A friend directed me to the Nuclear Explosions (Prohibition and Inspections) Act 1998 :
(1) Any person who knowingly causes a nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall apply to a nuclear weapon explosion [...]
The Food and Drug Administration has asked all manufacturers of atypical antipsychotic medications, to add a warning about the increased risk of hyperglycemia and diabetes in patients associated with these agents.
Anti-depressants are in the news again in the UK, and the FDA have been slapping hands about misleading claims related to venlafaxine:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned U.S. drugmaker Wyeth over circulating misleading claims that its antidepressant Effexor outperforms other popular competitors.
Several print materials, including a journal advertisement, misuse data to [...]
During a frantic couple of days lecturing in Warwick and Bury, it was nice to take a break and visit Norman Geras. Great hospitality, good politics and plenty of tea.
A story at the BBC health section on Asthma titled “Asthma inhaler drug may not work” should win the prize for worse health reporting of the year.
The story starts:
An ingredient in some asthma inhalers could actually counteract its own beneficial effect, a study shows.Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found salbutamol, an anti-inflammatory drug, may [...]
Well, there you go. You don’t blog about nose picking for a whole year and then two come along in the same month. (see here) A Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger, a “top Austrian doctor” in Innsbruck, is now suggesting that picking your noses with your fingers makes you a happier, healthy and more [...]
Jon Ronson gets to delve in Stanley Kubrick’s archives, which he was as particular about as his directing:
Tony mentions something seemingly inconsequential, but as soon as he says it I realise that the Rosebud I was after – the quintessence of Kubrick – has been staring me in the face from the very first day. [...]
As mumps cases rise the Socialists in An Age of Waiting have some wise words about the role of left in the media’s MMR fiasco:
Certain “leftists”, such as the ageing populist Paul Foot, have chosen to portray the attempts of typically ill-informed and typically arrogant middle-class parents to prevent “their” children from receiving the MMR [...]
I’m in Le Monde:
Une page d’erreur. C’est ce à quoi renvoie www.google.com si un internaute curieux lance une requête sur son moteur de recherche avec les mots suivants : “weapons of mass destruction” (armes de destruction massive). “Les armes de destruction massive que vous recherchez sont actuellement indisponibles.
Le pays concerné est en proie à [...]