Is the Profit Motive for New Therapeutic Chemical Entities Correct?

WUH LAX WAS SURPRISED AT ME !

Who said that the profit motive works? If the profit motive worked, we would have saved billions of lives of people in developing countries who have died of disease. As it is, the children have died and we are responsible for not pushing our governments in Western economise to act more decisively and more effectively. I can think of no better solution to many economic problems that an over expansion of the therapeutic research at government expense ... forget the private sector. It has failed to deliver the goods to the third world. Why should we help the third world fight disease?

That to me is almost a stupid question, but my children tell me not to use the word stupid, so I will say that it is an insane question. Are we insane not to give everything we have got to eradicating the problems of the third world. I think the whole of Western Civilization is pretty damn insane not to. we talk about being Christians, and we talk about being Islamic and yet we have so many people dying from disease in third world countries that we should all be thoroughly ashamed. Disease is every one's problem.

The West is so caught up in its struggle against cancer that it has forgotten the many more dying of diseases that we can actually cure. And, incidentally in the process we may just get to grips with some of the disease issues in the West that are connected to those of third world countries.

But, the insane part of this whole matter is the patent system that we are using to calm our feelings of guilt. No, our governments should fund at public expense massive amounts of research that is presently going into weapons of mass destruction and bullets, not to mention bombs and tanks. To not help our third world countries fight disease is insane economics.

Why does Bill Gates have to show our people the right direction? He has done enough to create the microcomputer revolution. Three cheers for Bill and his lovely wife! Our governments can lower interest rates for the banks, but they can't fund research into disease solutions. That is insanity at its worst and we are all part of that insanity. Help the people of the world. Help the children who are dying by helping to eradicate the diseases around the world that ravage their populations. Our globe is getting smaller and smaller and we need to think of each other as being like close neighbours, giving our neighbours a helping hand.

Are Typhoid Fever and Cystic Fibrosis Related?

SIDMOUTH MOON

There is a mystery why so many people in Europe have the cystic fibrosis gene. Few people realize that they even have it or that they may already have children that have the gene, or that they may conceive children with cystic fibrosis. Do the math. If one in twenty have the gene then so many people who are married have the gene, and so many of the children that they have will have the gene. It's all down to probabilities, and chances are that you won't have a cystic fibrosis child because the math is working in that way, but only the math.

Scientists are puzzled as to why so many people in Europe have the cystic fibrosis gene. It means that almost every family has had or will have the gene at some time. Again, do the math. This means that cystic fibrosis is everyone's problem and everyone should help those with cystic fibrosis and everyone should pay to see that the disease is given top priority and eliminated as problem. Right!

Well, no, not quite, and the reason may be that expression of the cystic fibrosis gene was in the past what saved a significantly large segment of the population. In other words, the people with cystic fibrosis may have survived a disease that other succumbed to. In other words, having cystic fibrosis may have saved those in the population from something worse. What could be worse?

Well, one possibility is typhoid. Read about that in an article in Science News. This leads me to the conclusion that there are really two problems that society needs to deal with and solving one may help the other. In other words, it may be that if we find a solution to the disease of cystic fibrosis we need to have a solution to typhoid fever. Everyone can get typhoid fever. Right! But, no! Wrong! If you think that everyone can get typhoid fever maybe you have not understood what I am saying. In the end, we may need to sort out both diseases and thus combine the research efforts. Fund typhoid fever research while you fund cystic fibrosis research. Such combined research works in all our favours because we may all have the same problem of the expression, or non expression, of the cystic fibrosis gene. We may all need to have safe cystic fibrosis to escape typhoid fever! Or, perhaps you think typhoid is not really a problem. I would chew on that one if I were you and take a longer coffee break for your creative juices. I wonder what the other diseases might be that this research needs to unearth.

Really Useful Boxes - North American Distribution Opportunity!

THE DARTMOOR STONE MOVER by AW LAKE

You can't image how useful these boxes are. And, they seem to be without a North American distributor despite being offered on the Internet through various distributors. There seems to be an opportunity now for some budding capitalist entrepreneur to get a license to sell or manufacture the really useful boxes for distribution in North America. If you are an artist, you need to check them out. They are a really useful way to transport and store your paintings.

Maximizing Value or Efficiency But Not Both

WUH LAX AND THE COSMIC LANTERN

Economists can't have it both ways. On the one hand, they know that competition is imperfect, but, on the other hand, they talk about maximizing value and the need for competition. My point is that the two are incompatible most of the time because people generally do not know what is best for their environment.

Economics is bunk, not history! History is the story of economics and economic theory being bunk. People rarely take into account the needs on anything other than people. The importance of plants and animals in the world environment and economic equation is rarely included adequately because people generally are ignorant or just don't care about plants and animals, or other creatures of the earth.

Economists talk of general equilibrium, but they do not account for the disequilibrium of technology nor the environment. Governments can do away with valuable research programs to break away at the edges of our ignorance on energy creation because there is no real economics to argue for or against such programs, just awareness that they are probably, though not definitely right. Economists rarely take risk and uncertainty into account adequately. They don't know how to forecast technology, which would be the first requirement. They don't understand science which would be the second requirement, and they are hopeless at understanding knowledge creation, which would be the third requirement. Ask yourself whether the long term research programs the world needs are being supported by governments and you will probably get a negative answer.

At the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, governments have think tanks to discuss appropriate measures for new technology creation and dissemination. Do governments read and understand what is coming down the 'turnpike?' Do they really have any idea how we can reduce CO2 emissions in the next twenty years. Are governments and business prepared to act decisively to ensure a safe distance away from earth's environmental destruction. Is China on board? What do you think is the priority now? What technology issues do you think are important? Extend your coffee break and think more deeply about the real issues that you can detect in a world of confused priorities.

