The few "strippers" who were around when we first started up may remember the forum, where users could debate/converse in an online discussion (we also featured recipe, events, and car-pooling sections). Since then, mostly in an attempt to code the entire site by hand, we have neglected to update this feature. I've noticed that users still comment on each other's journals without having a special section to do so. On this same note, we fear that if there are too many places to comment, users may only write on one or the other and neglect their own journals. What do you think? Should we revisit the idea? Or is having your own journal, where you can reference the other journals, adequate to your needs? Feel free to talk about it on your own journal. Depending on the response I will work on bringing the forum back to the strip (ie: convincing Paul it's a good idea).

Found this neato tape at Amvets the other day. It is Indian Love Call by "Yodeling" Kenny Roberts. Absolutely amazing stuff. I've included a sample yodel for your listening pleasure-just click on my pic to your right. I don't know what's more to say. I really like yodeling and can do it a little bit, but boy-oh-boy have I got far to go before I match skills with Mr. Roberts. I don't know that any Indians will yet come to my love call. I will perservere, and maybe some day the hook of my ululating voice will catch some Indian unawares and they will be mine, all mine. Hua-ha-ha!

The last three words of the day from dictionary.com are just dumb. I can't believe that anyone really knows them, or if maybe three people do they can't use them because no one would know what the fuck they were talking about without the aid of a dictionary. I feel that I know enough random words that nobody knows already and so if I haven't heard it before (unless it's highly technical or specific jargon) then it's so out there as to be nigh worthless. Here they are:

concinnity: elegance - used chiefly of literary style.
peripatetic: walking about or traveling from place to place.
frangible: capable of being broken; easily broken. (frangible my ass, c'mon already!)

We have a new federal spending bill. Very nice, now I'll finally get the real pay raise of 4% instead of P-Bush's measley 1.7%. But, wait a minute, what's this...? (excerpts from movingideas.com )

"On January 22, the U.S. Senate passed the $328 billion omnibus appropriations bill which includes appropriations for the fiscal year 2004. Senators approved the measure 65-28, a month after House passage."
Several new rules, not directly related to spending have been bundled into the bill. They include provisions on:
-Overtime Pay
-Federal Extension of Unemployment Benefits
-Corporate Control of the Media
read on

I was having a conversation today about world problems (what's new, eh?) and came upon the topic of Pharmaceutical companies. I didn't really know many facts on the topic, so was left with a few examples of why I feel they are souless monsters (along with HMOs and weapon makers). So I went on the web to try to get some more facts, here are some tidbits:

-the price of commonly-used drugs has risen at more than twice the rate of inflation for over ten years
-the absence of pharmaceutical price containment in the US leaves consumers paying two to three times as much as consumers in other countries, including neighbors Canada and Mexico
-the prescription drug industry is America’s most profitable industry, with taxable income increasing from $16 billion to nearly $25 billion from 1990 to 1996
-17 percent of pharmaceutical industry sales translate to after-tax profit, compared to an average of 5 percent for other industries
-from 1993-1996 drug compaines paid an effective tax rate of 16.2 percent compared to a 27.3 percent average paid by other major industrial categories.
-total pharmaceutical lobbying expenditures for 1998 exceeded $73 million, and for 1997 were more than $74 million
-campaign contributions favor republicans over democrats almost 2:1

-mass media advertising for prescription drugs has risen steadily and sharply — from $1.1 billion in 1997 to $2.5 billion in 2000.
-because of patent protection laws, which delay the entry of far less expensive generics, 90% of drugs sold are brand name (intellectual property rights on drugs can now extend to almost twenty years, up from about eight years in 1980)
-Two-thirds of new drugs approved in 1989–2000 used active ingredients already on the market (translation: R&D money is being spent not on making new drugs but on 'tweaking' already existing drugs or adding other ingredients in order to extend the life of the patent (up to three add. years), and to avoid long delays testing safety and efficacy)
-Taxpayer dollars have funded the basic research, as well as the preclinical and clinical research, for many of the cancer and all of the important AIDS drugs on the market (drug companies received $27.4 billion in income tax credits, including the research and experimentation credit, from 1990 - 1996)
-drug company advertising spending is outpacing R&D spending by as much as three times
-most R&D money is budgeted towards developing so-called "blockbuster" drugs (Viagra for example) whose profit margin is up to ten times higher than other drugs
-here's something recent: "the pipeline of new treatments is drying up as drug firms -citing poor financial returns- focus instead on chronic conditions, such as high cholesterol, where medicines are taken for years rather than curing patients in one or two weeks."

In short, making medicine is about making money. Drug companies are bound by the same rules as the rest of corporate America, revenues must rise continuously. Because it's categorized in a different manner than other companies it reaps tax breaks and subsidies that make it ridiculously profitable. Too bad this profit comes at the cost of our health.

Sources include:
Open Secrets.org
National Institue for Health Care Management
NY Senior.org