Anonymoustache brings the heat on NIH grant "gifts"

Following our little discussion of whether or not NIH grants should be viewed as largesse or something a little more…professional, our good blog friend Anonymoustache teed off:

Not to be framing anything here, but I believe the best analogy for NIH grants is investment capital, and it would serve us all well to look at it and think about it in that fashion. Think about the NIH as a venture capital firm that has a really large portfolio. It makes calculated bets on a really large number of projects with a view to a two-fold return on investment: i) Increasing the body of scientific knowledge, and thereby ii) Generating advances in healthcare and medicine.

Go read the rest.

Age 32, cardiac arrest….

Sigh.
Le Sigh.
A young actor is dead at 32 of cardiac arrest. At least that is what the early reporting is saying. Also that Brittany Murphy collapsed in the shower. Some additional reporting indicates that she’d lost a great deal of weight recently, some photographs that have been published seem to confirm that impression. Some suggestion of her being on multiple prescription drugs for multiple unnamed ailments.
Dammit.
’cause you know what is coming next. My only questions are “Which drugs?” and “In what combination?”.