Interesting Links for 23-11-2011

[andrewducker]

• Dramatic increase in survival rates for some cancer types
  (tags: cancer medicine healthcare )
• Welcome to the new web
  (tags: web standards usability lock-in )
• Why India is at a crucial crossroads
  (tags: democracy india globalisation population corruption )
• UK nuclear: Walking into darkness with eyes screwed shut • The Register
  (tags: uk nuclear power electricity politics )
• Superhero oil-burping algae will save the world. Well, maybe.
  (tags: oil biotech algae thefuture )
• Girls feel more anger, sadness than boys when friends offend
  (tags: gender friendship emotion )
• Is there a better alternative to the 5-star rating system? (The top answer is fascinating and deep)
  (tags: rating reviews quora )
• Martin Scorsese & James Cameron discuss 3D movies.
  (tags: jamescameron MartinScorsese movies 3d )
• Eating canned soup poses a chemical risk
  (tags: soup storage bisphenol )
• Cutting-edge Mirasol display finally comes to e-reader (Sadly only in Korea. I reaaaally want one.)
  Actually, I want a 10" one of these, for the reading of comics.
  (tags: ereader displays mems Technology thefuture )
• This illustrates nicely why I don't read the web without AdBlock, and preferably something to convert to all text
  (tags: reading web advertising EpicFail )
• Adobe not happy about people using the word "Photoshopping".
  (tags: photoshop Adobe )

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Adobe should be worried about the use of the word "Photoshopping" - that's a really easy way to lose a valuable trademark.

Just ask the original makers of "heroin", "dry ice" and "escalator."

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Oh, and companies can be really scary and aggressive about enforcement. When I was a young journalist I once used the term "roller blades" and the copy editor didn't catch it.

I got a 25 page cease and desist order sent to me by FedEx the next day.

[andrewducker]

Oh, absolutely. I think they're doomed though.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Me too, but you never know. Against all odds Frisbee has managed to keep their trademark, as has Hacky-Sack.

Personally, I think Google might have a larger problem than Adobe. While "I photoshopped it" is common "I googled it" is even more common.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Hell yes.

Now I'm off to do some hoovering.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

To some extent it doesn't matter whether they actually manage to stop you doing it - it only matters that they are seen to try.
The Portacabin guys are notable for this - by all real tests they lost a long time ago, but as long as they send the letters out religiously to any publication that prints the word in a way they don't like, they get to keep their trademark.
It's like those little signs you see on the pavement sometimes saying in minute print "yes I know this looks like public land, and you walk over it every day freely, but that's only because we let you, actually IT IS OURS and we can take it back any time" it's a matter of continuous assertion of rights and never letting it slip.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, that makes sense. So while they still protect it they can continue to prevent commercial rivals from using it. Thank you!

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

Microsoft seems to be going in another direction with some of their more blatant product placement.

[andrewducker]

Good Lord.

I'd noticed Castle using a Windows 7 Phone recently, but that's just taking the piss.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Hoover still seem to be going...

Entire other groups of people dislike "photoshopping" because it erases the existence of other non-photoshop photo-manipulating tools. I'm not sure that this effect can plausibly be working in BOTH directions :-p

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

'I gimped the image.'

Which given how awful GIMP is, would be a good description of what's likely to happen.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I think GIMP should use the guy from Pulp Fiction in their ads.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Hoover is still going because it's only in the UK that people talk about "Hoovering." Trademark law tends to tip the scales when it becomes popular in colloquial American usage (probably because of the sheer numbers of Americans.) (Also probably because American companies are more likely to sue to get the right to use these terms, given that we are more litigious society.)

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Dear Adobe: I see you don't realise you've lost, yet.

Dear Google: I noticed you've been doing this for a bit. Now everyone knows. Please stop being evil.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Used to be the only danger from canned food was that the inside of the can might have gone a tiny bit rusty if it was really old... so much for progress.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I think I read lately that they reckon you do NOT get harmful levels of bisphenol from cans, but I have to find the ref...