The Processes and Regions of Discovery - 2. The Group

THE MANOR HOUSE

Groups, like people, engage in processes of self discovery. One of the less attractive aspects to this is that groups can be leaderless. When an individual is leaderless, we say the individual is insane. When a group is leaderless, we need to say that the group is also insane. Insanity occrus when the individual or the group despite self awareness has no leadership to limit behaviour. It is like a ship on a vast sea without a captain. The ship may or may not try to find shore. Those on the ship squabble interminably about what direction the ship should take or what allegiance it should have to what nation or people.

At birth, human beings are normally fortunate enough to have automatic systems in place that predispose new borns to survival within groups. A baby will cry for food, will gurgle to indicate satisfaction, will stare to show awareness and acknowledgement of others present. Groups are something else! Groups emerge from other groups as a recognition of a difference. The members of a new group form a group because they observe a difference even if this is only a difference in direction.

A new group forms as one individual heads away from the rest even if only in thought. Others may or may not follow. When an individual strikes out in a new direction, there is generally the thought by that individual that there is something, or someone, or some group, over the horizon perhaps that meets certain specific needs more closely. Groups, once formed, or individuals departing from a group may try to get others to join. The group recognizes that an environment may require a group of a sufficient size for it to survive. What we see in modern society is the gradual breakdown of the authority of larger groups as individuals recognize that they survive in smaller and smaller groups.

What defines this process is the force that enables the survival of the independent group. Remove that survival mechanism and you force small groups to retreat into large groups and the process of group formation rather than group disintegration ensues. Ever wonder why civilizations rise and fall. It may be that the dynamics of the forces that hold a group together change and the large group can no longer survive and becomes increasingly fragmented. This dynamic occurs within groups, so there are subgroups within groups and subgroups form and move. All this is because of the processes of group discovery and group awareness. What leaders do is enable the group to discover aspects about itself that distinguish it from other groups in meaningful ways.

Technology is a very important force in the creation and destruction of groups. We have seen how the birth pill has affected the family group. We will see how the test tube baby will affect the pairing of individuals of the same or different sexes into groups.

Why it is important to make mistakes and get lost

THE SOMERSET MIST

I often get lost wandering through the many hedged lanes of Devon and Somerset. These tiny lanes are only wide enough for a small car to travel one way. The walking is not easy because the lanes go up and down hills, often very steep hills, and you can find yourself huffing and puffing. My longest walks occur when I get thoroughly lost. The sign posting is not very helpful sometimes because it directs you around in circles until you finally realize your destination is somewhere in the middle of a circle. By that time you are so tuckered out that you collapse by the side of the lane, put your feet up and fall asleep. Then, you dream while you listen to nature humming around you.

A crow caws away in the distance. She has seen you and her challenge is to watch you while you are in her area. If you were to get up and walk one direction she would caw one sound, but if you went the other she would caw another sound. She knows how to tell everyone that matters to her, who you are and where you are going. There are eyes watching you that you could never imagine. Unseen eyes monitor you from many places. And, so it is with the world. You may think that you are alone, but you are never alone. There is always someone or something following you and watching you.

If you have been watching the ABC TV series Lost, you will appreciate part of what I mean.

There are many ways to be lost. One of the aspects about being lost, however, is that you have an opportunity of self discovery. At some point, usually from fear, your senses are heightened and you have to think if you are to find out where you are. Generally, you have enough where-with-all to discover how to find your self. You look for the smallest of clues to determine a direction from which you have travelled. If all else fails, you retreat as far back along the route that you think you have made and try to guess which turnings you took.

Another way you can get lost is when you have prepared something, as on the computer, and the electricity goes out suddenly. Everything that you have been working on is lost. You may have spent hours on the work that you were doing. The great thing about having been lost, and we all lose ourselves at some time, is that having has the pain of being lost we learn to avoid being lost the next time. Or, at least, we learn to avoid the worst consequences of being lost. It is important to ask for directions if you are lost. It is important to set marks on your route if you are travelling in unfamiliar territory. Even mental marks helps as in remembering yourself for a half second and recording your surroundings and yourself within those surroundings.

The Joy of Sketching

NOT DUMBLEDORE!

Sketching is partly serious, but mainly the mind at play. It is not simple, but it is rewarding if you persist. It is also extremely useful in any activity requiring thought. I frequently sketch just to be creative. Much of the images are exploratory, and it is often easy to get discouraged when they don't immediately take a shape that one likes. That is why it is useful to do verbal sketches as well as visual. A verbal sketch requires the same tools of a pencil and paper.

Sketching, when it is serious, may be a valuable tool in creating thinking. The teacher Edward de Bono has many ideas about how one can use sketches to get your ideas into a form where they can be used. He developed the idea of thought hats where you assumed a role and took it to its logical or creative conclusion. Put on a type of hat and think in the way that the hat you put on would suggest that you thought. This idea can be expanded in many ways, and I am sure actors often have to assume thought hats when trying to get their characterization correct or interesting.

When I was a student at university, I would rarely take notes in the normal way. Much of my time was spend sketching logic maps of the lecture material as it was being delivered. I would use blank unlined note paper and my notes would look pretty disorganized to most people, but underlying them was the logic of the lecture. I rarely got less than an 'a' using this method and saved myself a lot of time trying to remember my notes. They just seemed to be more memorable.