A clever marketing strategy:
Branding pharmaceuticals to block generics
Interesting discussion today in the branding/positioning class about branding in the pharma industry.
We talked about how the patent on Prilosec (anti-heartburn) was expiring. It was selling for $3.95 per pill. Instead of accepting that generics would kill the market share of Prilosec, Pfizer pulled a marketing sandwich approach.
Prizer knew that the generics would sell at 61 cents each. Pfizer headed them off at the pass by releasing an over-the-counter version of Prilosec called Prilosec OTC and selling for 71 cents each. At the same time, Pfizer modified the formula/molecule, applied for a new patent, and released the new formula as Nexium, “The Purple Pill,” selling for $4.95 per pill. Prilosec users went to Nexium and paid the premium. And, the OTC version attracted new users and blocked the generics.
Basic marketing pricing strategy, but genius nonetheless.
So, Viagra will soon have a generic version to contend with. The generic name is mydixafloppin.
Yes, that was a long way to go for a short joke.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Friday, January 20, 2006
Intellectual Property Rights
Hey! Oracle can't use this template, it's Microsoft's!!
For journalists covering Oracle..
2004-08-04: 34 flaws found in Oracle database software2004-09-03: US gov and sec firms warn of critical Oracle flaws2004-10-15: Oracle Warns of Critical Exploits2005-01-20: Oracle Patch Fixes 23 ‘Critical’ Vulnerabilities2005-10-19: Oracle fixes bugs with mega patch2006-01-18: Oracle fixes pile of bugs
In the interest of helping journalists cover Oracle.. perhaps they should just move to a templated form to save time?
—
Many of the flaws have been deemed critical by Oracle, meaning they are trivial to exploit, were likely discovered around 880 days ago, and are trivially abused by low to moderately skilled [HACKERS/ATTACKERS/CRACKERS]. Some of these flaws may be used in the next worm-of-the-week.
“[DULL_QUOTE_FROM_COMPANY_WHO_DISCOVERED_0_OF_THE_FLAWS]” security company [COMPANY] said yesterday as they upped their internet risk warning system number (IRWSN) to [ARBITRARY_NUMBER]. “This is another example of why our products will help protect customers who chose to deploy Oracle software” [ARBITRARY_CSO_NAME] stated.
“[BULLSHIT_QUOTE_ABOUT_PROACTIVE_SECURITY_FROM_ORACLE” countered Mary Ann Davidson, CSO at Oracle. “These hackers providing us with free security testing and showing their impatience after a mere 880 days are what causes problems. If these jackass criminals would stop being hackers, our products would not be broken into and our customers would stay safe!”
Oracle has been criticized for being slow to fix security flaws by everyone ranging from L0rD D1cKw4v3R to US-CERT to the Pope.
For journalists covering Oracle..
2004-08-04: 34 flaws found in Oracle database software2004-09-03: US gov and sec firms warn of critical Oracle flaws2004-10-15: Oracle Warns of Critical Exploits2005-01-20: Oracle Patch Fixes 23 ‘Critical’ Vulnerabilities2005-10-19: Oracle fixes bugs with mega patch2006-01-18: Oracle fixes pile of bugs
In the interest of helping journalists cover Oracle.. perhaps they should just move to a templated form to save time?
—
Many of the flaws have been deemed critical by Oracle, meaning they are trivial to exploit, were likely discovered around 880 days ago, and are trivially abused by low to moderately skilled [HACKERS/ATTACKERS/CRACKERS]. Some of these flaws may be used in the next worm-of-the-week.
“[DULL_QUOTE_FROM_COMPANY_WHO_DISCOVERED_0_OF_THE_FLAWS]” security company [COMPANY] said yesterday as they upped their internet risk warning system number (IRWSN) to [ARBITRARY_NUMBER]. “This is another example of why our products will help protect customers who chose to deploy Oracle software” [ARBITRARY_CSO_NAME] stated.
“[BULLSHIT_QUOTE_ABOUT_PROACTIVE_SECURITY_FROM_ORACLE” countered Mary Ann Davidson, CSO at Oracle. “These hackers providing us with free security testing and showing their impatience after a mere 880 days are what causes problems. If these jackass criminals would stop being hackers, our products would not be broken into and our customers would stay safe!”
Oracle has been criticized for being slow to fix security flaws by everyone ranging from L0rD D1cKw4v3R to US-CERT to the Pope.
Well Said
I was looking at the blog of one of the commenters, Jake, and found this little gem:
Interestingly suicide, in many circumstanes, is still illegal. The government does not have the right to tell you whether you can take your own life. This is clear. Their interest in your life is also clear. The governement takes strong issue with taxpayers excusing themsleves from their duty to the state.
