Sunday, April 7, 2013

Doctors Use Big Data to Improve Cancer Treatments

Doctorkeyboard2013-03-29 23:24:54 UTC

The American Society of Clinical Oncology is looking to further personalize and improve cancer care by tapping into data from millions of patients around the nation.

The organization completed the prototype for CancerLinQ, a "learning health system" that collects and analyzes anonymous patient information to provide immediate feedback and guidance for physicians.

Very little is known about most people's experiences with cancer because information is locked in unconnected servers and paper files, says Sandra M. Swain, president of ASCO. Only 3% of cancer patients participate in clinical trials, but that small percentage isn't reflective of patients doctors see every day.

Privacy issues are a major concern with medical information but the organization says the prototype has undergone extensive technological and legal analysis.

The CancerLinQ prototype currently focuses on breast cancer with "de-identified" data from 100,000 patients, meaning identifying information has been removed through a third party prior to being available for search. The data is collected by physicians as part of the treatment, and the information used in the system is not typically something patients need to consent to, says ASCO’s corporate secretary Dina Michels.

Data collected from patients mainly consists of factors that can improve physicians' quality of practice, such as giving appropriate medicine or survivorship care issues. The organization is still working to ensure the database complies with HIPAA regulations.

The system collects real-time data directly from electronic health records including lab tests and doctors' notes. It also works to pinpoints patient characteristics, treatments and outcomes to further provide physicians with personalized suggestions based on similar cases.

ASCO joins the slew of healthcare professionals and organizations using big data to further improvements in treatment, including IBM's Watson, which is being used by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to help patients using algorithms and data computing.

Image via iStockphoto, konglinguang

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Sorry, A Facebook Phone Doesn't Make Sense

Facebook-phone-istock2013-03-29 17:40:10 UTC

Mashable OP-EDFacebook is holding an Android-related press event next week and already the Internet is in a tizzy. Could this be the rumored, mythical, magical Facebook phone?

The truth is, I don't know. For nearly 18 months, rumors of a Facebook phone — developed by HTC and running a customized version of Android — have continued to persist. And for nearly 18 months, Facebook has publicly denied its interest in building its own phone.

Last September at TechCrunch Disrupt, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on at length about why a Facebook phone wasn't right for the company.

He said:

"Let’s say we build a phone. We’re not, but if we did, we could maybe get 10 to 20 million people to use it … It doesn’t move the needle for us."

"The strategy we have is different from every other tech company [like Apple] that’s building their own hardware system — we’re going in the opposite direction.."

Of course, if a Facebook phone is coming, this wouldn't be the first time that a CEO has said one thing publicly while planning on doing exactly the opposite. At Apple, Steve Jobs was famous for denouncing a product (iPod video) or industry (mobile phones), only to enter that same industry or create that same product later.

So let's assume that a Facebook phone is coming and that it will run some sort of highly-customized version of Android. Does a Facebook phone even make sense anymore, especially given the current market realities and competition in the mobile space?

I say no.

When the rumors of a Facebook phone first started to spread, the idea made sense — at least from a business perspective. Facebook was not yet a public company and it was desperately trying to transition into being a mobile-first company.

A phone made sense, in part, because the native mobile app experience was so poor. Not only were the old versions of Facebook for Android and iOS slow and lacking in feature parity with the website, the company hadn't started to figure out a way to monetize the apps themselves and offer mobile ad units to buyers.

At the same time, while Android was dominating the mobile landscape from a global perspective, Samsung hadn't solidified its role as the defacto face of the platform. Plus, most phones running Android in 2011 and into 2012 were running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. A customized version of Android built around Facebook was appealing, because Android itself was still lacking in polish and with some core functionality.

That's no longer the case. With every release, Android gets better looking and better performing. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is its best yet and we're expecting to see an even newer version at Google I/O in May.

Moreover, the face of Android is no longer Google, it's Samsung.

Moreover, the face of Android is no longer Google, it's Samsung. The Galaxy brand is tremendously powerful, with the Galaxy S III alone selling over 50 million units since June.

Plus, Facebook is improving on the mobile front. Its mobile apps are native now and the company has mobile ad units and is making changes to its core products — such as the News Feed — to be mobile first and properly monetized.

Facebook has over a billion users on the desktop, but its phone ecosystem won't pop up over night.

Even if it uses Android as a base, one has to assume that if Facebook makes a phone, it will want to have more control than allowed as part of Google's Open Handset Alliance. For better or worse, that would mean that it would need to be its own platform.

