Day: August 4, 2004

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Swoopin’ and Hoopin’

The U.S. Olympic basketball team got drilled by Italy in a tune-up game yesterday. The Italians managed to drop 15 3-pointers on a team composed of NBA stars. A lot of big names dropped out of the Olympic squad (or turned down invites) because of security concerns, exhaustion, injury, and/or marriage plans. I think one actually said he couldn’t go because he was washing his hair.

Anyway, the era of American dominance in hoops has been over since the World Championships in 2002, when Argentina beat the U.S. pretty badly (I bought an Argentina basketball jersey from Ebay the next day: Go, Origenes!). The American team went into a spiral, and came in 6th at that tournament, an absolute embarrassment for a squad comprised of NBA veterans.

This year’s squad may repeat that performance, on a much bigger stage. Sports Guy (Tyler Durden to my Narrator) explains why this is going to happen, and how USA Basketball can fix it.

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Phase 0

Neat article in today’s NYTimes about changes in preclinical drug testing. That subject matter may not interest you too much, but it’s part of my day job, and I have a vested interest in seeing the pharma/biopharma industry come up with better methods of drug discovery & development.

The best part of the article is that it doesn’t politicize, mention Medicare reform or Canadian reimportation, or imply that the drug companies are venal corporations out to suck the life from the American populace. It just talks about the new developments, some of their ethical questions, and the necessity of improving the R&D return-on-investment.

This is a pleasant change from the last days of Howell Raines, when the paper actually ran an opinion piece by a man who complained that Iressa added several months to the life of his wife, who suffered from brain tumors. No, really.

(Speaking of my day job, if you follow through that link, you’ll see my magazine’s annual Top Companies report, in which my associate editor and I profiled the top 20 pharma companies and top 10 biopharmas. Y’know: if that sorta thing interests you.)