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Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
By Stephanie Pappas | LiveScience.com – 11 hrs ago
There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.
Controversy ahead
The findings combine three hot-button topics.
"They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics," said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. "When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it's bound to upset somebody." Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions, Nosek told LiveScience. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You]
"The unique contribution here is trying to make some progress on the most challenging aspect of this," Nosek said, referring to the new study. "It's not that a relationship like that exists, but why it exists."
Brains and bias
Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]
In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100.
Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority." Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races." (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson's work can't speak to this "underground" racism.)
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.
"This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice," said Hodson, who along with his colleagues published these results online Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Science.
A study of averages
Hodson was quick to note that the despite the link found between low intelligence and social conservatism, the researchers aren't implying that all liberals are brilliant and all conservatives stupid. The research is a study of averages over large groups, he said.
"There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals," Hodson said.
Nosek gave another example to illustrate the dangers of taking the findings too literally.
"We can say definitively men are taller than women on average," he said. "But you can't say if you take a random man and you take a random woman that the man is going to be taller. There's plenty of overlap."
Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
"Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. "Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice."
In another study, this one in the United States, Hodson and Busseri compared 254 people with the same amount of education but different levels of ability in abstract reasoning. They found that what applies to racism may also apply to homophobia. People who were poorer at abstract reasoning were more likely to exhibit prejudice against gays. As in the U.K. citizens, a lack of contact with gays and more acceptance of right-wing authoritarianism explained the link. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]
Simple viewpoints
Hodson and Busseri's explanation of their findings is reasonable, Nosek said, but it is correlational. That means the researchers didn't conclusively prove that the low intelligence caused the later prejudice. To do that, you'd have to somehow randomly assign otherwise identical people to be smart or dumb, liberal or conservative. Those sorts of studies obviously aren't possible.
The researchers controlled for factors such as education and socioeconomic status, making their case stronger, Nosek said. But there are other possible explanations that fit the data. For example, Nosek said, a study of left-wing liberals with stereotypically naïve views like "every kid is a genius in his or her own way," might find that people who hold these attitudes are also less bright. In other words, it might not be a particular ideology that is linked to stupidity, but extremist views in general.
"My speculation is that it's not as simple as their model presents it," Nosek said. "I think that lower cognitive capacity can lead to multiple simple ways to represent the world, and one of those can be embodied in a right-wing ideology where 'People I don't know are threats' and 'The world is a dangerous place'. ... Another simple way would be to just assume everybody is wonderful."
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group's point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
"There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others, particularly foreigners," Hodson said. "Much of the present research literature suggests that our prejudices are primarily emotional in origin rather than cognitive. These two pieces of information suggest that it might be particularly fruitful for researchers to consider strategies to change feelings toward outgroups," rather than thoughts.
Another Greek Crisis: A Drug Shortage
Government cost-cutting has worsened an already dysfunctional system
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/another-greek-crisis-a-drug-shortage-01262012.html?campaign_id=yhoo
By Naomi Kresge
In crisis-wracked Greece, even finding aspirin can be a pain. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists says Greece is running short of almost half its 500 most-used drugs.
The Greek government sets drug prices, and public insurers cover most of the bills submitted by the manufacturers and the wholesalers that supply hospitals and drugstores. The economic crisis made cost-cutting an imperative. Over the last year and a half, the government has cut drug prices, in some cases by up to 25 percent. The aim was to trim a national health bill that totaled more than €13 billion ($17 billion) in 2010, or about 5 percent of GDP.
The result, drugmakers say, has been an acceleration in the siphoning of their products out of Greece as wholesalers send their shipments to countries whose governments still pay higher prices. Reimbursement fraud and strained public finances aggravate the problem.
Greek pharmacists say they now spend their days pleading with drugmakers and wholesalers to hunt down medicines for clients. Chain-smoking in her tiny back office, Athens pharmacist Aggeliki Matsouki describes calling other pharmacies for Famvir, an oral herpes drug made by Novartis (NVS). “If I can’t find a prescription drug, I try to borrow it from colleagues. We exchange medicines. The whole system is dysfunctional.”
Heinz Kobelt, secretary general of the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, says he’s seen boxes of Bayer’s (BAYN:GR) Aspirin in Poland that originated in Greece. “Even Polish people pay more than Greeks for aspirin,” he says. Mike Rulis, a spokesman for Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NVO), says his company stopped selling some of its higher-priced insulins in Greece for about a month in 2010 after the government cut prices by about 25 percent. Novo now ships in the same volume as before the cuts, but pharmacists are running short of insulin, Rulis said. That could mean the drugs are being diverted to other markets.
