• yes Qnexa, a weight-loss drug developed by Vivus, helped obese people lose weight – lots of it.
• but The drug, however, had side effects, and it was unclear if it led to heart attacks or strokes.
• no A FDA advisory panel chose not to endorse the obesity drug. Vivus loses again! source

• $550
  million the size of the settlement the company had to pay to the SEC
• $13
  billion the size of the company’s massive annual profits last year source

• 38% of Americans didn’t even know that the landmark legislation even existed
• 33% of Americans have heard about it, but don’t know what it is
• 29% know at least a little bit about it; only 3 percent know the bill well source

• For the love of God, you idiots! We landed on the moon, Obama’s birth certificate is real, the World Trade Center actually got hit by a couple of planes, the Holocaust actually happened, JFK got shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and there is a ton of BP’s black stuff in the Gulf of Mexico right now. Can we discredit these idiots immediately, please? source

• Let’s face it, guys. We’re all really optimistic that BP’s latest ploy actually contained the oil spill for good. Heck, BP’s stock went up significantly in the immediate aftermath of the news. But as our boy Jake “Dr. Buzzkill” Tapper put it, we’re not out of the woods yet. There’s much more to deal with. But, instead of being party poopers like Tapper, who is probably upset about his pending exit from “This Week,” let’s bask in this moment for a second – no new oil is flooding the Gulf of Mexico. A quick breakdown from us:

What 85 days looks like

• 7,403,100 seconds of oil leakage

• 123kminutes of exciting oil spillage fun to deal with
• 2,056 hours of oil-spilling excitement for the the whole family
• 185M gallons of oil flooded the Gulf in the meantime; hooray!

The major players in the spill

• 40%of people polled in June disapproved of Obama’s oil spill performance
• 70% of people in the same poll thought BP sucked at their job source

• fourvisits by Obama to the Gulf Region
• 31 days since Obama last visited the Gulf
• 26 days since Tony Hayward went yachting

So, what’s next?

• oneBP will continue its testing of the method, which will last around 48 hours.
• two BP will then go back to its old system, recovering 80,000 barrels a day.
• three BP will remain busy, working on a permanent relief well solution. source

• 60-38 the initial vote to allow the real vote

• didThe three more moderate East-coast members of the GOP – Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
• didn’tRuss Feingold, that scallion of Wisconsin, felt the bill didn’t go far enough. Oh, and Robert Byrd just died. source

• » So, what’s next? Well, in a couple of hours, the bill will go through the real vote, at which point it will head to Obama. Then, ta-da! It becomes law.

• Hint: It’s not Brazil. But the country does have millions of people, and its senate did just vote to allow gay marriage, a huge win for the gay-rights movement, although it was a little close and there was a lot of debate about the issue. The president backed the decision, too. And, unlike the U.S., a representative for one of the country’s major gay-rights groups can say this: “Nearly every political and social figure has spoken out in favour of marriage equality.” C’mon, take a guess. source

• 1.28% of homes were subject to foreclosure findings in the first half of 2010
• 8% increase in foreclosure filings in the first half of 2010 from a year ago
• 5% decrease in foreclosure filings from the last half of 2009 source

• $18 million for that British dude on “America’s Got Talent” source