The Raw Facts about Counsyl

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Counsyl Genetics: The Truth

Oh… the “raw facts” about Counsyl are already freely available in a well documented scientific paper hosted at Nature Biotechnology which precisely describes Counsyl’s medical genomic testing product and its intended application. A layperson’s summary of Counsyl is, oh… already freely available on Counsyl’s website.

What did you expect? A movie poster?

(Andrew, don’t you have something intelligent to say about Counsyl?)

No, because:

  • I’m not Counsyl
  • All the relevant information about Counsyl is already freely available
  • Oh… you can JUST BUY THE STUPID THING YOURSELF ON THE COUNSYL WEBSITE RIGHT NOW and… IT’S EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED which is a BORING MAIL ORDER MEDICAL TEST WHICH COSTS A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS. Since Counsyl neither ports your existing library of sega genesis games so that you can smugly reminisce how easy it always really was beat Sonic the Hedgehog now that you’re almost thirty nor downsamples your favorite top 40 RnB tunz into twenty second loops on your mobile even though you have purposely selected from five to ten years ago so that you can feel ironic because you’re “hip” to the “whole thing,” I don’t know how Counsyl is of any general interest … unless there is a movie poster?… no, no movie poster. so… tldr; go away

I have no idea what else I’m supposed to say. I think that the Counsyl product as it is now is a finished product, I think that everybody should get one, but I think that the Counsyl engineers should find something else to do because I can assure you —from personal experience— that the Counsyl website —by the simple virtues that it A) exists and B) usually works— is already better and easier than anything else I have to use in my medical office. My problem is that EVERYBODY ELSE in medicine is so horrible, and that we at the medical office only have a limited amount of attention we can levy per patient, so preventative medicine beyond “stop smoking” and “lose weight” and “you are going to die; here’s a thing that probably preventativizes that; you can pick it up at the pharmacy counter next to the cigarette case inside the box store that had to add a second soda isle —plus checkout coolers— to accomodate all the new flavors energy drinks because bulk soda which already had its own double sided isle”

…is effectively noise.

Google Calendar Overhead Waiting Room Display

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Simple: Google Enterprise calendar, HTML view. The entire system including the solid wood cabinet cost about a couple thousand dollars. Aside: I have not read all of Unix Power Tools or Unix Networking, so don’t think I’m a Unix genius. I just know basic stuff like how to open a port and manually read and write HTTP headers. I did read War Nerd. So far, nobody I’ve noticed has complained about that book, though sometimes I mark up books that I don’t like, and last week, a patient exclaimed to Steve that he knew the author of the book I had defaced! But it was OK, because he thought she was a “such a snob,” so he thought that was hilarious. So sometimes, Greenwich Connecticut is OK. There’s nothing that can bring people of all cultures together faster than a mutual hatred for stuck up snob impostors. I told the patient: “yah, that’s why I like computers. They don’t lie.” I don’t think he liked that answer, but whatever.


This computer was originally my desktop computer purchased for me by Paul Charlton of Mountain View, CA. So if you’re out there… hey, Paul. You can have you computer back, but I broke the system fan sensor so you have to press F2 twice to bypass the BIOS warning.


This is how the waiting room is arranged from the entrance; the calendar display is immediately to the left.

I had bought the drawers from Ethan Allen across the street. I had somehow convinced the Ethan Allen people that it was OK to move the piece across Highway 1 on a dolly directly into my office lol. This was from this summer.

Remote Medical Video Monitoring on iPad and iPhone

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iPhone video not shown; it works similar to the iPad.

We do not record in the exam rooms.

Conversations are recorded using iPhone voice recorder. This is usually for “business use” not for “patient use” because the culture here in Greenwich / Stamford is to lie about everything and later intimidate people into silent conformance so as not to “disturb the tidy.” Basically, imagine the movie Atonement, include the variety of accents and corrosive duplicity of inherited wealth, but subtract beauty, costumes, and wealth, and set the movie in the year 2010 next to a Dunkin Donuts in a smog cloud: that is urban southwestern Connecticut.

"An Atlas of Topographical Anatomy after Plane Sections of Frozen Bodies," Christian Wilhelm Braune, 1877

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Christian Wilhelm Braune (July 17, 1831 Leipzig – April 29, 1892) was a German anatomist and professor of topographical anatomy at the University of Leipzig. He is known for his excellent lithographs regarding cross-sections of the human body, and his pioneer work in biomechanics. Braune was son-in-law to German physician Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795–1878).

Braune was inspired by the photographic work of French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904) regarding anatomical movement. Marey believed that movement was the most important of all human functions, which he described graphically for biological research in Du Mouvement Dans Les Functiorls Da La Vie (1892) and Le Mouvement (1894). This led the way for Braune's experimental, anatomical studies of the human gait, being published in the book Der Gang des Menschen. This study of the biomechanics of gait covered two transits of free walking and one transit of walking with a load. The methodology of gait analysis used by Braune is essentially the same used today.

