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Txzen

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Posts posted by Txzen

  1. 8 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

    As someone who fell out of a chairlift as a kid, this hits close to home.  I was looking for somewhere to go skiing a few years ago, and noticed that Whistler has put in a peak to peak gondola.  I cannot imagine how high that thing is off the ground at it’s midpoint.

    and to answer my own question, it is 1,430 feet off the ground at its highest point.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_2_Peak_Gondola

    Been in it many times. It's spectacular. They have a few with a center glass bottom.  It's also the world's longest unsupported span of a cable car (~3k between supports). 

     

    Spoiler
    View from Glass Bottom Gondola on Peak 2 Peak Gondola between Whistler & Blackcomb Mountains

     

     

  2. The videos of him, hobbled, are painful for me to watch. But happy he's back on the saddle. 

    He's one of the most talented living musicians, full stop. I'm not a fan of his later career - the top 40 stuff - but you can't knock how successful it was. He's an immensely talented songwriter. 

    He's also one of the best drummers who ever was. Early Genesis stuff is amazing, and even early post-Peter as well. 

    Not Phil, just some kid who gets his spirit (on a pretty technically challenging track):

     

  3. 7 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Sounds like pharma conferences are like oil and gas conferences back when the industry was fun.  I’m assuming the strippers and bottle service were a simple omission in your post.

    Dude. I'm a nerd, so...no. Maybe at the clinical ones, but not the science ones. Keystone conferences are a different lot - think drunken hot tubbing with illicit substances. Too poor for bottle service, man. 

  4. 1 minute ago, Neonmoon said:

    McConnell doesn’t give two fucks about marijuana. He is not brainwashed. His pocketbook is brainwashed. Same as it ever was. 

    And big Pharma could give a fuck about medical marijuana. Doesn't factor into anything I've ever heard in my time. No one is really interested in blocking it, if anything they want a piece of it.

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  5. I have spent most of my career fighting and dealing with budget reductions in R&D - many of them totally arbitrary and just  belt-tightening (i.e. not because of a major trial failure, shift in priority, etc.). I've more or less come to terms with it. The fact of the matter is R&D spends money, and can only offer the promise of profit. R&D tries to build a pipeline, but it is more attractive, often, to cut internal spend and look for BD/M&A externally for a mature 'asset' rather than develop it yourself. That's with big Pharma. Having spent time in biotech/startups, we're always trying to sell ourselves to big Pharma because they have no new ideas and are plodding behemoths. 

    I'm on the research side, but will occasionally go to the big clinical conferences (like the American Society for Clinical Oncology). That's the big one in my field, at least for the corporate side as well as late breaking clinical trial data. But to rent a booth is exorbitant (many tens of thousands and up), and if you want to serve something as simple as coffee, add in another few tens of thousands. Now look at the big pharma booths that occupy hundreds of plush square feet, modeled after a trendy cabaret in Ibiza, where you can go drive some VR car through a maize of cancer cells just to get a little plushy and post it on Twitter. A patient's right advocate would have a stroke (no pun intended). It's a funny, and sometimes perverse, business - like many, I suppose when you start talking about big money. 

    And yes, I know I sound like this guy now:

    Spoiler

    DzBzycNU8AA039C.jpg

    The reality is those big drugs, and even the legacy drugs, keep the lights on. How much is fair pricing in the US market, relative to the rest of the world, is a totally relevant conversation for which there isn't a particularly easy answer. 

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  6. No. This is not new. Big Pharma spends way more on marketing than R&D (says the guy in pharma R&D). The change in law in 1997 that opened up these advertisements was a mistake, IMHO. 

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    • Like 1
  7. 24 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

    And this is why my 14 year old got his first shot last Friday.  COVID is very unlikely to kill him.  But I don't want him to have any of these long haul issues, either.

    Got my 14 year old vaccinated for this exact reason. He has a history of mild exercise-induced asthma as well, so I wasn't planning on taking any chances. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  8. 42 minutes ago, wood said:

    This here. Most snow, earliest snow, & latest snow in the area, too.

