QDIS Blog

QD Information Services is pleased to announce they now offer podcast consulting services. If you want to learn what podcasting can do for your company and you want to start a podcast QDIS can help. QD Information Services has been involved with podcasting since its inception in August 2004 and now produces the podcast “Searching the Internet“.

Podcasting is not jut a fad but is an efficient method, unique, low-cost method to communicate with your costumers or just anyone with access to the Internet.

Feel free to contact me if you’d like to further discuss how podcasting can help your company.

Technorati Tags: consultant, consulting, podcast, podcasting

Email Ed Vawter

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Voting is an important duty for everyone in the US. I also think people should spend time going over the issues and candidates in order to make an informed choice. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know about what is easily the most important episode of “Searching the Internet” that I have done to date. Episode 12 covers information for voters and I review sites to help you make intelligent decisions in the upcoming election. All the sites reviewed are non-partisan and give unbiased information about the candidates and issues. I’m hopeful that people will find this review of election and voter information related sites useful and helpful.

I feel voting is very important and wanted to contribute something to the podcasting community. I went through many sites before settling on the ones I decided to include. Episode 012 covers election information sites. These include:

• Yahoo News Midterm Elections 2006
• C-SPAN
• CNN America Votes 2006
• Fair Vote
• getvoting411.us
• League of Women Voters
• Vote411.org
• Electionline
• Elections 2006
• Factcheck.org
• Media Matters for America
• Politics1.com
• Project Vote Smart
• RealClearPolitics
• Election Protection 365
• Election Incident Reporting System
• Electroral-Vote.com
• Election Projection - 2006 Edition
• Clusty Results for 2006 Midterm Election
• Mooter Results for 2006 Midterm Election

I feel voting is the most important duty of any American and I hope this episode helps people make informed decision at the polls on Nov 7.

Technorati Tags: election, vote, voting

Email Ed Vawter

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Well, I think it was just a matter for time but it seems to have occurred much sooner than I thought it might. A new strain of bird flu called H5N1 Fujian-like has been discovered at the University of Hong Kong. This new strain is resistant to the vaccines that are currently in development for bird flu.

Scientists Uncover New Bird Flu Strain - Los Angeles Times

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Unfortunately it looks like the virus is drifting but there is no way to know if the drift will make the virus more easily spread.

Other Resources

Emergence and predominance of an H5N1 influenza variant in China — Smith et al., 10.1073/pnas.0608157103 — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (abstract)

Technorati Tags: avian flu, bird flu, vaccine

Email Ed Vawter

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Wow! Merck is paying a 100% premium in cash for the tiny company Sirna. The merger activity is really picking up steam and is almost a mania now in my opinion.

Inside Merck’s Biotech Buy - Forbes.com

Merck Buys Maker of Gene-Silencing Drugs - New York Times

Sirna is developing a technology for silencing genes that Merck seems to want very badly. This is the technology that was the basis of the Nobel prize in medicine announced last month. The deal is all cash at double the Sirna stock price as of Oct 30. While RNAi is interesting, it seems to be a large price to pay for a promising but not yet proven technology. It may pay off, but the risks seem high for a technology this early in its development cycle.

To be fair, Sirna does have some other products in development including one for hepatitis C and for macular degeneration. And thy do have deals with a GlaxoSmithKline and Allergan. It will be interesting to see how those deals are dealt with after the acquisition.

I want to comment on the whole merger mania as a whole. By this point, I’m starting to believe that it is moving beyond finding a good deal with a good chance of a return and moved into “jumping on the bandwagon” because everyone else is doing it. When this sort of attitude starts prevailing I think it can lead to some very bad deals. It allows downtrodden beaten up companies that aren’t performing well to be picked up at a premium. Overpaying for an acquisition is never a good thing. I have been involved in some M&A activity where it seems the acquiring party has already made up their mind before even doing the required due diligence. This sort of mentality leads to very poor decisions from my perspective. I can only hope that any further M&A activity is done with an open mind and by looking at the facts and data before coming to a decision. Otherwise, the pharmaceutical industry could be looking at a future of continued lack of drug candidates due to poorly chosen merger activities.

Technorati Tags: Merck, pharma M&A, pharmaceutical deals, Sirna

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