Archive for March, 2010

« Older Entries

The Oprah Effect

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Over the past decade the number of diabetes cases nationwide has increased by 90 percent, according to the CDC, making it the fastest-growing disease in the U.S.

Oprah Winfrey recently devoted an entire episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to the prevention and treatment of diabetes – and pointed viewers to a nationwide free diabetes-testing campaign underway at Walgreens.  During the first day after the show aired, more than 80,000 people visited Walgreens for testing.  Approximately the same number of people were tested over the entire month of November when the pharmacy ran its previous free diabetes testing event.  That time the pharmacy had NOT partnered with a TV show.  (Drug Store News, 3/1/10)

Considering Oprah’s public entrance into U.S. politics during President Obama’s run for the White House, could the administration harness her marketing power and direct the infamous “Oprah Effect” at the nation’s rising healthcare costs?

Risa Hess

Tags: , ,
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »

Faking It

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Many companies are facing the double whammy of increased competition from counterfeits at the same time they are struggling with reduced sale stemming from the Consumer and Business Resets.

In 2008, the value of counterfeit goods seized at America’s borders increased by nearly 40 percent over the year before. It fell 4 percent last year — far less than the 25 percent decline in imports overall. The number of counterfeit parts in military electronics systems more than doubled between 2005 and 2008. (Economist, 3/6/10)

Service companies that monitor and track counterfeit goods are benefiting from the proliferation of fakes. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government, which is losing out on tax revenue at a time that it needs all the revenues it can get, appointed its first Intellectual Property Czar last year and is developing a new enforcement strategy.

Eric Zavolinsky

Tags:
Posted in World War III | No Comments »

Sequencing to the Nines

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Both the central government and regional authorities are investing to make China the production center of the world for genomic research.

BGI is China’s premier gene-sequencing institute. It was started on the ninth day of September, at nine seconds past the ninth minute in the ninth month in 1999. This was done to promote longevity according to Chinese numerology. In 2006, the institute was lured to Shenzen, as the city advanced its plan to be the “factory of the world.” BGI’s goal is to sequence genomes at twice the speed and half the price of anyone in the world. In January, BGI purchased 128 of the world’s fastest gene-sequencers, called the Hi Seq 2000 by Ilumina. Each Hi Seq 2000 produces 25 billion pairs of sequences a day, or theoretically, 10,000 human genomes in a year. Should this pace continue, BGI’s output could surpass the entire sequencing output of the U.S. (Nature, 3/4/10)

In addition to contract research, BGI is developing its own scientific expertise and now has 220 patents to its name. The Chinese are applying the same volume explosion strategy to science, as they have applied to industrial (e.g., steel, autos, power plants, chemicals, etc.) production. The use of these discoveries will fuel advances for Chinese sunrise industries in the next decade.

Charles Hess

Tags:
Posted in China | No Comments »

Addressing Education

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

With public schools facing extreme pressure from two sides – improving quality and spending less – can the country’s educational system as constituted survive, let alone get better?

Central Falls High School is one of Rhode Island’s poorest performing schools. To overcome that disadvantage, district superintendent Frances Gallo asked teachers to work longer days, to have lunch with students now-and-then and to devote two weeks during the summer (with pay) to increase their skills, but the union said, “No.” Gallo responded by firing all 77 of Central Falls’ teachers, its principal and all related administrators. Meanwhile, the school board for Kansas City (MO) schools, facing a projected $50 million budget deficit, voted to close 29 of the system’s 61 schools at the end of this school year. (The Week, 3/19/10)

Is local control of schools being challenged?  Will schools consider new methods like the following?

According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, Texas high-school students who earned cash for passing Advanced Placement exams showed better overall GPAs and an increased likelihood of graduating. The cost of administering the program averaged $200 a student. (Newsweek, 3/8/10)

The No Child Left Behind program has cost the government $14 billion thus far. Will studies like the one above inform the policy debate as the Obama administration begins to address the education system? In the future, could some of the money slated for No Child Left Behind go to paying students for performance?

Ken Hey and Eric Zavolinsky

Tags:
Posted in Education | No Comments »

Drug Induced Troubles

Monday, March 15th, 2010

In 2004, we followed “The Vioxx Conundrum” as an example of the context, The Gaming of Nearly Everything.  In September of that year, Merck pulled its $2.4 billion-per-year drug off the market after its own research showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke.  By 2008, Merck had agreed to fund a $4.85 billion settlement over the drug, plus it had spent more than $1.53 billion on legal costs. Merck is now within months of processing, paying or rejecting 10,000 U.S. claims.

