NPR Interview with ONDCP Deputy Director

Deputy Director of the ONDCP A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D. [ PubMed ] being interviewed on Here & Now from WBUR.
[ Notes on McLellan’s appointment at Terra Sigillata and The Discovering Alcoholic. ]
He was talking about stigma, the addition of prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery to the traditional ONDCP focus on interdiction.
“addiction is an illness”
“drugs that have the greatest harm are those that have the greatest availability”
” [use of] prescription opiates has gone up more than 1,000 percent over past 10 yrs…led to record numbers of overdose deaths… 2nd only to automobile deaths”
same genetics, relapse rate as other chronic illnesses but we treat it differently. “imagine if we treated hypertension that way….”
(on proper treatment, early intervention at primary medical care level) “It’s not more money, it’s less money”
(on anti-drug abuse vaccines) “I think they will be miracles” [DM- Hmmmm….]
[h/t: Occasional commenter SurgPA]

Blog Bid'ness: Entertaining myself

I admit it. Certain stupid things crack me up. Don’t click past the jump unless you are a regular reader…

Recap: Ovrhrd @ #scio10 (UPDATED)

Overheard at ScienceOnline2010. TrueStory.

Nominate your favorite research-blogging blog for a researchblogging.org award. Did I say research blogging enough yet?

Rather than get yourself all worked up over which big screen Hollywood extravaganza sucked the least in this award season, why not focus on awarding proper credit for your time waster of preference?
Go on over to the researchblogging.org site and nominate your favorite blog in one of a zillion categories:

Research Blog of the Year $1,000
Blog Post of the Year $50
Research Twitterer of the Year $50
Best New Blog (launched in 2009) $50
Best Expert-Level blog $50
Best Lay-Level blog $50
Funniest Blog $50
Best Blog — Spanish-Language $50
Best Blog — German-Language $50
Best Blog — Portuguese-Language $50
Best Blog — Chinese-Language $50
Best Blog — Biology $50
Best Blog — Chemistry, Physics, or Astronomy $50
Best Blog — Clinical Research $50
Best Blog — Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics $50
Best Blog — Conservation or Geosciences $50
Best Blog — Health $50
Best Blog — Psychology $50
Best Blog — Philosophy, Research, or Scholarship $50
Best Blog — Neuroscience $50
Best Blog — Social Sciences or Anthropology $50

What does it really take ($$) to start up a lab?

We’ve touched on this a time or two but Professor In Training has a brilliant bit up about the many costs associated with starting a new laboratory program. How far will those startup dollars really take you, anyway?
a teaser:

And if you inherit a completely empty lab like I did, you’ll need to spend a ton of cash on basic stuff like beakers, flasks, bottles, weigh boats, pipettes, mini-centrifuges, electrophoresis rigs, etc. Each of these items are relatively inexpensive but the costs of buying all of them in one hit starts to add up very, very quickly. Throw in delivery charges for everything. $50 here. $30 there. New primary antibodies? $350 each plus $50 delivery. How many antibodies do you need? One? Ten? Watch the dollars fly out the door. And don’t forget you need secondary antibodies. And reagents. And tubes. And slides. What about basic chemicals? Any EDTA on your shelves? NaCl? PBS?

Go Read.

Trust

Do you trust me?
Why?
or, Why Not?
Under what circumstances?
Within which limits?
Is it conditional?
or, Do you never think of it in terms of ‘trust’ exactly?