i want to have some information about how to supervise aproject of fire fighting in big hanger for air crafts and is it allowed to have the foam blader tank in out side with no room to cover it and how can i test the whole system and eccepting the final project from contractor stating of water tank
How To: Execute the Ultimate Phone Prank With Skype [Pranks]
Here's an old gem of a trick for anyone feeling lonely, vindictive, or very drunk this New Year's Eve: with Skype, you can connect any phones in the world, and listen in on the results. Man, what a decade.
Here's the game, as articulated by Reddit user quicksilver 5:
Here's a fun trick - download Skype and set up a conference call by calling two of your friends simultaneously. They'll both answer and be thoroughly convinced that the other has called them. While you sit there at your computer trying to hold back laughter (or with your microphone muted), you can listen to them try and figure out what the hell is going on. If they chalk it up to an accidental speed-dial and hang up, keep calling them and hilarity will ensue.
Here's what you'll need to do:
1.) Get some SkypeOut credit: To call landlines or cellphones with Skype, it costs money. You need to sign up for SkypeOut and buy $10 of credit—the minimum amount available—which should supply you with hours of phone-to-phone pranking. I had some Skype credit sitting around already, because SkypeOut, in addition to offering local calls for a few cents a minute, offers international calls at extremely low rates.
2.) Choose your victims: Who, of all the people you know, would you like to call one another at an inopportune time? Because you can pick whoever you want. Asshole boss and his terrible ex-wife, at 11:59 on New Year's Eve? Why not! Two people who you know will be in the same room at the time? Even better. You can add more than two people to a call, but two is the funniest, since it's less obvious what's going on.
3.) Organize the call: Under the "Call" menu in Skype, select "Start conference call." To add someone to the call they need to be in your contacts, so make sure you've added your victims to your main Skype list first.
4.) Do it: It may take a couple tries to get them to both pick up, but nobody's to alarmed by a phantom call or two—they happen all the time. Their caller ID will read "Unknown" or "Private." After your first call, which your victims will probably write off as a pocket dial, do it again. And again. And again, until things start to feel dangerous. or your conscience kicks in. If you can't keep quiet, hit the mic mute button in the Skype call window; you'll still be able to hear the other callers, but they won't be able to hear you.
And that's it, asshole. Happy new year. [Reddit, Previously]
Time Warner Cable’s Genius Solution to Possible Fox Outage: The Internet! [TimeWarner]
PSSSSST! Hey, Time Warner Cable! If you tell everyone how to watch Fox shows from their PC, they'll probably start doing it for all your other programming, too! Self-defeating bitterness really is the perfect way to say goodbye to 2009.
The spat between Time Warner and News Corp has been escalating steadily this week, with the latter threatening to pull their content at midnight tonight unless the two sides reach an agreement on subscription fees. Thus far, Time Warner Cable's main response has been to produce silly full-page ads, but now they've pulled out the big guns: spilling the dirty little secret that'll some day put them out of the TV business.
You could watch their how-to video below, but for a full explanation I'd recommend our own Giz guides to living without cable or satellite TV and to home theater PCs. In the meantime, let's all just sit back and enjoy watching two corporate monoliths greed themselves to death.
[Time Warner Cable via All Things D]
Saving Tasmanian Devils From A New Form of Life–Themselves | The Loom
Tasmanian devils have given rise to a weird new quasi-form of life: a cancer that spreads from animal to animal like a parasite. In tomorrow’s New York Times, I report on the latest analysis of devil’s facial tumour disease, published in this week’s Science. Scientists have now tracked down the cancer to its progenitor: nerve cells known as Schwann cells.
Now scientists can use this evolutionary history to design diagnostic tests for the cancer and perhaps even vaccines. Let’s hope they succeed–the cancer has wiped out 60 percent of all Tasmanian devils since 1996 and has the potential to drive the whole species extinct in a matter of decades.
For more on cancer as a new form of life, check out my earlier blog post on the only other documented case in the wild: a tumor that jumps from dog to dog. (The one major update to that post is that it now looks as if the tumor escaped its original dog host thousands of years ago, instead of hundreds as previously thought.) While dogs and Tasmanian devils are so far the only known hosts to these sorts of cancer, free-ranging tumors may actually be more common than we know right now. They may be particularly likely to arise in small, inbred populations. The similar immune systems of these animals may be easy for the cancer to evade, allowing it to spread quickly. Another hint that infectious cancer isn’t all that rare is the violence with which we reject transplanted organs. Why should our bodies be so well-primed to attack the cells of other humans? One possibility is that invasive cancers have been a long-term threat to the health of our ancestors.