Citing figures he says he got from the Health Ministry, Richard Bergström, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, says fraud costs Greece more than €500 million a year, as drugs shipped elsewhere are submitted for reimbursement to public insurers, who believe the medicine had actually been sold to Greek hospitals and pharmacies. The Health Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Insurers now often delay payments to pharmacies, which can’t pay suppliers on time. Wholesalers used to front pharmacies the money for deliveries. Now that drugmakers are increasingly demanding upfront cash from the wholesalers, wholesalers are asking pharmacies to do the same. “Wholesalers simply do not have the money anymore to play bank to the pharmacies,” says Kobelt.
Public insurers owe pharmacists some €330 million for drugs bought since April, says Dimitris Karageorgiou, vice-chairman of the pharmacists’ association. Payment can take three months to a year, say pharmacists; not all can afford the wait. An invoice provided to Bloomberg News shows Roche Holding (ROG:VX) requesting €926 in advance from a pharmacy for NeoRecormon, a medicine that treats anemia in chemotherapy and chronic kidney disease patients. Roche extends credit to pharmacies and in some cases has extended credit limits to ensure patients can get drugs, says Daniel Grotzky, a company spokesman. “This might be a pharmacy which has used up its credit line,” he says.
Last year, Roche switched to a payment-on-delivery policy for hospitals with a history of nonpayment. Before getting tough, Roche had accepted Greek government bonds as payment of 400 million Swiss francs ($426.7 million) owed by Greek hospitals. Last July, Roche Chief Financial Officer Alan Hippe said the company sold its bonds at a 26 percent discount.
Pharmacies now pass the bill to patients, some of whom have stopped costly treatments, says Ioannis Theodorakis, chairman of the Association of Persons with Multiple Sclerosis, whose office is steps away from Syntagma Square, where protesters lob Molotov cocktails in anger over budget cuts. “It’s a difficult decision to make because you can’t play dice with your health.”
Maybe you are right. Perhaps I am incoherent, illogical, and devoid of substance. If this is the case, please enlighten me with specific instances, so I may continue to improve as a thoughtful, fair, and balanced contributor to this board. I was assuming that u were suggesting that, by design, the market will crash before the election, thus assuring a Republican President. No doubt there are plenty of very rich and powerful wacko propagandists that could attempt--and carry out-- such a feat. I try not to underestimate the sadistic capabilities of any extremist cause, but particularly the religious right. They may be at par with Muslim extremism for all I know.
So how many times was the debt ceiling raised under W? Was it ever an issue? What about unemployment? Why are we changing the definition of unemployment (ie, real unemployment) under Obama? It is because the extreme right are rabidly trying to undermine Obama. They just can't stomache the progressive reality that stonewalled and demoted them. Of course, the far right still have their money--thus their influence--as a result of Obama's moderate policies and stabilizing of the markets via heavy debt lending. Personally, I don't like it--I think it ultimately bails out the rich, then trickles down only short-lived support to a percentage of the middle and lower classes. I think we agree with each other there. However, you certainly don't need me to stroke your ego, you probably have gotten enough of that today to last you an entire year of self-validation. It is remarkably and eerily similar to the blind support attributed to Neuro on the Cortex board. As you can see, I find it fascinating, and only occasionally discouraging. As long as I'm involved and dedicated, my theories and beliefs will prevail. Why? Because I have no agenda except for transparency and truth.
Re: clouded
So you are one of the guys that gave us jumbled George Worthless bumbling Bush and the Dick Cheney! No wonder you botched the 2009 market crash prediction--you put your faith on dumb and evil, respectively. At least the country has already realized how loopy Perry is, before it was too late. Let's not forget about Bachmann. In her defense, however, at least she is no Palin. Maybe we should let Alaska secede from the nation, lol, or Texas.
Ps. Now I know why they say, "Don't mess with Texas!" I guess it is like a box of chocolate roulette ...you never know what you're gonna get, or how deadly or hysterical it may be, until you pick it and eat it. Seems Perry has had quite a few...
Will the Romney prediction be your next dismal failure (maybe before it even gets to the true presidential battle, especially if South Carolina and the grandiose, geeky and greedy Gingrich have anything to say about it)? Or maybe it will be another one of your wild and reckless time and price projections (mostly regarding time) on the market. Who knows, you might even get lucky with your quasi-logical beliefs and conclusions. You've managed to patiently postulate on the current sense and mood, ie, upward bias, complacency, not being swayed by orderly sell-offs...
Clouded is right. Clouded is left. Clouded is wrong if only one extreme is felt.
