The politicization of the pandemic

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 6:14 PM - 3 Comments

Conservative MPs were just trying to enjoy their summer vacations; but the opposition has thrown a kink in those plans, recalling a parliamentary committee to study the swine flu epidemic. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is not pleased: “They don’t need to recall a parliamentary committee meeting in the middle of summer,” she explained to reporters, claiming the opposition is simply trying to “play politics.” Opposition MPs say they
called the meeting because they were dissatisfied with the government’s ability to deal with a possible H1N1 resurgence in the fall. But Aglukkaq
says it was an unnecessary political ploy, noting that more than 20 news conferences on swine flu have occurred since the spring. The federal government has approved a $926,600 agreement with the International Centre for Infections Diseases in Winnipeg, which will develop strategies for
fighting the pandemic.

Canadian Press

The Bloc, its leader, and their subsidies

By Philippe Gohier - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 6:12 PM - 42 Comments

Two things, both Bloc-related:

1) Turns out those rumours Gilles Duceppe was planning on stepping down tomorrow weren’t true after all. How do you mend a broken (Conservative) heart?

2) Last week, former Mulroney adviser Andrew Stark wrote that the federal government should modify the per-vote party subsidy program to cut out the Bloc’s funding.

You have to admire Stark’s honesty in framing his proposal as an explicit attack on the Bloc: “As long as the Bloc Québécois holds a lock on 40 to 50 seats in Parliament, neither of the two main political parties will have an easy time winning a majority.” Fittingly, Stark’s plan would cripple the Bloc’s finances while leaving the other parties’ perfectly intact.

This week, the Conservative Minister for Democratic Reform, Steven Fletcher, tells The Hill Times he agrees with Stark. Fletcher would, in fact, go further and shutter the program entirely, as the Conservatives tried to do late last year.

I’m a little surprised at how quickly the idea of a government kneecapping one or all of the opposition parties by changing their funding model has gone from being unpalatable partisan trickery to respectable policy. Even though putting the idea forward last November almost cost them their government, whatever the Conservatives have done since then to keep it afloat appears to have worked as well as they could have hoped. Sure, Duceppe has since shot back at Fletcher. But the usual suspects—including the types who get embarrassingly excited about a “scandal” involving a wafer—haven’t said much about either Stark’s or Fletcher’s plans.

Is everyone just resigned to the idea the subsidies are doomed?

[Photo lifted from dougsamu's Flickr page]

Why 'American Idol' needs Paula Abdul

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 5:02 PM - 1 Comment

When Paula Abdul announced on Twitter that she would not be returning to American Idol for another season, the question at the heart of all the ensuing discussion was this: does the show need her? TV writer and blogger Ken Levine put it simply when he imagined a producer asking her manager, “What exactly does Paula Abdul bring to American Idol that we can’t replace?” American Idol has always basically been the Simon Cowell show; he’s the one who provides the memorable put-downs. The main job of any other judge is to offer a counterbalance to the acerbic Simon. Paula wanted to be paid as though she was just as important as Simon, and the producers didn’t agree. By announcing the intention to fill her slot with guest judges, including Katy Perry and Posh Spice, they’re essentially betting that anyone can do what she did.

But is that true? There are two reasons to think that she’s an essential part of the show. One, her legendarily weird behaviour provides a large portion of the unpredictability on what has become a relatively predictable show. Simon’s insults, and even the moments when his heart melts and he pays someone a compliment, are well-known and widely-anticipated. But nobody can anticipate Paula. Many of the show’s most memorable and bizarre moments come from her apparent disconnect from reality, like the time she criticized a contestant for his performance of a song he hadn’t sung yet, or the time she told another singer that she wanted “to squeeze your head off and dangle you from my rearview mirror.” Her over-emphatic gestures and slurred speech haven’t only led to her spending lots of time denying that she’s a substance abuser; they’ve become almost as iconic as Simon’s sneer, and in some ways a lot more fun.

The other thing Paula brought to Idol was a certain connection with what the show is supposed to be about: music and performance. Many people have noted that she’s the nicest and most enthusiastic of the judges, and that the contestants seem to think that her criticism is the most constructive (once they figure out what she’s trying to say). That’s what made her the perfect foil for Simon. Cowell, a producer and executive, looks at music as a business, and evaluates every performer as a possible commercial prospect. Abdul can relate to contestants and loves performance and performers. She may be weird, but she provides a certain warmth that the show might not otherwise have.

That might explain why other reality TV producers are interested in getting Paula on their show. She’s in talks with So You Think You Can Dance, and ABC chief Stephen McPherson told the Television Critics Association that he was considering signing Abdul (who used to date him) for Dancing With the Stars, calling her “a huge talent.”

If you think about it, Abdul’s two biggest characteristics—her warm likeability and her craziness—are the characteristics that make a memorable TV character; like Lucy on I Love Lucy, she’s someone lovable enough to invite into your home, and weird enough that you think she’ll make a wreck of everything. Let’s see Posh Spice do all that.

Time To Shift On Time-Shifting

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 4:20 PM - 3 Comments

Well, I would have preferred if the Emmys had made this decision yesterday, before the magazine went to press, but better late than never, I suppose: the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences has given up on the “time-shifting” experiment.

Translating Shaffner’s statement into English from press-release-ese, he’s saying (surprisingly bluntly, considering that this is a press release) that they’re doing this because everybody now hates them and Shaffner for this decision, and they decided it was better to leave the boring awards in the live telecast rather than keep answering questions about why the entire industry is mad at them.

I tend to agree with those who say that they would have gotten away with this if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids the decision to cut the award for writing in drama while leaving in the award for comedy writing. If they had stuck to dropping the movie and miniseries awards, they would not have gotten slammed the way they were slammed for snubbing Mad Men. That show is too beloved, and series TV writers are too sensitive to slights, for such a decision to be uncontroversial.

Band of Brothers, Marching Together

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 3:38 PM - 2 Comments

By request (yes, really), here are some resources for Rocket Robin Hood material online. It’s amazing how many people can sing the theme song(s) or quote lines from those filler character-backstory clips that were shown as filler in every episode. (The animation studio only produced 17 minutes of animation per episode, leaving the rest to be padded out with those “vignettes.”)

This YouTube channel has the various vignettes, intros and songs (I always liked the internal rhyme in “Send a joyous SHOUT through-OUT the land,” myself), and

This DailyMotion channel collects some 17-minute episodes without any of the filler, though that may be a mistake. The filler was the best part.

The most interesting thing about all those Krantz animation shows, apart from the CanCon aspect, was that the theme songs were actually pretty good and well-written. (Even the infamous Hulk theme song was pretty clever, just totally inappropriate for the character.) I’ve always wondered who they had writing those things, except for the Spider-Man theme, whose words were credited to a veteran Oscar-winning lyricist named Paul Francis Webster.

Ontario's big windy gamble

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 3:20 PM - 57 Comments

You are forgiven if you somehow missed the celebrations, but in late June, George Smitherman, Ontario’s minister of energy and infrastructure, was named the 2009 winner of the World Wind Energy Award. The handsome plaque, handed out at the eighth World Wind Energy conference on Jeju Island in South Korea, hasn’t yet been installed on his office wall, but the 45-year-old is busy making a bid to extend his reign as “Mr. Wind” (as he calls it) into 2010. Or perhaps, given the scale of pending government announcements, lock up the title for the rest of the century.

Ontario is already North America’s friendliest jurisdiction for wind and other renewable energy projects, thanks to its recently proclaimed Green Energy Act, meant to speed along approval, and the establishment of European-style 20-year fixed-price energy contracts. (Power companies are now required to integrate all new green energy projects into their grids and pay producers 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for onshore wind farms, 19 cents/kWh for offshore wind, and up to 80.2 cents/kWh for solar power, versus about six cents/kWh for both hydro and nuclear energy.) The province, which is committed to shutting down its coal-fired plants by 2014, will have 1,200 megawatts of wind power in operation by the end of this year, and there are 103 more “shovel ready” wind developments, totalling 3,263 MW, in the pipeline. The proliferation of giant turbines—80-m-tall towers with 40- to 45-m blades—is already nearing the 5,000 MW supply ceiling the Ontario Power Authority has said it can easily integrate into its aging grid. But soon, there will be no more limits. Smitherman is promising a series of major power infrastructure announcements in coming weeks that will not only make wind a much bigger part of Ontario’s energy mix, but open up vast new areas of the province to commercial wind development. Continue…

Condé Nasty

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 3:13 PM - 0 Comments

When the recession comes to visit, even higher-ups at Conde Nast, the posh publishing house responsible for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, among other titles, are forced to hide the silverware—and the free Orangina, Fiji water and, oh!, no more shrimp at the salad counter. Even Graydon Carter, the Canadian editor of Vanity Fair famous for his snow-jump hairstyle, has been seen sheepishly entering the lineups in the cafeteria, reports the New York Observer. “In all my years here, I’ve never seen him in my life there,” one insider tells the paper. “He was behind me in the line at checkout with his little swipe card. He was milling around uncomfortably with the commoners.” Other recently introduced no-nos, thanks in part to the arrival at Conde Nast of McKinsey & Company, a leading management consulting firm: “Going to the spa is no longer a form of client entertainment,” says one Naster. No more fresh flowers for editors’ and publishers’ desks every Monday morning. Executives do less lunch, more sandwiches. “There are suddenly more people in the cafeteria,” says another. “It’s getting kind of cutthroat with placing your stuff there to save a seat, especially near the window.” No more free Fiji and Red Bull, either: “We have to start drinking tap water.” Observer writer John Koblin asks Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend what all this means. “You don’t need it! You don’t need the Orangina!” replies Townsend. Apparently, however, you do need the New Yorker: Editor David Remnick has been assured his title is safe from the indignities of commerce.

New York Observer

Gilles Duceppe

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 2:03 PM - 37 Comments

Not retiring.

What the heck is going on in Kenya?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 1:53 PM - 46 Comments

Another twist in the bizarre tale of Suaad Hagi Mohamud. Gar Pardy would like to know where the ministers are.

“You would think they would bloody well have made sure their judgment was based on something more than thick lips,” he said. “The ministers should be insisting on a proper investigation. Ministers have been getting a free ride. They are more and more sliding away from direct responsibilities when things go wrong. If ministers aren’t responsible, then nobody is responsible.”

When Mohamud’s lawyer pleaded her case to federal court, the Tories refused to comment because the case of mistaken identity was now a legal matter. One of the few remarks came from Cannon, who said she would have to try harder to prove that she was the person pictured in the passport.

A lost decade of growth

By Jason Kirby - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 1:28 PM - 4 Comments

General Electric has always been a potent symbol for business in America. From the simple light bulb to cutting edge jet engines, the company has embodied the country’s rise to dominance in the world of innovation. But like America, GE underwent a huge transformation over the past 20 years, moving further away from its traditional business of “making stuff” and pushing deeper into the world of financial engineering. Why sell washing machines when you could make more pushing subprime mortgages? Now the company’s finance arm— like America—is struggling with huge losses.

Given the company’s evolution, when CEO Jeff Immelt gave a speech in Japan recently about the challenges facing GE, he might well have been speaking for the U.S. as a whole. Which is a scary thought, because during that speech, he voiced concern about the future prospects of economic growth itself: “As consumers around the world get more conservative,” he said, “we think that overall economic growth—not just for a year or two but even post the recession—overall economic growth may be slower.” Continue…

The Marquee Event Emergency Committee Program Presents: Liveblogging the H1N1 hearings at Health

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 1:22 PM - 26 Comments

As promised, ITQ will be liveblogging today’s emergency health committee meeting on whether or not to hold hearings on the government’s preparations for a possible H1N1 virus, although she’ll apparently be doing so while hanging around outside the committee room door, at least at first, since said meeting is now in camera. Opposition members could, in theory, vote to open it up, but they may be waiting to see whether the government plans to go quietly, as far as the motion itself, before deciding to up the ante by bringing in the full court press.

Meanwhile, the minister has indicated that she’s ready to appear this afternoon, if necessary, but she doesn’t sound all that happy about it — in fact, she sounds remarkably like committee chair Joy Smith did earlier this week, as she’s also accusing the opposition of “playing politics”.

1:45:41 PM
Greetings, fellow emergency committeekateers! Are we ready to hear all about how very, very not at all worried we should be about the prospect of a Canada-wide H1N1 pandemic? Pretty darned not worried at all! Or at least, that’s what ITQ assumes will be the theme of today’s presentation by Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, although there are other witnesses scheduled to appear who may or may not share her sunny optimism.

First things first, though — before any swine flu-related fun can get underway, the committee has to vote on the motion to hold today’s meeting — yes, I know, there’s a vaguely Through The Looking-Glass quality to the sequencing of events, but just go with it. At the moment, that vote — and any preceding debate — is slated to take place away from the prying eyes of the media, but – as noted above – the committee can vote to open the doors at any point, and most likely will.

Continue…

The price is right (or it’s getting close)

By the Editors - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 2 Comments

Canada was once the place to go if you wanted a cheap book. In the late 1800s, Canadian publishers took advantage of their proximity to the United States and the absence of international copyright laws to sell new bestsellers at a fraction of U.S. cover prices. In 1876, Mark Twain was scandalized when Canadian versions of Tom Sawyer sold for a sixth of the price of American editions.

But that was a long time ago. Since then, the relative price of books, and many other items, has shifted substantially. Lately it’s Canadians who’ve been scandalized by paying more for books, chainsaws, rice cookers, cars, golf clubs and nearly everything else. The reasons given for this disparity range from the benign to the deceptive­: time lags, Canada’s smaller population and naked greed have all been implicated. If the tide is now slowly turning, it’s largely because Canadians have made such a big deal about it. Continue…

Calgary quads turn two

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:33 PM - 0 Comments

Born on Aug. 12, 2007, in Montana because Calgary couldn’t come up with the neonatal intensive care beds, Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia, the Calgary quads, turn two years old today. As naturally born quadruplets, they are a rare breed–a one-in-13-million event, Calgary health officials estimate. They are also a force of nature, says father J.P. Jepp: “When one is hungry, they all let you know. When one is teething, they are all teething. When one gets a cold, they all do. When one gets the stomach flu . . . well, let’s just say it’s not nice.”

Calgary Herald

Murder is good for ratings

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 1 Comment

Wallace Souza, a former police officer and Brazilian politician, uses his popular television show to rail against violent crime. He also happens to be under investigation for allegedly ordering the murders of at least five people, and is accused of links to drug trafficking, death squads and organized crime. An investigation started last year after Souza’s bodyguard was accused of nine murders, and has resulted in the arrests of 20 people, including several police officers and Souza’s son. Police also found more than $180,000 and an arsenal of weapons at Souza’s house. He denies the charges, and says the investigation is part of a political campaign against him.

The Guardian

Trickle down theory

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 0 Comments

Not since the Edwardian heyday of John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw and Harley Granville-Barker, have British writers rushed to tackle the mysteries of big money and its deep social impact. Now William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks have post-financial crisis novels to release next month, and there are others in the pipeline. Even Ian Rankin’s forthcoming thriller, The Complaints, has some sardonic nods in the direction of Edinburgh bankers and their woes. In the theatre, David Hare’s new play The Power of Yes takes on boom and slump in his signature docu-drama style. Even a banker, HSBC chairman Stephen Green, has just published a frank and thoughtful book, Good Value. It looks to history, literature and even scripture to assess the virtues and vices of modern globalized capitalism.

The Independent

No solution

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:31 PM - 1 Comment

As military rule ended in Nigeria a decade ago, an Islamic legal system was swept into place on a wave of popular support in the country’s desperately poor and mostly Muslim northern states. It has turned out in a way few expected. The draconian amputation sentences warned of by human rights activists and the religious oppression feared by Christians have mostly not come to pass. But neither has the utopia envisioned by backers of sharia law, who believed politicians’ promises that it would end decades of corruption and pillaging by civilian and military rulers. The people are still poor and miserable, residents complain, and politicians are still rich. How the battles over sharia play out could have effects beyond Nigeria, a nation pivotal to West Africa’s stability and viewed by the United States as key to stopping the spread of religious extremism in Africa. American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to discuss the issue with Nigerian leaders on a visit to the country this week.

The Washington Post

Another reason to love fish and chips

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:29 PM - 0 Comments

Our taste for seafood could help to explain why we fared better than our prehistoric ancestors. Analysis of the bones of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens show that while the former feasted mainly on big game like bison, reindeer and mammoths, the latter had a more sophisticated palate, consuming smaller mammals, fish and aquatic birds. According to the scientists, this variation in menu could be why modern humans “out-competed” Neanderthals. Their findings are derived from the bones of 13 Neanderthals and 13 modern humans recovered in Europe. The collagen in the bones hold a record of everything consumed for the past 20 years. But the case, however, is hardly closed: the remains studied were few, and all came from northern Europe. In more southern regions, where collagen isn’t preserved as well, there is evidence to suggest the diet of Neanderthals involved fish.

New Scientist

David Mamet tackles Anne Frank

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:27 PM - 0 Comments

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet has teamed up with Disney to write and direct a new film version of the The Diary of Anne Frank, Variety reports. To retell the inspiring yet tragic story, Mamet will use as his source material the beloved journal of the young Jewish girl who hid with her family from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic. He’ll also use the play based on the diary by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, both of whom also wrote the script for the 1959 George Stevens-directed film, which won three Oscars. Mamet “sparked to the opportunity to tell the story,” the entertainment daily reports, and is already writing the script. It’s expected that Mamet, whose parents are of Russian-Jewish extraction, will bring “his own original take on the material that could re-frame the story as a young girl’s rite of passage.”

Variety

Madoff aide reveals secrets behind fraud

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

On Tuesday, Frank DiPascali, aide to the indicted financial fraudster, Bernie Madoff, revealed the secrets behind one of the biggest scams to ever hit Wall Street. DiPascali was just out of high school, in 1975, when he was hired by Madoff as a research analyst. He has since dedicated his life to taking care of the particulars of Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme. According to DiPascali, Madoff used stock history to create fake account statements, and also transferred money between his London and New York offices to fool investors into thinking the company was earning commissions on stock trades. DiPascali also explained how Madoff’s company designed a fake computer stock-trading program to deceive regulators. Still, Judge Richard Sullivan of the Federal District Court wasn’t all that impressed with DiPascali’s cooperation, and ultimately denied the $2.5 bail agreement that prosecution and defense lawyers had agreed upon. Facing 125 years in prison, Sullivan said, DiPascali might not be so inclined to show up for his trial in May. In court, Mr. DiPascali announced his plans to work cooperatively with the prosecution, saying he will “dedicate all [his] energy to trying to explain to others how this happened.”

The New York Times

Wall Street bends over, for Yoga

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:52 AM - 0 Comments

The economy is in ruins, nobody likes you and people are upset about your inflated salary. What’s a Wall Streeter to do these days? The answer for many: Yoga. Some banks and hedge funds have been offering either onsite classes or employing yoga instructors to help employees deal with their stress. Yoga has long been a trendy activity, but in the culture of Wall Street, it was viewed by many as a less-than-macho thing to do. Not anymore. One former hedge fund worker, Lauren Imparato, even quit her job to open her own popular yoga studio in her Manhattan loft. It is frequented by analysts from Merrill Lynch & Co., Barclays Capital Inc., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, reports Bloomberg. Said one Wall Street exec who attends the classes: “The fact that [Imperato] had worked at Morgan Stanley lent some credibility right away.”

Bloomberg

Redheads feel more pain

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

People with red hair may need more anesthesia, and are often resistant to pain blockers like Novocaine, which could explain why they’re twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist as people with other hair colours, according to new research published in The Journal of the American Dental Association. Their sensitivity to pain could be caused by a mutation in the gene affecting hair colour: in most people, the MC1R gene makes melanin, but a mutation makes a substance called pheomelanin that results in red hair and fair skin, the New York Times reports. (This mutation also occurs in people with brown hair, although it’s less frequent.) In the study, researchers tested for the MC1R gene variant and found it in 65 of 67 redheads, versus 20 of 77 people with brown or black hair. Subjects were then surveyed about fear of the dentist and dental pain. People with the gene variant had more dentist-related anxiety, and were over twice as likely to avoid dental care. “The reason we studied redheads in the beginning, it was essentially an urban legend in the anesthesia community saying redheads were difficult to anesthetize,” said Dr. Daniel I. Sessler, an anesthesiologist who worked on the study. “This was so intriguing we went ahead and studied it. Redheads really do require more anesthesia, and by a clinically important amount.” He suggested that redheads requiring anesthetic talk to their doctor about possible resistance.

The New York Times

Mudslide survivors found

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

Most of the villagers thought to be buried after Typhoon Morakot caused mudslides in Taiwan have been spotted on higher ground and are slowly being rescued by military helicopters. So far about 120 flights have moved at least 300 people out of the area, which is inaccessible by ground after the storm washed out roads and bridges. Bad weather continues to hamper rescue operations, and responders have been forced to prioritize who they pick up—many villagers who don’t need urgent medical care are being airdropped supplies but will have to wait to be flown out. At least 93 people were killed by the typhoon, but officials say it’s impossible to tell how many may still be buried under the mud.

CBC News

More marquee tourism mad money for Toronto? And they're going to spend it on an American speaker?!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:57 AM - 48 Comments

Why, it’s an outrage! A scandal! A debacle! Just give ITQ a second to grab some nails and a fresh -gate from the supply cupboard, and — wait a second. Still reading.

Hmm.

Has ITQ gone completely crazy, or is this, in fact, exactly the kind of thing that the MTEP should be funding: An attention-grabbing, attendance-boosting headliner for a longstanding, historically successful event that needs just a little extra oomph to make sure the recession doesn’t take too heavy a toll on the bottom line? Heck, it even manages to be both family- and gay-friendly — and since it’s going to be announced more than 48 hours in advance, it may well rake in some of those all-important out-of-towner tourist dollars! What more could you ask for, really? Well, unless you’re one of those cranky Toronto-hating Republican-favouring C/conservatives, of course, in which case you’d probably rather pay for another sex parade than spend a single taxpayer dollar to bring Slick Willie to town, but really, it’s hard to see how anyone who supports the concept of the marquee tourism program could find fault with giving money to this particular event.

Age and depression meds

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments

In a study just published by the British Medical Journal, researchers identify a “strong link” between antidepressants and suicidal risk among young adults aged 25 or less. This builds on data by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from a couple of years ago. It also broadens the group of at-risk patients beyond children and teenagers, who have exhibited increased chance of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in previous studies of antidepressants. In this latest one, researchers analyzed the data on suicide risk in adults from randomized trials of antidepressants, which was obtained from eight manufacturers. They found that among people aged 25 to 64 there was no increased risk of “suicidality”; in fact, among patients 65 or older the risk was reduced. But among adults aged 24 or younger, there was an increase. The researchers say that in the future, more studies should be done on why this occurs only in some people. The FDA has also augmented its suicide warning on antidepressants, including this age-related information. Still, a BMJ editorial says there is still “fundamental uncertainty” about the details of antidepressants increasing the risk of suicide depending on which drug is used.

British Medical Journal