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Ernest Miller took it upon himself to follow up on an article in the LA Times which included a claim by the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit that "all but one of the offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie." Ernest's initial reaction: "Seemed rather unlikely to me... So, I called the Child Exploitation Section of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit and spoke to Det. Ian Lamond, who was familiar with the LA Times article..."
He continues: "They've arrested well over one hundred people over the past four years and Det. Lamond claims they can gauge this interest in Star Trek by the arrestees' 'paraphenalia, books, videotapes and DVDs.' I asked if this wasn't simply a general interest in science fiction and fantasy, such as Star Wars or Harry Potter or similar. Paraphrasing his answer, he said, while there was sometimes other science fiction and fantasy paraphenalia, Star Trek was the most consistent and when he referred to a majority of the arrestees being Star Trek fans, it was Star Trek specific..."
Derek Lowe kicks off a conversation about the costs of drug development that several of his readers follow up on. Says Derek: "Most drug development projects don't work, and all the money spent on them goes down the hole. If you're going to risk your cash on one, you need to figure out what you would get if you parked your money in some more reliable investments instead, and you need to realize up front that this is what you're forgoing. 'But I don't do my expenses like that!' goes the cry. Don't you, though? If you have some extra cash around, should you put it in a savings account, the stock market, pay down some principal on your mortgage, or put it all on your lucky number at a roulette table?..."
Says one of the commenters: "Having degrees in both economics and chemistry, I have bounced around the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles and I think the Tufts number has done more harm than good. It comes across sounding a bit like a rationalization from an industry that is facing maturation pains moving from a young upstart industry to a more stable middle age. It also has focused the debate on haggling about costs rather than social returns..."
Join Zack Lynch at Stanford Business School tonight where he'll be moderating a panel discussion between executives of several early stage companies in neuropharmaceutical discovery and development.
Among those who'll be sharing their perspective: Jeffrey Ostrove, CEO of Ceregene; David Summa, President and CEO of Acumen Pharmaceuticals; and Thorsten Melcher, Vice President of Discovery at Saegis Pharmaceuticals.
More info's available on Brain Waves, Zack's Industry Insider on neurotechnology.
Alex, Phil and Matt present the first in what they say will be a weekly offering: a podcast on podcasting that'll discuss prevailing topics of the day. Up for discussion in their inaugural show: music licensing issues, a review of BlogMatrix's Spark! product, and discussion of the view Major League Baseball and other professional sports leagues may take of indepedently produced play-by-play podcasts.
Our newest blog - on Podcasting - has quietly made its way into the world over the past few weeks. Tune in and you'll find Web accessibility expert Matt May, PR and marketing specialist Phil Yanov, Corante's Alex Williams (and others who'll be coming aboard) tracking and analyzing the exploding field's latest developments.
Of note in recent days: Matt on the much-discussed issue of music licensing; Phil on Loyal Ears' recently launched podcasting platform, and Alex on Corante's very own Podcast Hotel, a 3-day event we'll be hosting in Portland, OR in July we'll be telling you lots more about in the coming weeks.
Tune in to the third installment of our Earthlink-sponsored series on the "Future of Wireless" for commentary from two leading analysts on the mobile gaming market. Russell Shaw interviews Paul Jackson of Forrester Research and Paul-Jon McNealy of American Technology Research for their thoughts on revenue models, market opportunities, consumer interest and more.
Johnnie Moore of BrandShifttalks with two of the the founders of Zopa, a new start-up that calls itself a kind of "eBay for Money," in this podcast interview. Johnnie explains: "[It's] a British company that creates a new market for individuals to lend and borrow money, bypassing the banks altogether. Zopa makes a 1% charge for matching up borrowers and lenders and provides essential infrastructure to support the lending process."
Explains one of his interviewees: "99% of people are good and 1% of people are bad. Here is an industry that's set itself up to serve the 99 but through lens of the 1% that's bad. And what we'd much rather do is... create a sort of perimeter fence to keep the 1% out and then let the people within (be in) a much better position to work out how they exchange and what the appropriate rates are and what the appropriate products are..."
Johnnie again: "This interview gives some great insights into the vision behind Zopa, a brand which I think is a radical new departure in financial services... I was excited by what Zopa is up to, and this interview gives some great insights into the innovative thinking behind the organisation."
Hylton Jolliffe
Francois Gossieaux
