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The distributed web of data – messaging includedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I’ve written about the distributed self and science data platforms. A lot of the former was around the notion of pubsub, and pushing data to various places. Now imagine a scenario where you are using data from a variety of scientific repositories and you’ve built applications that use APIs to collect data. What if your data sources would update you everytime there was a change, so that your systems could automatically fetch any updates and rebuild anything that needed to be rebuilt, do any pre-computing that needed to be done. The model that Anil Dash talked about in his classic Push-Button Web post is relevant...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - February 6, 2010 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Computing Genes Informatics Source Type: blogs

The new javascript Map/Reduce in RiakEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An Introduction to JavaScript Map/Reduce in Riak from Basho Technologies on Vimeo. Riak is a non-relational datastore with a cool API and nifty Map/Reduce features. The new features in version 0.8 are described here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules)
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - February 4, 2010 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Computing Source Type: blogs

What If Advertisers Couldn't Lie?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I saw the movie "The Invention of Lying" recently. Very brief synopsis: the movie takes place in a world where everybody tells the truth, all of the time. There is one part early in the film where the main character (Ricky Gervais) is watching a Coke commercial. This is how it transpires: Hi I'm Bob, I'm the spokesperson for Coca-Cola. I'm here today to ask you to continue buying Coke.... It's just brown sugar water... they haven't changed the ingredients around lately so there's not much new I can tell you about that... we've changed the can around a bit though and added a polar bear (so kids will like us)... Coke is v...
Source: Diet Blog - February 3, 2010 Category: Other Conditions Authors: contactus at diet-blog.com Tags: Big Business Source Type: blogs

There Is Some Budget Good News, but It Is Actually Really Bad NewsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellThe Office of Management and Budget has released the President’s FY2011 budget and the Congressional Budget Office has released its semi-annual Budget and Economic Outlook. Much of the coverage of these documents has focused on deficit numbers. This is not a trivial concern, particularly since the Bush-Obama policies of bigger government have dramatically boosted red ink. But the most important numbers in the budget documents are the estimates of what is happening to government spending. The good news is that burden of government spending is projected to decline over the next few years from abou...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 1, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Government and Politics Tax and Budget Policy big government Bush debt Deficits federal spending government spending obama Source Type: blogs

NY Governor Patterson Pushes for Pharma Gift BansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 26, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: gov david patterson epharma blog epharma updates pharma gifts big pharma news fierce pharma Source Type: blogs

Obama’s Spending Freeze: Is It Real or Is He Copying Bush?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellAs reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Obama Administration will propose a three-year freeze for a portion of the budget known as “non-defense discretionary” spending. Many critics will correctly note that this is like going on a drunken binge in Vegas and then temporarily joining Alcoholics Anonymous. Others will point out that more than 80 percent of the budget has been exempted, which also is an accurate criticism. Nonetheless, even a partial freeze would be a semi-meaningful achievement. But don’t get too excited yet. It is not clear whether the White House is proposing a gen...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 26, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Government and Politics Tax and Budget Policy big government budget deficit federal spending Spending Freeze Source Type: blogs

Making Government Bigger Is Not Stimulus – and It Won’t Create JobsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellThis new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity explains how last year’s so-called stimulus was a flop – and also reveals why politicians are pushing for another big-government spending bill. Interestingly, since last year’s stimulus was such a disaster, the redistributionists in Washington are calling their new proposal a “jobs bill.” But as I say in the video, this is akin to putting perfume on a hog. For further background, here is a video explaining why Keynesian economics is wrong and another predicting (in advance!) that last year’s stimulus would b...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 25, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Government and Politics Political Philosophy Tax and Budget Policy big government bureaucracy Earmarks economic stimulus federal spending jobs Jobs created jobs saved keynes keynesianism obama pork Source Type: blogs

A Vision for YouEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The title of chapter 11 of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. This phrase is often used to refer to the last three paragraphs of chapter 11 and is sometimes read at AA meetings. "Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. The Higher Power will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass ...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - January 24, 2010 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Alcohol Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism Higher Power Recovery Sobriety Spirituality Big Boo Clear away the wreckage of your past trudge the road of happy destiny vision for you Source Type: blogs

BrotherhoodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Good Lord saw fit to grant me but one sibling, a brother. He’s a good brother. He calls, he Skypes, he visits me half way across the country for road trips and family outings. He’s in nursing school right now so I get to listen to him yammer on about how nurses are the greatest thing in all of medicine. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, he’s not even out of school yet and he’s learning how to be patronizing to us EMS folk. He’s going to make a really good nurse. Sometimes I wonder if my brother wouldn’t be irked if he knew how many people I refer to as brother. Honestly, he&#...
Source: The EMT Spot - January 23, 2010 Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: administrator Tags: The Big Get It Source Type: blogs

The Non-Conformists’ Guide is Here!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I’ve gone live with the book and newsletter sign up and it appears that everything is running smoothly. I’ve already had a half dozen sign-ups and the link has only been posted for a few minutes. Thanks for your patience. This writing project took me nearly six months to finish. I had an idea of what I wanted this book to be and I wasn’t willing to stop until I’d succeeded. The result is The Non-Conformists’ Guide to EMS Success. This is no pamphlet or power point slide show. This is 48 pages, almost 16,000 words, and chapter after chapter of compelling ideas designed to challenge the way you...
Source: The EMT Spot - January 21, 2010 Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: Assessment Everything Else Guest Authors Knowledge Skills The Big Get It e-book join news newsletter nonconformist nonconformists guide sign-up splatter Source Type: blogs

Thursday LinksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Chris Moody Nat Hentoff: If you’re looking for reform in Cuba, don’t rest your hopes on Raul Castro. Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses gives the inside scoop on why big government is good for big business. The Patriot Act: What should go, and what should stay? Dear Poor People- “Please remain poor.” Sincerely, Obamacare. Podcast: “Obamanomics in Health Care” featuring Tim Carney. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 14, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Chris Moody Tags: Cato Publications General Barack Obama Big Business big government Castro corporate lobbyists Cuba Health links Nat Hentoff Patriot Act raul castro Tim Carney union union bosses wall street Welfare & Entitlements Source Type: blogs

The E-Book is Coming!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
OK, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. It’s time for the big announcement. With the final draft still in the mail from my editorial team and the final design still lacking a few details, it would probably be best to just keep this under wraps for a few more weeks, but I can’t wait. My first E-book is scheduled for release on January 21st, one week from today. The e-book will be free and it will be available right here at The Spot. The Book is called The Non-Conformists Guide to EMS Success. This book is the culmination of two decades of EMS experiences, mistakes, failures, trials, and errors that l...
Source: The EMT Spot - January 14, 2010 Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: Assessment Everything Else Knowledge Research and News Skills The Big Get It career e-book ebook EMS EMT guide job job frustration job perfomance job satasfaction nonconformist nonconformists guide success Source Type: blogs

Pfizer Offers Grant to Stanford Doc Continuing Ed ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 13, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: New York Times epharma 2010 Pfizer duff wilson big pharma news pfizer grant Source Type: blogs

Pfizer Offers "No Strings Attached" Grant to Stanford Doc Continuing Ed ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 13, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: New York Times epharma 2010 Pfizer duff wilson big pharma news pfizer grant Source Type: blogs

Video: Building a data intensive application with Hadoop and HiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I have written about TrendingTopics before. Pete Skomoroch gave a talk on how to build a data intensive web app using Hadoop, Hive and Amazon EC2 at Hadoopworld and the video is now available Building Data Intensive Apps with Hadoop and EC2 from Cloudera on Vimeo. Please see this disclaimer (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules)
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - January 12, 2010 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Computing Software & Internet Source Type: blogs

