Marojejian

We’ve been tracking super-simple publishing service Posterous for quite a while now, and for the most part they’ve turned us into big fans. Unfortunately, they’ve just committed a fairly serious blunder. In a post earlier today, one Posterous user stumbled across the fact that his site was automatically converting all of his links to affiliate links using VigLink. There isn’t anything sinister about VigLink — the service helps publishers generate revenue without having to manually insert affiliate links themselves, and has received funding from Google Ventures, First Round Capital, and some prominent angel investors. But Posterous neglected to inform its users that it was starting to monetize all of their links, which is a breach of user trust.

Co-founder Sachin Agarwal agrees — in a phone interview he conceded that Posterous should definitely have informed users about the change (they’re currently drafting a statement about the incident). Agarwal says that Posterous has actually been testing the VigLink integration for months, which means the links have gone unnoticed for quite a while. But he says it’s just an experiment, and that Posterous hasn’t decided if it’s going to be keeping them in the long-term (though he agrees they should have informed users regardless).

Agarwal also says that if Posterous does wind up permanently integrating VigLink, users won’t have to take part in the program. And there’s an upside: once they’ve built the infrastructure to support it, Posterous has plans to allow its users to generate revenue from links on their own blogs, which could actually drive more people to start using the publishing platform.

It’s worth pointing out that while VigLink will convert any normal links to affiliate links whenever possible, it will ignore any links that are already connected to affiliate programs (in other words, it doesn’t overwrite existing affiliate links).

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CrunchBase Information
Posterous

Website: posterous.com

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Founded: May, 2008

Funding: $5.14M

Posterous is a Y Combinator startup that was founded in mid 2008. It’s a simple web publishing platform via email. Text and files can be uploaded to the site via email.

Users are not required to create an account… Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

via techcrunch.com

Good Idea. bad execution...

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Facebook Makes Major Announcements at F8 [LIVE]

2010-04-21T13:38:00.001-07:00

via mashable.com

some very interesting announcement here.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Facebook's Open Graph Personalizes the Web

2010-04-21T13:27:00.001-07:00

via mashable.com

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Hope for Targeted Lung-Cancer Treatment

2010-04-19T09:43:00.001-07:00

By RON WINSLOW
WASHINGTON—An unusual clinical trial involving four different drugs offered promise that guiding treatment based on the molecular traits of a tumor can improve survival from lung cancer.

Researchers said the study amounted to "proof of concept" for a new approach to clinical trials that could improve the efficiency of cancer-drug development and eventually shorten the time it takes to get new treatments to market.

The study, called Battle, involved 255 patients with advanced lung cancer, an especially lethal disease in which until recently average survival on chemotherapy was about eight months. New drugs, including so-called targeted medicines such as Tarceva, co-marketed by OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Roche Holding AG, have achieved some improvement in survival, but typically in only a fraction of patients.

Doctors don't know which patients are likely to respond to which treatments, resulting in hit-or-miss use of high-cost medicines.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center mounted the Battle trial to see whether matching tumor characteristics called biomarkers with specific drugs would lead to better results. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer, accounting for 28% of all cancer deaths in the U.S.

The study is too small to call for immediate new treatment strategies. But researchers believe it sets a path for bringing personalized medicine into the care of lung-cancer patients, just as it is already playing a critical role in breast, colon and other tumors.

"This is a first step to find biomarkers that may help supplant existing toxic therapies and to find the right population for a particular drug," said Edward S. Kim, a cancer researcher at M.D. Anderson and principal investigator of the Battle study. He presented results Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research.

Key to the study, Dr. Kim said, was the ability to obtain new tumor biopsies from all patients. The samples were analyzed to find molecular traits driving the patients' cancers. Then patients were randomly assigned to one of four drugs: Tarceva; the kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar from Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG; Zactima, being studied by AstraZeneca PLC for lung cancer; and a combination of Tarceva and Targretin, a drug for lymphoma-related skin problems from Eisai Inc.

Eight weeks after the start of therapy, doctors used imaging to assess whether disease in each patient was under control. Researchers said absence of progression at eight weeks is considered a reliable predictor of overall survival benefit.

After about 40% of the patients were enrolled, researchers looked at the first imaging results to see which combinations of drug and biomarkers were more likely to result in disease control. Then, in a strategy called adaptive trial design, the randomization of the remaining patients was weighted to steer patients toward therapies they were likely to benefit from based on their biomarkers.

The adaptive design is gaining interest among researchers and drug companies because it could help identify drugs that don't work sooner, and identify biomarkers that would be used to enroll patients in late-stage studies required for market approval.

Currently large clinical trials typically take all comers without evaluating their biomarker status. "The problem is that when you take a drug that has a specific target, but you treat everybody, you dilute the effect" of the drug, said Dr. Kim.

Researchers say that is why many targeted cancer drugs fail in late-stage or Phase III studies.

"This is the future," Tyler Jacks, a cancer researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the AACR, said of the Battle trial. "This is how drugs will be developed and clinical trials organized." Just this month, a study called I-Spy-2, led by Laura Esserman, a cancer doctor at University of California, San Francisco, began enrolling patients in a big breast-cancer trial using adaptive design.

In the Battle study, 46% of patients achieved disease control at eight weeks. The improvement was only slightly higher among patients enrolled by the adaptive technique, but researchers said that likely reflected shortcomings in how biomarkers were defined, among other issues.

"We need better biomarkers and better drugs to improve care," said Roy Herbst, an M.D. Anderson researcher and a leader of the Battle study.

Among other findings: Patients whose biomarker status matched up well with the treatment they got had an average survival of 11.3 months compared with just over 7% among those that didn't match well.

Dr. Kim also said Nexavar showed promise in patients whose tumors had a mutation in a gene called KRAS, a particularly troublesome population to treat.

Nexavar also achieved favorable results in patients without a KRAS mutation. Still, said Anil Potti, a lung cancer expert at Duke University Medical Center who wasn't involved with the study, finding an unexpected potential benefit for Nexavar reflects the potential of an adaptive trial to find new drug candidates that might be missed in more conventional trials. Nexavar previously failed to show a benefit in advanced lung cancer in a large trial in which it was combined with chemotherapy.

Dr. Potti and other researchers said the finding suggested the drug might be reconsidered for a lung-cancer study that included KRAS mutations—but that excluded patients with a mutation in a gene governing what is called the epithelial growth factor receptor. Tarceva, confirming other research, worked well in such patients in Battle, but Nexavar didn't.

Among the medicines, only Tarceva is approved for lung cancer in the U.S. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense with support from the National Cancer Institute and some pharmaceutical companies.

Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com

via online.wsj.com

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

ArmRev: Hollywood Games The Web For Social Good

2010-04-13T12:37:00.001-07:00

Imagine if the tens of millions who give time and money to tending their Farmville game were instead working for social change. A team of Hollywood's elite talent has been working with an army of advisors for six years to create a game building infrastructure that will make it so.

Armchair Revolutionary is a social gaming and strategic crowdsourcing concept that's based on real life social needs. The games are designed to connect the real-time Web to real-time social change.

via readwriteweb.com

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Mr. Oizo x Pharrell Williams x Flat Eric: WHERE’S THE MONEY GEORGE? | Hypebeast

2010-03-30T21:38:00.001-07:00

via hypebeast.com

So weird. I was just searching to find who this muppet was from years ago... and now he popped up right in front of me.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Facebook Squeezes Digg Into A New Business Model

2010-03-30T11:39:00.001-07:00

via allfacebook.com

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Power Corrupts - and makes you a better liar

2010-03-23T20:30:00.001-07:00

Lying is costly, extracting physiological and cognitive tolls from most people. The body of research on lying consistently shows that people become stressed when they do not tell the truth. The speed with which they process information slows down, possibly because lying requires keeping track of the lie and the truth while simultaneously trying to suppress nervous habits or other signs that might give the liar away. (So-called lie-detector tests, or polygraphs, can’t actually determine if people are lying, but they can identify signs of physiological stress that are consistent with lying.)

Professor Dana R. Carney, who studies social judgment and decision making, noticed that in a different area of scientific study, psychologists have observed that power — defined as control over others’ social or monetary outcomes and always accompanied by feelings of power — enhances cognitive functions and makes people feel good. The effects of feeling powerful are precisely the inverse of those that most people experience when they lie.

“The overlap is remarkable. When you feel powerful, you feel good, you’re a little smarter in that you process information more quickly and are better at multitasking, and some evidence suggests you may be more physiologically resilient,” Carney says. “When you lie, you feel bad, your cognitive systems are overworked, and you are physiologically taxed. What if you put lying and power together? It’s a match made in heaven or a match made in hell.”

Carney worked with Andy Yap, Brian Lucas and Pranjal Mehta of Columbia University to see what they could learn about the differences in the physiological and cognitive responses of both high- and low-power liars.

Previous research has shown that the mere act of assigning subjects leadership roles and subordinate roles is sufficient to produce feelings of power and subordination. Several parts of the researchers’ experiments here were designed to intensify those feelings. Subjects first completed a survey intended to make them believe they would be assigned a role as a leader or subordinate based on their answers. In fact, subjects were randomly assigned their roles. Each leader was shown to an expansive, comfortable office, while each subordinate was relegated to a small, windowless space.

Next, each pair met face-to-face in the leader’s office, and was asked to review a set of résumés and decide how to allocate a small pool of bonus funds. They also had to divide a small amount of bonus money between themselves. The conditions of the experiment gave the leader control in three significant areas: social control of the interaction, control over the final outcome of the assigned task and control over how the monetary incentive was divided between the leader and the subordinate.

Once the first phase of the study was complete, the subjects were separated and asked to wait, alone, in another room, where they were led through an exercise that asked certain leaders and subordinates to steal money (hidden in the room) and lie to the researchers about having done so.

Subjects had saliva samples and other measures of physiological stress taken at key points during the experiment — for example, before beginning the survey and after being asked to lie. All participants also completed a reaction-time test at the end of the experiment designed to measure their cognitive capacity.

