Stool Sampler
Mar 31, 2006, 8:24a - Health and Medicine
Since I'm on the topic of health, I can think of no better time than to to tell this story. I related some of it to Aki, and he inspired me to post it on my blog.
Several weeks ago, I decided to visit my doctor because I was worried that I had some sort of bacteria or parasite in ... more »
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Roy
- Mar 31, 2006, 9:49a
Thanks for the amusing story.
Mental note: In the future, will not read Nik's blog right after lunch.
I interned a long time ago at BD, a company that actually makes that sort of product. Never personally worked on stool though, I worked solely on blood collection.
Aki
- Mar 31, 2006, 8:06p
Best quote - "Shit."
omar
- Apr 4, 2006, 8:28a
your blog is going out of my web clips! this is disgusting!
you know, you could've just shat on some newspaper or something, and tossed it afterwards, no? this whole playing catch sounds ridiculous!
garry
- Apr 9, 2006, 6:06p
ROTFL
nikhil
- Nov 27, 2006, 2:54a
shitting on a newspaper would have contaminated the shit...
Arkie
- Nov 28, 2007, 9:30p
Well, I am going to have to provide a sample of "poop" to my doc and I found your story on line via a web search of "how to do it!" Very amusing, but I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do tomorrow morning when I try to collect my sample. I think the idea of having a Stanford senior work on this project sounds great. Can the senior student email me his solution before tomorrow morning?
Liz
- Mar 13, 2010, 6:44p
Lol!!!
Let's Work to Improve Global Health
Mar 28, 2006, 9:00a - Health and Medicine
Here are some things I think we must fund to improve global health care:
1) Poor country disease eradication
Many diseases, such as malaria (which kills 1M/year), don't get the attention or funding that they deserve. Some drugs that would only benefit poorer countries aren't developed because there isn't enough money to be made to be worth the effort. Beyond ... more »
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A Great Organization
Mar 20, 2006, 8:16a - Organization
Lately, I've been spending some time thinking about what it takes to make a great organization. By "organization", I mean a group of individuals who come together to achieve a shared goal; I'm not trying to figure out the best way to organize my CD collection :).
If you want to create long-lasting change in the world, I believe that ... more »
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Alvaro
- Apr 15, 2006, 2:44p
I think you undermine your proposed benchmarks by saying specifically, "funded by a lucrative business model." It seems like you're referring to a commercially driven organization, but then at the end of your post you say "corporation, government, non-profit, etc" and I don't believe that non-profits should be judged by how "lucrative" they are per se.
This comment is really just a technicality, nothing serious. Otherwise, the rest of the benchmarks sound really interesting, if obvious (and even foo-foo).
I'm curious to know if you had a specific organization in mind when you created this list.
Nikhil
- Apr 18, 2006, 9:33a
Hey Alvaro,
Hope you're doing well. What are you up to these days? Still working in DC?
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog.
I've been thinking about how to build a great organization a) as I've watched Google increase 10x in size and b) because I have ambitions to start and build an organization in the future.
I agree that the point about having a lucrative business model may be contentious. However, I've observed much greater success in organizations that have a healthy business model than those that don't. Google is a prime example of this - it's able to fund a bunch of great products that wouldn't be able to pay for themselves on their own (e.g. Maps). The US government is perhaps the king here - it has the most ingenious, lucrative business model: take a cut of every transaction. The budget for this coming year is $2.7T, based on, i think, ~$2.1T in revenue. This enormous revenue source is critical for it to fund whatever it wants, be it multiple wars, international aid, universal health care, or whatever.
In contrast, I've observed that non-profits are generally no where nearly as effective at achieving their goals as organizations with lucrative business models. Of course, they frequently take on more difficult goals, but I don't think that's the critical difference.
However, I also believe that corporations, while they do a lot of good, also do a lot of bad because they are focused on generating profits.
I'm hopeful that there will develop a next generation of organizations that is neither "for-profit" or "not-for-profit" or "government", but actually just "for-good". I'm not sure how exactly such an organization sustain itself and what the mechanics would be, but I'm hopeful that a) someone has already developed such a notion, or b) I can work to develop and implement such an organization.
Thoughts?
Charles
- Nov 4, 2006, 2:08a
you must also study the dysfunctions of organization. Max Weber is the great pioneer of this study, and many others have continued his work.
Wireless Power
Mar 19, 2006, 10:10a - Technology
I've been reading a lot of Tesla lately - the man was pretty much a genius. He has hundreds of patents to his name and a large number of fantastical stories surround his life. Specifically, he is known for walking around his lab with light bulbs that would light up without being connected to any observable (wired) power source.
Above ... more »
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david
- Mar 19, 2006, 8:32p
I was reading about this; apparently if you're using a tesla coil, flourescent lights in the room will light up.
Amit Patel
- Apr 4, 2006, 9:43a
Ah, but can you recharge your laptop this way?
Rent-A-Carpool
Mar 18, 2006, 10:40a - Business
I spend about 3 hours commuting roundtrip to work everyday. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, so here's my latest: rent-a-carpool.
The premise of this business is simple: drivers rent a companion to drive with so they can drive in the carpool lane. You could imagine charging drivers $0.20 per mile or minute for the companion. Each ... more »
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Sachin
- Mar 18, 2006, 11:17p
Sounds cool. but it defeats the purposes of the carpool lane (setting aside the argument of whether caprool lanes work at all).
I seem to remember something about people picking up passengers in order to avoid bridge tolls. But I may be making that up.
David
- Mar 18, 2006, 11:40p
Interesting idea. There's a beautiful Curb Your Enthusiasm ephisode where Larry David picks up a sex worker to ride in the carpool lane to a Dodgers game.
http://www.tv.com/curb-your-enthusiasm/the-car-pool-lane/episode/296200/summary.html
Aki
- Mar 19, 2006, 10:59a
Yeh people pick up others (I think you actually need 3) to cross the Bay Bridge via Casual Commuter (http://www.ridenow.org/carpool/). I know a few people who've done it and say it works, it's just a little weird.
David
- Jun 9, 2006, 3:00p
I search google for you.... hear is the resulting site.
http://rideshare.511.org/carpooling/
Brillant idea, truly
Bill Gates' Monopoly Trial (Clip)
Mar 17, 2006, 12:26p - Videos
"This is Bill Gates before Microsoft was declared an illegal monopoly in 1998. In this video Bill Gates is apparently being grilled by a tough government lawyer. This video was thought to be scrubbed off the Internet after 1998 by Microsoft -- so someone must be an insider to get this."
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renaldo lofto n
- Sep 13, 2007, 10:58a
bill gates act like he really did it
Book Notes: My Inventions - Autobiography of Tesla
Mar 4, 2006, 12:00p - Book Notes
Last week, Dave piqued my interest about Tesla, so I decided to read his autobiography, which is available online for free. Tesla was an amazing inventor, "at one point creating an earthquake which shook the ground for several miles around his New York laboratory. He also devised a system which anticipated worldwide wireless communications, fax machines, radar, radio- guided ... more »
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