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Day: 10 March 2009

Net: Is my mediciation safe or is Wikipedia not safe?

Ok, after reading one inflammatory article today (Kate Craig-Wood’s Register edited “UK IT should ‘fire men first'” article), it’s time for my own – which I’m entitling “Is my mediciation safe or is Wikipedia not safe?” “Wikipedia: Is it safe?”

This blog entry has been inspired by the Wikipedia entry for some medication I am currently taking. It’s been prescribed to me by a UK registered GP (General Practice Doctor) on an NHS (National Health Service) prescription and was dispensed by Superdrug (the 2nd largest health and beauty and pharmacy chain in the UK – 2nd only to Boots) to treat a bacterial otitis externa (ear canal infection). As you can guess then, the medicine is widely stocked, approved by the UK’s health board and is known by general doctors.

However, the Wikipedia article for the drug Ciprofloxacin states:

…[it is an] agent used to treat severe and life threatening bacterial infections….The licensed uses for ciprofloxacin in the United States are quite limited as ciprofloxacin is to be considered a drug of last resort when all other antibiotics have failed.

(Emphasis mine)

And that’s just from the summary!

Wow: what a dangerous drug my Doctor has prescribed me: I must be at death’s door (which explains why he told me not to go into work for a week: I may keel over and die at my desk!).

Japan Bike Storage

As you may be aware, I quite like things from Japan and it’ll come as no great suprise then that I follow Danny Choo (@dannychoo) and Neil Duckett (@Neil_Duckett) quite a bit (as they are major Gaijin bloggers in Japan) and it was therefore with fun I found Danny’s post about Bike Storage In Japan.

It’s quite fasincating to watch the machine accept the bike, store it and then spit it out afterwards: and with the Mayor Of London (@MayorOfLondon) looking at introducing hire bikes around London, then this could be the perfect idea. Have one of these Japanese Bike Parks near every major London tube/train station (maybe between Euston and Kings Cross St Pancras, Victoria, London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Waterloo) with each unit having around 20-40 bikes available for hire (the rest of the bike park can be used for “public use”). Swipe an Oyster card (or other “token”) at the machine to hire a bike, and return it (bikes are RFID’d tagged for extra security) at any bike park to finish hiring it.

Of course, there is the slight problem with the “oh noes, terrorists could use it in x/y/z manner” doom-sayers, but determined terrorists will always find a way so in the words of a certain organisation “so don’t worry and just enjoy your life.”.

Thoughts?