Monthly Archives: July 2010

There’s been a lot of commentary recently on the future of Microsoft’s leadership team.  Well-known Microsoft executives like Robbie Bach and J Allard left or announced their decision to leave.  The stock price has basically been flat since Steve Ballmer took over the company, while competitors like Google and Apple experienced a rapid increase in growth.

Debate is continuing across the internet about the future of Microsoft’s executive team.  Will stockholders and the board of directors encourage Steve Ballmer to leave?  Will Ray Ozzie lead the company?

I have an idea for a potential new Microsoft CEO: Marc Andreessen.

Over the last few years – and likely for the next few years as well – the biggest tech buzzwords have been mobile, social, and cloud.

Andreessen has experience in all of these spaces:

1. He co-founded Netscape, meaning that he’s been thinking of the web (including the mobile web) and its potential longer than nearly anybody.

2. He co-founded Ning, an online platform that allows people to create their own niche social networks.

3. He’s on the boards of Facebook, eBay, and HP.

4. He invested in Digg, Twitter, Foursquare, and Zynga.

5. He co-founded Opsware (acquired by HP for $1.6 billion), which developed SAAS technology and server-management software.

The most straightforward way for Andreessen to become CEO of Microsoft would be via the acquisition of Facebook and Ning.  In fact, Microsoft already owns a stake in Facebook.  This would position Microsoft as the leader in social networks, which are becoming a larger and larger portion of what we think of as “the web.”  The company is also making a big move in the cloud space with the Windows Azure Platform.  Microsoft’s mobile efforts have been less successful thus far, but I’m sure Andreessen would have some very effective ideas for that space.

As a strong technical founder and executive, Marc Andreessen is the perfect choice to lead one of the world’s largest tech companies.

In my post Low Carb and Paleo Diet Investing, I described how the trend of more people switching to low carb and paleolithic diets would impact various industries.  In The Paleo Prescription for Economic Success, I discussed how the paleo diet could revitalize global health and improve the world economy.

Here are some links to blogs and websites of low carb and paleo proponents so you can find more information on this lifestyle:

Physicians:

Dr. Al Sears: doctor and author of health books

Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt: a doctor who researches the science of weight loss

Dr. Ben Balzer: general practitioner and paleo blogger

Dr. Brian Scott Edwards: physician and low carb blogger

Dr. C. Rick Henriksen: physician and paleo blogger

Dr. Calvin Ezrin: endocrinologist and low carb author

Dr. Cate Shanahan: board certified family physician and author of “Deep Nutrition”

Dr. Daniel Stickler: concierge medicine physician and paleo blogger

Dr. Deborah Chud: a doctor and food writer who wrote “The Gourmet Prescription for Low-Carb Cooking”

Dr. Diana Schwarzbein: endocrinologist and author

Dr. Doug McGuff: emergency medicine physician and co-author of “Body by Science”

Dr. Duane Graveline: a doctor and former astronaut

Dr. Emily Deans: a psychiatrist who blogs about finding evolutionary solutions to common mental health problems

Dr. Erik Hexeberg: internal medicine physician and low carbohydrate diet author

Dr. Fred Pescatore: a doctor and director of a medical center

Dr. Jack Kruse: a neurosurgeon who researches leptin

Dr. James Braly: a doctor who writes about the health problems associated with grains

Dr. James Carlson: board certified family physician and low carb author

Dr. James O’Keefe: a cardiologist and medical professor

Dr. Jay Wortman: a doctor who supports low carbohydrate nutrition

Dr. John Briffa: a doctor in London and the author of books on health that are popular in the UK

Dr. Kurt Harris: a radiologist and founder of an independent imaging center

Dr. Larry McCleary former acting Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Denver Children’s Hospital and author of “The Brain Trust Program”

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick general practitioner and author of “The Great Cholesterol Con”

Dr. Mary Dan Eades a doctor who co-authored books on the health benefits of low carb and paleolithic diets

Dr. Michael Aziz: internal medicine physician and author of “The Perfect 10 Diet”

Dr. Michael Eades: a doctor who ran a bariatric medicine practice and co-authored books on the health benefits of low carb and paleolithic diets

Dr. Peter Attia: low carb physician and blogger

Dr. Richard Bernstein: a doctor who supports low carbohydrate diets for treating diabetics

Dr. Robert Su: anesthesiologist and author

Dr. Ron Rosedale: a doctor with a low carb health plan

Dr. Roxanne Sukol: board certified internal medicine physician and low carb blogger

Dr. Sofia Hexeberg: physician and low carbohydrate author

Dr. Steve Parker: creator of the Diabetic Mediterranean Diet

Dr. Steven Gundry: a surgeon and inventor of some of the most widely-used heart surgery devices

Dr. T: a nephrologist who writes the EvMed Forum blog

Dr. Uffe Ravnskov: a physician in Sweden who now works as an independent scientific researcher and studies the health benefits of fat

Dr. William Davis: a cardiologist who discusses reversing plaque build-up and other health topics