(And for more on cancer as an evolutionary disease, see my article in Scientific American, reprinted in The Best American Science Writing 2008 )
Reference: EP Murchinson et al, “The Tasmanian Devil Transcriptome Reveals Schwann Cell Origins of a Clonally Transmissible Cancer.” Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1180616
[Update 12/31 3 pm: Headline de-apostrophed.]
Wassup with lead solder anyhow?
I had the chore yesterday of prepping some equipment for use in an electronics lab. There were about two dozen breadboard like arrangments of resistors and capacitors, most of which had been put aside and marked "problems" or similar. When I flipped the first one open, I saw the problem right away.
Ben Stein schools Ron Paul on Foreign Policy, strong support for Israel
From Eric Dondero:
Ron Paul appeared on Larry King Live on Monday night, along with Co-guests humorist Ben Stein and ironically Rep. Sheila Jackon-Lee of Houston. The subject: The Muslim Christmas Bomber.
Stein has been a longtime favorite of cultural libertarians ever since the iconic 1980s hit movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where he played the monotonous high school teacher, droning "Bueller... Bueller..."
Stein is a loyal and outspoken Republican. He's been a contributing editor to libertarian/conservative American Spectator, and a regular free enterprise advocate guest on cable business shows. He now hosts a game show on MTV.
So, it's especially ironic that libertarian-leaning Republican Stein would be chosen to go up against another individual often identified as "libertarian" Ron Paul. (Praise for Stein from Libertarian Leanings blog)
The segment quickly turned into a shouting match. Paul called the United States "occupiers," and blamed the US for Muslim attacks. Stein responded by calling Paul an "anti-Semite."
Here's the partial transcript courtesy of PoliticsUSA:
STEIN: Well, that's -- I have never heard anything quite like that in my whole life. What he's saying, basically, is we are doing something wrong by defending ourselves. Look, if these terrorists are trying to kill the government of Yemen, we've got to help defend them. They're our friends. We can't just let al Qaeda run wild. If we try to stop them --
PAUL: Why?
STEIN: Why should we stop them? Because they are terrorists and murderers and they're very anti-American.
PAUL: Why are they terrorists?
STEIN: Surely congressman --
PAUL: Why are they terrorists?
STEIN: They're terrorists and murders because they are psychos.
Paul also asserted that terrorist AbdulMutallab was motivated by American bombings of terrorist sites in Yemen two weeks ago. However, it's now being learned that AbdulMutallab and his handlers had planned the terrorist act, at least one month ago. Robert Spencer over at Jihad Watch pens this devestating rebuke of Paul's comments on CNN:
Obama believes essentially the same thing: that the jihad is a response to various actions of the West, which if we stop doing, all will be well. In line with this assumption, Paul apparently thinks that the Flight 253 jihad attack was a response to U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. However, according to an unnamed source in the White House quoted by Jake Tapper at ABC News, the Flight 253 jihadist had set his plot in motion before the airstrike. And it certainly seems that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had his mind on jihad for years.
Additionally, yet another terrorist attack with a virtually identical circumstance - syringe and explosive PETN in the passenger's underwear - has just been discovered by the media. It occured 3 weeks ago at the airport in Mogadishu, clearly indicating that both attacks were coordinated by Yemeni Al Qaeda.
Since the spat with Stein, Paul has been receiving a great deal of praise and support from mostly 9/11 Truther blogs, Alex Jones sites, and of course, Lew Rockwell and AntiWar.com.
One site JudeoFascism in defending Paul, said that Stein was "playing the anti-Semite card," and noted that Stein:
"is Jewish [and] under psychiatric care."
Another popular site among Truthers and Anti-Warists, IncogMan, said the following:
Ron Paul... gets hit with the usual Jew crap... neither of them will say the Jew out loud because they can’t and still get any exposure... The Jew knows the real history and the Jew Question...Phony Al Qaeda CIA/MOSSAD people may have picked-up on this particular idiot Negro [AbdulMutallab]...
why don’t we just pull all our troops back home from the Mideast? Let’s do exactly what Ron Paul says we should. And give Israel the finger while we’re at it. How does that sound, America?
