Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[TheDon]

Don't know all the US drug names, but basically there is a two-packet (say, 2 x 16 pills) maximum purchase on any of the regular painkillers in any one transaction in a given shop. It's to discourage suicide attempts - although obviously there's nothing to stop you going to a few different shops to build up your supply, I guess that does at least slow you down and give you time for reflection.

Holy **** shit...

I can go down the street and buy a half-dozen bottles of 500 x 500mg pills off the shelf.

It used to be like that here - they brought in the new rule, oh maybe ten years ago.

I used to buy painkillers (paracetamol) in bulk - 200 tablet bottle - before the law changed. It's a damn nuisance. I suspect that the "suicide" thing is actually a cover to hide a de facto price increase caused by having to buy in small quantities.

Apparently paracetamol suicides went down dramatically as a result; maybe 80% or something. It's also a nasty way to die, very painful and extremely slow.

But did the suicide rates in general?

[Chindie]

Don't know all the US drug names, but basically there is a two-packet (say, 2 x 16 pills) maximum purchase on any of the regular painkillers in any one transaction in a given shop. It's to discourage suicide attempts - although obviously there's nothing to stop you going to a few different shops to build up your supply, I guess that does at least slow you down and give you time for reflection.

Holy **** shit...

I can go down the street and buy a half-dozen bottles of 500 x 500mg pills off the shelf.

It used to be like that here - they brought in the new rule, oh maybe ten years ago.

I used to buy painkillers (paracetamol) in bulk - 200 tablet bottle - before the law changed. It's a damn nuisance. I suspect that the "suicide" thing is actually a cover to hide a de facto price increase caused by having to buy in small quantities.

Apparently paracetamol suicides went down dramatically as a result; maybe 80% or something. It's also a nasty way to die, very painful and extremely slow.

I seem to remember hearing that it is not a way to commit suicide that you want to be saved from - the talk always was if you went down that route and were saved you were left vegetable like if it was far enough along.

[legov]

Are you the Singaporean version of the legend that is trimandson (the younger)?

:? no idea what you're trying to get across.

All this just seems scarily pertinent to me.

:shock: Why?

Bipolar depressive.

Tailor-made for the military, then.

(Joking).

Haha. No seriously I'm struggling inside, but at least I'm not in a combat vocation, I'm mere "service support."

Still very much of a struggle though, emotionally speaking.

[mjmooney]

Are you the Singaporean version of the legend that is trimandson (the younger)?

:? no idea what you're trying to get across.

All this just seems scarily pertinent to me.

:shock: Why?

Bipolar depressive.

Tailor-made for the military, then.

(Joking).

Haha. No seriously I'm struggling inside, but at least I'm not in a combat vocation, I'm mere "service support."

Still very much of a struggle though, emotionally speaking.

I think it would be for a lot of people (me certainly included!). Hang in there, feller.

[snowychap]

Bloody, **** twitter.

I tend to view it much the same as some comedian lass caricatured it: the public bog's wall for the internet age.

Now people are saying that things are being 'reported' on twitter. No, they're not. Someone has decided to announce something to the world and twitter is their vehicle.

It's often little better/much worse than 'someone told me down the pub that...'.

In some circumstances it is a useful tool (the Iranian tweets, perhaps, as an example) but it's certainly not a medium on which to rely.

[Chindie]

I've considered having a rant about Twatter recently, but I think you've saved me the effort Darren. It's everywhere and it seems just about everything on it is bollocks.

I've already just about had it with the effect it's had on transfer gossip (everything seems to be prefaced with 'some prick on twitter' or 'the reports (**** OFF) on twitter say...', or the absolute highest crime, using hashtags in normal typed conversation), and thats positively trivial. At least back before twitter, 'ITK' bollocks was infrequent and pretty easily ridiculed or filtered thorough. Now shite spawned on twitter is everywhere and relayed with glee.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Mushrooms in a curry, especially the stealth ones, that masquerade as chicken pieces, only to turn out to be those fungi fiends.

