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Ireneon Ask HN: Successful Startup founders. Do they have families?

Jeff Bezos started Amazon with his wife MacKenzie. Anita Roddick and Gordon Roddick started The Body Shop.

Ireneon Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?

https://www.aurametrix.com/blog.html

A suite of blogs on the latest advancements in technology that are shaping the future. From artificial intelligence and wearables to nano-sensors, cutting-edge diagnostics and less discussed medical cases.

Ireneon Pfizer submits Covid vaccine to FDA for approval, to distribute in December

Yes, there could be many different scenarios; when vaccine supply is limited, vaccinate those at risk of death. BioNTech claims their vaccine efficacy is consistent across age groups, but we won't know for sure until large clinical trials are completed. Also, older people are less willing to be vaccinated earlier. More variables to include in the model...

Ireneon Pfizer submits Covid vaccine to FDA for approval, to distribute in December

I was referring to this paper: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2020/09/27/202...

Ireneon Pfizer submits Covid vaccine to FDA for approval, to distribute in December

Pfizer selected New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas for their pilot delivery program "due to the states' immunization infrastructures, urban and rural variations, size and population diversity". First batches of vaccine will probably go to frontline medical workers first, followed by frail old people. a paper in Medrxiv favored "older first" model based on evolutionary game theory and mobility data, for largest decrease in mortality rates.

Ireneon Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

Community medicine; precision medicine - all self-funded.

Ireneon You Promised Me Mars Colonies but I Got Facebook

Connectivity-driven innovation is cheaper. Science is becoming harder and is getting less bang for its buck. We saw great progress in AI over the past few years but even this has taken far more effort and money than building social networks. Perhaps connectivity-driven innovation could help to speed up applied science innovation if power of the crowd is more efficiently utilized?

Ireneon Cancer patients are being denied drugs, even with prescriptions and insurance

Most (if not all) new medicines came out of basic research supported by the NIH. This research was tweaked and patented by companies who profit from selling the drugs. Is start-to-finish government drug pipeline a better solution? Perhaps, but current academic culture doesn't support it. It's not just about pouring more taxpayer money.

Ireneon Cancer patients are being denied drugs, even with prescriptions and insurance

You are right, according to medical journal "The Lancet", 85% of (government-funded) research funding is “avoidably wasted across the entire biomedical research range (e.g., clinical, health services, and basic science)” Government-funded medical R&D (budget for the NIH: $34.4 billion for 2019) needs smarter spending.

Ireneon Cancer patients are being denied drugs, even with prescriptions and insurance

My grandmother was denied drugs by government-run healthcare and died in severe pain.

Ireneon Ask HN: Favorite technology predictions in science fiction?

Mind uploading predictions are fascinating (Edmond Hamilton, 1936; Isaac Asimov, 1956, 1957; Arthur C. Clarke, 1956; Bertil Mårtensson, 1968).

Also predictions about automating boring and mundane human tasks:

Waldemar Kaempffert, 1950: "When Jane Dobson cleans house she simply turns the hose on everything... After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor (later concealed by a rug of synthetic fiber) Jane turns on a blast of hot air and dries everything."

"With the advent of frozen foods in the shape of bricks, cooking as an art is only a memory in the minds of old-people. A few die-hards still broil a chicken or roast a leg of lamb, but <by using ingredients in frozen bricks> Jane Dobson can serve a steak in less than three minutes, and an elaborate multi-course meal never takes more than half an hour to prepare.

"discarded linens and underwear are recycled and turned into candy."

Isaac Asimov, 1964: "Gadgetry will continue to relieve mankind of tedious jobs. Kitchen units will be devised that will prepare 'automeals,' heating water and converting it to coffee; toasting bread; frying, poaching or scrambling eggs, grilling bacon, and so on."

Ireneon Ask HN: How to help people that shut themselves in?

It should be possible, but might take a lot of effort. Smell-detecting dogs are trained from birth to 18 months and it takes another 6 months to specialize them on specific scent like diabetes. Small rodents could be trained too. In Harry Potter, Ron carried one in his breast pocket.

Ireneon Ask HN: How to help people that shut themselves in?

Thank you, these are great suggestions.

Ireneon Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States

Original article: http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139

The authors suggest to introduce an extra field in death certificates indicating if it was a medical error, but the responsible parties may not acknowledge mistakes for fear of malpractice suits.

Ireneon Others may be unconsciously judging your features in ways you don't realise

I suppose applicants with faces judged as competent and dominant (and looking like Zuckerberg, etc) tend to come out on top after video pitches in startup incubator applications.

