January 29, 2004

Why Israel needs the Anti-Terror Fence. 11:33:25 PM

NASA has basically decided that except for missions to the International Space Station which it could be used as a refugee or repair base in case of emergency the Space Shuttle is too dangerous to fly. As a result the Hubble Space Telescope will be allowed to prematurely breakdown, as a scheduled maintenance mission will be cancelled. 11:32:46 PM

Buzz, Woody, and Nemo Leave the Mouse House In a move that will drastically shake up the animation sector of the movie industry, Pixar Animation Studios Inc. said Thursday it ended talks with Walt Disney Co. to extend a five-picture deal for Disney to distribute Pixar films. Pixar’s CEO (and Apple’s CEO) Steve Jobs said that it would begin talks with other companies to distribute its films starting in 2006. With all of Pixar’s computer generated animated films blockbuster hits and Disney’s latest traditional animation films not performing well this announcement has rocked Disney’s stock. It was down 6% Thursday. 11:28:25 PM

Press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your career The IBM software engineer who decided on using the keystroke combination Control-Alt-Delete to force a reboot has retired from IBM. 12:22:41 AM

Why does Andrew Leonard’s review of Alex Prud'homme’s non-fiction book, The Cell Game: Sam Waksal's Fast Money and False Promises -- and the Fate of ImClone's Cancer Drug not mention the fact that since its initial rejection by the US Food and Drug Administration it has since been approval by at least one company as an effective treatment? Would that damage the argument that Sam Waksal was either a fraud or incompetent? From ImClone on December 1, 2003.: ImClone Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: IMCL - News) today issued the following statement regarding the approval by Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for therapeutic products, of ERBITUX(TM) for the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer who no longer respond to standard chemotherapy treatment with irinotecan Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, received the approval for ERBITUX from Swissmedic based on the company's European clinical trial that included more than 300 patients. Merck KGaA licensed the right to market ERBITUX outside the U.S. and Canada from ImClone Systems Incorporated in 1998. In Japan, Merck KGaA and ImClone Systems have co-exclusive marketing rights to ERBITUX. Sam Waksal’s main crime may be that he did not believe in his own product enough. 12:18:43 AM