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I wonder what the actual dollar figures are, though? I'm thinking Big Pharma doesn't make the type of money energy companies do, so energy companies might think they're doing enough R&D compared to other industries based on their actual dollars spent.
Also, I wonder if some of the disparity is intentional. Changing the status quo in energy is probably a lot scarier for energy companies than it would be for Pharma.
I'm in agreement with Chris. Aren't the big energy companies among the wealthiest companies on the planet? It would be interesting to know what the actual dollar amounts being spent on R&D are.
Also, pharmaceutical companies have to run very expensive clinical trials. I would speculate that these trials are much more costly than testing a new drilling or solar technology.
I question whether the innovation in pharmaceuticals is wholly to be considered real innovation or is in part innovation intended merely to spur consumer demand. Take the example of hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women, which was almost universally prescribed for a time until 2002, when it was found risks outweighed benefits. One could point to dozens of other examples of drugs that become popular but are either unnecessary or found to be detrimental to health. It's hard to sort out the real innovation from the snake oil here.
The energy industry is a $3 trillion industry in the United States. Therefore, .23% of revenues would be $6-7 billion annually in energy R&D funding privately. The federal government kicks in only about an extra $3-4 billion per year.
So that's around $10 billion total.
By contrast, as noted about, pharmaceutical companies spend $39 billion per year, and the government kicks in another $30 billion through the NIH!
$69 billion vs. $10 billion.
That's quite a large innovation gap, and one of the reasons that the energy sector is one of the least innovative sectors of the economy. Major public investment in energy R&D is needed to help change the picture, as the private sector clearly won't invest on its own.
Still though, one's got to wonder why they don't invest more. Despite all those green-ish BP commercials/informercials over the years (the best non-environmenty one being here: http://www.everythingisterrible.com/2010/08/bp-caresabout-rapture.html), I'm thinking that energy companies would be scared to disrupt their market. I mean, if BP put their efforts into cheap, personal use solar panels or something else totally disruptive to the market, who'd buy their expensive fossil fuel-based energy? Their profits depend on their efforts not moving "Beyond Petroleum."
I guess no one feels like investing with his or her own money in the great emerging energy sector, hey, kids?
But it's such a great idea that everyone must be forced to do it, via the benevolence of the bureaucratic state.
Anyone remember when freedom was what it was all about? Think anyone will rue the day when all this spending of everyone else's money comes a cropper, and all the real innovators have departed for sites unknown?
If you are in a business where products change a lot you get to do a lot of R+D. When you are in a commodity business, not so much.
Everyone is invited to “The Estate in Bloom” annual garden party to be held at the Mackenzie King Estate on Saturday, August 4 to Monday, August 6 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
You’re encouraged to wear your floral-themed clothing.
This 231-hectare country estate in Gatineau Park belonged to Canada’s 10th and longest-serving prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and was bequeathed to all Canadians on his death.
There’s an exhibition of King’s garden (12:30 to 3:30 p.m.), and tours of the cottages.
You can enjoy a meal on the main veranda of the Mackenzie King Tearoom overlooking the gardens, or have a quick bite at Café Pat.
Visitors to the Estate may also bring their own picnic.
Visit the Estate’s website for driving directions; some Gatineau Park roads are closed to traffic for several hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
They say everything is big in Texas, and that includes the affection natives have for the Lone Star State. Count Justin Leonard, born, raised and currently residing in Dallas, among the smitten. That said, before the soon-to-be 40-year-old became a PGA Tour member and British Open champ, Leonard already was a home-grown legend having claimed a U.S. Amateur and an NCAA title while a University of Texas undergrad.
It's easy to understand why he returned after school, but Leonard says it shouldn't be a surprise how many other tour pros without in-state ties have settled in the Dallas area. "It's a great place to travel from," Leonard said. "You know you can get to either coast in about three hours."
More importantly, perhaps, it's a quality spot to practice your game. "There is a lot of variety of courses here that can suit all different tastes," Leonard said. "There isn't one or two places where all the guys play. That makes it more interesting."
Same too for everyday golfers.
and some of the old East Coast venues where weather and wind are always factors.
is also special. It's a Tillinghast course built in the 1920s with some beautiful pine trees and some sandy soil, which is unique to the area. It's a very fun course.
where they play the HP Byron Nelson Championship. The course was renovated a few years ago, and some tees were straightened out. It's always in great shape. Being able to play a course where we play a tour event is pretty cool.
