Believe it or not, what you are reading about is just another day in the life of the FDA regulated pharmaceutical industry. I don't expect to win any friends for the industry here on slashdot, but you should at least be aware that the FDA has a very consistent (and expensive) "lower risk regardless of cost" policy which is a real component of our current drug price dilemma. I promise you that 20 cases of counterfeit drugs is more than enough reason for the FDA to impose a costly solution. Take a look yourself here (leave the search term blank for alist of all articles). They have been talking about RFID for a long time in the context of mistaken subscriptions, where patients get the wrong dose or the wrong drug. The counterfeit issue is relatively new, surely related to the drugs from Canada campaigns.
Lastly, if you think the pharma companies are an unethical money grubbing pack of degenerates, wait 'til you meet the characters that peddle drugs in third world countries. Sick people are desperate people, and make easy targets for the unethical.
Re:Not for a while
on
The Diamond Age
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
FWIW, perfect simulated rubies emeralds etc. have been available for years, correct structure and everything. People still pay a vast premium for the imperfect natural products. I don't see any reason that same won't hold true for diamonds. What likely has DeBeers scared is the possibility that people will sell synthetics as natural stones. The GIA (www.gia.org) has their hands full already trying to stay ahead of counterfeiters; every year the synthetics become harder and harder to distinguish from natural stones.
Re:Ethical Problems? They already do it.
on
Human-Mouse Hybrids?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
First a minor nitpick - Remicade (and Enbrel and EPO etc) are actually made in mammalian cells. Chinese Hamster Ovary cells to be precise. Second, I would submit that an even more striking example of the principle your presenting is the "Abgenix" mouse, a mouse whose IgG genes have been replaced by human genes so that the immunoglobulins it produces are clearly human. Also, type "human mouse hybrid" into Google and learn about murine cells with entire human chromosomes used to study telomerase I guess the argument here is one of degree - many more human genes will be present in the hybrids described here. Also, they will be self-sustaining organisms in a way that cell lines really aren't. But on the whole I agree with you, this is just another step in a journey already begun.
I'm not sure why it's so important to you to attack other people, but I'm always happy to help my fellow man. Especially someone that apparently has got their high school diploma, unlike me. I never said anything about fish or the long term. I never called metallic sodium a carcinogen or a long term environmental pollutant. I asked for a photo of the plants in the background which in 3 months will all be dead from the hydroxide, along with anything on the bottom of the lake in the vicinity of the blast. We both know how useful that explosion will be in mixing the entire lake volume so let's drop that one I have tried an exercise, namely I have added concentrated solutions of NaOH to solutions of organic molecules (e.g. proteins, DNA) and seen _local_ denaturation/hydrolysis arising from amounts of hydroxide that negligibly alter the overall pH. So again, thanks for calculating the final pH of the solution. Your original ppm thing was nice too, as it showed that you're not a chemist, so I could count on you running from the challenge that I posed today, namely estimating the plume that would result from this explosion. The walk behind the car thing is just bizarre, I have no idea what you're talking about. And I haven't dropped my original position. I still don't see why this is cool. the flash and bang are nifty but they cause real environmental damage.
OK, Mr Equilibrium thermodynamics, now that you're done showing us what an intellect you are, let's see how good you are at the following calculation. How long will it take the NaOH generated here to dilute uniformly through the lake? Because between the time the metal hits the water and the infinite dilution, there will be a plume of concentrated NaOH. This, by the way, is why chemists use stir bars, but I didn't see one used in this experiment. Go ahead and pull out your Brownian diffusion coefficients to impress us. Next, come up with some sort of model regarding the shape and concentration distribution of the hydroxide with respect to time. With your impeccable reasoning, I conclude that the dispersal of any amount of any pollutant matters because the volume of the earth is enormous.
I like fire and explosion as much as the next guy, but this is out and out criminal. If W.R. Grace was found dumping metallic sodium into a pond Slashdot readers would whip themselves into a rabid frenzy. Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
The way I explain the behaviour you describe is that if I pay you $200 and the software doesn't quite work, you won't be very motivated to fix it and my lawyer's won't be motivated to threaten you. for $5000+, both you and the lawyers will pay more attention. So, 6 months down the line when I've integrated your software into my work and the latest service bomb from Microsoft porks it, I'll be glad to have a $5000 commitment from you.
