09 Dec 2005
Hospitals may ban treatment for smokers and drinkers

In the UK, of all places! I would've expected New York... but seriously, what's (or who's) next? Ride a Harley? Why should we bother fixing you up after that wreck, when you'll just go biking again? Skydive? Forget putting you back together! Eighty-five? Well, you're too old to waste our precious medical resources! Off with you!

Smokers, drinkers and the seriously overweight may be denied medical treatment if their lifestyle makes it ineffective, the Government’s treatment watchdog said yesterday.

(link) [Times Online]

via Secular Blasphemy

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

A Music File by Any Other Name

A bit of a discussion on audio file formats and codecs got going in the writebacks to this post yesterday - and lo, today Wired publishs this, which conveniently acts as a followup!

Which format is best? Get wise to the durability of MP3s, the promise of AAC and the pitfalls of Sony's ATRAC. Last in a three-part series. By Michael Calore.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

If HP Lovecraft Had Drawn Family Circus

Nameless Dread

(link) [accordion guy]

via Sannion

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

God, Allah Acquitted in Tsunami Disaster

Thor takes the rap, after being caught wrestling with the World Serpent!

The International Criminal Court concluded its preliminary hearings today concerning the death and destruction wrought by the tsunami that struck Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand on December 26, 2004.

Although early testimony from Christian and Muslim leaders sought to implicate either God or Allah in the hundreds of thousands of deaths that have resulted from the disaster, a preponderance of evidence now points to the involvement of the Norwegian thunder god, Thor. Criminal charges against the deity are pending.

(link) [SHAFT Agents News]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link