Interestingly suicide, in many circumstanes, is still illegal. The government does not have the right to tell you whether you can take your own life. This is clear. Their interest in your life is also clear. The governement takes strong issue with taxpayers excusing themsleves from their duty to the state.
Remember?
I'm appalled at how many of these things I remember although, to be fair, it was all winding down and there was an air of nostoglia about them even then. Still, I have a pretty good memory of being 3,4 and 5 years old and no small subset of these were part of life...
metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers (I don't really remember this one)
Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Black Jack, Clove, and Beemans chewing gum (nope)
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Newsreels before the movie (no)
P.F. Flyers
Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines
Peashooters
Howdy Doody(no, not even in reruns)
45 RPM records/78 RPM, too
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's
Ugh! My life is a cliche!
metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers (I don't really remember this one)
Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Black Jack, Clove, and Beemans chewing gum (nope)
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Newsreels before the movie (no)
P.F. Flyers
Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines
Peashooters
Howdy Doody(no, not even in reruns)
45 RPM records/78 RPM, too
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's
Ugh! My life is a cliche!
A Late Christmas Gift
I received, to my complete surprise, a late christmas gift from my sister. A 35lb box of books, mostly related to stuff talked about in The DeVinci Code. I was pretty happy with the gift, and uncommonly proud of my sister for done the reseach to choose them.
But that wasn't the best part.
Tucked away in there was a framed picture, which at first I took to be a picture of her from our childhood. "I remember this, " I thought. "This was her picture from the house on Brookside Drive. Why would she send this one? That's odd..."
Then I noticed the hair was very slightly different, a little fuller than I remembered it, the cheekbones were slightly off, the smile slightly different and I realized...
"This is Alexa. Wow! Does she look like her mother! Wow!"
She is the spitting image of her mother. Ain't genetics keen!
But that wasn't the best part.
Tucked away in there was a framed picture, which at first I took to be a picture of her from our childhood. "I remember this, " I thought. "This was her picture from the house on Brookside Drive. Why would she send this one? That's odd..."
Then I noticed the hair was very slightly different, a little fuller than I remembered it, the cheekbones were slightly off, the smile slightly different and I realized...
"This is Alexa. Wow! Does she look like her mother! Wow!"
She is the spitting image of her mother. Ain't genetics keen!
2050
An interesting article on 2050 and why there is some cause for..., well I won't say optimism, I'll say, "a break from the relentless pessimism I usually associate with where I think we'll actually end up".
Thursday, officials released a five-volume coda to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an ambitious four-year attempt to explore the relationship between the environment and human development. Summary reports of the findings as they affected four international environmental treaties were released last year. These new volumes represent the detailed information that underpins the earlier reports.
I peeked at an advanced copy of this I got from a meeting in September. It's pretty good. I was a little dissappointed to find some of my Looking Backwards events had already been thought through.
By 2050, it estimates that the highly global approach - with liberal trade policies, and concerted efforts to reduce poverty, improve education and public health, yet respond reactively to environmental issues - could yield the lowest population growth and the highest economic growth. But the environmental scorecard would be mixed.
In a fragmented world that focuses largely on security and regional markets and takes a reactive approach to ecological problems, economic growth rates are the lowest and the population is the highest of the four pathways.
Two other paths, which place a greater emphasis on technology and a proactive approach to the environment, yield population growth rates somewhere in the middle, and economic growth rates that may be slow at first, but accelerate with time.
Of course, in 2050, some folks will be living in their asteroid harems, guarded by a benign super-intelligence and propelled there by magic (or at least physics that does require the use of calculus to understand). Why not trash the planet now? It's not like we'll have to live here or anything.
Thursday, officials released a five-volume coda to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an ambitious four-year attempt to explore the relationship between the environment and human development. Summary reports of the findings as they affected four international environmental treaties were released last year. These new volumes represent the detailed information that underpins the earlier reports.
I peeked at an advanced copy of this I got from a meeting in September. It's pretty good. I was a little dissappointed to find some of my Looking Backwards events had already been thought through.
By 2050, it estimates that the highly global approach - with liberal trade policies, and concerted efforts to reduce poverty, improve education and public health, yet respond reactively to environmental issues - could yield the lowest population growth and the highest economic growth. But the environmental scorecard would be mixed.
In a fragmented world that focuses largely on security and regional markets and takes a reactive approach to ecological problems, economic growth rates are the lowest and the population is the highest of the four pathways.
