Kiger's Notebook

Mayo launches new science blog

This is kind of interesting. Mayo Clinic is opening more windows into its interior. Of course, Mayo completely controls the flow of information through these portals. But it is still nice to get this perspective. It is another source for leads for stories.

The description of "middle ground news" is intriguing. I'd love to write more of that kind of news. I am not a fan of press releases (they often miss the true news value), but a one line e-mail or quick phone call would be enough for me to jump on such a story.

And check out o=who was speaking at the Mayo Clinic Theater at the recent international biobusiness conference - mega-investor Steve Burrill of Elk Run fame.

 Advancing the Science is the latest addition to Mayo Clinic's family of blogs.

"It's aimed at the public, but the topic is how medical science improves patient care," says blog editor Bob Nellis of Mayo's Public Affairs Department.

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"Mayo has so many great research stories to share," says Michael Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Mayo's Research Communications Subcommittee. "This is a great way to let everyone be involved and to reach new audiences, as well."

The goal is to provide a virtual home for everyone interested in how Mayo's groundbreaking research impacts treatments worldwide. The audience includes everyone who fits that description — whether student, scientist, science journalist, research collaborator, or one of the more than 500,000 patients treated at Mayo each year and their family members.

"We have long needed a venue for discussion and for the middle-ground news, the items that perhaps aren't the best fit for a news release or for a long magazine article," says Nellis. Mayo's research communicators will be regular contributors, but guest posts from Mayo patients, their families, and Mayo investigators and research community are welcomed and encouraged.

Builders' bash @ Warners Stellian

Jeff and Carla Warner of Warner Stellian, along with folks from Cambria and Electrolux, rolled out the brats, the keg, the steaks, the wine and big prizes like a new washer and dryer Thursday night at the Rochester Area Builders Fall Networking Night.

And the crowds rolled in. The economy, politics, housing and hairstyles were hot topics.

I heard managers from two businesses - in different conversations - tell me that they have to tell their staff to stop reading Kiger's Notebook and get back to work.

MESSAGE FOR WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN TOLD TO NOT LET READING MY BLOG GET IN THE WAY OF WORK - Don't listen to those supervisors! They have no vision. They are not innovators. Keep reading and one day you'll be the managers…Heh.

That's enough of my lobbying. Speaking of which , RAB President Brent Buchan of Energy Products & Design, Inc. gave a good non-partisan political pep talk about how important this election cycle is and encouraging everyone to be informed about the candidates.

And he even encouraged people to check on the Post-Bulletin's online election guide. See, another reason to read the P-B rather than working.

Buchan had a captive (he was standing in front of the door) and interested audience. of course, it was door prizes he was handing out that seemed to put a hush across the place.

Check out the tense faces (expect Mike Pruett, of course) in the crowd as the names were called.

A couple of electric drills that are part of the massive Trading Post tool auction that Grafe Auction is running this weekend were handed out.

Lots of towels (Check out how excited Diane Quinn of Beyond Kitchens was about hers) and coolers with built speakers (?).

Then the big deal - the washer and dryer was won by Jerry Jensen of Superior Plumbing.

All in all, an interesting night.

Cruise With Leaders - blogs and pics

Here's some from a follow-up story on the Cruise w/ Local Leaders event Thursday by Treasure Island Casino.

For the record, anonymous comments on stories and blogs were one the hot topics at the event. I felt the questions that touched on things like violence, Washington Village and other current issues were the most important ones.

So I blog issues at the bottom of the story. And to git the space I had, that part was cut from print. However, I'm including some that part here:

It wasn’t just Rah-Rah Rochester.

In-fill developments, gang violence and building difficulties were on the minds of Rochester business leaders as they peppered the top city and county officials with questions during Crusing with Local Leaders, an event sponsored by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce.

On the banks of the Mississippi outside Treasure Island Casino, Rochester City Council President Dennis Hanson and Olmsted County Board Chairman Dave Perkins faced tricky waters as about 100 people threw questions at them.

Hanson opened the discussion by describing his recent ride with Rochester city police on a Saturday night.
Dangerous situations

“When the sun goes down, the community changes,” he said, describing the gangs, violence and drugs he saw in that one night.

