tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.comments2015-10-16T00:36:40.619-05:00Vision 1920Vision 1920http://www.blogger.com/profile/03471741151774307744noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-79206043590730224422010-08-10T19:40:49.614-05:002010-08-10T19:40:49.614-05:00Those who should apply will not. Those who will a...Those who should apply will not. Those who will apply are those who should not. The VSP is designed to retain the myopic unvisonary money-grubbing overhead-chasing corporate university puppets while trimming away those who have obtained the wisdom of experience and vison that needs protection of tenure. <br /><br />All eligible faculty should apply as a group since there is a fail safe provision if for nothing else to test whether one's individual application will be approved. This should shed light on who Vision 1920 sees as most valuable and most dispensable. <br /><br />BTW, who will be making the decision of who is approved and who is disapproved? The program seems a nice mechanism for the University's most valuable, independent and experienced faculty to pick up a year or two salary while they carry out their creative activities elsewhere. <br /><br />Lecturing for Phoenix University and help their unthankful University go the way of the dinosaurs? HarveyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-62517259556227847252010-07-27T21:05:01.881-05:002010-07-27T21:05:01.881-05:00keep up the great work! i always love your posts. ...keep up the great work! i always love your posts. what do you think of the current budget situation and plans to deal with it?Dr. Nut Crackherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18200401114125334352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-57127434467379507062010-07-19T19:35:36.669-05:002010-07-19T19:35:36.669-05:00A project conceived by charlatans, fronted by char...A project conceived by charlatans, fronted by charlatans,implemented by charlatans, managed by charlatans, charlatans stealing from charlatans, all the while based on flawed charlatanic hypotheses that are doomed to failure. To what extent is the motivation of the charlatans based on arrogance or ignorance is irrevalent. The pain will fall on the sincere, the capable and the wise who were ignored, never engaged and to whom success of the venture is dependent. There is no end to the "bait and switch" and futile waste that goes on and on. HarveyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-44460483748601578612010-07-09T07:54:06.698-05:002010-07-09T07:54:06.698-05:00This may be the "tip of the iceberg." T...This may be the "tip of the iceberg." The entire process should be traced of how the top tier salaries for TAMU and for that matter the entire system achieved their level, politics, ramroding or merit? Particularly, the two Professor titles that rank above the President and with the Athletic Directors. Harvey<br /><br /> http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee-salaries/texas-am-university/Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-54955513059603897312010-06-30T09:28:52.178-05:002010-06-30T09:28:52.178-05:00Kemos also faked his credentials and pretended to ...Kemos also faked his credentials and pretended to be an expert in an international conference: <br /><br />From a google search on "dr alexander kemos" --<br /><br />[PDF]<br />George Bush China-U.S. Relations Conference: Development, Energy ...<br />File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View<br /><br />Dr. Alexander Kemos, Partner, Nordic-American Corporate Development and. Finance Company, gave the second lead presentation titled “The Political Economy of ...<br />china-us.tamu.edu/.../Agriculture-20Forum-20Final-20Report.pdf - Similar<br />-------<br /><br />George Bush China-U.S. Relations Conference:<br />Development, Energy, and Security<br />October 22-25, 2007<br />Washington, D.C<br /> <br />FORUM FINAL REPORT<br /> <br />Forum Title: China-U.S. Agricultural Sustainability Forum – Agricultural Sustainability<br />with Strategic Partnerships: Platform for Collaboration and Progress<br /><br />From Page 2 of 3:<br /><br />"Dr. Alexander Kemos, Partner, Nordic-American Corporate Development and<br />Finance Company, gave the second lead presentation titled “The Political Economy of Food<br />Safety Infrastructure and Economics in China.” He advised the U.S. stakeholders to avoid<br />project mirror images onto the receiving end in China. Dr. Kemos emphasized the importance<br />of acculturation and mutual understanding as the key to successful collaboration."summerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13787747607139678505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-57476022459587208002010-05-20T10:37:09.999-05:002010-05-20T10:37:09.999-05:00Hey, we