Interesting Links for 10-02-2016

[andrewducker]

• Lib Dem leader submits bill to end gay blood ban
  • LGBT blood libdem
• Bryan Fuller named showrunner on new Star Trek series
  • StarTrek
• Why drink caffeine when you can get it through a skin patch?
  • caffeine CrowdFunding
• Germany and China moving forward with nuclear fusion
  • Germany china fusion
• The plot hole in "Search for Spock"
  • StarTrek
• Fated - when bad

Comments

[andrewducker]

Bryan Fuller is an interesting choice. He's got a lot of Star Trek experience, but he's never run a financially very successful show. Hannibal got two million viewers, dropping to 1 million, and then cancellation. Pushing Daisies went from 9 million viewers to 4 million, and then cancellation. Creatively brilliant, but it's a big risk to hand him Star Trek...

[fiddlingfrog]

I recall something I read in Wired before the first Avengers movie came out. Joss Whedon was talking to Jon Favreau about his experience making Iron Man. Favreau said to concentrate on making a good movie, because the corporate machinery around the brand wouldn't let him fail.
Basically, I think with the proper support structure Fuller can make a good looking TV series that isn't doomed to failure.

[bart_calendar]

Did you see the rejected Soska Sisters blood drive videos I posted the other day?

In one section they start out trying to say "everyone can donate blood" but then get interrupted by Gay Hitler saying "not everyone."

[bart_calendar]

http://bart-calendar.livejournal.com/2919272.html

[andrewducker]

Will take a look tonight!

[bart_calendar]

That's a good idea.

It contains really good information about giving blood - but is one of the most NSFW public service announcements ever put online.

Rome Girl has been randomly screaming "Who let Hitler on the set!" ever since.

[a_pawson]

The caffeine bracelet strikes me as rather pointless. Caffeine tablets have been available for years and are incredibly cheap - Google tells me I can buy a packet of 48 ProPlus for less than £3.

[andrewducker]

It does seem like an odd thing to build. It's not like it's monitoring your blood caffiene levels, so far as I can see.

[drdoug]

I dunno, I can see the argument for dermal patches versus tablets. Lots of drugs have a smoother effect if given as a dermal patch. From memory, one adapts to regular caffeine intake very quickly, so the boost in alertness a regular coffee drinker feels from their first morning cup is actually a boost up to normal from a caffeine-deprivation fog. Taking it transdermally would smooth that over and give you a lower peak level of caffeine, so once you've adjusted, you would have less caffeine-deprivation over the day

[zotz]

If Farron's asking for an evidence-based approach on blood then he hopefully realises he's going to get a foot-thick stack of epidemiology papers land on his desk and he'll be asked to work up his own detailed risk estimates.

[zotz]

Also this from a couple of years back.

[andrewducker]

Yup - that's in the first comment on the comic.

[andrewducker]

Hopefully he'll be able to use whichever ones Spain used to make its choice.

(Also, I looked at the reasoning a few weeks ago for a related discussion, and six-months looks like it would be long enough for all tests.)