're meeting a girl at the Midland Hotel, and who's in the bar, but Georgie Best (a good luck charm).  And it was!!

George Best is dying today.  That's kind of bizarre.  Even to the end he's going out in style.
Strange that when Bobby Moore died, we just tutted, "Oh Bobby Moore has died".
Bobby Charlton was probably the greater player.
But the emotion which George Best evokes for this child of the 60s, is immense.
I hated all the fuss and false projection when Princess Di died, and I'd like to think this is different.

There are other sporting heroes, and we sometimes over-worship them, but this guy and what he evoked in the 60s was something different.  Think Elvis in the 50s and when Elvis died. 
George Best in Manchester was bigger than the Beatles in that there was only one of him, they were diluted.

A nice guy, a shy guy, a good looking guy, a charming guy, a two-footed guy!!
Let's quote what he says about David Beckham,

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.

A great great footballer, but so are many more, but you had to be around in Manchester or Belfast in the 60s to really understand the sad loss.

Scott Adams (Dilbert) weblog

It doesn't get better than this for me.  Scott Adams (Dilbert) has a weblog.

Find What You Love

I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. (Steve Jobs via Kathy Sierra)

Here's what my gut feel is telling me.  RSS, Weblogs, WiKi, Chat, Podcasts (but less so).
The Big Corp needs all this stuff but doesn't realise it yet, so anyone hawking it to them is fighting an uphill battle right now.  But it will happen eventually, and just like being in the right place at the right time with say mobile phones, someone is going to do very well out of it.

I just want to be with people who talk and use the technology, not just for the sake of it, but because it works.  It helps people communicate better.  I'm sick of the Dilbert world.  You don't get too much Dilbert in the world of RSS, Weblogs, WiKis, Chat, and Podcasts, mainly because there are no cubicles!

I'm not a corporate person.  I don't take readily to the politics.  The pretending.  The Emperor having no clothes.  And if I see something as wrong I won't let it go, or bury my head in the sand and take the money.

I've never been a great Steve Jobs fan, from what I've read about him, too much ego, but I love that for once, someone famous has said....

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
  Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I recently looked through all the business cards, and contacts I have in Outlook, and it was immediately clear to me who to call.  Just a gut feel.  Including some people I haven't had contact with in over a year.

And more time with Georgie and Jay.
Go read the whole Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford.

Lawrence Lessig - Listen to him

One of the best podcasts I've heard.  Lawrence Lessig talking at OSBC 2005.
There are a few by him, but make sure you listen to this one.
Wit and Intelligence and Humility.
Lessig talks about monopolies doing what it takes to defend their position.
The USA will need to do something soon about restrictive IP which is strangling innovation.
Other nations are catching them up and may overtake them.

I'm not sure that podcasts will grow so much because it's difficult to recommend one and then have people bother to download and listen to it.  And listen to it for any length of time.
With the written word you can scan and read and search, but with audio, it's the most difficult to suss out.

All I can do is listen and recommend. 
This is one of the best and one of those watershed ones, like Doc Searls's.