The researchers found that subjects assigned leadership roles were buffered from the negative effects of lying. Across all measures, the high-power liars — the leaders —resembled truthtellers, showing no evidence of cortisol reactivity (which signals stress), cognitive impairment or feeling bad. In contrast, low-power liars — the subordinates — showed the usual signs of stress and slower reaction times. “Having power essentially buffered the powerful liars from feeling the bad effects of lying, from responding in any negative way or giving nonverbal cues that low-power liars tended to reveal,” Carney explains.

It’s an unsettling finding that prompts a number of questions, the first of which is, if powerful people can lie without suffering consequences, are they prone to lie more? “Even a very ethical person who suddenly finds herself in a position of power is probably going to notice on a conscious or unconscious level that lying no longer feels bad,” Carney says. “We can’t say empirically that power makes a person lie more, but the evidence does suggest that power would make you lie more easily and therefore more often.”

Carney emphasizes that these results don’t mean that all people in high positions find lying easier: people need only feel powerful, regardless of the real power they have or their position in a hierarchy. “There are plenty of CEOs who act like low-power people and there are plenty of people at every level in organizations who feel very high power,” Carney says. “It can cross rank, every strata of society, any job.”

Dana R. Carney is assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School.

via www4.gsb.columbia.edu

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

One gene lost = one limb regained?

2010-03-23T16:39:00.001-07:00

via sciencedaily.com

Amazing - one gene deletion can allow mice to regain some regenerative ability. This is more evidence to me that evolution works in part by preserving a "scrap heap" of old material that may prove of use in the future. Of course I would be surprised if turning this capability back on did not result in some serious negative effects. Surprising that no increase in cancer rate was observed - that would have been my first guess.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Health Reform, Point by Point - Bills Compared

2010-03-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

Compare the health-care bill that won approval on Capitol Hill late Sunday with the bills that passed in the Senate Dec. 24, 2009, and the House on Nov. 7, and with President Barack Obama's pitch to Congress in September.

Features
Senate Democratic bill (Patient Protection Affordable Care Act)
House bill (Affordable Health Care for America Act)
President Obama's proposal -- Sept. 9, 2009
White House/Congressional Leadership Reconciliation Bill (Health Care and Education Affordability Act) -- March 21, 2010
Loading...
Cost
• The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would cost $871 billion over ten years, and it would reduce the deficit by $132 billion over 10 years
• Senators added extra $10 billion for community health centers
• The CBO says the bill's net cost is $894 billion, factoring in penalties on individuals and employers who don't comply with new requirements
• After adding up a variety of new costs in the bill, including increased prescription drug coverage for seniors under Medicare, the cost is around $1.2 trillion
• In a speech in early September laying out health overhaul goals Mr. Obama said his plan would cost around $900 billion over a decade
• The proposal will cost $940 billion over a decade and reduce the deficit by $138 billion in the first 10 years, according to a CBO estimate.
How it's paid for
• $149.1 billion over ten years from a new excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, equal to 40% of premiums paid on plans costing more than $23,000 annually for a family, $8,500 for an individual
• Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, net savings estimated to be $438 billion over ten years, starting in 2013
• $54 billion over 10 years from a Medicare payroll taxes hike on couples with income of more than $250,000 a year. For those families, the levy would be raised to 1.95%, up from 1.45%
• Customers of indoor tanning salons would pay a 10% tax (Replaces a proposed tax on cosmetic surgery)
• $102.3 billion over ten years from fees on insurance companies and medical device manufacturers, including $23 billion over ten years on fees on drug makers
• A tax on individuals without qualifying coverage, maximum penalty set at 2.0% of income
• $460 billion over the next decade from new income taxes on single people making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million -- the threshold was increased from $280,000 and $350,000, in response to lawmakers' concerns that the taxes would hit too many people and small businesses
• More than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid
• A new $20 billion fee on medical device makers
• $13 billion from limiting contributions to flexible spending accounts
• Fines paid by individuals and employers who don't obtain coverage and a mix of other corporate taxes and fees
• Would tax high-value insurance plans
• Said most of the cost would be paid for by cuts to Medicare
• Dedicated $630 billion over 10 years toward a Health Reform Reserve Fund in budget outline released in February
• A new excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, equal to 40% of premiums paid on plans costing more than $27,500 annually for a family, starting in 2018
• An increase in Medicare payroll taxes on couples with income of more than $250,000 a year.
• Customers of indoor tanning salons would pay a 10% tax
• Fees on insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, including $33 billion over ten years on fees on drug makers
• A tax on individuals without qualifying coverage, maximum penalty set at 2.5% of income
Requirements for individuals
• Requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage
• Individuals without qualifying coverage could face a penalty up to 2.0% of income
• The maximum amount workers would be required to spend on premiums would be capped at 9.8% of income
• Exemptions for economic hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals
• Requires individuals to have "acceptable health coverage"
• People who fail to purchase coverage would face a tax penalty of 2.5% of income
• Exceptions for financial hardship and religious objections
• Did not propose an "individual mandate" during the campaign. He now supports an individual mandate as long as hardship waivers are provided
• Requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage
• Individuals without qualifying coverage could face a penalty up to 2.5% of income
• Exemptions for economic hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals
Requirements for employers
• Employers of 50 or more full-time workers that do not offer coverage would pay a fee as high as $750 per worker if the government ends up subsidizing employees' coverage
• Companies with more than 200 employees are required to automatically enroll employees in plans
• Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8% of payroll into a Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund
• Companies with payrolls under $250,000 annually are exempt and the penalty is phased in for companies with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000
• Businesses with more than 50 workers would be required to offer their workers coverage or pay a fee.
• Employers of 50 or more full-time workers that do not offer coverage would pay a fee as high as $2,000 per worker if the government ends up subsidizing employees' coverage
Subsidies
• Tax credits for individuals and families likely making up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four to purchase insurance through the Exchanges
• Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with up to 25 workers and average wage of $50,000 or less
• Ensure that federal premium or cost-sharing subsidies are not used to purchase coverage for abortion if coverage extends beyond saving the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest
• Individuals and families with annual income up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four, would get sliding-scale subsidies to help them buy coverage, begining in 2013
• Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with 10 or fewer workers
• Prohibit federal premium subsidies from being used to purchase a health plan in the Exchange that includes coverage for abortions except to save the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest
• Supports sliding-scale subsidies for low-income people but hasn't specified at what income level they should be offered
• Tax credits for individuals and families likely making up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four to purchase insurance through the Exchanges
• Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with up to 25 workers and average wage of $40,000 or less
• After a last-minute deal with a critical group of anti-abortion lawmakers, Mr. Obama signed an executive order affirming current law and provisions in the legislation that ban federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
Benefits package
• All plans sold to individuals and small businesses would have to cover at least 60% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing
• Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health benefits package
• Starting in 2010, insurers would be barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. That provision would apply to adults starting in 2014.
• A committee would recommend a so-called essential benefits package including preventive services that would have to cover at least 70% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing
• Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health benefits package
• Out-of-pocket costs would be capped
• The new benefits package would be the basic benefits package offered in the exchange.
• Hasn't described a specific benefit package that should be offered
• Wants to prevent insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions; limit premium variation based on age; and stop insurers from dropping people when they get sick
• All plans sold to individuals and small businesses would have to cover at least 60% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing
• Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health-benefits package
Government-run plan
• Democratic senators dropped a plan that would have had the government directly operate a health-insurance plan, while giving states the right to opt out
• In place of that, the senators embraced a more limited proposal that would empower the government's Office of Personnel Management to put in place a new low-cost national health plan
• The new national plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector, and would be available to the public on the new insurance exchanges that would be created under the bill
• A new public plan available through the insurance exchanges would be set up and run by the secretary of Health and Human Services
• Democrats originally designed the plan to pay Medicare rates plus 5% to doctors. But the final version would let the HHS secretary negotiate rates with providers
• Supports a new public plan. Has signaled that he's open to compromise on the issue
• A new public plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector and would be available to the public on new insurance exchanges
How you choose your plan
• Self-employed people and small businesses could pick a plan offered through new state-based purchasing pools
• Employees would be generally allowed to keep their work-provided coverage
• Beginning in 2013 through a new Health Insurance Exchange open to individuals and, initially, small employers
• It could be expanded to large employers over time
• States could opt to operate their own exchanges in place of the national exchange if they follow federal rules