If Romney's camp or some Conservative Republican can manage to tank the markets before the election occurs, thus winning the election, that would be extremely powerful...and disturbing (in the form of elitist, political sociopathy). We experienced the same fate in the 2000 Presidential Election, and invincibly if not temporarily, live to tell about it (freely). The darkest spot on our national history in the last 40 years (post Vietnam) encompassed and comprised of the entire 'W' legacy, in addition to the two years leading up to it (involving Clinton's reign). The internet euphoria preceding Bush was a troubling sign (in hindsight), yet it was a mere malignant freckle on the now benign growth, disfigured body, and dysphoric mind inhabiting our planet from 2000-2008. It will come to pass, as it has time and time again. In the meantime, their will be cuckoos who attempt to corrupt, control, and deceive. What was it you were saying?
New, powerful painkiller raises concerns
By CHRIS HAWLEY Associated Press
December 31, 2011
NEW YORK -- Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation's second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.
The new pills contain the highly addictive painkiller hydrocodone, packing up to 10 times the amount of the drug as existing medications such as Vicodin. Four companies have begun patient testing, and one of them, Zogenix of San Diego, plans to apply early next year to begin marketing its product, Zohydro.
If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone. Existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.
Critics say they are especially worried about Zohydro, a timed-release drug meant for managing moderate to severe pain, because abusers could crush it to release an intense, immediate high.
"I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin," said April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse. "We just don't need this on the market."
OxyContin, introduced in 1995 by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., was designed to manage pain with a formula that dribbled one dose of oxycodone over many hours.
Abusers quickly discovered they could defeat the timed-release feature by crushing the pills. Purdue Pharma changed the formula to make OxyContin more tamper-resistant, but addicts have moved on to generic oxycodone and other drugs that do not have a timed-release feature.
Oxycodone is now the most-abused medicine in the United States, with hydrocodone second, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's annual count of drug seizures sent to police drug labs for analysis.
The latest drug tests come as more pharmaceutical companies are getting into the $10 billion-a-year legal market for powerful -- and addictive -- opiate narcotics.
"It's like the Wild West," said Peter Jackson, co-founder of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. "The whole supply-side system is set up to perpetuate this massive unloading of opioid narcotics on the American public."
The pharmaceutical firms say the new hydrocodone drugs give doctors another tool to try on patients in pain.
"Sometimes you circulate a patient between various opioids, and some may have a better effect than others," said Karsten Lindhardt, chief executive of Denmark-based Egalet, which is testing its own pure hydrocodone product.
The companies say a pure hydrocodone pill would avoid liver problems linked to high doses of acetaminophen, an ingredient in products like Vicodin. They also say patients would be more closely supervised because, by law, they would have to return to their doctors each time they need more pills. Prescriptions for the weaker, hydrocodone-acetaminophen products now on the market can be refilled up to five times.
Zogenix has completed three rounds of patient testing, and last week it announced it had held a final meeting with Food and Drug Administration officials to talk about its upcoming drug application. It plans to file the application in early 2012 and have Zohydro on the market by early 2013.
Purdue Pharma and Cephalon, a Frazer, Pa.-based unit of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, are conducting late-stage trials of their own hydrocodone drugs, according to documents filed with federal regulators. In May, Purdue Pharma received a patent applying extended-release technology to hydrocodone. Neither company would comment on its plans.
Meanwhile, Egalet has finished the most preliminary stages of testing aimed at determining the basic safety of a drug. The firm could have a product on the market as early as 2015 but wants to see how the other companies fare with the FDA before deciding whether to move forward, Lindhardt said.
Critics say they are troubled because of the dark side that has accompanied the boom in sales of narcotic painkillers: homicides, pharmacy robberies and millions of dollars lost by hospitals that must treat overdose victims.
Thousands of legitimate pain patients are becoming addicted to powerful prescription painkillers, they say, in addition to the thousands more who abuse the drugs.
Prescription painkillers led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, more than triple the 4,000 deaths in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month.
Emergency-room visits related to hydrocodone abuse have shot from 19,221 in 2000 to 86,258 in 2009, according to data compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others between 2003 and 2007.
Hydrocodone belongs to a family of drugs known as opiates or opioids because they are chemically similar to opium. They include morphine, heroin, oxycodone, codeine, methadone and hydromorphone.
Opiates block pain but also unleash intense feelings of well-being and can create physical dependence. The withdrawal symptoms are also intense, with users complaining of cramps, diarrhea, muddled thinking, nausea and vomiting.
After a while, opiates stop working, forcing users to take stronger doses or to try slightly different chemicals.
"You've got a person on your product for life, and a doctor's got a patient who's never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn't get their prescription, they would feel very sick," said Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. "It's a terrific business model, and that's what these companies want to get in on."
Under pressure from the government, Purdue Pharma last year debuted a new OxyContin pill formula that "squishes" instead of crumbling when someone tries to crush it.
But Zogenix, whose drug is time-released but crushable, says there is not enough evidence to show that such tamper-resistant reformulations thwart abuse.