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“Dangerous things are happening in our community. We need to take strong proactive steps to get it under control now,” Hanson said. “We’re starting to understand…public safety is a huge, huge issue.”
Perkins, who pointed out that the county maintains the jail facility and provides social services, said these type of issues will not be solved by any single government group. “It is going to take the whole community,” he said.
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Referencing the recent opposition to the Washington Village housing project, Tony Lehrman of the Rochester Area Builders asked how in-fill developments like that could be handled better. Neighbors felt like the apartment complex would hurt the neighborhood.

Hanson said the drive of developers to fill open areas and the concern of people living in those neighborhoods is not easy to deal with.

“We try to do what’s right. It is not easy,” he said. “I can’t vote against it just because I want the neighbors to like me.’
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Chamber Executive Director John Wade asked if the often angry and meant-spirited anonymous comments posted on the Post-Bulletin’s Web site about issues like Washington Village impact leaders’ decisions.
“I think more and more blogs are driving public debate and not necessarily in a positive way,” Wade said.
Hanson said they comments do not effect the decisions he makes.
“We’re elected to be impartial,” he said. “It is emotional and they do hurt, but I don’t believe they effect policy.

Mayo Clinic = #1 whitest network on Facebook

OK, I finally take a peek at the famous, white-hot Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com humor Web site and what to wondering eyes should appear - Mayo Clinic of College of Medicine at the top of a list on the most recent post.

And the list is of "the whitest networks on Facebook." Here's the top five on the list:

1. Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
2. Vancouver, BC
3. Gonzaga
4. Wittenberg
5. Oklahoma

For those not familiar with it, this site is a humor site. And there is a book by the same name.

Here's a couple examples of stuff white people like:
#99 Grammar - White people love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white people love the most is grammar. It is in their blood not only to use perfect grammar but also to spend significant portions of time pointing out the errors of others.

#104 - Girls with bangs - If you see a white woman and you are trying to figure out whether she is liked or just merely tolerated by white people, the best thing you can do is get a quick look at her haircut. It is a known fact that white people love women who wear their hair with bangs that hang straight down.

IBM's top 3 supercomputers vs HP

You hopefully saw in today's paper that IBM took the top three spots in the Top500 fastest supercomputer list this week.

Here's an interesting perspective from Forbes' tech writer Andy Greenberg:

The days when IBM's mainframes monopolized hardware are long gone. But when it comes to big computing, Big Blue still leads the pack.

In the Top500 list, a twice-annual ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers, IBM not only took the top three spots for the fastest computers in the world, but also got credit for five of the top 10 fastest machines. All told, the Armonk, N.Y., company had 210 computers on the list--more than any other company.

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Trailing IBM in the fourth spot was Sun Microsystems, whose 326 trillion calculations-per-second "Ranger" supercomputer was its first ever to join the world's top five fastest machines, followed by a 205 trillion calculations-per-second machine known as "Jaguar" built by the Seattle-based supercomputer firm Cray.

But in terms of profit rather than prestige, IBM's biggest competitor in the supercomputing world may be a hardware manufacturer more focused on the bottom half of the Top500: Hewlett-Packard .

Unlike IBM, which supplements its use of commodity processors built by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices by developing its own processing hardware, including the "Cell" and "Power" line of processors, HP builds its supercomputers exclusively with Intel and AMD's cheaper chips. The lower end of the market where those commodity chips prevail accounts for around 70% of high-performance computing customers and is being targeted by both computing giants, says Srini Chari, a research analyst with Cabot Partners.

"The real battle today is between IBM and HP," Chari says.

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And HP's focus on the bottom half of the supercomputing market may in fact be more lucrative than the Top500's top spots, says Tabor Research analyst Deborah Goldfarb. Massive machines such as IBM's Roadrunner and Blue Gene supercomputers that are housed at national laboratories were likely sold for less profit than lower-range supercomputers, she says.

