Archive for the “Interesting Facts” Category

Here are some of the interesting facts I learned today:

According to the World Values Survey, Nigerians are the happiest people in the world. Mexicans are number two on the list.

On another site I saw that 74% of Mexicans live below the poverty level. Apparently poverty isn’t so bad.

General Motors has roughly the same revenues as the economies of Ireland, New Zealand and Hungary combined.

The World Bank praised the privatization of public health in Zambia: “It is a model for the rest of Africa. There are no more waiting lines at hospitals.” The Zambian Post Daily completed the idea: “There are no more waiting lines at hospitals because now people die at home.”

Humphrey Bogart never says “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca. Frankenstein was not the monster, but its inventor.

If you can’t figure out whether you’re happy or not, Life Coach Peter Cohen has worked out the following equation: Happiness = P + (5xE) + (3xH). If you don’t understand what it means he will happily explain it to you…for a fee.

And finally, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the new governor of California.

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Q: Why is there a worm in bottles of tequila?

A: To see if the Gringos will eat worms.

I may have wasted many hours reading the garbage on straightdope.com, but they wasted far more in researching the answers.

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The mythic Giant Squid has been found in the waters off Antarctica, proving the sailors of old were not only drunken pirates, but true scholars as well. I guess fish stories aren’t always as exaggerated as we might expect.

In related news, an unconfirmed source has reported spotting a mermaid bathing on the shores of Atlantis.

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I didn’t write any of these, but they’re funny:

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

After a year in therapy, my psychiatrist said to me, “Maybe life isn’t for everyone.”

Someone said to Voltaire, “Life is hard.” Voltaire replied, “Compared to what?”

And my personal favorite:

The only once in a lifetime experience I know of is Death.

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Here is some info about the pharmaceutical industry:

Since the FDA first allowed companies to directly target consumers five years ago the number of research and development (R&D) employees at companies making patented drugs declined slightly, while the number of people working in marketing shot up 59 percent.

Moreover, drug companies have learned that when they can’t create a new drug to treat an existing illness, they can create a new illness to treat with existing drugs. GlaxoSmithKline’s multimillion-dollar promotion of anxiety disorder as a pernicious national problem enabled the company to make billions more selling Paxil–a drug most experts believe is needed by only a small fraction of the people who take it. Unimed is busy pushing the idea that there’s a national problem called male menopause–a problem that just happens to be treatable by a testosterone gel the company makes. The gel is currently FDA-approved for men with rare–and thus relatively unprofitable–problems such as underdeveloped testes.

An existing patent can be extended if a different use can be found for the original drug. This leads to a lot of legal wrangling about the definition of different. “Companies today have found that the return on investment for legal tactics is a lot higher than the return on investment for R&D,” says Sharon Levine, the associate executive director of the HMO Kaiser Permanente. “Consumers today are paying an inordinate premium under the guise of the creating the stream of innovation in the future. But it’s actually funding lawyers.”

Pharmaceutical companies are shifting focus away from disease treating drugs to drugs that enhance sub-optimal conditions. Soon there will be a drug for every discomforting mood. Everytime we feel less than perfect there will be a pill to return us to that unreachable ‘optimal human condition’. Such life enhancing drugs often have the peculiar distinction of treating the same symptoms that the drug itself can create through side effects.

My dad takes Claritin. I went to the pharmacy with mom to fill the prescription: 100 bucks for 30 pills. I know a bit about the FDA approval process. For a new drug to be considered for a patent it needs to perform better than existing drugs or perform the same and have fewer side effects. Claritin and Allegra fall into the second category and there is debate as to whether they even bring fewer side effects (there is also debate as to whether they work at all). Bottom Line: This shit is no different than stuff that’s been on the market for years….it just costs a hell of a lot more money.

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Ok. I’m sort of getting things cleaned up around here. I should actually write something in the next few days….if I can think of anything to say.

I leave you with these deep thoughts:

Who invented and trademarked heroin?
The Bayer company, developer of aspirin, also invented Heroin in the early 1900s — and trademarked the name. They were hired to do it by the U.S. government, and it was initially prescribed as a cough suppressant and a cure for addiction to morphine and codeine.

Why is the word “golf” insulting to women?
The name of the game comes from its origins in Scotland, where it was strictly Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden sport — hence GOLF. Some golf courses, obviously, still have this policy.

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