tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74769862024-02-03T18:34:24.300+00:00OvermatterLetters from London: the personal blog of Natasha Loder of The Economistblah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.comBlogger321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-78131622600309389802021-07-27T21:38:00.010+00:002021-08-03T20:51:26.317+00:00Moving Day<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBd7vKMN1KyJ6inhUu_e8oSCE75uX8qEH4AkAGu9T3sVwl_0G9xU9_oWyV9x67aLiDsQjDFZ-6dJwo2qc-xRWzf6TTR2Anf7JfdyL7KdA_NVPaxXNqPI-EjAW8cHYiB_-ih5LjA/s2048/unnamed.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBd7vKMN1KyJ6inhUu_e8oSCE75uX8qEH4AkAGu9T3sVwl_0G9xU9_oWyV9x67aLiDsQjDFZ-6dJwo2qc-xRWzf6TTR2Anf7JfdyL7KdA_NVPaxXNqPI-EjAW8cHYiB_-ih5LjA/s320/unnamed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Overmatter is moving to Substack at <a href="http://overmatter.substack.com">overmatter.substack.com</a> and this site will be mirroed at <a href="http://natashaloder.wordpress.com">natashaloder.wordpress.com</a><div><div><br /></div><div>I'm grateful to Google and Blogger for making this platform available so many years ago. But it is time to explore pastures new. </div><div><p>You can also find me at Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/natashaloder" target="_blank">@natashaloder</a> and at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashaloder/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.</p><p>My <a href="https://www.facebook.com/usualbreakfast/" target="_blank">cartoons </a>can be found on Facebook but I'm not updating these at the moment. </p><p>Natasha Loder, August 2021</p><p><br /></p></div></div>blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-60908919875865217132017-01-25T15:13:00.001+00:002017-01-25T15:30:20.425+00:00Return of the #prmasterclass. Part 1.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've been neglecting this blog so I've decided to kick off again with a couple of posts that will thrill the diligent PR folk and freak out the others. First thing to say I don't have some kind of problem with PR people--they can be tremendously important and helpful. In a best case scenario they identify interesting stories in the weeds of a company or university, polish and find a good home for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having been on the receiving end of bids of all kinds though, it remains and open question whether they, on balance, make my life easier or harder. The great PR people are diluted by large numbers who are thrilled to direct a giant hose of nonsense my way and have the cheek to ask for feedback or suggestions as to whom else might want to publish their nonsense. Some even mislead or manipulate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I don't appear on media disks because it encourages too much spam. For a while I tried to discourage the most spammy behaviour with a #spampr hashtag to highlight to clients the wealth of nonsense that agencies were turning out on their behalf (and presumably charging for). This worked for the totally random submissions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But that still left me stuck with a lot of bad behaviour which just seemed to be part and parcel of the job--after all there are no rules to how to do this. But last December, after one particular PR outrage I was inspired to fire off a torrent of irritable tweets with the hashtag #prmasterclass. Someone from Canale emailed to say how helpful it was. So I'm going to repost the tweets with a few more thoughts in two parts. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Work on your bullshit ratio</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Every time you pitch something that is total nonsense, or a send a overly long email of high bandwidth and low information content, you are eroding your value as a source of information. When that client convinces you that you absolutely must pitch something and you know for a fact that the journalist isn't going to be interested you give </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">away a bit of your credibility. Even if you happen to get on well at a personal level with the journalist, don't make the basic error of assuming you can get away with sending them endless reams of information of little practical value. If it is a chore to read your emails then it is something that will fall to the bottom of anyone's To Do list--let alone a busy journalist. Don't go there.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Journalists figure out who the good PR people are by trial and error. The good ones are rewarded with our time and attention. </span><span style="color: black;">They know that the currency for knocking on my door is a story, or a good prospect of one. We don't do this job to rub shoulders with their clients (who mostly we are unimpressed by) or have a free lunch. <b>There. Has. To. Be. A. Story. </b>And if you don't see that, you shouldn't be wasting my time.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The good PR people know what I'm interested in, read what I/we write and rarely waste my time. Their payoff is that I answer their questions, take their calls and will even tell them broadly what I'm interested in at the moment. They know I'm looking for unique, new stories and themes to tell my smart, globally connected audience. They understand that a story is rarely about one widget or company but an idea. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So how do you get into this exclusive set of loved PR people? By keeping the bandwidth low, being selective about what they send and knowing what they are talking about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tell them how it is. Show them the actual stories that run in The Economist. If their request for coverage is unrealistic tell them so. You can even refer to the sorts of stories that I write (check my Linked in page for recent clips or this blog) in order to back up you up (and hone your pitch). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In health and science, and most technical subjects, PR folk who know what they are talking about are worth their weight in gold. If a pitch grabs my attention they can answer questions about it straight away and I can make a decision on the spot about my level of interest in pursuing it. A PR person who is able to answer questions has a chance of converting a spark of interest into something more tangible. Even if they don't know the answer they know how to get it quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One infuriating situation is being pitched something, by phone or email, and responding with a reasonable question and being told "I don't know but I can arrange a call with the CEO/CTO etc...". The reason this is infuriating is that it means I have to take a call to find out if what you have told me is bullshit or not. Which, sadly, chances are that it is. So newsflash: I'm not going to take that call. So your choice is simple, either be ready and willing to answer a follow-up question related to what you have sent or don't bother sending me the press release in the first place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lastly, one of my pet peeves is asking a question and then having a NON-ANSWER emailed back three or four days later. Hate it. With government agencies you expect it. When following up a press release from a company or university it is annoying.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Don't email or ring with stupid requests. Don't ask for feedback on your awful pitch. </span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These include asking me to complete surveys. I'm busy. No.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Don't ever ring up to ask whether I'm going to cover a story you sent via email unless you or your client has hand crafted and typed every single word to me personally. If you have sent a press release out by email, and followed up by email, and I have not replied it is quite likely I'm not going to do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is what will happen if you ask for feedback for your awful pitch:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>"Well for one thing is sounds really dull and worthy and nonscientific and possibly even largely made up. A "case study in healing" sounds like totally flaky nonsense. </i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Another thing the pitch also looks as though you have never even opened a copy of The Economist and have no idea who we write for or what they might be interested in. </i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">You also confuse a subject with a story. This is a junior error of PR/journalism that you need to figure out. </i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">I'm surprised. Generally when people put in pitches this bad they don't ask for feedback--they just sent it because the client told them to."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Don't try to make me feel guilty for not being interested in your story or for telling you it isn't interesting if you do insist on asking for feedback. That isn't because I'm worried that it will hurt my feelings. You shouldn't do it because it would be a waste of your time and basically unprofessional. See 5. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. No, No, No.</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Journalists say this a lot. It is the nature of the game. We are not interested in meeting your clients just for the sake of having a meeting. Please don't use us to try and fill up the dance card of a bored exec while they are in town. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are exceptions to this rule. 1. There is an actual story to tell and not a retreaded idea that has already been published. 2. we are going to a conference and we have made time in our schedules to </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">catch up with significant people or companies. (Watch my twitter feed for notices about which conferences I'm going to.) 3. I might take a phone call, particularly if the subject is topical. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Why not send me your client list from time to time? With a one-paragraph description on each client saying what they are doing and what is interesting at the moment (Do they have any news coming? Are they good on a particular subject?) Make it neat, and crunchy with lots of useful information in it. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlTT7yVxn_f8nPOBh1SZE6TKbnJkKVihhy_cX-LJYf722OuQG42SKhK_t1zQ3rHGFHIDC2dubB4WS6YOsNcKu4e9zLKwZnvNQW5RmAt8AYBNuK5WqElsG7xe82juKFeP9gW-Ggw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-19+at+6.25.36+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlTT7yVxn_f8nPOBh1SZE6TKbnJkKVihhy_cX-LJYf722OuQG42SKhK_t1zQ3rHGFHIDC2dubB4WS6YOsNcKu4e9zLKwZnvNQW5RmAt8AYBNuK5WqElsG7xe82juKFeP9gW-Ggw/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-01-19+at+6.25.36+PM.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The exception to meeting your client story is this: that they have a story or the hope of one. A genuine story. Of the kind that my magazine might actually publish. Not a piece saying how wonderful their company or institution is. Not a retread from another outlet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With that I will leave a brief pause and let that sink in before going to Part 2. </span></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-79412944713258264372016-06-14T14:48:00.000+00:002016-06-14T14:48:11.344+00:00Cancer treatment: On target. The personalisation of cancer treatments is leading to better outcomes for patients.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;">Cancer treatment</span><br />
