Monet, Manet, Money and More March 21, 2012December 29, 2016 FREE MASTERPIECES James Musters: “The National Gallery of Art now allows you to see – and download free – 20,000 images from its enormous collection of pre-1900 art.” THE INVESTORS BEWARE BILL – II Bob Pozen, who used to run much of Fidelity (and who would have made a very fine S.E.C. chairman), elaborates on yesterday’s post re crowd-finding and the rest – here, in the Washington Post. He makes smart recommendations. 17 MINUTES Lorraine Baldwin: “That was a wonderful 17 minutes. We must get Obama reelected. I hope Women of the World will heed the call.” David C.: “Tears. Thank you.” Steve: “It’s bologna. Obama continues to move us down the path to 1984. No hope, no change. No democracy.” ☞ Steve links to this Wired cover story: The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say). It is Orwellian. At least potentially. Yet I expect Steve would agree it’s too simple to think the President lacks his (and everyone’s) concerns about Big Brother – the President must have read the Constitution at least twice to become a constitutional law professor – so I’m wondering what counterbalancing concerns Steve thinks would have led the President to approve this program and whether he thinks there is any justification for those concerns. And how he thinks we SHOULD deal with them. This may sound like I’m arguing, but I’m really asking: How do you balance privacy and security? I want my privacy; but I also want to thwart the poisoning of the water supply before half a million New Yorkers die from a few drops of something in the reservoir. 17 MINUTES . . . WHERE TO GIVE If those 17 minutes left you tearful or inspired, click here to help. I’ll see it the minute you do (if I’m awake) and jump through the screen to say thanks. (Some of you have already experienced this. Isn’t it wild the way the glass shatters and I find myself in your den?) You won’t be alone. We had 348,000 contributions last month alone – 105,000 of them, first-time donors. MYLGF So this highly speculative stock, suggested nearly a year ago at 37 cents, barely ever even trades (last: at 26 cents). The hope, as suggested then, is that it may rise to $1 or more. If you do buy it, with money you can truly afford to lose, be certain to place a “limit order.” I would think 30 cents might be enough. Guru: “One thing I can say is that they are continuing to attract an impressive group of knowledgeable people. In February, they appointed Henry Fuchs to the board. He was chief medical officer of Onyx (ONXX), a pioneer in developing the small molecule VEGF inhibitor, Nexavar, and at Genentech he lead development of Herceptin, a breast cancer antibody. Methylgene’s lead drug is a molecule that like Nexavar blocks Vegf, but also blocks met. Yesterday, they appointed Peggy Mulligan, most recently CFO of Biovail, a Canadian pharmaceutical company, to the board. Normally, I wouldn’t make much of these kinds of appointments. Biotech companies often fill the board with ‘trophy’ appointments who have little oversight or impact on the company’s operations. I watched a healthcare company go bankrupt that had on the board Mike Holland (Holland Capital), Mike Huckabee, and the former dean of Harvard medical school. Still, what impresses me about the recent Methylgene appointments are that these are knowledgeable people with very direct experience in MYG’s operations. Rachel Humphrey, the new chief medical officer, and Henry Fuchs, the new board appointee, were pioneers in developing new cancer drugs that block growth receptors. That won’t matter if it turns out MYG’s drug is a dud. On the other hand, if it IS biologically active (as it appears to be), these people should be very helpful in making sure that they pick the best cancers to go after, the optimal settings, the situations where the drug is most likely to succeed. We’ll see what happens this year.”