Two other paths, which place a greater emphasis on technology and a proactive approach to the environment, yield population growth rates somewhere in the middle, and economic growth rates that may be slow at first, but accelerate with time.
Of course, in 2050, some folks will be living in their asteroid harems, guarded by a benign super-intelligence and propelled there by magic (or at least physics that does require the use of calculus to understand). Why not trash the planet now? It's not like we'll have to live here or anything.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Warning: Euphemisms Ahead!
I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain yet, but becuase I haven't been living in an Afgan cave with Osama Bin Laden, Elvis and the Ghost of Christmas Past, I have a vauge idea of what it's about.
Appearently, it's all about candy.
It's on Brokeback Mountain that Jack and Ennis discover their mutual love of candy. Because candy is not something cowboys and "real men" normally get excited about, Ennis and Jack resist their urge for sweets, but after awhile, it gets the better of them. One night, Jack looks at Ennis and asks him if he likes fudge. Well, it turns out that Ennis loves fudge. In fact, they both love fudge so much that they're certain everyone they know would like fudge and they should send them some fudge, so the two of them spend a lot of time on Brokeback packing fudge. And not only do they discover they like regular fudge, but that fudge with nuts is excellent too!
Appearently, it's all about candy.
It's on Brokeback Mountain that Jack and Ennis discover their mutual love of candy. Because candy is not something cowboys and "real men" normally get excited about, Ennis and Jack resist their urge for sweets, but after awhile, it gets the better of them. One night, Jack looks at Ennis and asks him if he likes fudge. Well, it turns out that Ennis loves fudge. In fact, they both love fudge so much that they're certain everyone they know would like fudge and they should send them some fudge, so the two of them spend a lot of time on Brokeback packing fudge. And not only do they discover they like regular fudge, but that fudge with nuts is excellent too!
Google cut to 'sell'
You knew this was going to happen. I only regret I sold at $400, not $450
It had to happen one day. An analyst said Google (GOOG, news, msgs) is too expensive.
Scott Devitt, analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus, cut the search-engine company to "sell" from "hold." The fact is that when you purchase a stock, you purchase a business, and Google's cash flow over the next three to five year can't justify the current price, Devitt told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
And it was Yahoo's poor results that indicated the turning point for Google, he said.
"When dealing with a cult stock you have to deal with a change in sentiment," Devitt said. "Yahoo's missed number is a leading indicator for change in online advertising."
Shares of Google sank 3.1% in midday trading.
It had to happen one day. An analyst said Google (GOOG, news, msgs) is too expensive.
Scott Devitt, analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus, cut the search-engine company to "sell" from "hold." The fact is that when you purchase a stock, you purchase a business, and Google's cash flow over the next three to five year can't justify the current price, Devitt told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
And it was Yahoo's poor results that indicated the turning point for Google, he said.
"When dealing with a cult stock you have to deal with a change in sentiment," Devitt said. "Yahoo's missed number is a leading indicator for change in online advertising."
Shares of Google sank 3.1% in midday trading.
Doctor Fun
Doctor Fun is still alive! He was one of the first humorists on the internet back in the Eldar Days (the Eldar Days were back when I was in grad school and most of you had never heard of this internet thingy).
I lost track of this about 10 years ago, so I'm pretty excited.
Enjoy!
Update: From the Doctor Fun FAQ
Is Doctor Fun the oldest comic on the Internet?
No. That would be "Where the Buffalo Roam" by Hans Bjordahl. "Where the Buffalo Roam" started in 1991, and had its own Usenet group long before Doctor Fun came along, and is still running on the web.
Was Doctor Fun the first cartoon on the World Wide Web?
There you go! You've got it - Doctor Fun was the first cartoon on the World Wide Web.
Here's the announcement from NCSA. (Of course, that link to the cartoon doesn't go anywhere now.)
I lost track of this about 10 years ago, so I'm pretty excited.
Enjoy!
Update: From the Doctor Fun FAQ
Is Doctor Fun the oldest comic on the Internet?
No. That would be "Where the Buffalo Roam" by Hans Bjordahl. "Where the Buffalo Roam" started in 1991, and had its own Usenet group long before Doctor Fun came along, and is still running on the web.
Was Doctor Fun the first cartoon on the World Wide Web?
There you go! You've got it - Doctor Fun was the first cartoon on the World Wide Web.
Here's the announcement from NCSA. (Of course, that link to the cartoon doesn't go anywhere now.)
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
100 Year Dow Jones Industrials Chart
Interesting, although there seems to be some arbitrariness to someof his time frames.