Apple and Android proper make up the vast majority of the smartphone space. The battle for third place isn't just being fought by Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10; it's also facing competition from the smaller mobile OS's such as Tizen, Ubuntu and Firefox OS.

Those companies are already making inroads in emerging markets, where it's easier to disrupt the iOS/Android duopoly. Facebook wouldn't just be competing with iOS and Google's version of Android — it would also be competing with carriers to actually give the phone a chance.

Microsoft — a company with a much longer and stronger history in mobile — has struggled to gain traction with carriers. Only now, after more than two years of work, is the company outselling iOS in a few select markets. If Facebook thinks it can just waltz in and get carriers to agree to sell its phone, it's mistaken.

Companies such as Huawei and ZTE — companies that sell more phones than HTC, I might add — struggle to get major U.S. carriers to pick up their products, and those products run Android proper.

Facebook will have a hard time getting carriers not only to agree to carry a Facebook phone, but to promote it. Right now, when a user walks into a store, she has to choose from among a few different iPhone models, a countless array of Android devices, some Windows Phone 8 models and even the BlackBerry Z10.

Plus, even if Facebook does make its own phone, it's not as if the company can ignore other platforms. The company has to be ubiquitous and offer its apps and services to everyone. Does it really make sense for Facebook to invest the time and resources in further fragmenting the phone space, when it still has to support the two big players anyway?

While I'm not convinced that a phone in any sense makes sense for Facebook, it's clear that Facebook does need to get its hooks deeper into mobile.

For a Facebook phone to be worthwhile — Zuckerberg is right — it can't be just 10 or 20 million, it has to have massive scale. Facebook will have a hard time achieving that scale with its own phone and OS. But that doesn't mean the company couldn't still achieve that sort of scale by going another route.

Rather than building a phone and customizing its own version of Android to fit its needs, Facebook should take some cues from Amazon and consider building its own Facebook app store that runs on Android devices.

Rather than building a phone and customizing its own version of Android to fit its needs, Facebook should take some cues from Amazon and consider building its own Facebook app store that runs on Android devices.

By app store — I don't just mean a copy of Google Play or a place for developers to offer their apps on yet another store — I mean a way for Facebook to offer mobile developers a way to build apps that interact and interface with Facebook on a deeper level. These apps could interface with the native Facebook interface more fluidly — and maybe even let developers bring their traditional Facebook apps to Android in a way that doesn't require the same commitment as building a traditional Android app.

Plus, an app store would be a good market test to see if the demand for a Facebook phone actually exists. After all, it would be a lot easier to launch a phone with a slew of supported mobile apps and deep integration.

Look, at one point, a Facebook phone might have made sense. In today's climate and crowded mobile market, that's no longer the case.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Lisa-Blue

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Nick Offerman Break Dancing Is Best Thing You'll Ever See

2013-03-29 20:05:52 UTC

Add break dancing to Nick Offerman's list of many talents.

The Parks and Recreation actor got jiggy with it on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, after recalling his childhood days on the soybean fields. Turns out Offerman needed a way to keep himself busy while killing weeds, so he turned to the fine art of break dance (as one does).

At the time, he dubbed himself "Tick Tock" and busted some sweet moves. And, after all these years, he proved to Fallon that he hasn't lost the beat.

But really, did any of us doubt his ability to get down and get funky?

Image courtesy of Imgfave, FromLexiWithLove.

Keep on dancin' till the world ends, Nick. Or, should we say, Tick?

Timthumb Timthumb-1 Timthumb-2 Timthumb-3 Timthumb-4 Timthumb-5 Timthumb-6 Timthumb-7 Timthumb-8 Timthumb-9