Braune and his student, Otto Fischer (1861–1917) did research involving the position of the center of gravity in the human body and its various segments. By first determining the planes of the centers of gravity of the longitudinal, sagittal and frontal axes of a frozen human cadaver in a given position, and then dissecting the cadaver with a saw, they were able to establish the center of gravity of the body and its component parts. Braune and Fischer also did extensive work regarding the fundamentals of resistive forces that the muscles need to overcome during movement.

In unrelated investigative work, Braune had a decisive role in the publication of the musical pieces composed by Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Text via Wikipedia; image via Ars Anatomica.

"The Saddest Object in the World," An Illustrated Meditation, Observatory, Friday, May 7th

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This Friday, Observatory and Morbid Anatomy will host Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in residence and Obscura co-proprietor Evan Michelson as she leads us on an illustrated meditation on what she has termed "The Saddest Object in the World." This event is a reprise of Michelson’s popular Congress for Curious People presentation which took place at the Coney Island Museum earlier this month; if you missed Michelson's beloved presentation the first time around, I cannot encourage you enough to come out tonight and find out all about The Saddest Object in the World.

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

The Saddest Object in the World
An Illustrated Meditation by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in residence
Date: Friday, May 7th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Location: Observatory

“The Saddest Object in the World” is a meditation on one particular artifact; an exercise in Proustian involuntary memory, aesthetic critique, and philosophical bargaining.

Sometimes objects have consequences.

Evan Michelson is an antiques dealer, lecturer, accumulator and aesthete; she tirelessly indulges a lifelong pursuit of all things obscure and melancholy. She currently lives in another place and time.

You can find out more about this presentation here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Cool Cars: 1938 Longhorn

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I have a feeling RM Auctions is totally baiting us into featuring this 1938 Longhorn as a Hemmings Find of the Day, but I'm totally taking the bait anyway.

Oliver Albert of Gonzalez, Texas, built this one-off custom roadster, known as the "Longhorn" over a period of appr

Congratulations to Heywood and Moira! | Cosmic Variance

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It’s that time of year again. Young graduate students, having toiled for several years at the feet of Science, are kicked out of the nest to take their places among the ancient and honorable community of scholars. If you will forgive the mixed metaphors.

This week we had a double-decker celebration: both Heywood Tam and Moira Gresham successfully defended their Ph.D. theses. Congratulations to both!

Heywood was stuck with me as an advisor, but he seems to have turned out okay. We worked together on a number of papers that looked into models of Lorentz violation, including issues of extra dimensions and stability. More recently we’ve been finishing a couple of papers on fine-tuning in the early universe — coming soon to a preprint server near you! In the Fall Heywood will leave the dry heat of SoCal for the damp heat of Florida.

Moira’s advisor was Mark Wise, but we also interacted quite a bit. She and I collaborated with Heywood and Tim Dulaney on a couple of aether papers, and she and Tim recently wrote a really interesting paper on anisotropic inflation. But she promises that her next project will be completely Lorentz-invariant. And she’ll be doing it from Ann Arbor, where she’ll be joining the Michigan physics department as a member of the Society of Fellows.

Always bittersweet when students graduate; it will be a loss to Caltech when the leave, but it’s great to see people launch their independent research careers. Best of luck to both Moira and Heywood!


60,000 Barrels of Oil a Day Into the Atlantic Ocean

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PHOTO BY TED JACKSON The M/V Joe Griffin leaves from the Martin Terminal, Port Fouchon loaded with the first of two oil containment cofferdams, headed to sea for a projected 12 hour trip to the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Wednesday, May 5, 2010.

The Worst Environmental Catastrophe in U.S. History

It’s hard to keep up with news on the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but here is some from today.  The oil is now washing up on islands and beaches, and according to news reports tonight, the oil is coating jellyfish and is visible in the water where dolphins were seen swimming.  It only take a tiny amount of oil to kill a bird and other animals in the oceans.  If drilling for oil is threatening life in the oceans, it’s affecting our lives too, so it makes sense to call for a moratorium on all offshore drilling. Just stop it completely.

BP significantly ups oil spill estimate

Steve Gelsi of MarketWatch reports that in a closed-door meeting with Congress, BP officials have significantly raised the estimated leakage from the Oil Spill. Although the earlier number estimated approximately 5,000 barrels of Crude Oil were spewing into the ocean, BP officials now peg the daily output around 60,000 barrels a day. Reports MarketWatch: BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel…

Reports MarketWatch: “BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel figure, which was reported by The New York Times. The official tally remains up to 5,000 barrels a day, he said.

Meanwhile the Obama administration signaled it would support a fresh push in Congress to raise the oil spill liability limit to $10 billion from $75 million, according to reports.

