randcraw

67 ms·

781.
by randcraw 6y ago
Safety is the primary purpose of P2, but the size of those trials is often still too small (often 100 to 500) to detect rarer toxicity events, especially in secondary groups often excluded (e.g. juveniles) in trials that initially target a
782.
by randcraw 6y ago
[...] why not administer the vaccine earlier on (pre-approval) to the most vulnerable? if P(death|vaccine) < P(death|covid) then it seems really barbaric not to give it. The full equation is: P(death+injury|vaccine) < P(death|covid)
783.
by randcraw 6y ago
Seniors want simplicity not complexity. Tricked out software and hardware add overwhelming levels of complication so quickly that anyone over 45 will run from it. Among that population, usable apps must be highly visual and the choices ap
784.
by randcraw 6y ago
> Speech is not merely a conduit for the transmission of ideas, [...] but a generative activity that enhances thinking. Maybe. Speech does make an idea more concrete. But is the spoken formulation of an idea persistent enough that you
785.
by randcraw 6y ago
Yes. The original trial required a total number of X people spanning the full range of ages and co-morbidities. But with the blunder, fewer than X people were assessed. Until the missing portion of the patients receives the nominal regim
786.
by randcraw 6y ago
Agreed. After observing such a huge disparity in outcomes (90% vs 62% efficacy), any honorable scientist should have been shocked, immediately asking, “How is this possible?”. Once the outcome disparity was noted, it's unimaginable th
787.
by randcraw 6y ago
True, except for patients age 55+. They did not receive the initial half-concentration dose. That's almost certainly why those receiving the half-concentration dose experienced much higher efficacy (90% vs 62%) — they were younger an
788.
by randcraw 6y ago
The people who prepare and distribute the drug vials are obviously not blinded; each vial (or batch) has a serial number that is known to be positive or control. Only the drug's administrators in the clinic are blinded.
789.
by randcraw 6y ago
Exactly. When you remove the patient group that experiences 90% of the severe cases, voila, your efficacy rate skyrockets. Until SOMEONE ELSE completes trials on that missing age 55+ cohort, this vaccine should be accepted ONLY for ages 0
790.
by randcraw 6y ago
This sounds like the longstanding debate between weak / narrow vs strong AI. Can improving the former make progress toward the latter? I'm inclined to agree with Jordan that we shouldn't expect the two to enhance the other
791.
by randcraw 6y ago
If the rising trend toward putting the giant info-broker corporations on tighter leashes continues, I'm hopeful that we might finally start to discuss the 'civil rights of data' — who actually owns data of all kinds, but espe
792.
by randcraw 6y ago
Regardless of the term chosen, the concept of 'provenance' described here is the essential purpose behind the scientific notebooks used daily by experimentalists in industry and academia. Without thoroughly recording the bases fo
793.
by randcraw 6y ago
I think the goal of all technology is not only to reduce cost (replace humans) but to improve the job they do — make them faster, stronger, smarter. IMO the enhancement part of the tech evolution equation has been much underconsidered. Any
794.
by randcraw 6y ago
...And require the authors to publish their code, ideally in a container that runs out-of-the-box on the cloud.
795.
by randcraw 6y ago
A curious article. I'm not sure Ford even understands what friendship is. His only attempts to frame it are through quotes of contrarian literati, which leads nowhere, especially without insights into the state of their lives when th
796.
by randcraw 6y ago
Does anybody know where to find the download link for the Octave 6.1 Mac binary (dmg)? I see no way to install it without HomeBrew or Macports, even though the Octave website claims otherwise.
797.
by randcraw 6y ago
Public libraries serve the public good in the way I'm proposing: no search there yields any spam or "optimized" results that serve ulterior agendas or biases. A government service, especially one whose design and contents ar
798.
by randcraw 6y ago
For the past year or more I've found Google's search site extremely unpleasant to use. It's results are choked with ads (like half of the page), and its search optimization heavily favors promotion of products, services, and
799.
by randcraw 6y ago
And I'll add Atul Gawande's “Better” and “Complications” on general surgery in particular and medicine in general.
800.
by randcraw 6y ago
One more benefit of walking in the age of covid: It's one of the few ways to visit with a friend safely. Socialization this winter is going to be tough. Walking outdoors with a friend may be the best way to share your life until Spri
801.
by randcraw 6y ago
As I understand AD, no other primates get the same form of the disease that humans do. To wit, “Aged nonhuman primates with abundant plaques, however, do not manifest neurofibrillary tangles, nor do they become demented”. https:/&#x2
802.
by randcraw 6y ago
I suspect DM will sell this as a service, especially to corporations like pharmas who create small molecule drugs. If their method works as advertised, it may rejuvenate the flagging prospects of Rational Drug Design, the guiding R&D d
803.
by randcraw 6y ago
Solving the inverse problem would be even more valuable -- given a specific shape (and other biochemical desiderata), what sequence of amino acids would create that protein? As hard as the protein folding problem is, the inverse problem is
804.
by randcraw 6y ago
For-profit corporations that value protein engineering will beat a path to DeepMind's door ASAP, like pharmas. Protein conformation prediction is essential when engineering new small-molecule drug compounds that must 'dock' w
805.
by randcraw 6y ago
I agree that pg's model for thinking serves disruptive-based enterprises like small startups much better than consensus-based endeavors like a large corporation, a military, or a football team. Groupthink is an essential skill when co
806.
by randcraw 6y ago
Most books on deep learning are too new or have too popular a style to be included in uni libraries. By the time they do appear, the examples no longer work because the tools have evolved. The same goes for recent books on applied machine
807.
by randcraw 6y ago
Their MS program is cheap because the lectures are recorded and can be replayed many times at almost no cost. Their only cost to run the class is for support staff to grade projects and write and grade exams. One downside to this model is
808.
by randcraw 6y ago
More precisely, the majority of the US Senate (republican) opposes another large COVID bill. In contrast, the majority of the US House (democrat) has proposed new bills at between $2-3 trillion. The GOP is currently under control of the cu
809.
by randcraw 6y ago
A much lower fraction of the new cases today are old folk, who have a much greater likelihood of dying from it. We've also learned not to do stupid things like send infected old folk back to group homes. We've also learned how to
810.
by randcraw 6y ago
If you want to live in SC or FL, Philly was never the right place for you. The city exemplifies all classic east coast metropolii; it's vertical, industrial, impatient, no-nonsense and in-your-face. Having lived here for 15 years I&#

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