One point I'm missing here - how would a spammer know that your filter had sent his message to/dev/null? I can see how they can adapt to measures that prevent their messages from being sent, as they get the bounce notice. But, as far as the spammer knows, a filtered message has reached it's destination. Put another way, what "scoring function" could a spammer use to optimize against filters? How do they know that their messages are being read vs being automatically dumped? I ask this because I suspect they can't know which means that once a good set of filters is in place the spammers will be unable to evade them.
It seems to have escaped Slashdot's collective notice that the same nations that have uncontrolled spamming also have uncontrolled piracy. It's breathtaking how quickly this community embraces strongarm tactics to stop spam (a crime they don't like) but protests any attempts to stop piracy (a crime they do like). Just for kicks, imagine that there is a group of people out there who feel as strongly about stopping piracy as you all do about stopping spam. This should help you come to the realization that many of the arguments posted here about the evils of anti-piracy laws apply equally well to anti-spam laws. Go on. give it a try.
A good model for this kind of book is "Unix for VMS Users" by Philip Bourne, ISBN 1-55558-034-3. It was fantastic when I was migrating from VMS to UNIX... I even learned a bit about VMS that I didn't know.
you can't use it [broadband access] to full potential without having to start selling organs to pay the bills. That's why, one by one, companies that tried to sell unrestricted broadband access for low flat fees are going out of business. Go ahead and give it a try - if you can run a profitable business selling unrestricted broadband for $50 a month there will be plenty of customers.
Very interesting -- you are too informed to be a lay-person like me- are you a patent lawyer? OK...what about a European High-Tech Company with a patent on a technology that licenses that technology to a US firm for Sale & distribution in North America. Is the European co. protected at all by their patent, in North America? Or can the licensee or anyone else for that matter, apply for a patent in North America and get it without the consent of the originator in Europe. Also, in BALL PARK figures, what does registering and applying for a patent cost in total including legals and fees? Look forward to your reply
Slashdot Mirror
Believe it or not, what you are reading about is just another day in the life of the FDA regulated pharmaceutical industry. I don't expect to win any friends for the industry here on slashdot, but you should at least be aware that the FDA has a very consistent (and expensive) "lower risk regardless of cost" policy which is a real component of our current drug price dilemma. I promise you that 20 cases of counterfeit drugs is more than enough reason for the FDA to impose a costly solution. Take a look yourself here (leave the search term blank for alist of all articles). They have been talking about RFID for a long time in the context of mistaken subscriptions, where patients get the wrong dose or the wrong drug. The counterfeit issue is relatively new, surely related to the drugs from Canada campaigns. Lastly, if you think the pharma companies are an unethical money grubbing pack of degenerates, wait 'til you meet the characters that peddle drugs in third world countries. Sick people are desperate people, and make easy targets for the unethical.
FWIW, perfect simulated rubies emeralds etc. have been available for years, correct structure and everything. People still pay a vast premium for the imperfect natural products. I don't see any reason that same won't hold true for diamonds. What likely has DeBeers scared is the possibility that people will sell synthetics as natural stones. The GIA (www.gia.org) has their hands full already trying to stay ahead of counterfeiters; every year the synthetics become harder and harder to distinguish from natural stones.
It was apparently shown at Comdex
/ comdex_day_3-06.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/business/02q4/021121
First a minor nitpick - Remicade (and Enbrel and EPO etc) are actually made in mammalian cells. Chinese Hamster Ovary cells to be precise.
Second, I would submit that an even more striking example of the principle your presenting is the "Abgenix" mouse, a mouse whose IgG genes have been replaced by human genes so that the immunoglobulins it produces are clearly human. Also, type "human mouse hybrid" into Google and learn about murine cells with entire human chromosomes used to study telomerase
I guess the argument here is one of degree - many more human genes will be present in the hybrids described here. Also, they will be self-sustaining organisms in a way that cell lines really aren't. But on the whole I agree with you, this is just another step in a journey already begun.
May I suggest that you take some time and read a book titled "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.
I'm not sure why it's so important to you to attack other people, but I'm always happy to help my fellow man. Especially someone that apparently has got their high school diploma, unlike me.
