When I wrote a post about the diet drug “alli” a while back, the actual news part was not the drug itself. The drug had been available on prescription for a long time, known as Xenical. The big news was that it had been declared “safe” by the USFDA to allow a version of the drug to be sold over the counter.
Of the wide and varied comments I received (if you count all the forums it appeared on, it generated well over 1,000 comments) one stood out for me. A couple of times people posted comments along the lines of “why are you worried? the FDA says it’s safe!” These tools are apparently unaware of the long and proud history of drugs being declared safe then later discovered to have side effects like causing birth defects. And death.
The latest in this parade is a painkiller marketed in Australia as Prexige. It turns out this “safe” drug can kill you too. I guess you stop feeling pain after that. It was banned in Australia last Friday. The reports into this intrigued me because they included the warning that your condition could get worse after you stop taking the drug.
What’s worse than death?
Anyway, this story prompted me to file the following Angry News report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gti-QaRDQ3Q
The more I think about the Chinese authorities executing people for poor job performance, the weirder it seems. Where do they draw the line? Is it defined in your work contract? And it must make recruitment hellishly difficult. And how about annual reviews? You’d be terrified of getting a good review. It might be followed by
“Congratulations, we’re promoting you!”
“Nooooooo, you can’t promote me!”
“But you’re the best performer we have, we want you to run the company.”
“No, anything but that. Listen, you never found out but I’ve been stealing stuff. And I’ve been hiding my heroin habit from you. Pleeeease don’t make me the boss.”
It would certainly make for a weird variation of the Peter Principle.
Angry 365 Days a Year 
As far as pharmaceutical companies (a multibillion dollar industry, I might add) are concerned, death is considered a side-effect…
An undead zombie with a headache? I wouldn’t want to be one of those for eternity.
Also, can you imagine them all bitching after a hard days brain eating:
Zombie1: “These humans have it so good, I know we have to eat their brains and all, but at least it’s brief.”
Zombie2: “Yeah! I’ve had a migraine for the last 234 years and no relief at all.”
Zombie1: “Migraine? I’ve been suffering from a slipped disc since the middle ages!”
Maybe you should make alternative audio-tracks to some regular tv news etc.? Like, imagine an advertisement of that “alli”, when you hear how wonderfully effective and safe it is, but if you aren’t in really optimistic mood, you can push a button and hear all that “shitting oil” and “worse than death” stuff instead.
Yes, the chinese want to uphold their reputation…executions and blatant disregard of fundamental human rights is off course their biggest hallmark and has formed a good solid rep for this wonderful, freedom loving country.
When do they get really serious? No, not by nuking…Just killing off family and friends, they might have been accomplices.
Yes, recruitement must be more tough out there. At least they will try harder…because if they can’t fill the position, maybe the recruiters get shot too.
kim: yes, one feels they spend more money on lobbying politicians than they do on safety checks
Massif: I think I migraine-suffering zombie has to eat the brain of a human who just took pain killers
Vlad: I’ve often thought life would be better with my own mood music.
hypnos: I’m fascinated to see what will come of the olympics in Beijing.
personally im only liking 2 medical substances ibuprofen based pain killers on occaision and allergy medication. shame that finnish consumer advice board decided to put regulation to people to use cheaper option of certain allergy medication problem is that cheaper has a lot shorter effect time than my old anti-histamin meds. not good when you have potentially lethal cat allergy.
@Mr Angry: So am I. They are supposed to take human rights more seriously because of the olympics, the same with the environment. I have not seen much improvement in that country up until now sadly enough.
I was thinking the other day about this. You know they had to do lab tests first which means there were monkeys and mice shitting out of control.
As far as being executed for bad work performance? My goodness! Have one bad day and you never go home. The “out to lunch sign” would make your co-workers wonder if you really were coming back.
(Loud bang in the background)
worker 1-Where’s Chan?
worker 2-You saw his last report didn’t you?
worker 1-Ohhhhh…yeah, that was pretty bad. I told that man to run away but nooo, he had to keep his honor.
Austin
Austin: I’d never thought of that aspect of lab tests before but you’re right – it must have happened. Gross.