Current Events

[skipwondah33]

My wife is also on medication for anxiety and panic attacks.

Her mother had her put on the medication since she was a little girl...and after having been on it for 10+ years never thought anything of it...because hey she's taking her medicine it makes it all go away.

Not thinking that hey thus medicine is making her depressed all the time...gain over 50 pounds in weight as a teenager after Mom had Dr put her on Paxil. She wasn't eating any more than she was before on that particular medicine. Changed Dr's at my advice and he immediately took her off that saying that was a prime side effect. Of course weight gain made her more depressed...meanwhile not getting to the root of the issue. It was always just medicate medicate...take more medication, take a Xanax and it will all go away.

She is now just at the age of 28 just at the point where she is tired of being on it and wanting to get away from medications on medications.

[bdoughty]

Buspar is a great substitute for Xanax. My additive nature and Xanax was not a good mix. Of course it varies from person to person. I can say that trying to get off certain prescriptions is like trying to stop using meth (not that I have used meth) but the withdrawl has made me want to sit in a dark closet for days.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yes, it does take someone already screwed up in the head, but all these pills and medications are not helping. For you, they help and work. For others, especially those already with numerous screws loose, the pill cocktails can only make it worse.

And it's not just the pills themselves, but how they interact with each other. There really is a problem with doctors over prescribing medication. These days you can go in for a simple running nose and you'll walk out with a bag of pills. Know why? The pharmaceutical companies.

They are constantly bombarding doctors with people who do literally nothing but go from doctor to doctor sales pitching drug after drug after drug. Show up with a hot lunch or some other food and meet with the doctor during his lunch hours or another time to push your drugs. If the doctor agrees, they get sales and the doctor may get some easy money by being a public speaker for the company or drugs. Some of these companies are spending tens of millions of dollars buying free food and other stuff to bring with them to sales pitch doctors.

And then these doctors, if they agree to use the drug, start getting hounded by the companies if those companies don't feel like the doctors are prescribing it enough. So the doctors may feel the need to over prescribe and give these drugs out to patients unnecessarily. It's a never ending cycle.

[steelerfan]

The HOTTEST women on earth are pharmaceutical sales reps.

[bdoughty]

The HOTTEST women on earth are pharmaceutical sales reps.

That is true. My current doctor is a female and her primary care is OB/GYN. So I am pretty she is worn out by vaginas by the time a rep comes calling.

Smooth.

I am sure it happens in very rare cases but in my time dealing with numerous doctors have never seen it (putting a repped drug ahead of their patient care). Seen it in movies and on Law and Order but they like to dramatize things. Doctors take that oath, invest ten or so years to become a doctor and generally are fairly smart individuals. Pretty girl and the free meals are a nice perk but not something they are going to risk their profession over. I think you are not giving them enough credit. Had my share of free lunches, golf rounds and trips, just to add their product line to our catalog. Part of doing business and in most cases nothing more.

We are still talking about minuscule of occurrences (mass muders) compared to number of people on these medications and that is assuming all of the killers were even on them. Far more confederate flags flying around, which are obviously more dangerous and therefore the call to eliminate them. Gotta have something to blame. Video games, metal music, devil worshiping, working for the postal service have all been used in the past.

[cdj]

A major scandal is erupting in the multibillion dollar industry of fantasy sports, the online and unregulated business in which players assemble their fantasy teams with real athletes. On Monday, the two major fantasy companies were forced to release statements defending their businesses’ integrity after what amounted to allegations of insider trading, that employees were placing bets on information not available to the public.

Last week, a DraftKings employee admitted to inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games, a move akin to insider trading in the stock market. The employee – a midlevel content manager — won $350,000 at rival site FanDuel that same week.

The incident has raised questions about who at daily fantasy companies has access to valuable data, how it is protected and whether the industry can — or wants — to police itself.

Courtesy: NY Times

[souljahbill]

What information did they have? A secret injury report?

[cdj]

What information did they have? A secret injury report?

In this case, the data that was leaked by the DraftKings employee, Ethan Haskell, showed what particular players were most used in all lineups submiited to the site’s Millionaire Maker contests. Usually, that data is not released until the lineups for all games are finalized. Getting it early, however, is of great advantage to make tactical decisions, especially when your opponents do not have the information at all.