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On target</h2>
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<b>The personalisation of cancer treatments is leading to better outcomes for patients. It will also pave the way to cures</b><br />
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Jun 11th 2016 | CHICAGO | From the print edition<br />
Timekeeper<br />
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“CURE” is not a word much used by oncologists. The best they normally talk of is “remission”. But the past five years have begun to change that. More than 70 new drugs have come to market, and describing the consequences of some of them as revolutionary is not hyperbole—at least for those patients lucky enough to respond positively to them. Being given a diagnosis of advanced melanoma, for example, was once tantamount to being handed a death warrant. Median life expectancy after such news was six to nine months. But recently developed “immuno-oncology” drugs, which co-opt the immune system to fight tumours, are so effective that, in around a fifth of cases, there is talk among experts that the patients involved have actually been cured.<br />
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This sort of upbeat news is reinvigorating the study of cancer. At this year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), held this week in Chicago, doctors had a spring in their step. Not only do they have new drugs to deploy, they are also developing better ways of using existing ones. They are getting better at diagnosis, too, finding methods to study the weak spots of cancers in parts of the body conventional biopsies cannot reach, and also to pin down tumours that were previously unlocatable. The upshot is that they are beginning to be able to tailor treatments to the needs of individual patients, an approach called personalised medicine. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21700125-personalisation-cancer-treatments-leading-better-outcomes">More...</a>]</div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-40992716652655273722016-03-09T16:46:00.001+00:002016-03-13T20:39:26.696+00:00Banged up. The science of concussion.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This week's edition of The Economist features my story about the science of concussion, and how growing understanding of what is going on in the brain. Paired with this piece is an op-ed at the front of the mag, a joint effort.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Concussion</span> </b><br />
<b>Bang to rights </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Science is taking big steps toward understanding the impact of concussion </b><br />
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Mar 5th 2016 | From the print edition<br />
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FRED McNEILL, an American-football player, died in November at the age of 63. Between 1974 and 1985 he appeared for the Minnesota Vikings. After leaving them he became a lawyer but in later years suffered from dementia and was told that he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. His recent death has become a milestone in the understanding of brain disorders, for post-mortem examination has confirmed this diagnosis—retrospectively making him the first person to be so diagnosed while alive. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21693906-science-taking-big-steps-toward-understanding-impact-concussion-bang" target="_blank">More...</a>]<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Concussion </b></span><br />
<b>Schools and hard knocks </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Children need protection from high-impact sports such as rugby and American football </b><br />
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Mar 5th 2016 | From the print edition<br />
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IMAGINE being asked to take part in an activity that gives you somewhere between a 1-in-5 and 1-in-20 chance of a serious head injury over a four-month period. That could lead to weeks of impaired mental performance and headaches, and, especially if the blows are repeated, the danger of longer-term mental-health problems. Now imagine that your child is the one taking that risk.<br />
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Such are the dangers associated with playing American football. The risks of concussion are higher still in rugby, one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. These concerns have already prompted some changes. Rugby has introduced “head-injury assessment” rules, enabling players who have suspected concussions to be substituted temporarily so that they can be checked by medical staff. All 50 of America’s states have adopted “return to play” laws that require medical clearance before younger athletes who have sustained a concussion can take to the field again. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21693926-children-need-protection-high-impact-sports-such-rugby-and-american-football-schools-and" target="_blank">More...</a>]<br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-67217566938714750982016-03-06T21:31:00.001+00:002016-03-09T16:36:06.321+00:00Wormy squirmy, five panel sequence.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-15558548336391613732016-02-19T18:56:00.002+00:002016-02-19T18:59:26.865+00:00Some classic Michael Hanlon pieces at the Daily Mail...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A dear friend, Michael Hanlon, passed away recently. He was a great writer. Here follows some excerpts, with links, to a few of his greatest hits at the DM.<br />
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Sceptic:</h2>
<b>The lion on the loose in Essex. </b><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"It’s always a tabby cat. That’s the rule. Or, sometimes, a spaniel. Often there is no animal at all, just the fevered imaginations of mass hysteria. The science of phantom cats is a very strange one indeed and while it says nothing about cats it does say an awful lot about humans."....</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span>
... and...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">"I</span><span style="background-color: white;">n Essex, van driver Rich Baker came out with the brilliant quote “It was one million per cent a lion. It was a tan colour with a big mane, it was fully grown, it was definitely a lion. It was just standing there, it seemed to be enjoying itself.” [<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2195221/A-Lion-loose-Essex-Teddy-tubby-cat-interesting-science-phantom-beasts.html#ixzz40dmwXNs0" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></span><br />
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<b>Inside the strange world of the lunar hoaxers.</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"They walk among us. From the outside they appear to be normal human beings. They speak our language, appear outwardly intelligent – well-read, even with university degrees. The way their move their limbs, the gait – they have got it all off to a tee. And yet underneath that façade of normality lurks a terrible, sinister secret. These are not People Like Us (well, not like me anyway).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">No, I am not talking about the Illuminati or David Icke’s Lizard-people, nor about reclothed Roswell aliens, but about that strange subset of humanity known as the Apollo Deniers or Lunar Hoaxers. I have long ceased to be interested in what these people believe. Refuting their simple-minded claims is so embarrassingly easy it is like using dynamite to catch trout in a fish farm." [<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2194782/Inside-strange-world-lunar-hoaxers.html#ixzz40dnIkp00" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<br />Ahead of his time</h2>
<b>The great diesel con exposed</b>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">At last, someone is talking sense about the Great Diesel Con. Diesel cars, I have been saying for years, are expensive, inefficient, dirty and unreliable compared to their petrol equivalents. This contradicts just about every piece of received wisdom concerning motor fuels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">People buy diesels because they think they are more fuel efficient than petrol cars. As a </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175111/Great-diesel-myth-They-DONT-save-money-petrol-models-economical-makes-car.html" style="color: #003580; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">new Which? Report </span></a><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">out this week confirms, while this is (marginally) true, overall the economics are mostly in favour of gasoline. This is because - believe it or not, and even in the era of the £6 gallon - slight differences in fuel efficiency really are not a big factor in the overall cost of motoring. [<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2175879/The-great-diesel-exposed-Its-time-ditched-inferior-vehicles.html#ixzz40dnzu3qq" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"><br /></span>
