Alzheimer’s Disease and Mobile Phones
I was sent an article about gluten-free food and this unrelated extract stood out.
Mobile phones and Alzheimer’s disease – Recent research suggests that mobile phone radiation may halt the progression of Alzheimer’s in mice but experts take issue with both the research methods and the report’s conclusions.
A summary of the research offers this explanation.
The researchers showed that exposing old Alzheimer’s mice to the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones erased brain deposits of beta-amyloid, a protein strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Clumps of beta-amyloid form so-called brain plaques that are a hallmark of the disease.
As an engineer, I’m not surprised if this happens. Irradiating things has all sorts of effects. Some are positive and some are downright dangerous.
Now, it has also been shown that low-levels of B12 may lead to Azheimer’s and other brain problems.
It would strike me as an engineer that these two areas of research are perhaps some of first pieces of a jigsaw, that if we can solve it, will lead to ways of possibly delaying the onset of what is a very nasty disease.
I hope so.
Crystal Palace Goes into Administration
Crystal Palace have now gone into administration with debts of about thirty million pounds. Several clubs, including Portsmouth, Notts County, Accrington Stanley and others, have been hovering around this for some months in these most tricky of financial times. It is a big step for a football club, as they are immediately docked ten points and in most cases, such as Leeds and Southampton, it has meant relegation.
But just as Southampton have shown, there can be life after administration.
But there are differences between Southampton and Crystal Palace. Southampton have a modern stadium, which I believe they own, and are in an area without too many other football clubs. Crystal Palace are close to Charlton and it is easy to get to the other clubs over London. Crucially, I don’t think they own their ground. It’s a dump anyway and probably needs to be redeveloped.
So whereas someone looking to invest in a football club might well choose Southampton, they would be unlikely to choose Crystal Palace.
The future looks grim for Palace and especially with HMRC getting a lot tougher, I have a feeling that they would love to see to see a football club cease to exist. As Dan Snow pointed out in his excellent television programme, Empire of the Seas, the shooting of Admiral Byng for cowardice, did wonders for the Royal Navy. As it says in Wikipedia.
Byng’s execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that “in this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others”
I suspect that if they fail to get the scalp of Crystal Palace, they will get another before the end of the season.
Rolling Roadblock Practice
I have been unable to find any reference to it, but whilst driving down from Scotland at the weekend, I was listening to the traffic reports on BBC Radio 5. These are very reliable although sometimes they miss something.
But on Monday, they announced that in the middle of the evening rush hour, the Police on the M62 were practicing setting up rolling roadblocks.
How irresponsible!
And I wonder how many caught up in this pointless exercise will help the Police in future, when they really need help?
The Anonymous Widower 