Category: media

to sleep, perchance to drive

I just saw this NYT article, which discusses new warnings that the FDA will be issuing about certain drugs. It seems that some sleeping pills have been blamed for some “unusual side effects,” including sleepwalking, sleep eating, and sleep driving:

The review was prompted, in part, by queries to the agency from The New York Times last year, after some users of the most widely prescribed drug, Ambien, started complaining online and to their doctors about unusual reactions ranging from fairly benign sleepwalking episodes to hallucinations, violent outbursts, nocturnal binge eating and — most troubling of all — driving while asleep.

Night eaters said they woke up to find Tostitos and Snickers wrappers in their beds, missing food, kitchen counters overflowing with flour from baking sprees, and even lighted stoves.

Sleep-drivers reported frightening episodes in which they recalled going to bed, but woke up to find they had been arrested roadside in their underwear or nightclothes.

These freaky side effects were described in more detail in this NYT article from last year.

Anyhow, such bizarro events do sound like they’d be truly disturbing, not to mention often downright scary. I’ve occasionally talked in my sleep, and have had a couple instances of sleepwalking in my lifetime. And they are freaky. But holy crap, driving while asleep? It’s pretty amazing what people can manage…Anyhow, while I think it’s great that the FDA is issue the warnings, I can’t help but think that the drug companies are missing out on some opportunities. I think there would be a market for pills that would allow you to get stuff done while sleeping. Here are some sleep-time activities that might be marketable:

  • yard work: Lawn need mowing? Garden need mowing? How about chopping some wood? Take a pill, and saw some logs while you saw some logs.
  • house cleaning: Who really wants to be awake for cleaning? Dream that dirt away, and awake to sparkling floors and counters.
  • car maintenance: Fall asleep reading the manual and you just might wake up to find your oil-changed and your tires rotated. Get a wax in twenty winks.
  • writing: Particularly popular for the academic set. Need a chapter written of your dissertation? Just sleep on it! Let the letters fill up the pages while you catch some “z”s.
  • awkward social obligations: Been avoiding that visit to the in-laws? Dreading dinner with the boss? You can snooze and schmooze!

    • I can just imagine the drug commercials:

    “I went to bed, and woke up to find the lawn mowed, the cabinets organized and the poodle shaved. Thanks, Somnambulex!”

    actual unretouched Phoebe photo

    Phoebe has started standing a whole lot over the last couple of days. And, man, has she been growing. She’s getting huge. “So big,” indeed. We managed to capture a few instances of her demonstrating her standing skills. Here’s one of her showing off a kung fu stance to an admiring crowd on this sunny spring day.

    so_big_phoebe.jpg

    By the way, this photo is totally authentic, unlike those news photos I’ve been reading about lately.

    creepy new airport security technology can look under your pants

    I saw a NYT article this morning describing new airport security technology: passenger x-ray machines.

    X-ray vision has come to the airport checkpoint here, courtesy of federal aviation security officials who have installed a new device that peeks underneath passengers’ clothing to search for guns, bombs or liquid explosives.

    This creepy new technology can let TSA employees do a virtual strip-search. It actually looks very impressive, giving an outline of the passenger’s skin. And I guess I find it fascinating. But, and I repeat. I also find it creepy. And unsettling.

    Anyhow, this news story reminds me of a number of things. So here. Have a list:

    1. Superman (eg. 1978). He had x-ray vision. Could look through Lois Lane’s clothes to see her undies.
    2. Total Recall (1990). Shows security screening of the future with people walking along through full-body x-rays. We get to see skeletal structure in this movie, though. Not skin.
    3. The image the article shows looks a little like a 3D ultrasound. (Though the technology is totally different.)
    4. And I’m reminded of the airport security game (Hat-tip to Schneier, who has lots of interesting things to say about the games we play relating to “security.”) This game lets you play an airport security employee, screening passengers and their bags as they try to pass through security. Your task is to keep up with the ever-changing, and frequently random, restrictions on items that passengers may have on their person or in their carry-on bags as they pass through. For example, sometimes passengers are not allowed to wear their shoes as go through the security gate. And sometimes they are not allowed to be wearing pants.

    pants in the media

    Here’s something I’ve been meaning to share. In a reflection of pants synergy in the universe, as soon as I’d posted my last pants musings, I came across this excellent pants-related post on a blog I frequent:

    Dressing Down the Media’s Attention on Pelosi’s Pants

    (synopsis: Media says “Nancy’s pants are fancy pants.” Alice rants.)