I don't play daily fantasy, so I am unsure on the exact advantages this provides.

[CLW]

Yep there is NOTHING preventing an employee on the take from telling your opponent your lineup in head to head matchups and/or giving out this type of information to people who slip them some extra money. Bottom line, you are a FOOL if you think DraftKings and/or Fan Duel are on the up and up.

[CLW]

In this case, the data that was leaked by the DraftKings employee, Ethan Haskell, showed what particular players were most used in all lineups submiited to the site’s Millionaire Maker contests. Usually, that data is not released until the lineups for all games are finalized. Getting it early, however, is of great advantage to make tactical decisions, especially when your opponents do not have the information at all.

I don't play daily fantasy, so I am unsure on the exact advantages this provides.

Basically, you want to pick players noone (or fewer people have) = > chance to rise up the rankings.

Employees of DK can use this inside info to their advantage at FD (presumably there are rules against employees gambling on their own site but apparently not at others) and vice versa.

[cdj]

Basically, you want to pick players noone (or fewer people have) = > chance to rise up the rankings.

Employees of DK can use this inside info to their advantage at FD (presumably there are rules against employees gambling on their own site but apparently not at others) and vice versa.

- I understand that, but don't some fantasy football sites tell you % ownage of a player? Isn't that the same thing? The user would still not know how each athlete will perform that week, which is the top factor. Don't get me wrong, I think this was shady and shouldn't happen - but I'm not sure it's on the level of insider trading as some articles are claiming.

- They probably shouldn't allow employees to wager on either site, but that seems like a tough one to enforce.

[CLW]

- I understand that, but don't some fantasy football sites tell you % ownage of a player? Isn't that the same thing? The user would still not know how each athlete will perform that week, which is the top factor. Don't get me wrong, I think this was shady and shouldn't happen - but I'm not sure it's on the level of insider trading as some articles are claiming.

- They probably shouldn't allow employees to wager on either site, but that seems like a tough one to enforce.

I don't anything about the sites show - i presumed they didn't b/c otherwise the tweet giving you the data is no big deal

yes they don't know how they will perform but if you are looking to maximize your chances of winning (in the big pools) you need to pick the best players that aren't heavily used hoping to make the right combo of those players to pay off the most

it's not a direct correlation from insider trading but its about as close of a comparrison that I can think of

on the rules enforcement issue - stock analysts at various companies are PROHIBITED from buying/selling/owning stocks that they cover. seems to me that if these companies can monitor their employees stock ownings the fantasy gambling sites could do the same at other daily fantasy sites (i don't think there are that many out there)

[CLW]

DraftKings employees reportedly won nearly $6 million playing daily fantasy sports at rival FanDuel

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/draftk...190600043.html

basically - they are using their data and computer formulas to win money from the average joe sports guy who is a MORON for gambling on their sites.

[cdj]

New FanDuel statement this morning in entirety, welcomes regulation of industry pic.twitter.com/pxnViLl0hE

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 7, 2015

Unless I am misreading something, it doesn't sound like they are necessarily wanting regulations (as Rovell stated), but just establishing some guidelines to keep that from happening and avoid (more) bad press.


Though, if they are looking to be regulated that means they must be the industry leader by a mile. The only companies that look for regulations are those who know they can withstand them (if not formulate & shape them) and it will keep the competition (DraftKings) down and/or out.

I still think within a couple years one company will end up buying the other out.

[cdj]

Today's USA Today contains an insert with the fictional Back to the Future II USA Today front page.

One real-life event caused one headline to be edited:

I think I found a late edition of the "Back To The Future" newspaper. Check out what's highlighted in yellow pic.twitter.com/GzkBItyRfb

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 21, 2015

[JBHuskers]

Awesome

[JeffHCross]

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[JBHuskers]

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[CLW]

Multiple casualties at homecoming parade. Details sketchy but apparently a car drove into a bunch of people/pedestrians.


http://www.si.com/college-football/2...people-hit-car

[CLW]

3 dead 8 more critical condition - driver arrested for DUI.