OT: Welcome to the new economy

[Louis]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/16/science/prasher600.jpg

From the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/science/16prasher.html?ref=science)

October 17, 2008
Man Who Helped Set the Stage for Nobel-Winning Work Has Left Science
By KENNETH CHANG

In a couple of months, Roger Y. Tsien and Martin Chalfie will head to Stockholm to collect the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and $450,000 in prize money each in recognition of their development of a revolutionary technique that lights up the inner workings of living cells.

Meanwhile, the scientist who provided the essential piece that made Dr. Tsien’s and Dr. Chalfie’s work possible — a jellyfish gene that produces a fluorescent protein — is out of science.

Douglas C. Prasher, who conducted his research on the Aequorea victoria jellyfish while at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts in the early 1990’s, now drives a courtesy van for a car dealer in Huntsville, Ala., earning $10 an hour.

He said he is not bitter or jealous of this year’s winning chemistry Nobelists: Dr. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Chalfie of Columbia and Osamu Shimomura, the original discoverer of the jellyfish protein in 1961.

Still, if events had unfolded slightly differently, Dr. Prasher, 57, might have been the one in the spotlight last week.

Trained as a biochemist, Dr. Prasher was interested in the chemistry of how certain animals are able to glow. In the late 1980s, he applied to the National Institutes of Health for a five-year grant to track down the fluorescent protein gene.

Dr. Prasher said that his proposal included speculation on how the fluorescent protein might be used as a beacon to light up structures in cells. “That would have certainly been part of my research program,” Dr. Prasher said. “I knew it could serve as a genetic marker and it would be really, really useful, which it has turned out to be.”

Dr. Prasher’s application was turned down.

A parallel proposal to the American Cancer Society succeeded, but that grant provided only two years of financing. That gave Dr. Prasher enough time to fish out thousands of jellyfish out of waters off Friday Harbor, Wash. and to successfully isolate the gene.

However, by then, Dr. Prasher had decided that Woods Hole was not the work place for him. Instead of putting himself through the trials of the tenure process — he thought he would be turned down, anyway — he set out for a new job and wound down his jellyfish research.

Dr. Chalfie and Dr. Tsien independently contacted Dr. Prasher asking about the jellyfish gene. Dr. Prasher generously shared the gene with both of them.

Dr. Prasher then worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, first on Cape Cod and later in Beltsville, Md., developing methods for identifying pests and other insects. Again, Dr. Prasher was not happy, the beginning of bouts of depression. “I was not happy with management there, so I looked for another position,” he said.

The next shift in locale and occupation was Huntsville, where he worked for a NASA subcontractor that was developing mini-chemistry laboratories, which would be needed as health diagnostic tools if astronauts eventually make the trip to Mars.

That job Dr. Prasher loved. He said his ideal science job would be to manage a group like the one he worked with at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center. (His ideal non-science job, he said, would be to run an architectural supply store.)

But a Mars mission is hypothetical, and at least more than a decade away. NASA eliminated the financing for the project, and Dr. Prasher lost his job. For family reasons, he is staying in Huntsville, which greatly restricts his opportunities. “The amount of life science done here is very limited,” he said.

The depression returned. “That’s been a serious problem off and on, but anyone who doesn’t have a job has that problem,” Dr. Prasher said. “If they don’t, there’s a problem with them. Or they’re independently wealthy.”

After a year of unemployment, he started driving the van for Bill Penney Toyota, his job for the last year and a half.

Then last week, the Nobel in Chemistry was announced, and some media attention turned to Huntsville and Dr. Prasher. He said someone in Chicago who had read about him called him and offered a check. “That totally freaked me out,” Dr. Prasher said. “We actually had a nice conversation.”

Dr. Prasher also said, perhaps with a bit of surprise even to himself, that he would have been uncomfortable if he had been selected as one of the Nobel winners, nudging aside one of the others. (Each Nobel traditionally is shared by no more than three people.)

“There are other people who would have deserved it a whole lot more than me,” he said, “They worked their butts off over their entire lives for science and I haven’t.”