[theunderstudy]

Twitter is one of the quickest ways news is broken though, wasnt the Bin Laden death announced on Twitter before anything else? It is full of bullshit rumours though, but all part of the fun.

[snowychap]

Twitter is one of the quickest ways news is broken though, wasnt the Bin Laden death announced on Twitter before anything else? It is full of bullshit rumours though, but all part of the fun.

It can be hence the comment about its possible usefulness. Unfortunately, that's also what increases the potential for its influence to be pernicious.

[theunderstudy]

Exactly, it's not for everyone. In fact when we were managerless, a few Villa fans mischievously started a "Woy to Villa" campaign..... which was then taken as Gospel by a lot of annoyed WBA fans.

[snowychap]

Exactly, it's not for everyone.

I'm sorry but I think you misunderstood the point I made.

It wasn't just about what it was but also how it was viewed and then relayed and the potential (actual on many occasions) impact of that.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Twitter fits in well the the new politics emerging from across the pond; presenting unsubstantiated rumours as fact.

[theunderstudy]

I recognise the point you were making, it's a complex Chinese whispers system, where rumours are started all too easily, and people such as yourself and Chindie dislike it, which is fair enough.

However I agree that anything said on Twitter does not mean it's necessarily newsworthy, as it IS far too easy to set a "rolling stone" in motion on it. I could announce the death of on there and it would likely snowball into being believed by a few people, and it is far too easy for the journos to suggest "Chelsea have their sights on Sergio Ramos" with little to no base and it be taken on. If that's what you mean?

[mjmooney]

Mushrooms in a curry, especially the stealth ones, that masquerade as chicken pieces, only to turn out to be those fungi fiends.

Mushrooms are lovely. They are also one of the few things that make a curry tolerable.

[snowychap]

I recognise the point you were making, it's a complex Chinese whispers system, where rumours are started all too easily, and people such as yourself and Chindie dislike it, which is fair enough.

However I agree that anything said on Twitter does not mean it's necessarily newsworthy, as it IS far too easy to set a "rolling stone" in motion on it. I could announce the death of on there and it would likely snowball into being believed by a few people, and it is far too easy for the journos to suggest "Chelsea have their sights on Sergio Ramos" with little to no base and it be taken on. If that's what you mean?

Isn't the point of the 'chinese whispers' idea that it is something which is true but, by its passing through many people ('s ears and voices) it becomes something completely different?

My problem with twitter is that anyone (without any supporting information, recommendation or whatever) can go on there, say something and it is then relayed as almost fact.

To a certain degree, my real problem, I suppose, is the audience's lack of skepticism about and unwillingness to apply any critical faculty to (that may be very clumsily put) raw, unsupported data.

[The_Rev]

Twitter is one of the quickest ways news is broken though, wasnt the Bin Laden death announced on Twitter before anything else? It is full of bullshit rumours though, but all part of the fun.

Absolutely. I mean who in 2001 would have thought that Gary Neville would have been the man who told them that Osama Bin Laden was dead?

[Xann]

Twitter has never appealed, it all seems a bit self-important.

Though just out of idle curiosity, are Chomsky and Pilger on there? Anyone follow them?

[mjmooney]

Just been watching that BBC thing about writing pop songs.

Screen caption: Queen wrote "We Will Rock You" inspired by audience at a gig at Bingley Hall, Stafford.

Cue several people during the rest of the programme referring back to "a gig in Bingley".

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

"We Will Rock You"

fixed

[Anthony]

re twitter. Don't confuse the medium and the message. If you were to substitute your issues with 'the telephone' instead of 'twitter' you'll get how ridiculous it all is. Twitter is a medium for people to talk shite, just like teh interwebs, just like the phone, just like on the blower and just like at the pub. The key is to find people whose opinions you respect and ignore the muppets.