Happy 4th

No posting today.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:29 AM
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Fight For Mike

Mike Homer is an investor in my company, FM, and I've always enjoyed spending time with him. He's smart, he's connected, and he's fun. Now, however, he's very, very ill, with a disease that has precious little understanding in the medical community. But we can all help. His family and friends have started a "Fight for Mike" fund and I ask anyone who might help, to help. More details are here.

From the Fight for Mike page:

Your donation will help accelerate research on medication that might prolong Mike's life as UCSF continues its work on a cure for CJD.

UCSF is the only place in the U.S. that conducts research, clinical trials, and treatment of CJD. UCSF's Memory and Aging Center (MAC), directed by Dr. Bruce Miller, is the clinical program that provides assessment and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Michael Geschwind directs UCSF's CJD clinical team. There are short-term treatments that can benefit Mike and your donation will go directly to research on medications that can prolong Mike’s life and make the quality of his remaining life better.

CJD is a rare, rapidly progressive, neurodegenerative disease. It is part of a family of diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, that are caused by an agent known as a “prion”, a proteinaceous infectious particle. Prions were named and discovered by Dr. Stanley Prusiner at the University of California, San Francisco, who was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for this work. Prion diseases also occur in animals, the most well-known infectious variant being mad cow disease. The incidence of CJD is roughly 1 case per million annually, with onset usually occurring in late middle age. At present, there is no known cure for CJD, and treatment options are extremely limited. Only a small percentage of patients survive past one year of the first symptom.

You can donate right here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:26 PM
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The Roof Party

Way back in the day, my old company had a lot of beer blasts on Fridays, up on the roof of our building in the city. Lots of folks came, and it got to be expensive, so we brought in sponsors. Then they got really big - and very good for my company's business. Lots of ad deals were closed, lots of new folks were hired in a very competitive market, and our conference business, which ran the parties, made lots of dough. Of course that's not how history remembers them - the parties became symbolic of the excess of the dot com era.

Well, that's OK. You live with history, and learn from it. Today my current company, FM, is having a party on a roof, and I couldn't be more happy about it. It's our fourth annual Author Salon, and we're doing it atop the Hotel Vitale in the city. I'm posting this from the party, and I'm proud to say that as with the last go round, this party is sponsored - by Searchblog. I've not taken money for the ads that run on the site for over a year, and the balance has really piled up. So I decided to use a portion of it to thank our staff, our authors, and our pals and partners by supporting an afternoon celebrating our second anniversary. In a very real way, all of you as readers have made this company and this celebration possible. Thanks! If you're in the neighborhood, come on by!

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:17 PM
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More Road

I'm traveling for the next three days. Posting will be sporadic...

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:29 PM
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Special WebGuild Discount for SearchBlog Readers

If you'd like to got Searchnomics, have I got a deal for you. OK, Webguild, the organizer, does.

Head here and use the code "fmpub".

You'll get hundreds off! The cost to you is just $100. Wow, thanks Webguild.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:02 AM
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