[Ahneida Ride]

Don't enter the sciences and expect a healthy income.

[konstantkarma]

Actually, this has nothing to do with the "new economy". The guy brought someone else's discovery to the next level, and set the stage for a revolution of sorts in cellular biology. He made a valuable contribution to science and continued on his way. I use his contribution every day in my own work.

However, the consequences of the new economy for the continued dominance of the USA in most areas of science is a topic for another discussion.

[Blue Jays]

<< Absurd thread >>

[Louis]

Actually, this has nothing to do with the "new economy".

Sure it does. Don't we hear all the time that we are becoming a service economy? He's providing a service.

Forget science and research - after all it means nothing. Just a bunch of pointy-headed liberals in their ivory towers.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Sure it does. Don't we hear all the time that we are becoming a service economy? He's providing a service.

Forget science and research - after all it means nothing. Just a bunch of pointy-headed liberals in their ivory towers.

. . . his problems with depression had nothing to do with where he is now? with the job changes? With his state of mind? I believe it's vast oversimplification to say this guy's situation reflects on our economy in general.

BBD

[Louis]

Blame the victim. After all, it's his fault. He was not perfect. All of the rest of us are.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Blame the victim. After all, it's his fault. He was not perfect. All of the rest of us are.

. . . That's not what I meant and you know it. This ONE guy had a problem, or multiple problems, that resulted in this ironic situation. But the thread title implies that his situation is solely the result of the general economic situation in America right now. I just disagree with that politely but firmly. Our opinions differ. Mine is that the thread title, coupled with the content of the story, seems to make a vast over-generalization about the entire economy based on this one incident. From reading the story it seems to me there are obviously other possible factors besides a crummy economy that may very well have contributed to his arrival at the point he is now. I'm not saying they're his own fault at all.

BBD

[konstantkarma]

Blame the victim. After all, it's his fault. He was not perfect. All of the rest of us are.

Louis,

Are you a troll? I can't tell if you are trying to be facetious/sarcastic, or not.

If not, you are trolling, FWIW.

[Louis]

. . . That's not what I meant and you know it. This ONE guy had a problem, or multiple problems, that resulted in this ironic situation. But the thread title implies that his situation is solely the result of the general economic situation in America right now.

Hey Dave,

I know. It's just a bit scary how the right (wrong) circumstances can combine and lead someone down a path that appears to be dramatically different (and less promising) from the one he was initially on. For all we know he's perfectly happy doing what he does, but I doubt it. He could have moved, but decided that this was his best option.

Stuff happens and life goes on. Perhaps I'm just a pessimist, but I think that 20 years from now as a whole this country will be less well off than it is now or it was 20 years ago. Regardless of who wins the next few elections. These trends are tough to fight. We'll see. Regardless of what happens let's hope we have our health and can ride our bikes. :)

Louis

[Louis]

Are you a troll? I can't tell if you are trying to be facetious/sarcastic, or not.

Not sure if I am or not. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood.

Have a good weekend. :)

PS They do say that the new economy is a more of a service economy than the old one. That's true whether I'm a troll or not.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Perhaps I'm just a pessimist, but I think that 20 years from now as a whole this country will be less well off than it is now or it was 20 years ago. Regardless of who wins the next few elections. These trends are tough to fight. We'll see. Regardless of what happens let's hope we have our health and can ride our bikes. :)

I also believe things are slowly but inexorably heading downhill. More people, finite resources, more anger, more frustration. The disparity of wealth between the richest and poorest of those in our country continues to widen, as it has been doing for many years. But that his something best proven with reliable statistics rather than anecdotal evidence like this one person's story. Soon enough, we will know for sure . . .

BBD

[Karin Kirk]

Forget science and research - after all it means nothing. Just a bunch of pointy-headed liberals in their ivory towers.

Actually I am happy to report the opposite. At least in my circles, funding is plentiful at the moment. We are hiring people to help us get all the projects done because we can't keep up with demand. This is not what you'd expect, but happily it is the case right now. Maybe it's different in other fields, but I wouldn't say that science is drying up, thankfully!

