Fake Pharmaceutical Publications

Care of Philip at Furious Seasons:

Earlier this month I noted that news had come out that Merck had--with the help of major academic medical journal publisher Elsevier--had created a fake medical journal earlier this decade, which then presented studies that were basically gigantic advertorials for Merck's products. Now there's news that the same academic publisher has admitted to creating five other fake journals earlier this decade.

The journals in question are: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Elsevier has a lot to answer for. So far, the company has blamed all of this an its Australian office.

And people think I am off-base when I point out how corrupt the research world has gotten.

You can't make this stuff up...bit more info here.

More stuff you couldn't write if you tried:

God and Cats Playing Keyboard

This poor kid is trying to come out as an atheist to his idiot mother and (I'm assuming) subordinate father. I love the "you'll get nothing for Christmas" threat, which makes sense here because "Christmas is all about Jesus Christ!"

Anyway, what better way to break the tension with a cat playing keyboard.

I'm getting slightly ashamed this blog has turned into a viral video stop, oh well...