RumblinFumblinStumblin.com

Consider the following:

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-The 10 best-selling drugs generate revenue (or cost consumers, depending on how you look at it) of over $60 Billion per year.

-Lipitor. Nexium. Zocor. Prevacid. Many others.

-Pfizer, Merck, Sanofin-Aventis, and Bristol-Myers are the four largest drug companies. They have a combined market capitalization (shares outstanding x share price; or in plain English - the amount that the market thinks they’re worth) of $455 Billion.

-They spend billions on R&D to create new drugs for old diseases, discover new diseases, and create drugs for those new diseases.

-They spend billions more on lobbyists.

-And they definitely spend billions on advertising in the form of TV commercials and drug reps schmoozing your family doctor so that everyone knows just how badly they need Pro-Ex-Vasa-Zo-Whatever.

-Drugs to put us to sleep, drugs to keep us awake, drugs to treat the recently-discovered malady of Restless Leg Syndrome.

The Cap’n had RLS and EBP

-Yes, you read that correctly - 3 Million years of human existence, and we’re just now getting around to discovering and treating Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS if you choose to attempt to lend it additional credibility by turning it into an acronym; RFS his ownself suffers from EBP, or excessive booger production).

-But be careful if you take these drugs, because if you have (1) high blood pressure, (2) low blood pressure, (3) normal blood pressure, or (4) any of a number of other characteristics; it could result in (a) nausea, (b) vomiting, (c) stroke, (d) seizure, (e) heart attack, (f) memory loss, or (g) erections lasting longer than 4 hours.

-Simple blood tests can determine if you have liver disease. For erections lasting than longer than four hours, consult a physician.

-And just in case you met all of the requirements, have a time machine on standby just in case you took Bextra, Accutane, Celebrex, Vioxx, or any other drugs that were recalled by the FDA for causes of death, blindness, etc.
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By now you’re probably thinking my name is Tom, I have a wife named Katie, I like to dance around my house wearing only underwear and sunglasses, I’m a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard, and I think all drugs are evil.

Only one of those is true (I’m a boxers man, no briefs), and as far as I’m concerned, medication is a personal choice.

My point is this - I think you would be hard-pressed to find any drug discovered in the last 25 years, during the modern era of gigantic drug companies, that had anywhere near the positive effect on the world as the polio vaccine.

Polio crippled and killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people… many of them children. When asked if he planned to profit from it or patent it, Jonas Salk had the famous quote:

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“Who owns my polio vaccine? The people! Could you patent the sun?”
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I wonder what would happen today.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Yes, you read that correctly. Someone out there actually looked at one of those stories where some MLB “superfan” goes to games at all 30 stadiums and said “I fart in your general direction!“.

Today’s hero is Miguel Rodriguez (aka Off the Meter aka OTM), a college basketball junkie of the first order. I’d recommend reading this explanation of his background and his quest in the Washington Post first.

His daily blog is located here at www.theultimatehoopschallenge.com - I plan on bookmarking it to follow him around for the entire season. I have no idea if he’s going to make it, but he’s got some great pics and videos so far.

By the way - if you didn’t read the background story, Miguel is depending on donations to defray some of his costs. So if you want to help and/or have an “in” with your local Division I basketball program, send an email to OTM and let him know.

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you’re a runner but have never heard of ultramarathoning or Dean Karnazes, I highly recommend his book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner.

I won’t spoil the book, but suffice it to say that I bought it after I saw a piece about him on 60 Minutes in which he talked about going blind while running, running for 24 hours straight, running an ultramarathon during the summer in Death Valley (where you have to run on the white line on the road, otherwise your shoes will melt), etc. You know, stuff we all do from time to time.

To summarize, he’s either (1) a freak of nature, or (2) crazier than a shithouse rat. Maybe both.

Anyway, he’s in the news today because he’s about to accomplish his goal of running 50 marathons in 50 states… in 50 days. Yes, you read that correctly.

As I’ve already noted, these guys (and women) are crazy. To prove it, here’s an excerpt from that story:

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Death by treadmill — almost

With eight minutes to go Bergland collapsed. He got up and stumbled his way to the record — 153.76 miles. Then he went straight to the hospital. He says the doctors were furious and he wasn’t released for four days.
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The alternate title for this post is: If He Was in Mexico, It Would Have Been Gazpacho

Popularity: 8% [?]

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2631338

I saw this story on HBO’s Real Sports a few months ago.  The human interest stories that they do on there usually make me feel - including, but not limited to - lame, lazy, inadequate, overweight, underweight, weak, and stupid.

This story made me feel several of those, but threw a healthy dose of guilt on top of it that I don’t call my Dad more often.

If you get a chance, watch the Real Sports story.  Unbelievable.

Popularity: 4% [?]