Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Big Pharma vs. Ancient Chinese Remedies

I hate conspiracy theories ..... that being said .... The FDA recently pulled Red Yeast Rice supplements off the market at about the same time the effectiveness of two popular cholesterol lowering drugs, Zetia and Vytorin, is being called into question. One has to wonder if this was this done with pressure from the makers of the two drugs Schering-Plough and Merck?


While I understand the safety and effectiveness concerns of natural supplements, we need some sort of independent lab to do clinical trials of supplements. It costs a whole pile of money for a drug to get FDA approval ... no one is going to fund trials for an "open" supplement. I wonder if there is something in the "open technology" community that would translate into the pharmaceutical area?? Open source, community supported drugs??

#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 5:59 AM

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

A chip off the ol' block .....

Seems Sam has gotten into blogging. Not that I understand a word she's saying. She's a natural for it, she's loved to write since .... well before she could write. In kindergarten she would ask Lisa to "take dictation" for stories she would tell and then bring to the teacher. What a cutie.

#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 3:07 PM

Comments:

Too funny! I get out of breath just reading it. (My favorite line: "if u dont kno who the jonas brothers r GET OFF MY BLOG!!!!!!!! jk" :-)

# posted by Blogger Mike @ 7:58 PM 

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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Book Report: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins is an autobiography of sorts about a man who worked as an "economist" for Charles T. Main Inc., an engineering firm similar to Bechtel and Halliburton. He talks of how his job was to inflate economic projections for developing nations so as to secure loans from the world bank and provide work for his firm and the rest of the "corpratacracy" of the "Global Empire." Later on when the inflated economic projections didn't pan out, the developing countries unable to repay their debt were left with no alternative but to allow the corpratacracy to ravage their natural resources.

A word of warning ... the book is strong on the "conspiracy theory" angle ... but in our day an age .. especially Iraq with Halliburton and Bechtel .. one can imagine at how there could be some truth to this story.

The US State Department even thought the book warranted an official warning and rebuttal. Early in the book Mr. Perkins alludes to the fact he was recruited and groomed for his position by the NSA. As the State Dept points out, and I agree with, the problem with this assertion is the NSA is largely tasked with Surveillance and Code Breaking NOT operational matters. ( for a good book on the NSA read The Puzzle Palace by James Banford )

It's an interesting read. Whatever you think of the credibility of the book the overall message is the same: Rather than trying to rule the world, imposing our beliefs, and thinking it OK to exploit other less developed people we should all try to work together so NO ONE is deprived "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 12:15 PM

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Money Can't buy you a longer life .....

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/health/spend/cost_longlife75.gif
How come we spend the most on health care but have one of the lowest life expectancies compared to other industrialized nations???

Credits: dvorak.org/blog
Health Care Spending: Large Differences, Unequal Results

#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 5:41 AM

Comments:

Wow, I often talk about how out-of-whack our health care costs are, but that graph's worth a thousand words.

# posted by Blogger Mike @ 7:57 PM 

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