FDA Warns Lilly Over False, Misleading Cymbalta AdsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The FDA has issued a warning to Eli Lilly concerning print ads for its anti-depressant Cymbalta. I've not been able to find the letter but have seen multiple press accounts. Here's what the FDA apparently said. "'The print ad is false or misleading in that it presents efficacy claims for Cymbalta, but fails to adequately communicate the risks associated with its use,' the FDA said. 'The Blue Book Message is false or misleading because it overstates the efficacy of Cymbalta and minimizes the risks associated with the drug.'" Risks associated with an anti-depressant? A pharma company downplaying risks? I've never heard of ...
Source: Furious Seasons - January 12, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

To handle lots of data, we need to think differentlyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a recent editorial (sub might be required) talking about next-gen sequencing and cloud computing, Nature Biotech makes an all to familiar error. It remains unclear, however, whether the cost of routinely renting time on the cloud would be cost effective in the long term, particularly if a user intends to analyze billions of base pairs of genome sequence on a regular basis. What’s more, if the wide uptake of sequence analysis on clouds depends on the availability of user-friendly, debugged software, bioinformaticians might not be willing to spend the time to familiarize themselves with hadoop, the open source pro...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - January 9, 2010 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Computing Genes Informatics Source Type: blogs

In science, data is nothing without purposeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In an article on TechFlash, a VC, talking about trends in 2010, had this to say while talking about increased IT needs in cleantech and biotech Both areas are generating terabytes of data and it is no longer just about science — it is about digesting mountains of data. For some reason that statement scared me. Digesting mountains of data is all about the science. If we forget that, we are in big trouble. Yes, from a pure technology perspective it is about digesting mountains of data, but (a) that has to be looked at in the context of science (sense-making?), and (b) the digesting is a necessary pre-requisite to ge...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - January 9, 2010 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Business Source Type: blogs

Wednesday LinksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Chris Moody Nat Hentoff reports on racism in Cuba. Federal judge dismisses charges against Blackwater guards over the killing of 17 in Baghdad. David Isenberg: “The fact that the Blackwater contractors are not getting a trial will only serve to further increase suspicion of and hostility towards security contractors. It is going to be even more difficult for them to gain the trust of local populations or government officials in the countries they work in.” New report shows state and local government workers have higher average compensation levels than private workers. Podcast: “Televising and Sub...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 6, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Chris Moody Tags: Cato Publications General baghdad big game college football college football championship compensation levels Cuba Fed federal judge government government workers Nat Hentoff population private workers racism racism in cuba Source Type: blogs

H&R Block and the IRS: An Unholy Alliance to Ransack TaxpayersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellThe late George Stigler, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, is famous in part because of his work on “regulatory capture,” which occurs when interest groups use the coercive power of government to thwart competition and undeservedly line their own pockets. A perfect (and distasteful) example of this can be found in today’s Washington Post, which reports that the IRS plans to impose new regulations dictating who can prepare tax returns. Not surprisingly, the new rules have the support of big tax preparation shops such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, which see this as an oppor...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 5, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Government and Politics Regulatory Studies Tax and Budget Policy Big Business big government corruption flat tax IRS National sales tax Regulatory Capture Tax Reform Source Type: blogs

Effexor Has 87 Percent Profit MarginEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A very interesting bit from a very smart financial analyst who went and somehow figured out which drugs had the largest pre-tax profit margins. Topping the list was Effexor with an 87 percent pre-tax profit margin. Even more astonishing is that more than half of the drugs the analyst looked at had pre-tax margins of 70 percent or greater. Here's the list via Pharmalot: 1 - Effexor (Pfizer) 87 percent 2 - Arimidex (AstraZeneca) 85 percent 3 - Femara (Novartis) 84 percent 4 - Detrol (Pfizer) 84 percent 5 - Gemzar (Lilly) 84 percent 6 - Xeloda (Roche) 82 percent 7 - Lipitor (Pfizer) 82 percent 8 - Zometa (Novartis) 81 perce...
Source: Furious Seasons - January 5, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

More musings on MapReduce and bioinformaticsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat have an updated MapReduce paper (doi) in the Communications of the ACM. The paper is a pretty strong rebuttal to some claims by Mike Stonebraker and others on the value of the MapReduce model. I am going to let you read the paper (as well as the original papers). What I wanted to talk about were some of the key aspects of the MapReduce model and how this way of thinking is relevant to the life sciences. The first point that Dean and Ghemawat talk about is heterogenous systems. The way I see it, the entire field of bioinformatics is full of heterogenous systems. Even data we generate in interna...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - December 29, 2009 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Genes Informatics Source Type: blogs

