During the first half of the show, Dr. John Abramson discussed the commercialization of American medicine. The pharmaceutical industry is geared towards maximum profit rather than maximum health, he commented. Further, he questioned the impartiality of drug trial studies-- 85% are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, and in cases where drugs are tested against each other, the sponsored one almost always wins, he reported.

Contesting a recent study that suggested people with normal cholesterol levels could benefit from taking statin drugs, Abramson said diet and exercise were more important health factors. He also noted that recent guidelines about prescribing statin drugs to children with high cholesterol were based on indirect scientific evidence, and may have been influenced by pharmaceutical sponsors.

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Appearing in the latter half of the program, psychic Joseph Jacobs shared his predictions and intuitions for 2009 and beyond. He also spoke about his process of giving individual readings. Using a standard deck of cards as an analysis tool, he assesses where a person is currently at in their life and how things might unfold in their future.

He foresees economic difficulties continuing in 2009, especially in the first quarter. The months of May and July are going to be particularly difficult for the U.S., with flooding and lives lost, he said. The new year will bring inventions and new ideas, but will also be a time of "fusion and fission" with people and countries "coming together and splitting apart." The economy will start to improve by the end of 2010, he added.

Revisioning the Sphinx

Egypt's Sphinx might originally have had the head of a lion, two researchers recently suggested. Because the head and body of the Sphinx are disproportionate, the face of a pharaoh, possibly modeled after Khufu, could have been re-carved on the monument at a later date. More at the Daily Mail.

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Monday December 08, 2008