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<b>Why car makers lie about fuel consumption</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">There are lies, damn lies, statistics – and official EU car fuel consumption figures. </span><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">I and others have been banging on about this for years; the figures quoted by manufacturers in their ads usually (but, interestingly not always) bears absolutely no relation whatsoever to what happens in the real world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">This scandal has been highlighted in a What Car Report which this week looked at some of the claims made for the most allegedly economical cars sold in Britain and compared them to real-world consumption figures. [<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2136082/Why-car-makers-lie-fuel-consumption.html#ixzz40doedSSN" target="_blank">More....</a>]</span></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-32535741587559768702016-02-09T00:02:00.001+00:002016-02-09T00:02:05.106+00:00The Usual Breakfast: I'm a worm.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTSI2pbZg7igaOHXu8bt0gexwAWdz5Oaf8iVvQYwYxmrq_birg06NPxLHTCj9haNwzfiH0WDcWXQtpGXL5Fn9PPHXzdgTbcXHQCpBwhHj9eM7_dwJjvoBABG6fb7TXzw8JK-QYQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-02-08+at+11.58.29+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTSI2pbZg7igaOHXu8bt0gexwAWdz5Oaf8iVvQYwYxmrq_birg06NPxLHTCj9haNwzfiH0WDcWXQtpGXL5Fn9PPHXzdgTbcXHQCpBwhHj9eM7_dwJjvoBABG6fb7TXzw8JK-QYQ/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-02-08+at+11.58.29+PM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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Hi folks. I'm calling the new cartoon strip, The Usual Breakfast. Today's strip is one of a series. Come and visit again soon for the next installment. If you like the work, please share it and I might do more of it. </div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-73505468552756396692016-02-08T09:41:00.001+00:002016-02-08T09:41:24.814+00:00Can I have a pet?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJF6up3w8Ywhhk6k5BxyDyRk7sFSrJ8uIy5T_VQxEo3mCb0qjXPvDxusR0cvsQLmgzxxTY0OAUhulPA0WUmllquTNqx44FrQXNKi6vuieLGAufoqYqhGFjOJxD575yfDF5x-SYg/s1600/can+i+have+a+pet.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJF6up3w8Ywhhk6k5BxyDyRk7sFSrJ8uIy5T_VQxEo3mCb0qjXPvDxusR0cvsQLmgzxxTY0OAUhulPA0WUmllquTNqx44FrQXNKi6vuieLGAufoqYqhGFjOJxD575yfDF5x-SYg/s400/can+i+have+a+pet.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-91126620129348400392016-01-31T23:22:00.000+00:002016-01-31T23:22:12.124+00:00I've eaten Ben.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0EjiEoa9MVZt3KiC8tWDE5BG86Ny0DnLoYNLSyLOr-Y6aJG9rUUrFzkbANE-7irplvidL9s_poursputBf1zbMpHmY84zGBTTnedVhYCcmKi6RfYuE5Kdjd4D1Xiw0x1zGeGyQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-01-31+at+10.58.54+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0EjiEoa9MVZt3KiC8tWDE5BG86Ny0DnLoYNLSyLOr-Y6aJG9rUUrFzkbANE-7irplvidL9s_poursputBf1zbMpHmY84zGBTTnedVhYCcmKi6RfYuE5Kdjd4D1Xiw0x1zGeGyQ/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-01-31+at+10.58.54+PM.png" width="400" /></a> </div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-33412730623767734642016-01-31T20:35:00.001+00:002016-01-31T20:35:33.701+00:00The life-changing art of tidying up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDX70DrlZTNaXOdd5W3nKMCMSqdip81iZMAeqCnvJQp28os9g2vmt4gFc0djgMZ2wBT7Q55CQbV83Qv6m_strn7kLLSB8W_kUa6Gvtr-j-pv-LyTFvRO12NoNKmQVCqrWFvCCYQ/s1600/art+of+tidy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDX70DrlZTNaXOdd5W3nKMCMSqdip81iZMAeqCnvJQp28os9g2vmt4gFc0djgMZ2wBT7Q55CQbV83Qv6m_strn7kLLSB8W_kUa6Gvtr-j-pv-LyTFvRO12NoNKmQVCqrWFvCCYQ/s400/art+of+tidy.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-72700696562054867472016-01-03T23:08:00.001+00:002016-01-03T23:08:10.345+00:00Put your shoes on..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIhp6R9W5pJFMSchy73QasNig8-od1uL3iVxkqO3rdwYScAT7UpFN1mGRi4VFEh9VFtWVDXmsm3kOSG9knhHPW1-J34Yfj8-UaaS30UuNgdpNBRj_0G_IYOZKAF-3UPi9PXsIe7w/s1600/Put+your+shoes+on..png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIhp6R9W5pJFMSchy73QasNig8-od1uL3iVxkqO3rdwYScAT7UpFN1mGRi4VFEh9VFtWVDXmsm3kOSG9knhHPW1-J34Yfj8-UaaS30UuNgdpNBRj_0G_IYOZKAF-3UPi9PXsIe7w/s400/Put+your+shoes+on..png" width="400" /></a></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-13365840226719559722016-01-01T23:39:00.003+00:002016-01-01T23:47:51.100+00:00Stripped<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVfWqqCX0TiSOpOpph5i-RNhCoxrZRuYVGavYo-Q9ft5-HYSqxoaCr3xuR-3jp5ZAFGr7R25t0NPUEp8vuwbBuIke3zUUQGwjZ8TQBhfugUzHtBdl9S8mKwEWWy256fp16lokDSw/s1600/usual+breakfast+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVfWqqCX0TiSOpOpph5i-RNhCoxrZRuYVGavYo-Q9ft5-HYSqxoaCr3xuR-3jp5ZAFGr7R25t0NPUEp8vuwbBuIke3zUUQGwjZ8TQBhfugUzHtBdl9S8mKwEWWy256fp16lokDSw/s400/usual+breakfast+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTg-sY6RqHJ7P5pVio7DyrlM-LYFAadIL7Elgw7lM91_Z6CA6k_ziSa2Y_NmrUsJa13pQxYO1S3JUyjGk94GDlKEXXpomqGCaYHRHUcT81q4_yDyorbH4rQXkoLh8EBhQ9bbZGUQ/s1600/usual+breakfast+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTg-sY6RqHJ7P5pVio7DyrlM-LYFAadIL7Elgw7lM91_Z6CA6k_ziSa2Y_NmrUsJa13pQxYO1S3JUyjGk94GDlKEXXpomqGCaYHRHUcT81q4_yDyorbH4rQXkoLh8EBhQ9bbZGUQ/s400/usual+breakfast+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-54539412426360214532015-11-22T21:37:00.001+00:002015-11-22T21:37:05.199+00:00The World in 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hot off the presses. Get your copy, all good newsagents etc. I have a piece in the Science section on cancer in 2016. Some outstanding contributions in this issue. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zfZQHn_VEy3mKT1Z2xSu5aQa4g1wnXnNgj6eLinHHUeRlG_MEzuVd7X3qoHH_0o0VPcT99ajlRXAif1CG0rq5BAG-P8qPeBVkZW_Xq0D8q8jTzOTEGey2ey79YzLyHuB0CcvlA/s1600/TW2016_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zfZQHn_VEy3mKT1Z2xSu5aQa4g1wnXnNgj6eLinHHUeRlG_MEzuVd7X3qoHH_0o0VPcT99ajlRXAif1CG0rq5BAG-P8qPeBVkZW_Xq0D8q8jTzOTEGey2ey79YzLyHuB0CcvlA/s640/TW2016_large.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-57659369047674016582015-08-28T15:59:00.001+00:002015-08-28T15:59:35.152+00:00Editing humanity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is our cover story about CRISPR editing. My colleague Oliver Morton was instrumental in pulling the package together. <div>
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<u>There is a leader (op-ed):</u></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Genetic engineering</span></div>
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A new technique for manipulating genes holds great promise—but rules are needed to govern its use</div>
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Aug 22nd 2015 | From the print edition</div>
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THE genome is written in an alphabet of just four letters. Being able to read, study and compare DNA sequences for humans, and thousands of other species, has become routine. A new technology promises to make it possible to edit genetic information quickly and cheaply. This could correct terrible genetic defects that blight lives. It also heralds the distant prospect of parents building their children to order.</div>
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The technology is known as CRISPR-Cas9, or just CRISPR. It involves a piece of RNA, a chemical messenger, designed to target a section of DNA; and an enzyme, called a nuclease, that can snip unwanted genes out and paste new ones in. Other ways of editing DNA exist, but CRISPR holds the promise of doing so with unprecedented simplicity, speed and precision. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21661651-new-technique-manipulating-genes-holds-great-promisebut-rules-are-needed-govern-its" target="_blank">More...</a>]</div>
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<u>A four page briefing:</u></div>
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<span style="color: red;">Genome editing</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The age of the red pen</span></b></div>
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It is now easy to edit the genomes of plants, animals and humans</div>
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Aug 22nd 2015 | From the print edition</div>
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IN THE summer of 2005 Karen Aiach and her husband received heartbreaking news about their four-month-old daughter, Ornella: she had a rare disorder known as Sanfilippo syndrome. The prognosis was that, from about the age of three, the disorder would gradually rob her of most of her cognitive abilities. She would probably develop a severe sleep disorder and become hyperactive and aggressive. She was unlikely to live into her teens; she certainly would not survive them.</div>
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The problem was that Ornella lacked a working copy of a specific gene. It is a gene that tells the body how to make a particular protein which is involved in clearing up cellular debris. Without that protein the cells of her body were unable to break down a complex sugar molecule, heparan sulphate. It is the build-up of that molecule in brain cells that lies behind the symptoms of the syndrome. If her cells could make that protein, the situation might, in principle, be reversed. Learning this, Ms Aiach embarked on a ten-year search for a way to correct the error in her daughter’s genome.</div>
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In almost every cell in Ornella’s body, as in every human body, there are two copies of the human genome, one from her mother, one from her father. In each of those genomes there are about 20,000 genes, each of which contains the recipe for a specific protein in the form of a sequence of chemical “letters”. To date, medicine has recognised about 6,000 diseases that can be traced to a problem with one or another of those genes—a disorder in which a missing or garbled sequence of DNA leaves the body unable to make a particular protein, or causes it to be made in an abnormal form. Some of these single-gene disorders are well known: Tay Sachs; sickle-cell anaemia; haemophilia. Others, such as Sanfilippo syndrome, are the sort of thing you learn of only when a child you care about turns out to be the one in 70,000 that it afflicts. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21661799-it-now-easy-edit-genomes-plants-animals-and-humans-age-red-pen" target="_blank">More...</a>]</div>
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<span style="color: red;">Babbage</span>: August 19th 2015</div>
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<b>Climate's wild child</b></div>
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A new technique makes editing the human genome much easier and this year's El Niño, a disrupting climate phenomenon, could be the strongest ever. </div>
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<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21661569-new-technique-makes-editing-human-genome-much-easier-and-years-el-ni-o-disrupting" target="_blank">You can listen to it here </a></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-89937726043035437412015-07-23T19:13:00.001+00:002015-07-23T19:13:24.599+00:00Publishing medical trials<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week's edition of The Economist has a couple of pieces on the need to make sure that all medical trials are published. The campaign by AllTrials in the UK has made great inroads on this issue already but now investors are signing up because they realise that lost data could be affecting the way they value companies. The first piece is a leader (op-ed).<br />
