This Drug Has No Side Effects

I was reading an article on CNN: Trial: Popular cholesterol drug fails to improve heart disease about the drugs Vytorin and Zetia which have proved very popular because they have fewer side effects than the tradition cholesterol medicines. According to the article the makers of the drugs made $5 Billion in sales.... but turns out... "The results show the drug had "no result -- zilch. In no subgroup, in no segment, was there any added benefit" for reducing plaque, said Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch scientist who led the study."

Isn't this the sort of thing they are supposed to test before they release a drug onto the market and do $200 million in advertising? And are we susceptible to advertising.... apparently so -- " In Canada, where marketing drugs directly to consumers is not allowed, sales were four times lower." Doctors weren't supposed to be prescribing this drug unless the more traditional drugs didn't work.

It's stuff like this that makes me think that something big is going to happen around drugs in the next 10-20 years.... but what? What will be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back? Will it be something unrelated to health like a moving interest rate? Or will it be some big case against someone bringing in drugs from Canada? Or will it be a science fiction answer where there's some huge catastrophe where what's going on with the drug companies is just immaterial?

Can Bonnie Change the World?

I can never get enough about how the internet has changed the influence that one person can have in the world.

The first time I remember this happening was right here in the Bay Area. One of the car dealers here in the Bay Area was rude to a few too many Asian customers and suddenly there was an email flying around to everyone as each person sent it to his or her friends and they did the same. In just a few weeks or months it seemed like everyone knew about this specific dealer and the place was blacklisted.

The second time I remember it happening was when this expat in Hong Kong sent a somewhat offensive, but very funny email, about his life in Hong Kong out to a friend using his work email address. That friend sent it to his friend, who sent it to his friend and so on. I got a copy shortly before I read in the news that the expat had been fired.

My friend Bonnie is trying to change one airline in Thailand. Her brother was killed on the flight OG 269 and she wants to know why and has setup an online petition: http://www.investigateudom.com. The petition already has signatures from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Thailand, Ghana, Canada, Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, China, Spain, Martinique, Israel, Bahrain, Austria, Mauritius, Indonesia, Singapore, Italy, and New Zealand. The number of people who have signed the petition and who have even heard of the problem airline in question One-Two-Go is still very modest, but what if the scale tips and suddenly everyone is telling two friends and so on? There are so many countries involved. Are we on the verge of a major shift in power?

Where will we be 10 years from now?

How Come Basketball Isn't Like Wrestling?

I was watching the movie Glory Road and it occured to me that basketball would be so much more interesting if there were height requirements for the players or at least different leagues for people of different heights. For instance it would be much more interesting to see someone six feet tall slam dunk a basket than someone seven feet tall. Also there are so many more people six feet and under so I'd have to imagine that the talent involved in playing the game if there were a maximum height would be completely different.


There have been a lot of changes in the equipment used in sports in the last fifty years, but what about the sports themselves. There are now extreme sports and reality TV sports, but what about the traditional sports of Baseball, Basketball and Football? Will there ever be major changes in how these sports are played? Or will the changes come primarily based on the new equipment and the changes in the human physique?

It's Tax Time

I just finished my taxes. In a way it astounds me that I pay something like $50 to buy software to help me do my taxes. If taxes were invented today, the government would have to be responsible for creating a tool to make it possible for me to understand and file my taxes, it would simply be expected. But since taxes have been around long before software and the internet, it was up to private companies like Intuit and H & R Block to come up with the brilliant ideas to create the software to help a person file their taxes. It would be interesting to know how tax software has changed how much people pay in taxes. Do people really pay less? Or do they pay more? How much is spent on tax software? Have some accountants been put out of business by tax software? Do people put more into IRAs now because the tax programs can show them how much less they'll pay in taxes?

If things have changed because of the introduction of software like TurboTax and TaxCut what further changes will we see 10 years or 20 years from now?

The World is Out to Get Me

With the lovely weather we are having here in San Francisco many a blossom is in bloom and the trees are just pouring down a rain of pollen. I didn't used to have allergies but over the last five years things seem to have gotten worse and worse. A friend suggested that it's all the non-native species that have been planted everywhere, but that didn't sound right, after all, I'm a non-native species. My parents are not from here and their parents were not from where my parents grew up. But she had a point. Could we humans be the innocent victims in a war between different species of plant life? Are there trees around us putting out more, stronger pollen in an effort to dominate what terrain is left in this concrete jungle? Are the imported Australian Eucalyptus trees battling it out with the Japanese cherry blossom trees? Will the plant life eventually win out over all?

Are You Watching Me? Why Not?

My nephew has to write an essay about 1984 for school and we got to talking about what kind of things Orwell predicted that have come true or not come true. One thing that that has come true is that we are being watched more, but a lot of people are actually putting a lot of what might be considered private information online via blogging, facebook, youtube and all these other neato social networking sites that allow you to 'publish yourself.' One man who was hauled in for being potential terrorist publishes everything he does to avoid having problems: The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online.

And could Orwell have predicted that the US could be involved in a war for five years (Iraq) and it wouldn't be the most important thing on people's minds and for most probably wouldn't even make the top ten on a daily basis?

I think of it as Big Brother overload. We're being overloaded with all these messages of fear and we're being watched all the time so that the newest generation of adults is reacting by just not reacting to it.

If this is where we are today where will we be in 2048? What would today's Orwell think up? What are the unexpected consequences of the directions the world is going in today? If I had to guess I'd say the single biggest influence in the next forty years will be global warming. Whether efforts or taken to change direction or not, global warming will determine the day to day lives of people forty years from now.

The Trouble With Tribbles

I was watching "The Martian Child" on DVD. It's of course nothing to do with outer space and instead is about the relationship between a young boy and his adoptive father. When the movie was over I decided to watch some of the special features. In all honesty, I just wanted to hear the child actor in the movie talk like a normal kid for once. What I discovered instead was that the writer of The Martian Child is David Gerrold who wrote the episode for the original Star Trek Series, The Trouble With Tribbles. He also worked on Star Trek Next Generation and has many other writings. How amazing that he was able to cross genres so successfully.

Aspiring to Something New

I came across an article that mentioned a car company Aptera and their car which gets hundreds of miles to the gallon. I'd be impressed with the exciting new design (except for the fact that it looks a lot like an airplane minus the wings.) I wonder how safe the wheels sticking out from the body will be since they will have a low visibility to other drivers on the road who generally judge where other cars are by the side of the car. Maybe one day we will need to have roads just for electric cars.

In a way, it would be kind of cool if we had a 'real' gas shortage because it would cause a flurry of new innovations and a change in the rules to accommodate innovations that address a pressing need.

What Technology Could We Not Live Without?

At one time there were questions about whether microwaves were healthy. There was speculation that cell phones were causing brain cancer when they first became popular. Both are believed to be untrue now, but what would happen if a major piece of technology that we depend on on a daily basis was found to be unhealthy? Would we be able to give it up? Not just use it in a different way, but give it up completely. We already know that cars are unhealthy, but not too many people have stopped driving as a result. Because cars are unhealthy on a global basis rather than an individual basis it's hard to appreciate the cause and effect. But it if was something more personal?

I looked around trying to think of what technology I absolutely couldn't live without and I think it would be a sad day in who-ville if I had to give up my computer, well, to get even more specific, email. I know it's ridiculous, but what if the day came and bam... no more email (and no more text messaging since it's basically the same thing.) What would happen?

A Happy Little Mouse

So my favorite new little toy that I got to go with my new computer is a little wireless mouse. I don't know why I hated having a wire, but I definitely like this little mouse. It seems like I used to just deal with the touch pad with my old computer rather than lug the mouse on a cable around with me.