Image courtesy of YouTube, latenight

Topics: jimmy fallon, late night with jimmy fallon, Share as Post, Television, Videos, viral video, Watercooler, YouTube Video Lead if(window.pageChanged) window.omni({"channel":"watercooler","content_type":"article","top_channel":"watercooler","content_source_type":"Internal","content_source_name":"Internal","author_name":"Neha Prakash","age":"0","pub_day":29,"pub_month":3,"pub_year":2013,"pub_date":"03/29/2013","isPostView":true,"post_lead_type":"YouTube Video Lead"}); metaData = {"link":[["canonical","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/nick-offerman-break-dances/"],["image_src","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5Lzk5L25pY2tvZmZlcm1hLjZiYWVkLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/17c67bf1/cb5/nickofferman.jpg"]],"meta_property":[["og:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/nick-offerman-break-dances/"],["og:title","Nick Offerman Break Dances, World Explodes [VIDEO] "],["og:type","article"],["og:site_name","Mashable"],["og:image","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5Lzk5L25pY2tvZmZlcm1hLjZiYWVkLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/17c67bf1/cb5/nickofferman.jpg"],["og:article:published_time","2013-03-29T20:05:52Z"],["og:article:modified_time","2013-03-29T20:06:11Z"]],"meta_name":[["description","Nick Offerman proved to Jimmy Fallon that he could bust a sweet move on the dance floor. "],["keywords",["viral-videos","jimmy-fallon","late-night-with-jimmy-fallon","uncategorized","tv","share-as-post","watercooler","videos","youtube-video-lead"]],["twitter:title","Nick Offerman Break Dancing Is Best Thing You'll Ever See"],["twitter:description","Add break dancing to Nick Offerman's list of many talents. The Parks and Recreation actor got jiggy with it on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, after recalling his childhood days on the soybean fields. T..."],["twitter:image","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5Lzk5L25pY2tvZmZlcm1hLjZiYWVkLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTU2MHg3NTAKZQlqcGc/d811f7ab/cb5/nickofferman.jpg"],["twitter:site","@mashable"],["twitter:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/nick-offerman-break-dances/"],["twitter:creator","@mashable"],["twitter:card","player"],["twitter:player","https://www.youtube.com/embed/LHY5O1eYxk4"],["twitter:player:width","435"],["twitter:player:height","245"]],"short_url":[["short_url","http://on.mash.to/13E7Rbb"]]};

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Voyage to 10 'Game of Thrones' Cities on Travel Site Kayak

Game-of-thrones-kayak-easter-eggs2013-03-29 18:44:45 UTC

Much like the millions of people who are eagerly anticipating the March 31 return of Game of Thrones, the folks at travel service Kayak.com can't wait for the Season 3 premiere.

To hold fans over until then, Kayak has hidden Easter eggs on its website, the company exclusively told Mashable. People can now plan trips to and from 10 cities in the Game of Thrones continents of Westeros and Essos.

Fans can type the name or "airport code" of the fictitious cities in Kayak's flight search to see how much it would cost and how long it would take to travel to and from those cities.

The transportation options include travel by carriage or ship. A 6620-mile roundtrip in coach from Oldtown to Kings Landing, for example, would take nearly 556 hours and cost $570.

The searchable cities are Kings Landing, Westeros (KLA); Oldtown, Westeros (OLT); Lannisport, Westeros (LPR); Gulltown, Westeros (GUN); White Harbor, Westeros (WHI); Winterfell, Westeros (WFL); Pyke, Iron Islands, Westeros (PYK); Tyrosh, Essos (YRH); Pentos, Essos (PEO); and Braavos, Essos (BRV).

Kayak previously hid Easter eggs for the TV show Lost and a flight to space.

BONUS: 'Game of Thrones' Trailer Promises More Violent Third Season

Image courtesy of Game of Thrones' Facebook page

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Solar-Powered Plane to Make Cross-Country Flight

Solar-planeTia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writerfor TechNewsDaily 2013-03-29 18:13:23 UTC

Solar impulse, an ultra-lightweight plane powered completely by the sun is set to fly coast-to-coast this spring, researchers announced on March 28 at Moffett Air Field at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The plane requires zero fuel and relies solely on solar panels and battery power.

The two Swiss pilots of the plane, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, want to complete a flight from Moffett Field to New York City. Along the way it will stop in Phoenix, Ariz., Dallas-Ft. Worth, Washington, D.C., and either Nashville, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., or St. Louis. The plane will embark on May 1 and will arrive in the Big Apple by early July.

The plane, called Solar Impulse, has a wingspan equivalent to a 747 jetliner, the weight of a station wagon, and the power needs of a small scooter. The solar panels across its wings harness power from the sun during the day, and lithium-polymer batteries store that energy for overnight trips. A carbon-fiber material formed in a honeycomb structure makes up the bulk of the plane, which allows for its feather-weight.

In 2010, the Solar Impulse plane completed a 26-hour overnight flight and in 2012 flew from Switzerland to Morocco without any fuel.

