Archive for September 2012
BBC News – Fox News apologises over live ‘suicide’ in Arizona
The US network Fox News has apologised for showing a man fatally shoot himself in the head on live television.Fox News on Friday was covering a high-speed chase that began in Phoenix, Arizona, using a live helicopter shot.After driving for dozens of miles into the desert, the motorist stopped and ran on to a dirt road. He then put a handgun to his head and fired.TV anchor Shepard Smith later apologised to viewers for not cutting away. “We really messed up,” he said.Phoenix police say the chase may have started with a car-jacking.
via BBC News – Fox News apologises over live ‘suicide’ in Arizona.
BBC News – Curiosity Mars rover beams images of ancient streambed
Nasa’s Curiosity rover has only been on the surface of Mars seven weeks but it has already turned up evidence of past flowing water on the planet.
The robot has returned pictures of classic conglomerates – rocks that are made up of gravels and sand.
Scientists on the mission team say the size and rounded shape of the pebbles in the rock indicate they had been transported and eroded in water.
Researchers think the rover has found a network of ancient streams.
The rocks, which were described in a media briefing at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, were likely laid down “several billion years ago”. But the actual streams themselves may have persisted on the surface for long periods, said Curiosity science co-investigator Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.
“We would anticipate that it could easily be thousands to millions of years,” he told reporters.
via BBC News – Curiosity Mars rover beams images of ancient streambed.
The drugs don’t work: a modern medical scandal | Ben Goldacre | Business | The Guardian
Reboxetine is a drug I have prescribed. Other drugs had done nothing for my patient, so we wanted to try something new. I’d read the trial data before I wrote the prescription, and found only well-designed, fair tests, with overwhelmingly positive results.
Reboxetine was better than a placebo, and as good as any other antidepressant in head-to-head comparisons. It’s approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA), which governs all drugs in the UK. Millions of doses are prescribed every year, around the world. Reboxetine was clearly a safe and effective treatment. The patient and I discussed the evidence briefly, and agreed it was the right treatment to try next. I signed a prescription.
via The drugs don’t work: a modern medical scandal | Ben Goldacre | Business | The Guardian.