miss you! It can't be that everyone is...Hey, we miss you! It can't be that everyone is now behaving properly and with true vision, can it?????MJBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02365922446410744644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-26501578438573639782010-05-12T22:13:05.340-05:002010-05-12T22:13:05.340-05:00Will the governor pull his ETF funds from Facebook...Will the governor pull his ETF funds from Facebook because they allow free speech? <br /><br />The TIGM boondoggle enters the White-Perry campaign via White's Facebook page while Vision 1920's star snakeoil salesman protests as the obsolete TIGM with its empty building and directorless organization further dissolves is "one of the jewels of American science.”<br /><br />Ex-president Murano representing faculty intellect counters "from a technical, scientific point of view, that, I think, was the bug-a-boo.”<br /><br />Hopefully this is the beginning of shining some sunlight on the fungus as scrutiny of the basis and accountability of the scienceless NCTM venture intensifies ramping into the whole secretive and corrupt process of doling out ETF funds.<br /><br />Of Mice and Men, Texas Tribune: http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/may/10/best-laid-plans/<br /><br />HarveyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-22531423697042004072010-02-25T20:19:18.590-06:002010-02-25T20:19:18.590-06:00Again, it's the conceptual based long term bio...Again, it's the conceptual based long term biology, stupid!<br /><br />As the failed venture called TIGM continues its squander of taxpayers money looks for another shill to replace its deposed former CEO who thought he could pull down some personal resources for his own agenda (http://www.tigm.org), a new one based on equally flawed and wornout biology emerges:<br />http://www.theeagle.com/local/Facility-in-works<br />http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6882706.html<br /><br />As discussed previously, TIGM was built on an obsolete technology and a resource cell bank of limited biological utility palmed off by failing Lexicon who took it's partnership money and squandered. The coverup quietly continues as the so-called resource is downplayed and touted use of the bank for mindless, useless and expensive screening of chemical agents of doubtful impact and utility.<br /><br />Now the worn out theory and failed practical applications for production via genetically engineered plants has resurfaced to undergo the same futile fate. A respondent to the Chronicle article put it well:<br /><br />"This is very old technology dressed up in new clothes. There have been numerous commercial failures based on this approach and other technologies– most notably – Large Scale Biotech and Dow, University of Virginia - CropTech, Medicago, Vaxx Inc., SemBiosys, etc etc. The technology story is so compelling that it won’t die – just rub some engineered TMV virus onto tobacco plants and Bingo! They produce a vaccine. I’m amazed that it seems to take the Venture Capital community about 10 years to forget that money has already been lost on the same technology."<br /><br />Would that the multi-millions of taxpayers money squandered could have been plowed into real concept based research, development of young faculty to carry it out and to pass it on to future generations in the classroom and laboratory. One might actually fulfill a portion in the long term of the narcissitic megalomania of myopic agenda's of long gone individuals and current individuals that will equally disappear that suffer no feedback or retribution for their idiocy. HarveyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-47914945003411166182010-02-23T18:00:23.688-06:002010-02-23T18:00:23.688-06:00Did you know that Gradalis got an ETF grant for al...Did you know that Gradalis got an ETF grant for almost $2million, and that David Shanahan from Gradalis heads up the Mary Crowley Cancer Research Center in Dallas, which partnered with Introgen? You may remember Introgen as the failed enterprise that the System partnered with. David Shanahan also works for G-Con Bio. Hmmmm....no wonder the president lost her job!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18365506468667342273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-50935568908904916132010-01-22T07:04:38.890-06:002010-01-22T07:04:38.890-06:00YEP - so what happened to those so-called "bu...YEP - so what happened to those so-called "budget cuts"??Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12260627778907627057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-67055916622328493432010-01-21T22:51:58.902-06:002010-01-21T22:51:58.902-06:00I keep hoping for a leak on that, but it looks lik...I keep hoping for a leak on that, but it looks like the BoR has put the fear into those in the know.Vision 1920https://www.blogger.com/profile/03471741151774307744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-13593644846669425012010-01-21T20:22:16.235-06:002010-01-21T20:22:16.235-06:00Any word on who the "second finalist" wa...Any word on who the "second finalist" was, who they decided against to maintain the Aggie Good 'Ol Boy network?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-78294179135689620662009-10-03T14:53:52.534-05:002009-10-03T14:53:52.534-05:00Please add to Vision 1920:
To become a high end ...Please add to Vision 1920: <br />To become a high end assisted living hospice facility for geriatic technologies, geriatric (near death) partnerships (Lexicon, Introgen, etc.), and geriatric faculty with big name titles, e.g. Hospice TAMUS. <br /><br />It's not a glamorous job, but a niche in today's welfare society.<br /><br />Tell the truth now? Were these individuals nicely forced out of their previous homes once time for retirement and hospice came, and dumped on A&M much as technologies, partnerships and other individuals of late? Were these individuals fully vetted by Search Committee?<br /><br />One consolation is that Hospice TAMU is system wide in its use of state development funds to support nice retirement home packages for geriatric title holders: http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/11935.<br /><br />And has had stiff competition with its its other Vision 1920 competitor who seems to have solved parallel problems in filling poorly thought out building projects with young capable faculty--the University of Houston: http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/02/age_discriminat.html<br />http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/02/uh_gets_its_man.html<br /><br />It would be nice to trickle down a few of these taxpayers retirement bucks to youth who just might earn their Nobel or National Academy title while AT THE INSTITUTION. One compromise if Hospice TAMUS is to become the vision would be to bring these big name geriatric cases in as Assistant Professors with 6 years up or out probation like the rest of the working stiffs. HarveyUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-12523043151644219542009-10-01T10:40:13.442-05:002009-10-01T10:40:13.442-05:00Good point, sort of. See the update.Good point, sort of. See the update.Vision 1920https://www.blogger.com/profile/03471741151774307744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-24392850439314712252009-10-01T07:35:20.498-05:002009-10-01T07:35:20.498-05:00Texas A&M has three Nobel laureates. The third...Texas A&M has three Nobel laureates. The third is Bruce McCarl of Ag Economics, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-37827018916527544232009-09-26T20:36:08.005-05:002009-09-26T20:36:08.005-05:00By the way, what's Griffin Perry going to do f...By the way, what's Griffin Perry going to do for his college fund now that Introgen has tanked? See how things looked in 2004: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A200212<br /><br />In all the A&M bashing, criticism and implications of conflict of interest because of a "professed" Aggie governor, don't forget to follow the money, it transcends Aggies and Teasips and in fact puts them in bed together. On that issue, trace where the Chancellor came from before A&M and which of his Aggie cronies sits in the powerful VP of Research position in MD Anderson? <br /><br />"And where did this research start?[sic Introgen]. At the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.""....Introgen was, in a sense, a child of M.D. Anderson's scientists and private businessmen, and included intellectual capital of UT System..."<br /><br />When money and kneejerk politics are involved, it is hard to tell if governor Perry and the Chancellor are working for UT where he came from before the current A&M position or vice-versa, especially with the Chancellor's old Aggie buddy Ray Dubois embedded in MD Anderson as VP of Research.<br /><br />What's happening to all those MD Anderson faculty, especially the ones in the Introgen building, that threw their lot in with Introgen like A&M faculty are being enticed to do with all these new will of the wisp institutes intertwined with soon to fail biotech ventures? Watch and learn A&M faculty.