[gdw]

No offense Louis but you really shouldn't form opinions based upon a single artical in the NY Times. If you have the talent, the jobs and money are out there. If you have the talent and some business sense, the world's your oyster.

[Louis]

No offense Louis but you really shouldn't form opinions based upon a single artical in the NY Times.

GDW, do you not see the irony in this statement?

As far as the world being your oyster, if only you have the talent and business sense, I absolutely agree. However, the economy consists of more than just the cream of the crop, (who presumably will nearly always do well). We're talking about the performance of the whole deal, and time will tell how things go. No empire, no hegemon, no superpower lasts forever (unless you believe in some manifest destiny type of thing, which I don't).

Let's hope that the US ages gracefully.

Louis

[avalonracing]

Actually I am happy to report the opposite. At least in my circles, funding is plentiful at the moment.

You must not work in stem cell research.

For the last two months my mother has been inpatient at Johns Hopkins trying not to die (along with many others) from something that stem cell research can help cure. :crap:

[ti_boi]

Hedge-fund manager quits on high



Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870% gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

Lahde, head of Santa Monica, California-based Lahde Capital Management, told investors last month he was returning their cash because the risk of using credit derivatives - his means of betting on the falling value of bonds and loans, including subprime mortgages - was too risky given the weakness of the banks he was trading with.

''I was in this game for money,'' Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. ''The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.

''All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other sides of my trades. God Bless America.''

Lahde, who managed about $US80 million, told clients he'll be content to invest his own money, rather than taking cash from wealthy individuals and institutions and trying to amass a fortune worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

''I do not understand the legacy thing,'' he wrote. ''Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.''

Request for Soros

He said he'd spend his time repairing his health ''as well as my entire life - where I had to compete for spaces at universities, and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management - with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not.''

He also suggested that billionaire George Soros sponsor a forum in which ''great minds'' would come together to create a new system of government, as the current system ''is clearly broken.''

Lahde ended his letter with a plea for the increased use of hemp as an alternative source of food and energy that segued into a call for the legalization of marijuana.

''Hemp has been used for at least 5000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products,'' he wrote. ''Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term.''

'Innocuous Plant'

He added, ''The evil female plant - marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country.''

Lahde said the only reason marijuana remains illegal is because ''Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers.''

Lahde graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in finance and holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He worked at Los Angeles-based hedge fund Dalton Investments before founding his own firm two years ago with about $US10 million.

Lahde wasn't available for comment. A woman at his firm, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Because in large part, he is.

BBD

[konstantkarma]

Actually I am happy to report the opposite. At least in my circles, funding is plentiful at the moment. We are hiring people to help us get all the projects done because we can't keep up with demand. This is not what you'd expect, but happily it is the case right now. Maybe it's different in other fields, but I wouldn't say that science is drying up, thankfully!

It is most decidedly different in different fields. Many talented scientists are having to re-think their career path because of the flat, and soon to be reduced funding lines coming from Washington. Ironically, this comes at a time when funding for science in Europe is at an all time high. We are about to lose our leadership in science. This is not necessarily a horrible thing. But, we have just spent the last 20 years training the next generation of scientists, and many of them won't be able to sustain their careers in the USA.

[Ahneida Ride]

''I was in this game for money,'' Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. ''The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.


There is a lot of truth to this ....

[sloji]

"Show me what you think you need and i'll show you how to live without it."

America is a near paradise. Public libraries, state parks, roads to ride on, good hearted people, and it's all nearly free. Our economy has been like riding an escalator. At 22 we married and had a son and we took six years off and worked the bare minimum, about 12 hours a week, we read books, took walks, grew most our food, rode bikes, played tennis and it was all nearly free.

Just sayin...

[ti_boi]

So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks 'idiot' traders and retires at 37

* Andrew Clark in New York
* The Guardian,
* Saturday October 18 2008
* Article history

The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged "idiots" and thanking "stupid" traders for making him rich.

