...more recent posts
Dave linked to an article yesterday at edge.org, and while I was there I spied this other gem: Is the Market on Prozac? I hadn't thought this before, but it really could be the case. Here's a little from the piece by Randolph M. Nesse, M.D.:
The press has been preoccupied with possible explanations for the current extraordinary boom. Many articles say, as they always do while a bubble grows, that this market is "different." Some attribute the difference to new information technology. Others credit changes in foreign trade, or the baby boomer's lack of experience with a real economic depression. But you never see a serious story about the possibility that this market is different because investor's brains are different. There is good reason to suspect that they are.
Prescriptions for psychoactive drugs have increased from 131 million in 1988 to 233 million in 1998, with nearly 10 million prescriptions filled last year for Prozac alone. The market for antidepressants in the USA is now $6.3 billion per year. Additional huge numbers of people use herbs to influence their moods. I cannot find solid data on how many people in the USA take antidepressants, but a calculation based on sales suggests a rough estimate of 20 million.
What percent of brokers, dealers, and investors are taking antidepressant drugs? Wealthy, stressed urbanites are especially likely to use them. I would not be surprised to learn that one in four large investors has used some kind of mood-altering drug....
Kuro5hin has a write-up of an interesting proposal to fix the current DNS system. I think either it will be reformed (not likely) or a radically more distributed system will arise. Freenet and gnutella are both interesting steps in this direction (and, consequently, both are much more interesting than just the latest way to trade MP3's.)
This is incredibly cool. The BBC is reporting on a project to construct (by 2010) a virtual plant. Modeled after Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of cabbage, this computer simulation would contain a complete description of all genes, as well as the proteins involved, and their expression at any point in time. A sort of "wiring diagram" of a living plant. Dr. Chory of the Salk Institute said
"We'd love, for instance, to see a four-dimensional view of a plant that covers all the details from when the seed germinates to when the next generation seeds fall off the mother plant. And we'd like to be able to stop the process at any phase in the plant's life-cycle and see which proteins are expressed and how they interact."If a simulation of a plant behaves exactly like a plant, is it one? In any case, cyberspace definitely needs a little greening.
Barbelith reprinted this funny open letter to Dr. Laura.
Brig (no, I don't really know her, but I'll call her Brig as if I did...) has a poll on her page today about webloggers and gender. Pretty even score so far (boys just slightly in the lead.)
Rasterweb has a funny page of insults for computer geeks. A little repetitive, but some gems. I liked: "He's not the fastest router on the network." His call for other quips is my big chance to interact: must...think...of something...funny...