Insomnia kills
“If a tired, stressed-at-work patient is sick, depressed over a relationship, having pain and develops insomnia — as Heath Ledger apparently did — what does he do? He has no doubt been exposed to a media blitz, a tsunami of public proclamations asserting the prowess of a sleeping medication. Pop a pill and you get a perfect night’s sleep, eight hours of bliss. . .Be careful, don’t drive or drink and, oh, yes, sleeping pills can be addictive. . .However, no notation is made that with prolonged use, the pills tend to be less effective so that you will want to increase the dose. For the average person, without knowledge of pharmacology, the risk of such blandishments can be high — serious side effects and death.”
Understanding Heath Ledger’s death: how drug company advertisements, doctors, pharmacies, and patients intertwine to cause an overdose.
Meanwhile, scientists at UC Berkeley have figured out how to use MRI equipment to read people’s minds. Science-fiction scenario: In the future, you can be interrogated against your will and prosecuted for your thoughts.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 7th, 2008 at 10:05
Meanwhile, scientists at UC Berkeley have figured out how to use MRI equipment to read people’s minds.
Meanwhile other scientists are perfecting the technology for putting voices in your heads.
“A recently unclassified report from the Pentagon from 1998 has revealed an investigation into using laser beams for a few intriguing potential methods of non-lethal torture. Some of the applications the report investigated include putting voices in people’s heads”
(Oh, by the way, your pal Dr Purugganan is part of the ‘Altenburg 16’, a group of biologists and philosophers ‘of rock star stature…who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence.’ These arent creationists by a long shot but this’ll put them squarely in the sights of fundamentalists such as Dawkins and PZ Myers. Let the battle begin.)
March 7th, 2008 at 11:32
Doh! The Bene Gesserit exposed!
March 7th, 2008 at 12:51
^ Speaking of, I’m reminded of a favorite exchange from Dune:
Rev. Mother Mohiam: Put your hand inside this box.
Paul Atreides: What’s in it?
Rev. Mohiam: Pain.
heheh…wlalang :P
March 8th, 2008 at 10:40
From Michael P: As to the Altenberg 16, it’s amusing but has taken a serious turn. The creationsist are now trumpeting the meeting as proof that evolutionary biologists hate Darwin, my fellow scientists are wondering if we’ve gone over the deep end (a colleague sent me an email this morning with the subject line Looney Tunes to describe what he thought and asked me if I had drunk the kool-aid). All I wanted was to sepnd some time in Vienna this July, maybe get some nice sacher torte……
March 8th, 2008 at 15:24
Sacher torte? What about the sausages? Sausages? Vienna? Get it? Ok, never mind.