Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 - December: Interesting Articles & Links


* Hand Warmers: How do they work?  -- http://www.wired.com/2014/12/whats-inside-hot-hands/

* China's appetite for pork - http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21636507-chinas-insatiable-appetite-pork-symbol-countrys-rise-it-also

* In defence of poetry -- http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-Lovely-Strangeness/292942

* Cortez -- http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21636686-journey-past-most-mexicans-would-rather-forget-trail-hern-n?fsrc=scn%2Ffb%2Fte%2Fed%2Fpe

* On Evernote -- http://www.labnol.org/software/evernote-tips/18077/
- https://evernote.com/

* Photos - NASA - best from Space 2014 - http://www.wired.com/2014/12/nasa-best-earth-from-space-2014/

* Anti-microbial resistance in India -- http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/2-million-reasons-india-should-restrict-antibiotics-45573

* Labnol - Blogging tips -- http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/writing-successful-blog/1896/

* Ordinary things under an electron microscope -- http://www.sciencedump.com/content/putting-ordinary-things-under-electron-microscope

* New diagnostic platform - 600 diseases in 6 hrs -- http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/new-diagnostic-platform-can-detect-over-1000-pathogens-just-6-hours

* Chatterjee, Dev (2014): CIPLA: THE CRUSADER FOR AFFORDABLE DRUGS TAKES THE BATTLE TO MNCs, BS, 24Dec14 --- http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/40-years-ago-and-now-cipla-the-crusader-for-affordable-drugs-takes-the-patent-battle-to-mncs-114122400009_1.html
- 2001 - Cipla started seelling AIDS drugs to Africa, undercutting MNCs - cost drops from $12,000/patient/yr to $800
- Today more than 8 million Africans are being treated with Cipla AIDS drugs
- Stomach cancer drug - MNCs sell it for $280,000 for 30 tabs -- Cipla sells the same for $6,500
- Yusuf Hamied argues that 70% of patented drugs sold worldwide  are not invented by the owning companies.
- MNCs kill competition with expensive litigation - Cipla paid $200,000/day for each case during court proceedings.
- When US was facing Anthrax and Bird-flu it was ready to break any patents....it was in national interest
- India is in perennial health crisis -- largest number of AIDS patients, diabetes, TB and malaria
- Patents for the TB drug is with an MNC
- Cipla earns 60% of its revenue from abroad -- new acquisitions - Medpro, South Africa ($512m), Yemeni co ($21m) and a drug distributor in Sri Lanka


* Sony's hackers - http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/F5uzgPGZlwIthi2IHzhJRN/Sony-hackers-snooped-for-months-before-planting-virus.html

* lifestyle Changing DNA - Methylation - http://www.financialexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/how-exercise-changes-our-dna/21596/

* Atul Gawande interview - http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/ZZDSN3krwiyt09OIUy5nYI/The-art-of-living.html

* How Japan gave away its solar industry -- http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/533451/can-japan-recapture-its-solar-power/
- According to METI, developers installed nearly 10 gigawatts of renewable generating capacity through the end of April 2014, including 9.6 gigawatts of photovoltaics. (The nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi had 4.7 gigawatts of capacity; overall, the country has around 290 gigawatts of installed electricity-generating capacity.)
- Between 1985 and 2007, Japanese researchers filed for more than twice as many patents in solar technologies as rival U.S. and European inventors combined. Companies like Sharp, Sanyo Electric, Panasonic, and Kyocera became the clear leaders in solar technology.
- Japan’s 10 utilities were (and remain) vertical monopolies. Each controls power generation, transmission, and distribution in its respective region, and its grids are designed to deliver electricity from centralized power plants—including large nuclear reactors.
- The interconnection problem is further compounded by an artifact: two AC frequencies that split the country’s electrical system in half. Eastern Japan operates at 50 hertz, while western Japan uses 60-hertz power—a barrier that proved crippling in 2011, in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster
- HIT - heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer, the hybrid technology has become a mainstay of the company’s solar strategy.
- The Koriyama R&D facility boasts state-of-the-art labs for crystallizing, slicing, and patterning silicon wafers, and its production line can churn out up to 360 wafers an hour. Outside, a variety of photovoltaics are being tested, along with a modest-sized wind turbine and a large grid-connected battery. Its most ambitious program is directed by Makoto Konagai, one of Japan’s most celebrated solar scientists, who has moved to Koriyama from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.


* MSF - Single dose vaccine against Kala Azhar - http://www.msfindia.in/msf-supports-introduction-and-roll-out-single-dose-treatment-kala-azar-bihar


BS - Basu, Debasis (15Dec14): Make in India - Beyond the Slogan -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/debashis-basu-make-in-india-beyond-the-slogan-114121400577_1.html

* Anti-Microbial Resistance - http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/global-economics-drug-resistance-by-jim-o-neill-2014-12#
- We must encourage policymakers to support the development of the best diagnostics. Quicker, more accurate diagnoses will curb the current overreliance on antibiotics – a key requirement for combating resistance.

* 2000% return on Malaria investment -- http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/how-india-got-2000-return-on-anti-malaria-investment-94139

* Enadu and Chairman Rao - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/chairman-rao

* WSJ - Photos of the Year - http://graphics.wsj.com/Photos-of-the-Year/2014/en:date:January:1

* What is Fatigue? -- http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-is-fatigue


* Auletta, Ken (2014): BLOOD, SIMPLER, The New Yorker, 15Dec14, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/blood-simpler
- The plummeting costs of DNA-sequencing technology have made it possible for companies such as 23andme to provide individuals with their genetic information directly, rather than through doctors, empowering nerdy customers and self-motivated patients.
- Most other diagnostic labs, including Quest and Laboratory Corporation of America, perform blood tests on equipment that they buy from outside manufacturers, like Siemens and Roche Diagnostics. Before those devices can be sold, they must be approved by the F.D.A.

* Japan's ultra-nationalists 
- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/world/asia/japanese-right-attacks-newspaper-on-the-left-emboldening-war-revisionists.html
- NYT ed - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/opinion/whitewashing-history-in-japan.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias&
- Rebuttal - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/opinion/japans-wartime-record.html

* What is the definition of a Good Life? -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/smita-malhotra/redefining-happiness-in-india_b_6276642.html

* What you learn in your 40s -- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/opinion/sunday/what-you-learn-in-your-40s.html

* Gold in Diagnostics -- http://www.gold.org/advanced_by_gold/#!science-en
* Diagnostics -- http://www.health.harvard.edu/diagnostic-tests/

* Buildings - Architecture -- http://www.buzzfeed.com/autodeskeducation/the-most-unique-pieces-of-architecture-around-the-worl?b=1

* The geopolitical impact of cheap oil -- http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/oil-prices-geopolitical-stability-by-martin-feldstein-2014-11

* Plants vs Solar PVs -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/12/economist-explains-1?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/howplantsexploitsunlightsoefficiently

* Obituary - Justice Krishna Aiyer - http://scroll.in/article/693239/Justice-Krishna-Iyer-was-a-judge,-conscience-keeper,-legend,-enigma,-seeker

* The cost of a new drug -- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21635005-startling-new-cost-estimate-new-medicines-met-scepticism-price-failure?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ed/pe

* Economist - The Spy who hacked me -- http://www.economist.com/news/international/21635044-malicious-computer-code-making-spooks-job-easier-ever-spy-who-hacked-me

* Sony - Cybersecurity - Malware -- http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/02/us-sony-cybersecurity-malware-idUSKCN0JF3FE20141202
* SOny got hacked hard -- http://www.wired.com/2014/12/sony-hack-what-we-know/?mbid=social_twitter

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