Possibly Deep Thoughts

Belinda Stronach recently caused quite a stir here in Canada when she switched parties and likely saved the government from being voted out of office. She just made her first appearance in her home riding, and there were lots of people there to boo her. Some of them yelled “Boolinda”, which means they were Simpson’s fans.

From the episode “A Star Is Burns”, in which Mr. Burns entered a biographical picture in the Springfield Film Festival:

Burns: Smithers, are they booing me?
Smithers: Uh, no sir. They are saying, “Boo-Urns. Boo-Urns”.

I’ve noticed that when reporting blindness as a possible side-effect for Viagra and similar drugs, they’re being called treatments for “impotence”. The news media are no longer using the drug marketing suggested term “erectile dysfunction.” It almost as if they want to distance themselves in an attempt to prove that they’re just not shills for the pharmacy companies.

News media have always done a poor job on health reporting. Every new “breakthrough” is reported as a “miracle”. They’re more than happy to spread the name of new wonder drugs and give lots of free advertising for pharmaceutical companies.

What bugs me most is that each new medical study is reported at the absolute truth, even if it contradicts earlier studies. In reality, each study is added to sum of existing knowledge, and doctors are thinking about the overall trends.

There’s a pending strike that may close the local schools on Wednesday. When I told my daughter that the school might be closed, she asked “Permanently?”

I was browsing through some ADHD information, and I noticed a drug named Focalin. There was a Simpsons episode were Bart was diagnosed with ADHD, and given a drug named Focusyn. That’s such a perfect name that I bet drug company marketers were mad that they didn’t think of it. Or if they had thought of it, they should have trademarked it.