I think for many people the webcam that comes standard or maybe cost $25 on most laptops is probably a favorite. I remember when all these little chat systems, skype, yahoo voice, etc were just taking off and having a camera seemed so cool, but the only systems that came with them were expensive. Or you got an external one and at least for me, it was tough to get it one to sit right so half the time there was a tilted image.

I like the camera. It has a great image, but it worries me. Will we all have to have webcam calls in the next 10 years? Will we lose that anonymity that talking on the phone had where no one could tell that you were cleaning the house or paying bills?

Vista is Not that Bad

I finally broke down and bought a new computer. I've been looking for over six months, but the whole controversy over how bad the new Microsoft Vista was made me hold off. But when keys started to fly off my old computer I knew I had no choice. I had already replaced the battery when it didn't just die, but had a secret code telling me something was REALLY wrong. (The code being that the first, third and fifth lights were blinking and my computer was notifying me that I'd better do something.) I replaced the hard drive when it was making too much noise and then finally started to have problems rebooting. Yup, the keyboard was the final straw.

I braced myself for the worst getting Vista. I could have bought a computer that had XP, but at Dell in my price range it meant spending more on an older computer and that just didn't make sense. So I ordered my computer and crossed my fingers. I set aside a whole day for dealing with the problems I knew I was bound to run into moving all my files and software over to the new machine. I was convinced that at least one or all of my peripherals wouldn't work with my new machine.

... but in the end, everything worked and though I'm still struggling to learn some of the new bells and whistles everything seems pretty straightforward. So was it all just hype?

Is Being Whiny Genetic?

I'm still making my way through watching the original Star Wars. It's not that it's boring at all. I just like to watch on the treadmill so it takes time. I remember there were all these comments about Anakin being too whiny and annoying and when I was watching Star Wars IV I realized how perfect this was because it tied him into the first movie. Luke really seems like Anakin and the whole father/son thing makes perfect sense.

George Lukas really is brilliant. It's amazing that he managed to keep a consistency in the story even over 30 years. And the new movies are on the way:

When would R2D2 Be Put to Sleep?

More on Star Wars. It's interesting watching a movie that was made more than 30 years ago contend with the science of today. Like would an R2-D2 really have been in service for more than 20 years between when he was in the new movie (which takes place in the past) and when he was in the old movies (which is the future)? Here we buy cars every 4 years or so, computers every two years or so. What would be the shelf life of a utilitarian robot?

Wouldn't Clones Have an Achilles Heel?

I was watching Star Wars IV (which is the first movie) for the first time in a really long time and something occured to me. Wouldn't human clones used as soliders have an achilles heel due to the fact that they are all the same? Couldn't someone genetically engineer a virus of some sort that would target only DNA or the clones?

Email A. D.

In the old days... oh say well, depending on the person, yesterday, after someone died their relatives would have the unhappy job of deciding what to do with all their worldly goods. Along with that came the letters and pictures that the person left behind, almost an essence of who they were and what the cared about. But today it's all about the email. Email that is password protected. Will the secret love affairs that used to come out or that curious picture that no one can place be a thing of the past? I wonder what the rules are about email after death. Will Yahoo or Google open up an email box of a relative who has an untimely death? And will we ever know if someone dies if the only record of the relationship was by email?

Will new laws be passed? Will new arrangements be made? Along with telling you where the money is hidden, will grandma give you the password to her account?

Beaches Closed - High Narcotics Level

There's an article on CNN Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S. about how prescription drugs are ending up in the water supply. One of the most interesting findings reported in the article is that "male fish are being feminized." With all the estrogen from birth control pills making it's way into nature, the male fish are being impacted.

What does this mean for the future of male species? Can't you just see the intro to the movie? A woman and a man are in there home... the woman pops one of the pills out of the easily recognizable birth control pill dispensers, grabs a swig of water and then uses the toilet. The audience watches and the water flushed down makes it's way through the processing facility and finally ends up with a scientist pulling a fish out of the water and commenting on how something is off with the fish. The scene fades, and a big future date comes on the screen....

