Probably some of you don't know this, but I work for a little Dallas-based biotech company that's developing a treatment for a particular type of cancer: chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. That's one reason why one particular person's death a couple of weeks ago grabbed my attention.
John Kanzius, a CLL patient himself, had a great idea that's leading to one of the exciting developments in cancer treatment. It was indeed a great idea in itself, but it led to a pretty interesting and purely unintentional discovery:
Pre-clinical studies at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh are evaluating the safety and effectiveness of his cancer-fighting technology. Like all developing therapeutics, it'll take a little while, maybe five years, before we can even test this type of thing in humans. Then it'll take several more years for it to carve a path towards FDA approval. But at least it's in the works, and what better place for it to be tested than at M.D. Anderson?
As for his salt water discovery, the results have been confirmed by researchers at Penn State. Apparently, radio waves react with the water in such a way that the water is split into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and then are re-joined, releasing energy. It still has a long way to go, though. It's said that, currently, this process couldn't be used as a practical energy source, because it takes far more energy to produce the radio waves than the energy produced by the reaction. Work continues.
On Feb. 18, 2009, John Kanzius died of pneumonia resulting from complications of chemotherapy treatment for his CLL. But his ideas continue to live on and flourish.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
This Post Is Not About Steroids
And yet, it is about Major League Baseball. Shocking.
It's a puzzle I recently heard about the country's second-favorite pastime (I maintain basketball is number one) in it's most basic and elemental form: the rulebook. Here goes:
There are five ways for a baseball player to reach first base without a baseball ever making contact with his/her bat. Name them.
The winner gets something shiny.
It's a puzzle I recently heard about the country's second-favorite pastime (I maintain basketball is number one) in it's most basic and elemental form: the rulebook. Here goes:
There are five ways for a baseball player to reach first base without a baseball ever making contact with his/her bat. Name them.
The winner gets something shiny.
Friday, February 20, 2009
JoshCast #3 - Fortunate Son
It's late on a Friday night and I'm still at work! Just playing the waiting game on something someone else is doing. So hey, what better way to make this post-5-o-clock-on-Friday-in-the-office time disappear than write a quick entry on my stupid blog?
We've all heard this great American classic by Creedence Clearwater Revival. But my guess is you haven't heard this cover by Todd Snider and Patty Griffin:
We've all heard this great American classic by Creedence Clearwater Revival. But my guess is you haven't heard this cover by Todd Snider and Patty Griffin:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Obamicon
The debate rages. If we remove all things we typically use to judge a president's merits out of the equation (i.e., approval ratings, policy, fake waving, etc.), how does the election of President Obama affect us? I'm glad I asked! Let's examine.
1: The Daily Show doesn't quite have its same edge now that its three favorite targets (George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush) no longer have "Pennsylvania Ave." in their addresses. How do you poke and prod a man who concurs with pretty much all of your ideals? The good news is that Jon Stewart is trying, and he's doing a pretty decent job of it:
2: We now have our eighth left-handed president. Eight out of 44 presidents amounts to 18%, which is proportionally higher than the general left-handed population (12%). Not sure if that's enough statistical evidence to say that if you're left-handed, you're more likely to be president, but it's an interesting trend nonetheless.
3: OK, so this was around before the election, but still, so-called "Obamicons" have exploded in popularity because of Shepherd Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster that came out during the campaign. Now, thanks to Obamicon.Me, anyone can be red-white-and-bluified! Including yours truly:
The possibilities are endless (see gallery), but here are some of my favorites:
1: The Daily Show doesn't quite have its same edge now that its three favorite targets (George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush) no longer have "Pennsylvania Ave." in their addresses. How do you poke and prod a man who concurs with pretty much all of your ideals? The good news is that Jon Stewart is trying, and he's doing a pretty decent job of it:
2: We now have our eighth left-handed president. Eight out of 44 presidents amounts to 18%, which is proportionally higher than the general left-handed population (12%). Not sure if that's enough statistical evidence to say that if you're left-handed, you're more likely to be president, but it's an interesting trend nonetheless.
3: OK, so this was around before the election, but still, so-called "Obamicons" have exploded in popularity because of Shepherd Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster that came out during the campaign. Now, thanks to Obamicon.Me, anyone can be red-white-and-bluified! Including yours truly:
The possibilities are endless (see gallery), but here are some of my favorites:
Monday, February 16, 2009
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