I never said anything about fish or the long term. I never called metallic sodium a carcinogen or a long term environmental pollutant. I asked for a photo of the plants in the background which in 3 months will all be dead from the hydroxide, along with anything on the bottom of the lake in the vicinity of the blast.
We both know how useful that explosion will be in mixing the entire lake volume so let's drop that one
I have tried an exercise, namely I have added concentrated solutions of NaOH to solutions of organic molecules (e.g. proteins, DNA) and seen _local_ denaturation/hydrolysis arising from amounts of hydroxide that negligibly alter the overall pH. So again, thanks for calculating the final pH of the solution. Your original ppm thing was nice too, as it showed that you're not a chemist, so I could count on you running from the challenge that I posed today, namely estimating the plume that would result from this explosion.
The walk behind the car thing is just bizarre, I have no idea what you're talking about.
And I haven't dropped my original position. I still don't see why this is cool. the flash and bang are nifty but they cause real environmental damage.
OK, Mr Equilibrium thermodynamics, now that you're done showing us what an intellect you are, let's see how good you are at the following calculation.
How long will it take the NaOH generated here to dilute uniformly through the lake? Because between the time the metal hits the water and the infinite dilution, there will be a plume of concentrated NaOH. This, by the way, is why chemists use stir bars, but I didn't see one used in this experiment. Go ahead and pull out your Brownian diffusion coefficients to impress us. Next, come up with some sort of model regarding the shape and concentration distribution of the hydroxide with respect to time.
With your impeccable reasoning, I conclude that the dispersal of any amount of any pollutant matters because the volume of the earth is enormous.
I like fire and explosion as much as the next guy, but this is out and out criminal. If W.R. Grace was found dumping metallic sodium into a pond Slashdot readers would whip themselves into a rabid frenzy.
Ask this super genius to post some photos of the pond three months from now, esprecially those plants we see in the background.
The way I explain the behaviour you describe is that if I pay you $200 and the software doesn't quite work, you won't be very motivated to fix it and my lawyer's won't be motivated to threaten you. for $5000+, both you and the lawyers will pay more attention. So, 6 months down the line when I've integrated your software into my work and the latest service bomb from Microsoft porks it, I'll be glad to have a $5000 commitment from you.
One point I'm missing here - how would a spammer know that your filter had sent his message to /dev/null? I can see how they can adapt to measures that prevent their messages from being sent, as they get the bounce notice. But, as far as the spammer knows, a filtered message has reached it's destination. Put another way, what "scoring function" could a spammer use to optimize against filters? How do they know that their messages are being read vs being automatically dumped? I ask this because I suspect they can't know which means that once a good set of filters is in place the spammers will be unable to evade them.
is actually his assumption that the US gives a rat's ass whether or not the rest of the world is on the internet.
It seems to have escaped Slashdot's collective notice that the same nations that have uncontrolled spamming also have uncontrolled piracy. It's breathtaking how quickly this community embraces strongarm tactics to stop spam (a crime they don't like) but protests any attempts to stop piracy (a crime they do like). Just for kicks, imagine that there is a group of people out there who feel as strongly about stopping piracy as you all do about stopping spam. This should help you come to the realization that many of the arguments posted here about the evils of anti-piracy laws apply equally well to anti-spam laws.
Go on. give it a try.
You will also have the choice of paying zero dollars for a zero-use disc. We're not talking about food here.
A good model for this kind of book is "Unix for VMS Users" by Philip Bourne, ISBN 1-55558-034-3. It was fantastic when I was migrating from VMS to UNIX ... I even learned a bit about VMS that I didn't know.
you can't use it [broadband access] to full potential without having to start selling organs to pay the bills. That's why, one by one, companies that tried to sell unrestricted broadband access for low flat fees are going out of business. Go ahead and give it a try - if you can run a profitable business selling unrestricted broadband for $50 a month there will be plenty of customers.
Very interesting -- you are too informed to be a lay-person like me- are you a patent lawyer?
OK...what about a European High-Tech Company with a patent on a technology that licenses that technology to a US firm for Sale & distribution in North America. Is the European co. protected at all by their patent, in North America? Or can the licensee or anyone else for that matter, apply for a patent in North America and get it without the consent of the originator in Europe.
Also, in BALL PARK figures, what does registering and applying for a patent cost in total including legals and fees? Look forward to your reply