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

or ratehr that there was no proof that high levels in the urine actually *meant* anything other than that it was getting processed through - that there was no evodence that enough stuck around where it would be harmful to cause any harm. But I need to find the refs...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

James Cameron has a significant financial stake in 3d technology over and above his own films, so is hardly disinterestd.

The outright lies and delusions about "energy security" on the part of several governments now are frankly embarassing.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Girls feel more anger, sadness than boys when friends offend

I'd be interested to know if they were able to measure/control for any gender differences in being open about feelings.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Dramatic increase in survival rates for some cancer types

But how much of the "increase" is due purely to earlier diagnosis, irrespective of treatment? One of the problems with cancer statistics is that they measure how long the patient survives after diagnosis. Let's say, for example, that Betty dies of cancer in 2011. If Betty didn't like the idea of mammograms and therefore was not diagnosed until she found a noticeable lump in 2009, she will get reported as surviving two years. If she attended all her mammograms religiously and was consequently diagnosed in 2005, she will get reported as surviving six years, which in the statistics looks like a much better outcome - but it hasn't actually added any years to her life at all, and she's had to live with the stress of knowing she has cancer for an extra four years, so the quality of her life has probably been reduced. The reporting of the statistics hardly ever addresses this, so it's very difficult to know how much actual progress is being made.

[andrewducker]

That's a very good point I hadn't considered at all!

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I think I first came across it in the context of whether NHS targets for mammograms might be bad for women overall. At the time, there seemed to be a decent argument that earlier diagnosis of breast cancer might not improve total lifespan (as opposed to survival from diagnosis) and that therefore encouraging non-symptomatic women to get mammograms might not have any real benefit. Given that mammograms are both expensive and uncomfortable, and that a cancer diagnosis often has significant mental health effects, that made for quite a significant public health dilemma. That was about five years ago, I think, so we may well have a clearer answer by now on that specific testing regime - but ever since, I've looked for some qualification about this issue in stories about cancer stats, and I've very rarely found it.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

The thing with mammograms is that they are increasing diagnosis of breast cancers that might turn out to be relatively harmless and therefore some people think they are contributing to unnecessary worry and treatment.

The other side of the coin though, is that for some very aggressive breast cancers, early diagnosis is really key to long term survival. In nationwide statistics these cases may be somewhat outnumbered by the possible over diagnosis of minor cases but when it's your mother whose life was saved by a mammogram spotting a tiny lump that had already started to spread, it's hard to be coldly rational about these figures.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Being less personal about the matter, the last I heard the debate was still going on because some specialists think over diagnosis of potentially non-lethal breast cancers outweighs the benefits of the few serious cases spotted before the patient notices a lump herself, and others think some unnecessary worry and over-treatment is worth it to save the few extra lives.

[andrewducker]

Would a possible solution be to inform people and then let them make the decision themselves?

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

This is what the expert I heard interviewed on radio 4 was advocating and I agree with him. I think the main problem with the idea is that for some people, making an informed decision will require having a good GP with the time to explain it to them properly, but good literature sent out with the invitation for testing would be a good start. And the issue of GPs time is much wider than this issue.

I also think they should have nurses come into high schools and teach girls how to examine their own breasts properly, despite the fact that such a thing would probably have left me mortified with embarrassment as a teenager!

[andrewducker]

With things like that I think that suffering the embarassment as early as possible is a good thing, as you learn to get over it sooner.

[andrewducker]

(So long as it's handled in a sensitive manner, of course.)

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Yes it's a live debate, unlike prostate cancer where (in the UK anyway) there is very little debate, and it is generally accepted that screening is not worth the costs.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Related to something on this journal a while ago not this post.

http://www.dangerousminds.net/images/uploads/the_dick_knight.jpg

[andrewducker]

That's awesome. Linked for tomorrow!

[steer.livejournal.com]

The OKCupid article raised an unintentional chuckle.

The author wants to rule out people "too stupid" to date. He has a number of questions everyone should know the answer to. Unfortunately, one of them is "how many continents are there" -- the answer varies according to where you're from. Seven is most commonly taught in America. I guess the good thing is that the author has unwittingly ruled out (or tried to) people he is too stupid to date.