Beware the year of the snake

[LongBlade]

No, not the Chinese calendar.

Apparently the company that produced the most effective snake anti-venom quit making it four years ago due to competition from cheaper (but less effective) competitors.

Next year the world's stockpile of this best quality anti-venom will run out. The company that made the anti-venom has offered to transfer the technology to make it to another company but so far there don't seem to be any takes.

A spokesman for Sanofi Pasteur said the pharmaceuticals company was driven out of the market by competitors selling cheaper products, and it announced in 2010 it would stop making anti-venom. Those cheaper drugs are often seen as less effective.

"It's very strange that the relevant stakeholders are only realizing this problem five years later," said Alain Bernal, a Sanofi Pasteur spokesman. He said the company has offered to transfer the anti-venom technology to others.

source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/09/08/doctors-without-borders-say-snakebite-treatment-running-out/?intcmp=hphz02

[JasonPratt]

"I believe the government should do for the people what the people can't do for themselves." -- Green Arrow, Justice League Unlimited

That precept gets abused a lot, but this seems an applicable application.

[mirth]

This is could be a real boon for Star and his world class sucking abilities.

[LongBlade]

"I believe the government should do for the people what the people can't do for themselves." -- Green Arrow, Justice League Unlimited

That precept gets abused a lot, but this seems an applicable application.

I studied a lot of Econ in college. I'm sure I've said this before, but will repeat it as it bears reflection.

Government is best (and perhaps only) used when there is "market failure."

(for those whose wrists aren't strong enough to make it to the Search box on their browsers: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=market+failure&t=ffsb&ia=about)

Market failure in the simplest of terms is when the supply and demand curves, for whatever reason, do not cross.

This is a clear case where they do not: there is no supply, yet there is a real, legitimate demand.

Government intervention is justified.

[LongBlade]

Ouch.

A farmer who urinated in a field was rushed to hospital after a snake bit him on the penis.

The 46-year-old came to the emergency room of a hospital in Sringar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kasmir, three hours after suffering the bite.

Although the man was stable, his penis was 'grossly swollen', and covered in fluid-filled blisters where the snake's teeth had entered, said doctors describing his case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3229179/Farmer-urinating-field-left-agony-snake-bites-penis.html

[Barthheart]

Ouch.

A farmer who urinated in a field was rushed to hospital after a snake bit him on the penis.

The 46-year-old came to the emergency room of a hospital in Sringar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kasmir, three hours after suffering the bite.

Although the man was stable, his penis was 'grossly swollen', and covered in fluid-filled blisters where the snake's teeth had entered, said doctors describing his case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3229179/Farmer-urinating-field-left-agony-snake-bites-penis.html

WTF would you wait 3 hours before going to the hospital?!?  :o

[LongBlade]

Ouch.

A farmer who urinated in a field was rushed to hospital after a snake bit him on the penis.

The 46-year-old came to the emergency room of a hospital in Sringar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kasmir, three hours after suffering the bite.

Although the man was stable, his penis was 'grossly swollen', and covered in fluid-filled blisters where the snake's teeth had entered, said doctors describing his case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3229179/Farmer-urinating-field-left-agony-snake-bites-penis.html

WTF would you wait 3 hours before going to the hospital?!?  :o

Everyone knows you should wait four hours before visiting a hospital:

his penis was 'grossly swollen',

[mirth]

I didn't know Star was a farmer.

[Staggerwing]

Ouch.

A farmer who urinated in a field was rushed to hospital after a snake bit him on the penis.

The 46-year-old came to the emergency room of a hospital in Sringar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kasmir, three hours after suffering the bite.

Although the man was stable, his penis was 'grossly swollen', and covered in fluid-filled blisters where the snake's teeth had entered, said doctors describing his case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3229179/Farmer-urinating-field-left-agony-snake-bites-penis.html

WTF would you wait 3 hours before going to the hospital?!?  :o

This is in backwoods India. Maybe that's how long it took to get to the hospital... By donkey cart... Bouncing over every little rock and rut along the way...

[Freyland]

Swollen penis? He must have been bitten by a Viagrattler.

[Sir Slash]

I'm not sure who got the worst of that deal, the farmer or the snake.

[LongBlade]

I'm not sure who got the worst of that deal, the farmer or the snake.

Star wins no matter which side he took.

[Sir Slash]

I used to know a girl who kept her car keys in there but your gun? That's just too weird even for me. BTW She quickly gave-up with the car keys. Every time she crossed her legs, she set off the car alarm.  ;D

[Freyland]

I used to know a girl who kept her car keys in there but your gun? That's just too weird even for me. BTW She quickly gave-up with the car keys. Every time she crossed her legs, she set off the car alarm.  ;D

You Sir, have committed a Posting foul.

[JasonPratt]

And yet somehow weirdly relevant...