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Posted at 11:55AM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

In regards to the cheap and un-patented potential cancer drug I saw this a fair while ago and though it looks promising there could be a catch...

http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/01/17/1913210.shtml
"But there's a catch: the drug isn't patented, and pharmaceutical companies may not be interested in funding further research if the treatment won't make them a profit. In findings that 'astounded' the researchers, the molecule known as DCA was shown to shrink lung, breast and brain tumors in both animal and human tissue experiments."

How ironic would it be if the cure for cancer was never developed because there was no money in it for the pharacs.

Posted at 11:58AM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

is there going to be a virtual super 14 comp this year? if so, i intend on being out of the bottom 10.

Posted at 12:23PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

How good is a real-time, daily Daily Show? I used to watch this religiously in the U.S, and it's been sorely missed since returning home. I think C4 is going to have a cracker this year, they've made some really strong programming changes. Watch this space!

Posted at 12:32PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

"gait disturbances"?

Posted at 12:34PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

is there going to be a virtual super 14 comp this year?

I am working on the assumption that the answer is YES and that Russell will publish the details when he has time. In the mean time getyour picks in.

Posted at 12:53PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19325874.700-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html

Posted at 1:12PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

whoops, onviously didnt follow the original link.

Posted at 1:31PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

"A US study may have identified a cheap, safe drug that kills most cancers. And it's not under patent."

Er, This comes from the University of Alberta Russell - you mean a Canadian study.

Posted at 2:03PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

Andrew from Sydney, you need to urgently register at www.telecomvirtualrugby.co.nz before 5pm NZ time tonight otherwise you'll be a game down!

Bluies vs Crusaders at Eden Park at 7.30 - go the Blues!

Posted at 2:15PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

Maybe Pharmac should fund its own study - think of the long term cost savings if it proved effective.

Posted at 2:36PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

How good is a real-time, daily Daily Show?

Looks as if it is one ...mebbe two days in arrears.

Pretty good actually.......the worst part is the previewing of the Colbert Show,which we don't get to see...

Posted at 2:42PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

Not to be cynical, but some Big Pharma will just find another way of doing the same thing that DCA does with a new, patentable drug, so we'll have to wait another 10 years for a cancer cure.

Either that or Bill Gates will get cancer and we'll have a cure inside of 12 months.

Posted at 2:52PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

I forgot to ask earlier Russell...what on earth were you and your friend doing discussing Teresa Gatting's future in your spare time? The holidays can't have been THAT boring, surely?

Posted at 3:42PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

How good is a real-time, daily Daily Show?

Looks as if it is one ...mebbe two days in arrears.

It's behind a calendar day, but only because we're 18 hours ahead of EST here in NZ, so when it plays on USA TV at 11pm EST Monday, it's 5pm Tuesday here. So we get it 5 hours after it's broadcast there.

So it's about as good as we'll get. So yes, yay for C4.

Posted at 5:46PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

I'm off to Kiwi Foo for the next few days

I'm really excited about this, so I expect that in the following week, there'll be lots of share both here and at the Great Blend!

Posted at 7:09PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

I've heard it said that the most dangerous people in business are those with charm, charisma and bad decision making abilities. Because they're usually wrong, and use that charm and charisma to covince others to go along with their dumb ideas. CDMA, AAPT and deciding to try and staunch it out with the NZ Government on regulation do spring to mind.

On the "turning a 10mln company to a 50mln one" point, it does remind me of the jibe that was current in Australia in the 80s:
"How does a New Zealander start a small business?
Buys a large one!"

Posted at 8:43PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

If the drug is truly worth future research and has a reasonable chance of paying off, there's a huge incentive for governments around the world to fund it. Something that can be manufactured cheaply and kill most cancers would probably save hundreds of billions of dollars of public and private money on a global scale (although I'm guessing), just through people and governments not having to pay for excessive amounts of healthcare and cancer treatment.

Posted at 9:03PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

Oh Rich, those are my thoughts exactly. Gattung: great leader, poor manager. And I thought of that joke too, except if you're a Telecom shareholder, there is more than a little truth in it.

Posted at 10:16PM on 2 Feb 07. Permalink.

"How does a New Zealander start a small business?
Buys a large one!"

taken to an extreme in the case of Ansett

Posted at 12:33AM on 3 Feb 07. Permalink.

A US study may have identified a cheap, safe drug that kills most cancers. And it's not under patent.

Perhaps y'all could suggest a few more …

Well yes I can, Russell. One does readily spring to mind. People who use it have a lower incidence of cancer than non-users. It can, for example, shrink brain cancers and has been shown to be beneficial to liver cancer treatment. It also helps protect against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, hardening arteries, glaucoma, migraine, epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, chemotherapy appetite loss, and well, lots of other things.

It has been tested on humans for at least 10,000 years without one recorded fatality. It is a near relative of hops, that goes into beer. New Zealanders are very good at growing it. An export business could print a lot of money for both the private and public coffers, a bit like Tasmania does growing opium.

Yet even if you are 67 with terminal cancer, it is illegal for your doctor to prescribe it. They can give you morphine but not cannabis. The Minister of Health has the power to grant medicinal cannabis permits. Not one has ever been issued. This, in an age when it's OK for doctors to give Ritalin to kids and Viagra to the impotent.

