"Use Only As Directed." For ProPublica, Jeff Gerth and T. Christian Miller chronicle over 1,500 deaths allegedly caused by people taking too much acetaminophen.
"The toll does not have to be so high. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has long been aware of studies showing the risks of acetaminophen – in particular, that the margin between the amount that helps and the amount that can cause serious harm is smaller than for other pain relievers. So, too, has McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the unit of Johnson & Johnson that has built Tylenol into a billion-dollar brand and the leader in acetaminophen sales. Yet federal regulators have delayed or failed to adopt measures designed to reduce deaths and injuries from acetaminophen overdose, which the agency calls a 'persistent, important public health problem.'”
Hey, have you heard, or Tweeted, or Facebook-posted, that great, perfect story about pastor Jeremiah Steepek, who posed as a homeless man at his own church and got mistreated by his parishioners? Well, as it turns out, like a lot of great, perfect stories, it's fake.
"I Lived Breaking Bad." For Salon, Greg Fulton tells why he can't watch the AMC drama: it hits too close to home.
"One day, trying and failing to blend in on the tony campus of Southern Methodist University, I became overwhelmed with rage at what I had become, that feeling of lowness amplified by the normalcy and success I saw all around me and which I’d once thought was mine. I fled to my car. Hands adjusting the wheel and foot gunning down on pedal, I thought: I’m going to do it. I came very, very close to plowing my car into a group of students."