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Dear Newsnight

who controls cyberspace-
who controls us? might be the question?

I really hope that one day there may be a quiet revolution and people will really start to think for themselves,

then a lot of things will change,

no one will control cyberspace

no one will control us,

Bob

I was fascinated by tonight's report on the Parkinson's drug, Mirapex. I suffer from manic-depression; or 'bipolar disporder', as we have to call it now. The side-effects listed by the patients featured on the programme: pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, increased libido...even the 'uncontrollable urge to write poetry' - what they're describing, in perfect detail, is a typical manic episode. It begs the question: if the symptoms of mania can be created in a laboratory as easily as that, then surely they can find some way of turning them off? The medical establishment has been dishing out lithium to M-D sufferers for decades: not the nicest of drugs, even when it works. And when it doesn't...well, there really isn't much else. I only hope that some good will eventually come out of all this; for the people featured in the programme, and - perhaps - for a great many others besides.

I'm in my early 40's, have a great loving family and have pretty much got rid of the mortgage. Life should really be sweet for me now. Just over 3 years ago I was diagnosed as suffering from Narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder, and was prescribed Modafinil, a wonder drug which promotes daytime 'wakefullness'. Within 9 months I had, out of character gambled away £30 - 40 K. I did some research over the web and found link between this behaviour and my medication. Hey presto I discovered dopamine and it's possible relationship with Modafinil and this rather unfortunate side effect. I passed this information on to my specialist who then reffered me to another regional consultant who said I was the first poerson to mention this side effect to him but that there was a 'theorectical' relationship. He, 2 years later continues to prescribe me Modafinil, despite my debts now being well into 3 figures and my regular request for alternative medication. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else with a similar reaction to Modafinil but would ask who is to 'blame'. The drug company? NHS? or my Consultant? I really am stuck between the devil & the deep blue sea. If I stop taking the drugs against the instructions of my Consultant I would lose my driving licence, becoming unemployable. He won't prescribe an alternative, no doubt due to prohibive cost / time. I doubt my gambling concerns have even been recorded anywhere to potentially alert other users.

I'm in my early 40's, have a great loving family and have pretty much got rid of the mortgage. Life should really be sweet for me now. Just over 3 years ago I was diagnosed as suffering from Narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder, and was prescribed Modafinil, a wonder drug which promotes daytime 'wakefullness'. Within 9 months I had, out of character gambled away £30 - 40 K. I did some research over the web and found link between this behaviour and my medication. Hey presto I discovered dopamine and it's possible relationship with Modafinil and this rather unfortunate side effect. I passed this information on to my specialist who then reffered me to another regional consultant who said I was the first poerson to mention this side effect to him but that there was a 'theorectical' relationship. He, 2 years later continues to prescribe me Modafinil, despite my debts now being well into 3 figures and my regular request for alternative medication. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else with a similar reaction to Modafinil but would ask who is to 'blame'. The drug company? NHS? or my Consultant? I really am stuck between the devil & the deep blue sea. If I stop taking the drugs against the instructions of my Consultant I would lose my driving licence, becoming unemployable. He won't prescribe an alternative, no doubt due to prohibive cost / time. I doubt my gambling concerns have even been recorded anywhere to potentially alert other users.

Just a quick comment about the Microsoft takeover of Yahoo! piece. It would seem to me that one of the biggest hurdles in the way of this proposal wasn't mentioned on the programme. That is the competition regulators, especially in Europe considering the recent history with Microsoft. A recent example for this would be the Google takeover of DoubleClick and the questions being asked about that. I am not a expert in this, but it would be interesting to hear from someone here who is to give a bit more insight.

Whether this will be good or bad for us the consumers. I tend to think that at first I would be bad, as we would be effectively losing one of the three major choices in web services. However in the long term (assuming the merger is successful) having an equal rival for Google would be very good as it would continue to drive innovation. After all we only have to look at the desktop operating system market to realise what happens when there is only one dominant.

Well it was meant to be a quick comment when I started. But finally I would like to say that it is good to see a technology report. It seem to be an under-reported area on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

@2 Anonymous

ebaumsworld is responsible for the protests. I don't think the planned Scientology protests are the start of any kind of revolution. The 'Anonymous' members become less anonymous once they display themselves in public hence breaking the rules.

@7 About the Anonymous Situation...

We are not attempting to start a revolution. The World Wide Protest planned for February Tenth is aimed not to directly take down the "Church" of Scientology... But to in fact spread the knowledge about the CoS and its actions/Crimes.

The general Public hardly knows anything about the CoS other than the big celebrities that are in it.

We are not against anyones religion, but in fact the Corporation itself that is growing increasingly richer off those who do not really know what they are involved in.

Only two nations consider them a real religion, the rest do not. And Germany thinks of them as what they are, A Dangerous Cult.

The protests against Scientology (which started at ebaums world if you must know) have nothing to do with them anymore; its a global movement

I really like the music that you guys put on with Matt Frei's USA reports.