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<b>The evidence base for new medicines is flawed. Time to fix it</b><br />
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Jul 25th 2015 | From the print edition<br />
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WHEN patients are prescribed a drug, they might assume it had been subject to the closest scrutiny. They would be wrong. The results of about half of all clinical trials are never published. Companies are allowed to run many tests and publish only the ones with results they like. Unsurprisingly, negative results are far less likely to appear in public.</div>
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Regulators can see the results of every trial. But that provides only so much comfort. Officials may well be convinced that a particular drug has enough value for a few patients to pass the bar for approval, but that does not tell doctors whether the drug is better to prescribe than other treatments. And the regulators have limited resources. They cannot match the sort of scrutiny that comes from making all trial results public. Independent evaluations were important in raising concerns about the heart-attack risks associated with Vioxx, a painkiller that was recalled in 2004.</div>
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At best, this bias in published results has produced a polluted evidence base. Patients have been prescribed antidepressants that look much less effective when unpublished data are taken into account. The British government’s decision to stockpile antiviral drugs in case of a flu pandemic looks less clever now that previously unpublished data have called their efficacy into question. At worst, the skew has caused demonstrable harm. Some patients may have died because data about potentially dangerous side-effects were not published; volunteers in clinical trials may have suffered harm for no reason.</div>
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[<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21659743-evidence-base-new-medicines-flawed-time-fix-it-trials-and-errors" target="_blank">More...</a>]</div>
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<b>Failure to publish the results of all clinical trials is skewing medical science</b></div>
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Jul 25th 2015 | From the print edition</div>
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I’M THE one who looks the patient in the eye and tells them the trial is beneficial,” says Tim Crater, a research physician at the Hutchinson Clinic in Kansas. Dr Crater runs drug tests for large pharmaceutical firms. He says volunteers are interested in more than just the promise of payment. “A lot of people want to help, they are altruistic to a certain degree and want to advance science.” Dr Crater’s experience is typical. Those who participate in trials often believe that they are, in a small way, contributing to the advancement of medicine and that any suffering on their part will help others.</div>
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Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Though pertinent trials carried out by companies do have to be reported to those responsible for licensing drugs and medical devices, there is no obligation on firms to make them public. That means such trials cannot be scrutinised by outsiders. The licensing authorities look at them, of course, so anything approved should, in theory, be safe, and have at least some beneficial effect. But the practitioners who go on to use them do not know all the details.</div>
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Some estimates suggest the results of half of clinical trials are never published. These missing data have, over several decades, systematically distorted perceptions of the efficacy of drugs, devices and even surgical procedures. And that misperception has sometimes harmed patients.</div>
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[<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21659703-failure-publish-results-all-clinical-trials-skewing-medical" target="_blank">More....</a>]</div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-60968716657861950552015-06-27T15:02:00.001+00:002015-06-27T15:03:11.309+00:00Now seriously... in praise of Connie St Louis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the past few days an esteemed journalist and teacher I know called Connie St Louis has come under sustained attack for reporting what happened at a meeting she attended. She was by no means the only journalist at the meeting who heard the sexist remarks of Sir Tim Hunt, but she is now in the cross hairs for reporting what she heard and saw.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of the many things that happened subsequently, one was that Sir Tim resigned from his position at UCL, an honorary unpaid position. Yesterday UCL <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/staff/staff-news/0615/26062015-provosts-view-women-in-science" target="_blank">issued a statement </a>explaining their decision to accept and why it was necessary for Sir Tim's resignation to be accepted <b>even</b> if the remarks were meant lightly:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"><i>"..Equality and Diversity is not just an aspiration at UCL but informs our everyday thinking and our actions. It was for this very reason that Sir Tim’s remarks struck such a discordant note.....</i></span><i style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">An honorary appointment is meant to bring honour both to the person and to the University. Sir Tim has apologised for his remarks, and in no way do they diminish his reputation as a scientist."</i></div>
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<span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Sir Tim has also rightly apologised to the Korean women scientists who he offended. One might think that this would be the end of it. But no. </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">The Times (London) has already made one attempt to discredit the original report by citing a non-verbatim report that seemed to contradict the original reporting (it didn't). Then the Daily Mail tried the same sort of trick again, but that didn't work. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Now the Daily Mail is trying a more direct approach, <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hatchet_job" target="_blank">a </a></span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hatchet_job" target="_blank">hatchet job </a>on Connie. Make no mistake, the Mail has decided to destroy her reputation, even though she was doing nothing more than her job. She did not orchestrate the Twitter monstering of Sir Tim. It is completely untruthful to say that Connie hounded Sir Tim out of his job. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">On the upside, The Mail seems to have got its knickers in a twist over something </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">easily understood. which is that her university uploaded an outdated CV into its information system when they were running a pilot. None of this has any bearing on the fact </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">that a Nobel winning scientist put his foot in his mouth. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Connie has the strongest moral fibre of any journalist I know. I worked with her as Chair of the Association of British Science Writers, and I was thrilled that she took over, and then was elected, to head the organisation </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">after I stood down. </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">She was an excellent leader, and garnered great respect for her work at that organisation. </span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">She is kind, overly generous with her time and a truly great lecturer and teacher. City is lucky to have her on staff. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Over the years, I've been a bit cynical about science journalism degrees. I used to wonder if academic courses were truly necessary to teach young journalists. I was proved wrong by Connie, particularly as technology has advanced so rapidly, her skills as a leader, journalist and human being have convinced me that she has something really important to teach the science journalism students of tomorrow. Now, more than ever, she has a critical message. It is this: s</span><span style="color: #393736; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.5em;">peaking the truth to authority is a hard. It is also a hard and personally difficult journey for any journalist. </span><br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-15027827662259408842015-06-25T18:28:00.002+00:002015-06-25T19:13:47.115+00:00A media strategy for Tim Hunt....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For a while, oh maybe a day or two, I actually felt <i>a little </i>sorry for the scientist Tim Hunt. He was eviscerated in a classic but actually <a href="http://www.people.com/article/internet-reacts-to-tim-hunts-sexist-comments-about-women-scientists" target="_blank">hilarious Twitter r</a>eaction to his offensive remarks about women scientists. Here is the thing, if they were not a joke then the Twitter reaction was surely fine. But if they were a joke, then why can't Twitter joke back?<br />
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Even if his remarks were off the cuff, a joke or honest... or whatever other line we have been fed, being offensive is offensive--even if you hoped it might be funny. Many of us have been there, the solution to a bad joke is pretty obvious when you think about it.<br />
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Imagine for a second the remarks were about race instead of gender and began with a line saying how odd it is for a racist to be invited to <strike>a talk</strike> make some remarks to black scientists. <i>He might think </i>it was funny. But that wouldn't make it so.<br />
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Dr Hunt's job was simple, he was invited as a Nobel scientist to <strike>give a talk</strike> give some off the cuff remarks to Korean women scientists. That presumably means saying something about how great a career science is, that how although it can present challenges for women who may struggle to maintain an unbroken publication record, that they have to keep pushing because they have so much to offer e.g Doudna & Sharpentier.<br />
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Instead it was Fail. Fail. Fail. The only thing to do in the face of being called out on this is to apologise <u>straight away</u> for being such a twit and move on. On no accounts should one give a half-hearted apology, be amazed that the furore continues, and then give whinging interviews about how bad YOUR life is.<br />
