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While I'm out...

By tsmith on June 28, 2006.

One of the things that faculty get to do is go to lots and lots and lots of meetings. Today I'm at a 6-hour retreat focused on distance learning, PubMed, and data repositories. (I know, you're all seething with jealousy). I hope to have another post up later this afternoon if I can get to it; in the meanwhile, here are a few notable posts from elsewhere:

Revere at Effect Measure has an overview of H5N1 over the last 6 months, and discusses why SARS and West Nile aren't "false alarms."

Coturnix brings you a potpourri of science news. He also has a DonorsChoose update--check out how much has been raised, and by whom. Meanwhile, I'd really like to get 15 donations by Saturday, the end of the contest--I have 9 currently. Again, if you have an extra $10 or $20 to kick in and you've not yet donated to one of the blogger challenges here at Scienceblogs, my challenge is here.

Orac brings you even more shadiness by the Geiers, the father-son pair who've been at the heart of the thimerosal-vaccine "controversy" here in the US.

Tags
General Epidemiology
infectious disease
Skepticism
Various viruses

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'Distance learning...'?

Didn't the CIA and Army do a lot of that research in that area during the 1950's and '60s?

So Tara, let's try some practice: I'm looking outside. Try drawing a picture of what I'm seeing.

By Unsympathetic reader (not verified) on 29 Jun 2006 #permalink

Actually, I was thinking that since it was on distance learning, you should have asked if you could conference call in.

The data repository thing sounds interesting though. I have a little seed of an idea for trying to put together a giant countywide data mine. It'll probably get choked out by the weeds of my normal work duties, but it's a nice thought. Is the data repository just going to be for data collected by department researchers or are they planning on tossing in other heavily accessed third-party data like census numbers and stuff?

Is the data repository just going to be for data collected by department researchers or are they planning on tossing in other heavily accessed third-party data like census numbers and stuff?

The plan is to have an archive of data from projects university-wide, but it's going to be a logistical nightmare. For instance, much of what we do involves human subjects and much confidential patient data, so we can't just turn that over to a third party to store without a number of safeguards. The ideal of a huge data resource like you mention is a good one, but it's going to take a lot to get there.