June 21, 2006
Just realised it was the Queens birthday a few days ago… lol. I don't care much for royals. They don't really do much apart from open things and read speaches written for them by other people. I guess they give the papers a bit to write about sometimes, but other than that they just waste states money. They get paid for doing pretty much nothing… We'd be much better without a royal family. Vive le Revolution!
–Jim–
April 5, 2006
Ok, the title of this post puts it nicely, basically what this post is about, is fat american kids. I know the media sometimes choose to portray things in ways to make us think in certain ways, but I have just read this short article from New Scientist and I believe it is very truthful:
"First we find out that Las Vegas emergency health care responders are having to "super-size" their stretchers and ambulance facilities, as many obese patients are now simply too big to be safely accommodated.
Now, it seems like it's the children's turn to become too big for safety devices. More than a quarter of a million US children ages 1 to 6 are heavier than the weight limits for standard child car-safety seats, a new study has found, and most are 3-year-olds who weigh more than 40 pounds.
Are anyone else's alarm bells ringing here?"
This is terrible, children are obese before they are even 6 years old?!… and a quarter of a million at that! Thats just insane…
–Jim–
April 2, 2006
March 21, 2006
Quick update on this terrible crisis. Aparrently the one who’s head was said to have swolloen to 3 times the normal size isn’t getting any better. Doctor’s have told his family that he is expected to die from heart, kidney and lung faliure. That really is terrible. Another of the patients is expected to be in a coma for up to/at least a year, im not sure which it is different sites seem to say different things. But either way, thats a long time. The other 4 who were given the drug seem to be showing apparent signes of marginal improvement. Lets just hope this isn’t that “calm before the storm” kind of effect where the situation suddenly becomes much worse for those 4 which are getting better. And in the case of the families of the 2 which aren’t getting any better, I feel so very sorry for them, it must be hard, can’t say I’m ever going to sign up for a clinical trial after this…
–Jim–
March 19, 2006
Take a look.
It has an rss feed aswell. So you can subscribe to it.
–Jim–
March 15, 2006
Having heard about the recent situation with the medical trials which have gone seriously wrong at Northwick Park, I have to say I’m not sure I will ever be tempted to partake in a clinical trial! I’m not sure as to how true this statement is but I had heard that one of the patients involved’s head has swollen to around 3 times it’s usual size.
This drug had been tested on animals prior to this clinical trial however I think the problems which have arisen from this trial only show that animal trials should be allowed to run much more, obviously they have to be restricted in some ways or all kinds of drugs would be tested on animals all over the place, but problems like this current situation could possibly be avoided if further animal trials were allowed to take place.
Also I think clinical trials on humans need to be controlled much more, I mean, the 6 men involved (it was 8 in total but 2 were given placebos, damn are they lucky…) have all suffered sever organ faliure through taking the possible anti-inflammatory drug and are now all in critical conditions in intensive care. I have also read that none of them are currently getting any better. One of the guys involved was a 21year old student trying to make money to pay for his course. They were paid around £2000, but life isnt really worth that is it, its worth a hell of a lot more. So if I were you, and you’re thinking about taking part in a clinical trial, I would definitely think twice before signing that line at the bottom of the page, it seems you really really would be signing your life away.
Although I did find it slightly amusing that this article was on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and a few pages further into the paper there was an article about a company wanting half a million people to take part in a new drug trial. Heh. If only they knew 
–Jim–
February 23, 2006
Ok, when I first heard about the bird flu cases in China, admittedly it did cause a slight bit ofworry, mainly because of the fact it was China, but I wasn’t massively bothered about it and I quickly forgot about it. However I am now fairly worried after reading the following news article: LINK The French have now found 2 cases of H5N1, the deadly bird flu. This is slightly closer to home and I’m thinking it won’t be too long before Britain has its first case. There is the channel which seems to serve a useful barrier but I’m sure infected birds will cross it sooner or later. Let’s just hope the WHO sorts this out as asap.
–Jim–