Our favorite brunch place is Company Café. There are a couple of locations in the city, including a new one on the Katy Trail. We go there every Sunday we're in town. They've got a ton of gluten-free stuff. It's all organic. It's a really cool place with lots of outdoor seating.
One of our favorite lunch spots is Dive Coastal Cuisine in Snider Plaza. Great fish tacos, salads. Again everything is fresh, healthy, organic.
For dinner, Mi Cocina has very good Mexican food. There are quite a few around Dallas and a couple in Fort Worth. Great menu, great margaritas. We always see people there we know.
I've got three places to consider. First is the Rosewood Crescent Hotel, which is close to downtown. It's a beautiful building, a great old hotel. Another place to go if you want to impress somebody is The Mansion on Turtle Creek. It's a small, very boutique luxury hotel. It has one of the best restaurants in town. My wife and I have eaten there on our anniversary. It's just got that old-school charm and service that you don't see a lot these days.
There's also the W Dallas Victory hotel. It's in an area of Dallas that's been recently developed. There are a bunch of restaurants and bars. It has a younger, hipper vibe.
The Dallas Arboretum is right off White Rock Lake. It's just beautiful. At nights in the summer, they hold concerts there. ... Of course, you've got Dealey Plaza, where President Kennedy was shot.
For kids there's a neat museum at Love Field called Frontiers of Flight. Retired pilots give tours. It's all indoors. Some of the volunteers build model airplanes, and If it's not a busy day they've been known to take kids into the workshops to show what they're making.
Accra, Dec. 30, GNA - A fire tender of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) was on Thursday early morning involved in an accident just around the Obetsebe Lamptey round about near the Kaneshie Market in Accra.
Group Fire Officer, Justina S. Lamptey, Second In Command of Accra City Fire Station told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that a Taxi Cab whose registration number was being withheld for security reasons crossed the tender, causing it to skid off the road landing on its side.
She said the tender was from the Weija Fire Station moving towards the Central Business Centre to fight fire, which had engulfed the Kantamanto Market between the Railways Station and Ghana Commercial Bank Liberty Avenue branch.
She said the officers onboard the tender who sustained minor injuries had been treated and discharged from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Group Fire Officer Lamptey urged motorist to co-operate with the GNFS to fight incidence of fire outbreaks by abiding with the Service's preventive measures.
She expressed concern about the attitude of some drivers, especially taxi drivers who intentionally obstruct the movement of tenders responding to distress calls.
Group Fire Officer Lamptey said the serene should be respected at all cause and condemned its abuse by some motorists "some purely for fun".
She called for the enforcement of laws on the usage of serene in the country to facilitate the work of Fire Service personnel, Security Agents and Ambulance operators.
Meanwhile the fire that gutted the Kantamanto Market, destroying goods worth several million of cedis on Wednesday had been brought under control.
When Chris Wilder attended the Senior Blades Christmas lunch on Wednesday, he expected to spend the afternoon enjoying a few drinks, eating good food and exchanging pleasantries with supporters.
But, as Sheffield United’s manager revealed last night, the event proved rewarding in both a social and a sporting sense.
A lifelong United supporter, Wilder still idolises the likes of Badger, Hemsley and Tony Currie despite becoming a celebrated figure at Bramall Lane himself. So hearing the trio endorse his expansive, attacking-minded approach meant a lot; particularly as the 50-year-old’s squad travels to Preston North End tomorrow sixth in the Championship table but without a win since November 17. However, rather than simply massaging his ego, Wilder believes their presence also reinforces the message that United is a way of life. Not just a football club.
Wilder is equally protective of United’s present players too, as journalists discovered when Wilder mounted another impassioned defence of John Fleck’s character following his red card against Bristol City seven days ago. With fellow midfielder Paul Coutts sustaining a season-ending leg injury during last month’s win over Burton Albion, Fleck’s three match ban means Chris Basham could partner John Lundstram at Deepdale. Samir Carruthers and academy graduate Regan Slater are other potential options.
The Greeley Active Adult Center.
Whether you’re related to royalty or horse thieves, a series of genealogy classes that start next week in Greeley plan to help get down to the bottom of tales about family history.
Family History Research classes will begin Wednesday at the Greeley Active Adult Center, 1010 6th St.
The classes in genealogy will be taught by Linda Peters on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Described as a fascinating journey through family history, the classes enables members to trace their families back through several generations.
Member fees are $10. For non-members, they are $15. Participants must have access to email, the ability to navigate the internet and be able to attend all eight sessions.