I won't comment on some of the logic he uses to ascribe events to causes, but it does show an interesting periodicty.
I won't comment on some of the logic he uses to ascribe events to causes, but it does show an interesting periodicty.
Why Do The Terrorists Hate Us?
Behold the Republican Vision for America
The angels are just over the top.
Writer: "Errr.. I don't remember there being angels in this..."
Director: "What do you mean?"
Writer: "Well, I didn't write them in. Where did they come from?"
Director:"Wha.. What do you mean? They came from Heaven!"
Writer:"... sigh... Why did they come from Heaven?"
Director:"??? What do you mean? They are angels! You can never have enough angels!"
Writer:" err... okay. But do they have to fly out of his ass?"
Director:"They aren't flying out of his ass, they are spreading the Spirit of America!"
Writer:"From his ass?"
Director:"From behind him. You don't know much about directing. Or Angels for that matter. Or maybe even America!"
Writer:" But I WROTE this song!"
Director:"without angels appearently. You some kind of atheist? You're a godless athesit aren't you?"
Writer:" no! I am a Unitarian"
Director:"An angel hating unitarian! I figured! I'm calling the FBI..."
Writer:"Fine keep the damn angels"
Director:"Great! Now we need to add in some 9-11 shots. That's so patriotic it will make people cry! Genius!"
Writer:" Why not just go for the jugular and film it with the whole series of 'Precious Moments' figurines being smashed by a gay Arab with the Koran? On a burning flag wrapped around an aborted fetus?"
Director: ... quiver... "ah.. ah.. I .. ..ah.. That's Brilli.."
Writer:"I'm outta here!"
The angels are just over the top.
Writer: "Errr.. I don't remember there being angels in this..."
Director: "What do you mean?"
Writer: "Well, I didn't write them in. Where did they come from?"
Director:"Wha.. What do you mean? They came from Heaven!"
Writer:"... sigh... Why did they come from Heaven?"
Director:"??? What do you mean? They are angels! You can never have enough angels!"
Writer:" err... okay. But do they have to fly out of his ass?"
Director:"They aren't flying out of his ass, they are spreading the Spirit of America!"
Writer:"From his ass?"
Director:"From behind him. You don't know much about directing. Or Angels for that matter. Or maybe even America!"
Writer:" But I WROTE this song!"
Director:"without angels appearently. You some kind of atheist? You're a godless athesit aren't you?"
Writer:" no! I am a Unitarian"
Director:"An angel hating unitarian! I figured! I'm calling the FBI..."
Writer:"Fine keep the damn angels"
Director:"Great! Now we need to add in some 9-11 shots. That's so patriotic it will make people cry! Genius!"
Writer:" Why not just go for the jugular and film it with the whole series of 'Precious Moments' figurines being smashed by a gay Arab with the Koran? On a burning flag wrapped around an aborted fetus?"
Director: ... quiver... "ah.. ah.. I .. ..ah.. That's Brilli.."
Writer:"I'm outta here!"
Monday, January 16, 2006
Halstead-Reitan Battery
This was part of my neuropsych testing 2 weeks ago. I was calling it the Diamond Dogs test, but obviously it has a real name.
Ralph Reitan, one of Halstead's students, contributed to the battery by researching the tests' ability to identify neurological problems. In a remarkable study, Reitan diagnosed 8,000 patients using only their test results—without meeting the patients or knowing anything about their background.
Technically, it doesn't say they were correctly diagnosed...
A better decription of the session here.
Ralph Reitan, one of Halstead's students, contributed to the battery by researching the tests' ability to identify neurological problems. In a remarkable study, Reitan diagnosed 8,000 patients using only their test results—without meeting the patients or knowing anything about their background.
Technically, it doesn't say they were correctly diagnosed...
A better decription of the session here.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Did Christ Exist?
This is an interesting (and quite legitimate) question. If you are, at this moment, feeling your blood pressure rise, thinking “this is stupid liberal guff” and getting ready to click away, I would ask you; why?
I have always thought the answer to this question, btw, was yes.
The other question, "Was Christ Divine?", would be more difficult to answer, but I have always thought the answer was "No", in part because I don't believe in divinity but mostly because I have a hard time believing that, even after 2000 years, Christ would let himself go like that.
Personally, so many of the elements of the Christ story resonated with my NDE that I have always believed he was a real, historic figure who had had a transformational experience and shared it with others.