To be clear, Ron Paul is not an Anti-Semite and would abhor such statements. In fact, Stein has since offered a bit of an olive branch, retracting the "Anti-Semite" accusation in a brief editorial at American Spectator. However, it's quite alarming that individuals such as the fringe bloggers mentioned above, gain inspiration from Paul's anti-intervenionist talk to use for their own racist means.
Meanwhile, other more mainstream political sites have come to Stein's defense. Blue Collar Blog comments:
At least Ben Stein had enough sense to take it to Congressman Paul.
I once was mildly enthused by Congressman Paul now I think he's gone over the deep end. He does not understand that Islam is the motivation for the attacks on the United States. And anyone who does not realize that puts our lives in danger by seeking to appease these radicals.
The Nation's #1 Right site HotAir.com hosted by Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey, is more succinct:
Ron Paul is a "useful idiot."
You can see the entire segment of Larry King Live at YouTube.
IMPORTANT EDITOR'S NOTE: The views expressed in this article are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of all LR contributors and writers.
DISCLOSURE: I worked for Ron Paul on and off for 15 years, first as his Personal Travel Aide in his 1987/88 Libertarian Presidential campaign, then again briefly in 1992, and then as his Campaign Coordinator in 1995/96 for Congress, and finally as his Senior Congressional Aide, and District Policy Advisor, from 1997 - 2003.
Peter Schiff shifts to Pro-Defense stance: Says intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq may have been justified
On Iran, if they don't let our inspecters in, we need to "just blow the place up"
Woodbury, Connecticut, Nov. 19, speaking to a local Young Republican group from YouTube video:
QUESTIONER: I take it you wouldn't have gone into Afghanistan and Iraq...
SCHIFF: I might have gone into Afghanistan to get Bin Laden, but I wouldn't have been there to occupy the country. I might have gone into Iraq, if I thought there were weapons of mass destruction. We had intelligence, and we knew where they were. I might have gone in there to take them out. Just like we think that Iran may be building nuclear weapons. If we really believe that, and we think that, and we tell the Iranians, and we tell the Iranians this is where we believe those weapons are, you need to let our inspecters in there, well, if they don't let us in there, we need to just blow the place up...
Some of his supporters from the Ron Paul faction are now threatening to pull their support for Schiff. From Sean Booth of PoliticalLore.com:
He says that if their was proof of WMDs in Iraq he would have approved of the invasion. Like so many others in Congress, unless Schiff was willing to do his homework on foreign policy, he may very well have followed his potential colleagues in the vote to invade.
The bottom line is that Schiff needs to take a principled stand on foreign policy issues, and not just economic issues if he expects the already great sums of money ($1 million plus) to continue to flow into his warchest from his legion of followers nationwide.
(Note - In contrast to Mr. Booth's views, though under-reported by the mainstream media, WMD were found in Iraq on numerous occasions, including weapons cache's found by both American and Polish troops, and most recently, 1 1/2 years ago, when 500,000 tons of yellow cake from Iraq were found.)
Other Ron Paulist candidates moving away from strict Non-intervention
Another Ron Paul-oriented candidate, Rand Paul running for US Senate recently caught flack from Paulists nationwide for issuing a press release staunchly opposed to the closure of Gitmo and transfer of Gitmo Prisoners of War to the mainland United States.
A third Ron Paul-oriented prospective candidate, Gary Johnson who's eying a Presidential run for 2012, recently stressed in a TV appearance that unlike the common view, he supports a "Strong National Defense," and "Defense of our Borders."
From a recent press release from the Johnson exloratory effort:
Governor Johnson has also been a strong advocate of the war on terror... “Our efforts should be directed towards protecting U.S. citizens and our allies from terrorism...
Political realities may be setting in for these candidates, or perhaps more likely, realities of foreign affairs stemming from recent Muslim attacks on the US, may be having an impact.
Pro-Defense Libertarians who wish to contribute to Schiff's campaign are urged to visit schiffforsenate.com
Or, show your support for RandPaul2010.com
The Decade in Tech Stocks: Hope You Had GOOG and AAPL [Y2k10]
Turns out it was a tough decade for tech companies. First the bubble they helped create burst and took the rest of the economy down with them; now the credit markets have sunk them in return—with two notable exceptions.
