What are you reading tonight?

[Prufrock]

I personally can't understand why anyone's professing to have a bastard clue?!

All we've got is: she wrote an amazing book 50 years ago.

So no idea, then?

Were you pissed when you wrote this?

Praps .

[Bruce Rioja]

I personally can't understand why anyone's professing to have a bastard clue?!

All we've got is: she wrote an amazing book 50 years ago.

So no idea, then?

Were you pissed when you wrote this?

Praps .

Good lad.

[Prufrock]

Nearly finished Bad Pharma, Ben Goldacre's follow-up to the magnificent Bad Science.

Lurching between rage and despair. Pharmaceutical companies really are the devil.

[Bijou Bob]

Nearly finished Bad Pharma, Ben Goldacre's follow-up to the magnificent Bad Science.

Lurching between rage and despair. Pharmaceutical companies really are the devil.

Unless of course, you're a patient benefitting from Herceptin or AZT or any number of drugs........or a shareholder.

[Prufrock]

Yes to the shareholder.

Problem with the drugs is that neither you, nor any human alive, know how well they work other than that they're better than nothing. Patients know they're benefitting from a drug (over nothing); they don't know they're benefitting from a drug over the best drug there is. Call me picky, but if I'm ill, I want the best drug there is, not any one that's better than sugar. Guess who have that info? Pharmaceutical companies. Guess who deliberately don't publish it? (see above)

There are two statins mainly prescribed in the UK, one on-patent, one off. The one on costing the NHS 6x the one off with absolutely no evidence to suggest its better. Yet still being prescribed by doctors to the tune of (IIRC) £160m per year [more than the one off]. On one drug. We'd know if they published trials. Which they don't. Because free-market economics.

If there's one thing you want to do to further humanism and medicine and the preservation of life, support the all trials campaign.

[Dujon]

Yesterday whilst out and about I dropped into a book store to 'redeem' a gift voucher given to me by my daughter as a Christmas present. I had previously tried the store's web site and found it appalling to the extent that it was virtually useless. So browsing was the order of the day, beginning with the science section of shelving. There was nothing there that would have been above secondary school education level, which I found rather disappointing. Just about to move on, a book called Big Book of Numbers caught my eye. It wasn't the title that grabbed my attention, it was the author. He's a chap named Adam Spencer. Mr Spencer is a mathematician who speaks at a rate of knots of which a Gatling gun would be proud; he's enthusiastic about mathematics and numbers in general; he is a very good communicator and has hosted a couple of early morning programmes on our local ABC radio stations. I liked listening to him as he has a quick wit to go with his other skills. So I bought the book. The contents consist of comments on the numbers one to one hundred. At the moment I'm up to number 10. At times he can be flippant with inconsequential remarks but also introduces ideas that are important in his field. So far, so good.

I had used up $30 of the $40 gift voucher. I was also quite willing to use the remaining value as part payment for a book of value greater than that. It turned out to be unnecessary. Eagle eyed Dujon espied a small Penguin publication which was dwarfed by its neighbours. Being an inquisitive, noseyparker sort of chap I teased it out of its confinement. To my delight it was Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue. Having read some of Bryson's other work it was a no-brainer. I've read a couple of chapters and suspect that I will not be disappointed.

[LeverEnd]

Mother Tongue is a brilliant book, the only one of his I have read. I keep meaning to read some of his travel stuff, but MT strikes a perfect balance by being informative, readable and entertaining.

[TANGODANCER]

Just finished reading David Guterson's Our Lady of the Forest. A dark and controversial tale. I found it hard work in the main because there are no exclamation marks in the dialogue. An odd offering but compelling nevertheless.

[Bruce Rioja]

Mother Tongue is a brilliant book, the only one of his I have read. I keep meaning to read some of his travel stuff, but MT strikes a perfect balance by being informative, readable and entertaining.

That's pretty much his stock-in trade. I've got quite a lot of his stuff, I'll lend you some if you like.

[Prufrock]

Two brilliant articles I've seen over the last couple of days on our political culture:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/brendan-on ... rcissists/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.frankieboyle.com/frankie/free-speech.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[clapton is god]

Just finished 'The Girl With all the Gifts' by MR Carey.

Says on the cover that its a thriller, indeed one of the best thrillers you'll read this year.

I'm not sure its a 'thriller' but I don't doubt its one of the best. In fact its of a genre that I wouldn't normally go anywhere near and I think the cover and the on-line bits that I've read are very clever in that they don't reveal what this book is about.... so I won't either, but all becomes clear within a couple of chapters and it is very, very good!

[KeyserSoze]

Two brilliant articles I've seen over the last couple of days on our political culture:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/brendan-on ... rcissists/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.frankieboyle.com/frankie/free-speech.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Top stuff. Been trying to write about this over the last few weeks not so elegantly, but these articles chime quite a bit with my own feelings of the world atm...

indeed, see the sean penn bollocks doing the rounds now.

[KeyserSoze]

In a similar vein

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magaz ... .html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Prufrock]

Saw that last week. Scary.

Did you add the Sean Penn bit btw coz I missed it? Can't stand the prick, but almost feel sorry for him. Folk need to grow the f*ck up and stop being so soft.

[KeyserSoze]

yeah i did, just saw it pop up the other day. Professionally offended really do need to grow a pair, or something.

Ronson said last night that he actually got a lot of abuse on twitter for that article in the following days! fecking unreal.

[KeyserSoze]

another extract printed in the guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... are_btn_tw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the bit with the 'online reputation management agency' is soul destroying.

[Prufrock]

"The sad thing was that Lindsey had incurred the internet’s wrath because she was impudent and playful and foolhardy and outspoken. And now here she was, working with Farukh to reduce herself to safe banalities – to cats and ice-cream and top 40 chart music. We were creating a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland."

[Prufrock]

Although I did laugh at the fact that when you now Google "Lindsey Stone" you get a load of articles about Ronson's book and loads of links to that photo of her again

Though not , coz that must suck. Also, if a joke about a Dongle is enough to ruin a guy's life, I'm going to be f*cked!

[Bruce Rioja]

Did you add the Sean Penn bit btw coz I missed it? Can't stand the prick, but almost feel sorry for him. Folk need to grow the f*ck up and stop being so soft.

Why? What's Mr Madonna done now?

[Prufrock]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/23/opini ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;