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But making money from supercomputers may not be IBM's only goal with projects like Roadrunner and Blue Gene, Goldfarb adds. The companies may instead be creating a "showroom" of solutions designed to win over smaller supercomputer buyers, as well as customers such as Yahoo! , Facebook and Amazon.com. to

System i blogger to IBM: Clean up your Web site

A running joke among the technorati in Rochester and certain pockets across the country has long been "What is the name of the AS/400, iSeries, System i, Power server today?"

While the latest incarnations of this mid-range computer server are not as closely tied to Rochester as during the days of Fortress Rochester, it is still of major interest here.

As such, I still watch the chatter on the machines.

Today a System i blogger by the name of David Vasta took IBM to task for not cleaning up its Web site. Former names as the way back to the AS/400 can still be found through the pages.

Here's his rant:

While in Nashville at COMMON I mentioned to IBM that someone and maybe more than one person needs to work on taking out all the old System i, iSeries, and eeeek AS/400 terms out of the OS and the IBM.com Web site.

I hate to report it, but it’s not happening like I would like it to. If this were Apple they would have had this all done while we were in the session, but IBM’s Web site has always been a tangled mess in much need of a comb.

And how the heck do I find the i from the main page? What gives IBM? Why is it so dang hard to find what you do? What do you hide it all from the customer. And not just the now customer, what about the next customer?

If I can’t find it and I have been a customer for over 18 years, how is “Johnny College Student” or “New IT Guy” going to find out what the Hell Power is and what they can run on it.

MAKE IT SIMPLE. I am starting to fall on the side of the old AS/400 guys who think you could not market water to people stuck in an oven…….COME ON!

Jane Fonda + Mayo Clinic?

OK, we know that the Dalai Lama is on his way to Rochester and Mayo Clinic, but is another well-known name and face already here?

One celeb gossip blog says Fonda is at Mayo, though it doesn't says which campus.

It quotes her friend, Lyndon Gillis as saying,

"There was no medical emergency that took Jane to the Mayo Clinic. It was a preplanned check up."

So maybe this is not a big deal, even if the report is accurate.

But it interesting the kind of traffic that rolls through this area. I have a call into Mayo to see if this report is correct.

Death by blogging? Uh-oh

Here's some from a disturbing story from the New York Times. Evidently, my devotion to providing all of you something to read and discuss may be …killing me!?!

Here's some from the medically questionable story by Matt Richtel:

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

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“I haven’t died yet,” said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen.”

“This is not sustainable,” he said.

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Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue.

“There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” Arrington said.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we said no blogger or journalist could write a story between 8 p.m. Pacific time and dawn? Then we could all take a break,” he added. “But that’s never going to happen.”

Mayo Clinic + yoga DVDs

Just happened upon a blog that is part of Gaiam.Com, an online yoga community.

Yogi Rodney Yee's latest posting says he is on his way to Rochester as part of a tour to promote a series wellness DVDs Gaiam created with Mayo Clinic.

Here's some from his posting:

I am in a small airplane on my way to the Mayo Clinic to do a satellite media tour with a Mayo Clinic doctor. We are going to talk about Integrative Medicine, and for me specifically, how yoga can help with many of the symptoms that patients deal with from their illnesses. The time has come for Western and Eastern health practices to merge, to find a united front in both preventative and curative health care.

Gaiam and Mayo Clinic have joined together to create 10 wellness DVDs that offer information and solutions to 10 of the most common modern ailments and health conditions. From back care to menopause, these programs teach us the facts and myths about these conditions with advice from the leading doctors of our time.

Blog milestones - 1 Million page views

Honk!

That's me honking my own horn.

This blog has hot a couple of milestones:

• On Friday, the total page views topped 1 million for the life of the blog.

• And the blog hits its three year anniversary this week. On March 4, 2005, I launched this blog as an experiment.

Since then, I've made more than 3,300 posts and people have made more than 5,200 comments.

I'm not sure if the experiment has paid off for the Post-Bulletin, but it certainly has been successful at giving me something interesting to do.

If this is a deemed a success, it will be due to your interest and input.

Thank you all for reading, holding me accountable, commenting, complaining, giving tips and sending in photos.