The team's ultimate goal is to fly around the world. But to do that, the team needs to fly continuously for five days, which the current plane isn't equipped for. They would also need to find more efficient batteries and motors, as well as improve the plane's reliability, Borschberg said during a press conference.

"You have no time to do maintenance and no possibility to change parts," Borschberg said of an around-the-world trip.

Borschberg and co-pilot Bertrand Piccard have spent 10 years designing the plane. Piccard is known for his flying adventures: In 1999 Piccard traveled around the world in a hot air balloon.

In its current from, the Solar Impulse is far from having any practical applications. The plane travels at a leisurely cruising speed that's lower than the highway speed limit in the United States and can hold just one passenger in a cramped cockpit. But whereas the idea of using solar-powered planes for commercial flights sounds far-fetched, it's hard to say what the future holds, Piccard said in the press conference.

"Today, we cannot imagine having a solar-powered airplane with 200 passengers," Piccard said. But when the Wright brothers took flight in 1903 "it was exactly the same, and when Charles Lindberg crossed the Atlantic, he was all alone with an airplane full of gasoline."

Image via Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

This article originally published at TechNewsDaily here

Topics: Airplane, NASA, solar power, space, U.S., US & World TechNewsDaily is a Mashable publishing partner that is an exciting new and accessible source of technology news and information for non-geeks seeking to learn about the cool gadgets, powerful software and unavoidable technologies of everyday life. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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PayTango Lets You Pay With the Touch of a Finger

Paytango2013-03-30 02:13:18 UTC

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: PayTango

One-Line Pitch: PayTango lets you pay by scanning your fingerprint instead of a card so you can leave the plastic behind.

Why It's Taking Off: The startup aims to provide universities and gyms with a special scanner that connects the customer's fingerprint with a credit card, debit card or loyalty card.

Forget paying with credit cards or even your phone, a new service is aiming to let you pay with just the touch of your finger.

PayTango, a startup founded by four students at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed a special scanner that prompts consumers to record their fingerprint and swipe a credit card, debit card or loyalty card to be associated with it in the system. The scanner is designed to be quick and easy to use (as the company demonstrated in a recent Vine video, below), and to integrate right into the retailer's existing payment processing systems.

"What we can do is take biometric data and transmit it as hard data," Brian Groudan, co-founder of PayTango, told Mashable. "The computer looks at it the same way."


The PayTango team built an early prototype of the device at a hackathon last year while still in school and started piloting the technology at a restaurant at Carnegie Mellon. Since then, they have expanded to three other locations at their university and are currently in talks to bring PayTango to other universities as well as gyms and health clubs around San Francisco. It is also part of Y Combinator's Winter 2013 class of startups, which demoed their products earlier this week.

Groudan says he and his co-founders were initially interested in trying to help consumers "consolidate all of your cards into one card," but then they heard about a group of researchers at their university who used gesture-recognition technology to create doorknobs and other objects that recognize how they're being touched. This changed the team's thinking. "Our idea eventually evolved to 'why do you even need a card?'"

PayTango certainly isn't the first company to try using biometric data for payments. Several retailers and credit card companies have tested fingerprint payments in select markets over the years, including Discover and Mastercard. Groudan says PayTango hopes to differentiate itself by offering a more intuitive user experience and focusing on venues with "tight networks" like universities and health clubs. Eventually, the team hopes to roll the service out for transportation use and health care as well.

The startup has so far only raised money through Y Combinator, but is currently looking to raise a round.

Image courtesy of YouTube, PayTango

Topics: Business, Startups, The Launchpad if(window.pageChanged) window.omni({"channel":"business","content_type":"article","top_channel":"business","content_source_type":"Internal","content_source_name":"Internal","author_name":"Seth Fiegerman","age":"0","pub_day":30,"pub_month":3,"pub_year":2013,"pub_date":"03/30/2013","isPostView":true,"post_lead_type":"Default"}); metaData = {"link":[["canonical","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/paytango/"],["image_src","http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzMwLzM4L1BheVRhbmdvLmU0YzcyLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/c6dc8b83/771/PayTango.jpg"]],"meta_property":[["og:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/paytango/"],["og:title","PayTango Lets You Pay With the Touch of a Finger"],["og:type","article"],["og:site_name","Mashable"],["og:image","http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzMwLzM4L1BheVRhbmdvLmU0YzcyLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/c6dc8b83/771/PayTango.jpg"],["og:article:published_time","2013-03-30T02:13:18Z"],["og:article:modified_time","2013-03-30T02:13:27Z"]],"meta_name":[["description","Forget paying with credit cards or even your phone, a new service is aiming to let you pay with just the touch of your finger."],["keywords",["startups","uncategorized","business","the-launchpad"]],["twitter:title","PayTango Lets You Pay With the Touch of a Finger"],["twitter:description","Forget paying with credit cards or even your phone, a new service is aiming to let you pay with just the touch of your finger."],["twitter:image","http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzMwLzM4L1BheVRhbmdvLmU0YzcyLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTU2MHg3NTAKZQlqcGc/2f59b53d/771/PayTango.jpg"],["twitter:site","@mashable"],["twitter:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/paytango/"],["twitter:creator","@mashable"],["twitter:card","photo"],["twitter:image:width","560"],["twitter:image:height","750"]],"short_url":[["short_url","http://on.mash.to/ZsWkTe"]]};