I'll admit that this chart would be more readable if it had been a more competitive field. But isn't that kind of the point? While everyone else was mucking around trying to recover from the mistakes of the late nineties, two truly innovative companies—Apple and Google—distinguished themselves in spectacular fashion. Granted, Google didn't join the party until 2004 and benefits from a severely undervalued IPO, but even taking that into consideration, their current stock price of $622 is 20 times that of Microsoft. No matter what kind of dividend Ballmer hands out, that's an enormous—and telling—gap.
That's the big picture. But I'm curious as to what you guys see in the details, too. A stock can pop on a rumor and drop on a dime. What's behind some of the peaks and valleys we see here? [Chart via Google]
Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai: Father of the Indian Space Program
Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of India's greatest scientists, Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai. Regarded as the father of India's space program, the noted physicist is also remembered as "a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary".
Early
List of Speakers Announced for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in February
Astronauts, researchers, educators, senior government officials including the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Dr. Pete Worden, and the head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Dr. George Nield, and representatives from commercial space companies and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, will be among the speakers at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on February 18-20, 2010. The agenda and speaker list for the conference, which will take place in Boulder, Colorado, was publicly released today and is available for download by clicking here [pdf].
The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which is being convened by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), is intended to allow scientists, engineers, and educators to learn about the research and education capabilities of commercial suborbital spacecraft, and to hear from this broad research community on potential research and education applications and user requirements.
The list of sessions for the conference is as follows:
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
5:00 pm: Welcome Reception
Thursday, February 18, 2010
8:30 am: Opening Session – Welcome and Keynotes
10:30 am: Research and Education Capabilities of Next-Generation Suborbital Vehicles Session I
12:15 pm: Press conference
1:30 pm: Research and Education Capabilities of Next-Generation Suborbital Vehicles Session II
3:30 pm: Payload Specialist and Researchers/Educator Roles in Next-Gen Suborbital Missions
4:30 pm: Student Suborbital Experiment Proposals
4:30 pm: Commercial Aspects/Other
7:30 pm: Public Lectures at the University of Colorado – Fiske Planetarium
Friday, February 19, 2010
8:00 am: Astronomy, Solar Physics, and Planetary Science Session I
8:00 am: Microgravity Physics Session I
8:00 am: Technology Payloads and Symposium on Deployable Vehicles Session I
10:30 am: Astronomy, Solar Physics, and Planetary Science Session II
10:30 am: Education and Public Outreach Session I (Outreach)
10:30 am: Atmospheric, Ionospheric, and Auroral Science Session I
2:00 pm: Life Sciences Session I
2:00 pm: Education and Public Outreach Session II (Education)
2:00 pm: Technology Payloads and Symposium on Deployable Vehicles Session II
7:00 pm: NASA Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Panel Discussion
Saturday, February 20, 2010
8:30 am: Life Sciences Session II
8:30 am: Microgravity Physics Session II
8:30 am: Atmospheric, Ionospheric, and Auroral Science Session II
10:30 am: Desired Next-Generation Vehicle Attributes for Research and Education Missions
11:30 am: Closing Session
Gene Therapy and Stem Cells Save Limb
Blood vessel blockage, a common condition in old age or diabetes, leads to low blood flow and results in low oxygen, which can kill cells and tissues. Such blockages can require amputation resulting in loss of limbs. Now, using mice as their model, researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed therapies that increase blood flow, improve movement and decrease tissue death and the need for amputation. The findings, published online last week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hold promise for developing clinical therapies.
Gene Therapy May Stall Inherited Emphysema
A new type of gene therapy may help stop the progression of emphysema in young people who have an inherited form of the deadly disease.
Researchers say previous attempts to correct the gene mutation that predisposes young people to emphysema have failed to achieve lasting results.
But a new study shows a different approach that targets cells known as alveolar macrophages to deliver the gene therapy to the lungs of mice with this form of inherited emphysema was successful in treating the condition for two years.
Emphysema is a progressive lung disease that causes severe shortness of breath. There is no cure for the disease.
Priming Lube Oil Pump
Dear Friends , Can anyone please explain the control scheme of the priming lube oil pump and the mechanical oil pump in a ship engine using pressure switch.
The Year In Image Cache: 50 Shots That Wowed Us In 2009 [Imagecache]
The Internet offers an endless stream of cool pictures, but here's a look at the best we've come across this year. Inside you'll find images that amaze and amuse.
Though #imagecache has only been around since March, we've collected some incredible images in these last nine months. Click through to the original posts for hi-resolution images and more information.