"Provided sufficient effort, all formulations currently available can be overcome," Zogenix said in a written response to questions.
At a conference for investors New York on Nov. 29, Zogenix chief executive Roger Hawley said the FDA was not pressuring Zogenix to put an abuse deterrent in Zohydro.
"We would certainly consider later launching an abuse-deterrent form, but right now we believe the priority of safer hydrocodone -- that is, without acetaminophen -- is a key priority for the FDA," Hawley said.
FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said the agency would not comment on its discussions with drug companies, citing the need to protect trade secrets.
Drug-control advocates say they're worried the U.S. government is too lax about controlling addictive pain medications. The United States consumes 99 percent of the world's hydrocodone and 83 percent of its oxycodone, according to a 2008 study by the International Narcotics Control Board.
Thanks for the kind wish. At this very moment, I am minutes away from entering your home state of Virginia (via I-95 from NC). I will extend a hard-working, freedom loving, unpretentious All-American salute as I pass you by.
Cheers to you, and the troops returning from Iraq, who were put in an extremely unpleasant and quasi-unrewarding predicament, by being forced to fight an unjust war on false pretenses for almost a decade.
Ps-Just arrived in Va before sending this off.
Thanks alert-It just goes to show: mindless pumping; hopeless defending (of mgmt); and, passive faith, are worth about as much as their cause. I would even argue that the historic input on this board far exceeds the contribution value provided by mgmt and the BOD. All comments, as usual, are welcome.
To all genuine, honest, and open-minded posters here, I wish you all peaceful and happy holidays and beyond. For all others, I hope you find and correct the error in your ways.
Completely ridiculous (the notion of "OWS having it all wrong"). What, in your mind, separates big business/banks from gov't policy and regulation? Can you say conspiracy? Collusion? Confidants? Kickbacks? Quagmire?
They're all in it together, and so are we, by default or otherwise.
There should be no distinction between the pigs on Wall Street and the pigs in Washington.
Blatch-I feel pretty strongly that we can out-live corx mgmt, but first we have to wake up -- or KO -- the BOD. Any ideas? Maybe a simple written request will do. What more do they need to motivate them, then the last 5 years' performance?
Never thought it was possible to be asleep at the wheel this long, but this is the new America. Hopefully it will get old quick...
Blatch-Welcome back! Just like Corx, you've become a blotch. :(
Ps. Kiss the Varney Stone, and you too can live a fruitless and forlorn future! Oops, we're all too late. Got a nickle to spare (in other words: a cortex share), brother?
You might want to research into the possibility that Jon Corzine has something to do with this company. It amazes me that this BS (MF Global-the 8th largest US bankruptcy, btw) happened, post 2008. Thank the federal gov't for continuing to enable this reckless behavior...
While science and medicine forge ahead and evolve, as they should, it's important to reevaluate and reconstruct how we approach the practice of it, based on what we have learned. Unfortunately, it means moving mountains in the current paradigm. The salient point in the article is this: Hróbjartsson and Kaptchuk were united on at least one front: they agree that the medical system needs to change.
The misconception in the story is centered around the critics' idea of 'magical thinking?' That discredits the concept from the onset. Powerful thinking (as the title and topic suggested) seems like a more humanistic term. It reminds me of the book, The Wisdom of the Body, which gives credence to the notion, 'mind over matter.' In the book, the experiences demonstrated that the human spirit can and does have a profound effect on the survival of cancer patients.
How many times has this been disclosed in a drug description: Mechanism of action unknown? It seems that science and the spirit may have collided, and as much as science wants to reign, it will have to share the title, and the blame.
Too Big and Unaware to Care? We're not in Puerto Rico anymore:
FDA finds serious problems in cancer drug factory
FDA finds quality lapses, other serious problems in factory for unavailable J&J cancer drug
By Linda a. Johnson, AP Business Writer | AP – 1 hour 30 minutes ago
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Federal inspectors say the contract manufacturer for Johnson & Johnson's cancer drug Doxil hasn't been maintaining equipment or promptly investigating defective product batches and other serious problems at its Bedford, Ohio, factory.
The latest Food and Drug Administration inspection report details lax quality control, failure to follow standard procedures and even lack of follow-up about a container of urine found in the Ben Venue Laboratories Inc. facility, which makes sterile medicines.
Doxil is one of a record 251 medications reported unavailable or in short supply in the U.S. this year, most of them injected drugs crucial for hospital operations. The crisis, blamed on at least 15 deaths, is disrupting patient care and clinical testing of new drugs being compared to or combined with older drugs in short supply.
Ben Venue is the sole supplier for Doxil, which has been in short supply since early summer and is no longer available for new patients.