• Small businesses and people without access to affordable insurance through their employer or elsewhere would have access to a new exchange starting in 2013
• Illegal immigrants would not be able to shop in the exchange
• Self-employed people and small businesses could pick a plan offered through new state-based purchasing pools
• Employees would be generally allowed to keep their work-provided coverage
Changes to Medicaid and Medicare
• Senators dropped a plan to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64
• Income eligibility levels likely to be standardized to 133% of poverty ($29,327 a year for a family of four)
• States could negotiate with insurers to arrange coverage for people with incomes slightly higher than the cutoff for Medicaid
• The federal government would pick up the full cost of the expansion for 2014 through 2016; thereafter financing will be shared through an increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP)
• The federal-state insurance program for the poor would be expanded to cover all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level ($33,075 per year for a family of four)
• The federal government would pick up the full cost of the expansion in 2013 and 2014; thereafter the federal government would pay 90% and states would pay 10%
• None specified
• Expand Medicaid to all individuals under 65 with income eligibility levels likely to be standardized to 133% of poverty ($29,327 a year for a family of four)
• The House added a provision to include enough money to close a gap in the Medicare prescription drug coverage over the next decade, starting with an election-season rebate of $250 later this year for seniors facing high costs.
• It also included sweeping changes in the student loan program, an administration priority that has been stalled in the Senate for months.
Changes to Private Insurance
• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions
• Require health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and trends on premium increases
• Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions
• Provide dependent coverage for children up to age 26
• Prohibit individual and group health plans from placing aggregate dollar lifetime limits on coverage. Prohibit insurers from rescinding coverage except in cases of fraud
• Develop standards for insurers to use in providing information on benefits and coverage
• Limit deductibles for health plans in the small group market to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families
• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions
• Prohibit individual and group health plans from placing aggregate dollar lifetime limits on coverage. Prohibit insurers from rescinding coverage except in cases of fraud
• Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions to promote administrative simplification
• Require review of increases in health insurance premiums prior to implementation of the increases
• Provide dependent coverage for children up to age 27
• Improve consumer protections by establishing uniform marketing standards, requiring fair grievance and appeals mechanisms and accurate and timely disclosure of plan information
• Create the Health Choices Administration to establish the qualifying health benefits standards, establish the Exchange, administer the affordability credits, and enforce the requirements for qualified health benefit plan offering entities, including those participating in the Exchange or outside the Exchange
• None specified
• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions
• Require health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and other costs and provide rebates to consumers
• Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions to promote administrative simplification
• Develop standards for insurers to use in providing information on benefits and coverage
• Limit deductibles for health plans in the small group market to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families
• Create a new federal body that would have power to block insurers from raising rates
• Limit any waiting periods for coverage to 90 days.
• Grandfather existing individual and group plans with respect to new benefit standards, but require these plans to extend dependent coverage to age 26 and prohibit rescissions of coverage. Require grandfathered plans to eliminate lifetime limits on coverage and annual limits on coverage. Require grandfathered plans to eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions.
Read more
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Affordable Health Care for America Act
Obama on Health Care
Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010

Sources: Associated Press research, Kaiser Family Foundation.
Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com
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Related Interactives

Health Overhaul in Congress

Health Reform, Point by Point

Faces of Health Care

Health-Care Reform in America

Features	Senate Democratic bill (Patient Protection Affordable Care Act)	House bill (Affordable Health Care for America Act)	President Obama's proposal -- Sept. 9, 2009	White House/Congressional Leadership Reconciliation Bill (Health Care and Education Affordability Act) -- March 21, 2010
Loading...
Cost	• The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would cost $871 billion over ten years, and it would reduce the deficit by $132 billion over 10 years • Senators added extra $10 billion for community health centers	• The CBO says the bill's net cost is $894 billion, factoring in penalties on individuals and employers who don't comply with new requirements • After adding up a variety of new costs in the bill, including increased prescription drug coverage for seniors under Medicare, the cost is around $1.2 trillion	• In a speech in early September laying out health overhaul goals Mr. Obama said his plan would cost around $900 billion over a decade	• The proposal will cost $940 billion over a decade and reduce the deficit by $138 billion in the first 10 years, according to a CBO estimate.
How it's paid for	• $149.1 billion over ten years from a new excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, equal to 40% of premiums paid on plans costing more than $23,000 annually for a family, $8,500 for an individual • Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, net savings estimated to be $438 billion over ten years, starting in 2013 • $54 billion over 10 years from a Medicare payroll taxes hike on couples with income of more than $250,000 a year. For those families, the levy would be raised to 1.95%, up from 1.45% • Customers of indoor tanning salons would pay a 10% tax (Replaces a proposed tax on cosmetic surgery) • $102.3 billion over ten years from fees on insurance companies and medical device manufacturers, including $23 billion over ten years on fees on drug makers • A tax on individuals without qualifying coverage, maximum penalty set at 2.0% of income	• $460 billion over the next decade from new income taxes on single people making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million -- the threshold was increased from $280,000 and $350,000, in response to lawmakers' concerns that the taxes would hit too many people and small businesses • More than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid • A new $20 billion fee on medical device makers • $13 billion from limiting contributions to flexible spending accounts • Fines paid by individuals and employers who don't obtain coverage and a mix of other corporate taxes and fees	• Would tax high-value insurance plans • Said most of the cost would be paid for by cuts to Medicare • Dedicated $630 billion over 10 years toward a Health Reform Reserve Fund in budget outline released in February	• A new excise tax on high-premium insurance plans, equal to 40% of premiums paid on plans costing more than $27,500 annually for a family, starting in 2018 • An increase in Medicare payroll taxes on couples with income of more than $250,000 a year. • Customers of indoor tanning salons would pay a 10% tax • Fees on insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, including $33 billion over ten years on fees on drug makers • A tax on individuals without qualifying coverage, maximum penalty set at 2.5% of income
Requirements for individuals	• Requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage • Individuals without qualifying coverage could face a penalty up to 2.0% of income • The maximum amount workers would be required to spend on premiums would be capped at 9.8% of income • Exemptions for economic hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals	• Requires individuals to have "acceptable health coverage" • People who fail to purchase coverage would face a tax penalty of 2.5% of income • Exceptions for financial hardship and religious objections	• Did not propose an "individual mandate" during the campaign. He now supports an individual mandate as long as hardship waivers are provided	• Requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage • Individuals without qualifying coverage could face a penalty up to 2.5% of income • Exemptions for economic hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals
Requirements for employers	• Employers of 50 or more full-time workers that do not offer coverage would pay a fee as high as $750 per worker if the government ends up subsidizing employees' coverage • Companies with more than 200 employees are required to automatically enroll employees in plans	• Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8% of payroll into a Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund • Companies with payrolls under $250,000 annually are exempt and the penalty is phased in for companies with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000	• Businesses with more than 50 workers would be required to offer their workers coverage or pay a fee.	• Employers of 50 or more full-time workers that do not offer coverage would pay a fee as high as $2,000 per worker if the government ends up subsidizing employees' coverage
Subsidies	• Tax credits for individuals and families likely making up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four to purchase insurance through the Exchanges • Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with up to 25 workers and average wage of $50,000 or less • Ensure that federal premium or cost-sharing subsidies are not used to purchase coverage for abortion if coverage extends beyond saving the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest	• Individuals and families with annual income up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four, would get sliding-scale subsidies to help them buy coverage, begining in 2013 • Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with 10 or fewer workers • Prohibit federal premium subsidies from being used to purchase a health plan in the Exchange that includes coverage for abortions except to save the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest	• Supports sliding-scale subsidies for low-income people but hasn't specified at what income level they should be offered	• Tax credits for individuals and families likely making up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 for a family of four to purchase insurance through the Exchanges • Tax credits to buy health coverage available to small employers with up to 25 workers and average wage of $40,000 or less • After a last-minute deal with a critical group of anti-abortion lawmakers, Mr. Obama signed an executive order affirming current law and provisions in the legislation that ban federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
Benefits package	• All plans sold to individuals and small businesses would have to cover at least 60% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing • Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health benefits package • Starting in 2010, insurers would be barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. That provision would apply to adults starting in 2014.	• A committee would recommend a so-called essential benefits package including preventive services that would have to cover at least 70% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing • Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health benefits package • Out-of-pocket costs would be capped • The new benefits package would be the basic benefits package offered in the exchange.	• Hasn't described a specific benefit package that should be offered • Wants to prevent insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions; limit premium variation based on age; and stop insurers from dropping people when they get sick	• All plans sold to individuals and small businesses would have to cover at least 60% of an essential set of benefits, limits annual cost-sharing • Prohibit abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential health-benefits package
Government-run plan	• Democratic senators dropped a plan that would have had the government directly operate a health-insurance plan, while giving states the right to opt out • In place of that, the senators embraced a more limited proposal that would empower the government's Office of Personnel Management to put in place a new low-cost national health plan • The new national plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector, and would be available to the public on the new insurance exchanges that would be created under the bill	• A new public plan available through the insurance exchanges would be set up and run by the secretary of Health and Human Services • Democrats originally designed the plan to pay Medicare rates plus 5% to doctors. But the final version would let the HHS secretary negotiate rates with providers	• Supports a new public plan. Has signaled that he's open to compromise on the issue	• A new public plan would be run by nonprofit entities set up by the private sector and would be available to the public on new insurance exchanges
How you choose your plan	• Self-employed people and small businesses could pick a plan offered through new state-based purchasing pools • Employees would be generally allowed to keep their work-provided coverage	• Beginning in 2013 through a new Health Insurance Exchange open to individuals and, initially, small employers • It could be expanded to large employers over time • States could opt to operate their own exchanges in place of the national exchange if they follow federal rules	• Small businesses and people without access to affordable insurance through their employer or elsewhere would have access to a new exchange starting in 2013 • Illegal immigrants would not be able to shop in the exchange	• Self-employed people and small businesses could pick a plan offered through new state-based purchasing pools • Employees would be generally allowed to keep their work-provided coverage
Changes to Medicaid and Medicare	• Senators dropped a plan to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64 • Income eligibility levels likely to be standardized to 133% of poverty ($29,327 a year for a family of four) • States could negotiate with insurers to arrange coverage for people with incomes slightly higher than the cutoff for Medicaid • The federal government would pick up the full cost of the expansion for 2014 through 2016; thereafter financing will be shared through an increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP)	• The federal-state insurance program for the poor would be expanded to cover all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level ($33,075 per year for a family of four) • The federal government would pick up the full cost of the expansion in 2013 and 2014; thereafter the federal government would pay 90% and states would pay 10%	• None specified	• Expand Medicaid to all individuals under 65 with income eligibility levels likely to be standardized to 133% of poverty ($29,327 a year for a family of four) • The House added a provision to include enough money to close a gap in the Medicare prescription drug coverage over the next decade, starting with an election-season rebate of $250 later this year for seniors facing high costs. • It also included sweeping changes in the student loan program, an administration priority that has been stalled in the Senate for months.
Changes to Private Insurance	• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions • Require health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and trends on premium increases • Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions • Provide dependent coverage for children up to age 26 • Prohibit individual and group health plans from placing aggregate dollar lifetime limits on coverage. Prohibit insurers from rescinding coverage except in cases of fraud • Develop standards for insurers to use in providing information on benefits and coverage • Limit deductibles for health plans in the small group market to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families	• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions • Prohibit individual and group health plans from placing aggregate dollar lifetime limits on coverage. Prohibit insurers from rescinding coverage except in cases of fraud • Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions to promote administrative simplification • Require review of increases in health insurance premiums prior to implementation of the increases • Provide dependent coverage for children up to age 27 • Improve consumer protections by establishing uniform marketing standards, requiring fair grievance and appeals mechanisms and accurate and timely disclosure of plan information • Create the Health Choices Administration to establish the qualifying health benefits standards, establish the Exchange, administer the affordability credits, and enforce the requirements for qualified health benefit plan offering entities, including those participating in the Exchange or outside the Exchange	• None specified	• Establish a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions • Require health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and other costs and provide rebates to consumers • Adopt standards for financial and administrative transactions to promote administrative simplification • Develop standards for insurers to use in providing information on benefits and coverage • Limit deductibles for health plans in the small group market to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families • Create a new federal body that would have power to block insurers from raising rates • Limit any waiting periods for coverage to 90 days. • Grandfather existing individual and group plans with respect to new benefit standards, but require these plans to extend dependent coverage to age 26 and prohibit rescissions of coverage. Require grandfathered plans to eliminate lifetime limits on coverage and annual limits on coverage. Require grandfathered plans to eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions.
Read more	Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act	Affordable Health Care for America Act	Obama on Health Care	Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010

