Interesting Links for 12-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• Woman promised a Toyota as a prize, sues when she won a toy Yoda, and wins!
  (tags: law StarWars competition)
• Biggest four UK ISPs switching to opt-in system for pornography. Can't wait to see what gets caught up in this...
  (tags: web internet censorship)
• Woman Sues Because The Trailer Was Not Like The Movie
  (tags: trailers movies usa)
• Letter from a psychopath
  (tags: psychology psychopath)
• EU bans pre-ticked website boxes to aid consumers
  (tags: web eu europe law)
• New information about how the solar system began (and why Pluto is not a planet)
  (tags: pluto astronomy solarsystem)
• Man jailed after reporting theft of his cannabis plants
  (tags: EpicFail cannabis drugs scotland)
• Relationship satisfaction linked to oral contraception
  (tags: contraception relationships hormones)
• Ginger root supplement reduced colon inflammation markers
  (tags: food health)
• Peanut allergy turned off by tricking immune system
  (tags: peanuts allergies health)
• Tighter expenses rules harming MPs' mental health. Now, if only they understood the same about benefit claimants...
  (tags: parliament politics money mentalhealth uk)

Comments

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

- maybe she was very biased in favour of the Pill because she saw lots of young female students having unwanted pregnancies or at least pregnancies scares

Yeah - I think this is a specific example of where my thinking on GP production lines generally has got to today. it sounds like it was too difficult / time consuming / expensive to treat you as you and not (mistakenly) as one of a class of people who had identical issues and could be treated in an identical way.

Maybe I'm just an overeducated awkward person but I find doctors who tell me what to do mostly patronising.

I am nothing if not over educated but I quite like the idea of being told what to do by a doctor, especially when I know in my heart of hearts I agree with them.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Maybe the agreeing in your heart of hearts is the crucial bit here - in my heart of hearts I have a possibly irrational hatred of the idea of messing with my hormones. Also I don't think the Pill is necessarily a safer contraception method than properly used barrier methods and get annoyed because I think doctors generally overstate its effectiveness and understate the possible side effects (http://www.contraceptivetechnology.org/table.html backs me up on this - perfect use of condoms* is more effective than typical use of the Pill). Doctors never seem to be very keen on pointing out how many things can reduce the effectiveness of the Pill, like having a dodgy stomach or taking OTC cold & flu remedies, never mind the number of prescribed antibiotics that stop it working.

*I realise that isn't a like for like comparison but perfect use of condoms isn't that hard to get right if you and your partner are careful.

Sorry, pet rant ;) Fortunately for me, my partner has had a vasectomy so I get to avoid the issue these days.