<br /><br />To quote the article linked above:<br /><br />"If you travel to East Texas and see abandoned oil rigs, or go to the Panhandle and smell the unmistakable aroma of pig shit rising from industrial-sized animal-raising operations, the antiseptically clean allure of biotechnology has a certain charm. Nance, the Introgen president, noted in a telephone interview that research science is "the ultimate renewable resource," and that Texas' share of that resource is located squarely between the ears of the state's scientists, many of them laboring at public universities. "I think a very complex political organization like the University of Texas is finding its way through this process," he said of efforts to formalize the public/private partnership. The operative word here may be "political." <br /><br />Nance had one thing right, the operative word. But so far it seems that the unmistakeable aroma of politics when applied to science and biotechnology far exceeds the stink of pig shit and urine of the crowded antibiotic-infused cattle feedlots. In fact they smell pretty dang nice relatively.<br /><br />Let's give him a chance, but I suspect Gilman is already knee-deep in West Texas feedlot BS from the tone of his rhetoric. Or maybe he doesn't know it yet. Them that has gets for more redundant busywork and waste while the people continue to suffer and die from cancer. <br /><br />Harvey PBUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-51026138822017781242009-09-13T21:01:15.116-05:002009-09-13T21:01:15.116-05:00This whole Bonfire thing in the Eagle on 9/6 and B...This whole Bonfire thing in the Eagle on 9/6 and Burka's blog on 9/8 is curious. So curious that something seems fishy. The Eagle story was odd in that the Bonfire issue was brought in at the very end out of the blue. At about the same time Perry is quoted about bringing Bonfire back. <br /><br />Is this Loftin's attempt to boost his credibility and compensate for his second tier academic background by suggesting an image of independence from Perry? Is it Perry's real plan to keep Bonfire from coming back despite his words so that he can say he doesn't control TAMU?<br /><br />Stay tuned for more on this burning issue.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08067828364117269747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-81194817507725044892009-08-27T23:17:45.697-05:002009-08-27T23:17:45.697-05:00As a TAMU non-faculty professional staff member, I...As a TAMU non-faculty professional staff member, I can safely say that we don't sit around with our thumbs up our rears. We do end up spending quite a bit of time reading SAPs, collecting and collating documentation to prepare for audits, and making sure that we're in compliance with some very detailed, mutually contradictory, and absolutely nonsensical state and federal laws. <br /><br />Those laws and other tasks that take up about 1/4 of my personal work week would need to go away if the staff percentage was to shrink. I don't see that happening - in fact, I see it happening more as time goes on.Karl Katzkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15657143496506662902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-72458633141480186972009-08-20T02:06:00.942-05:002009-08-20T02:06:00.942-05:00Oh Harvey,
You can write a sentence. Jolly well d...Oh Harvey,<br />You can write a sentence. Jolly well done. <br /><br />But the H potbanger is painting the kettle rather black when you accuse ME of anonymity. “Dr. Taylor had not revealed himself... but maintained the dialogue anonymously.” Anonymously? Moi? Have you no sense of irony? Can you not hear the other readers of this blog guffaw when it comes to a shootout over anonymity? I have previously given you access to everything public about me with a little dash of google. Pub Med me and you will find I worked with Rick Finnell 25 years ago (but not since then until I recently needed his particular expertise). Jesus, that’s a long time between drinks.<br /><br />You may recall that I mentioned in my original blog that I spent three months sabbatical at TIGM earlier this year. No secret there. Well it was visiting the Finnell group- for my own selfish ends. Does that make me an apologist or conspirator? Oh, and I did follow your link to Rick Finnell’s CV- and let’s face it, it’s pretty damn impressive, isn’t it? <br /> <br />“Yet Professor Taylor's astounding denigration of academic conceptual science and the long term generation of basic knowledge generated via the tedious scientific method that takes place only in the university...”. Actually, you twist my words, mate. If you follow the blog trail, it is totally untrue what you claim I said. Totally. Untrue. <br /><br />I am, in fact, an old fashioned university researcher who spent 10 painful years inventing a new class of anti-inflammatory drug totally in a university environment (the complement C5a receptor antagonists- then another seven trying to progress/develop it in the direction of the clinic. It damn near killed me. I hated commercialisation then and still do today. It is total bullshit, but unavoidable bullshit. <br /> <br />My forays into commercialisation were pacts with the venture capitalist devils, but the devils had the money needed for the next step- no-one else did. Should I stop then, before the job is done, because their money stinks, and they are nasty people?