Great Moments in Foreign GovernmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellGerman politicians apparently have been hot on the trail of evil evaders who did not pay tax on coffee ordered over the Internet. To address this terrible crisis, the government spent 800,000 euro and tracked down 4000 dangerous criminals. Shockingly, a few cynics, including the folks at Reuters, are trying to diminish this triumph by pointing out that the government spent 30 times more than it collected: Germany spent more than 30 times as much collecting taxes on coffee beans ordered online from abroad than it received in the tax revenues, the accounting office said on Tuesday. Some 4,000 Germans who...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 19, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Government and Politics International Economics and Development Tax and Budget Policy big government germany tax evasion Source Type: blogs

The Global Warming ShakedownEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellPat Michaels and others are working heroically to save America from global central planning for purposes of combatting global warming (or climate change, or whatever they’re calling it now). But let’s also be thankful this holiday season for our Founding Fathers, who wisely created a system based on separation of powers. If the United States had a parliamentary system, there would be no hope of derailing some of the statist schemes being discusssed in DC, even if Pat worked 24 hours a day. The secretary of state, for instance, is issuing pronouncements about putting American tapxayers on th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 18, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Energy and Environment Government and Politics Tax and Budget Policy big government climate change foreign aid global warming hillary clinton Source Type: blogs

Senate rejects Dorgan's plan to import low-cost drugsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - December 16, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Obama administration epharma blog epharma news byron dorgan big pharma news senate Source Type: blogs

6 Reasons Why You Should Be a Better EMTEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Sure, this site isall about being a better EMT, but perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “Why?” OK, granted, it was probably one of your more cynical moments. Perhaps you had a bad day, a couple of frusrating calls or a less than optimal interaction with a patient, your partner, another agency, your boss … or perhaps all of the above. Then you went out and threw down your stethoscope. Or maybe you didn’t throw it down because you remembered it was a Litman and a gift from your aunt, but you raised it over your head and thought about it. And while that stethoscope dangled over your head in your clenc...
Source: The EMT Spot - December 15, 2009 Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: The Big Get It competence EMT growth job perfomance job satasfaction Knowledge learning Skills teaching Source Type: blogs

Glaxo Releases List Of Payments To DoctorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
GlaxoSmithKline has become the latest pharma company to go transparent with its payments to doctors and others to shill for its products. The company has released a 121 page document detailing such payments to US health care professionals in the second quarter of 2009. I've skimmed the list for some of the usual suspects, but didn't see any. Someone will inevitably find something tasty in this list, however. (Via Pharmalot.) (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

WebMD Depression Screening Test, Brought To You By Eli LillyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Some of you have likely seen a depression screening ad that WebMD is running on TV. Designed to push you to the website, it features a woman complaining of being left by her husband one year before and how she can't cope and a voiceover declares that WebMD's depression screening test is just the place. When you head on over to said test, you find that it's "brought to you by Lilly" and there's the Lilly logo in the top right corner. Lilly of course makes Prozac and Cymbalta (and Zyprexa and Strattera). Well at least they are being honest, but at some point I think we all get more than a little tired of seeing these kinds ...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Take The NAMI Survey On Pharma InfluenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A reader passed along to me a link to an online survey being conducted on behalf of NAMI National. It's testing public sentiment on the group's funding by pharma companies and gives respondents room to provide commentary as well. It took me about 10 minutes, so if you've got 10 minutes to spare, go give NAMI a piece of your mind. The survey is anonymous. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 14, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Report: Glaxo Paid Out $1 Billion To Settle Paxil LawsuitsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Doing some good old-fashioned reporting and document sleuthing, reporters at Bloomberg have totaled up all the payouts and settlements made by GlaxoSmithKline over the years involving Paxil and they find the total to be $1 billion. That's a stunning amount--Lilly's total legal payouts for Prozac are rumored to be about $50 million--and one GSK has kept quiet for a long time. It should be a huge red flag to doctors who continue to prescribe this drug as if there are no risks attached to its use and to patients who willingly take the drug. It would also make Paxil the anti-depressant whose maker has been forced to make the l...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 14, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Deficit Commission: Wrong Target, Wrong ApproachEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Daniel J. MitchellLegislation being considered on Capitol Hill would create a supposed deficit reduction commission. If politicians were bound by truth-in-advertising, this proposal would be called a tax increase commission. It creates a mechanism that will — at best — replicate the 1982 and 1990 budget summits, both of which were fiscal disasters from the perspective of those who favor limited government. The inevitable result of a “bipartisan” process is a 50/50 deal of “spending cuts” and “tax increases,” but the spending cuts are off the “baseline” (which a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 11, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Tags: Tax and Budget Policy big government budget deficits debt Deficit Commission Judd Gregg kent conrad spending taxes Source Type: blogs