Invetech Delivers World’s First Production Human Tissue Printer [Medicine]
Or, as they call it, a "3D bio-printer." Essentially, it allows scientists to build tissue cell by cell. It's that cool sci-fi medical stuff we all dream about.
"Scientists and engineers can use the 3D bio printers to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3D," Murphy said. "Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bio-printers into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand."
The system includes software that enables engineers to build a model of the tissue before layering cells with laser-calibrated print heads. So, it seems pretty similar to a standard 3D model printer. Hopefully, most of us will live to see the day when we can have new hearts and livers printed on demand. That would be handy. Teeth would be great in the short term too. That whole Polygrip lifestyle where corn cobs and apples could lead to disaster does not seem appealing. [Livescience]
World’s Most ‘Perfect’ Speaker Gets Even Better [Speakers]
Every year product life cycles in the consumer marketplace grow ever shorter. On the audio side, the latest and greatest receivers become yesterday's news faster than you can say "HDMI 1.4."
Speaker companies show a little more restraint and "refresh" their lines every few years, but even then new models rarely demonstrate actual performance improvements over the previous generations' models. Speaker manufacturer Magnepan doesn't play by those rules; it invests years of development in each of its models before introducing a new speaker. It has to sound better—a lot better—than the outgoing model before it's released to the world.
And not just in the opinion of the designers. New-model Magnepans undergo extensive "blind" listening tests with a wide range of audiophile and non-audiophile listeners (the listeners don't know whether they're hearing the old or new model). The new speaker must consistently score better than the old model before it goes into production.
When I first heard the Magneplanar 1.6 back in 2008 I said it was the best under-$2,000 speaker on the market. Incredibly enough it was 10 years old at the time! The Magneplanar 1.6 has stayed in production for 12 years, but now it's about to be replaced with the new Magneplanar 1.7.
Magnepan, based in White Bear Lake, Minn., builds nothing but panel (boxless) speakers. Not only that, Magnepan designs forgo conventional dome tweeters and cone-type woofers. As I pointed out in my August 14, 2008, blog that's why the company's Magneplanar 1.6 speaker mostly avoids sounding like a speaker. The speaker earned the top position in my Top 10 greatest audiophile speakers blog earlier this year.
The new Magneplanar 1.7 is also a flat-panel design, 64.5 inches tall and a mere 2 inches thick! The new speaker looks a little more contemporary, thanks to its aluminum, wrap-around edge molding. The old model was a two-way design, with a 48-inch-tall aluminum ribbon tweeter and a 442-square-inch mid/bass panel. The Magneplanar 1.7 is a three-way design, with a woofer, tweeter, and super-tweeter. The super-tweeter comes in around 10,000 hertz and is said to produce wider dispersion and better-resolved treble than the Magneplanar 1.6 did.
The other big difference is the Magneplanar 1.7 is a "full-range" ribbon design. The ribbon terminology refers to the way the woofer, tweeter, and super-tweeter drivers incorporate thin-film aluminum foil mounted on a Mylar substrate, suspended in a magnetic field. Conventional tweeters and woofers are "driven" in the center or edge by a voice coil, so the surface of the tweeter or woofer is free to deform its shape as it makes sound. The Magneplanar 1.7's woofer, tweeter, and super-tweeter's entire surface area remains under full control by the signal it's reproducing, so it can't change shape. Translation: it sounds clearer and more lifelike than cone and dome driver designs.
The Magneplanar 1.7 is the first full-range ribbon speaker from the company, and it may be the only such design currently on the market (Apogee Acoustics started making full-range ribbon speakers in the 1980s and went out of business in the 1990s).
I'm using "perfect" in the sense that Magnepan speakers sound less like speakers than any box speaker you're likely to hear that sells for less than $10,000. Down sides? Magnepans need to be partnered with powerful amplifiers, they're picky about speaker placement, and they usually need to be placed a good 3 feet away from the rear wall. The new speaker probably will be just as demanding. I will be among the first to review the Magneplanar 1.7 in 2010, so I'll let you know if it's truly an advance over the Magneplanar 1.6.
The Magnepan 1.7's suggested retail price starts at $1,995 a pair.
Magnepan and Canadian electronics manufacturer Bryston have something special planned for CES 2010. The two brands will be demonstrating new products at T.H.E. Show at the Pink Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and consumers are welcome to drop by.