Andrew Lahde's $80m Los Angeles-based firm Lahde Capital Management in Los Angeles made a huge return last year by betting against subprime mortgages.

Yesterday the 37-year-old told his clients that he had hated the business and had only been in it for the money. And after declaring he would no longer manage money for other people, because he had enough of his own, Lahde said that instead he intended to repair his stress-damaged health; he made it clear he would not miss the financial world.

"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said.

"All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."

Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse.

In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money.

"I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck," he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still "glued to their Blackberries".

Lahde's retirement came amid an implosion among the hedge fund industry - some 350 of the funds have liquidated this year, according to Hedge Fund Research.

His final words of advice? "Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life."

[ti_boi]

Derivative markets....an understandable explanation:



Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's drink now pay later marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit..

He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on security markets worldwide. Naive investors don't really understand the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.

Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due to his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.

Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed, they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80%. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.

The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.
.

[JohnHemlock]

When science invents a time machine, let me know. I'll go back to 12:26 pm and tell me not to waste three minutes of my life reading this thread.

Then I'll go back to 1991 and tell the young me not to take that chick home from the Zoo Bar. She ended up cutting up my clothes with a box knife and threatening to kill herself everytime I tried to break up with her.

Wait, what were we talking about?

[thejen12]

When science invents a time machine, let me know. I'll go back to 12:26 pm and tell me not to waste three minutes of my life reading this thread.

Then I'll go back to 1991 and tell the young me not to take that chick home from the Zoo Bar. She ended up cutting up my clothes with a box knife and threatening to kill herself everytime I tried to break up with her.

Wait, what were we talking about?
I think it was kettlebells....

Jenn

[avalonracing]

Then I'll go back to 1991 and tell the young me not to take that chick home from the Zoo Bar. She ended up cutting up my clothes with a box knife and threatening to kill herself everytime I tried to break up with her.

I think I dated her sister(s).

[avalonracing]

You must not work in stem cell research.

For the last two months my mother has been inpatient at Johns Hopkins trying not to die (along with many others) from something that stem cell research can help cure. :crap:

And on a much heavier note... My mother made it for three more weeks. She was an active 63 year old.
All the money we squander in this country is very sad. People say that they don't have any money to give to medical research but they always have money for new cell phone ring tones.

[cmg]

nc.......:)

[malcolm]

Avalon sorry to hear about your mom.
The future of medicine is cellular/stem cells.
If nothing else happens with the new admin. at least that is going forward.

[sjbraun]

Avalon,

Please accept my condolences for your mother's passing.
I could be your mother some day in that I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia. While I've responded well to treatment, my cancer has no cure. Stem cell research offers me some hope of living long enough to see grandchildren.

I'm sort of for it.

Steve

[konstantkarma]

I am sorry for your loss Avalon.

The pace of human embryonic stem cell research is currently very rapid, both here in the USA and in Europe. Hopefully, there will be cures for many diseases in our lifetime.

[DukeHorn]

We'll see how the stem cell research goes. Lots of interesting stuff in various labs that I've been able to tour. I don't know if the induced pluripotent stem cells is the real wave of the future but from a basic research perspective a lot of labs are pursuing that. Remember for clinical trials, companies have to jump up to Good Manufacturing Practices for the production of cells and their differentiation into various cell types. A lot of expensive groundwork needs to be set up here and with the dearth of funding over the past 8 years, it's been all private money trying to get the manufacturing processes locked down.

I don't think anyone is going to dispute the OP premise (or what I infer is the premise) that a lot of "smart" people followed the money to Wall Street and that US schools are training a large number of Indian and Chinese PhDs and postdocs that are not planning to stay in here in the US (unlike the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s).

[ira38]

Louis,

Are you a troll? I can't tell if you are trying to be facetious/sarcastic, or not.

If not, you are trolling, FWIW.

If you can't sense the sarcasm then yourmeter must be broken.

[konstantkarma]

If you can't sense the sarcasm then yourmeter must be broken.


Boy Ira, that was a looong time ago. Read the whole post dude.