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Marissa Mayer Tells Inside Story of How Yahoo Wooed Her

Mayer2013-03-29 21:30:16 UTC

Marissa Mayer was originally planning a six-month maternity leave, but shortened that to two weeks after she got the CEO job at Yahoo, she revealed in a blog post on Friday.

Mayer's contribution, on Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In blog, tells the inside story of her frame of mind when Yahoo came calling:

On June 18th, I got the call.

“I’m doing a CEO search. It’s a Fortune 500 company. It’s in the consumer Internet space. It’s in Silicon Valley — you wouldn’t even have to move. It’s the perfect job for you. The board is asking for you by name. Are you interested? It’s Yahoo.”

Mayer writes that she had gotten similar calls before, but was intrigued because she was a Yahoo fan:

... this time it was Yahoo, and that changed everything. I started using Yahoo before it was even called Yahoo. Yahoo defined the Internet. They helped get Google started. Yes, they had their ups-and-downs — but, the potential was huge. The alignment with my experience and career was uncanny: search, email, homepage, news, finance, maps, social, mobile and more.

One hitch, though. Mayer was 28 weeks pregnant and looking forward to a "glorious six-month maternity leave" after 13 years at Google.

However, if I took the new job, a long leave couldn’t happen. The responsibilities were too big, and time was of the essence — it just wouldn’t be fair to the company, the employees, the board, or the shareholders for me to be in the role, but out for an extended period of time.

Despite the truncated maternity leave, Mayer reports that everything is working out fine:

I’ve now been at Yahoo for eight months, and I’m having a ball — there are great people and terrific ideas. It’s hard work, but I love to work hard. At the same time, starting a family with my husband has been all I hoped it would be and then some — joyful, intense, challenging. At five and a half months old, Macallister is tremendously fun — a big personality already. I live to spend time with him — be it to teach him sounds and songs, play a game of peek-a-boo (his latest obsession), or be his sidekick as he explores the world around him.

I’ve come to realize that being a mother makes me a better executive, because motherhood forces prioritization. Being a mom gives you so much more clarity on what is important. I’m very close to my own mother; she has always been my most important role model. I’m grateful to her and to my father for a lifetime of their love, attention, teaching and sacrifice. Over the past five short months, my appreciation has grown for all parents, especially those balancing work obligations, because I know they have that same clarity of dedication and purpose.

Of course, not everyone will be sympathetic to Mayer's situation. She has already been criticized for building a nursery for her child in the office while famously forbidding other Yahoo employees from working from home.

Image via Getty, Johannes Eisele

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Justice League Cars Will Make You Geek Out

P10102742013-03-29 21:27:34 UTC

NEW YORK — The 2013 New York International Auto Show brought the shiniest new car models to the Big Apple this week, but none are as much fun as the Justice League-inspired vehicles from Kia Motors.

From the Superman Optima Hybrid and the Batman Optima to the Wonder Woman Sportage and Green Lantern Soul, Kia featured a series of cars with intricate details related to each superhero.

For example, Batman's Kia car has the bat symbol in the headlights, as well as his ammo hidden in the arm rest. Cars have its own custom paint and trims based on costumes and color schemes too.

The concepts are a part of an effort to raise awareness for DC Entertainment’s “We Can Be Heroes” fighting hunger relief campaign.

Although the concept cars — which aren't available for purchase — have already been revealed at other auto shows, the Wonder Woman model made its debut this week.

Kia also has models for other Justice League characters such as Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg. For a full look at the line, check out the images above.

Images by Mashable, Samantha Murphy

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