What is this?
 

(I think that this is a perfect metafor to what is wrong in today's world.)

To the title question: It's apparently a promotional item from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation ([URL]http://www.pharma.us.novartis.com/index.jsp[/URL]), the company that makes "Focalin XR", a medicine to treat ADHD ([URL]http://pediatrics.about.com/od/adhd/a/05_focalin_xr.htm[/URL]).

(Google search: [URL="http://www.google.com/search?q=Focalin+XR&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a"]http://www.google.com/search?q=Focalin+XR&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)[/URL]

To the expressed opinion: yep.

I agree. Corporations seem to be such an integral part of the world today...and that is not a good thing. Not that they are innately bad, but they have far too much influence.

[quote=Primeinator;177283]I agree. Corporations seem to be such an integral part of the world today...and that is not a good thing.[/quote]Oh ... I thought Batalov meant the modern obsession with cleanliness, as exemplified by all those containers of foaming hand sanitizer everywhere

... or else the dramatic rise in ADHD diagnoses during the last couple of decades.

(:doh!: For those, Batalov's photo would be an [i]example[/i], not a metaphor. You're right, Primeinator.)

It would be even better if the med was for OCD.

We will probably be seing something like this very soon.
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[SIZE=1]The views expressed in this thread are mine, and not of my employer.[/SIZE]

That looked like a hand sanitiser for hospital use; on the whole I'm happy if hospitals that I or my friends are in err on the side of over-cleanliness even to quite high degrees. I was very surprised that I didn't have to wear something close to a bunny-suit when seeing my brother in a neurology ICU.

(it turns out that hand-sanitisers in places wildly open to the unsupervised public have to be non-alcohol-based because otherwise people steal them to drink :sad:)

[QUOTE=fivemack;177476]That looked like a hand sanitiser[/QUOTE]The problem is that it was labelled as a (prescription ?) drug while it wasn't, there was small text stating that fact. It was just a publicity stunt to plug the name of a drug of dubious need. Children have always been exuberant, now that exuberance is labelled a disorder and children are chemically restrained. All that is going on for the benefit of the shareholders. Economy is no longer a tool of mankind : humans are tolerated as long as they are of use to the economy.

Jacob

I spent a few hours visiting someone at our local hospital last week. While I was almost paranoid about cleanliness, I saw only one nurse use the hand sanitiser; just once.
A relative of mine died there of MRSA a few years ago. You would think they would have learned their lesson by now.

MRSA has become a huge problem lately but a new problem (and far scarier one) is starting to emerge-- VRSA, a vancomycin resistant strain. Vancomycin is a last-resort antibiotic. I'm very sorry to hear about your relative.