Branimir I. (Brandy) Sikic, M. D., is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He joined the Stanford faculty since 1979. He serves as Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Clinical and Translation Research, Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Unit, and Associate Director of the Cancer Center. He received his undergraduate education (B. S. in Biology and Fine Arts) at Georgetown University, and an M. D. from the University of Chicago. He returned to Georgetown for his residency in internal medicine, and received a research fellowship in cancer pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute. He has authored more than 225 publications, edited two books, and holds two patents on mechanisms of resistance to anticancer drugs. He has served on several advisory committees of the National Institutes of Health, including as chairman of the Experimental Therapeutics I Study Section. In 2005-6 he chaired the Scientific Program Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and in 2008-9 was co-chair of the Program Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Sikic is a leader in the pharmacology of anticancer drugs and the development of new cancer therapies. His research spans the spectrum from molecular and genetic approaches in cancer cells to clinical trials in cancer patients. Dr. Sikic's laboratory seeks to understand mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer cells and to develop more effective therapies. He has made major scientific and clinical contributions to understanding the problem of multidrug resistance in cancer cells. Current research ranges from molecular and genetic studies of drug resistance in cellular models to Phase I and II clinical trials of new anticancer drugs, including multikinase inhibitors, pro-apoptotic drugs, and novel combinations of targeted drugs with standard chemotherapies.
Timeless is making a big move. Variety reports season two of the NBC TV show is moving production from Canada to California.
The news comes about a month after the network decided to renew the time-travel drama only after announcing it was cancelled. The NBC series stars Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett, and Goran Visnjic.
This week, the California Film Commission announced Timeless has been awarded a tax credit to relocate production from Canada. This means season two will cost NBC and studio Sony Pictures Television considerably less than season one.
Other series moving production from Canada to California include FX’s Legion, FOX’s Lucifer, and ABC’s Mistresses.
What do you think? Have you seen season one of Timeless? Will you watch season two?
Yes! Loved the show! So excited is been renewed! I can’t wait till season 2!
The Libya intervention debate has evolved at lightning speed this week. House Speaker John Boehner blasted President Obama Wednesday night, calling Obama's explanation of why the U.S. is bombing Libya "limited" and "sometimes contradictory," and saying it was "regrettable" that Congress wasn't consulted. Congress will likely hold hearings on the issue next week. But only last Sunday, Boehner insisted that the U.S. had a "moral obligation" to do something for the Libyan rebels. He's not the only one to switch.
Prominent Republicans began to urge military intervention in Tripoli to prevent the slaughter of civilians in February. Republican demands for decisive action felt unanimous to the extent that Matt Latimer, former chief speechwriter for Donald Rumsfeld, lamented in The Daily Beast this Tuesday that the GOP had become "the party of war." He complained that the GOP is is "always eager to deploy America’s sons and daughters to war zones, but who never do the fighting themselves."
But even as Latimer was writing, Republican talking points had already begun to shift, as Jon Stewart noted on The Daily Show that night. Hawks like Sen. John McCain and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton flipped from insisting on a no-fly zone to expressing disappointment that Obama hadn't bombed more, sooner, better. Newt Gingrich completely reversed his position, calling for an intervention March 7 and saying he wouldn't have intervened March 23. The conditions in Libya, Gingrich said, just didn't merit an American intervention when there are so many other bad guys in the world.
Latimer's old boss, Donald Rumsfeld, also isn't happy with the intervention, though mostly because of the way it was conducted. He told Politico that Obama had lined up allies and then crafted the mission--exactly the wrong order. “If peoples’ lives are at risk and you’re using military forces, you need to have a rather clear understanding as to who’s in charge and who’s making the decisions.” As Politico's Glenn Thrush and Abby Phillip note with reference to Iraq, Rumsfeld "knows a thing or two about the hazards of poor planning."
Certainly these Republicans are reacting at least in part to the delay in intervening and the way the intervention was conducted, rather than to the idea of intervention itself. Yet regardless of your view on Obama's strategy, the super accelerated rate of change in the Libya debate means that we've reached places it took years for us to get to during the Iraq war.
How far will the reaction against Obama's first war go? Obama can take comfort in the fact that 60 percent of Americans support the no-fly zone in polling. America's own uprisings won't be happening just yet.
Mail ballots are scheduled to be counted some time after August 15, more than two weeks after the Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2 announced a deal to end a four-week lockout of Con Ed workers in the New York City area.
No doubt the union hopes that the anger of many workers over the concessions contract will have abated during this time. The company is counting on the union to impose the concessions, using the argument that the contract is the best that could possibly be obtained.
