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 Thursday, September 26, 2002
Look several posts below for the wrong way to write this work up. This is how you write it up properly. The first paragraph sets the work up. Then the article explains some of the potential problems, before moving on to the nitty-gritty. This is how you make science interesting. Andrew Pollack did a fine job. The NYTimes opinion page may have a decidedly liberal bent but their science writing is consistently better than ANY other paper. 11:31:39 PM 
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In Oxford Glycosciences Restructuring, Proteomics Will Play Second Fiddle [GenomeWeb]
Ex-Immunoid Michael Kranda looks like he got out just in time. He left in July. Another biotech starts crumbling. What I like is that proteomics are supposed to be 2nd fiddle, but will be in the black by next year. Oncology, their new focus, has no timeline to be profitable. What a shell game biotech is sometimes. Let's see, we will reorganize. fire people and refocus on a business model that has no prediction of when it will be profitable. I sure know that I want to invest in a company that thinks like this ;-) I think something got lost in the translation from English to American ;-) 11:04:27 PM
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Why Some With HIV Are Healthier. Wired News Sep 26 2002 3:12PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
Very nice work but, @#$$%, I really hate how this science is reported. The first line is 'Researchers have solved a 16-year-old mystery of the AIDS virus thanks to a protein analysis technology.' It is not until you get to the end that you read this:
The Rockefeller researchers are now doing further work to find out exactly how the proteins block the progression of AIDS.
Other AIDS researchers said Ho's study, published in the journal Science, did not explain the whole story of long-term non-progressors.
The immune systems of non-progressor patients also make a compound called beta-chmokines. Their exact function remains unknown.
Ho stressed that much more work needs to be done.
'We wish to be somewhat cautious. I think it is not entirely clear whether we could take this discovery and turn it into a useful therapy,' he said.
So, they don't know what the proteins really do, they may not even be the whole story and they may not ever be a useful therapy. The scientists all say the proper things but the writer leaves people with the idea that the puzzle of non-progressors is almost solved. This is the 'TV model' of reporting. You hook the people with a teaser, usually giving some detail like ' Solving some disease'. Then after waiting for 20 minutes through the weather and sports, they finally tell you that the cure for the disease is still years away. But they got you to see the commercials, which is what their business really is. Cheap shots. This is really exciting work and a very nice use of technology. That is the wonder and the glory. But, NO, the media have to hype it up even more. 'Why Some With HIV Are Healthier'. We still do not know. We are just a little farther along the path of knowledge. Grrrr!! 10:54:54 PM
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Mesh on MX. Macromedia offered a 10% coupon code on some products on its Radio weblog for weblog readers only (as a test to see the effectiveness of the channel). Here is what Mike said after some people ran into problems using the code:
ok. it turns out they worked, but we had so many people trying to use it that they were all used up pretty quickly. we are working on getting some more availiable soon. sorry for the hassle...
mike chambers mesh@macromedia.com
[John Robb's Radio Weblog]
An example of how rapidly this technology can disperse information. 12:40:30 AM
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Business Week:
In a previously unreleased letter obtained by BusinessWeek, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention admitted that the CDC supplied Iraqi scientists with nearly two dozen viral and bacterial samples in the 1980s, including the plague, West Nile, and dengue fever. The letter, written in 1995 by then-CDC director David Satcher, was in response to a congressional inquiry.
[John Robb's Radio Weblog]
Remember, he was our friend then, fighting those nasty Iranians. Bummer. Hope we did not also ship him some weapons grade uranium ;-) 12:35:54 AM
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Going to watch "Our Man Flint" this weekend. Watched "In Like Flint" two weeks ago, it was a hoot. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
I am putting together an Austin Powers film festival on DVD. It will have not only all the Austin Powers movies but also every movie that they reference. So, both the Flint movies will be there, as well as the obvious Bond movies (Dr. No, Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, Thunderball). The Ipcress File is another to include as well as the Matt Helm movies with Dean Martin. I'm going to have to watch the Powers movies again in order to get more ideas. 12:32:53 AM
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NYT. An article on the elimination of walk-ons for college sports. What a shame, but this report points to a bigger problem with the entire system: the US sports system from 9th grade on is much too elitist. We restrict access to athletics like it was a scarce commodity, treating it different than any other basic education.
In contrast, the USAF Academy (my alma matter) had a strong three season intramural program. They created this program because they felt that every graduate should graduate with some training in sports (and participate in its health benefits). This great experience is why I am so disheartened at watching my son traverse his large and expensive high school sports program. While I am confident he will make a team (basketball), he is unlikely to be able to participate in all the other sports he likes because the competition is too fierce for slots. He is one of the lucky ones. The overwhelming majority of other kids in school won't be able to play at all. Given the huge numbers of participants in the jr leagues for almost all sports in my town, there is obviously huge demand for an aggressive intramural program and the support to make it happen.
Unfortunately, it won't happen. The entrenched interests of the minority of parents that support the semi-pro elitist culture of high school sports will ensure that all of the towns sports funds get spent on the few and not the many. This elitism in high school and college sports is a hold over from the bad old days when only a very few were provided access to basic education and most were sent to trade schools (if at all). The time is ripe for a change in mindset. The first step is to change how sports are played in high school. We need to press the point that we would never restrict access to education in math and english education in the same way we restrict access to sports. We need to create an environment where sports education through three season intramurals is extended to all students as if it was a basic educational requirement. If we can change the way high school sports are played, college is likely to follow.
We may find that we like the result. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
This is so right. A huge amount of money and time is devoted to the few. Why do colleges have great intramural sports programs, enlisting huge numbers of their students, yet public schools have none? Robb pretty much nails it. If I remember my 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' correctly, all the boys participated in rugby, not just the best ones. Physical exertion in team play was something everyone participated in. I think it would be better if we had more opportunity for that today. The mind is not as fully exercised unless the body is also. 12:26:31 AM
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This is what happens when power is given to people in authority without proper safeguards. A US citizen is detained for no reason, a plane full of passengers is terrorized by the very people who are supposed to protect us. At least in this case, someone was smart enough to finally release him, after 4 hours of detention. No charges, of course. Just a new found fear of authority. And, of course, his wife had to wander around the airport looking for him for all that time. That must have been fun for her, too. And I bet that the back filling will occur and they will come up with some CYA reason to have detained him. What happens when, to save face, they detain the man without habeas corpus, in secret, away from any lawyer. And so, as long as we keep our eyes straight ahead and our mouths shut, we have a hope that the same fate will not befall us. I may have to check out the movie It Happened Here. At least, the US being the fine country it is, he will be able to get the ACLU to file a lawsuit for him ;-) 12:13:16 AM
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