First approved in 1995, Doxil is used to treat ovarian cancer, the bone cancer multiple myeloma and an HIV-related cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma. Currently, only 2,000 U.S. patients are getting it, and another 2,240 are on a waiting list, according to New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J.
Ben Venue, part of German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, said three weeks ago that it was temporarily halting manufacture and distribution of all products made at the Bedford plant. It cited an internal review indicating that routine preventive maintenance and tests to ensure manufacturing equipment is operating properly "did not occur at the specified time interval and is overdue."
Ben Venue spokesman Jason Kurtz said Thursday in an e-mailed response to The AP that the company is "working diligently to assess and implement the appropriate corrective actions to address the observations of the FDA investigators."
"Our highest priority is the delivery of safe and effective products to patients," he wrote. "We are continuing to work closely with the FDA with the goal of bringing the products we make back to patients as quickly as possible."
T
he inspection report posted this week on the FDA's website, covering visits to the factory from Nov. 7 through Dec. 2, details numerous deficiencies not promptly resolved or reported to plant managers. Some problems labeled as "critical" by the factory's quality unit were downgraded to "major" without justification, and the plant's vice presidents for operations and quality were unaware of them when the FDA inspectors asked about them.
The report notes:
—An investigation was opened on Sept. 19 on a 10-gallon can, found in a storage area, that contained a liquid that testing later indicated was urine. Follow-up was "past-due" at the time of the FDA inspectors' visits. Kurtz wrote Thursday that the container of liquid "consistent with urine" was reported to local police and the investigation remains open.
__Monitoring of air samples in manufacturing areas identified microbial contaminants, but Ben Venue did not identify their sources.
—The company doesn't have data showing its "manufacturing process consistently produces product meeting an acceptable level of sterility assurance."
—As of four weeks ago, there were "approximately 107 required preventive maintenance activities" at least 30 days past their scheduled due date.
—Quality-control staff lacked the training, technical expertise and oversight to perform their duties.
Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Lisa Vaga said J&J does not know when Ben Venue will again be able to ship Doxil, but it has been working on finding additional suppliers since the summer and has found an alternate. The transition will require "an extended period," she said.
Ben Venue announced on Aug. 18 that it would be transitioning out of contract manufacturing over the next several years. That decision followed a May report by FDA inspectors at the same factory stating that, despite complaints dating back to August 2006, the company still had not identified the cause of metal particles contaminating two products that had been distributed. The names of the products were blacked out in the report.
Johnson & Johnson warned doctors on June 21 that it anticipated a shortage of Doxil, which has no generic alternatives. In August, it started a rationing system to allocate Doxil as supplies became available to patients who had started treatment.
As the drug shortages have mounted, President Obama on Oct. 31 ordered the FDA to take several steps to resolve and prevent shortages. The FDA and several members of Congress have been holding hearings since September to identify reasons for and possible solutions to the shortages.
The causes include manufacturing deficiencies leading to production shutdowns, companies ending production of some drugs with tiny profit margins, consolidation in the generic drug industry and limited supplies of some ingredients.
I agree: Impressive science out of an impressive institution (UPENN). My best friend went to Drexel (I went to UD) and some of his friends transferred to UPenn, so I spent a little time on the campus (I wouldn't call it 'quality time' though :))
It could be a huge platform, and for a while, untouched/unmatched. As usual though, there are considerable obstacles to overcome, especially as an investment; heavy dilutions as good news pours in; a drug or platform related SAE; the crucial and lengthy PhIII (if the PhII continues pans out); and of course, the formal data analysis of the finished PhII trial and how it stands up to the control drug. They have a long, dilutive way to go. Of course, there is the potential for a rather large partnership, especially being a novel science with no other players with the same approach (defensin-mimetic class).
I wish Ombow luck. It is a longshot, but as such, could reap tremendous rewards (moonshot). For me, Cortex taught me a valuable investment lesson, and I don't expect to invest more than a pittance of my equity into such inherently risky assets.
When the co. was first mentioned here -- I think when Ombow first bought in -- I checked them out. I noticed they are very heavy on the PR printing press. For me, that's a red flag. Clearly, they know how to play that game (of reeling in naive investors). At this point in the game, every decent bounce in the share price will be a good opp for them to dilute or sell some (insider) shares.
I think the best time to invest would be when the PhII trial completes. As you have said, the main concern has been safety, so if the trial is able to conclude (as opposed to being halted), that would be a good sign.
Fidelity apparently owns over 6 million shares of PYMX. I don't believe they would regard their investment as a crapshoot.
Ombow-Don't take this the wrong way...but your post is nothing more than a mindless pump. The two companies are not in the same league whatsoever. The mere suggestion -- to switch one with the other -- is something you would expect from a shady beginner. I know you can do better than that. Just trying to help.