<br /> <br />I am all for increasing the resources into the university sector. In my institution, research institutes have sprouted like mightily expensive mushrooms: they are supported by the state, by my university, and they bring in some government grants to support their lavish lifestyle, but they are very heavily subsidised for more than half their funding base. Now, I can choose to be bitter about this, leave the table-or I can work with the cards I am dealt. But, being a bit of a mongrel bastard, I will find a way to do the work that drives me- and that is basic, fundamental research using the pedestrian scientific method. Yup, we agree on this. In my latest research direction I needed to find someone who had true expertise in neural tube defects, and I did what we all do- I called on someone I knew was an expert in the field, and someone I had worked with previously (decades ago), and so knew his character. Lucky for me, he took an interest. <br /><br />Harvey, you and I are not so different (except I write better than you). But, guess what. Drug development (not discovery), takes a huge bundle of private (ie soiled) money, which is almost never available from the public purse. We are talking about several hundreds of millions of dollars, and the reality is, only Big Pharma can fund it through to the end. I am no friend of Big Pharma, nor indeed of the patent system- I don’t believe in monopolies, and I think the IP game is corrupt. Now, I reckon if you are looking for leeches, this is a good place to wade. But the reality is this. Science costs a lot of money. It just does. Developing therapeutics costs a helluva lot more. They just do. And, like it or not, human affairs ARE messy. We are a herd species, who are not happy unless bickering and complaining endlessly, and pointing the bone. Look at you and I. Perfect examples of wanking timewasters. <br /><br />Anyway. I’ve enjoyed our little repartee, but I need to get back to other things. Hooroo.Downunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16230619197046056927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-90762110432065103002009-08-16T22:10:34.708-05:002009-08-16T22:10:34.708-05:00Hullo again Harvey.
Well, I see I caught your eye...Hullo again Harvey.<br /><br />Well, I see I caught your eye, along with your bile. And there is much more bile than meets the eye.<br /><br />Even the editors of the blog were obliged to point out (rather politely, too, I thought), that your attacks on me needed some evidence. But where’s the fun in that?<br /><br />On a gentler note, I am always happy to match my scientific record up with anyone in a vaguely similar area, and would relish the chance to do so with you. Unhappily, we both know that this will not happen. <br /> <br />I wish I could say that I enjoyed reading your missile directed at me, but Harvey, it was so badly written, that I lost interest very quickly in. If you have points to make, please make them with some degree of literacy –if you are leading the new TAMU revolution, then it is important that followers have some clue as to what you are on about.<br /> <br />Frankly, I haven’t. Calm down, take a breath, then get someone to read this back to you: “ It is the irrational egomanic-driven, random kneejerk goal of accolade and resources represented by your rant and raving that argues for dedication of valuable resources to rational based concept driven academic research and teaching activity that results in development of individuals to carry on that process”. (P.S. Also please learn to use commas effectively- it’s like taking a breath).<br /><br />Huh? You should work for the government- sludge like this is urgently needed elsewhere, to flower in a thousand bureaucratic cubicles, not hidden in a little TAMU blog. If this is your idea of clarity of thought, then perhaps academia is actually not for you. You do seem to hate it so. Do you speak to your students in this fashion? Are you even an academic, or is your hate catholic? No offence Harvey, but who’s the egomaniac here? At least I can write clearly- can we at least agree on this? <br /><br />Rant and raving? I simply pointed out what I thought were some mildly obvious points, and now I find I am a tool of something or other (the Dark Side has taken over this dimwit, eh?), but I can’t actually grasp what from the tirade. The internal politics of TIGM and TAMU interest me not one whit-all institutions have them to amuse the inmates. <br /><br />I have my own little area of research expertise, I go to work every day to try to push back the frontiers of science and to try to improve clinical therapies (yes, my hubris is boundless), mindful that