for_sv's blog

New Indian drug patent rule hurts poor AIDS patients: US experts

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US law and AIDS experts urged the Indian parliament to reject an executive order that will curb India's ability to sell cheap copies of the newest drugs for the world's poorest patients.

The Indian parliament will debate the new December 26 order, which changed its laws to put India in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on intellectual property rights.

Until its new rule, the South Asian giant had not recognized international drug patents, thereby leaving its pharmaceutical industry with a half-million-strong workforce free to copy foreign products.

India is the world's third-biggest producer and prime exporter of generic drugs, which are cheaper than drugs sold under patent.

The experts said the Indian parliament should either amend the order or let it die when it expires after six months in order to take time to revise it and improve it.

"Hundreds of millions of lives are at stake," said Brook Baker, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and a policy adviser to the Health Global Access Project, an activist organization seeking worldwide access to HIV/AIDS treatment.

"People need access to the newest medicine," Baker said. "This ordinance cannot and should not stand."

The new ordinance could hurt public health programs in Africa, a continent plagued by AIDS cases, experts said.

"This is really about our ability to get these life-saving medicines in the mouths of people that urgently need them," said Paul Zeitz, executive director of US-based Global AIDS Alliance.

African and Indian activists, along with AIDS organizations, will hold a rally Saturday in front of India's embassy in Washington to show solidarity with similar protests to be held in India.

February 26, 2005 in World News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2005

You damned dirty ape

If you're going to work with Koko the Gorilla, the famous talking ape, you've got to know more than sign language. Allegedly, Dr. Penny Patterson insists you've also gotta show your boobs... who knew?

February 25, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Chimps: fair. Humans:...?

[You humans] [have been around a lot longer than you were thought to have been here] -- [since at least 190,000 years ago]. [In 1967, the Omo ] [fossils were ] [thought to be about 130,000 ] [years old.]

February 25, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 24, 2005

How Stock Market functions

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea.

He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is Going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "It's definitely going to be a very cold winter. The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely, The man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Red Indians are collecting wood like crazy."

This is how stock markets work!!!

February 24, 2005 in Humor | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Career Builder Super Bowl ad

Check out one of the famous Super Bowl Commercials from Career Builder.

Click here all 2005 Super Bowl Commercials

February 24, 2005 in Art, Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bud Light Ads

Ads. are becoming intelligent and more funny. Though you may not drink but am sure you will enjoy all the Bud Light ads. My favorite is the Sky diver one.

February 24, 2005 in Art, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 23, 2005

best way to transfer your music collection

"What's the best way to transfer your music collection to your iPod? It depends on what you value most: your time, money, or sanity."

February 23, 2005 in Music | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bush is Making the world safe

For gynaecologists. Video, Hilarious.

February 23, 2005 in Humor | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

mix mp3s

This is a great tool to mix mp3s with, especially if you don't have $400-600 for final scratch pro. It was designed specifically for DJing live and works like a virtual turntable. Besides being free, it's far better than most of the other toy-ish mixing programs available. Having two soundcards makes things easier, but it can even run on a system with one soundcard (although you still need a real mixer). We've come a long way since this.

February 23, 2005 in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2005

The Incremental Web

Rich Skrenta writes about the difference between the Reference Web and the Incremental Web:

Google searches the reference Internet. Users come to google with a specific query, and search a vast corpus of largely static information. This is a very valuable and lucrative service to provide: it's the Yellow Pages.

Blogs may look like regular HTML pages, but the key difference is that they're organized chronologically. New posts appear at the top, so with a single browser reload you can say "Just show me what's new."

This seems like a trivial difference, but it drives an entirely different delivery, advertising and value chain. Rather than using HTML, the delivery protocol for web pages, there is a desire for a new, feed-centric protocol: RSS. To search chronologically-ordered content, a relevance-based search that destroys the chronology such as Google is inappropriate. Instead you want Feedster, PubSub or Technorati. Feed content may be better to read in a different sort of client, such as Newsgator, rather than a web browser.

And finally, there is a different advertising opportunity. Rather than the sort of business ads you see in the Yellow Pages, instead the ad opportunity is more about reaching a particular demographic or subscriber group. The kind of ads that are in magazines. How do you keyword target a breakfast cereal advertisement to fitness-conscious 21-25 year olds? You can't. You need to find something those people are reading, and put your ad there.

There are 4-8 million active blogs now. At this size, you can still "know" the top bloggers, and find new posts worth reading by clicking around. But when the blogosphere grows 100X or 1000X, the current discovery model will break down. You'll need algorithmic techniques like Topix.net or a Findory to channel the most relevant material from the constant flood of new content.

Rich is on the right track, but there are a few additional points which need thinking:
- We need to think beyond just text to multimedia for mass-market content creation and management. [Think Flickr.]
- In emerging markets like India, the mobile and not the computer will be at the heart of the Incremental Web.
- The interface has to go beyond the search box to more natural navigational interfaces. [Think Speech.]
- The published content is being amplified/tagged by the mass market --this also needs to be taken into account. [Think Del.icio.us.]
- A user's "subscriptions" will be the filter through which the user will want to see the Incremental Web. [Think RSS+OPML.]

(via Emergic)

February 22, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google Goodies

Gmail Journal:
Here’s how to turn your Gmail account into a multi-category journal.

Google Help:
Cheat Sheet

Google Toolbar 3 beta:
Google Toolbar 3 beta. Google writes:

- SpellCheck: Whenever users type into a web form (including web-based email, discussion forums, and intranet web applications), SpellCheck instantly reviews and suggests corrections. The AutoFix option enables users to automatically check and correct all the text they're entering with one
click.
- AutoLink: Whenever users see a U.S. address on a web page, one click on AutoLink automatically links the address to an online map. For example, if users are reading a review of a new restaurant, clicking on AutoLink will turn its address into a link to a map, complete with directions. AutoLink also links package tracking numbers to pages displaying that package's delivery status and other useful information, such as Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) and Publication ISBN numbers.
- WordTranslator: This feature translates words from English web pages into one of 8 other languages. Hover the cursor over a word and Google Toolbar's WordTranslator feature displays the word in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese, or Korean.

International verison coming soon.

February 22, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 21, 2005

Otherwise - by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed on two strong legs.
It might have been otherwise.
I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love.
At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks.
It might have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day.
But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.

From Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon. She has written 25 books

February 21, 2005 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 20, 2005

Escher Web Sketch

Escher Web Sketch allows you to draw repeating patterns. You can select the symmetry of the patterns by clicking on one of the icons in the bar above the drawing area. The drawing tools are selected from the icon bar under the drawing area. You can also change the pattern size and placement with the Modify cell button. The right hand side of the drawing area is reserved for each drawing tool's usage. Typically it changes the pen size and color.

February 20, 2005 in Art | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Gene therapy converts dead bone graft to new, living tissue

Researchers have created a way to transform the dead bone of a transplanted skeletal graft into living tissue in an experiment involving mice. The advance, which uses gene therapy to stimulate the body into treating the foreign splint as living bone, is a promising development for the thousands of cancer and trauma patients each year who suffer with fragile and failing bone grafts. The findings were posted online Feb. 13 and will appear in the March 1 issue of Nature Medicine.

February 20, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack