A cure for MRSA. You didn't know? I'm not surprised.

The other day, I was reading The Daily Telegraph (yes, I read newspapers), and as usual, scanned the first page, nothing interesting. However, a few pages in, on an article about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide was a very brief report. It was about a "cure" to MRSA.

In case you don't know what MRSA is. MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is commonly referred to as "The Hospital Superbug". Basically, you're in hospital, and you have an open wound, some of this stuff gets into you, and you either end up 6 feet under, or with some debilitating condition, or something else shockingly hideous (no, that doesn't include being morphed into Michael "Pork-chop for a face" Jackson).

Imagine humans, intelligent as we claim to be, are getting crumpled by a single celled organism. As a species, we suck. Totally.

Anyway, back on track. Obviously, since this is such a serious condition (apparently 10,000 deaths a year, and that's just in the UK, quite shocking, especially since it resides almost exclusively in hospitals), a cure would be headline news around the world. Everyone would know that it had happened, and the guy (well, actually guys and gals) that discovered it would be household names within days. Basically, MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics (with VRSA being resistant to all know antibiotics), is treated by injecting a chemical which removes the resistant shell from the bacteria, allowing the antibiotics to work. Since it's a chemical, and not an antibiotic, the bacteria could not become resistant to it. Voila, a cure!

Erm, no.

I say again, the article was hideously small. It was only by chance that I spotted it. MRSA killed hideously high numbers of people, so a cure should be, like, breaking news! But it wasn't. Don't people care that now a serious infection may never bother human-kind again? Don't people care that hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved in the next several decades? By the sounds of it, no. You're more worried about a £250 million gold seam found in County Tyrone, or how those crazy Americans are getting on with their election battle. Stupid bipedal homosapiens.

The media can be so incredibly arsey sometimes. Celebs, I mean come on, who cares? The only reason anyone cares is because either:
a) They're nosy shites who love poking their noses into other peoples' lives
b) Because the media tells you they're interesting and you have to buy their literature

I mean come on, just because 10% of the population drool over Jordan on page 3 of The Sun doesn't mean the rest of us care. Those 10% of people only buy the paper so the can see naked women. So instead of selling newspapers in the morning, sell pornographic magazines for those cretins to save me having to shift a few kilograms of tabloids to get to my broadsheets with the news.

Something else irritating about newspapers is what some people write in. You've had a good read of the day's events, then you get the letters to the editors with such hideously stupid points that you wish you could punch your hand through the paper and find the author's neck to strangle. I could just imagine this article appearing in the newspaper with a reply the next day:
"DEAR SIR - I must say I completely disagree with your article on the problems with today's media. I 4m 133tz0rz 4nd 1 3nj0y p493 thr33 0f t3h 5u/\" Tossers.

Moggy's tip of the day:
"Ditches are a good source of the pH indicator, phenol blue. Not only can you use this to test pH, it's also a great national defense grid, if you take my meaning."

Ahhhh! So that's where the MOD is going wrong!

Signing off,
Andrew.