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Anyway now the Science Empire (no names no pack drill) has circled the wagons and decided to defend Dr Hunt, and now we have to put up with the embarrassment of The Times making another strike for the Science Empire, in the form of a leaked Euro "report" that says it was a joke all along. (Cue calls for reinstatement).<br />
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You know what I think? I think this is all nonsense and the idea that it was somehow reported wrong from a conference of science journalists would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. So, in a bid to end the hoopla, free of charge, here is my five point media plan for Tim Hunt.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">THE TIM HUNT MEDIA STRATEGY</span></b><br />
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1. make a sincere statement of regret about his comments, acknowledge they are divisive <u>whether or not they were a joke.</u><br />
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2. If asked whether they were honest or a joke come up with some sort of <u>consistent and logical explanation*.</u> (E.g. How about he says he was being honest about the fact that he is a chauvanist and that he was trying to see the light-hearted side of this, and he now sees that this wasn't helpful and actually pretty dumb. That might explain being honest and joking at the same time. But either way, refer to point 1.)<br />
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3. Shut up<br />
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4. Oh, before shutting up, he should ask his friends in the Science Empire, such as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-demands-apology-from-sir-tim-hunts-critics-and-claims-leaked-transcript-shows-sexist-comments-were-lighthearted-banter-10341160.html" target="_blank">Darth Dawkins Vader</a> to shut up as well because the are doing him no favours and just making things worse.<br />
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5. That is it. (Refer to point 3.) **<br />
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It will all blow over in a month or three and you'll be able to go back on all those committees again as if nothing happened. Key point though, refer to no 1. And if anyone asks you about that event in Korea, refer to no 1 again. All a mistake, terribly sorry. Do not be tempted to revise or downgrade the apology, by claiming you were misquoted, just accept no 1 as the new reality because the remarks were stupid in the first place whether or not you think your stupidity was fairly reported.<br />
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* Handy pro media tip: think about this carefully before you open your mouth. Try it out on a few friends first for internal consistency and maybe in front of the mirror.<br />
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** Handy pro media tip #2: summarise these points on a piece of card and keep it handy. Front of flash card: Apologise. Back of flash card: Shut up.<br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-44541155211358960882015-06-15T15:39:00.000+00:002015-06-15T15:39:15.519+00:00Price of drugs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;">Pharmaceutical pricing</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Crippling</span></b><br />
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<b>Jun 4th 2015, 15:09 BY N.L. | CHICAGO</b><br />
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THIS week health insurers have begun revealing proposed rate increases to their health-care plans for 2016. These potential hikes, which in some cases exceed 30%, can be partly explained by the fact that insurers low-balled their prices in the early days of the Affordable Care Act in order to gain market share. But there is another reason: higher drug prices. Prescription drug spending increased 13.1% in 2015.<br />
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This rise is partly explained by some new drugs for Hepatitis C. More trouble is on the horizon. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago this week, scientists announced that new immuno-oncology drugs work in a wider range of cancers, and even better when given in combination. The problem is that these drugs are some of the most expensive the country has ever seen.<br />
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“These drugs cost too much,” said Leonard Salz, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, in a high-profile speech at the meeting. At $295,000 a year, the price of combination therapy is unsustainable, he explained. At a big drug-sponsored conference, this was like swearing at a vicar's tea party. The fact that the bad news about prices somewhat eclipsed the good news on cancer treatment was an irony lost on no one. And the problem of drug costs is expected to only get worse as Americans get older and fatter and the rates of cancer go up. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/06/pharmaceutical-pricing" target="_blank">More...</a>]</div>
blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-64564485591525129162015-06-12T20:08:00.000+00:002015-06-12T20:08:32.417+00:00What it means to be a scientist: male<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <a href="http://www.scienceboard.net/" target="_blank">Science Advisory Board</a>, an international network of science and medical experts, has just published the results of a study on global science that sheds some interesting light on what it means to be a woman in science--particularly in the light of the #distractinglysexy debate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the caveat that that I have not dived deeply into the survey methodology, SAB report that female scientists in their survey are </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">more likely to be dissatisfied with salary/benefits, job availability, gender barriers, and how they feel valued as scientists than their male colleagues. The study was part of a Global Science survey that sought feedback from people about why they became scientists and what it is like to be a scientific professional. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> “We originally set out to look at what it means to be a scientist,” said Quentin Kreilmann, Science Advisory Board Community Manager. “We found two narratives depending on gender, one of which comes with additional challenges.” </span><span style="background-color: white;">The Global Science 2015 survey sample includes 1,478 respondents, 58% men and 42% women, from North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The study results showed that some women see gender as a barrier to pursuing a career in science, whereas men did not. When asked, “based on your experience, what do you perceive to be the biggest barrier to pursuing a career in STEM,”15% of female respondents selected gender, compared with only 2% for their male counterparts. Women also report gender inequality after attaining scientific positions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">SAB is working on getting the report put online. In the meantime I have taken screenshots of the most interesting graphics. </span></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-12611418858687424962015-06-07T23:26:00.000+00:002015-06-07T23:26:27.796+00:00A Canadian wind...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When it is cold in Chicago it usually means we are getting a stiff breeze from Canada. When it comes in over the city and hits warm air from the skyscrapers little clouds form over the city centre swirling around over the tops of the tallest towers.<br />
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These timelapses were taken yesterday. The camera is at a point west of downtown looking east.<br />
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Sunset.<br />
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@natashaloder</div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-88829748605626440162015-06-05T17:08:00.001+00:002015-06-15T15:28:11.066+00:00More on the care and feeding of journalists<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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OK so this is the second part of a <a href="http://natashaloder.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-do-i-write-about.html" target="_blank">two part item</a> on the Care and Feeding of Journalists. Although, let's face it, this is just about feeding this journalist in particular. Although I think some of the guidance is useful for many of the people I work with at The Economist.<br />
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FAQs<br />
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<b>What is the best way to reach you?</b><br />
Email, which is my first name and second name as one word then an "@" economist.com. You can also follow me on Twitter <b>@natashaloder</b>, and try to catch me there. When I'm checking Twitter, I'm open to being engaged in chitchat.<br />
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<b>Can we send you anything?</b><br />
It would be great if you could exert a bit of control over what you send, it may be just a press release for you but with all the junk I get sent it is death by a thousand cuts. A <a href="http://natashaloder.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-do-i-write-about.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> lists the sorts of things I am interested in. (When I start getting particularly irrelevant pitches, I have resorted to using the #spamPR hashtag to highlight the worst offenders.)<br />
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If you really must send press releases about things that we both know are of no interest, please us both a favour and don't follow up.<br />
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If you think that it might be of interest, please feel free to send a second email reminding me about the first one.<br />
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<b>Can I get feedback on what you thought of the release?</b><br />
No. Seriously. Too busy. It will either get deleted or filed if I think it might be useful later.<br />
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And if you call me to re-pitch me a press release when I'm busy please don't expect me to be delighted to hear from you. And if you say "do you have a minute right now?" that is going to make me cross because we both know it is going to take longer than this. <u>Also you have started your pitch with something we both know is a lie... which really doesn't help your case.</u><br />
