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New drugs have changed the course of some wars!

OTOH, the pharma industry has large revenues selling commercially viable therapeutics that seem to have dramatically increased human lifespan and increased quality of life. Even without fully understanding biology there is a lot that can and has been done.

hrqon US Intel

Agreed. Also the biotech industry is largely getting defunded. Venture funds are pointing dollars elsewhere so fewer new companies are being started, while more biotechs are being started in China.

Most new drugs come from biotechs nowadays (not all of them, not GLP-1’s). But many do. If that innovation is happening in China and not the US today then it will create an issue in several years. We will not control our supply chain for a critical set of goods.

hrqon US Intel

I believe something similar is happening in drug development right now. It may take less than 5, 10, 15 years to see the impact to the US. But from someone who has a vantage point to see it across many parts of the industry, including having seen the evolution of Intel / TSMC, I think it is a very similar story. Right now is like 2007 (or maybe even a bit later) for therapeutics. In the future, we will look back on this year as the year we gave it up.

hrqon Machine Learning and Ketosis

I've been trying to be low carb for the last couple years and I think it's overall gone well, but I really struggle with what to eat still.

I hear your points about protein, cheese, and nuts, but then what do you eat? Can you list out a few complete days of your meals?

hrqon The FDA's notes from its visit to Theranos' labs don't look good

TBH the FDA is the least of the various hurdles to get a great biotech going. The FDA has (surprise) largely been spot on. Theranos is just a fraud. If you are not risk tolerant that's fine, it's a reasonable position. But, there are plenty of people who are willing to actually get outside the anonymous video chat / messaging whatever echo chamber and make real inventions happen in the world that make a real difference to real people.

hrqon Tesla Model III to challenge BMW 3 Series

I test drove the Telsa S (along with several other cars in the general $100k range) and found the acceleration to be astounding, but the handling to be uninspired and the interior actually felt cheap to me. There's nothing like the immediate acceleration from the Tesla, but the M5 just seems like a better overall car today. The M5 is a total beast, but still incredibly comfortable. Wouldn't be hard for Tesla to change the interior. Just felt hard to swallow paying $100k and sitting in a plasticy feeling interior. Also the handling in the M5 is a completely different animal than anything I experienced in the Tesla. Again, not impossible or maybe not even hard for the Tesla to update in the future, but the M5 just feels like a better car today.

hrqon Google Ventures Leads $130M Round For Medical Software Company Flatiron Health

Wow! How about that? Congrats guys - what a time to make a difference in cancer.

hrqon How Long Have I Got Left?

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519686/steve-jobs-left-...

Another article describing a business that was started around this concept and seems to be having an important impact in medicine.

hrqon Twitter / paulg: We installed Nest thermostats ...

You can disable that stuff. Once you turn learning off you can use it either as a normal thermostat or as a pre-programmed one.

I actually use our Nest as a normal thermostat that just looks great and can connect with my phone. It's awesome. I also like that it tells us our energy usage relative to everyone else.

I bought it because it's far and away the best looking thermostat out there and because it can connect with my phone. LOVE it for those reasons.

hrqon In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future

Seems like people and companies are already starting to address the cost issues to make this a more accessible and scalable process. I'm thinking of things like DNAnexus to help with the computational stuff. Also surprising they didn't mention any of the companies doing this work (i.e. this isn't just an academic exercise anymore).

hrqon Nuance To Acquire Swype For $100+ Million

How is this worth $100m+ ?

hrqon All the things task apps aren't getting right vs. paper

Handwriting a to do list is also way faster since you don't have to worry about app switching, typos getting corrected to the wrong word, and random occasional slowdowns that always seem to happen right when I really need my phone to work. Also it's hard to make a to do list on your phone while you're talking on the phone - yes there are headphones but then you have to untangle those, plug them in etc, even if you just need them for a minute (another ongoing issue!).

hrqon Rate my weekend project, Thursday Flowers: a thoughtfulness service

I like the idea. Would definitely sign up, though would want to see an explicit statement that my email will be safe with you!

hrqon You’ve Got Mail is Ripe for a Sequel

I much prefer getting the ebook version if it's available. I seem to actually read my ebooks since they're always with me. I also find myself re-reading my ebooks more. My ebook transition was initially assisted by my wife's insistence that we had no more physical place for more physical books. I still get technical books on paper, but even then I first look to see if there is even an ebook available.

hrqon Stanford's Mechanical Engineering department's Product Realization Laboratory

Anything like this in Boston that people know about?

hrqon IPhone Alarms Still Not Working Despite Apple's Words

Both are unfortunate bugs. The iPhone one is the one that burned me and my wife and many people at work. I'm sure the Android one is real too, but I don't know anyone who has been affected yet.

hrqon Medical researcher discovers integration, gets 75 citations

good luck with that.

hrqon WikiLeaks Archive — Cables Uncloak U.S. Diplomacy

This may be a silly question, but what is a "cable"? Is this like a telegram or is it just another name for emails?

I see here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13526#Part_1 that there's some structure to these documents, but what transport are they being sent by?

hrqon Angel investors flee as seed and startup bubble begins to deflate

Seems like we should come up with a different, more specific term for what we mean by startup. Like tech startup. Or perhaps IT startup.