via online.wsj.com

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BioNews - Stem cells used for pioneering windpipe transplant

2010-03-23T10:34:00.001-07:00

http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_56929.asp

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Mr.Oizo - Flat Beat

2010-03-08T12:10:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Implanted Neurons Let the Brain Rewire Itself Again

2010-03-02T09:56:00.001-08:00

via technologyreview.com

Wow. Maybe some day stem cells induced in the brain will allow us to learn better, or even rejuvenate old brains.

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Google Real-Time Search Now Includes A Fraction Of Facebook Status Updates

2010-02-25T12:56:00.001-08:00

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/google-facebook-status-updates/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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Twitter Nears Facebook’s Daily Status Update Volume

2010-02-22T16:06:00.001-08:00

This afternoon Twitter announced that the company now receives over 50 million status updates per day. Compare that with Facebook who states they currently receive over 60 million updates per day. Despite Twitter being a fraction of the size of Facebook, the company now owns a massive percentage of the total status updates posted each day on the web. The latest statistics should revive discussion over the ongoing Facebook versus Twitter war.

While Twitter is not releasing statistics about the percentage of users tweeting on a daily basis, a report published last week suggests that the percentage of Twitter users posting updates each month remains relatively low (somewhere around 16 percent). So what information can we derive from the latest statistics?

Twitter Rapidly Approaching Facebook%u2019s Status Update Volume

Despite being a fraction of the size of Facebook, Twitter has a large enough sampling of information on the web since they appear to have the most active users on the web. While we don%u2019t know the exact volume of tweets per user, the top users continue to remain active. The behavior of a Twitter user also differs significantly over Facebook users who arguably don%u2019t post updates as frequently.

Twitter%u2019s Grip On The Real-Time Web Is Significant

Ultimately it doesn%u2019t matter how many users a company has as long as they have the most connected and most active users. Even Google knows that a fraction of the content on the web isn%u2019t updated regularly and much of it is irrelevant. As long as Twitter can capture the most important segment of the social media market, the company has a shot at competing in the real-time web wars.

One important factor that would determine Twitter%u2019s grip on the real-time web is the percentage of tweets being sent directly to Facebook.

Twitter Has A Ways To Go When Including Facebook%u2019s Shared Content

Despite Twitter%u2019s dominance in the %u201Cstatus update%u201D world, one needs to include the fact that more than 700 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared on Facebook each day. That%u2019s in addition to the 60 million status updates. In theory the volume of links and news stories should be included in the comparison to Twitter. Unfortunately Facebook doesn%u2019t break out the volume of links posted each day, but we could make a wild guess and say that at least 100 million links are posted each day in addition to the status updates.

Conclusion

Facebook should be concerned about the latest statistics from Twitter. While it%u2019s difficult to say how close Twitter is to competing with the volume of relevant content being posted on Facebook each day, the growth continues to be impressive. At this rate, Twitter could eventually be a direct competitor to Facebook in terms of status updates and links shared if the growth continues.

Is Twitter going to be competing on the level of Facebook anytime soon? Probably not since their user base is still a fraction of Facebook, however it%u2019s pretty clear that Twitter has some of the most active internet users on the web.

via allfacebook.com

Interesting comparison of Twitter and Facebook volumes of status updates and link shares.

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Hacking the iPhone App Store's Ranking Algorithm - ReadWriteStart

2010-02-18T17:20:00.001-08:00

via readwriteweb.com

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xkcd: the First Rule of Tautology Club....

2010-02-18T14:06:00.001-08:00

via xkcd.com

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Science Podcast, 12 February 2010 -- Food Security Special

2010-02-17T18:55:00.001-08:00

via podcasts.aaas.org

Great podcast from Science Mag. on the risks of our food supply - the first speaker highlights how regulation has hindered our ability to improve technology that is needed to help us feed the World.

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Post-it notes that look like blades of grass Boing Boing

2010-02-17T15:00:00.001-08:00

http://m.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/post-it-notes-that-l.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+boingboing%252FiBag+%2528Boing+Boing%2529

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Google Blurs The Line Between Paid & Unpaid Results Again

2010-02-15T20:34:00.001-08:00

http://searchengineland.com/google-blurs-the-line-between-paid-unpaid-results-again-36268

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The Smarter You Are, The Less You Click

2010-02-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

via readwriteweb.com

Sad but probably true. I salute all of you people who make my ad supported businesses possible.

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Meet The First Miners of the New Social Graph

2010-02-11T12:47:00.001-08:00

via readwriteweb.com

Interesting twist - recommendation engines for people. This is the way I primarily find value in LinkeIn.

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Google Buzz Makes Gmail Social

2010-02-09T11:45:00.001-08:00

via mashable.com

as promised - Google unveils Buzz

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Best in furniture – Droolr

2010-02-08T10:18:00.001-08:00

Giant bookshelf clock

CD/book shelving that doubles as a giant clock. Yes, CLOCK. anka.com.hk 5 days ago

bufferout Comments (2)

via droolr.com

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Untitled

2010-02-06T20:45:00.001-08:00

Really interesting. Success in life may change the way our brain rewards us. ( or maybe it's the reverse).

Brain dopamine receptor density correlates with social status

People have typically viewed the benefits that accrue with social status primarily from the perspective of external rewards. A new study suggests that there are internal rewards as well. Researchers found that increased social status and increased social support correlated with the density of dopamine D2/D3 receptors in the striatum, a region of the brain that plays a central role in reward and motivation, where dopamine plays a critical role in both of these behavioral processes.

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Cholesterol's link to heart disease gets clearer and more complicated

2010-02-06T20:41:00.001-08:00

Cholesterol's link to heart disease gets clearer and more complicated

By considering molecular-level events on a broader scale, researchers now have a clearer, if more complicated, picture of how one class of immune cells goes wrong when loaded with cholesterol. The findings show that, when it comes to the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease, it's not about any one bad actor -- it's about a network gone awry.

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Feedtrace: Personalized Link Aggregation for Twitter

2010-02-05T13:02:00.001-08:00

via readwriteweb.com

always skeptical that these services will work well, but its a problem that needs solving.

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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - North America

2010-02-04T15:59:00.001-08:00

via weblogs.hitwise.com

According to this analysis, Social networks drive a lot of traffic to retailers. While I think there's a huge opportunity here, I haven't really seen it happening myself, so I wonder how good their methodology is.

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Biofuel leader LS9 buys demo plant to churn out renewable diesel | VentureBeat

2010-02-04T12:32:00.001-08:00

via venturebeat.com

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Facebook Is Already The World’s Largest News Reader

2010-02-04T12:22:00.001-08:00

via allfacebook.com

Lots of talk on the interwebs about this Hitwise data. Assuming it is correct, it is astounding how Facebook has done a better job of bringing feeds to the masses than any other source. However, the numbers also show how much room there is for improvement here. I think Facebook has shown the way, but there is a great opportunity for someone to do it really right. If you agree, just let me know - we should talk.

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Booyah’s MyTown: New king of location games at 800,000 users? | VentureBeat

2010-02-03T20:49:00.001-08:00

http://digital.venturebeat.com/2010/02/03/mytown-800000-2/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter-publisher-main&utm_campaign=twitter

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Best Connected Individuals Are Not the Most Influential Spreaders in Social Networks

2010-02-02T16:10:00.001-08:00

via technologyreview.com

It's not the size of your network, its how you use it!

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Facebook Previews The Apps And Games Dashboard To Users

2010-02-01T17:16:00.001-08:00

via allfacebook.com

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MenuPages Launches iPhone App

2010-02-01T17:12:00.001-08:00

via businessinsider.com

Oooh... Menupages app. It's one of the best neglected sites out there. This could be very useful, and hope it signals they are going to improve the service.

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Untitled

2010-02-01T10:39:00.001-08:00

Science Podcast, 8 January 2010

How cocaine alters gene expression; third-party punishment in fish; working toward simpler, cheaper particle accelerators; and more.

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Great Nature Magazine podcast

2010-01-29T11:23:00.001-08:00

Nature: 28 January 2010

28 January: Engineered bacteria produce better biofuels, functional brain cells created from skin cells, fossils from Northern China reveal colour of dinosaur feathers, and a round-up of what's hot elsewhere in Nature.