OTOH, there is a lot of evidence that he was a creation, but together out of a blend of other mythological figures. The time between the death of Christ and the first books of the Bible is almost 300 years. Longer than the existence of the United States. Given that we can't consistently interpret the intent of the founders in the Constitution, I tend to doubt an oral tradition handed down over 300 years bears as much factual information as literalists and Catholics would have us believe
A new movie explores this topic. I plan to go see it this weekend and see what they consider to be evidence. So far I've never seen anything persuasive that said he didn't exist, but assuming something exists and looking for proof it doesn't is a logical fallacy.
More after I see the movie and
Thanks for reading this far down! :)
I have always thought the answer to this question, btw, was yes.
The other question, "Was Christ Divine?", would be more difficult to answer, but I have always thought the answer was "No", in part because I don't believe in divinity but mostly because I have a hard time believing that, even after 2000 years, Christ would let himself go like that.
Personally, so many of the elements of the Christ story resonated with my NDE that I have always believed he was a real, historic figure who had had a transformational experience and shared it with others.
OTOH, there is a lot of evidence that he was a creation, but together out of a blend of other mythological figures. The time between the death of Christ and the first books of the Bible is almost 300 years. Longer than the existence of the United States. Given that we can't consistently interpret the intent of the founders in the Constitution, I tend to doubt an oral tradition handed down over 300 years bears as much factual information as literalists and Catholics would have us believe
A new movie explores this topic. I plan to go see it this weekend and see what they consider to be evidence. So far I've never seen anything persuasive that said he didn't exist, but assuming something exists and looking for proof it doesn't is a logical fallacy.
More after I see the movie and
Thanks for reading this far down! :)
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Sam Alito
I had a chance yesterday afternoon to listen to the Alito hearings on NPR. Now I have to say up front I didn't care a whit about Roberts and after listening to the Robert's hearings, I cared even less. I put him in the old tradition of just blindly confirming the president's choice, which I generally support (with the exception of Bork).
Ailto said some things that really bothered me and, this was a surprise. I expected not to care, especially after a long soliloquy by Sen. Graham about what a decent guy he is. I even cringed a little at Shumer's no-nonsense cross-exam.
OTOH, he's clearly lying about the CAP thing. He might not want to admit it, but he purposely put that on a job application knowing the political sympathies of his bosses and is now pretending not to remember anything about it. It's clearly a lie. I compare this to Ginsburg who, while a flawed candidate in a hostile Senate, stepped up and owned her words.
I'm not saying that Alito is a bigot, or misogynist or anything, I don't really know and am willing to take the word of the many people who wrote in on his behalf that he is not.
That's not the point.
The point is either, he's lying and I don't like government officials to start their careers with a lie, or he's a fool. And I don't think he's a fool.
Also, he is painting a picture of himself as someone who is a "pleaser", i.e. who will tailor his opinions (like CAP) to get a job. The only conclusion I can reach from the man's own defense is that he'll gladly say things he doesn't believe in to get a job.
While this is common, I expect a higher standard of ethics from a SCJ. I find I have gone from not caring to, very concerned.
(non-sequetor: I've composed a song about Sam sung to the tune of Mona Lisa. I will not list it here, but every time I hear his name I start to sing the damn thing)
Ailto said some things that really bothered me and, this was a surprise. I expected not to care, especially after a long soliloquy by Sen. Graham about what a decent guy he is. I even cringed a little at Shumer's no-nonsense cross-exam.
OTOH, he's clearly lying about the CAP thing. He might not want to admit it, but he purposely put that on a job application knowing the political sympathies of his bosses and is now pretending not to remember anything about it. It's clearly a lie. I compare this to Ginsburg who, while a flawed candidate in a hostile Senate, stepped up and owned her words.
I'm not saying that Alito is a bigot, or misogynist or anything, I don't really know and am willing to take the word of the many people who wrote in on his behalf that he is not.
That's not the point.
The point is either, he's lying and I don't like government officials to start their careers with a lie, or he's a fool. And I don't think he's a fool.
Also, he is painting a picture of himself as someone who is a "pleaser", i.e. who will tailor his opinions (like CAP) to get a job. The only conclusion I can reach from the man's own defense is that he'll gladly say things he doesn't believe in to get a job.
While this is common, I expect a higher standard of ethics from a SCJ. I find I have gone from not caring to, very concerned.
(non-sequetor: I've composed a song about Sam sung to the tune of Mona Lisa. I will not list it here, but every time I hear his name I start to sing the damn thing)
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
NeuroPsych Results
I have been fearing this moment for a week. I almost blogged this morning about how nervous I was, but decided to wait and get the actual facts. The following reflects quotes from Dr. Mary Pepping at the UofW who ran my tests and interpreted the results. I’ll have my copy of them in about 2 weeks.
