Pretty slow going today – applied for work at a few places. The biggest excitement was loss of electrical power from 6:30ish to about 7am. Got a lot accomplished, and BHK had some solid work at the local law office today. I spent most of my time at home taking care of the usual tech / job app issues… and playing with the kitties.

Tina came over to have dinner and watch American idol with us – not a bad show, but it’s more of a social event than actually getting into the TV. I have now seen three episodes of a non-COPS reality show.

---

via greatpoets

In Boot Hill there are over 400 graves. It takes
the space of 7 acres. There is an elaborate gate
but the path keeps to no main route for it tangles
like branches of a tree among the gravestones.

300 of the dead in Boot Hill died violently
200 by guns, over 50 by knives
some were pushed under trains – a popular
and overlooked form of murder in the west.
Some from brain hemorrhages resulting from bar fights
at least 10 killed in barbed wire.

In Boot Hill there are only two graves that belong to women
and they are the only known suicides in that graveyard

–Michael Ondaatje
from The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

---

What about the munchies?

LONDON (Reuters) — Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said Tuesday it plans to start human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis.

Cannabis is commonly associated with stimulating hunger. Several other companies, including Sanofi-Aventis with Acomplia, are working on new drugs that try to switch off the brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke it.

GW Pharma, however, says it has derived a treatment from cannabis itself that could help suppress hunger.

“The cannabis plant has 70 different cannabinoids in it, and each has a different effect on the body,” GW Managing Director Justin Gover told Reuters.

“Some can stimulate your appetite, and some in the same plant can suppress your appetite.It is amazing both scientifically and commercially,” he said in a telephone interview.

GW said it plans to start clinical trials of the new drug in the second half of this year. Medicines have to pass three stages of tests in humans before being assessed by regulators in a process that takes many years.

Sanofi-Aventis’ (Charts)Acomplia, which it believes can achieve $3 billion in annual sales, is already on sale in Europe and it is waiting for a U.S. regulatory decision in April.

Several other big drug companies also have similar products to Acomplia already in clinical trials.

GW is best known for developing Sativex, a treatment derived from cannabis that fights spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. Sativex, an under-the-tongue spray, has been approved in Canada, but has hit delays with regulators in Britain.

GW, which competes with rivals such as AstraZeneca (Charts),submitted Sativex for assessment by several European regulators in September, and hopes to secure approval for the UK, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands in the second half of this year at the earliest, the company said Tuesday.

GW said revenue for the year ended Sept. 30was slightly ahead of expectations at £1.98 million, £1.35 million of which came from Sativex.

The firm posted a pre-tax loss of £13.9million, in line with forecasts. According to a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates, the loss in 2007 will be £13.5 million.

GW’s marijuana plants are grown indoors in a secret location in Southern England.

“With a U.S. partnering deal and a European approval both expected this year,we remain very comfortable with our Buy recommendation,” Investec analyst Ibraheem Mahmood said.

GW shares were up almost 5.5 percent, valuing the company at £92.5 million.

---

1 year ago – giant snail, indigo children (i get a bit snarky), newt chilling out pic, “Don’t think of yourself as an ugly person, just a beautiful monkey.”, death cult of the female wrestler,

2 years ago – Mel out of hospital, AVG good, Mona booboo, gene kelly vw ad, oddball personal names list, beach place cam

3 years ago – Key west, Antarctica dollars, new matter, noting some filter styles for the heck of it.

4 years ago – cool dream, birthday poll, Phrases I use/have passed on, got a jornada (it retired early)

5 years ago – gold star, lego horror, haiku, tattoo poll, Random phone message memory, happy things

6 years ago – fat albert, SOP, Friends list fluke, mocha, QotD

Listen to this article