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Official Google Blog: Search is getting more social

2010-01-28T14:56:00.001-08:00

via googleblog.blogspot.com

Google is pushing its social search features

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We Want War / These New Puritans on wearehunted.com

2010-01-28T09:49:00.001-08:00

listening to http://wah.fm/xmrb8q - We Want War / These New Puritans

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Listening to Beginning Of The End | Justice

2010-01-28T09:33:00.001-08:00

Beginning Of The End | Justice
Previous Next Play/Pause 2:19 3:07 Mute Report Incorrect Audio Permalink Twitter Email Favorite Track

via wearehunted.com

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We Are Hunted - The Online Music Chart

2010-01-27T18:19:00.001-08:00

via wearehunted.com

We are Hunted ain't bad for music discovery either. Glad to see such innovation.

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(3:26) Tonight I Have To Leave It - Shout Out Louds

2010-01-27T18:15:00.001-08:00

via thesixtyone.com

listening to the shout out louds on www.thesixtyone.com . sweet service

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Apple Introduces their table: the iPad

2010-01-27T11:42:00.001-08:00

via mashable.com

To buy or not to buy? I need a new laptop, it would be nice if this could be it.

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"Fear the Boom and Bust"

2010-01-26T14:19:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

A less dry way of learning why we should not All be Keynesians Now.

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Download Terminator Salvation For Free

2010-01-26T13:31:00.001-08:00

via mashable.com

Quick! legally download Terminator Salvation free from Mashable, while supplies last.

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Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street

2010-01-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

via wired.com

Great article outlining a lesson that humanity needs to remember: simple models are the most powerful tools, but extrapolating them outside of their tested range is very dangerous, especially when human decisions are involved.

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The Flogging Will Continue: ‘Social’ Games Predictions for 2010

2010-01-26T09:56:00.001-08:00

Merry New Year, righteous reader! As promised, here are a few predictions for the online games business in 2010. Facebook and ’social games’ were the big story and virtual goods driver of 2009, and we spent a fair bit of 2009 struggling to create our own social games network and chasing Facebook glory, so that’s my focus.

1. Facebook will peak. I think we’ll see the flattening and beginning of decline in Facebook active audience (outside of some international territories, which may be enough to keep the overall active user numbers trending upwards in 2010, but with a shift to a more international and lower-revenue audience. There just aren’t many more people left who havn’t made a FB account, and people will start to churn out in significant numbers. Don’t get me wrong; Facebook is lots of fun and very sticky indeed, but there’s nowhere to go but down from a point where ~50% of the adult population are active users.

2. Facebook games have peaked. It may be that things pick up after the holidays, but a quick perusal of all the top Facebook games shows the same pattern — daily active users (DAU) topped out in mid-December with the viral changes. The holiday lull took another bite and it looks like things will bounce back from that, but overall I believe we’ve seen the peak of DAU usage.

3. Facebook will mandate exclusive use of FB Credits. We’ll see a cruel thinning of the proliferating payment providers as Facebook takes control of payments on its platform, marginalizing or eliminating by mandate all other solutions. Few complaints from developers, as conversion will improve and there’s a general feeling that ‘yet another’ payments solution is not going to move anyone’s dial. This assumes that Facebook integrates all kinds of localized payment options (SMS, prepaid cards, etc.), which of course they will given their shifting audience.

4. Virality will decline and may cease to be the major force on the FB platform. The changes that Facebook has started to implement will continue into 2010, causing a reduction in virality overall. Facebook is well-established as a great environment to acquire customers and generate revenue. By dialing down the viral component the platform will become less attractive to new developers who lack funding, but it’s not clear that Facebook cares. New apps, in any case, have more opportunity to grow under the radar, bending the guidelines to get a jump-start. Facebook may also address discoverability directly; for example by treating the ‘games channel’ more like a mobile carrier deck and editorially promoting titles.

5. Facebook takes ~50% of game revenues. The payment component is a part of Facebook taking back its rightful share of game revenues on its platform; the massive reduction in virality will be the other key component, driving paid acquisition models and more revenue for Facebook from ads, game placement, etc. Social games’ have been a bonanza because they’ve fed greedily upon FB’s extraordinary user acquisition machine, exceptional openess, and generous viral features, without necessarily returning a lot back to Facebook Inc. or the net user experience of most users. I think Facebook will change that in 2010, and I think they are quite justified in doing so. Successful social games can operate with 60%+ net margins, I think Facebook would quite like the lions share of that.

6. Investment in games continues at a lower rate. There will be a reduction in investment into the category as the hoped for all-boat-floating bonanza of a Zynga IPO does not occur in the first half, if at all (hence the DST $180M with liquidity to employees and perhaps investors) and liquidity prospects for competitors become more evidently muddy. There will be more acquisitions of social games companies by video game publishers and media companies, but I doubt that any will reach the heights of the Playfish deal unless Zynga gets taken out by Activision or a big media company. Early stage and scaling investments will continue as long as small teams continue to produce hits. The question is; will small teams continue to be able to produce hits?

7. Zynga still wins the big game, but doesn’t take all. Zynga will remain the dominant player, but not necessarily for the reasons that people assume (funding, cross-promotion, aggressive cloning). Zynga will continue to win because they have built a powerful learning machine that, as the environment changes, will continue to optimize relentlessly against that environment. They are very good at indentifying what people want, albeit if they make the first stage easier by copying winning game styles, and then bringing highly optimized product to the largest possible audience. I have trouble seeing their larger competitors (EA/Playfish, Playdom, other new big entrants) institutionalizing these skills sufficiently to beat them. I like Crowdstar’s ’small, fast, profitable’ approach. That said, I believe the market will fracture, with more ‘big niches’, and I don’t think Zynga’s model will work as well — it won’t be so clear what to clone, and there won’t necessarily be enough money in these smaller niches to support the costs of Zynga’s approach, which requires big hits to work, especially in a reduced revenue environment thanks to FB taxes.

8. Sophistication will increase as Facebook games become more ‘really social’, playing to the strengths of small, agile game developers. I think by the end of 2010 we’ll start to see a broad spread of more genuinely social MMO-like games, each with smaller audiences (related to Farm/Pet etc. call it ~5M MAU) take a combined big chunk of FB revenues. Those games will get harder to copy, both because they are more sophisticated, but also because they don’t get big enough to be sure dial-mover for a larger company. For us and smaller companies like us, there will be lots of opportunity to create games with small or mid-scale success, becoming highly profitable in the process. Some of these games will be acquired or funded to large-scale success, but I begin to suspect that many of them will be implicitly niche titles.

9. A lack of any ‘new platform’ to flock to post-Facebook, the iPhone having too many games, too small an audience, an opaque distribution channel, and limited customer willingness to purchase virtual goods. Apple will ship a fabulous iPhone-based tablet, but until discovery is much improved (i.e. one is not reliant on the Apple deck) and pricing sorts itself out, I can’t see the iPhone/iTouch/iTablet platform as an attractive place to try to build a business.

10. The console and traditional video game business continues to decline. Price cuts may help the consoles, but overall I see the continued decline of traditional retail-sold video games as inevitable, particularly if the economy does not recover robustly or declines.

Bonus balls!

11. The Internet is the new Facebook As a consequence of the above a lot of small and large developers may start or resume pondering how to execute on the open web, not necessarily a friendly customer acquisition environment, but at least genuinely open, transparent and pretty much a level playing field. FB Connect will play a part in this, but as soon as you break the psychological safety net of ‘I’m just Facebooking’ by moving people off-site, I think you reduce significantly the customer acquisition advantages of Facebook. This direct to your customers on the Internet stuff is back-to-basics for us.

12. The apocalypse does not arrive, but the economic and political picture of 2010 is not pretty, either. The US economy and the dollar will continue to decline. Although catastrophe has been averted, it’s not clear to me how robust growth will resume. The ability for the US government to fuel growth by printing money has to be limited, not least by the patience of treasury bill holders. For now the house of cards totters on, but I don’t think it will be a return to exciting prosperity this year. The various intractable situations with failed states, political quagmires, interminable war and greedily self-perpetuating oligarchy will continue, but so will the cracks continue to show in at least the latter. I believe and hope that we will continue to be lucky and avoid a nuclear confrontation or other major man-made calamity. In the US the mid-terms will be brutal, doubtless cementing the ineffectuality of government, and in Britain there will be regime change. I remain optimistic that the world is becoming a better place, and I think there’ll be lots of good news in 2010, but I’m finding that hard to predict on a global scale beyond continued inexorable trends towards greater connectivity between people, more sophisticated and open trade, and the march of technology towards liberating us from our earthly constraints.

My resolution this year was simple; to make an improvement every day. So far that’s meant buying a giant iMac for the living room and resolving not to let small things annoy me, so I feel that’s progress already. Have a great year!

via thefloggingwillcontinue.com

Some Intelligent Predictions for Daniel James, CEO of Puzzle Pirates. I love his style.

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China's economy: Not just another fake | The Economist

2010-01-24T22:13:00.001-08:00

via economist.com

The Economist does not seem worried about China's economy slowing down. Some interesting data in here. I hope they are right.

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How to Work with Lawyers at a Startup

2010-01-24T16:18:00.001-08:00

via bothsidesofthetable.com

Some nice specific advice on how to work with lawyers in starting a company

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Andrew Parker - The Gong Show

2010-01-24T14:43:00.001-08:00

via thegongshow.tumblr.com

Interesting take on Craigslist - both on the many niches it covers, and the many services that are trying to thrive in each selected niche. It's interesting to think of this issue from an ecological/evolutionary perspective. To me Craigslist is the the successful generalist, that can also co-exist (in some cases) with specialists that "feed" off of a more specialized customer with more specific requirements.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Aerobic exercise grows brain cells

2010-01-24T14:31:00.001-08:00

via physorg.com

There appears to be lots of data out there validating the maxim that a healthy body facilitates a healthy mind. Just another incentive to get out there and do something physical.

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Talladega Nights Line-o-rama alternate takes

2010-01-24T13:53:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

Some extra outtakes from Talladega Nights that I hadn't seen. LMAO.

