Clone your pet? 

Wired has a story about the notion of cloning prize-winning dogs. It would be tempting to clone a favorite pet, if it was possible. But it's probably better to move on.

No, wait. Why would it be better? I think the idea of genetic manipulation scares people so profoundly that we willingly stake out a conservative stance for ourselves about it. It's almost taboo even to be fascinated about the idea.

New passage up 

Listen to passage #56 in my literature game podcast.

Selling Sickness 

I saw a co-author of Selling Sickness on C-SPAN2/Book TV yesterday. It's a book about drug company marketing, specifically about how they convince consumers that they have diseases, especially mental ailments. It's something I think about when I see a commercial for a drug like whichever one they are touting now for adult ADD.

The guy, who is a medical journalist, (an Australian with kind of cute floppy Hugh Grant hair) was very careful to say that he's not questioning the legitimacy of the conditions. He does claim to have proof that the pharmaceutical industry tries to create the need for the drugs among a wider than normal circle through marketing to patients, doctors and even the FDA.

I'm afraid to say I used to work in PR. I forgive myself for the laspe because I eventually did get out of it. Some of the tactics the author discussed, like "astroturfing" sounded all too familar. I hadn't heard it called that before, but it's a brilliant term. It means manufacturing a grassroots movement. It's an old trick. You rig up a non-profit organization for a client to make it look like "the people" want whatever the aim of the company happens to be.

Yuck.

Remind me to tell you sometime about the so-called Waterbed Health Organization created for the Waterbed Manufacturers Association.