DSM-5 Release Delayed One YearEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The American Psychiatric Association yesterday announced that it has delayed the release of the forthcoming DSM-5 to May 2013, one year later than its previously scheduled release of 2012. In a press release the APA stated: "'Extending the timeline will allow more time for public review, field trials and revisions,' said APA President Alan Schatzberg, M.D. 'The APA is committed to developing a manual that is based on the best science available and useful to clinicians and researchers.'" The APA also said that the delay would allow the DSM-5 to dovetail better with ICD-10-CM codes, developed by the World Health Organizati...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 11, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Bioinformatics and mythology. You still need to manage the dataEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Image by dullhunk via Flickr In a great blog post at Code for Life, Grant Jacobs writes By contrast, early bioinformatics work was almost invariably founded on biological concepts from the onset. A biological issue was raised and then a technique to address that issue was presented. That is, theoretical biology was the foundation on which [early] bioinformatics was built. I fear this is being lost in the mass-data and technology-hype driven bioinformatics. It seems to me that unless companies and research groups are careful many will waste time and money “stamp collecting and cataloging”. Certainly the organized dat...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - December 10, 2009 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data BioIT Bytes Source Type: blogs

Lilly Stock Going DownEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For those of you interested in the stock markets, one of the big stories out there today was that Lilly's stock dropped about 3 percent today--a sizable move for a fairly stable stock. Reportedly, Lilly CEO John Lechleiter gave a speech before analysts in New York and offered little hope for how the company will fare financially in 2011 and beyond as Zyprexa and, then, Cymbalta come off-patent. What no one has picked up on in the financial press so far is that Lechleiter also isn't saying a thing about Lilly's experimental compound, LY2140023, which failed a major clinical trial earlier this year. The company does have an...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 10, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Are You a Criminal? Maybe You Are and Don’t Know ItEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By Tim LynchYesterday, Michael Dreeben, the attorney representing the U.S. government, tried to defend the controversial “honest services” statute from a constitutional challenge in front of the Supreme Court. When Dreeben informed the Court that the feds have essentially criminalized any ethical lapse in the workplace, Justice Breyer exclaimed, [T]here are 150 million workers in the United States. I think possibly 140 [million] of them flunk your test. There it is. Some of us have been trying to draw more attention to the dangerous trend of overcriminalization. Judge Alex Kozinski co-authored an art...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 9, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tim Lynch Tags: Law and Civil Liberties Alex Kozinski big government cato Constitution criminal law harvey silverglate justice overcriminalization Supreme Court the supreme court three felonies a day united states Source Type: blogs