It's easy to predict what would happen with too much estrogen in the water system. What about these other drugs?

Common Parts

I was reading a blog post on LinuxDevices.com: Low-cost laptop runs Linpus Linux which talks about a $300 ultra-mini PC for the developing country market and it got me thinking. With the huge number of certain brand name computers like Dell, HP, Apple, etc, couldn't those companies come up with a 'refurbished' type of computer made from recycled parts from their own brands? Right now I know that Dell offers the option of letting you pay to recycle your computer, but what if when you bought a new computer, you sent your old computer back in and all the working parts were harvested and rebuilt into a computer that could be sent off to some third world nation's school?

Now take it a step further, what if companies designed their computers with the idea that they could one day be rebuilt into another computer? And take it another step further, what if all computers had to have the capability to have certain parts be flexible enough to be reused in a different type of computer until the parts died from use. Would the world change with all the extra computers available?

An Opportunity for Technology?

There's an article in Today's San Francisco Chronicle: Court limits home-schooling to credentialed teachers about how the courts have found home schooling in California to be illegal unless done by credentialed teachers. So just what will happen to the 166,000 children mentioned in the article who are being home schooled?

I see a niche market opening up for credentialed teachers using technology to provide homeschooling tutoring. Would a teacher instant messaging a student and correcting their homework through email count? Where will the line be drawn? It's pretty tough to get a teaching credential as specified by the State of California: You must complete a professional teacher preparation program, including successful student teaching, at the level you wish to teach. Pretty scary stuff: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/cl561c.pdf.

Education is always a fun topic for science fiction. I was once looking at books in the library and came across James Clavell's book The Children's Story about a class of children that is quickly re-educated in their classroom. It was one of these really scary stories that seemed all too real. Sometimes I wonder if home schoolers believe this is what happens to their children at school.

After the 15 minutes of Fame

The new American Idol Season is well underway. But in the auditions there was one kid who was in the American Idol Juniors show a few years back. I enjoyed that show. The kids were cute and sang nice little songs. Of course unlike the American Idol winners, you never hear about what happened to the kids, so I looked up the two sisters... turns out, sure enough they have their website own http://www.thompsonsister.net/. Not only that, there's still all kinds of footage of the sisters being posted on YouTube both by fans and by the sisters regularly. Example:






So the kids are stretching their 15 minutes of fame without actually working in the entertainment industry. I look forward to looking up these two girls 15 years from now and seeing if the are still in this in between world, or if they will jump back into the spot light or if they will finally fade from the public view.

Internet Famous

By the way, what was so interesting about yesterday's video was that it had been viewed over a half a million times in just one day. Now let's look at a video that's been looked at almost 77 million times.

I didn't get it. 77 million times? Seriously? That's the magic of the viral effect of the Internet. People will watch things that are not necessarily that entertaining.



The guy in the video is Judson Laipply. He's "Internet famous. " He's interviewed on TV because people are watching his video on Youtube.


The phrase "15 minutes of fame" is taking on a whole new meaning. So is this all going to blow over and be some fad that we all remember as being so charming or is Internet fame something people are going to work towards. Will people try to get their fame via Youtube instead of trying to break into TV and movies?

Things We've Never Seen Before

I decided to take a look at Youtube this week and see just how entertaining the videos there can be and see where we are today in terms of entertainment.

So I went into the "Most Viewed" Section and found an interesting video of a plane landing where the plane very nearly crashed.



(related article)
I think the most interesting thing about this segment is that it's something that I've never seen before. We've all seen staged airplane crashes, but this was real. It was so real that it looked fake. As the plane took off again my thoughts I thought about what some of the bumpy rides I've taken on airplanes must look like from outside the plane.

This was just some guy taking videos, but do airports all have cameras on the runways? Are all take-offs and landings recorded? Could these recordings change the design of planes and the rules about flying for the future? Do we want to know this much detail?