Archive for January, 2010
January 31, 2010 at 9:14 pm · Filed under 42172
The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine
64 Comments
By Ed Silverman // January 28th, 2010 // 7:57 am
You’ve heard of evidence-based medicine. Well, a new paper summarizes a panoply of practices employed over the past two decades or so - ghostwriting, suppressing or spinning data, disease mongering and managing side effect perceptions among docs - that the authors call marketing-based medicine. And they rely on internal documents from litigation - such as the much-publicized lawsuits over antipsychotics and antidepressants - to illustrate their point.
A stunning must-read from Ed Silverman on a must-read paper. The comments following Ed’s post are also rich.
I imagine there will be blowback and some vigorous challenges to the facts and stats in the paper. But the industry emails quoted are themselves devastating, and suggest how successfully the marketing forces within the industry won out over those who wanted to make drugs that clearly [...]
Original post by David Dobbs none@example.com
January 31, 2010 at 8:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Coals exposed along Stenkul Fiord, southern Ellesmere Island, Canadian High Arctic (Photo by Anne Jefferson)
For more than 55 million years, Ellesmere Island remained in one place while the world around it changed. Fifty-five million years ago, verdant forests grew at 75° North latitude. These wetland forests, [comprised] of species now primarily found in China, grew on an alluvial plain where channels meandered back and forth and periodic floods buried stumps, logs, and leaves intact. Today the forests are preserved as coal seams that outcrop on the edges …[of] modern Ellesmere Island, [where] there are no forests, and the tallest vegetation grows less than 15 cm high. Large parts of the area are polar desert, subject to intensely cold and dark winters and minimal precipitation.
These are the opening lines to my M.S. thesis, in which I contrasted the Paleocene-Eocene and modern hydrological environments of Stenkul Fiord, on southern Ellesmere Island in [...]
Original post by Anne Jefferson none@example.com
January 31, 2010 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This infographic by Michael Paukner shows which nations have how many satellites in orbit around the earth. Information is sorted by functionality. You can view a larger image at the link.
Link via Gizmodo
Original post by John Farrier
January 31, 2010 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Waze has a list of the most dangerous or complex roads in the world, including the above Lysebotn Road in Norway:
This is probably the most fun road you can travel on four wheels, and then maybe on your two legs checking out the various hiking trails leading from the area. In fact, this might be considered the most breathtaking place in Europe. It all starts with the narrow road up the steep walls of the Lysefjord, Norway. It has 27 switchbacks and a 1.1 km long tunnel at the bottom, with 3 switchbacks inside. The last 30 km of Lysebotn road is a true roller-coaster! It’s narrow but has a perfect surface, winding left and right all the time. If you happen to ride a motorcycle in Norway, then this is the road you simply cannot afford to miss!
Beyond simply dangerous roads, the post also includes pictures of and information [...]
Original post by John Farrier
January 31, 2010 at 7:58 pm · Filed under 42124
(YouTube Link)
In this Japanese-language razor commercial, a man shaves his face after he’s jumped out of an airplane. It’s one part of a whole ad campaign in which men shave under extreme conditions, such as while engaging in pro wrestling or riding a mechanical bull. More videos at the link.
Link via Japanator
Original post by John Farrier
January 31, 2010 at 7:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
YouTube link.
The images in the video are “safe for work,” but the audio is of a 911 call with a lethal outcome, so those sensitive to such tragedies might consider leaving the video “under the fold.”
Toyota has released some advice re what to do in their vehicles if the accelerator pedal becomes stuck:
• If you need to stop immediately, the vehicle can be controlled by stepping on the brake pedal with both feet using firm and steady pressure. Do not pump the brake pedal as it will deplete the vacuum utilized for the power brake assist.
• Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.
• If unable to put the vehicle in Neutral, turn the engine OFF. This will not cause loss of steering or braking control, but the [...]
Original post by Minnesotastan
January 31, 2010 at 7:04 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Adaptive behaviors evolve rather indirectly. If you look under the hood of a car you can see the physical mechanisms that convert exploding fuel into forward motion, and it all makes sense. Each part has an obvious, engineered role. But if you look under the hood of a cell, you will find that things are very quirky, because a lot of genetically specified molecules are doing things distinctly different from the tasks associated with various ancestral forms of those molecules.
And when it comes to neurologically specified behavior, things get even quirkier. The relationship between neural systems and externally visible behavior is very rarely “sensible” in any human-percieved way, and if we add in genetic components it is even stranger.
A recent essay in PLoS Biology explores this idea in relation to Robots that undergo Darwinian selection.
This short paper is very much worth a read. Go have [...]
Original post by Greg Laden none@example.com
January 31, 2010 at 6:54 pm · Filed under 42108
[YouTube - Link]
First, all you see is a dog. A nice dog. But watch what happens when his master gets near -and be prepared to laugh!
– via japanprobe
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
Original post by Queuebot
January 31, 2010 at 5:09 pm · Filed under 42116
In 2005, my first widely republished article was entitled “Peak Oil is a Women’s Issue” and detailed the ways that material realities for women were likely to change in an energy depleted world. I got more than a 100 emails after I wrote that piece, mostly falling into two camps - either “Wow, I never thought of that, but of course it is” and “Oh, I’ve been worrying about these issues for a long time and no one ever writes about them.” I was not the first significant woman writer in the peak oil movement, nor was I even the first to ever write about these issues, but somehow this article hit a nerve - and the mainstream of the then-much-smaller Peak Oil Community. A year later, this was the article that led my editor at New Society to ask me to write _Depletion and Abundance_. [...]
Original post by Sharon Astyk none@example.com
January 31, 2010 at 3:50 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A quick post as I run out the door for the teeveey studio: Set your TiVos and your DVRs, mark your calendars: Tonight I’ll be on ABC World News talking about my new book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The segment will also feature members of Henrietta’s family, and Vincent Racaniello with lots, and lots of HeLa cells.
ALSO: The first reviews of The Immortal Life are starting to hit newspapers. There’s a terrific review on the front page of the Washington Post Outlook section today, and another great one in the St. Petersburg Times. Update: This great review just in from the Boston Globe too!
As the kids say: wOOt! Stay tuned, later today, I’ll be posting details of the many HeLa related events happening this week in New York: At Columbia, McNally Jackson Bookstore, and more.
Read the comments on this post…
Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the [...]
Original post by Rebecca Skloot none@example.com
Next entries »
.jpg)