Don't know what you're inferring, but it doesn't matter to me, anyway. I'm all for a broad understanding -- not a more singular purview (with one heavily biased resident expert) that has been a constant on this board.
So...the more info we have (ie., transparency, facts, discussion) the better off we are. Have at it. If that concept is not too complex for me, than by golly, I know it's not too heavy for you and your boy neuro either.
I see it was Targacept's other compound (AZD-3480) which partner AstraZeneca decided not to advance further in ADHD. But now Targacept is advancing their unpartnered TC-5619 in ADHD by themselves. So good news for Cortex indirectly since, as you said, it shows renewed pharma interest in non-stimulant approaches to ADHD, and also the nicotinic approach is a totally new mechanism, so that's another positive.
Before the puppet show continues, let's introduce the characters (from Wikipedia):
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another person.[1] The term now includes other uses of misleading online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a third party or organization.[2] A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym[3] and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer.
Strawman Sockpuppet
A strawman sockpuppet is a false flag pseudonym created to make a particular point of view look foolish or unwholesome in order to generate negative sentiment against it. Strawman sockpuppets typically behave in an unintelligent, uninformed, or bigoted manner and advance "straw man" arguments that their puppeteers can easily refute. The intended effect is to discredit more rational arguments made in behalf of the same position. [23]
Meatpuppet
The term "meatpuppet" (or "meat puppet") is used as a pejorative description of various online behaviors....Editors of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia use the term to deprecate contributions of new community members if suspected of having been recruited by an existing member to support his position.[26] Such a recruited member is considered analogous to a sockpuppet even though he is actually a separate individual (i.e. "meat") rather than a fictitious creation... [27]
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or her own hands placed inside the puppet or holding it externally. Some puppet styles require puppeteers to work together as a team to create a single puppet character.
There are a wide range of styles of puppetry but whatever the style, the puppeteer's role is to manipulate the physical object in such a manner that the audience believes the object is imbued with life. In some instances the persona of the puppeteer is also an important feature.
The relationship between the puppeteer and the puppet-maker is often assumed to be similar to that between an actor and a playwright. This may be so, but one of the characteristics of puppetry is that very often the puppeteer assumes the joint roles of puppet-maker, director, designer, writer and performer. In this case a puppeteer is a more complete theatre practitioner than is the case within other theatre forms.
Puppetry is a live medium and this distinguishes it from animation in which animators make a puppet appear to move by using a stop motion film technique in which the puppet is moved tiny fractions between each frame.
I hope we can avoid that this time, but that is a unknown.
If I were to translate my own post (or the purpose of my post), I would say the point is as follows: Nobody knows what is going to happen (or when) to the markets/world, no matter how much you believe or believe you know, regardless of the logic you employ.
What do I know? I know that I don't know; be it where the S&P will be in 2012-13 (or '09 as was originally predicted-lol); and, especially, how soon the world will come to an end (lol).
Don't worry guys, I enjoy reading both of your posts, and frankly, I think your sensitive responses are redeeming. But if you are going to throw around extreme predictions, you're going to have to deal with a little criticism from fellow readers/posters.
My secret is simply to keep people honest. In your cases, to yourselves.
After loosely evaluating the viewpoints of yourself and bigworld, I think it comes down to this: You base your logic on fiction; and bigworld base's his fiction on logic.
That will be the bottom, sometime in 2013
Could be a confusing mnemonic. Consider the other possibilities; Loose, Old Pfizer; Lower Our Prices; and, Losing Our Profits. Well, I guess they all kind of mean the same thing anyway...
Btw-Your call to Ranbaxy apparently was answered (in short order) :)
Si señor sparky. The only thing we are learning here is: How many ways can we skin a [dead] cat?
If I do say so myself -- too damn many!
It amazes me that mgmt is still in place. Aside from the usual risks and timeline lapses in biotech development, this has got to be one of the most poorly managed and directed companies in this space.
Although I have always considered Corx a legitimate company, given the endless complacency of this nearly worthless mgmt team and BOD (among many other fitting criteria), they are probably in the domain of a scam company on many radars.
I don't think the company's primary goal is to mislead investors, as is the case with some sleazy outfits, but based on the limited skills/talents of leadership, ie. their desire and determination for self-preservation, they've achieved the same end. I credit their character for a nicer means, but the praise stops there.
You know what I have always wondered; Why an academic like you always mispells 'lose?'
You make a snide remark, you get a snide reply. Mea culpa (looser).
I guess. Btw-how do you upload pictures on the reply board? I notice you learned the technique recently. I've tried by both the Image and Url formats, but I guess my Lithuanian(Polish-ish) roots are surfacing, and my Bull sign (stubborness) is wearing thin. Tia.
