The Guardian has an article excepted from Big Pharma by Jackie Law that starts off as a pop-sci description of the placebo effect, but has a couple of interesting detours into the marketing of various drugs.
It notes that antidepressants are being used to treat more and more problems, and that the number of recognised problems [...]
A malfunctioning digital TV set-top box started broadcasting an S.O.S message on an emergency frequency, causing a 2-hour search-and-rescue operation in the Portsmouth Harbour area.
“We traced it to Portsmouth Harbour, checked and found out there were no vessels in the area or missing planes.”
The rescue centre then contacted Ofcom which was able to establish it [...]
A question made its way around the office today: What piece of media would you make if you could pick any subject and any format in the world and have it turn out exactly the way that you’d dream it to be? I couldn’t really come up with anything at the time, but the question’s [...]
Another dump of collected links today because, after only 1-and-a-bit weeks back at work after a holiday I’m already at the stage where I’m too tired in the evening to do or write anything worthwhile. (Not that I ever really do, but I’d like it to at least be an available option.)
A text-based, H.P. [...]
How on Earth could a reporter have to gall to file this story without any pictures? What do they pay these monkeys for?
HAWAII, Dec. 29, 2005 — Rachel Cambra couldn’t wait to see the look on her 14-year-old son’s face when he opened a very special present on Christmas morning.
The Mililani, Hawaii, woman had saved [...]
The troube with finding things like this poseable multi-furniture doohicky is that the initial thought of “Hey, I really want one of those!” is immediately superseded by the thought “Actually, what I really want is a big house to put stuff like this into.”
It’s all so depressing.
A neat paper examining the rate of loss of communal workspace teaspoons. Juxtaposing The Tragedy of the Commons with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A new Sega Genesis (MegaDrive) game is due to be released in spring 2006. (Actually, it’s an English port of a 1996 game from Taiwan, but if you desperately feel like [...]
If you understand the meaning of this shirt, you should probably seek help now. It’s too late for me, save yourselves.
The BBC’s list of “100 things we didn’t know last year” is up. (Which particular “we” they’re referring to is left as an exercise for the reader.)
3. While it’s an offence to drop litter on the pavement, it’s not an offence to throw it over someone’s garden wall.
16. The London borough of Westminster has an [...]
Journalism soaring to new heights, WTO headquarters relocated to pitched battle tents:
THE fantasy land of Narnia, the subject of C. S. Lewis’ stories and a just-released film, impinged on last week’s World Trade Organisation talks.
A story issued by financial news agency AFX on Sunday, picked up by several other outlets, has left a series of [...]
Year end wrap-up time, then.
Essentially, 2005 can go fuck itself with a wooden plank wrapped in barbed wire. If I’d known in advance what the year would be like then I’d have just gone and hidden in a cave instead.
Ahem.
I’d write a “worst of” 2005 list, but it would wind up being the length [...]