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Comment Re:Same News Cycle Every Year (Score 2, Insightful) 579

The reason this country has gone from 20+ flu vaccine manufacturers a decade ago to 2 today is because it's so unprofitable.

Not sure about that:

A half-dozen U.S. companies are producing seasonal flu vaccines this year, double the number from five years ago. In the late 1990s, the number of seasonal flu vaccine-makers dwindled to just two because excess capacity caused prices to fall to the $2-a-dose range. Today, seasonal flu dosages list for about $15 each at wholesale prices.

PREPA was passed in 2005 and dramatically reduced the liability of vaccine makers. Then Bush dropped $1 billion onto folks like GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis for R&D to speed up vaccine production (in fear of the Avian Flu).

How do vaccines stack up to "normal" drugs? Not much money in vaccines, but not insignificant either:

The U.S. vaccine industry, which also includes vaccines for cancer, accounted for $4.7 billion in annual sales last year. In the same period, Pfizer Inc. sold nearly $8 billion worth of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, and AstraZeneca PLC generated $6 billion in sales from its heartburn pill Nexium, according to industry reports.

Comment Re:PS3.. (Score 1) 435

I prefer to use the PS3-native web browser and media playback functions over booting into Linux and waiting for the hard drive to swap memory for every web page I click with Firefox.

Try using fluxbox instead of Gnome or KDE. Having been a PS2 Linux kit owner (as well as running YDL 6.2 on my PS3) I also know that there's web browsers like Dillo or Links that work well on low-ram machines, but Firefox will work better on your PS3 under fluxbox.

Comment Re:causality is possibly wrong (Score 1) 162

Interesting, I hadn't thought of it that way. Plants have evolved to orient towards the Sun in order to maximize growth rates (presumably- otherwise why would this strategy be selected for?) This implies that cells receiving less light than other cells in the same plant will grow faster in order to point the leaves towards the Sun, thus maximizing the plant's overall growth rate. I thought you originally meant a plant would grow faster on the shaded side of a hill than on the sunnier side, but I now understand that you were making a different point. I'm still not sure this effect would occur if the overall light intensity changed-- it seems like an effect that depends on relative differences in light intensity.

Comment Re:Well, (Score 1) 241

This isn't an expansion, this is just a side quest that has been ripped out of the game and is now sold separately.

I have mod points but I'd rather correct some misinformation instead.

To sum up what BioWare devs have said is that the PC version was originally going to be released back in spring IIRC, so development on features was frozen to allow that. The DLC wasn't in the game's featureset at that point, it was being developed separately by a completely different dev team for later release. The console versions were going to be released around now (there seems to be a longer release process for consoles to allow for higher certification requirements).

At some point it was instead decided to delay release the PC version to the same time as the console versions. But the featureset couldn't be unfrozen to allow the DLC, as that would have messed up the console release process. So we get the situation we have now, where the game is being released at the same time as the DLC.

In other words, while in theory a game company could do what you're saying, in this case the DLC isn't something that was "ripped out" of the game, it's something that we would have had to have waited for anyway.

Games

Mass Effect 2 Announced For Early 2010 72

Bioware has confirmed rumors that development for the sequel to Mass Effect is well under way, and they're planning on a release in early 2010. They mentioned PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game, but no information was given about a possible PS3 version. CVG has a write-up of what we know about Mass Effect 2 so far. Quoting: "In the shooting department the developer's official announcement promises 'intensified combat' and 'expanded weapon options.' We're hoping some of the work goes on improving the game's shooting mechanics, which were solid enough but could certainly do with some polishing to meet 2010 standards — especially in the cover system department. As for 'expanded weapon options,' we can only assume this refers to the in-depth gun tweaking and customisation options available in Mass Effect 1."
Portables

How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library? 485

txmadman writes "Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several SD , mini-SD, and micro-SD cards for various purposes: cameras, cell phones, my laptop, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer easy and significant storage, but are very easily lost. We have also have run into some instances where it wasn't clear whose SD card was whose, and have also started to see a need for a storage mechanism. I have seen SD card 'wallets' and such, but have never seen anyone actually use one. So: How do you manage and keep track of your SD cards?"
Medicine

Scientists Erase Specific Memories In Mice 320

Ostracus writes "It sounds like science fiction, but scientists say it might one day be possible to erase undesirable memories from the brain, selectively and safely. After exposing mice to emotionally powerful stimuli, such as a mild shock to their paws, the scientists then observed how well or poorly the animals subsequently recalled the particular trauma as their brain's expression of CaMKII was manipulated up and down. When the brain was made to overproduce CaMKII at the exact moment the mouse was prodded to retrieve the traumatic memory, the memory wasn't just blocked, it appeared to be fully erased."
Science

Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor 380

StarEmperor writes "A team of Canadian and German scientists have fabricated a room-temperature superconductor, using a highly compressed silicon-hydrogen compound. According to the article,"The researchers claim that the new material could sidestep the cooling requirement, thereby enabling superconducting wires that work at room temperature.""

School Bans 'Tag' 1000

GillBates0 writes "CNN is carrying a story about a school in Boston which has have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable. According to the article, some elementary schools in other states have similarly banned "unsupervised contact sports". A parent was quoted as saying that her son feels safer now and that she'd witnessed enough 'near collisions.'" See, it's not just dangerous virtual games that are harmful to children!

Original Star Trek Getting CGI Makeover 378

Tony Pascale writes "Star Trek is the latest sci-fi classic to get the CGI 'special edition' treatment. According to rumors picked up by TrekMovie.com, CBS and Paramount have been secretly working on a new version of Star Trek: The Original Series for HDTV. The shows will feature the original episodes with brand new state-of-the-art CGI visual effects, including a a redone title sequence (with re-recorded music). The effects are likely to be limited to the space scenes and not effect the live action scenes, so Edith Keeler will not shoot first. The HDTV Star Trek series will begin broadcasting this fall just in time for the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek."

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