Met Turei is putting New Zealand's first ever cannabis bill before the House in May this year. It is asking a simple thing; that doctors have the ability to prescribe cannabis, (here's a medical sheet for it) just like they do already in Canada, Switzerland, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington State, California and Oregon.

I know it's rather short notice, but if you'd like to do something to support this, now's the time. The select committee is open to ideas, and a petition in support of medpot is available from me, NORML, or Billy at GreenCross. Tell your story to the select committee, or tell us your story and we'll pass it on.

We call out for members of the medical profession to write in support. Grass roots is all good, but the aura of experts lends bonus credibility for our lawmakers' consciences. We call on supporters from all political persuasions to lobby MPs to support at least a First Reading. Let's at least look at this.

Cheers,

Will

PS. If Teresa Gattung was feeling especially bitchy, she could always take Annette Presley's place at Slingshot and wipe the floor with her.

Posted at 1:00AM on 3 Feb 07. Permalink.

She'd probably give bob a run as a dragon too.

Posted at 11:39PM on 3 Feb 07. Permalink.

regarding DCA, ORAC (a doctor and oncology researcher) has an interesting article on his blog Respectful Insolence regarding the hype surrounding this issue. He is cautiously hopeful about the drug's potential, but also points out that several other drugs which showed great promise in cell culture and animal trials are ineffective in humans. Although no fan of big pharma, he also debunks some of the conspiacy-mongering by poointing out that the cost of a clinical trial is only a fraction of the development of a new de-novo treatmenttreatment de-novo, and that it *is* possible to patent a new application of a drug approved for other purposes. There have also been papers published showing DCA induces apoptosis in tissues other than tumours (Dichloroacetate Prevents and Reverses Pulmonary Hypertension by Inducing Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis
M. Sean McMurtry, Sebastien Bonnet, Xichen Wu, Jason R.B. Dyck, Alois Haromy, Kyoko Hashimoto, Evangelos D. Michelakis
Circ Res. 2004 Oct 15;95(8):830-40) and that it may itself be carcinogenic (Carter JH, Carter HW, Deddens JA, Hurst BM, George MH, DeAngelo AB. A 2-year dose-response study of lesion sequences during hepatocellular carcinogenesis in the male B6C3F(1) mouse given the drinking water chemical dichloroacetic acid. Environ Health Perspect. 2003 Jan;111(1):53-64., Bull RJ, Sasser LB, Lei XC. Interactions in the tumor-promoting activity of carbon tetrachloride, trichloroacetate, and dichloroacetate in the liver of male B6C3F1 mice. Toxicology. 2004 Jul 1;199(2-3):169-8). I hope money *is* forthcoming for a good, lage-scale clinical trial, but until this is done I think it is too early to hail victory over cancer.

Posted at 12:18AM on 4 Feb 07. Permalink.

While Russell and others are away at Baa Camp/Kiwi Foo Camp, those of us who are back here can keep in touch with goings-on through the magic of blogs.

These are all the Baa attendees rockin' a keyboard that I've been able to find so far, but I'm sure there are more, and will be more written when it's all over.

Laura Thomson
http://laurat.blogs.com/

Rachel Cunliffe
http://www.cre8d-design.com/blog/

Mark Derricutt
http://www.talios.com/
And photos! http://flickr.com/photos/talios/tags/baacamp

Juha Saarinen
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/

Rod Drury
http://www.drury.net.nz/

Posted at 11:11PM on 4 Feb 07. Permalink.

Andrew from Sydney, you need to urgently register at www.telecomvirtualrugby.co.nz before 5pm NZ time tonight otherwise you'll be a game down!

Bluies vs Crusaders at Eden Park at 7.30 - go the Blues!

yeah, 16 points for me. i can never pick the south african games.

Posted at 8:11AM on 5 Feb 07. Permalink.

In telecom related issues (aren't they all) found this on Stuff this morning....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3949271a28,00.html

a sensible move for them to let this go public after this story ran on friday....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/3947635a28.html

given that Telecom's most recent "Unleashing" of their services was decidely AVERAGE, I can't seem to get too excited about ADSL2 just yet. I play a bit of Xbox 360 online so I really notice up/download speeds and their changes and I'm pretty sure it's worse since the unleash. I WOULD want to try out ADSL2 when it's released if I was convinced it'd be faster - but at this stage, I'm just not. Sort out your ADSL1 before you go leaping ahead again and leaving the last technology redundant.

Posted at 8:17AM on 5 Feb 07. Permalink.

Oh, and I don't even like rugby but thought I'd give the super 14 ago... 21 points. Could've been worse...

AAAAAND I hate to say I told you so New Zealand public but....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/3950803a1860.html

Posted at 10:25AM on 5 Feb 07. Permalink.

Can't find it online today, but there's an interesting piece by a former company secretary (Wylie) in the business supplement. It urges replacing all Gattung's appointees as well, and changing Telecom's focus from "protecting its monopoly and short-term returns to investors."

Indeed.

Posted at 11:07AM on 5 Feb 07. Permalink.

It is very nice of you to be thinking of Theresa s business future so generously. I'd suggest that being an entrepreneur in a small business is a world away from being a manager in a very large organisation like a telco or a bank where she came from.

On the positive side though she does come from marketing sector and so perhaps she will surprise us all.

The wider angle is that the impending changes to Telecom structure are good for NZ business generally even if this was an "unintended consequence".