Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

30 Jun 2011 14:05

tags

U.S.: FDA decides against controversial breast cancer drug

  • 6-0 vote to take the breast cancer indication off Avastin source
  • » Even though lots of people liked the drug, the FDA has decided that it shouldn’t be used to treat breast cancer. However, European regulators allowed its use (as long as it was with another drug) at essentially the same time — which begs the question, why would the FDA be taking a drug off the market that so many people felt so passionate about?
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jun 2011 13:41

tags

Culture: So, Stephen Colbert has his own PAC.

  • Making a better tomorrow, tomorrow.
  • The slogan for Stephen Colbert’s PAC • Yeah, you read that right. Stephen Colbert now heads a PAC, and he can raise money and run ads for candidates at his choosing, so long as he has the money. The main battle Colbert has been fighting, though, is when he has to disclose what he’s paying for the ads. As long as they air during his show, he won’t have to say how much he’s paying because of a media exemption. In trying to get an exemption, Colbert was able to expose some loopholes in the law, causing for a pretty narrow ruling on it…which is a good thing, as it leads to more disclosure from big companies contributing to political campaigns. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jun 2011 13:26

tags

Tech: If you’re looking to join Google+, you’re out of luck for now

  • before People who were on Google’s new social networking site had the ability to invite their friends to join in. That’s good because it allows Google to test their new service on a smaller amount of people, but make sure that they still have friends to talk to.
  • now It should have worked, at least. Google had to shut down the invite feature because too many people were joining. That’s how popular Google+ is. If you’re looking to join, you’re going to have to wait for a little bit — they haven’t announced when invites will be back. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jun 2011 13:18

tags

Tech, U.S.: Obama’s high-tech version of Fireside Chats — via Twitter

Obama is really embracing this whole Twitter thing. On July 6, he’s going to be on Twitter talking about the economy, hashtags and all. Be sure to tune in to talk to our prez … virtually. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jun 2011 14:38

tags

Politics: Palin is still unsure of running — or is she?

  • It’s a tough decision, it’s a big decision to decide whether to run for office or not. I’m still contemplating. I am still thinking about the decision and you know a lot goes into such a life-changing, relatively earth-shattering type of decision.
  • Sarah Palin • talking about her decision to run for President. She still isn’t giving anyone a straight answer on what she plans on doing, but her daughter Bristol said some stuff on Fox that says she does have a plan. She told the news station that Palin knows what she’s going to do, and Bristol thinks her mom should go for it. But why would Palin run if Bachmann already did? They’re basically the same kind of candidate — and Palin has pretty much already lost her opportunity to get back into the national spotlight after her bus tour kind of sputtered. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jun 2011 14:32

tags

World: North Korea is looking to avert a revolution

  • fear North Korea seems afraid of a revolution similar to those we’ve seen in the Middle East. They bought a lot of anti-riot gear from China, and there’s been extra police forces around. But where do the revolutions usually start? With the kids in college.
  • reaction North Korea has closed all of their universities until April 2012, blaming it on their ailing economy — all the students have to go work in factories. This might be true, but more than likely it’s not — they’re trying to keep those most likely to revolt from doing it. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jun 2011 14:39

tags

Tech: Google tries to expand its reach with social media

  • Google takes another shot at social networking. Google+ seems more serious than previous attempts, though, and they’re gunning straight at the Facebook market. They’re championing privacy as a way to get users to use their site — you can choose who you share with, rather than sharing what you’re up to with every one of your friends. There’s a few other cool things, too — we’re looking forward to the Hangout feature, which will let you video chat with up to 10 friends at one time — coming and going as they please. Don’t expect to go make your Google+ profile right now, though. They’re testing it right now and it’s invite-only. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

28 Jun 2011 13:50

tags

U.S.: Cancer drug might not be around much longer

  • Avastin saved my life…The studies are saying, they’re saying that people didn’t live for more than five months, you know. And there has to be other people like me that it works on.
  • Kerry Harrington, a breast cancer survivor • Arguing for the case for Avastin, a drug still being tested that treats breast cancer. The drug received accelerated approval for treating breast cancer, but now the FDA is backing away from allowing the drug for breast cancer treatment. This is mainly because Avastin has some pretty horrible side effects, like heart attacks and kidney damage. Many women are saying that the pros outweigh the cons — they’d rather deal with the side effects and know they’re treating their cancer. The FDA will decide after they hear testimony from patients and review other official data. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jun 2011 13:44

tags

U.S.: Loughner’s lawyers: Doctors are forcing medication on him

  • If Jared Lee Loughner takes psychotropic drugs, he could become competent enough to stand trial. A while back, a judge ruled that Loughner can take any medicine he wants voluntarily, but his lawyers must be notified if he’s forced to take any medication to restore him to competency. However, those lawyers say that they weren’t in the room during a June 13th hearing which allowed a mental hospital to force him to take drugs to improve his mental condition — against the wishes of Loughner. Now they’re having a judge decide on the matter for a third time. So, the question is: If his lawyers are trying to prevent him from taking the medicine he needs to get better, how is he supposed to stand trial? Answer: If the decision favors Loughner, he probably won’t. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jun 2011 14:27

tags

Tech, World: Fun fact: Chinese Twitter clone nearly as big as Twitter itself

  • 57% the share of China’s microbloggers that use Sina Weibo — a Chinese Twitter clone; that’s roughly 140 million users (compared to Twitter’s roughly 200 million worldwide)
  • 87% the share of China’s total microblogging activity that goes through Sina Weibo; not bad for a former Yahoo-like portal site that’s stretching its wings source
  • » This is pretty huge. China has more internet users than any other country, and Sina is dominating their microblogging market. They’re trying to make themselves more than just China’s Twitter, though; they want to add more Facebook-like features as well. But that won’t be easy. Competition is fierce, because no single social media site dominates and the company faces strong competition from RenRen and Tencent. On top of that, though, Sina has to police its users and censor them if they’re talking against the government — something Twitter doesn’t have to do. Regardless, this sort of outside-in social media cloning is pretty fascinating to us.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>