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Heart - This looks promising

2010-01-22T18:19:00.001-08:00

via heartsf.com

An art gallery fused with a wine bar? Sounds like it was made for me...

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OKCupid's study of online dating behavior

2010-01-21T11:04:00.001-08:00

via blog.okcupid.com

This study from OKCupid has some interesting data on what works in online dating services - always a fascinating area to peek into.

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The Sirtris Compounds: Worthless? Really?. In the Pipeline:

2010-01-19T21:29:00.001-08:00

« Sure About That? | Main | Two Doses of Crazy »

January 12, 2010

The Sirtris Compounds: Worthless? Really?

Posted by Derek

As followers of the drug industry know, GlaxoSmithKline famously paid $720 million to buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals in 2008. Sirtris is the most high-profile shop working on sirtuins and resveratrol-like pharmacology, which subject has received a massive amount of press (some accurate, some scrambled). I've been following the story with interest, since the literature has me convinced that the aging process can indeed be modified in a number of model organisms, which makes me think that it could be in humans as well. And I also feel sure that advances in this area could lead to many profound medical, social, and economic effects. (GSK, though, is going after diabetes first with the Sirtris deal, I should add - among other reasons, the FDA has no regulatory framework whatsoever for an antigeronic, if I can coin a word.)

But whatever the state of the anti-aging field, doubts have crept in about the wisdom of the Sirtris purchase. Last fall, a group at Amgen published a study suggesting that some of the SIRT1/resveratrol connections might be due an an experimental artifact caused by a particular fluorescent peptide. Now a group at Pfizer has piled on in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. They're looking over resveratrol and a series of sirtuin activators described by the Sirtris group in Nature.

And unfortunately, they also find trouble due to fluorogenic peptides. The TAMRA fluorophore on their peptide substrates seems to pervert the assay. While the Sirtris compounds looked like activators initially, switching to the native peptide substrates showed them to be worthless. Further study (calorimetry) showed that the activator compounds bind to a complex of SIRT1 and the fluorescent peptide substrate, but not to SIRT1 itself (or in the presence of native substrate without the fluorogenic group). That's not good.

But worse is to come:

"Despite a lack of evidence for the Sirtris series of compounds as direct SIRT1 activators, we investigated whether the in vivo efficacy demonstrated by SRT1720 in several rodent models diabetes could be validated and attributed to indirect activation of SIRT1. We therefore attempted to reproduce the in vivo efficacy for SRT1720 in mouse models of type 2 diabetes previously shown. . ."

That word "attempted" should tell you what comes next. The reported high dose of the compound (100 mpk) resulted in weight effects and death. The reported low dose (30 mpk) showed no effects at all on any diabetic parameters, but instead seemed to lead to increased feeding and weight gain. To complete the debacle, the Pfizer group screened the Sirtris compounds through a broad panel of assays, and found that all of them hit a number of other targets (and appear significantly worse than resvertarol itself, which is no one's idea of a clean compound to start with).

Basically, these folks have thrown down the gauntlet: they claim that the reported Sirtris compounds do not do what they are claimed to do, neither in vitro nor in vivo, and are worthless as model compounds for anything in this area of study. So what is GSK going to have to say about this? And what, if this paper is at all accurate, did they buy with their $720 million?

Comments (114) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Aging and Lifespan | Business and Markets | Drug Assays

Wow. Looks like some pretty negative data on the Sirtris compounds. Sad if true

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Blippy: How Should A Twitter for Shoppers Look Like?

2010-01-19T17:28:00.001-08:00

via excitingcommerce.com

Jochen asks just the right question here: what should a twitter for shopping look like? If this is a question that you'd like to discuss, then drop me a line...I have some thoughts on the subject.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Digg Beyond Digg With New Chrome And Firefox Extensions

2010-01-19T16:49:00.001-08:00

via techcrunch.com

Sounds like Digg is trying to get its sharing act in gear. There is so much potential there...will be interesting to try this out.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work

2010-01-17T16:43:00.001-08:00

via games.venturebeat.com

If you take a close look at what’s going on in multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft — as we have — you will find that people are carrying out tasks that look very much like the kinds of problem solving, classification, collaboration, leadership and followership that are the meat and potatoes of today’s everyday work. Tens of millions of people pay companies like Blizzard Entertainment for the privilege of doing sophisticated work on computers. Our tongue-in-cheek title isn’t meant to imply that people shouldn’t be paid for their time and talent, but to raise the question about why work is so poorly constructed today and what can be done about making it more fun.

Leighton is on to a great concept here. Much of what is done in complex compute games would be classified as drudgery under any other context. There is a lot to be learned from the gaming world on how to make our professional lives more engaging and fun.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Wilkinson Residence in Portland’s Forest

2010-01-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

via ritholtz.com

This is right up my alley (or up my tree).

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Blippy gets funding

2010-01-14T15:16:00.001-08:00

via techcrunch.com

Share all your credit card transactions - Some great possibilities here, but I wonder if the universal sharing and link to actual purchases is the right model.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Google to Shut Down in China? Cyber attack Targets human rights activists

2010-01-12T16:47:00.001-08:00

Last month, Google noticed a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" on their infrastructure that allowed for the theft of Google IP. The attack came from China and targeted at least twenty other major corporations involved in technology, finance, media and chemicals.

Google believes the main reason for the attacks was to access Gmail accounts of advocates of human rights for Chinese people. Dozens of accounts with users based in the U.S., Europe and China have been accessed to varying degrees; Google denies any security breach on their part, stating that malware or phishing might have caused the accounts to be compromised.

Although Google would not normally share information of this nature with a global audience, their team has decided to do so now because the attacks and account surveillance that have been uncovered speak to issues of security, human rights and free speech.

"We launched Google.cn in January 2006," wrote Drummond, "in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that 'we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.'"

Drummond also references China's attempts in 2009 to curtail and censor free expression on the Web, which we have covered in depth and which we listed as one of last year's greatest failures.

Google execs, who have decided that serving censored search results is no longer an option, will spend several weeks talking with the Chinese government about whether or not they could run an unfiltered search engine in that country. If the two entities are unable to reach an agreement, it is likely that Google.cn will shut down, as will Google's offices in China.

What Took So Long?

We've long been critical of major tech companies that, through acts of omission or under the auspices of compliance with foreign governments, do harm to human rights, privacy and free speech.

In a post from October 2008, our own Marshall Kirkpatrick questioned whether Google, Yahoo!, YouTube or any of the larger web companies operating internationally were equipped to handle the moral and ethical responsibilities of their expansion overseas into troubled territories. He reminded us of several affronts to human rights for which these companies were responsible, then noted, "It's hard, because their fundamental drive is to monetize these huge markets."

Curt Hopkins, founder of the Commmittee to Protect Bloggers, responded with a similar point of view, saying, "Given that not just Google but every single other American tech company has shat themselves to get at the mythological Chinese market, this is way too long in coming.

"What took so long? Did they finally realize that they are never going to make any money as things currently are so they thought they'd get some PR? This is great news, but you still have to ask: Who benefits from this? And how do they benefit? I hate to be cyncial, but the best we can hope for is that Google says, 'This isn't going anywhere for us, and it's so unpleasant.'... If I was in Google's shoes, I would never stop talking about how wonderful we were for doing this."

Hopkins's cohort Andrew Ford Lyons has posted a statement that Google ought to immediately remove filters from search results on Google.cn and promote uncensored, unmonitored web access "by channeling some of their incredibly smart staff's efforts toward projects that protect privacy in China and help more Web surfers there quickly and safely bypass firewalls."

We will continue to update you on the situation as we receive more information. In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

via readwriteweb.com

Targeting human rights activists. It's sad but not surprising that China would do this. Even if google's threat is all bluster, its still a nice sentiment.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China

2010-01-12T16:44:00.001-08:00

Links to this post

ontd_political: Google 'may end China operations over Gmail breaches'

Internet search company Google says it may end operations in China over alleged breaches of the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It said in a blog post it had detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our ...

Posted by Philipp at 16:34

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Google hat bekannt gegeben, Suchergebnisse in China künftig nicht mehr zu zensieren – selbst, wenn das bedeuten würde, sich aus China zurückziehen zu müssen. Wenn das ernst gemeint ist, ist es ein Kracher. ...

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Google China to Stop Censorship

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Google, censorship, China | Tom Watson MP

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Posted by Tom at 16:15

A Necessity « 静水铭室

A Necessity. Someone has to stand up and say: enough is enough: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html. Filed under: Twitter Leave a comment. Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post ) ...

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Google Gives China the Boot? | elephant journal

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Google to stop censoring google.cn, may close service and China ...

Google to stop censoring google.cn, may close service and China offices.

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Posted by Dissent at 16:08

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Posted by John Aravosis (DC) at 16:06

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Nart Villeneuve — Google's New Approach

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v_x: Google угрожает Китаю. Молодца

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No Right Turn: Google ends collaboration with China

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neuraum: Ого

Ого Google, судя по тону этого стейтмента в официальном блоге компании, не на шутку разозлен и собирается отменить фильтры в Китае, а если не получится, то вовсе уйти с китайского рынка. Привет, Байду! Но вообще жесть, конечно. ...

Posted by neuraum at 15:57

vowe dot net :: Google: A new approach to China

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Parece ser que se acaba la censura de Google en China, o eso comentan en el blog de google , y es que desde el 27 de Enero del 2006 Google ha permitido auto.

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Edmund W. Schuster: The Cyber Attach on Google

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Posted by Notes of a small mind at 15:48

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» Google puede cerrar sus operaciones en China Canal Apple

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Posted by MacMax at 15:46

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Posted by Michael at 15:44

the indian wind along the telegraph lines » Blog Archive ...

I will be shocked if Google really follows through with pulling out China Operations because of the compromised emails. I think Google is just trying to win points with the US Gov in an effort to gain traction in other areas they have ...

Posted by mneptok at 15:42

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Google to review and possibly close operations in China – Tech ...

