Random Thoughts

Tangential Science: it's not necessarily science, but it's still funny. 1.  Greek fire ain't what it used to be.  If you're a student of history, you know that Greek fire  (πῦρ θαλάσσιον) was popularized by the Byzantines, mostly against Arab navies.   We don't know what it consisted of because the recipe was lost to antiquity but it made enough of an impression that various other cultures copied it.   Naptha?   Saltpeter?  No one can be sure. Greek fire was not an ingredient but instead an entire system.   It required special processing to make and…

I've noticed that my readership numbers are lower in summer, often only half as much as usual.  Bearing in mind I only launched in Spring, there was a noticeable drop as we hit (especially) July and now August.  With my non-science web column, I've noticed the same trend.  It's the flip side to the 'September Effect', when most sites get a sudden surge in visitors as incoming collegiate freshmen suddenly have free, unstructured time and fast web access. The Summer Effect is a mix of schools being out of session and people being away on vacation.  Most particularly, schools…

Take note - the world will come to an end in November. It will probably look somewhat like this: Anyway, it's too bad we won't make it to 2012 to see if the Mayans were right, but I really don't want to live through another 2-year-long presidential election campaign so it all evens out. I can't give you anything more specific than the month of November, because those death-wishers at CERN haven't set a date. The Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to restart then; even though it's only going to ramp up to about half its energy potential, that should still be enough to take out most of the…

Before we consider the issue of health insurance it is useful to examine the basis of insurance, generally, and how revenue is generated within that business model.  The basic premise is that a group of individuals will pay premiums which will provide a reserve of funds which can be used to pay out claims to any member of the group for whatever has been insured.  The model is relatively straightforward when it comes to car insurance, homeowner's, and even life insurance. In effect, the business model is a gambling enterprise where the insurer is gambling that only a minimal number…

Stabbed by his once most faithful man after many other blows received by the conjurors, Julius Caesar pronounced those words, according to reports, before falling to death. Now, is history repeating itself ? Paolo Guzzanti, once one of Silvio Berlusconi's best men, is an aggressive journalist who became a politician under king Silvio the II. Guzzanti always maintained some sort of twisted coherence in his reactionary positions and vitriolic approach to the political issues he handled -one remembers, for instance, his leading of the Italian Mitrokhin commission which tried to assess the…

Almost everyone seems to be opposed or at least guarded about the government becoming engaged in more services.  There seems to be a general assumption that it will be badly run, or simply bad.  However, in thinking about it, it seems that when we remove our own political beliefs or objectives from the equation, it becomes more difficult to really gauge the effectiveness of this process. There are many programs that we may disagree with, but does that necessarily mean that they are run poorly?  Certainly there will be mistakes that we have to contend with, but are they really…

Big Pharma gets a bad rap, and sometimes deservedly so. After covering the industry for a number of years and working with them (not for them), I know the good, the bad, and the ugly of industry well. But no matter how bad the story is, I've never been tempted to go after someone's dead mom. This is one of those stories that I had to read a few times because it's not something you really believe the first time through. The CEO of the Switzerland-based pharma giant Novartis Daniel Vasella has had a really bad month. (Disclosure: I've interviewed Dr. Vasella, and I liked him.) His vacation…

What's that, you say? Science is coming? I thought it was already here - then what are we talking about on Scientific Blogging? Fear not, befuddled blog readers. For when I speak of science coming to us, I speak of only the most spectacular, the most enthralling, the most "these guys are off their rocker" of the scientific milieu. That's right, a They Might Be Giants album. TMBG is releasing a new album ENTIRELY DEVOTED TO SCIENCE SONGS on September 1! I can't even handle it, I'm so excited. Unfortunately for the husband and cat I discovered this just before bedtime, so it took me a while to…

In considering some of the comments made on the original posting, I realized that there were some variations and refinements in discussing supply and demand that warranted additional consideration. In light of those comments, let me refine the definition of the "Law of Supply and Demand" as an equilibrium law which attempts to explain the various paths either "supply" or "demand" may take based on the perceived imbalance in that state of equilibrium. This is usually expressed as an increase or decrease in prices based on the balance between the supply of goods/services and the demand. As…

In reading some posts regarding health care reform, someone made a comment that struck me as unusual regarding the pharmaceuticals, namely that they had a right to make a profit too. What an interesting phrase; "a right to make a profit". Of course, it isn't even remotely true. Companies aren't even guaranteed a right to be in business, let alone make a profit. One could argue that companies are entitled to make whatever profits they may without interference from the government, but then why should a company have a right that isn't available to ordinary citizens? So where does such a phrase…