tonygoodson

Are You Too Wordy?

Interesting link via Seth Godin, author Steven Johnson, has analysed his own work, and a few others, using Amazon text stats to measure the average number of words per sentence, and average number or syllables per word, for several books.

He's plotted the results against other authors.  What he's found is that each author writes in the same style for most of their books, and it seems, the higher selling authors use less words per sentence and less complex words.

That's probably true of bloggers as well.  Certainly the ones I read.  And my reading choice has always been contemporary work with short sentences and short words!

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. 

Amazing Photo Editing

Well this has got me blogging again.  If your jaw doesn't drop and you say Oh My God several times, I'll be amazed. (via Jack Schofield at The Guardian)

 

Keep watching the video until the end. It means you can change a photo but keep in all the important parts, or take out objects but keep the rest of the photo intact.

Absolutely amazing, it bends reality.  Makes you wonder about what is reality!!

London 2012 and Good Design

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  And then check these comments out on Digg.  Can so many people hate the new London 2012 Olympics logo, and be wrong.  Occasionally a radical new design comes along which questions and changes our perception, but I don't think it's the London 2012 Olympics logo.  And the trouble with design by committee is that they all start to justify what they've done, and lose sight of it being horrible.  It's sharp, ugly, badly coloured in, and confusing.

And talking of colouring in, a few months back there was discussion of developing an icon for Melbourne.  The best comment I read was the suggestion that an icon should be something that can quickly be drawn by an eight year old.  Think Eiffel Tower, think Sydney Opera House, think Empire State Building.  In fact, think Apple iPod.  So my first reaction was to ask my 5 year old to design something for the London 2012 Olympics.  Funny that the BBC website featured the picture above on the front website.

And then with more thinking (but not much), what do you associate with London, and design round that.  And blow me down if other people haven't done the same thing.  Why does new design have to be radical, why can't it be beautiful and err iconic!  The London Olympics are in London because of London, otherwise they'd be in Manchester!!

Finally, in discussion with Johnnie Moore, we might come up with some "Fruit Salad" design using the Frutiger Linotype font to enhance the Fruit Salad look of the new London logo. And I spotted the Donut Logo as well.   And of course there's radical and there's RADICAL!

The Future is not in 2.5 dimensions!

I have seen the future.  The future is Wii and Virtual Reality.

Pssst, Microsoft, if you want to kick Google's ass, then you better give up on this 2 dimensional PC screen and mouse and mobile handset and move yourself to 3 dimensions before someone else does.  Give it up!  Let Google have the 2 dimensional world.  Take a risk and move into the real world!

Vista Pah!  Office 2007 Pah!  Get yourself a Nintendo Wii, have a bit of 3D fun and then have a think about where to take us for the next decade.  Bloody Office 2007 is not the answer. Yeh it will keep Microsoft in business for a while, but to do what afterwards?  If you think that ribbon is impressive then you're narrowing your horizons.

I'm telling you, that Nintendo Wii handset, married with some simple Virtual Reality, will give you a view of technology which will set us free from the screen and mouse.  We as humans do not think or work in 14" or 15" or 19 inches, let alone two and a half inches.  Jeez, I'm telling you, it is not that difficult to do if you set your mind to it and focus on it.

Ok, you need to work out a way to give a wall size view of a spreadsheet with perspective, or a MindMap (are you listening MindJet), and enable a glove, or Wii type handset to move the data around.  Sure if you can allow that two handed expanding type interface, even better, but keep it simple to start with.  I've been trying out a few old games, Space Invaders and JetPac, and it's their simplicity that made them great.

Talking of which, the kids and me, finally have a game console.  Our Wii friends in Sydney gave us their Nintendo GameCube and MarioKart-Double Dash, so we're only 10 years behind everyone else now!  But looking over the shoulders of kids playing on the Sony Playstation 3, I don't see that much difference between a Mario GameCube and two generations on. There is only so much you can do to make two dimensions look like three dimensions, which ends up as 2.5 dimensions!

Dream On

A spoof on the recent YouTube videos of "Photos every day for a year".
The guy and genre reminds me of one of my favourite sitcoms, the cult, Dream On.
Martin Tupper!

Welcome to Myspace

How good is the editing and design on this video.  Amazing.  Good lyrics as well!

Welcome to Manchester

An amazing video and music.
A few words come to mind. Manchester, Lowry, Beatles, Help, Yellow Submarine, Maine Road, Abbey Road, G-Mex, Liam's Walk, The Long and Winding Road?, Wonderwall, GMT Tour Bus, Midland Hotel?, Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Of course Oasis are derived from The Beatles, but The Beatles are derived from lots of artists.  Check out John Lennon's Jukebox. 

Flow not Fun!

Hey I just realised something the other day.
It's not Fun that I'm seeking but Flow.
Flow being the thing that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his book Flow.

It's the "In the Zone" "Mind like water" kind of thing.

Hell, I'm an introvert, I don't do "Fun" I get an inner satisfaction with "Flow".

No wonder I hate golf.  I always thought it's supposed to be fun, but it ain't! At best, it's Flow.

All my things are about Flow, I now realise that.  Tennis, Cycling, Chess, Reading on the Internet. Go Karting, what a buzz that is, but it's Flow for me, not fun, I drive round the track muttering to myself and telling myself I'm Alain Prost "The Professor of the Track".  That says it all, nice and steady, wait for the person in front of you to make a mistake.  The same with tennis.  I hate doubles, unless I'm playing with a partner where we can really get to the net in unison.  That's rare.  I'll stick to the self muttering singles game.  All my sports are solitary things.  Flow.

It's the Flow I'm aiming for and not the Fun that I thought was missing.  Fun is about saying, "Whoopee I enjoyed that."  No way!  I'll stick to "Mmmmmm that was nice!"

So, more Flow in my life.

 

NBC v YouTube

Hey, why is this Evolution of Dance, so disappointing, when compared to this? (other than the fact you need effing Explorer to run the first video!)
There's something about the context of Judson Laiplly's dance on the stage in the second video, and the fact that he looks and moves like Colin Mochrie, that makes it so compelling to play again and again.  The NBC interview and dance, ruins the mystique.

I've been thinking why the Chinese Boys - That Way, is so good.
Again there's something about the context, the raw passion, the guy in the background, the broken arm!, the innocence, the Rocket Shirts, the cross swaying, but most of all, I think it's because it's two Chinese guys being very animated in a "Western" way, something you don't expect.

It's the unexpected that attracts, even if you watch it time and time again.
Numa Numa is also compelling time and time again.  Why?
(Just reading about Numa Numa on Wikipedia and it's interesting that Gary Brolsma claims he derived it from this Japanese Flash Animation of Numa Numa)
Imitation of the Chinese Boys, Numa Numa, and even the Chinese Boys doing other songs, don't quite hit the mark.  Why?

Funnily enough, I explained it myself in my own brilliant(?) writing a few years ago, The Meaning of Life.
The Wassup and Flat Eric adverts weren't made for the products they advertised, the products found them, and set the context for them becoming funny, just as sad imitations of some great viral videos, lose the context.

Which brings me back to why I don't watch TV anymore.  It's shit!
Predictable drivel, out of context.
Except for House!
I spend more time watching YouTube than I do watching TV.
A Wank I Think! (of course you need bloody Explorer to see the context (and an understanding of English humour)).