But how comforting is an imminent demise? Ombow-Don't you dare throw out any more investment ideas/theories: given your prediction of a short-term future, you've rendered the concept of investing, 'irrelevant.' And don't claim it's for fun--it's only fun if money is going to mean something in the uncertain future...
I expect you to buy a Vintage silver Camper, cross the country, stay high as a kite, and of course, write :)
http://www.vintagecampers.com/WantedImgUpload/55SilverStreak.jpg
LOL-I mistakenly spelled sentiment, 'sediment' (originally). Can anyone guess why I find this funny?
As historian Webster Tarpley points out, in their quest to stay in power, rulers and oligarchies invariably become crazed and paranoid.
Maybe on a next level that comes after death, we'll be able to understand why we're here and what it all means.
Gfp-Stop making sense, you're destroying Ombow, etal, fantasy (and perhaps contradicting your own conspiracy theories with pure reason)...
On second thought, Ombow is locked in, that is, until his belief doesn't pan out. What happens then, I wonder...
This brings me to tears, two-fold: both on how eloquent it's written; and, how wrong it was, is, and probably will continue to be:
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/replies.aspx?msg=61461421
In Boston's Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play, there is an area in the right field bleachers, the (relatively) cheap seats, that extends up to the back wall. Those seats are 450 feet or more from the plate. That's where you'll often find a middle-aged guy who peers in without benefit of binoculars, bleary-eyed from four or five beers, convinced that he can call balls and strikes better than the umpires, and could utilize the roster better than the manager. On a night that the Sox are losing, he starts to yell insults and obscenities at the field, and the people around him shrink away from the spittle and the risk that the beer may make a sudden return. He doesn't care: He paid his money, he bought his ticket, and he is 100% certain that he knows the game better than those overpaid clowns on the field and in the dugout.
You're that guy.
We know what the banking cartel wants (global SDR system, global central bank, and a post-crisis pacified public).
It really baffles me that no one here seems to give much credence at all to the last days scenario, Biblically prophesied, that I have been preaching.
Adding more debt to the indebted certainly isn't the solution.
The world may not have a choice. It's impossible to control everything, especially when so much is out of control. One thing I wouldn't put much thought or emphasis into though, bar nothing; The end of the world!
Nonprofit helps those with severe disabilities become independent
By KEVIN D. THOMPSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Two years ago, when Eric Moore joined Pathways to Independence, he wasn't accustomed to making decisions on his own.
"He was used to the classroom setting where he was being told what to do," said Sue Buechele, founder and executive director of Pathways, a day camp for people with severe developmental disabilities.
But Pathways encourages participants to take an active role in their lives . For instance, they help decide who enters the program, who's hired and what kind of services are offered .
Moore, who has cerebral palsy, was a little overwhelmed by all the newfound responsibility. Not anymore.
"This program helped me grow," said Moore, 24, of Boynton Beach. "I used to fly off the handle at the drop of a hat about anything. I don't do it as much now."
While there are many programs in Palm Beach County for disabled persons, Buechele said Pathways, which she founded 11 years ago, is a bit unusual, tailoring its program to each person.
"You don't have to come in and fit into what we do," said Tina Bate, an occupational therapist at Pathways.
"When you come in, we ask, 'What do you want to get out of this experience? What are your personal goals?' We look at you as an individual."
Pathways' goal: to help participants live as independently as possible after they leave for the day and return home.
Pathways has 13 participants and eight staffers, including three physical therapists. The staffers play roles as diverse as matchmaker, entrepreneurial advisor, amateur psychiatrist and political activist.
Pathways helped one member start a balloon business. Another was given dating advice when he was considering a relationship with a woman he was living with at a group home. All participants are encouraged to be politically active.
"They have to have a voice," Buechele said. "You have your disability population, which is small compared with the population at large, then you have this segment of disability. We have to make their voices really loud."
Buechele said she got the idea to start Pathways while she was working as a program director at The Arc of Palm Beach County, an advocacy group for children and adults with severe developmental disabilities.
Over time, Buechele, who worked at The Arc for nine years, said people with severe physical disabilities were starting to feel neglected in the program. So several participants encouraged Buechele to start her own program, one that would deal specifically with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy.
"I was nervous," Buechele said . "I had to start from scratch and hope that people would come."
It helped that nine participants from The Arc joined her.
Running a nonprofit is fraught with challenges, especially during economic turmoil. At the top of the list: raising money.
Buechele said Pathways' goal this year is $450,000. So far, the group is about $100,000 short.
More bad news: Medicaid funding was cut 4 percent in April, with another cut expected in December. That's why Buechele, who isn't comfortable asking for money, has become more visible in trying to raise it.
"I always feel like I'm asking for a handout," Buechele said. "It's my worst skill."
But Caryn St. John, a board member, disagreed.
"She really is a good fundraiser," St. John said. "She just doesn't realize it."