The union bureaucrats at Con Ed and elsewhere are increasingly exposed as the tools of company management. They therefore take advantage of the assistance provided to them by various self-styled “socialists,” who pose as “left” critics but in fact work to keep the working class tied to the pro-capitalist trade unions and through them to the big business two-party system.
This function was on display in an article on the Con Ed lockout by Amy Muldoon in the International Socialist Organization’s Socialist Worker. The very headline of this comment—“Could the union have won more at Con Ed?”—is an insult to the intelligence of the workers who fought for four weeks on the picket lines despite the union’s refusal to even call a strike.
“Won more”? This is how the ISO refers to a contract that they themselves admit contains a two-tier pension system and increases in medical care costs, along with wage increases that do not keep up with inflation and the expansion of the company’s use of contract workers. Indeed, the increases in health care costs will more than wipe out the 2 to 4 percent wage increases over the next four years.
That the ISO can present the deal as a partial victory only demonstrates its slavish acceptance of the whole framework of the capitalist system. For them, it suffices to point out that the outcome could have been worse. They argue that Con Ed workers should take some consolation in the fact that the contract does not (yet) slash wages in half.
The ISO will have none of this. Their technique is to flatter the workers for their militancy while consciously avoiding the central political issues. Hence the concessions are “unnecessary.” Presumably for a company that was not doing well, givebacks would be expected and understandable.
Just as they attempt to lull the Con Ed workers with phrases about what the company can “afford,” the ISO insists that the unions are organizations of the working class, that they follow mistaken and “unfortunate” policies that can be corrected by pressure and reform.
Muldoon is well aware of the anger and disgust among Con Ed workers. She tries to appease this while keeping well within the bounds of the profit system and its needs.
This raises several issues. First, if this is the role of the leadership, why was the ISO building up the union during the month-long lockout? In this very same article Muldoon writes approvingly of a “community solidarity meeting” that was organized during the lockout. The purpose of this meeting, in which the ISO was an enthusiastic participant, was not to expose the role of the union, but to give it a “left” cover under conditions in which many rank-and-file Con Ed workers had concluded that the union was doing nothing to advance their struggle and was operating as a tool of the company.
The unions have demonstrated over and over again for the past several decades that they function as an arm of the corporate establishment and the capitalist state, especially through their alliance with the Democratic Party.
Muldoon, however, wants to keep workers ignorant of these facts. The term “unfortunate” is designed to encourage the illusion that the unions can and will defend the interests of workers. Under these circumstances that is the equivalent of telling workers to keep faith with the Democrats and with capitalism itself.
Sure enough, this same ISO writer alludes to the role of New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, who brokered the deal that ended the lockout. “[S]ome members are angry that a so-called ‘friend of labor’ in the governor’s mansion sat by while defined-benefit pensions were sacrificed on the alter [sic] of profit,” she writes. She associates herself with workers who she suggests hoped to have Cuomo intervene on their behalf.
Rather than explaining the necessity to break decisively with the Democrats, Muldoon suggests that, under the right circumstances, Cuomo could have been compelled to stand up for the Con Ed workers’ pensions. The governor’s role as a vicious enemy of the working class, which he has proved repeatedly in his two years in office, goes unmentioned. Just last April Cuomo imposed a bill instituting a new pension tier for new hires in state government.
In its promotion of the Democrats, the ISO invariably seeks to bring in identity politics. Muldoon refers to “the racist dimension of power cuts,” and the fact that “older workers tend to be whiter.” The idea behind this is supposedly that minority workers in New York could be convinced to support the Con Ed workers on racial grounds.
The issue of race and ethnicity, so beloved of many Wall Street Democrats precisely because it gives them a liberal veneer and at the same time aids in dividing the working class, is something that the ISO pushes to a point that is sometimes ludicrous but no less reactionary. The Con Ed struggle points to the need to unite the working class, not to hide the fundamental class issues behind issues of race.
Whatever the immediate outcome of the Con Ed contract vote, the struggle of these workers and the entire working class in the face of the historic onslaught on living standards and social conditions is just beginning. It is a battle against a bankrupt and outmoded social system.
The dividing line between the Socialist Equality Party and groups like the ISO is clear. They seek to keep workers tied to the capitalist system, while the SEP fights tirelessly to show that the central issue is the need to unite the working class in a political struggle, which requires a break with the parties of big business. The interests of the entire working class can only be defended through the fight for a socialist program that proceeds from the social needs of humanity and not the profit interests of the super-rich.
The first time I forayed into online dating, I let my wheelchair show just a little in my photos. The good guys, I hoped, would be so taken by my clever profile and witty banter that they’d be able to look beyond my disability, if they even noticed it at all.