When I walked in, Dr. Pepping was smiling and extraordinarily friendly. “This,” I thought to myself, “bodes well. Unless she does that when she gives people bad news! Ut-oh!”
It turned out there was Good News/Bad News and the just ... unusual
Good News:
"These are phenomenal results. In 25 years I've never seen results this consistent in so many categories. Even in your lowest categories, you scored in the Superior range". There turned out to be one exception to this on the mental tests. Regardless, this is the nicest thing anyone has said to me in ages, at least about my mentation.
We went through each set of results, one-by-one. Ironically, some of the ones I thought I did the poorest on, I did very well. Generally at this end of the spectrum, they rate results in several categories according to how many standard deviations above the norm they are; normal, bright, very bright, superior and very superior (I know, it’s grammatically wrong to have a very superior category, but that’s what they use).
Digits: 9 forward, 7 backwards. Very Superior The average is 5 forward 4 back.
Word Pair Lists: Very Superior. 10 correct pairs in 4 tries on recall after 30 minutes. Average: 5 in 4 tries. I mentioned that I thought I blew this one. "No, it's designed to be unmemorizable. The word pairs were chosen to they have little or nor relationship to each other without you inventing you're own system. It's also interesting that you had no false positives, i.e. you didn't identify any words that weren't there when you were quizzed and got all 12."
Spatial Reasoning: Perfect scores.
Tactile and kinetic reasoning, 1 perfect score, 1 in the very superior range.
Mathematical reasoning: Almost perfect. "You made one error where, although you got the right answer, you didn't reduce the fraction far enough". damn!
Verbal fluency: Superior
Executive Tests (cards and the "diamond dogs" machine). Very Superior. "almost perfect". I was right about the meta-rule, but, "it's designed not to be detectable by the subject. It's unusual for you to have noticed it at all."
Abstract Reasoning: Very Superior
Determination and Mental energy (apparently some of the tests, like the "diamond dog" one, can test how hard you are actually trying to solve them): Very Superior.
MMPI-2: Normal personality (notes below)
Conclusion: "If you have a cognitive deficit, it's coming down from such a level that these tests can't detect it." My mind is fine, including to my surprise, my short term memory. My general IQ is "north of 160"
Bad News:
The neurology tests (finger movement, eye movement), were not as good. My right hand, which should be the stronger of the two, was noticeably weaker. "It looks like, in the absence of other factors affecting the peripheral nerves, that there is motor neuron damage". This supports the MS or ALS theories, but tends to reduce (but not eliminate) the Huntington’s/Cerebral Ataxia theory.
Unusual: My answers to the story questions and interpreting a to a set of general facts was, "not wrong, everything made sense, just not what we were expecting. You only got in the 50th percentile on the stories. Normal, but odd given the high scores everywhere else. It's the biggest factor bringing your IQ down" Down to the 4 sigma level that is. It's weird that I scored this low on the inference tests since I would have thought I would do well, being fairly based on intuition and inductive (vs. deductive) logic.
Personality: Normal, but “you are only a hair over the extrovert line. This gives you a flexible set of tools for dealing with different social situations." Psychosis, no. Sociopathy, no, Dissociative disorders, no, Neuroses, no. "There is some indication you are worried about your physical health and, while not nowhere near clinically depressed, this does seem to have you upset."
Duh!
"You have the kind of personality that generally handles stress well until, suddenly it doesn't, at which point you probably obsess or collapse." I tend to collapse. Ask any of my friends from grad school who watched me after my divorce. Definitely a non-linear collapse.
"You're generally self-critical, self-effacing and tend not to speak your mind even when you know others are wrong or misguided". True, at least the last part.
Conclusion: I'm doing okay cognitively. I was flattered by her closing remark, "I really have never seen scores this consistently high across so many domains. You should be prouder of yourself then you actually are."
awwww....
So it really is motor neurons and not something which will take my mind. I can't tell you how relieved I am.
And, the quotes are all real. I am flattered (and more than a little uncomfortable) by the results.
When I walked in, Dr. Pepping was smiling and extraordinarily friendly. “This,” I thought to myself, “bodes well. Unless she does that when she gives people bad news! Ut-oh!”
It turned out there was Good News/Bad News and the just ... unusual
Good News:
"These are phenomenal results. In 25 years I've never seen results this consistent in so many categories. Even in your lowest categories, you scored in the Superior range". There turned out to be one exception to this on the mental tests. Regardless, this is the nicest thing anyone has said to me in ages, at least about my mentation.
