Saturday, December 10, 2011

BREAKING NEWS: ENDO STOPS PAGOCLONE.

I have breaking news for you. Endo, the phamaceutical company owning Pagoclone, will stop the trials on Pagoclone completely and focus on their core business model.

As I have already announced, the Phase II trials did not go well (or well enough).

A few thoughts:

1) Endo spent millions on this. Now you know why pharmaceutical companies need to earn a lot of money on successful drugs because they spent so much on those that don't make it!

2) People need to ask themselves why they were part of the hype. And why they interpreted the Phase I and IIa so positively.

3) Thanks to all those who have worked hard to run the random control trials, especially Jerry Maguire. I never shared their enthusiasm, but in science you need to take risks and try it out.

4) This trial has given us information about stuttering, just not the one we want. Endo now has a large sample of control data. We now know much more about the placebo phenomena in stuttering. That is very valuable information, if it is published in a paper...


TED Talk on the brain


For a visually beautiful introduction to the brain and how scientists are measuring the structure and gene activity. Check out the TED TALK by Allan Jones. You can even access the data on-line. Download the software and zoom into the brain. These maps are important to study brain disorders, including stuttering. As far as I know, no-one is using these maps in stuttering, or working on building up a database of dead stuttering brains.

Would you donate your brain? I am not sure I would. Slicing up my brain would inevitable lead to my final destruction... even though it won't really matter because I am already dead at that point!

I also wonder whether you need healthy, fully developed, and not yet declining brains, ideally 25 years of age. Foundas did some research on the anatomical structure of stuttering brains. But I am not sure if they were dead or not.

(Thanks to Will for pointing this video out to me!)

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Paris: ce lundi ou mardi soir?

Je suis à Paris pour un business trip du lundi au mecredi. Mon hotel est près de George V. Si quelqu'un est intéressé d'aller boire un coup le soir, email me under tom dot weidig at gmail dot com!

Text me under 00352 621 432263.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Sanne Hans: A true role model...



Another video from Sanne Hans (Miss Montreal) with a good song Addicted to Crying. She is a real role model for people who stutter and for the public. And not one of those Joe Bidens or Emily Blunts that I and no-one else has ever heard stuttering publicly but I have to endure their story on how they overcome their stuttering by doing XYZ...

Friday, December 02, 2011

It could be so easy



In a sense this is a perfect scenario for those advocating open stuttering, and a slap in the face for those who do not and preach we should not. This young singer very clearly stutters and struggles at time. But she is so relaxed, funny, and just gets on with speaking. And she is a good singer (check at 3:10)

Notice that the audience is not at all embarrassed. Why? Because she is not embarrassed! Isn't that what people sometimes tell us: What's so bad about stuttering, you are just not so fluent. So what? Is stuttering really purely neurological?