Mom Was Right: It Will Make You Go Blind

Sad, but apparently true.

U.S. health regulators on Friday said they have received more than 40 reports of a type of blindness in men taking impotence drugs, mostly involving Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has received about 38 reports of the rare condition among users of Viagra, four reports of blindness among users of Eli Lilly and Co.'s Cialis and one report of the condition in men talking Levitra, made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Pfizer said outside of clinical trials, Viagra has been used by more than 23 million men worldwide over the past seven years. It said reports are extremely rare of visual loss due to the condition known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).

Interesting and potentially horrendus for the drug companies. But here's where it gets screwed up and shows that the FDA is again in the drug companies' pocket.

The FDA's Cruzan said NAOIN is not uncommon for people of the age that use the impotence drugs, who have conditions like heart conditions, diabetes and heart disease.

The implication here is that older people tend to get NAOIN. But that's not true.

Non-arteritic AION can occur at any age - no age is immune from non-arteritic AION - although most often patients are middle aged and elderly, about 10% of the patients are young (i.e. under the age of 45 years - our youngest patient has been 11 years old);44 thus, the prevalent impression that non-arteritic AION is a disease of the elderly only and does not occur in the young persons is not correct.

It is true that it is more prevalent in diabetics, but it's also true that NAOIN is equally prevalent in women and men.

A Stalker's Latest Tool

This is rich. Panties with GPS and biometric monitoring!!! Now you can find out where she is and if she's hot and bothered (or on a bike ride).

A testimonial from a worried father:

They work wonderfully. My wife and I bought our [daughter] several pairs so we can watch her around the clock, and if we see her temperature rising too high, we intervene by calling her cellphone or just picking her up wherever she is. My only comment is it would be great to have a video camera, maybe you can work that into V.2.

Worried father or pervert? You decide.

How about this from a new husband:

My wife and I got married three years ago. Last winter I started suspecting her of cheating. It was tearing my heart out to think of her with another man. In an act of desperation I bought these panties, and boy am I glad I did.

Why? Because it proved your suspicions baseless and your marriage is now stronger than ever? Sadly, no!

It turns out, she was sleeping with her coworker! She was going to a hotel near her office nearly every workday. I monitored her through the mapping software, pantyMap®, for several weeks,and then I confronted her. forget-me-not-panties™ saved me from a bad marriage. We are getting a divorce, and I have records for my divorce lawyer proving what a fraud she was.

What a heart-warming ending!!! Gotta love a product that has software called "pantyMap".

Hey, and what a bargain they are: only $99 for gps only; $179 for GPS and biometrics. That's for one panty.

Darwin Award Nominee

CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas. A 37-year-old Houston man died when he was trapped under his pickup truck when it sank into the sand on Bolivar Peninsula. The Galveston County Sheriff's Department says John Raymond Wilson had been fishing in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night.Sheriff's Lieutenant Tommy Hansen says it appears Wilson decided to lay down under his truck to rest. The truck sank into the soft sand, trapping Wilson.Hansen says the truck was spotted early yesterday in the surf during high tide. Wilson's body was discovered by a tow-truck driver called to pull the truck out.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

So, when Linette and I bought an ISight camera for Katie for her graduation, we bought one for ourselves so that Linette and Brett can talk and see each other when she's out of town. Great idea, no? No.

Last night we tried it out and Brett loved it. We talked for about 30 minutes or so and there was Mommy on the computer in her PJs talking to Brett. Then it was Brett's bedtime and we had to say goodbye to Mommy. Bad Idea. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth (and throwing of Lamby and kicking and hitting). We're talking full-on 30 minute total meltdown. "I want to talk to Mommy!!!" for thirty minutes. Linette and I both ascribed it to him being overtired. I finally got him calmed down. We read a little Winnie the Pooh, had a small glass of milk, and went to sleep.

This morning, almost the first thing, Brett says, "I want to talk to Mommy."

"On the computer?"

"Yes, Daddy"

We then had a little discussion about how he acted last night and how he had a total meltdown. Brett assured me many times that that wouldn't happen this morning.

Sucker!!!

So, we call Mommy and get her on the computer and talk and see each other for about 15 minutes. Then both Linette and Brett had to go (one to another NSF meeting, the other to eat some peanut butter toast). Guess what?

"I want to talk to MOMMY!!!"

Meltdown redux.

It took about 20 minutes to calm him down including a call to Grandma (he also wanted to talk to Pop Pop, but it was nearly 8 o'clock and he hadn't had breakfast yet).

So, the ISight was a nice idea . . . in theory. In practice, not so much.

The only other thing I have to say is, Katie, be careful how you use your ISight when you head off to Johns Hopkins. We may be having to read Winnie the Pooh to your Mom to calm her down.

A New Day

This is a new, general purpose blog. I felt that I needed this, to separate out from my diary blog and my political blog, which is linked here. Feel free to chat