His blunt reply stung, but the feeling was nothing new. Because I was born with my disability — Larsen syndrome, a genetic joint and muscle disorder — I’d already gathered a pile of romantic rejections seemingly big enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool by the time I downloaded Tinder. This particular rejection, however, unleashed a wave of panic within me.
A few months before my initial swipes, I’d gone through a messy breakup with a man I dated for over two years. I truly believed he was the person I’d marry, and that I’d never have to worry about rejection again. When I found myself newly single, I turned to online dating in the hopes of easing my fears that no one else would ever accept me as I am, that lightning doesn’t strike twice.
Not one to be deterred, I persevered, downloading every possible dating app and creating accounts on various dating sites. But I became skittish about revealing my disability, because in an already shallow dating culture, I believed my wheelchair would cause most men to write me off without a second thought. So I decided to hide my disability completely. I cropped my wheelchair out of my photos. I eliminated any mention of it in my profiles. In this virtual world, I could pretend my disability didn’t exist.
I kept up with this facade for a while, messaging matches who were none the wiser. Once I thought I’d spoken with a guy long enough to establish his interest, I’d choose a moment to strike, telling him about my disability. I’d send a long-winded explanation divulging my wheelchair use, reminding him that it didn’t make me any less of person and ending with reassurance that he could ask me questions, should he have any.
After dropping the “wheelchair bomb,” I’d have to brace myself for their reactions, which were always a mixed bag, often ranging from indifference to ghosting. Occasionally, I’d receive an accepting response.
One man that I connected with on Coffee Meets Bagel was incredibly apologetic when I first told him about my wheelchair, as though it was the most tragic thing he’d ever heard. I shut that down by explaining that my disability is part of who I am and it’s nothing to be sorry for. I ended up going on one date with him, and then another. For the second date, my bagel suggested a painting night (a social event that involves paintbrushes, canvases, acrylics and, usually, wine) since I’d told him how much I enjoy them. He found a Groupon and I researched a location, picking out a restaurant in New York City that was supposed to be wheelchair accessible.
As it turned out, the restaurant was accessible, but the painting class was happening in a room upstairs. So, we spent our entire date sitting directly below the painters, eating dinner and making strained conversation with wine-fueled laughter and painting instruction in the background. I was mortified. Following that disaster, I promised my date I’d get his money back. As soon as the company refunded our tickets, I never heard from him again.
It was painful to realize that the hard part isn’t over once someone learns that I’m disabled. Going on dates with me can be a crash course on disability, and I recognize that’s not always easy for non-disabled people to process. But I wasn’t helping the situation by keeping the existence of my disability concealed, springing it upon people only when I thought it felt right. In retrospect, this served only to contribute to the stigma I usually work so hard to fight.
I felt like a hypocrite. In every other area of my life, my disability is front and center. I write and speak endlessly about being a proud, unapologetic disabled woman. It is part of my identity, shaping everything I do and everything I value. But in the online dating world, my disability was my secret shame.
Still, I found myself having to make sure that potential matches had actually picked up on the trail of clues I’d left. I grew tired of feeling like I needed to deceive men into being interested because society instilled in me that my disability makes me undesirable. Finally, I took the leap I’d been so afraid to make, opening up about disability to strangers whom I hoped would appreciate my honesty and perhaps send me a message.
Once I added that paragraph, I felt liberated, relieved that anyone I spoke to would have a clearer picture of me. There have been plenty of matches that haven’t worked out, and whether that’s actually because of my disability, I’ll never know. But I had a nearly yearlong relationship with a man I met through OKCupid, so I know it’s possible for lightning to strike again. My dating life remains a comedy of errors, and I still struggle every day with the feeling that my disability means I won’t find love, but at least I’m being true to myself. I’m putting myself out there — my whole self — and it feels good to be proud of who I am.
Emily Ladau (@emily_ladau) is a disability rights activist, writer and speaker. She is editor in chief of Rooted in Rights. Her work can be found on her website, Words I Wheel By.
Oregon and Michigan State are getting the jump on a planned football scheduling partnership between the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences.
The Ducks and Spartans plan to face off for nonconference games in 2014 and 2015, getting a head start on a series of matchups between Pac-12 and Big Ten teams to begin in 2017. Oregon�s home-and-home series with the Spartans, and the annual nonconference game against a Big Ten team, will provide big-name flavor to a UO nonconference slate that was otherwise mostly devoid of such matchups for the next few seasons.