GlaxoSmithKline could be facing similar problems.   In 2007, at the FDA’s request GlaxoSmithKline agreed to conduct a six-year study of its third best selling drug, Avandia ($2.2 billion in annual revenues) and a rival drug, Actos. The ongoing study, which will involve 16,000 participants, is still enrolling patients.  Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee concluded a 2-year inquiry on February 20, in which it stated that GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible heart attack risks tied to Avandia years before evidence of a link became public. In the Senate report, FDA researchers are quoted as calling the study “unethical and exploitative” since their agency allowed the trial to continue even after the agency estimated that the drug caused 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 2007. (Washington Post, 2/21/10; Associated Press, 3/1/10)

What will GlaxoSmithKline end up paying for 83,000 known heart attacks allegedly due to its drug?

Risa Hess

Tags: ,
Posted in Gaming | No Comments »

Shoe Games

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Still in its infancy, augmented reality technology is quickly becoming an integral aspect of some marketing campaigns.

Adidas’ new line of sneakers comes with an augmented reality (AR) barcode on the tongue of the shoe. When held up to a webcam, the sneaker triggers a celebrity-filled virtual game world and becomes the actual controller for the video games.  The December issue of Esquire magazine had an AR barcode on its cover and contained links to interactive content and ads.  (Brandweek, 2/15/10)

As the technology improves and new capabilities are created, more companies will recognize the importance of offering interactivity in advertising. Expect this technology to become ubiquitous.

Eric Zavolinsky

Tags:
Posted in Internet, Marketing, media | No Comments »

Beware the Man in the Tuxedo

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Twenty-five utilities in the U.S. now provide customers with data related to their neighbors’ energy usage.  According to the utilities, the implied social pressure has lowered energy consumption between two and three percent.  Meanwhile, in Spain, a highly effective debt collector is using public embarrassment to get people to pay up.  He wears a tuxedo and approaches debtors at their table in restaurants, while they are surrounded by friends, or he walks into their offices and casually talks to them.  (The Week, 2/12/10; Christian Science Monitor, 2/12/10)

In Spain, social pressure is working where the legal system has not, and implied social pressure is working in the U.S. where extensive educational programs have not.

Ken Hey

Posted in Energy | No Comments »

High Speed Ahead

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

China’s high-speed rail ambitions aren’t just all talk, and there is more in service than just the oft-cited Maglev train from Shanghai’s airport.

In February, China opened a 505 km (313 mile) high-speed rail line between the nation’s important interior city of Xian and the major eastern rail-hub city of Zhengzhou.  Trains travel 330 kph (205 mph) and cut the travel time from six hours to less than two.  China has also opened a 664 mile (comparable to a Boston to Southern Virginia trip) high-speed line from the southern export city Guangzhou to the major interior city Wuhan, which makes the trip in just over three hours, less time than it takes for Acela to travel from Boston to New York.  (China Daily, 2/6/10; New York Times, 1/13/10)

These ambitions and early successes lead us to ask several questions: 1) What companies benefit from China’s full-speed-ahead plans to build a massive high-speed rail network?  2) Where does China’s plans and capabilities leave the U.S. in terms of fast, efficient and reliable transportation infrastructure?  3) What are the social implications of this increasing mobility in China, a place of limited mobility just a few years ago?

Michael Hines

Tags:
Posted in China | No Comments »

Remote Engineering

Monday, March 8th, 2010

For the first time ever, engineers from around the world, including 131 organizations from 23 countries, cooperated online and assessed the damage situation following Haiti’s earthquake disaster. They tagged 10,797 heavily damaged and collapsed buildings. In fact, public viewing of satellite imagery through Microsoft’s Virtual Earth product tagged 4,391 buildings in one day. (Engineering News-Record, 2/15/10)

The social networking of engineers and organizations could be useful in accessing engineering talent globally, much the way “solution sites” such as Innocentive access global scientists for specific challenges. Although tagging and describing destroyed structures may be rather simplistic, increasingly sophisticated engineering work will be available on a remote basis.

Charles Hess

Tags:
Posted in Internet | No Comments »

No Newspapers Will Be Bad News

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Despite the ballooning prevalence of digital media, it is traditional journalists at traditional news outlets that uncover and report most of the “news.”

A recent study found that 95 percent of news stories that offer new information (facts not already reported elsewhere) come from traditional media – 60 percent of which is represented by newspapers. In the study, which used Baltimore as a test city, only 4 percent of new news made its premiere on a digital-only outlet. (Los Angeles Times, 1/11/10)

There are risks and consequences for the loss of traditional journalism. Most blog news sites are uninterested in actually covering news.

Michael Hines

Tags:
Posted in Internet, media | No Comments »

« Older Entries