No, not Obama, the other guy.
Its as if McCain was reincarnated as a donkey not an elephant.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Registered for classes
Registered for 3 durham tech classes today, will keep me busy throughout the fall. 6 contact hours, MTW, so 4 days off 3 days on, should be fun. Two are for finishing CCNA cert prep, and one is for linux admin. At the end i'll take the CCNA exam, and i guess look for a net engineering job. meanwhile work on 3 manuscripts and try to find a good science job (although honestly I dont have much hope - my skills just aren't in demand).
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tour de boring
Man, i've been following the tour but so far no big changeups except for the TTs (time trials). Today is no exception. Typically its a group of 3-4 riders way back in the standings, making a break, 90% of the time they get caught, this time they don't, the main guys who we care about (Lance for one), just sit in the peleton. Lance, we are all waiting for your move which better be supported by your team (or 90% of the American cyclist enthusiasts will tune out next years TdF).
Monday, July 13, 2009
Bye bye
Sent in letter of resignation today. That felt pretty good. I would have liked to stay and get the papers out but it proved impossible (lack of funding is main reason). So i'll be unemployed and working on data analysis and so forth on a volunteer basis.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Free healthcare isn't
You know, i usually don't blog these things, but here is a interesting article about a widow of a vietnam vet who spent his remaining years in a state-run home because he was not ambulatory. Then he dies and they say to her "you owe us $300,000" Well, i'm omitting facts, read the article. Anyway the point is the state is saying because its Medicaid, they are entitled to half of his assets. Her point of view is that 'well he's a vietnam vet, the healthcare should be free'. And their point of view is 'medicaid isn't free, someone has to pay it'.
And i think that's really the problem. People expect *free* healthcare, and it isn't, and won't be, ever. We'll pay for it. If we go with a socialized healthcare plan under obama, I can honestly predict several things.
1) Reimbursements to docs will plummet. Okay, they make too much money you say. Well, they spend 10 years of their life heavily in debt, working their asses off, to get to be able to treat you. That deserves compensation (on the other hand I worked my ass off for ten years in a similiar field, and I'm not going to get anything out of it). So if salary plummets, so will the quality of the pool, because if a doc is just going to be a plumber, the smart people will do other things besides wasting their time in that industry.
2) Medical innovation will dry up. The reason why we spend so much on healthcare, one reason, is that we pay for innovation. ALl the new machines? We pay for them, and they are spread throughout the world. All the new drugs? Ditto. If reimbursables slide, there will not be as much incentive to innovate here. This is not totally true, espcially for big companies like GE or Siemens, with big insturments, or big drug cos. However by and large it takes so much work to get by the FDA, it's hard to get approved everywhere. So you get approved here first, then take your product global if it's profitable. Also, there is a huge industry in small biotech here in the U.S., in the end funded by the expectation of profits from patient care. Well, if medicine is socialized, then what would happen?
Anyway those are my thoughts. I think we do need to do something; costs are getting ridiculous. Maybe the pace of innovation should decrease. Maybe we should stop spending billions to get one drug to market (then have to recoop those billions in a ten year period). By and large, however, the main problem is people expect free healthcare to be free. I just can't see the govt doing something better than a free market. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
And i think that's really the problem. People expect *free* healthcare, and it isn't, and won't be, ever. We'll pay for it. If we go with a socialized healthcare plan under obama, I can honestly predict several things.
1) Reimbursements to docs will plummet. Okay, they make too much money you say. Well, they spend 10 years of their life heavily in debt, working their asses off, to get to be able to treat you. That deserves compensation (on the other hand I worked my ass off for ten years in a similiar field, and I'm not going to get anything out of it). So if salary plummets, so will the quality of the pool, because if a doc is just going to be a plumber, the smart people will do other things besides wasting their time in that industry.
2) Medical innovation will dry up. The reason why we spend so much on healthcare, one reason, is that we pay for innovation. ALl the new machines? We pay for them, and they are spread throughout the world. All the new drugs? Ditto. If reimbursables slide, there will not be as much incentive to innovate here. This is not totally true, espcially for big companies like GE or Siemens, with big insturments, or big drug cos. However by and large it takes so much work to get by the FDA, it's hard to get approved everywhere. So you get approved here first, then take your product global if it's profitable. Also, there is a huge industry in small biotech here in the U.S., in the end funded by the expectation of profits from patient care. Well, if medicine is socialized, then what would happen?
Anyway those are my thoughts. I think we do need to do something; costs are getting ridiculous. Maybe the pace of innovation should decrease. Maybe we should stop spending billions to get one drug to market (then have to recoop those billions in a ten year period). By and large, however, the main problem is people expect free healthcare to be free. I just can't see the govt doing something better than a free market. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
I don't have a parachute
Remember that book 'What color is your parachute'? Yeah, that one. The post title refers to that. What do I mean. Well, I decided I am leaving academia as of July 11th or so. My fellowship is up June 30, I have a meeting and a talk scheduled in early July, and by the 11th they will be done. So it seems a logical point. I'm not interested in continuing in this lab, or in this project, or in academic research altogether. I think for those that enjoy it, great for them. But for most of us, its a long, frustrating, grueling process. Right now I'm just exhausted try to get these manuscripts out. I predict one will be accepted for publication and the other will never see the light of day. So be it.
