Bret

Bret

64p

36 comments posted · 4 followers · following 1

12 years ago @ KOMO - Seattle, WA - 2011 weather in Seattl... · 0 replies · +3 points

A great recap for an interesting weather year. Keep up the good work!

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - The Kopp-Etchells Effect · 0 replies · +3 points

That is a very cool story. Thanks for sharing.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - Startup: Commuting In ... · 0 replies · +4 points

IF I could, I would thumb-up this 400,000 times.

Amen

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - User Input: A Brief Aside · 0 replies · +1 points

That's an interesting article. I hadn't heard about fluoxetine being thought of as a primary treatment (it's not uncommon to put folks in treatment on anti-depressants).

The thing with new medical therapies, drugs, and devices is that it's hugely expensive to get them from idea to FDA approved (and thus billable to insurance) implementation. It takes years and many millions of dollars. I understand your frustration, Dr. Gordon seems to have an idea worthy of some pursuit.

I hear about this sort of thing all the time. The latest was a physician who self funded a successful mini-trial (three patients) to cure their disease by giving them a modified version of the AIDS virus. Try getting that funded!

Medical research is unfortunately more than the ideas of researchers. It needs to be paid for, and unfortunately sometimes a commercial entity's bottom line comes into play. That's not to say there aren't other ways to get your ideas funded, you just have to be creative. Perhaps Dr. Gordon has a career development grant he can use to fund an animal model?

The thing we need to remember here is that drug companies don't call all the shots on clinical research. The NIH funds a ton of research. Your tax dollars at work! To get the creative, not commercially attractive, stuff researched, we need to make sure John Q Voting Public understands science isn't evil and votes that way. Embryonic Stem Cells aren't aborting babies, recreational drugs aren't all evil.

Sorry for the rant, I'll get off my soapbox.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - User Input: A Brief Aside · 2 replies · +12 points

You should have slugged him. I work in cancer research and hope to one day have to find work in another field.

Honestly, the nerve of some people.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - Startup: A Trope And A... · 0 replies · +3 points

Without my beard I am soft and forgettable. With my beard I am as I should be, less soft and slightly less forgettable.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - Startup: A Social Expe... · 1 reply · +1 points

How about a Tim Horton's card then? I love me some Tim Bits. Given the high population of Canukistanis on the Toaster, this might work.

Maybe not for as frequently as I'd like since I only get to Canada a couple times a year for out of town curling events.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - Never Seen A Man Beat ... · 1 reply · +7 points

My LeMons team once tried to make a wing for our Peugeot out of a rotor blade from an auto-gyro. Mixing too old to be used as originally intended auto-gyro parts with a beat to hell Peugeot destined for racing use seemed to be asking for trouble, so we got wise and built our wing out of Boeing scrap 757 wing frame pieces and scraps of aluminum and phenolic used in 747 flaps.

Our wing works great and doesn't have the firey explodey death mojo that would come from using auto-gyro parts.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - User Input: The Line B... · 3 replies · +8 points

I collect spores, mold, and fungus.

12 years ago @ Atomic Toasters - User Input: Hide It Wh... · 1 reply · +5 points

Datsun --> Nissan. Nissan still doesn't sound right.