Biologists and Medical Researchers:

Dr. Art Ayers: a biology professor who presents research on the benefits of anti inflammatory nutrition

Dr. Christian Allan: biotechnology executive and author of “Life Without Bread”

Dr. Elke Nelson: molecular biologist and Crossfit trainer

Dr. Loren Cordain: a professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University

Dr. Mat Lalonde: organic chemist whose research supports paleo nutrition and training

Dr. Norm Robillard: a microbiologist who describes how low carbohydrate diets can cure heartburn/GERD/acid reflux

Dr. Richard Feinman: professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Dr. Staffan Lindeberg: author of the book Food and Western Disease

Dr. Stargazey: has a Ph.D. in medical biochemistry

Dr. Stephan Guyenet: a neurobiologist who studies the neurobiology of fat regulation

Dr. Stephen Ilardi: developed a method to cure depression that shares commonalities with the lifestyles of hunter-gatherers

Researchers with Academic Experience:

Dr. Arthur De Vany: a professor of economics who researched nutrition on his own for decades and discovered a lifestyle for optimal health

Dr. Dave Dixon: physicist and nutrition blogger

Dr. Diana Hsieh: a philosopher and paleo food expert

Dr. Ned Kock: a researcher who applies statistics to understanding health and nutrition

Dr. Paul Jaminet: physicist and coauthor of the Perfect Health Diet

Dr. Shou-Ching Jaminet: molecular biologist and cancer researcher

Independent Researchers and Trainers:

Anthony Colpo: personal trainer and independent researcher

Chris Kresser: supports eliminating neolithic foods to improve health

Chris Masterjohn: describes the benefits of cholesterol

Dallas Hartwig: physical therapist and paleo author

Dana Carpender: a food writer and the author of popular low carb cookbooks

Denise Minger: analyzes nutrition studies in great detail

Evelyn Kocur: has a scientific background and rigorously examines nutritional evidence

Gary Taubes: a science journalist and bestselling author

George Stella: author of low carb cookbooks who lost 250 lbs

Hannah Sutter: low carb blogger

Jamie Scott: exercise scientist who supports paleo nutrition

Jimmy Moore: conducts interviews with low carb researchers

John Durant: has tips about the paleo lifestyle (and was interviewed on the Colbert Report)

John Welbourn: veteran of the NFL and CEO of Paleo Brands

Keith Norris: has lots of paleo food and exercise advice

Mark Sisson: a health author and nutrition consultant

Matt Metzgar: a primal trainer

Melissa Hartwig: nutritionist and paleo author

Melissa McEwen: has lots of great tips about paleo food

Nora Gedgaudas: author of a book on primal nutrition

Petro Dobromylskyj: an independent researcher who studies the benefits of high fat nutrition

Richard Nikoley: lost weight & gained muscle and a source of tons of paleo information

Robb Wolf: a biochemist and trainer who has lots of info on paleo nutrition and training

Sarah Fragoso: paleo cookbook author

Sean Croxton: trainer and paleo blogger

Updated 6/23/2012

My genome is now listed in the list of public genomes on SNPedia.  I’m in the company of major trendsetters like Craig Venter, Esther Dyson, George Church, and Steven Pinker – all people who have made their genomes publicly available.

Big thanks to Mike Cariaso, Greg Lennon, and all the SNPedia contributors for putting together this great resource!

In an earlier post (Download my Genome), I shared some videos about how to use an application called Promethease to get further information on the SNPs in your genome.  I ran Promethease using the raw data I downloaded from 23andMe.

The report lists some interesting SNPs found in your genome (the information on the SNPs comes from SNPedia).

Here is a link to my Promethease report:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8013395/promethease-snpedia.html

I recently got my genome analyzed by 23andMe.

Here are the results (all are in PDF format):

1. 23andMe Research Report – This is a summary of the most significant information in my genome based on the SNPs that 23andMe studies.

2. Carrier Status – This shows my potential carrier status for certain variants in my genome.

3. Disease Risk – This shows which diseases I’m at increased or reduced risk for based on the SNPs I have.

4. Drug Response – This shows how I would potentially respond to certain medications.

5. Traits – This shows other various traits that I have based on the SNPs in my genome.

There weren’t really any huge surprises for me, but now I have made sure to know the symptoms of thromboembolism.  Hopefully the Omega-3’s I take can deal with that potential risk as well.

One of the really cool things that 23andMe lets you do is browse and download your raw data.

I’m sure there are a lot of options for things to do with it, but one in particular that’s awesome is to run it through Promethease.

Promethease lets you build a report based on the SNPs listed in SNPedia.

Here’s some background information on Promethease from SNPedia:

http://www.snpedia.com/index.php?title=Promethease

Here’s a video demo of Promethease:

I uploaded my raw data to Dropbox if you want to check it out. 23andMe provides a collection of SNP information instead of complete data on a full human genome, but it’s still a great resource. Here’s the download link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8013395/genome_Sam_Snyder_Full_20100611140929.zip