Wrath of the RHIGF

I spent my day snaking hairballs out of my shower drain.

The drain has become progressively worse and worse since my Raven Haired Italian Girl Friend (RHITF) stayed here a while back.

I believe I have now completely cleaned out all the long strands of raven-colored hair from the drain, and I can shower without quickly standing in dirty water up to my ankles.

Still, sort of miss having her here, though a recent shorter-haired visitor of Czech origin has made up for the company. Too bad she's returned home too.

Israel Passport Update

Well, I got the document as discussed the other day. But apparently only good for one year. It seems that the US government has been concerned about foreign nationals arriving here, "losing" their passports, and then getting new ones in an effort to avoid anybody noticing that they stayed far longer than their tourist visas permitted. This avoids their being blacklisted for future travel. In most cases passports are not even renewed: the person is usually given a one-way transit document good for only a few months and allowing the holder to go home.

I was allowed to get an actual passport because my old one which was issued in 1973 was "lost" so long ago and because there's no question of my legal status in the US. Still, at the US government's insistence, I can only get a 1 year document after reporting a loss. In six months I can go back and request that it be extended out for an additional nine years, upon proof of being here legally, which I already provided.

Yet another example of our Department of Homeland Security generating lots of rules and "action" with no real results.

Weekend Cat Update

The RHIGF is the source of only one type of problem hair this week. With the recent increase in temps, shedding activity has increased significantly. Time for some serious grooming.

Panorama Photo Update

Got myself this neat little device from Really Right Stuff, who make some of the coolest camera-support equipment available. I've calibrated it and did some experiments, and it's pretty fantastic. Don't have any really worthy images, but look for some soon. My 20mm lens seems to be just about perfect for panoramas on the digital Nikon.

iPhone Mania

My own take on this is that it'll open up the smartphone market for consumers in a way that it has never been open before. That said, as Kevin Wassong notes, it's not a device for my mom, and in truth is overkill for my needs too.

But it's not going to displace the BlackBerries in the business market until things like integration with enterprise email servers are worked out, and possibly not even then. I have not had good results with touch-screen keyboards of any size in the past and am somewhat skeptical of the reviews claiming that it's not an issue. Maybe not for casual consumer web surfing, but has a real crackberry addict tried it and liked it?

The Death of Biotech and Pharma

David Miller of Biotech Stock Research points out in this month's newsletter that it is quite possible that biotech and pharma, along with much of health care, is likely to become uninvestible in the coming years. Copyrighted stuff, so can only give tidbits here. Justifications for this are mostly political: in addition to the liklihood of more regulation and price controls, the FDA has come under so much political pressure to avoid approving drugs with risks, that the liklihood of approval has been signficiantly reduced, the liklihood of approval subject to ongoing re-evaluation much increased, and thus the costs of bringing something to market increased signficantly. At this point a drug that experiences significant side-effects in only 1% of the people who take it is being questioned. That type of scrutiny would have kept lots of current drugs off the market. It is a big deal.

He forecasts that in coming years, we'll see a move away from drugs that work for everybody and towards solutions that integrate genetic testing of the potential patient, with a selection of drugs that are uniquely suited to that patient. From my perspective, the problems with this will continue to be political. What if you come up with a drug that works well only with people whose "genetic identifier" includes the gene for blue eyes or low-skin pigmentation? Think the polticians won't intervene against a "racist" cure, even if grounded in good science?

Summer Travel

It looks like this summer's travel will be mostly related to my mom's upcoming move. While my brother and I are happy to finally see this happen, an August move in Manhattan is not sounding like fun.

Perhaps I'll manage to squeeze in a quick birthday trip to the mountains.

-btc