ppp 09-05-06

Quote of the day: A positive attitude may not solve all your problems,

but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

As part of my driver training I was taught not to break or swerve for animals. Last Thursday evening I did break for one. I was on a quiet residential street with no one behind me. Out of the woods ran a squirrel. I never thought about it but something made me hit the brakes. Squirrels in Minnesota are like grains of sand on the beach… plentiful and indistinguishable, This squirrel, however, was pure white. It was out of the ordinary and "deserving" of preferential treatment.

At the Minnesota State Fair I saw about 200,000 people on Labor Day. No two looked exactly the same but all seemed to blend together. How many people do you meet in a day or a week or a month? Quickly think of one person (to whom you are not related). Is that person your "white squirrel"? What made you single out that one person? My guess is that it wasn't anything physical but because of their attitude. People with rotten attitudes stand out as stumbling blocks but they do stand out (in this case maybe a purple squirrel). People who maintain a positive attitude stand out more because there seem to be fewer of them. If you would like some special attention then striving for a positive attitude may just turn you into a "white squirrel" in someone's eyes. Even if they never stop to get to know you, the preference may allow you the chance to gather more nuts.

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Just one corndog shy of heaven!" a friend eating his way across the Minnesota State Fair

pps. Occasionally, some of the links require FREE registration.... I'm sure you can handle THAT slight inconvenience.

Intravenous ciprofloxacin was just approved by the FDA in generic form. While they may receive a 180 exclusivity as the only generic, prices will begin to fall now and plummet after others enter the market in 6 months.

Don Shulla rode up and down the sidelines in and electric cart during one of the last games he coached. Why? He had a ruptured Achilles tendon. How did it happen? While no one ever wrote about it I believe it was because he was taking Cipro and not because he was out taking snaps with the team. Ciprofloxacin and other quinolones have been associate with spontaneous rupture the tendons. (use is warned against in Children.) Some are now calling for stronger warning on this class of antibiotic.

While obese women do not get ovarian cancer more frequently than the non-obese, they do tend to have deadlier outcomes. I suspect that it is because of the storage of estrogens in adipose (fat) tissue, but smarter people than I will be chasing the reasons down.

Japanese are prohibiting the use of drug studies in non-Japanese subjects in support of drug approvals in Japan (in this article Lilly is protesting). Typically xenophobic behavior that will keep Japanese citizens from access to scientific breakthroughs throughout the world. They do this with apples and rice as well. At one time a trade agreement was struck that required that all rice sold in Japan contain 10% rice from outside the country. In strict adherence to the letter of the law, Japanese rice sellers enclosed a neatly wrapped packet of foreign rice in each bag of Japansese rice sold. Consumers simply had to remove the foreign rice packet, throw it away and eat their 100% Japanese rice.

Leeches and Gila Monster spit have been mined for commercial drug use but now it appears there may be gold in the sting of a Mideast scorpion. It is being investigated for use against brain cancers called gliomas,almost all of which prove fatal within 2 years of diagnosis.

The regulation has been on the books for 10 years while research has been performed on those unable to provide informed consent. In most case the research involved treatment in an ambulance of before emergency patients arrive at the hospital. FDA is reviewing the regulations and is requesting any comments http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments/ . While this may seem like a questionable practice it does provide useful information to the medical community about the best treatments in emergency situations. What do you think?

Counterfeit drugs are being imported by unsuspecting Americans. They look like the real McCoy but contain either nothing or potentially harmful substances. Specific drugs to watch out for are Lipitor, Diovan, Actonel, Nexium, Hyzaar, Ezetrol (known as Zetia in the United States), Crestor, Celebrex, Arimidex, and Propecia. Specific "Canadian" pharmacies/webites are named as well…. The Toronto Sun defends Candian turf.. http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2006/09/01/1792250-sun.html .

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