NASA Space Rock

So, they didn't pick "Rocket Ride".

That's fine. NASA sent me a nifty PDF Certificate of Participation. They had to go through 1,350 songs, after all. And there are a bunch of excellent songs up for your listening and voting pleasure at NASA Space Rock. Voting is open until mission launch day, April 19.

Stupid News Is Stupid

I'm not even gonna bother with the links on this one -- it's just an eye-roller, and it shows the need for our alleged news media to create tension where there is none, even in situations that do not warrant tension.

See, if you go to Yahoo's main page, #1 in "Trending" is Sara Ramirez, who is going to sing on this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. For some reason I simply cannot fathom -- it isn't in the story or anything -- the lead-in blurb to KABC-TV story from the Trending page ends, "Can she pull it off?"

The story itself notes that she won the frickin' Tony in 2005 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (as The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot!).

"Can she pull it off?" < /disgusted, insulted snark, exactly the same tone that Bugs Bunny used when he jerked his thumb at Elmer and said, "Magic helmet." >

Why do they do this? Why do they say this? If they need to gin it up, they can say, "Sara hasn't sung much since her Tony-winning turn in 2005...." What asshole copy editor thought it necessary to even contemplate making it a possibility that she wouldn't sound marvelous?

And, yes, I know it's the entertainment news, which is even more shallow in some ways than the political news. But jayzus. It's like with Dan Radcliffe. He's doing How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying on Broadway soon, and all we've got so far is pictures of Harry Potter Singing! Either he's a complete flop as a singer and dancer, or (more likely) they think the surprise that he isn't a complete flop will be I*N*C*R*E*D*I*B*L*E! No matter how good he is, all they're really doing is setting him up for a variation on, "It's not that the bear dances well, it's that it dances at all."

Anyway. Sorry. Just had to go off for a minute. Carry on. How's your day?

New DOCTOR WHO 2011 Series Trailer

Sixty seconds of distilled awesome.

Re-Animator: The Musical

This stopped me in my tracks for a minute.

I've been trying to make Herbert West: The Musical work for over a year now. I didn't even know this existed, and I looked.

On the other hand, my HW is dark -- very dark, not much comedy at all. The play is based on the movie, and directed by the same guy, Stuart Gordon. I presume and hope that never the twain shall meet.

Still... frustrating.

FDA Tells Ther-Rx That Other Pharmacies Can Make Cheap Versions Of Makena

Score one for the good guys:

Amid a national uproar by pregnant women and their doctors, the federal Food and Drug Administration today told a St. Louis company that it would allow special pharmacies to make a cheaper version of a newly approved drug to prevent premature births, in competition with the company’s higher-price medicine.

Ther-Rx Corp. received FDA approval Feb. 3 to market the drug Makena. It is similar to drugs doctors ordered from pharmacies making a customized version of the progesterone preparation at $9.80 a dose, or $200 for a typical course of 20 injections.

Ther-Rx bumped up the price of Makena to $1,500 a dose or $30,000 for a typical pregnancy, citing sterile work conditions and other costly regulations required to win and maintain federal approval.

This is a perfect example of why we need a strong government regulatory system, and why The Glorious Free Market is a crock of shit. These fuckers cared nothing for patients, nothing for anything but profit. Thankfully, the FDA slapped them down.

May they continue to have a spine in the future. 'Cause this isn't the last time we'll see something like this.