The issue is that my boss continually wants me 100% on his work, even though 100% of my salary is from a different project (the one I am trying to finish up). Then I realized that in order to submit the project to a journal, it needs biological replicates. However, my boss disagrees, and in fact knows very little about the field he is a supposed expert in. This is all very disappointing to me, but it's irrelevent. What is relevent is that I am not productive in academic science, I have no idea how you could be, running 3 project by yourself side by side, with constant demands on your time and effort elsewhere.
If I were to stay, it would be very difficult to get these current projects out because at that point I would be funded by him with the rightful expectation that my work should be in the areas he cares about. I agree with that aproach, but a) there is no point doing so because these projects will not lead to a publication quickly, it will be at least 6 months, probably 1 or two years before that happens, and b) I am pretty sure nobody cares about manuscripts outside of academia. Yes, they are a useful measure of productivity, but is my best friend, who maybe has one first author paper to his name, a loser? Hardly, he has a good job and is becoming well established in his area. I have 3 right now, and probably another one or maybe two by the time this is over. So what. Nobody cares, end of story. Academic priorities are vastly different from the real world.
What will I do?
Well that is the question. I'd like to go into analytic chemistry/mass spectrometry, since I have some small expertese in that area. Failing that, I will probably get out of science altogether. If that means sales, marketing, IT, or something I'm not sure. I thought about it alot. Through my life I've had many different jobs, most of them meaningless and menial. Yet I was vastly happier than I am now. My health is failing, my mental facilities are just about shot, and I am so depressed and anxious I don't know who I am any longer.
I am pretty confident I will get a job. The unemployment rate among PhDs is much less than the population average (1-2% according to statistics). The misemployment is 10%, which is a measure of the people who are in field that are not directly related to their schooling. The amount of PhDs in academic science, by the way, is about 40% of work force, meaning the majority are not in academia. So don't feel like a loser if you 'can't make it' in academia. I know what the work world is like. Its easier and harder at the same time, but at the end of the day, it's just a job and your life/career is not hanging by a thread every single moment (which is a nice change from the current state here). So, anyway, I have statistics to back me up, and I know the economy will get better, and in some cases some industries are doing just fine and hiring. You just have to know where to look and who to talk to.
The issue is that my boss continually wants me 100% on his work, even though 100% of my salary is from a different project (the one I am trying to finish up). Then I realized that in order to submit the project to a journal, it needs biological replicates. However, my boss disagrees, and in fact knows very little about the field he is a supposed expert in. This is all very disappointing to me, but it's irrelevent. What is relevent is that I am not productive in academic science, I have no idea how you could be, running 3 project by yourself side by side, with constant demands on your time and effort elsewhere.
If I were to stay, it would be very difficult to get these current projects out because at that point I would be funded by him with the rightful expectation that my work should be in the areas he cares about. I agree with that aproach, but a) there is no point doing so because these projects will not lead to a publication quickly, it will be at least 6 months, probably 1 or two years before that happens, and b) I am pretty sure nobody cares about manuscripts outside of academia. Yes, they are a useful measure of productivity, but is my best friend, who maybe has one first author paper to his name, a loser? Hardly, he has a good job and is becoming well established in his area. I have 3 right now, and probably another one or maybe two by the time this is over. So what. Nobody cares, end of story. Academic priorities are vastly different from the real world.
What will I do?
Well that is the question. I'd like to go into analytic chemistry/mass spectrometry, since I have some small expertese in that area. Failing that, I will probably get out of science altogether. If that means sales, marketing, IT, or something I'm not sure. I thought about it alot. Through my life I've had many different jobs, most of them meaningless and menial. Yet I was vastly happier than I am now. My health is failing, my mental facilities are just about shot, and I am so depressed and anxious I don't know who I am any longer.
I am pretty confident I will get a job. The unemployment rate among PhDs is much less than the population average (1-2% according to statistics). The misemployment is 10%, which is a measure of the people who are in field that are not directly related to their schooling. The amount of PhDs in academic science, by the way, is about 40% of work force, meaning the majority are not in academia. So don't feel like a loser if you 'can't make it' in academia. I know what the work world is like. Its easier and harder at the same time, but at the end of the day, it's just a job and your life/career is not hanging by a thread every single moment (which is a nice change from the current state here). So, anyway, I have statistics to back me up, and I know the economy will get better, and in some cases some industries are doing just fine and hiring. You just have to know where to look and who to talk to.
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