We went through each set of results, one-by-one. Ironically, some of the ones I thought I did the poorest on, I did very well. Generally at this end of the spectrum, they rate results in several categories according to how many standard deviations above the norm they are; normal, bright, very bright, superior and very superior (I know, it’s grammatically wrong to have a very superior category, but that’s what they use).
Digits: 9 forward, 7 backwards. Very Superior The average is 5 forward 4 back.
Word Pair Lists: Very Superior. 10 correct pairs in 4 tries on recall after 30 minutes. Average: 5 in 4 tries. I mentioned that I thought I blew this one. "No, it's designed to be unmemorizable. The word pairs were chosen to they have little or nor relationship to each other without you inventing you're own system. It's also interesting that you had no false positives, i.e. you didn't identify any words that weren't there when you were quizzed and got all 12."
Spatial Reasoning: Perfect scores.
Tactile and kinetic reasoning, 1 perfect score, 1 in the very superior range.
Mathematical reasoning: Almost perfect. "You made one error where, although you got the right answer, you didn't reduce the fraction far enough". damn!
Verbal fluency: Superior
Executive Tests (cards and the "diamond dogs" machine). Very Superior. "almost perfect". I was right about the meta-rule, but, "it's designed not to be detectable by the subject. It's unusual for you to have noticed it at all."
Abstract Reasoning: Very Superior
Determination and Mental energy (apparently some of the tests, like the "diamond dog" one, can test how hard you are actually trying to solve them): Very Superior.
MMPI-2: Normal personality (notes below)
Conclusion: "If you have a cognitive deficit, it's coming down from such a level that these tests can't detect it." My mind is fine, including to my surprise, my short term memory. My general IQ is "north of 160"
Bad News:
The neurology tests (finger movement, eye movement), were not as good. My right hand, which should be the stronger of the two, was noticeably weaker. "It looks like, in the absence of other factors affecting the peripheral nerves, that there is motor neuron damage". This supports the MS or ALS theories, but tends to reduce (but not eliminate) the Huntington’s/Cerebral Ataxia theory.
Unusual: My answers to the story questions and interpreting a to a set of general facts was, "not wrong, everything made sense, just not what we were expecting. You only got in the 50th percentile on the stories. Normal, but odd given the high scores everywhere else. It's the biggest factor bringing your IQ down" Down to the 4 sigma level that is. It's weird that I scored this low on the inference tests since I would have thought I would do well, being fairly based on intuition and inductive (vs. deductive) logic.
Personality: Normal, but “you are only a hair over the extrovert line. This gives you a flexible set of tools for dealing with different social situations." Psychosis, no. Sociopathy, no, Dissociative disorders, no, Neuroses, no. "There is some indication you are worried about your physical health and, while not nowhere near clinically depressed, this does seem to have you upset."
Duh!
"You have the kind of personality that generally handles stress well until, suddenly it doesn't, at which point you probably obsess or collapse." I tend to collapse. Ask any of my friends from grad school who watched me after my divorce. Definitely a non-linear collapse.
"You're generally self-critical, self-effacing and tend not to speak your mind even when you know others are wrong or misguided". True, at least the last part.
Conclusion: I'm doing okay cognitively. I was flattered by her closing remark, "I really have never seen scores this consistently high across so many domains. You should be prouder of yourself then you actually are."
awwww....
So it really is motor neurons and not something which will take my mind. I can't tell you how relieved I am.
And, the quotes are all real. I am flattered (and more than a little uncomfortable) by the results.
If I Were God
...
well, just absorb that for a second.
ok.
anyway, if I were, this is the kind of thing I would do more often.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.
"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.
Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.
No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.
Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.
"I've seen numerous house fires," village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, "but nothing as unique as this one."
Double points for the correct grammatical use of unique.
It's worth pointing out that, statistically, you (yes, you!) witness about 3 events of probability 1:1,000,000 a year of 10 seconds or less.
well, just absorb that for a second.
ok.
anyway, if I were, this is the kind of thing I would do more often.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.
"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.
Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.
No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.
Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.
"I've seen numerous house fires," village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, "but nothing as unique as this one."
Double points for the correct grammatical use of unique.
It's worth pointing out that, statistically, you (yes, you!) witness about 3 events of probability 1:1,000,000 a year of 10 seconds or less.
This Is About Where I Step Off the Train
It looks like a school in California is taking up the challenge of teaching ID as religion, and people are suing to stop it. I have to kind of step off here as I don't really have a huge problem with this. I definately have a problem with teaching pure religion-as-truth, and it seems they might be skirting the border here, but I don't see this as a science issue.