    Kirkwood is terrible. There are no restaurants, no nightlife, no real hotels, practically no on-mountain dining, and many of the lifts are slow non-detachable ass smackers. There's not even really a grocery store, so you need to practically bring all your food for your stay (including breakfast and lunch). You should never, ever go there and make sure to tell all your friends not to go there either. 

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    • Haha 2
  9. 3 hours ago, The Ace of Aces said:


    Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles is the best museum for aviation in the world, imo  .    

     

    Came here to post this. I have memories of the Smithsonian air and space museum as a child, but discovered the Udvar-Hazy with my young son - blew both our minds. It’s simply exceptional. 

    • Hook 'Em 3
  10. On 2/28/2021 at 7:44 AM, midtown said:

    Well this is a first.  Half way through my 30 miler yesterday I hear what is clearly metal hitting metal vs a rock etc.   Pull over and I find this.   Never heard or seen a broken flange on a hub especially on a high quality component.   Albeit these are almost 20 years old.    

    Turned around at the 10 mile mark and made it back to my truck.  Stopped in my shop on the way home to see what hubs I could get.   At first they said just buy a new set of wheels.  Then I brought my bike in and they saw that I had these metallic blue open pros and they changed their mind and suggested I rebuild them.  

    I can barely even find a picture of any World Class hubs online so I doubt Ill ever be able to find another set of these hubs.    They gave me a list of hubs to look at

    Industry Nine, Chris King, Onyx, DT Swiss, Phil Wood, White Industries.    Also need to decide on a color.   I'm thinking black would look pretty good.   Bike and wheel picture included for reference. Any input?

     

     

    PXL_20210227_225652424.jpg

    PXL_20210228_151631609.jpg

    That's a great neo-classic Merckx!

    • Like 1
    • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
  11. 5 minutes ago, HouTex said:

    From the American Society of Gene + Cell Therapy on November 17, 2020 before the term "gene therapy" was being used by some kooks to argue that it altered your DNA.  That was not my intent in using the term.  The ASGCT uses the term gene therapy three times.  The video from the ASGCT website is probably the best and simplest explanation of mRNA vaccines that I've heard.  From the video:  the vaccines "deliver synthetic mRNA molecules into cells instructing them to make antigens."   

    https://asgct.org/research/news/november-2020/covid-19-moderna-nih-vaccine

    Yep, which I why I said it was a bit of a semantic argument, and frankly it's a bit regrettable that ASGCT (who hold a yearly conference that I attend) sort of muddle the waters with that term. The therapy does nothing to alter genes, and does not contain a gene. That quote is perfect, though - it's an instruction. mRNA is a bitch to work with because it's extremely labile, and you have to have all sorts of safeguards in the lab to prevent it from getting chewed by by RNases. It's why I've never been concerned about safety for this approach, but was skeptical it would work. 

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  12. 16 hours ago, HouTex said:


    You would be misinformed. The pharma companies and the media have referred to it is gene therapy. Do just a little research and you’ll find the articles online. I’m not using the term to mean that it modifies genes. It can be gene therapy without altering your genes.

    This is wrong, and frankly it's a semantic (though important) argument. mRNA isn't a gene - it's a message from a gene. Gene therapy is most commonly referred to as the act of changing the DNA of a cell. 