Commenting on the popularity of languages:

In TIOBE index of programming language popularity (based on web searches), Ruby is ranked 18th, down from 11th in April 2014. It fluctuates, but the trend is downward - 14th in November 2014, 13th in November 2013 and 11th in January 2013. Javascript is still rising.

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....

It is supported by overall job trends (vs those for ycombinator-backed startups and github popularity)

http://www.ryan-williams.net/hacker-news-hiring-trends/2015/...

http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Ruby%2C+Rails%2C+javascrip...

Ireneon Did Grief Give Him Parkinson’s?

An article published last year in J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry proposed that chronic emotional stress may cause Parkinson's disease:

http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/8/878.long

Ireneon Danish study: moderate jogging, higher benefits

Actually, life expectancy of world class aerobic athletes (unlike power (anaerobic) ones) is a little higher than average according to studies in US, Spain, Germany, Poland... Could be a little lower than life expectancy of those involved in moderate aerobic activities though, I guess.

Ireneon How strong would a magnetic field have to be to kill you?

Relatively weak MFs could kill as an indirect result of the injury: http://mentalfloss.com/article/18405/mri-magnet-madness http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=544233

The effect depends on field signal characteristics (frequency, amplitude, wave shape), duration of exposure, genetics and metabolism. Some bacteria can be negatively affected even by 10 mT. In clinical trials people were "safely" exposed to up to 3 T.

Ireneon PicnicHealth (YC S14) Stores Your Medical Records In One Place

Besides, Comprehensive health records as well as yearly physicals are meaningless for healthy people.

I also found that people don't trust paid services either, when it comes to their health (at least when provided by companies other than their health provider)

I like the idea behind Zenobase. Aurametrix explored relationships between many different sources of data that could be related to health. It is not public now, but would be happy to share the insights.

Ireneon Google Has Given HTTPS a Huge Boost

text-only version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NotzT67...

the image:

https://blog.httpwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chart....

Ireneon Healthkit

I agree, but think it is even more niche. They hope that wearables will transform the "quantified self" from a niche to a mainstream, but as this iWatch parody says: http://mashable.com/2014/05/30/apple-iwatch-parody/?utm_cid=... "we take privacy seriously and will livestream <all your bodily functions and> your location to <not only> NSA.

Ireneon How Advanced Socialbots Have Infiltrated Twitter

Yes, digital is powerful.

Another example: In March, two students at the Technion in Israel created a swarm of bots that caused a phony traffic jam on Waze/Google Maps.

Another reference: "What We Should Do Before the Social Bots Take Over" http://web.mit.edu/sts/Graeff.pdf

Ireneon Benchling (YC S12) Is Modernizing Software For Biotech Labs

True, but Dropbox started from winning geeky hearts - and there are far more geeks than gainfully employed biologists.

I am open to sharing ideas offline - and rich experiences on why the ones that tried have not succeeded so far.

Good comment anyway.

Ireneon Benchling (YC S12) Is Modernizing Software For Biotech Labs

No doubt, biotech will be "eaten" by software. But the crowded market of biotech software has many viable open source alternatives. Besides, many tools have been developed or are being developed by established companies.

Yet, I don't see much evidence of growth. Looks like 'play money' for investors.

Ireneon Ask HN: Groovy/Grails or Scala/Play?

Probably Scala/Play, but I would spend time learning and using both.

Here are job trends for these languages: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Groovy%2C+Grails%2C+Scala&...

Ireneon Ask HN: Where are the SF Bay startup events this weekend?

Startup Weekend in San Francisco ($75): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7451197733

If you are interested in health startups, Health 2.0 is in Santa Clara this year, and some events are free: http://www.health2con.com/events/conferences/seventh-annual-...

Ireneon Gut Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down

And if you are healthy and thin you can make money by donating it: http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/vol/4050676649.html

Ireneon Is There a U.S. IT Worker Shortage?

2011 Report by McKinsey predicted a 50-60% shortage of "big data" talent in the US by 2018. Later Gartner projected 2/3 talent shortage. But as productivity is increasing, the gap between supply and demand is easily filled. As Forbes Adam Ozimek said, there is no shortage just “a large demand for more workers at current market clearing wages but not a penny more”

Ireneon Ok, glass – new Google Glass concepts

My google glass proposal was to use it as a brain extension for things we can't do with our brain. For example - remember some of the foods we eat and how we feel to predict our reactions to new foods and environments - energy spikes, side effects. Our brain can't always do it as we do not know the ingredients and do not remember our metabolic abilities at various outside temperatures, etc. Aurametrix can do it. Interested? Let me know.