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I would say that one or two in ten of the people who reach me on the phone actually have something to discuss with me that I want to hear. This is a really poor hit ratio so if you are calling you need to know that I'm expecting the call is going to be a complete waste of time before I've even picked up the receiver. When we speak, be prepared to answer questions such as, "what kind of article do you imagine I might write about this?" And, "have you ever read a piece like this in The Economist?", or "how does this technology work?".<br />
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<b>How often do you write stories based on press releases?</b><br />
Not often, truth be told. <br />
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<b>Will you send me a reply to my email?</b><br />
Sometimes. If a personal pitch is made to me (not just a mass email release), and I think it has a pretty good sense of what I'm interested in, I will try and say thanks but no thanks. If it is something I might pick up on at a later date, I will try and reply.<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>What do you look for in a story?</b></span><br />
See my <a href="http://natashaloder.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-do-i-write-about.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>. Bear in mind that in the age of the internet, as a journalist I really do need something new and different to say. Also, you know there really are only so many articles that I can write about the scourge of antibiotic resistance or mobile digital health.<br />
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<b>When should I contact you?</b><br />
It depends on what you have. My busiest days are Mondays and Tuesdays. That said, if it is late news for that week then these days are fine. If you are wondering what the best day to send something that isn't exactly news but which you would like to read, I would suggest Thursday or Friday. If you have a story that is going to need a lot of legwork, your 1,000 page annual review of the drug industry, you should send me a note a few weeks before it is going to hit.<br />
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<b>What are your deadlines?</b><br />
This varies according to the article concerned.<br />
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<b>Can you send me a list of questions?</b><br />
If you requested the interview, NO. You already emailed me to tell me what you wanted to talk about and I said yes. Seriously total time suck all round.<br />
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If I requested it I will give you an idea of what I want to talk about. Again list of questions is total time suck, and could well have changed depending on who I've spoken to prior.<br />
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<b>Top tips </b></div>
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* Try and keep pitches focused to my main thematic areas. Business stories on health (and pharma), and medical science and technology. See <a href="http://natashaloder.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-do-i-write-about.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>.<br />
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* If I do agree to speak to your executive on the phone, please do not email to ask when the story is going to come out. That just shows that you don't understand how this works.<br />
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* I detest voicemail.<br />
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* Please don't use email tracking. It is impolite. All you need to know is that I do my job by reading my email as regularly as I am able.<br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-52062639760923264132015-05-01T20:23:00.001+00:002015-05-02T02:49:16.996+00:00What do I write about?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Having been a bit quiet on the blog front I thought I would write a few blogs loosely around the subject of the <i>Care and Feeding of Journalists.</i> Having worked the healthcare beat for about six months, one of the things that has impressed me most is the degree of engagement by healthcare public relations folk. I read that there are four or five PR people for every journalist. Well double that in healthcare and make them about ten times more efficient and you get the picture. One of the questions they ask the most is what do I write about, what I'm interested in as well as who else writes on healthcare at The Economist. I'll try and write a bit about that in this blog, and in a later blog talk about how best to contact me.<br />
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Firstly, if you work in health PR in particular can I encourage you to follow me on twitter... <b>@natashaloder </b><br />
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I'm quite active and I tend to follow people back if they are in healthcare, as this builds my expert base. I also try to engage in debates about subjects that I'm interested in--and even ask questions. On the subject of experts, I've recently been using HARO a little as a way of finding them. I will also sometimes use LinkedIn.<br />
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<b>So what do I write about?</b><br />
So the first thing to know is that the job is global and that my focus is <b>business and science</b>. That means pharma, hospitals, management of healthcare, drug categories, patenting, pricing. In the science section it means medical advances and technologies. For the purposes of business and science that means that many stories are US focused--just given the size of the industry and research base. But we are always interested in an international perspective and international business stories.<br />
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If you happen to work in these areas. Stop. Do not hit send yet. Unlike daily or mostly online media,<b> <i>we are very selective in the stories we do</i></b>--so many of the stories I end up doing would broadly be described as trend pieces tied to news. Rarely will I do the story that says company A has invented widget B which will change the world. Sorry! If I write a story about generic medicines tied to a proposed merger of generic pharma companies, chances are we will not do the story again for some time unless something huge happens. So we tend to do a considered take on different issues as the news dictates. That said, if we have some genuine piece of news to break--we also do that.<br />
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Policy gets people confused. If you know a little about The Economist there is a front half foreign part, and a back half business part. My job is very traditionally "back half", which means that sanitation in India, TB in Russia, malaria in Africa and Obamacare in America, generally end up being "front half" stories. That is not to say I don't write about policy, only that I do when it emerges from the business or science stories.<br />
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If you have a health story that concerns international policy, your best bet is to contact either Helen Joyce (International Editor) or Geoffrey Carr (Science Editor). If it concerns an individual country, then you would want to go to the editor of that particular section. At present that would be Robert Guest (US), DominicZeigler (China), AntonLeGuardia (Africa). If the policy is more tied to some emerging issue of business or science, such as gene editing, or FDA regulation, that is my area.<br />
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<b>Selection of stories in past six months:</b><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21650151-worries-are-growing-about-effects-dealmaking-among-generics-firms-much-ado-about" target="_blank">Generic drugs: Much ado about something</a>. </span>May 2nd 2015<br />
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Worries are growing about the effects of dealmaking among generics firms</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">THE plot is worthy of a Shakespearean comedy. Teva is in pursuit of Mylan. But Mylan dislikes its suitor and runs away to declare its love for Perrigo, while seeking a poison pill in case it is forced to marry Teva. Perrigo, though, rebuffs Mylan. With many suitors, Perrigo is holding out for a better offer—perhaps even from Teva itself. It may not be quite midsummer but the unfolding drama featuring three generic-drug makers could well run until then. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21650151-worries-are-growing-about-effects-dealmaking-among-generics-firms-much-ado-about" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21637387-wave-new-medicines-known-biologics-will-be-good-drugmakers-may-not-be-so-good" target="_blank">Pharmaceuticals: Going large</a></div>
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A wave of new medicines known as biologics will be good for drugmakers, but may not be so good for health budgets</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">IN PHARMACEUTICALS, the 20th century was the era of the small molecule. The industry thrived by identifying a steady stream of relatively simple compounds that treated lots of people, patenting them and making a fortune. In the early 21st century it has become harder for drugmakers to find new cures quickly enough to replace those on which the patents are expiring. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21637387-wave-new-medicines-known-biologics-will-be-good-drugmakers-may-not-be-so-good" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21618909-there-scramble-control-runaway-epidemic-help-time-ebola" target="_blank">Health in west Africa: Help in the time of Ebola, Sep 20th 2014.</a> </span><br />
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There is a scramble to control a runaway epidemic</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">“WE ARE exhausted, we are angry, we are desperate,” said Sophie Delaunay, the American director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) last week, frustrated at the tardy international response to the deadly Ebola virus in west Africa. Within days of these words, the outside world was at last waking up to the danger of Ebola haemorrhagic fever—a viral disease that threatens tens of thousands of lives, health systems, economic growth and even political stability in parts of west Africa. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21618909-there-scramble-control-runaway-epidemic-help-time-ebola" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/10/ebola-and-politics-0" target="_blank"><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">Ebola and politics: </span><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">Mumbo gumbo, Oct 31st 2014</span></a></div>