This story originally appeared on CNET
Rising Star Kansas Democrat abrubtly pulls out of Congressional race
Was running to unseat popular "Tea Party" Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins
From Eric Dondero:
Democrat State Senator Laura Kelly has just announced that she will end her Congressional race for the seat of Republican incumbent Rep. Lynn Jenkins (photo).
Reports the Topeka Capitol-Journal (via Memeo):
Kelly was a lock to win the Democratic nomination in the 2nd District, which includes Topeka, Manhattan, Lawrence and communities from the Oklahoma to Nebraska borders.
(Topeka, and Lawrence the only two liberal areas in the State.)
Continuing:
She said demands of conducting the U.S. House campaign and responsibilities of being a member of the Senate were incompatible. The obligation to serve her constituents proved stronger than the desire to defeat Jenkins, she said.
"I can't do this race and do the Senate," Kelly said.
Translation: She read some internal polls, and looked at the coming political climate - Tea Party movement, and generic Republican vs. Democrat numbers which now show the GOP ahead by 8, and concluded she couldn't win.
Rep. Jenkins, is closely identified with the Tea Party movement, nationally and in Kansas.
The National Science Teachers Association (NTSA) Recommends Unscientific America | The Intersection
See here. Their reviewer calls our book a “tour-de-force statement about the current state of science in America,” continuing:
The writing is engaging and should find an important audience. As opposed to many science-centered books, this book will appeal not only to teachers, but, more importantly, to undergraduates who are slowly becoming aware of political issues. This book should therefore find readership beyond just science students to all students interested, or becoming interested, in current issues important to politics, education, and the general state of our nation.
You can read the full review/recommendation here. We are also of course psyched that our fellow Discover blogger Phil Plait also recently gave Unscientific America an Xmas-time plug, observing,
This book doesn’t complain about how the public doesn’t get science, it actually has advice — good advice — for how people can take up this charge.
You can read Phil’s full take here. We’re very gratified by the new wave of attention the book is receiving this holiday season, and are just about to begin updating it for the paperback due out next summer. So, more soon….
Mophie iPhone Credit Card Scanner [IPhone]
You'd think that smartphones would have made traditional credit cards obsolete by now, but since they haven't (in the US, at least), Mophie's iPhone credit card reader may be the next best thing.
Its full details will be shared with us next week at CES, but the system will consist of a hardware scanner and a corresponding app. So while the iPhone's API restrictions will prevent you from scanning your card directly into Safari for your next web purchase, there are surely some remote pay possibilities in the works similar to what we've seen from Square—not to mention, it'll pave the way for an entire generation of even lazier credit card theft. [Pocket-Lint via SlashGear]
Another Year, Another Bankruptcy
OK,
Tally Time. It is time again to see whether my predictions for 2009 were right. Or if I was way off the mark.
The Highly Likelies first
1. Francis Collins will become the Director of the NIH........You Betcha I pegged that one.
2. We will see a pharmacogenetics lawsuit......Well, still haven't seen that yet, despite the FDA label changes
Batting 500, next up
Long Shots
1. X Prize winner: PacBio, ok, maybe I was a year early on this one
2. Oprah's gene scan bougus. Guess what? It Was!
Still at 500, who's next
Ridiculous
Ok, these are what they say they are. Ridiculous. I don't think I can be held to the same standards for these swing for the fences.....
1. Mark Cuban Buys the rights to the 23andME database. Ok, I was off. DeCode tried to steal it and Google keeps dumping money into it......Both just as crazy as if Cuban would buy it......
Maybe we call that a fly out?
2. Next-Next-Next gen Sequencing will debut......you have heard of nanopore right? Is this Next-Next Gen? Or Next-Next-Next Gen? Hmmm. Foul Ball!
3. The last one is so silly I don't think it was meant to be called...........The US fracturing into territories and fighting against the world.......Not quite yet.
So on to this year's doozies!
Highly Likely
1. Another DTC failure......yes. I won't say which one.
2. One of the DTC Genomics companies will get into clinical care. They will set up shops. It may be a newcomer or an old dog. But it will happen.
3. We will have data on PGx testing with Plavix. And it will support the use.
Possible
1. Francis and Kari will start the Population Genome Study in the US
2. The XPrize will be won by Complete Genomics.
Ridiculous
1. Again, Mark Cuban will Buy Sergey's share of 23andMe's database
2. Myriad will lose the first round of hearings re: their gene patents......
The Sherpa Says: If Kansas went bye bye last year, this year we will have to "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