Sen. Grassley Goes After Dozens Of Medical Advocacy GroupsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded that the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveal details of its funding by pharma companies. Now, the senator has gone many steps further and has demanded similar disclosures from 32 medical advocacy groups and, drum roll, TeenScreen. Among the groups are DBSA, Mental Health America, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Screening for Mental Health Inc. I congratulate Sen. Grassley and his staffer Paul Thacker for continuing to go after this issue. If I can note this without sounding too self-congratulatory, it was yours truly wh...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 9, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Pristiq, Soon To Be For Menopausal Women?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I caught an item on a stock market website yesterday that seemed worth passing along. "Wyeth is also conducting a late-stage trial evaluating Pristiq for the non-hormonal treatment of vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause. The FDA, which issued an approvable letter for Pristiq in July 2007, has sought additional data regarding the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular and hepatic effects associated with the use of Pristiq for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. The requested clinical trial that is underway is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010." Indeed, there are several trials for such pu...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 8, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Slim Fast Recalls Ready-to-Drink CansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Unilever, the company that makes Slim Fast products, is announcing a voluntary recall of over 10 million cans of it's ready-to-drink beverage. Testing on the product found that it was contaminated with a bacteria called B. cereus, which can cause a mild case of stomach upset or vomiting. Continue reading... (Source: Diet Blog)
Source: Diet Blog - December 5, 2009 Category: Other Conditions Authors: contactus at diet-blog.com Tags: Big Business Source Type: blogs

Drug industry spends at least $20.5 billion a year on…Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
…research and development? You must be joking, it’s on marketing – and this is just in the USA! Of course the way some drug trials are rigged and the data ‘interpreted’ then many would argue that these costs should be included in the marketing spend as well. This from the Wall Street Journal: Despite all the job cuts for drug reps, despite the endless stream of TV drug ads, the pharma industry still spends most of its U.S. marketing money the old-fashioned way: Paying salespeople to call on doctors and other health-care providers. Drug companies spent “at least $20.5 billion in marketing”...
Source: seroxat secrets... - December 4, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: admin Tags: Big Pharma Drug Marketing Source Type: blogs

FDA Issues Major Birth Defects Warning For DepakoteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Depakote, Abbott's widely-used anti-convulsant for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, today was the object of a major FDA warning. "The FDA notified health care professionals and patients about the increased risk of neural tube defects and other major birth defects, such as craniofacial defects and cardiovascular malformations, in babies exposed to valproate sodium and related products (valproic acid and divalproex sodium) during pregnancy. Healthcare practitioners should inform women of childbearing potential about these risks, and consider alternative therapies, especially if using valproate to treat migraines or other cond...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Several Items Worth NotingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
AstraZeneca has inked a deal with Targacept for its anti-depressant compoud known as TC-5214. It's a neuronal nicotinic receptor modulator. The wonderful Dr. Bonkers has gone and translated a disgusting Swedish pharma brochure telling kids who to swallow their ADHD meds the "coool" way. Big Pharma spends $20.5 billion a year marketing its drugs. The Wall Street Journal breaks down the numbers. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Lilly Wins Partial Zyprexa Court VictoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a fairly surprising setback, US District Court Judge Jack Weinstein yesterday granted summary judgement--or dismissed--a major portion of the State of Mississippi's lawsuit against Eli Lilly. That would be the part of the suit contending that the company was negligent in marketing Zyprexa. The ruling lets stand the portion of the state's case claiming the company bilked the state's Medicaid system. I'd expect the state to appeal the judge's ruling, one of Lilly's first substantive victories in more than four years of settling various Zyprexa cases for about $2.8 billion. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 2, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Data platforms for science – From data to workEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
At SC09, in my Systems Biology talk, I spoke about platforms for data. The idea is hardly original, since I’ve written about this before, and my ideas borrow heavily from Jeff Hammerbacher and Matt Wood among others. But I wanted to add some more meat to it in writing. Today we live in a world where we generate data from instruments, various experiments or simulations. These data can be used to provide us insights, and we want to add these insights to our data, capture those insights in the context of the data they represent and then keep track of the data and metadata for future changes. We do this in a world where ...
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - November 28, 2009 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Source Type: blogs

