Callie

Originally Posted By: Miramor - And also so you can afford medications you need, which cost almost nothing to manufacture, but are worth their weight in raw emeralds including the lactose filler. Most of the cost isn't really incurred during the manufacturing process, but the research and development process. A drug company might test hundreds of different compounds before developing a potentially marketable drug, but the drug has to be tested by the FDA first, and the FDA only approves about one third of the drugs it tests. By the time a drug company has a product it can legally sell on the market, it has easily spent at least ten years and billions of dollars in the development process. The high price reflects the high development cost. And drugs are hardly the only aspect of the healthcare industry that have a high research and development cost. As far as manufacturing is concerned, it's not necessarily cheap and the cost depends on the drug. Pharmaceuticals generally require a process in which a chemical of a low concentration and mass is uniformly distributed throughout a fluid (often throughout the entire process), and that's not easy to accomplish! If a tablet is supposed to have 180 mg of a drug in it, it had better have 180 mg of drug in it! The various constituents of a drug tablet have differing mass, density, surface area, sphericity, heat capacity, porosity, viscosity (for fluids), acidity/basicity, solubility, etc., etc. etc. All of that has to be accounted for to achieve that desired uniform distribution. There's also the synthesis aspect, which I don't know much about. I'd imagine that a drug like ibuprofen is fairly easy to synthesize, but that wouldn't be true of a drug that requires careful biological synthesis in a lab setting. But even ibuprofen has two primary stereoisomers (configurations, basically) with different effects, and nobody has really figured out a practical way to separate them.

Originally Posted By: Valdain the King I think that its rather simple-Everybody's gone nuts. A moderator has posted up to 15 topics about burning the boards and I still can't understand what he's going on about. Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door.

The Jefferson quote in my signature has long been one of my favorite. Additionally, I love this passage from Brave New World: Originally Posted By: Aldous Huxley "Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death and danger dare, even for an eggshell. Isn't there something in that?" he asked, looking up at Mustapha Mond. "Quite apart from God–though of course God would be a reason for it. Isn't there something in living dangerously?" "There's a great deal in it," the Controller replied. "Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time." "What?" questioned the Savage, uncomprehending. "It's one of the conditions of perfect health. That's why we've made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory." "V.P.S.?" "Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenalin. It's the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences." "But I like the inconveniences." "We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably." "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." "In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy." "All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."

It might seem kind of silly to be so attached to forum software, but it signals a transition in a way: a new era. The content on the forums won't be any different, but it will have a new skin. UBB has been the skin for quite a while, and now it will be something different. It's almost like getting a new computer: the old computer and the new computer pretty much do the same thing, but there's some sort of odd nostalgia that occurs when replacing it.

Heh, in the beginning of the semester I was accosted by a guy scalping Burning Man tickets as I followed an overzealous friend into a Whole Foods. I'm not completely sure why he singled me out.

Oooh, we shall now have strange new gods. May they be merciful and bestow a functional polling feature.

I'm not sure that Democrats actually spend more on entitlements than Republicans do ( This article suggests that entitlement spending increases at a greater rate under Republican administrations) . If Republicans control the white house, they are quite happy to increase speeding on entitlements such as Medicare.

Originally Posted By: Dantius Originally Posted By: Miramor Nuke jokes are about as funny as rape jokes, i.e. not funny at all. The OP may have been tasteless, but your post was off the charts. Have you even seen Dr. Strangelove? Well-done nuke jokes are hilarious. Yes, but we lowly internet denizens are not capable of creating such higher forms of satire, or maintaining the purity of our precious bodily fluids.

Originally Posted By: Actaeon Do these things really have an effect? Romney's policies carry the same message as his words. What's the difference? Melons will fall from the sky, the media will have a circus, and Obama's ad team will have a nice glass of wine.

Gaffe! Gaffe! Gaffe!

1. An old MacAddict CD that had Exile I and Exile II on it. 2. Not really: most people have never heard of them, and even if they look, they'll complain about the graphics.

You gain a new name: Coloring Book Signature!

Originally Posted By: Captain TrEnToN. P-pony sliths? Yes. Just yes. I always knew ponies were cold-blooded.

If I take hundreds of pictures, I will get a handful of good shots. It's not easy being orange. Multiplication Has seen a few years The Rebel Yay Lava! The ceiling The way out Landing site I'm not that adventurous Bridge!

Someone is eyeing Nikki's margarita. A fresh photo, with headphones of course. Click to reveal.. (Moi)

Rowen as a peasant is oddly appropriate.

Originally Posted By: Future Wonderbolt Sigh Lay I would say something snarky here, but "Triumph"? Nothing to work with! Are you sure there isn't any added umph?

Sometimes, when in the course of a conversation, the other person might respond in surprise or disbelief to a fact concerning yourself. So, what kind of facts about yourself often elicit a surprised response? (Or even one of disbelief?) For me (off the top of my head): -I have been seriously injured by a laundry hamper. -I have nearly been suffocated by means of an obese mastiff sitting on my head. -I have lived in Mexico. -I don't like The Matrix or the The Dark Knight. -How fundamentalist my parents are. -I have some Lady Gaga tracks in my music library. -I like figure skating. -I hate lagers. -I don't see any reason for the government to prohibit public nudity. -I'm not vegan or vegetarian. -I have never liked cake (except cheesecake). -I oppose patriotism. -I prefer freezing weather. -I was falsely diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: Excalibur It was considered unstable because nobody could isolate pure hydrogen hydroxide without it decomposing into water and oxygen hydrogen hydroxide is very easy to get. it's hydrogen peroxide that's hard. Oh dear, I have a remarkable ability not to notice glaring typos. (This is also why I usually proofread my essays by reading them backwards)

Originally Posted By: Sylae bang hot female side character Cordelia? (As far as Avernum is concerned, at least)

Originally Posted By: Upon Mars. Originally Posted By: Lilith Hydrogen peroxide isn't very stable: it breaks down into water and oxygen on its own at room temperature. You'd need some source that's continually producing it. What for example? Aside from magic. Also "Pure hydrogen peroxide was long believed to be unstable. This was because of failed attempts to separate the hydrogen peroxide from the water, which is present during synthesis. However, this instability was due to traces of impurities (transition metals salts) that catalyze the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide. One hundred percent pure hydrogen peroxide was first obtained through vacuum distillation by Richard Wolffenstein in 1894." -wikipedia, hydrogen peroxide. It was considered unstable because nobody could isolate pure hydrogen hydroxide peroxide without it decomposing into water and oxygen (The use of "unstable" in that paragraph is somewhat confusing). We can now produce pure hydrogen peroxide, but as Lilith says, it will spontaneously decompose at room temperature. A household solution of hydrogen peroxide is generally stored in a plastic brown bottle to prevent the solution from absorbing light and consequentially decomposing. It can also be refrigerated to slow down the rate of decomposition.

I don't think any of them would work as movies. As a book? I don't know about that one.

There are so many misconceptions presented by the entertainment industry and the media that it would be difficult to list all of them. But these things are constructed by humans and made for humans so who's really at fault? The Jefferson quote in my signature is one of my favorites and it's as relevant as ever. A few examples: Unrealistic impressions of romance, sexism, racism and all other kinds of prejudice, exaggeration and glorification of police authority and the military, inaccurate physics, false medical procedures, historical inaccuracies, improper lab procedures (but the reagent bottle isn't labelled!), dehumanization of villains (i.e. the Viet Cong in the film The Deer Hunter) and other forms of the "Us vs. Them" kind of mentality, etc., etc...

Originally Posted By: Lilith i win The name is hilarious.

Originally Posted By: Future Wonderbolt Hey excalibur, what do you say we slip off and go do some chemical engineering i know a process that has quite the emphasis on energy Mmm, come along and I'll show you my fluidized bed.