Pathways was recently one of four recipient charities named in a golf tournament sponsored by Rooney's Golf Foundation. The group will also have a presence next month at an event for the Palm Beach County Justice Association, a countywide group of more than 450 trial attorneys and paralegals.
To attract more participants who don't depend on Medicaid, Buechele said Pathways will expand its therapy services so it is not catering only to people with severe disabilities.
"We can't afford to just limit ourselves to that population," Buechele said. "I was joking with a caseworker that we're going to start offering haircuts in here. We'll do whatever we have to do."
In mid-September, Pathways moved from its 2,220-square-foot office on Northlake Boulevard to a 4,000-square-foot space on North Military Trail.
"We've always operated quiet, small, little," Buechele said. "But now that our funds keep getting cut, we don't have the luxury of thinking just inside this little box anymore."
DC: Anecdotes and Music Have Special Spots in the Brain
http://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=2980
23 November 2011. Given a random date 30 years ago, most people could not recount exactly what they had for breakfast, the clothes they wore, or events in that evening’s news. But some people with an extraordinary ability known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) can recall such trivial facts with ease. What is going on in their brains? And could the answer to this question help researchers understand memory loss or dementia? New findings, presented at the 41st annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the nation’s capital on 12-16 November 2011, suggest that certain brain areas are structurally different in these rare mnemonic talents.
In 2006, Larry Cahill and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, published a paper documenting the first known case of HSAM (see Parker et al., 2006). Since that case was publicized, more people came forward claiming this ability. Cahill’s group confirmed that 20 of them—ranging in age from 25 to 60, with a average age of about 43—have HSAM.
To see what sets people with HSAM apart from everyone else, Aurora Leport and colleagues in the Cahill lab conducted a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of 11 of those individuals. She found that several brain areas were unique in people with HSAM. Their insula had a different shape, their lentiform nucleus was larger, and their parahippocampal gyrus and uncinate fascicule had a higher fractional anisotropy (FA) than in controls. The last could mean that white matter tracts are more robust and possibly able to communicate more easily. These brain areas are associated with both autobiographical memory (see Svoboda et al., 2006) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (see Radua and Mataix-Cols, 2009). This could explain why a majority of these volunteers, though they aren’t diagnosed with OCD, seem to have obsessive tendencies such as hoarding and germ-avoidance, said Aurora.
These HSAM regions are affected by atrophy or altered metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease. Even so, Leport and colleagues do not yet know whether these individuals are more or less resistant to Alzheimer’s neuropathology, or why these areas are different in their brains. Future studies will take a look at brain function to see how this unique group forms and retrieves autobiographical memories, as well as the genetics behind the condition.
Music memory, too, may have its own special place carved out in the brain. At SfN, a case study presented by Carsten Finke, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany, revealed that a 68-year-old former professional cellist with severe amnesia—both episodic and semantic—not only retained musical memory, but also the ability to learn music. The cellist’s dementia was not due to age or Alzheimer’s pathology. Rather, a bout of herpes encephalitis had destroyed his left temporal lobe, left orbitofrontal cortex, and parts of his right medial temporal lobe in 2005, permanently wiping his ability to name German landmarks, recall autobiographical or historical details, recognize most people, or encode new information.
But while the man, called P.M., could not name well-known composers or famous cellists, his semantic musical memory was substantially intact. He could identify rhythms and intervals in a test of amusia (the inability to recognize or reproduce musical tones). He distinguished orchestral pieces he had known from before his illness from others that were new, and even learned to recognize new musical pieces. The results suggest that semantic musical memory is likely separate from other areas of semantic memory in the brain, said Finke.
P.M.’s frail condition precludes functional brain imaging to examine how he processes music, said Finke, but the group will continue behavioral testing that may probe his abilities. For instance, the researchers want to know whether lyrics influence P.M.’s musical memory. They also want to see whether music therapy might help him, perhaps using his musical ability to compensate for other memory loss.
“Preserved musical memory may provide a window for rehabilitation and enhanced quality of life in patients suffering from memory disorders,” said Finke.
It is not immediately clear if these findings could help researchers studying Alzheimer’s. A recent paper reported that some AD patients fare better than those with semantic dementia at recognizing famous tunes, implicating the right temporal lobe in processing music (see Hsieh et al., 2011). Other studies suggest that the ability to play music remains intact for those with Alzheimer’s, but that patients have trouble recognizing familiar versus unfamiliar tunes (see Baird et al., 2009). Other research suggests that Alzheimer’s patients respond positively to music, and suggest it as a therapeutic option (see Witzke et al., 2008), and anecdotally, caregivers frequently report that familiar music remains a way of reaching their loved one long after speech has been lost to advanced AD.—Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib.