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June 18, 2004

Psychos With Drum Machines

Posted by nerdling | June 18, 2004 11:27 AM

Another American hostage has been beheaded, this time by Al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia.

The pharmaceutical industry is already sitting pretty, raking in billions of dollars in profits each year through cozy associations with doctors and pharmacies. President Bush apparently intends to further line these ever-deepening pockets by instituting mental illness screening for the entire country. The initiative is aimed primarily at diagnosing and medicating children as early as possible in order to "change their trajectory" from aggressive to passive.

I would be one of the first people to admit that mental illness is widely misunderstood and stigmatized, but screening an entire country of people just to hand out more prescriptions for Prozac is a bit too close to Brave New World for me.

Antitrust legistlators in the EU are close to approving the merger that would unify Sony and Bertelsmann music groups into the world's largest music empire and make the Big Five into the Big Four. The deal was formerly opposed by the EU—which previously shut down the proposed merger of Warner Brothers and EMI music groups—and, if approved, means that Sony BMG will be the source of one out of every three CDs sold.

Speculation is brewing that 20% of Miramax's staff will be let go this year. It seems the brothers Weinstein have already exceeded their $700 million production budget, and will have to tighten the belt before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

Sprint seems to be following suit, and will be cutting 1,100 jobs by mid-July.