Don’t Be A JerkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I didn’t draw the graph at right. It was made by a woman named Jessica Hagy over at www.thisisindexed.com. Jessica is not in the medical profession. She draws her observations about the world on index cards and posts them online. She also has a long and growing list of blogging awards from around the world. Mostly due to her brilliantly irreverent style and her ability to make social observations that resonate with people. Like this one. It’s a sad but true observation. For some reason, it seems like many medical personnel have an interesting combination of helpfulness and jerkiness. Why do you suppose that is...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 21, 2009 Category: Ambulance Crew Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: Everything Else The Big Get It care giver patient advocate patient care patient rapport people care Source Type: blogs

Neuropathic Pain From Multiple SclerosisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Multiple sclerosis can hurt! Pain is a real part of life with MS for over half of us. Pain can come in several forms and affect several areas of the body. The pain I’d like to proffer for our consideration in this post is called neuropathic pain or neuropathy. This is a pain which is caused by a dysfunction of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Owing to the fact that we have a disease of the central nervous system (CNS), many of us may not be familiar with the PNS. These are the nerves which connect the limbs and organs to the CNS. While there is not suspected demyelination of the PNS, the stripping and scaring of ...
Source: Life with MS - November 20, 2009 Category: Other Conditions Authors: admin Tags: MS blog MS community MS lifestyle MS treatment Uncategorized big toe central nervous system CNS cognitive retraining therapy CRT Everyday Health Life with MS MS and pain multiple sclerosis blog neuropathic pain neuropathy o Source Type: blogs

British National Health Service Goes After American WebsiteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few of you likely know of Dr. Bonkers, the Bonkers Institute and its website. Bonkers--aka Ben Hansen--has tirelessly catalogued pharma ads for psych meds for four years and recently posted some National Health Service brochures he obtained that are alarming. In them, children, teens and young adults are basically told to shut up and take their meds--Zyprexa, Risperdal and Strattera (links are to the brochures). In making them publicly available, Hansen has apparently angered the NHS which contact him and asked him to edit out much of the brochure from his website. Hansen refused (see the exchange below). Some of the la...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 20, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Talks from SC09Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Up on slideshare Talk given at "Cloud Computing for Systems Biology" workshop View more documents from Deepak Singh. Masterworks talk on Big Data and the implications of petascale science View more documents from Deepak Singh. All talks can be found here (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules)
Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules - November 19, 2009 Category: Bioinformaticians Authors: Deepak Singh Tags: Big Data Bytes Source Type: blogs

Academic Researchers Fail To Report ConflictsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An article today in the New York Times simply blows my mind. I'll just quote from it: "Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found. "In a report expected to be made public on Thursday, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, said 90 percent of universities relied solely on the researchers themselves to decide whether the money they made i...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 19, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

john hoeffel, LAtimes: da cooley vows to prosecute medical cannabis dispensaries regardless of law (2067)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
D.A. chides L.A. council, says he’ll target pot dispensaries Steve Cooley insists sites that sell marijuana are violating state law and will be prosecuted. Of the City Council’s effort to pass an ordinance, he says: ‘Quite frankly we’re ignoring them.’ By John Hoeffel November 18, 2009 With the Los Angeles City Council poised to take up a medical marijuana ordinance after two years of contentious debate, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley warned Tuesday that he intends to prosecute dispensaries that sell the drug even if the city’s leaders decide to allow those transactions. “Th...
Source: aids-write.org - November 18, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS aids & bubonic plague & 1918 flu americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids barak obama beingALIVE-la big pharm Source Type: blogs

barbara boxer, courage campaign: please sign petition opposing stupak anti-choice abortion amendment (2063)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
boxer We are honored to have Senator Barbara Boxer share with Courage Campaign members her commitment to strip the horrific Stupak Amendment from any healthcare reform bill and pass true health care reform. Her message is powerful. We need to show her — and the nation — that thousands and thousands of us stand with her by signing the petition. –Rick Jacobs, Chair, Courage Campaign Dear Friend, Ten days ago, the House passed the Stupak Amendment, which would be one of the biggest setbacks to women’s health in recent decades - unless we stand together and stop it. That’s why we are launc...
Source: aids-write.org - November 17, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids awo call to action barak obama beingALIVE-la big pharma black msm gay hiv/ai Source Type: blogs