The Healthcare Economist is taking a vacation to Sweden and Spain over the next week and a half. Blog posting will resume by Monday, September 12.
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The answer is yes.
Project Phoenix is the name of the SETI Institute’s research project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Project Phoenix uses the world’s largest telescopes (40 to 300 meters in diameter) to scrutinize the vicinities of nearby, sun-like stars. Moffitt researcher John J. Heine, Ph.D., adapted signal detection computer algorithms developed at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute to detect breast cancer.
SETI has a slightly different problembut you could put it in the same context, Dr. Heine explains, comparing the searchfor tumors in breasts to the search forcivilizations in the universe.“They’re tryingto dig a coherent signal out of random noise. But the detection task in mammogramsis more or less attempting to findone somewhat coherent signal buried inanother statistically similar signal,” he says,using the term “coherent” in the loosecontext to mean long-range.
Idea cross-pollination can occur in some strange ways.
Tags: Alien, Breast Cancer, SETI
“Getting into a new field of physics is like reading a Russian novel. There are a lot of names to cope with, and at first you wonder who’s who.”
- Kenneth W. Ford, The Quantum World.
Tags: Physics, Quotation, Russian Novel
“Outside my study window in London stood an old hawthorn tree enveloped in a massive growth of ivy. Over the years the tree had become an ivy bush in the shape of a hawthorn tree and I saw it as an image of what corruptions does to a country. Mobutu’s rule in Zaire seemed like the ivy squeezing the life out of every green shoot, sucking its wealth and energy, smothering any initiative.”
- Richard Dowden in Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.
Tags: Corruption, Quotation, Quote
“And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore. If you are a brave man you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have ned to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad and nearly all will say, ‘What is the use?’ For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”
- Excerpt from The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, p. 597-598.
Tags: Quotation
A statistician’s wife gives birth to twins. Excitedly, he calls everyone to share the good news. When he tells the church they say, ‘That’s terrific! Bring them down to church this Sunday, and we’ll baptize them!’
’Uh, let’s just baptize one of them,’ says the statistician. ‘We can keep the other one as a control”.
- Hat Tip: Wages of Wins.
Tags: Joke
“I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”
- Herbert Bayard Swope, editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize
“Everything popular is wrong.”
- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.
What type of workers does a boss really value? The answer will vary depending on the boss, industry and specific job each worker has. Today we consider one unique group of workers: polar explorers. These men generally value the following in their peers and subordinates:
‘After all is said and done,’ said Wilson one day after supper, the best sledger is the man who sees what has to be done and does it—and says nothing about it.’ Scott agreed. And if you were ‘sledging with the Owner’ you had to keep your eyes wide open for the little things which cropped up, and do them quickly , and say nothing about them. There is nothing so irritating as the man who is always coming in and informing all and sundry that he has repaired his sledge, or build a wall, or filled the cooker, or mended his socks.
- Excerpt from The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, p. 341.
In honor of the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl victory, all health care related posts have been suspended for the day. Instead you can learn about:
- The Packers fourth Super Bowl victory in franchise history.
- Aaron Rodgers being named the Super Bowl MVP.
- Injuries couldn’t derail the Pack.
- Charles Woodson’s impassioned halftime speech.
- The Green Bay schools will close early today.
Go Pack Go!
Tags: Packers
How can you help improve the quality of health care services for the poor around the world? Are you interested in improving access to health care for those who currently do not have it? Are you interested in working abroad? If your answer to all these questions is yes, then the Global Health Corps could be an attractive option for you. The program aims to connect outstanding young leaders with organizations working on the front lines in the fight for global health.
The program was of particular interest to me since all fellows complete a rigorous Summer Training Institute sponsored by Stanford University’s Center for Health Policy (CHP). In my work at Acumen, I have worked with CHP faculty members like Jay Bhattacharya.
GHC give young professionals the opportunity to participate in a year-long fellowships. GHC fellows will have a measurable impact on the health of the communities in which they work, and they will draw upon that experience and the GHC alumni network to deepen their impact throughout their careers contributing to future innovations to address complex and growing challenges.
GHC fellows receive full funding, in addition to mentorship, training, and support from the GHC community of alumni and advisors. We aim to place 70 fellows in the 2011-2012 fellowship year in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Newark, Washington D.C, and Boston. Fellows will be placed with outstanding partner organizations including Partners in Health, Clinton Health Access Initiative, FACE AIDS, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Infectious Disease Institute of Uganda, and others. Fellowship roles and placements change year to year based on the needs of our partner organizations and the communities they serve.
Applications open February 1st. You can find more information about fellowship placements and the application at http://ghcorps.org.
Tags: Global Health Corps
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