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The hunt for Ebola medicines is being accelerated</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ON SUNDAY scientists and physicians from around the world will be descending on New Orleans for the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the world's leading convention on tropical diseases. The auspiciously timed gathering will include a number of high-profile sessions about Ebola, which promise to aid efforts to contain the disease. So it seems rather odd that an e-mail sent to participants only days before the event warned that anyone who has travelled to Ebola-affected countries within the past 21 days should best stay away. "We see no utility in you travelling to New Orleans to simply be confined to your room," said an e-mail from representatives of the state of Louisiana. It is one of several American states to have imposed a 21-day quarantine on anyone who has recently visited an Ebola-affected country. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/10/ebola-and-politics-0" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21616888-hunt-ebola-medicines-being-accelerated-fast-tracking-treatments" target="_blank">Ebola: Fast-tracking treatments, Sep 13th 2014.</a></span></div>
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The hunt for Ebola medicines is being accelerated</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">THE lucky ones are admitted to a health centre. They arrive bleeding, in taxis, on foot, in wheelbarrows and sometimes in ambulances. Mostly there is little help available and patients are dying alone, lying on the ground and lucky to receive even palliative care. Médecins Sans Frontières, a medical charity that has treated more than two-thirds of the known patients, says its centres are overwhelmed. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21616888-hunt-ebola-medicines-being-accelerated-fast-tracking-treatments" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21633796-new-way-fight-bacterial-infections-making-resistance-futile" target="_blank">Antibodies v bacteria: Making resistance futile, Nov 22nd 2014</a>. Gaithersburg. </span><br />
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A new way to fight bacterial infections</h1>
<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">“Our job”, says Jan Kemper, “is to make cells happy.” Ms Kemper works at MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her laboratory contains 40 bioreactors—fluid-filled tanks of about three litres’ capacity. Paddles within them whirl around a mixture of nutrient broth and specially engineered hamster cells that are busy making human antibodies. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21633796-new-way-fight-bacterial-infections-making-resistance-futile" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21636712-new-treatment-allergy-peanuts-being-developed-patching-things-up" target="_blank">Food allergies: Patching things up, December 20th 2014.</a> Chicago.<br />
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A new treatment for allergy to peanuts is being developed</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ANAPHYLAXIS, an allergic reaction that causes swellings and rashes and can thus block a person’s airways, is always unpleasant and sometimes lethal. Often, the allergen is in a specific sort of food. Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soyabeans and wheat are particularly risky. Together, they account for 90% of anaphylactic incidents in America, a country in which between 4% and 8% of children are reckoned to have a food allergy, and in which a third or more of such allergies are potentially life-threatening. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21636712-new-treatment-allergy-peanuts-being-developed-patching-things-up" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21620250-why-promising-new-class-cancer-treatments-so-hard-value-priceless-pills" target="_blank">Pharmaceuticals: Priceless pills</a></span></div>
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Why a promising new class of cancer treatments is so hard to value</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">IN THE late 1800s a New York doctor noticed that getting an infection after surgery helped some cancer patients. So he began to treat cancer using infections and had a little success. But many doctors were sceptical of his work, and other treatments such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy eventually took off. Today, however, the pharmaceutical industry understands how his treatments would have worked and has placed a sizeable bet that immuno-oncology—the treatment of cancer using the body’s immune system—will yield breakthrough drugs. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21620250-why-promising-new-class-cancer-treatments-so-hard-value-priceless-pills" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #5b5b5b; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem;">Contributor:</span><br />
<span style="color: #5b5b5b; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21625813-ebola-epidemic-west-africa-poses-catastrophic-threat-region-and-could-yet" target="_blank">The Ebola crisis: Much worse to come, Oct 18th 2014.</a> </span><br />
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The Ebola epidemic in west Africa poses a catastrophic threat to the region, and could yet spread further</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ON MARCH 25th the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a rash of cases of Ebola in Guinea, the first such ever seen in west Africa. As of then there had been 86 suspected cases, and there were reports of suspected cases in the neighbouring countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia as well. The death toll was 60. [More...]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21625807-you-can-do-lot-damage-just-seven-genes-killer-close-up" target="_blank">Portrait of a virus: A killer in close up. Oct 18th 2014</a></span></div>
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You can do a lot of damage with just seven genes</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">EBOLA is a simple virus, but also a subtle one. The stringy looking particles consist of a genome wrapped up in two layers of protein (see diagram). This long, thin package, along with a large protein called a polymerase, is packed into a membrane that is studded with a glycoproteins—that is, proteins with sugar stuck to them. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/international/21625807-you-can-do-lot-damage-just-seven-genes-killer-close-up" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21625781-win-it-requires-much-larger-effort-west-africa-outside-world-has-so-far" target="_blank">The epidemic in West Africa: The war on Ebola. Oct 18th 2014.</a></span></div>
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To win it requires a much larger effort in west Africa than the outside world has so far pledged</h1>
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<span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">IN SEPTEMBER 1976 scientists in Antwerp received a Thermos out of Yambuku, in what was then Zaire, with two samples from a nun who was fatally ill. One of the vials had smashed, but after scooping the other out of a pool of icy water, blood and broken glass, they discovered that they were handling a deadly and unknown virus. To spare Yambuku from infamy, they named the infection after a local river, the Ebola. [<a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21625781-win-it-requires-much-larger-effort-west-africa-outside-world-has-so-far" target="_blank">More...</a>]</span></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-54232851396537042512014-10-17T18:46:00.004+00:002014-10-17T18:46:58.558+00:00Our cover on Ebola this week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnuFYcDGJwO2DkJD8zpDH2bIclIFjMaUM4VoK99dP0rqgwlEJ6P95HsAuCBBiwOSZmaZQSzYTYxWWajX9qGpNYZKzgdqxNe_8byAVgMS3AKGrgGg4Wky-4vElXJm-XXLVPhSZbg/s1600/20141018_cuk400.jpg" height="640" width="484" /><a href="http://www.economist.com/printedition/covers/2014-10-16/ap-e-eu-me-na-uk" target="_blank">http://www.economist.com/printedition/covers/2014-10-16/ap-e-eu-me-na-uk</a></div>
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-48335456800990541782014-08-02T15:46:00.002+00:002014-08-02T16:25:55.015+00:00Top tips for the Kidzapalooza 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ear defenders are essential if you are close to the stage. Here watching the wonderful Portugal. The Man</td></tr>
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Grant Park, Chicago<br />
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So we took the children to the Lollapalooza yesterday. This is Chicago's big music festival. Within the festival is a mini-children's music festival the Kidzapalooza.<br />
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The Kidzapalooza is in a great location, beneath a shady grove of trees and there was plenty of space for the children to run around, play or watch the bands.<br />
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There is plenty to fill an afternoon until the children are exhausted. We've had a long afternoon on Friday and are looking forward to a second one today. Yesterday, there were bands that specially cater for children, one included child-songstress-superstar Laura Doherty, and Portugal. The Man. also performed specially for the children (there was even a special kids only VIP area at the front because this act attracted lots of regular festival go-ers). All the bands seem to be really into playing for kids, which made it a wonderful experience. <br />
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We relied on credit cards and the Lolla cashless band, and took minimal cash, which turned out to be a mistake. Many places we tried were only taking cash--either because they were too small to do so or their facilities to accept cards and bands were not working. Take cash.<br />
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A few points in no particular order....<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Free painting at Kidzapalooza</td></tr>
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<li>the drinks were expensive and they didn't accept either the Lolla cashless band or credit cards. $6 for a small lemonade which is mostly ice and water. You'll want to bring either sealed water in, or a plastic bottle you can fill up when you arrive.</li>
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<li>you can't bring outside food in. I understand why but it is pretty useful when you have children to be able to carry a snack so you can give them a handful of something when they announce they are hungry. We were able to stave off some mid-afternoon hunger pangs thanks to some free fro-yo ice cream and packets of pretzels. There is a cafe-style shop near the fountain, a short walk away, but they were, again, only taking cash. There was a small snack stand next to the lemonade stand but this looked like it only took cash as well. </li>
