January 13, 2010
Paul Volcker: Think More Boldly
Paul Volcker’s response to the Future of Finance Initiative is a rare instance of a wise man speaking truth to power and damning the niceties of political correctness.
December 2, 2009
David Foster Wallace
I have become addicted to David Foster Wallace’s nonfiction essays, several of which were published in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.
November 17, 2009
An Uncommon Vignette?
Tired of late-stage development failures, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company decides to act on the promise of pharmacometrics. “Fix it,” he says to the head of clinical pharmacology, “I don’t care what it takes!”
November 3, 2009
Shanghai: A Cacophony of People
China has been described as a threatening competitor, a waking giant, a polluting behemoth, and a producer of cheap and unreliable goods. To me, China is a reflection of New York City at the beginning of the 20th Century.
October 27, 2009
Square Pegs in Round Holes?
A crusading scientist identifies a potential public health threat and uses the internet to get access to a cache of data from several studies. Sound like the plot of a new medical thriller?
September 11, 2009
Kerfuffle! (pt 3)
A kerfuffle is the polite term for a cascading series of errors that can be initiated by a seemingly innocuous event that then leads to other errors that seem to gain in severity and impact. Formalization of the pharmacometrics process, and the definition of process maps for the key tasks invoked in modeling and simulation activities, can prevent kerfuffles.
June 9, 2009
Celebrating Globalization
Whatever negative experiences we have had with economic globalization, we must not lose sight of another, more human, aspect of globalization. We should recognize that recent developments in science and technology can achieve an unprecedented level of sharing and communication around the world.
May 27, 2009
Ted on TED
I recently stumbled on a website called TED: Ideas worth spreading, and I apologize in advance for sharing this most addicting site with you. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, “brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).”
May 12, 2009
The Education of Henry Adams
Adams’ autobiography is a commentary on the value, or lack thereof, of education and of the utter impossibility of understanding history as it is being made. But, it is Adams’ perspective on the future that I find so riveting.
April 29, 2009
Pandora Internet Radio
On Pandora Internet Radio, you create your own “radio station” by naming a favorite song or artist. Pandora scans thousands of pieces of music that have been analyzed by something called the Music Genome Project to identify those with similar attributes to the one you named. Voilà! New music for you to enjoy.