Jan. 12, 2010 - Google has posted on its official blog this afternoon and decided to share a difficult decision it is having to make about the company's presence in.

Posted by Matthew Humphries at 15:38

美人她爹» Google资深副总裁暗示可能退出中国

在论坛上面看到的，链接在这里，发布时间是35分钟之前。文章里面有一些敏感词语，我就不翻译了，倒数第二段指出：. Google认为不应当继续监控Google.cn的搜索结果…这很有可能意味着将会关闭Google.cn和在中国的办公室。 ...

Posted by 美人她爹 at 15:35

Parkrocker.com » Google – Schluß mit Zensur oder Rückzug aus China

Google hat soeben einen bemerkenswerten Blogpost veröffentlicht. Darin ging es um kürzlich erfolgte Attacken gegen aus China und den Versuchen, in die Googlemail-Accounts von Menschenrechtlern.

Posted by Jens at 15:35

lightsailor: Read it, pass it on

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Posted by Rachel at 15:34

BooYahoo!: Google Makes Good

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Posted by Jim at 15:32

Google Will Stop Censoring Results on Google.cn, Might Be Forced ...

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Posted by resourceshelf at 15:30

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Posted by Pierre at 15:29

Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

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Posted by Gene at 15:28

Newsflash: Google stänger ner i Kina « berinder β

Google har gått ut och sagt att dom tänker stänga ner sitt kontor i Kina om dom inte får presentera ocensurerade resultat på kinesiska google. Detta som ett svar på en attack som skedde mot googles infrastruktur där målet var att nå ...

Posted by berinder at 15:26

Cempaka Information (Business) Technology: A new approach to China

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Posted by Cempaka at 15:24

Gregg Hilferding: Web Development, Apple Stuff, and More » Finally.

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Google and China

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Posted by Dave at 15:20

so glad to finally be failing - Finally!

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Posted by Ellen Petry Leanse at 15:00

The View from Taiwan: China hacks Google

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Posted by Michael Turton at 05:17

GoogleGroup's Blog: Re: [G2G] Google 发现邮件系统受到来自大陆的 ...

这个决定确实很难下，但Google认为这样做的潜在意义非常重大，这完全是美国总部的考虑，而跟中国大陆的谷歌中国员工没有任何关系，他们已经非常努力的在做好足够成功的google.cn了。我的个人看法：就黑体字部分来看，我几乎可以确认，商谈不会有任何 ...

Posted by Talker at 16:07

GoogleGroup's Blog: [G2G] Google 发现邮件系统受到来自大陆的攻击 ...

[G2G] Google 发现邮件系统受到来自大陆的攻击，扬言可能撤出中国大陆. 这个决定确实很难下，但Google认为这样做的潜在意义非常重大，这完全是美国总部的考虑，而跟中国大陆的谷歌中国员工没有任何关系，他们已经非常努力的在做好足够成功的google.cn了。 ...

Posted by Talker at 15:55

Top News - FAROO Real Time Search

Conan O'Brien says he will not do “The Tonight Show” if it airs at 12:05 a.m. He released the following statement Tuesday afternoon: People of Earth: In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of . ...

Posted by at 00:00

Google

Business In a lengthy blog post today, Google announced that it would no longer censor its Chinese search engine, even if it means pulling out of China entirely. This comes in the wake of a wide-ranging attack on its infrastructure ...

Posted by Los Angeles Web Startup at 13:02

Create a Link

via googleblog.blogspot.com

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

Targeting human rights activists. It's sad but not surprising that China would do this. Even if google's threat is all bluster, its still a nice sentiment.

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

The Wheels Come Off the Biodiesel Wagon

2010-01-12T13:33:00.001-08:00

The Wheels Come Off the Biodiesel Wagon

Domestic Biodiesel Production Plummets
One of my Top 10 Energy Stories of 2009 involved the actions taken by the EU against U.S. biodiesel producers. U.S. tax dollars had been generously subsidizing biodiesel that was being exported out of the U.S. European producers couldn't compete against the subsidized imports, so the EU effectively cut off the imports by imposing five-year tariffs on U.S. biodiesel.
This was a big blow to U.S. biodiesel producers, and was one of the factors leading to a disastrous 2009 for U.S. biodiesel production. How disastrous was 2009? Per the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), here are the statistics from the past 6 years of biodiesel production:
2004: 25 million gallons
2005: 75 million gallons
2006: 250 million gallons
2007: 450 million gallons
2008: 700 million gallons
2009: 300-350 million gallons (estimate)
The NBB also reports that domestic biodiesel capacity is now operating at only 15%. There have been a number of stories in the past few days covering these developments:
Bad start to 2010 after 'rough year' for entire biofuel industry

A federal tax credit that provided makers of biodiesel $1 for every gallon expired Friday. As a result, some U.S. producers say they will shut down without the government subsidy.
A one-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit was included in a bill that was approved by the U.S. House recently, but it never made it through the Senate.

Politics and Energy Policy

A cautionary tale about innovating in an industry controlled by the Government

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

VigLink Finds a New Way to Make Blogging Pay – GigaOM

2010-01-12T10:03:00.001-08:00

VigLink is launching today a service to help publishers take advantage of affiliate marketing offerings for sites they already link to in their normal course of writing. While many site owners may be aware that Amazon will send them a cut of revenue when they refer purchasers, just about every other e-commerce and subscription service — from The Gap to The Wall Street Journal — does, too. VigLink estimates that less than half of links that could be monetized are hooked up to affiliate programs.

The San Francisco-based company raised $800,000 in June in a (previously reported) round led by First Round Capital and Google Ventures and including Reid Hoffman, Deep Nishar, Niel Robertson, Hadi Partovi, Ali Partovi, Carlos Cashman and Micah Adler.

The thought behind VigLink is that in the course of regular writing, web publishers link to sites that they don’t know have affiliate programs. Rather than requiring bloggers to sign up for each program individually, VigLink serves as the middleman. The content creators receive payments after they reach a $25 minimum for all the affiliate programs combined (a much lower barrier to entry than if they had joined all of them individually). VigLink also maintains publishers’ links to make sure they hook up to current offerings.

Meanwhile, merchants are given the ability to track participating publishers and reject those whose content or audience they don’t feel is appropriate. Visitors probably won’t notice anything out of the ordinary as they read and click on links, unless they look very closely at the URL, said Viglink CEO Oliver Roup. His company, of course, takes a cut of any CPA revenue (and later may expand to CPC).

VigLink (which has a UK equivalent startup, Skimlinks) sent me a sample report showing that Gizmodo leaves approximately $4,400 per month on the table in unrealized income. That’s not based on a relationship with the site, but an estimate from crawling its outbound links, using public traffic estimates and applying a model of how many click-throughs the site is likely to get (see screenshot). VigLink says it already has relationships with sites that have a combined 100 million page views per month, but it’s not specifying which ones. It does not require a minimum amount of traffic to join the program.

My concern with VigLink would be that a taste of the revenue from linking to The Gap, for instance, might lead a normally interesting blogger to write about nothing but sweaters and khakis. We don’t really need any more link farms in the world. Roup said that VigLink will encourage participants to follow the FTC guidelines about paid blogging. He also noted that as compared to something like the double-underlined links from Kontera (which I personally find way too obtrusive), VigLink’s monetized links blend in with the rest of the text and the normal course of reading.

The next step for VigLink is to expand beyond people who publish their own sites and blogs to places like Twitter and Facebook where bevies of users trade links. Roup hinted that this was in the plans, and said that it’s actually already possible for sites like those to integrate with VigLink’s open API.

As a side note, I followed up with Rich Miner at Google Ventures because I was interested in the nature of the VigLink funding given the startup’s product is somewhat close to Google’s AdSense and it was one of Google Ventures’ first investments.

While both Miner and Roup said the overlap had been positive so far, Miner meanwhile relayed a cute story about how he met Roup — while judging a business plan competition at Harvard last year. “Something about him struck me,” Miner said, noting Roup majored in computer science at MIT and “perhaps looked a little scruffy compared to the other polished MBAs.” Roup didn’t win the competition but he did get the mentorship and eventually, funding.

via gigaom.com

These guys have a pretty interesting concept here. I look forward to seeing where they take it.

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Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own Consumer Internet Dogfood - Master of 500 Hats

2010-01-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2010/01/startups-vcs-eat-your-own-damn-dogfood.html

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Events Calendar

2010-01-07T16:52:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Art Openings Calendar

This Art Openings Calendar in SF is Amazing! I also just figured out how to access it easily on my Iphone to use as an itinerary. Ahhh, Technology

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''SuperFreakonomics'' Authors interviewed by Ezra Klein

2010-01-07T13:24:00.001-08:00

via podcast.rbn.com

Excellent podcast here - definitely need to read this one. Focus in on the second half (starting at 34:00), where they discuss health care, and addressing Climate Change through geo-engineering

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Analytics X Prize

2010-01-06T14:28:00.001-08:00

via analyticsx.com

The Analytics X Prize is an ongoing contest to apply analytics, modeling, and statistics to solve the social problems that affect our cities. It combines the fields of statistics, mathematics, and social science to understand the root causes of dysfunction in our neighborhoods. Understanding these relationships and discovering the most highly correlated variables allows us to deploy our limited resources more effectively and target the variables that will have the greatest positive impact on improvement. Current Contest - 2010 - Predicting Homicides in Philadelphia Philadelphia is a city with 5.8 million people spread out over 47 zip codes and, like any major city, it has its share of crime. The goal of the Analytics X Prize is to use statistical techniques and any data sets you can find to predict where crime, specifically homicides, will occur in the city. The ability to accurately predict where crime is likely to occur allows us to deploy our limited city resources more effectively. Full rules can be found on the Rules & FAQ page.

Contest to predict homicides in Philly via data analysis. Sweet.

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With MyLikes.com, Ex-Googlers Want to Build the Next AdSense

2010-01-06T11:37:00.001-08:00

via gigaom.com

Interesting....

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Facebook's 1st CTO Launches His Next Company (Screen Shots)

2010-01-06T11:31:00.001-08:00

via readwriteweb.com

More of these services are coming online. The right model may be hard to find, but once hit it could be really useful.

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Social Game Developers Revamp Viral Tactics to Comply with Facebook Policies

2010-01-04T17:02:00.001-08:00

via insidesocialgames.com

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Calorie restriction: Scientists take important step toward 'fountain of youth'

2010-01-03T09:25:00.001-08:00

via sciencedaily.com

A little more detail on how caloric restriction leads to increased cell life. Seems it's in the telomere regulation, which is good news to me. It points toward lifespan being regulated, and not a result of our biological machine just reaching its limits.

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San Francisco Sea Lions Abandon Their Pier 39 Post

2010-01-03T09:07:00.001-08:00

via wired.com

Oh no!

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Facebook readies its Game Dashboard

2009-12-18T12:44:00.001-08:00

via games.venturebeat.com

Great idea - This business niche has been hanging out there unfilled, if Facebook can nail it, it will be huge.

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Data on the coming Facebook Credits

2009-12-17T16:48:00.001-08:00

via insidesocialgames.com

Can't believe facebook has waited so long on this. I can only imagine how much more they could be raking in if they had set up this system in advance of the social games boom. Still if done right there is tons of upside left.

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Sony’s Home virtual world hits 10M users, debuts cool 3-D game, and embraces virtual goods | VentureBeat

2009-12-17T14:18:00.001-08:00

via games.venturebeat.com

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Digg Plus StumbleUpon Equals Diggstr

2009-12-16T10:53:00.001-08:00

via mashable.com

I'm surprised Digg didn't do something like this long ago... there are many good ways to discover content, and this is one.

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Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel

2009-12-14T16:15:00.001-08:00

via sciencedaily.com

Makes me happy to see more and more of this technology sprouting up... Of course it's a long road from the lab to...well back to the road in this case.

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Bacterial Game Theory

2009-12-14T10:06:00.001-08:00

via sciencedaily.com

very interesting... I bet that the most advanced technology on Earth will be found in the computing networks of singe cells. We'll find that bacteria dealt with all the complex systems engineering issues we are just starting to grapple with, and hashed out answers in the first billion years of Life. What was going in then anyway?

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The peak-oil debate: 2020 vision | The Economist

2009-12-10T15:00:00.001-08:00

via economist.com

The IEA has put out a predicted date for Peak Oil, which is earlier than I would have expected them to believe. While it is nice to see them become more reasonable, it is worrisome since they represent the optimists.

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Why the hammerhead shark got its hammer

2009-12-08T17:32:00.001-08:00

via newscientist.com

Better Vision. Huh. I always assumed it has something to do with a sonar like sense, or smell.

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Toddlers insensitive to fear go on to commit crimes

2009-12-08T17:03:00.001-08:00

via newscientist.com

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Mathematical model of simple circuit in chicken brain raises fundamental questions about neural circuitry

2009-12-08T15:22:00.001-08:00

via sciencedaily.com

This sounds pretty interesting. I'm a believer that there are simple abstraction layers that will help us to understand neural, and other biological networks. In this case, though it seems odd that several cells could be modeled as one "neuron." if one cell could do the job, it is odd that the circuit was not paired down to that. Then again, can't assume that Evolution is always so elegant.

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How Facebook is changing the rules of online retail | VentureBeat

2009-12-03T15:53:00.001-08:00

via venturebeat.com

There is gold in these hills.

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2009-12-03T15:33:00.001-08:00

#W It's hard to play God of a virtual World, learns EA http://ping.fm/oqG8l

There are Parrots in My Tree!

2009-12-03T15:09:00.001-08:00

via markbittner.net

The "Feral Parrots of Telegraph Hill" that is. This is not to be confused with bats in my belfry. I had no idea there were feral Peruvian parrots in SF, very cool.

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Meat grown in laboratory in world first

2009-12-02T17:04:00.001-08:00

via telegraph.co.uk

I wish Scientists would get a move on here, so I can feel less guilty about being a Carnivore...

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Firefox Addon Automatically Price Checks for Savings While You Shop

2009-12-02T10:52:00.001-08:00

via mashable.com

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2009-11-27T13:50:00.001-08:00

Dragon stout: good reward for braving black Friday in NYC

Google Brings Local Business Coupons to U.S. Mobile Users

2009-11-24T09:16:00.001-08:00

Printable coupons have long been available on Google Maps, but - let's face it - more and more consumers have abandoned the desktop/printer paradigm for a more mobile/digital approach to search, on-the-go directions, and local business research.

Product manager Alex Gawley wrote on the Google Mobile blog, "With more of you going mobile to search for this information, it makes sense for coupons to go mobile too... We hope you find these mobile coupons useful and that they help you save money, trees (fewer printed coupons), and your hands (from paper cuts) when you're on the go."

Place Pages for the desktop have also been revamped to ensure that mobile and printed coupons will share a common look and feel, regardless of the device, the OS, or the browser in which they originated.

It will be interesting to hear and read post-holiday metrics and success (or "opportunity for improvement") stories about these new mobile coupons. While we certainly hope the setup will allow users to quickly and conveniently engage with the world around them - and we likewise hope local retailers can reach out to customers wherever they are - we wonder how many quickly the coupons will take off and how much users will be inclined to use them.

Would you redeem a mobile coupon you found through Google search, and under what circumstances or conditions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

via readwriteweb.com

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Nasdaq Capitalization as a % of GDP | The Big Picture

2009-11-20T10:27:00.001-08:00

via ritholtz.com

Disturbing. Empiricism doesn't work well if your observational history has all been an aberration.

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Twitter and Facebook Client Brizzly Now Open to All

2009-11-20T09:48:00.001-08:00

13Share
Brizzly is a web-based Twitter and Facebook client that has been gaining some momentum and buzz over the past couple months.

It has some slick features like being able to view photos and videos in-line in your TwitterTwitter
stream, threaded DMs, and built-in photo uploading. It also recently added support for Twitter Lists. However, it’s remained in invite-only mode. That changes today though, as BrizzlyBrizzly
is flipping the switch and allowing anyone to sign up for an account.

The company tells us that they’ll “still be in beta for a bit, which just means we’ll be continuing to experiment as usual.” One of those experiments, which launches today, is on-the-fly translation of tweets, which in theory lets you follow people who tweet in different languages and have them translated into your language of choice in your stream.

Brizzly is trying to compete in a very crowded space, but have an exceptionally strong team including Jason Shellen, who worked at Bloggerblogger
with Evan Williams, and Chris Wetherell, who’s credited with having created Google ReaderGoogle Reader
. Today, the company also announced they’ve added another ex-Googler to the mix, Ben Darnell, who was most recently working for FacebookFacebook
via the social network’s acquisition of FriendFeed.

If you’re not yet familiar with the product, this video gives a brief overview:

Let us know what you think of Brizzly in the comments.

via mashable.com

This looks pretty interesting. Definitely would love to see more Google Reader like functionality in this space.

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More Details On SimpleGeo, The AWS For Location

2009-11-19T10:53:00.001-08:00

This morning at Under the Radar, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan are taking the stage to unveil SimpleGeo, their new infrastructure for location based services. We’ve been following the company over the last few months and uncovered some basic details earlier, but this marks the first time the founders are talking about the company in public.

SimpleGeo is akin to an ‘Amazon Web Services’ for location: developers looking to integrate location based services (LBS) can plug into some simple APIs and SimpleGeo will do most of the legwork for them. The startup originated as a gaming company, but after spending four months building out their location platform, Stump and Galligan realized they had stumbled across an opportunity: location is soon going to become an expected feature in many applications, and there’s no reason developers should have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to include the feature. SimpleGeo is looking to do it for them.

I spoke with Galligan last night, who says that one of the ways SimpleGeo could help spur radical change in location based services has to do with real-time (incidentally, he’ll be speaking at our Real-Time CrunchUp tomorrow). Galligan says that the technologies currently used to process real-time data can’t cope with the rapid read/write operations required as a LBS scales. In other words, these technologies simply weren’t built with real time in mind (he says this is one reason why companies like Foursquare have partitioned their users by city). SimpleGeo, Galligan says, was built from the ground up to support real-time on a much broader scale.

SimpleGeo is currently in a private beta (you can apply to join from a form on their homepage), with plans to roll out broadly early next year. The service will be available for free to apps just getting started, and paid packages will kick in as they hit scale (the more API calls you use the more you’ll pay).

For more details, check out the slides below.

get widget minimize
CrunchBase Information

SimpleGeo

Website: simplegeo.com

Location: Boulder, Colorado, United States

Founded: May, 2009

Funding: $195k

SimpleGeo (formerly CrashCorp) provides ready-to-use solutions for enabling location in applications. The company was founded in May 2009 by Joe Stump and Matt Galligan. Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

via techcrunch.com

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Why Nice Flys Get The Girls

2009-11-13T11:38:00.001-08:00

via sciencedaily.com

This is great on two levels:

First a very entertaining anthropomorphism. The biggest jerks will get the girls when you are locked in a group of 100 in high school, but when you grow up, women have more of a chance to choose their mating venue. Douchebags may still reign in the confines of a bar, but the best girls may not hang out in said bar....

Second, it's a nice example of multilevel selection. It always seemed likely to me that natural selection operates on different levels. Technically it has to, and some of those levels will produce significant selection pressure in certain cases. When outlined this as a freshman to certain famous Harvard Biologists, they scoffed at me. I wonder if they have changed their tune since...

Posted via web from Benjamin's posterous

Website:	posterous.com
Location:	San Francisco, California, United States
Founded:	May, 2008
Funding:	$5.14M

Website:	simplegeo.com
Location:	Boulder, Colorado, United States
Founded:	May, 2009
Funding:	$195k