    From the pharma company that developed the vaccine:

    Quote

    How does mRNA differ from gene therapy?
    Helping the body make its own medicine using mRNA sounds like it might be similar to gene therapy or gene editing. While these treatment approaches seek to treat disease through genetic information, they take fundamentally different approaches. Gene therapy and gene editing alter the original genetic information each cell carries. The goal is to produce a permanent fix to the underlying genetic problem by changing the defective gene. Moderna is taking a different approach to address the underlying cause of MMA and other diseases. mRNA transfers the instructions stored in DNA to make the proteins required in every living cell. Our approach aims to help the body make its own missing or defective protein. Unlike gene editing and gene therapy, mRNA technology does not change the genetic information of the cell, and is intended to be short-acting. It acts like traditional drugs that can be adjusted over time based on the dose and frequency needed. In simple terms, we are working to provide physicians and patients with a “controllable” way to start and manage their therapy over time.

    link

     

  13. ...and now I’m replying to myself, but up North you have Kings Beach Mini Golf, a new paved hike/bike trail to Sand Harbor, the Char Pit, the paved hike bike trail from Tahoe City along the Truckee River and rafting along that same river (highly recommended no matter how old your kids are). 

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  14. On 5/4/2021 at 7:55 PM, Johnny Chimpo said:

    South Lake Tahoe is a heap of riff raff. Incline village is typically a little quieter so for that reason in your scenario I would go down that route. 

    What he said. I’m a west shore guy because I hate people, but at least with Incline you can more easily escape what’s around you - more so than SLT. 
     

    Just know that if you want to do Rubicon or Emerald Bay or that area it will be a haul from Incline. But you have Sand Harbor close, which is a really nice place (assuming it’s not a windy day). 

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  15. I think it’s very easy to be hard on one’s self with these things. I harbor a lot of guilt in not being as present in my mom’s life as I live across the country. I’d only counter that, at least in my case, I was raised to be independent (as both my parents were). It is hard to balance that teaching with whatever duty you feel you have to those who raised you. 

     I feel your pain too - I’m in a hospital room with my mom here on Mother’s Day, as she’s been newly diagnosed with cancer after several months of diminishing health. A milestone birthday for her is tomorrow, and I’m fairly sure both will be her last. This shit sucks. 

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  16. 27 minutes ago, hornian said:

    Blast from the past here, but the whole “kids don’t die from Covid” as a reason to not vaccinate is short sighted, imho. They can spread it, which is a reason to get them vaccinated. And Covid complications, even if they don’t die, can be very serious. 
     

    There’s a lot of literature about how humans are bad at truly estimating risk, and this is the epitome of that. Death is not the only thing to avoid, and you are dismissing every other risk that can be mitigated by a robust vaccine program, both to your kids and to society at large. 
     

    Anyway, the mRNA vaccines are one of the greatest scientific and medical advancements in human history. They don’t alter your DNA, they utilize a synthetic mRNA to mimic something that your body can use to defend itself against a real viral pathogen without actually infecting you. They were around pre Covid, but pretty theoretical. And they are special because they can treat many different ailments (including cancer) that this far have eluded our ability to protect against. 
     

    The fact that we were able to go from a novel disease to a strikingly effective vaccine in under a year is something that we should be celebrating as one of the most amazing feats of human ingenuity in the history of the world. 
     

    Instead, a large part of the population thinks they are smarter than literally some of the smartest people in the world and “trust their gut” on this when it comes deciding whether to vaccinate their kids. And the fact that someone who claims to be pro vaccine is hesitant about a vaccine that is so effective shows just how bad of a spot we are in. 
     

    So yes: it is crazy to not get your kids the shots. I have a 5 year old and 2 year old, as soon as it is approved for pediatric use I’m making an appointment for them to get their vaccine. 

    I totally agree with you and am adamant that vaccines are lifesaving. It always gets real when it’s your kid. But it appears that the vaccine is overwhelmingly protective and safe. There was an 11 year old in the news who traveling to Hawaii and then contracted and died from COVID. Apparently there were some other undisclosed medical issues he already had, but the risk is there. I want to get back to full schools and resume travel, and insure as heck am not comfortable until my teen gets that shot. 
     

    Even so, as a parent, these type of decisions always nag at you. When my son was younger he was a snorer and restless sleeper. His adenoids were juuust barely abnormal, and after two consults we had them removed. Watching him go under and come back from surgery was excruciating and a parent can second guess and drive one’s self mad. 

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