OTOH, I lot of ID opponents do. Here's a good example.
There is an old adage that good physicists become bad philosophers in there old age, but I really don't see this as a science issue here. ID is an idea and, in general, ideas don't get supressed well. The onyl cure for a bad idea is exposure. I think the left here is emulating the worst book-burning instincts of the right and trying to close down a concept. That never works. Bring it up, teach it as philosophy and I bet the majority of kids realize how silly it is despite their teachers pronouncements.
That said, I'm not *encouraging* this, but if that's how they want to spend their philosophy dollars, well... as the saying goes, "god love'em"
OTOH, I lot of ID opponents do. Here's a good example.
There is an old adage that good physicists become bad philosophers in there old age, but I really don't see this as a science issue here. ID is an idea and, in general, ideas don't get supressed well. The onyl cure for a bad idea is exposure. I think the left here is emulating the worst book-burning instincts of the right and trying to close down a concept. That never works. Bring it up, teach it as philosophy and I bet the majority of kids realize how silly it is despite their teachers pronouncements.
That said, I'm not *encouraging* this, but if that's how they want to spend their philosophy dollars, well... as the saying goes, "god love'em"
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Superluminal
I was reading the AAS updates at the Bad Astronomy blog and came across this entry on Heim Quantum Theory for propulsion. I haven't read the paper yet, so I can't comment a curosry glance makes me highly skeptical.
Red Flags:
violates conventional conservation of momentum
proposes "new physics" which has not been observed yet
brings 2 new concepts in one paper (as opposed to the more traditional way of one breakthrough per paper)
new terms for new physics
renames existing terms or older physics
posits existance of parallel universe with covarient physics (2 assumptions there)
Ideas to which I am sympathetic:
quantized space
The basic idea is to create a vaccum pair with one partner having an interaction with baryonic matter and the other having a vanishingly small cross section for itneraction. This would have the net effect of transfering momentum to the baryons but leaving overall universal momentum seemingly conserved. It's a clever variation of Hawking Radiation, but it's not clear that any gravitophoton pair product would actually have this property. If it were true, I would expect to see something similar at higher energy with axion production which has not (to my knowledge) been observed.
Still, it's clever.
Update: I've read it twice now. A lot of the bits are correct on their own, I just don't know that they form a coherent framework. It's like a wall where each brick is solid, but upon closer inspection the wall is held together by vanilla frosting instead of mortor. There are a number of leaps between various ideas here, but I don't think it's overall correct.
It could be:
a) a sophisticated joke
b) a troll
c) the legitimate end product of a creative but slightly flawed piece of reasoning, each step moving a little further out on the branch of implausibilty
d) a paper written by a brilliant couple of guys at the end of a truely legendary bender.
Don't know. I'll read it again. I happen to have most of their references in my library and can check up on some of the middle pieces.
My hat's off to these boys. I may steal this bit for the propulsion mechanism in Looking Backwards. My ideas were a little along these lines, but nowhere near this detailed.
Red Flags:
violates conventional conservation of momentum
proposes "new physics" which has not been observed yet
brings 2 new concepts in one paper (as opposed to the more traditional way of one breakthrough per paper)
new terms for new physics
renames existing terms or older physics
posits existance of parallel universe with covarient physics (2 assumptions there)
Ideas to which I am sympathetic:
quantized space
The basic idea is to create a vaccum pair with one partner having an interaction with baryonic matter and the other having a vanishingly small cross section for itneraction. This would have the net effect of transfering momentum to the baryons but leaving overall universal momentum seemingly conserved. It's a clever variation of Hawking Radiation, but it's not clear that any gravitophoton pair product would actually have this property. If it were true, I would expect to see something similar at higher energy with axion production which has not (to my knowledge) been observed.
Still, it's clever.
Update: I've read it twice now. A lot of the bits are correct on their own, I just don't know that they form a coherent framework. It's like a wall where each brick is solid, but upon closer inspection the wall is held together by vanilla frosting instead of mortor. There are a number of leaps between various ideas here, but I don't think it's overall correct.
It could be:
a) a sophisticated joke
b) a troll
c) the legitimate end product of a creative but slightly flawed piece of reasoning, each step moving a little further out on the branch of implausibilty
d) a paper written by a brilliant couple of guys at the end of a truely legendary bender.
Don't know. I'll read it again. I happen to have most of their references in my library and can check up on some of the middle pieces.
My hat's off to these boys. I may steal this bit for the propulsion mechanism in Looking Backwards. My ideas were a little along these lines, but nowhere near this detailed.
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