apart from a few other researchers in my field, my students and collaborators, that no-one gives a tinker’s damn about what I am trying to do. That’s the problem with having a flat forehead, I guess. I may be so stupid I don’t know what stupid is. But at least I try, in my own pathetic, pinhead way. And the forces arrayed against me, including obtaining funding, finding inspiration, keeping up with new technologies, running a large lab filled with clever young people (I readily admit, cleverer than I), when combined with my own dimwittedness, do indeed hold me back. Indeed, gazing in the mirror, my forehead is indeed completely flat. No wonder I struggle to make a worthwhile scientific contribution- I was handicapped before I began. Gadzooks!<br /> <br />You accuse me of being “with out regard to thoughtful concept and ethical consequences driven by base animalistic egomania rather than deliberate thoughtful progression confirms every point of my original observation”. Ummm. But you don’t even know me. And I do so wish I could divine what you are actually trying to say. If it was explained lucidly, without the jabbering and incoherence, I might be tempted to have a dialogue.<br /><br />Finally, if I am writing “random paranoid rant and raving”, I do indeed need someone to tell me, but I’m not quite sure you are the one.Downunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16230619197046056927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-84385333723673109082009-08-16T20:37:27.194-05:002009-08-16T20:37:27.194-05:00Hmmmm, uncharacteristic of Vision 1920 to support ...Hmmmm, uncharacteristic of Vision 1920 to support free speech. Thanks.<br /><br />There is no personal attack here anymore than that of anonymous peer review and transparent dialogue. Granted kneejerk paranoia and reactionary defensiveness is often an indicator that "the truth hurts" and one might in hindsight suggest that Dr. Taylor had not revealed himself (Googled link: Finnell + Taylor + Queensland: http://fshn.msu.edu/FinnellCV.pdf), but maintained the dialogue anonymously.<br /><br />The points of the original thread remain:<br /><br />1. Unlike an academic department head, to be competitive, the leadership of Institutes and Centers must have an international track record in the stated mission and theme of the venture. They should be recruited independently and without bias through systematic and open process.<br /><br />2. Institutes and Centers will only be successful if resources are utilized for the stated mission to recruit the most excellent independent scientists whose careers (salary, evaluations and advancement, space) are dependent on the institute or Center. Institutes and Centers comprised of part-time faculty, Visiting Scientists, and faculty whose primary appointments are in other units are doomed to failure and have high probability of merely subsidizing existent programs, or cronies of the Program Director. The key question is "If an Institute or Center were to dissolve, would the career of the member be affected?" Otherwise the participation is a "hobby."<br /><br />2. Otherwise the scarce resources should be utilized to buttress revitalization, new recruitment and promotion of theme within proven existent organizational frameworks within the system.<br /><br />Now on the new issue of drug discovery Professor Taylor's wallbanging statement speaks loud and clear why Texas A&M has no business in direct participation in the insanity and waste: ".....the bloody trenches of commercialisation for years on end, where so much swirls beyond sanity and control....It is a simple fact that it is the bizarro world....It is just that in commercialization, the scale of waste and fuckups is so much bigger." <br /><br />Yet Professor Taylor's astounding denigration of academic conceptual science and the long term generation of basic knowledge generated via the tedious scientific method that takes place only in the university setting again argues for more resources for that endeavor. It argues against throwing resources down the endless sink of unscientific trial and error "bizarro" world of "irrational" drug design with endless "splashing" of money at the expense of basic knowledge. Basic knowledge essential for his C5a receptor antagonist to ever have (had?) a faith-based "hope" of working.<br /><br />Perhaps it is time for those prototypes represented by Professor Taylor's statements (nothing personal here, just a prototypic generalization based on stated philosophy) to stay at home and play tiddlywinks (or the stock market or implementation of Ponzi schemes).<br /><br />Harvey PotbangerUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-81983861837364718032009-08-15T20:18:42.993-05:002009-08-15T20:18:42.993-05:00Harvey,