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<li>The queues to get into Grant Park are lengthy. Best thing is to have one person go in through the bag check line, and someone else take the children through the Express, no bags, lane. You can then meet up at the relatively uncrowded Kidzapalooza. There is a giant yellow inflatable sign at the entrance to this mini-festival....this is a good meetup spot. (The Lost and Found, right by the main entrance, is also a good location for meeting up.)</li>
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<li>Long distances to get to things for little feet. Wagons are not allowed. Strollers are. Be prepared.</li>
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<li>take hand sanitizer and many baby wipes! You will probably want to use it on the toilet seats. Porta-potties were OK--as these things go. Although there were stands with hand sanitizer these did run out.</li>
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<li>The Kidzapalooza appeared to be smoke free, outside in the main park is not. </li>
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<li>It is perfectly possible to take the kids to watch one of the big bands, with smaller children you'll obviously want to hang near the back where there are open lawns. You can spread out a blanket and listen there. Older ones can go further in but there will be people drinking and smoking and generally having a very good time at close quarters. You know the scene. </li>
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<li>In the Kidzapalooza. If it rains there are a few places to shelter. But it wasn't particularly crowded yesterday. There was a brief shower yesterday and it was fine. But come prepared for rain or hot weather. </li>
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<li>Ear defenders (these go over the ear) are essential if you want to take the children up close to the music. They are sold at the Kidzapalooza store for $20 each. If you don't want to pay this then don't take the kids too close to the amplification. It just isn't safe for their ears.</li>
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Near the main children's stage was an instrument petting zoo (i.e. play with instruments), hip hop lessons (great fun, the boys who did this were awesome), punk hairdos (a must), spray on tatoos and a very popular painting station. There were tumbling and dancing acts on between the bands.</div>
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Lots of great fun. Do bring the kids. We had a sitter in the evening and were able to make it back for the headline act last night.<br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476986.post-57584875033549814522014-07-10T15:54:00.002+00:002014-07-10T15:54:28.593+00:00What is Planetary Health?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the shores of Lake Como in Italy, among fragrant jasmine and wild thyme, a new discipline was born this week. Its parents--in the fields of health and the environment--are not quite sure yet what to call it. Some say it should be called Planetary Health. Others are not so sure. But what everyone knows for certain here is that it is important. Critical even, because human health is at great risk from forces that remain largely invisible to society. And so a pioneering group of scientists, entrepreneurs, public health experts and folks from business, government and public health have come together to assist at its birth. </span><br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The world needs to understand planetary health to develop sustainably. In a nutshell, many human activities damage the environment and with it human health. Some of the links are obvious and direct such as pollution in lakes and rivers. Others are not. For example, there is growing awareness of the link between biodiversity damage and disease risk. Most scary of all is the rise in new human diseases that come from animals. So called zoonotic diseases whether from birds, pigs or camels are on the rise. We know that our environment provides us fish, clean water, medicines and resilience from natural disasters. We have not accounted for all that it gives us, and possibly never will. We certainly need to do more to understand it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the beauty of the surroundings of Lake Como are deceptive because ugly difficulties lay ahead. Firstly, forging a new discipline is less easy than it might sound. Here you must first marry the parents. Combine ideas, research, and information from environment and public health two fields that have lived entirely separately until now and rarely spoken to one another. Yet when everyone goes home from their workshop for the most part people will fall comfortably back into their old ways of doing things and concerns and hope that someone else does the child rearing.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second problem is that a new science is not enough--even as scientists demand more of it. There is another ingredient that is missing. A secret sauce. At the end of last year, Europe banned for a trial period the use of three pesticides suspected to damage bee populations. There isn’t hard evidence here. Yet the same collection of nations have failed to rein in overfishing where the science is perfectly clear. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the same time, we know that corporations and other NGOs are happy to put their thumbs on the scale in a way that suits them. In China KFC and MacDonalds and Dunkin donuts have moved into the cities and are winning the locals over to their largely unhealthy foods by arguing that they are safe to eat. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where are the advocates for putting sustainable health agenda onto the table? The individuals who are willing to stand up and say why what they are doing matters and this is important to you. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">But this leads us to our third problem is human nature. We all want someone else to solve our problems to recognise the importance of what we believe to be true. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fundamental issue is that supporters of Planetary Health need to bring their ideas down to earth, they need to come from the bottom up from humanity itself and its needs. Because in truth rich countries have mostly discovered already the nature of the problem in many ways. Environmental agencies regularly consider the impact on human health when they look at the impact of new projects. And as the science grows, showing for example that green space in cities improves health, we can imagine the rich world will respond with further measures. But elsewhere there needs to be a far stronger effort to forge a relationship between human health and the environment that sustains it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those who wish to forge ahead in Planetary Health need find the human dimension to the problems that are out there. The stories, the people, the places, the meaning and the messages. And who is going to knock on the doors and stand up and make</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the pitch to NGOs, politicians, bureaucrats and to anyone who will listen? International organisations will help eventually, and so will innovation in many unexpected ways. But at the heart of every decision we take are humans. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Washington they call it lobbying. The soft science of persuasion. Does anyone in the field of planetary health have the guts to do this--potentially in the face of resistance? Many people and companies make good money from environmental destruction. And our economic system is one that values products and services greatly and the quality of life barely at all. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traditionally environmental change has been set squarely against human development. Very often we argue to cut down forests, drain rivers, use pesticides and fertilisers, belch pollution into the atmosphere to aid humans to improve development. We are unapologetic in saying that our traditional form of development is good for humans. We say that when people get rich </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">then</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> they will take care of the environment. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what if the environment does not continue to take care of us? And is it really necessary for the developing world to repeat the model of development that caused so much human and environmental sickness? China has a thriving economy. But can a country whose people and environment are so burdened with pollution really rich. Do we need a new vision of what prosperity means?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the World Cup, everyone saw in Brazil what happens when two key components of a system are taken out, there was a catastrophic failure. This is exactly what has happened in ecosystems. For a hundred years our technology has largely protected us, delivering globally unprecedented gains in human health. But the worry is that as the planet comes close to its boundaries, this is now at risk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scientists will weakly suggest the precautionary principle. It is true much more science is needed to understand the connections. But perhaps what we need is an idea that goes beyond all of this, a vision of better human health from sustainable development. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wealthiest in society live in idylls such as is found on the slopes of Lake Como. If we do not embrace a sustainable vision of health, not only will our chances of having everyone live this way vanish--there is a risk to the sustainability of many of our societies around the world. If this sounds too dramatic consider those in Bangladesh, or in Fiji, threatened by climate change or in communities challenged by reckless development such as the Maldives.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The sad truth is that the world needs a science of Planetary Health, or whatever it is called, whether it realises it or not. We need its insight and assistance to develop sustainably and protect the future. But is the field ready to meet this need?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>This piece was written during a meeting held by the Rockefeller Foundation and The Economist Intelligence Unit, and was intended as a view by an Economist journalist on a project to create a new field that connects human and environmental health. It has been slightly edited since delivered.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Views, as ever, are my own and not that of The Economist. But they should be. NL, Bellagio, July 2014.</i></span></span><br />
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blah blahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17963047594323120317noreply@blogger.com0