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22 Feb 2010 10:07

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Biz: U.S. to Glaxo: Uh, you should pull Avandia from the market

  • The drug has long been linked to heart attacks. The Senate Finance Committee released a report over the weekend containing internal FDA documents recommending it should be pulled from the market. Glaxo, though, is trying its hardest to avoid the pulling of the diabetes drug, and is in the midst of a blind test with another drug, Actos, to show how safe it is. That’s despite the use of a fear-of-God “black box” warning on the drug, and despite a study noting a 43 percent increase in heart trouble for Avendia users. The report suggests Glaxo knew the issues but kept the drug on the market anyway. Yikes. source

22 Feb 2010 09:48

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Politics: Most people say the government’s broken, and then some

  • 73% of Americans think that the government is broken, as Joe Biden sez
  • 15% would venture to disagree with that sentiment
  • 12% would venture to not give a crap about that question source

22 Feb 2010 09:42

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U.S.: Some people in this recession lose jobs, never get them back

  • 6.3 million long-term unemployed as of January; Jesus source

22 Feb 2010 09:36

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Offbeat: Post-drip blues: Minneapolis lady gets insane water bill

  • $1,595 the size of one poor Minneapolis woman’s massive water bill; “My heart just dropped,” she said
  • 194,484 number of gallons of water that is; the city says it’s accurate and she probably has a leak source

22 Feb 2010 09:25

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U.S.: Who’s the hero in the Joe Stack IRS attack? Depends on who you ask

  • His last actions, the suicide, the catastrophe that caused injuries and death, that was wrong. But if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished. But I do not agree with his last action with what he did. But I do agree about the government.
  • Joe Stack’s daughter Samantha Bell • Regarding her opinion on what her father did. Without condoning the action of crashing into an IRS building in Austin, Bell condoned the intent of the action, which was to bring attention to U.S. tax laws. Ken Hunter, whose father Vernon Hunter died in Stack’s plane crash attack, disagreed completely, as one might assume considering the fact that his dad died in the attack. “How can you call someone a hero who after he burns down his house, gets into his plane… and drive it into the building to kill people?,” he said. “My dad Vernon did two tours of duty in Vietnam. My dad’s a hero.” source

22 Feb 2010 09:13

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World: Think racism in South Africa is gone? Check out the bus system

Despite major strides in the wake of the 2010 World Cup, a fairly extreme form of racial segregation forces some people to travel long distances just to get to work. source

22 Feb 2010 09:02

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World: Oops. Afghan civilians die by mistake in NATO airstrike, again

  • 27 civilians killed by NATO (they were trying to avoid that) source
 

22 Feb 2010 08:44

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Politics: Arnold Schwarzenegger trashes on his own party’s antics

  • I don’t want to beat up on my Republican colleagues, but I think it’s kind of politics rather than thinking about only one thing, and this is, how do we support the president? How do we support him and do everything we can in order to stimulate the economy?
  • California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger • Discussing the stimulus plan and Republicans’ reaction to it. The comments, which he made on “This Week” yesterday, also agreed with Obama on GOP members’ handling of the stimulus plan. “I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs,” he notes, while noting they’re the ones handing out the checks. “It doesn’t match up.” He says they should support the president. source

22 Feb 2010 02:08

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Offbeat: Man, this overly-earnest Christian rock band is awesome, guys.

  • Did they steal some of their melodies from The Shaggs? Final Placement isn’t sure what they want to be, or sound like, but they certainly know how to suck. There’s a little Nickelback, a bit of Default, a lot of earnestness, and even more Jesus going on in the mix here. The leg-kicking in unison around the 1:15 mark is pretty, uh, awesome, too. (Update: Reposted for the Monday morning crew. Enjoy, guys.)