Your Google-fu may be stronger than ours...Harvey, <br /><br />Your Google-fu may be stronger than ours, but all we found about Promics was that they were involved in developing PMX53, a cyclic peptide antagonist for the complement C5a receptor. From our limited skimming, it seems that this showed promise in model systems, but, like many drug candidates, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrrheum/journal/v4/n3/full/ncprheum0716.html" rel="nofollow">was less effective in human trials</a>. This does not strike us as a threat to human evolution.<br /><br />We approved your comment for publication, based on our policy of approving just about anything that isn't spam. However, if you want to use our comments section to make specific attacks regarding Dr. Taylor's scientific pedigree or previous work, your case would be stronger if supported by a clearer explanation of wtf you are talking about, preferably with links.Vision 1920https://www.blogger.com/profile/03471741151774307744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-11527223016947951372009-08-15T19:02:18.461-05:002009-08-15T19:02:18.461-05:00Dear Downunder Headbanger: In researching your re...Dear Downunder Headbanger: In researching your resume I was hoping that you were Aussie Steven Taylor rugby union player of aboriginal heritage at the top of hits. But we see you are the nepotic associate of our individual topic of paranoid reaction, a case in point for Harvey's original comment regarding use of targeted funds for ventures under criticism in this forum. They are squandered by such nepotic and unthoughtful short term support of less than top of the line unbiased support of those whose lives are at stake in the venture and will build many generations of productive scientific development with the resources. In reading your random paranoid rant and raving, I assume your flat forehead is from wallbanging resentment of those more systematic and fundamental in their science, surely not the flat forehead caused by the rational academic scientist and teacher whose flathead results from the constant conservtive slapping and exclamation "Oh, why did I not think of that." By revealing your venture, your specific drug target and your philosophy of application of resources with out regard to thoughtful concept and ethical consequences driven by base animalistic egomania rather than deliberate thoughtful progression confirms every point of my original observation.<br /><br />It is unclear what you attribute the stalling of your personal venture to, but evaluating your base technology from the internet information available it is clearly obvious it is doomed to failure based on biological rationale alone. The statement "inventing a drug, commercialising it, getting it into people..." reveals the essence represents the vision 1920 level of your thinking and what we are discussing here. It is as you say, an example of the animalistic "human affairs are always messy" justification for squandering of valuable resources toward irrational emotion-based, profit-driven based ventures that not only are futile as your speciific example but can actually be dangerous to people. This if not based on adequate knowledge and rationale the development of which is the role of the academic research and teaching system of Texas A&M. It is the irrational egomanic-driven, random kneejerk goal of accolade and resources represented by your rant and raving that argues for dedication of valuable resources to rational based concept driven academic research and teaching activity that results in development of individuals to carry on that process.<br /><br />Harvey and the academic basic research and teaching faculty of Texas A&M will never "get used to" the animalistic, kneejerk, irrational, self-serving potentially dangerous for evolution of human society your rant and raving and your proteges you defend represent. It is not within our mission which is exactly the opposite. This in essence at the heart of the difference between Vision 2020 and Vision 1920 which your retrogressive rant and raves and basic approach represents.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12261565080783767346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-51496139070236570522009-08-14T14:13:19.031-05:002009-08-14T14:13:19.031-05:00how does the updated system policy regarding inves...how does the updated system policy regarding investment change the previous systeM?<br />http://www.tamus.edu/offices/policy/policies/pdf/22-02.pdfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426136699582357118.post-17188856905449233972009-08-14T13:55:25.542-05:002009-08-14T13:55:25.542-05:00Dear Rod,
Thanks. The post has been updated.Dear Rod,<br /><br />Thanks. The post has been updated.Vision 1920https://www.blogger.com/profile/03471741151774307744noreply@blogger.com