The existing cap on other damages is included in the Oil Pollution Act. BP has already said it is willing and expects to pay more than $74 million.

Amidst recent fears that the oil slick may even reach the coast of Florida, authorities have stepped up efforts to prevent such consequences. . . . “

From Dallas News — The Senate energy committee has summoned executives from BP and Transocean, the company contracted by BP to drill the well, as well as a number of oil industry technical experts, to a hearing next week. The next day, the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing, at which top executives of BP, Transocean and Halliburton have been asked to appear, a committee spokeswoman said.

A separate federal investigation into the explosion [...]

NASA Is Embracing Open Source

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Open source is NASA's next frontier, FCW

"The challenges to government's adoption and participation in open-source communities is often thought to be a simpe culture clash, but in reality it goes deeper than that, accordning to NASA's newly-appointed chief technology officer. "The issues that we need to tackle are not only cuture, but beyond culture," said Chris Kemp, formerly chief information officer at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "And I think we need new policy and support from the administration and Congress to help us tackle" them."

NASA Names Chief Technology Officer for IT

"NASA Chief Information Officer Linda Cureton announced Chris C. Kemp as the first NASA Chief Technology Officer, or CTO, for Information Technology, a new position established to lead IT innovation at the space agency."

Bigelow Steps Up Marketing

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Bigelow Marketing Inflatable Space Stations, Aviation Week

"Bigelow envisions governments and corporations making up the bulk of his company's customers. Prices will range from $200 million-$400 million, depending on the number of "seats" that are purchased. He is pitching Bigelow Aerospace's space station as an "affordable alternative" to the International Space Station, which "is controlled by the Russians and the U.S., with another 14 or so countries along for the ride."

Olson and Giffords on Obama’s Plan

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US must remain the global leader in exploring space, Rep. Pete Olson, The Hill

"The president does not outline any path for the United States to get out of low earth orbit. A major component, the revised "Orion-lite" proposal, is little more than an opportunity to delay the inevitable layoffs of highly skilled workers across America and does not further our ability as a nation to explore the heavens or get us to the moon, Mars and beyond. It has also been reported as a mechanism to prevent the government from having to pay out costly Constellation cancellation contracts. This is not a strategy for success in human space flight. It turns the capsule designed to be our spacecraft for journeys to the moon into a lifeboat on the International Space Station."

Crisis of purpose for America's space program, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, The Hill

"As conscientious stewards of the American taxpayers dollars, Congress demanded more. In response, the president took the stage last month at Kennedy Space Center and, showing a clear passion for space and a will to compromise, unveiled a new plan. Unfortunately this new plan creates more questions than answers and seems unworkable within the budget without crippling NASAs other missions. We cannot continue to argue between the president's plan and the status quo. There must be a third way."

Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative rising

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This evening I want to write about something amazing I recently was able to participate in. It was the first meeting of the Pharmacogenomics Advisory Group. This group, chaired by Issam Zineh is pretty amazing. Let me tell you why.

1. Members of PAG have been involved in pharmacogenomic studies involving most if not all current markers
2. They include members/contributors of PharmGKB, FDA, AAPS award winners, Howard MacLeod, I could go on and on.....and one lowly blogger and clinical personalized medicine specialist.....
3. The group was willing to engage in active criticism of each other and of ideas. That is the key to a great advisory group.

While we see the dropping costs of genotyping going further and further with some quoting a 10k genome by June's end, it is becoming crystal clear that the test is not the product. The test is a razor handle. Seriously. It will be given away free. But the question is, what will we do with it.

Coriell is aiming to answer some of these questions and is engaging in ethical research. Coriell is the cohort study that we will turn as we turn to Framingham. When the next decade closes we will sit back and laugh at how all of the VCs dumped money into supposed 1000 gene tests that gave nearly useless results or results that couldn't be used for what they needed to be used for by Terms of Service......

At the same time, we will see how a sleepy little institution in Camden NJ, known for holding cells became a powerhouse in the Personalized Medicine Movement by holding patient lives and medical data......with a little help from their friends........

The Sherpa Says: If you haven't joined the CPMC, you should. They are climbing the mountain skillfully

ATK: Don’t Worry – Be Happy!

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Alliant Sees NASA Revamp Easing, WS Journal

"Alliant Techsystems Inc., potentially the biggest corporate loser in White House proposals to outsource large chunks of U.S. manned space exploration, Thursday sought to signal Wall Street that most of the programs are likely to survive the revamping. Alliant's share of NASA's Constellation program, which accounts for about $400 million of the company's $4.80 billion in fiscal 2010 revenue, will stay at roughly the same level through next March, company officials said. The forecast is surprising given White House's proposal to ax nearly all the program."

ATK Reports Strong FY10 Year-End and Fourth-Quarter Operating Results

"Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.  Among these factors are: assumptions related to the Ares I and Ares V programs for NASA."