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 Tuesday, July 23, 2002
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This could be a real problem, since pain medication is so important. Now, if conotoxin is really 10,000 better than morphine, it could be useful, IF it does not cause caner cells to grow. 11:02:03 PM 
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Jon Udell: "To turn knowledge into some kind of deprecated highbrow fantasy seems a terrible shame." Amen. [Scripting News]
This is so right!! Calling people knowledge workers rather than information workers highlights the ability of any of us to be creative. Knowledge is a crative process while information is simply databasing. 11:00:16 PM
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The Economist. How will the bear market impact the economy?
>>>Most economists assume that prolonged falls in share prices have a [base "]wealth effect[per thou]: that is, as people see the value of their shareholdings fall, they feel poorer and curb their spending. But at what point they start to feel poorer, and by how much they cut consumption, has never been easy to measure or predict. It could take quite a long time for people to decide that the paper losses on their investments will not soon be recovered. And although shareholding in America is widespread, most people have relatively small holdings (in 1998, the median household share ownership was less than $20,000). Rich people own most shares, and precisely because they are rich (and already have most of what they want) they have less marginal propensity to consume than those who have less. And whatever the rich do spend represents a much smaller proportion of their overall wealth or income.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
John Robb has discussed several times his belief that earnings will not be going up, due mainly to increased competition combined with increasing wages. I tend to think he is more right than wrong. Unfortunately, I don't have a wage to increase ;-) 10:56:34 PM
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This is a trend that could really take off in many areas, such as music and movies. 10:46:04 PM
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This could be incredibly useful but will be difficult to implement with the current negative views if GM plants. 10:43:17 PM
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George Bush Predicts P/E Ratios Will Rise. Megan McArdle Disagrees. George Bush predicts P/E ratios will rise. Megan McArdle--sensibly--disagrees. First George: Bush Defends Treasury Secretary and Speaks Out on Markets ...to the clear distress of some of his aides, Mr. Bush went into an extensive discussion of the falling market, after a reporter asked what would send the market back up. "Value," Mr. Bush said. "They're going to realize that there's values in the market. In other words, if they buy stock, they're buying value, as opposed to buying, you... [Semi-Daily Journal]
SOme good points. It may be a long time before the stock market gets back into any kind of groove. The big question is whether the drop in the stock market affects consumer confidence. If this goes, we could be in for a long, long period of 'no fun'. 10:42:03 PM
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While this might be a start, it could have huge effects in longevity if it proves useful. Something to watch for. 10:35:14 PM
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Robert Rubin Assesses Bush Economic Policy. Not surprisingly, the assessment is highly negative: in Rubin's view, the Bush administration has no clue how to run a policy that would strengthen--rather than weaken--the long-run fundamentals of American economic growth. washingtonpost.com: To Regain Confidence ...In my view, we need to restore the sound, broad-based strategy that was so central to the prosperity of the '90s. More specifically, I would focus especially on the following: 1) Virtually the entire $5.6 trillion surplus projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office... [Semi-Daily Journal]
RUbin always has interesting things to say, more so than our current Treasury Secretary. 10:29:57 PM
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This fungus not only destroys hge amounts of rice crops in the world, it also, horrors, attacks cool-season grasses at golf courses. This might be just what it needs to get some real money for research ;-) 10:26:20 PM
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More on the Aranesp approval. Hope this gets the stock going. 9:47:49 PM
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Research shows climate change could push bats northward. Research published in the most recent edition of Nature, shows that climate change will cause the northern limit of the winter range of the North American little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) to extend northward by approximately 5 km per year over the next century. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [EurekAlert - Biology]
I love bats. Tons of mosquitos have been plaging us but every evening at dusk several bats fly over our backyard feeding. I hope we get more to keep the insect population down. 9:40:17 PM
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Doc Searls had a link to a great site that will tell you where and when satellites will pass over your location. I'm going to give it a look-see before my son gets back. He will really like this. 12:18:45 PM
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More reasons for increasing the amount of money and research into infectious disease. 11:45:49 AM
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Amgen supplied the researchers with the hormone. A full understanding of leptin and its biological activity will take quite a few years. The chance that it, in and of itself, will help obesity is small but it could very well lead to some important research. 11:44:16 AM
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The real thing to look at with Biometrics is the false positive and false negative rates. Since there are going to be so many more non-terrorists than terrorists, it does not take a very large false positive rate to overwhelm any security system. 90% accuracy will not cut it. 11:41:36 AM
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More on the Aranesp approval. Not unexpected but nice nonetheless. Now if we were only in a bull market. In this market, this news just kept Amgen from falling. I can hardly wait until early next year when Amgen has the potential to increase its sales substantially, with Neulasta, Aranesp and Enbrel all being $1 Billion blockbuster drugs. And each does amazing things to help patients. These are the reasons I got into Biotechnology 20 years ago. 11:31:08 AM
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Luciferase is right up there with Green Flourescent Protein for its importance in biological innovation. It allows us the ability to track protein expression in single cells, rather than in whole tissues. Coupled with some of the creative viral vector work developed in the last few years and you have a tool that will open up doors to cellular protein production that were locked tightly before. 11:28:21 AM
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The idea of patents was to enhance innovation, not inhibit. But I would expect a lot of companies do not work on examining the biology of certain molecules because someone else holds the patent to the sequence. And innovative therapies that use molecules held by different companies are almost impossible.
The fewer people looking at a problem, the lower the chances that anything novel or innovative will emerge. Knowledge is created through the interaction of humans. The more interaction, the more likelihood that innovation will result. 11:24:50 AM
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