Pepsi eats mouse

Pepsi Co. is being sued by a man in Illinois who claims that he found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew, but Pepsi says that it’s impossible. Why? It’s not because Pepsi has such high standards when it comes to work place cleanliness, but because a mouse carcass would have completely dissolved if it was placed in Mountain Dew.

Yep, Pepsi is pulling the ol’ “our product is so acidic that it would be impossible for an animal carcass to survive for more than a few days” defense. It’s genius.

Pepsi didn’t say that the Plaintiff, Ronald Ball, lied about finding a mouse in a can of Mountain Dew. The company just said that his story was ridiculous. If there was a mouse in the can, according to Pepsi, Ball would have found a “jelly-like substance,” not a whole mouse.

According to the Madison Record, Plaintiff Ronald Ball claims that he found a dead mouse in a can of soda that he purchased from a vending machine. Ball took a sip of the soda, tasted something foul, then spit out a dead mouse.

The Atlantic Wire reports that Pepsi’s lawsuit defense is ”a winning-the-battle-while-surrendering-the-war” sort of strategy. Pepsi may have proven that Ball didn’t “spit out the soda to reveal a dead mouse,” but they also proved that Mountain Dew has more in common with battery acid than soda.

Ball is seeking more than $50,000 from his lawsuit. Ball claims that he sent the mouse to Pepsi when he filed the lawsuit in 2009 and that the company destroyed it, presumably, by letting it sit in a can of Mountain Dew for a few days.

Pharmacies put squeeze on poor - more to come

Pharmaceutical companies were given a huge advantage in the asthma market to push OTC asthma medications off the shelves. The FDA stated the OTC asthma inhalers would no longer be sold - they are now considered dangerous - and all inhalers must be by prescription. The OTC inhales cost around $20 - the prescription inhalers cost around $60 to $80 plus the cost of a medical visit and any tests the doctor/nurse/PA may order. As the pharmacies agrued in front of congress last week for the approval of a large pharmaceutical merger, it is clear the pharmacies, as they attempt to have more say in medical care by assuming some clinic responsibilities, are also trying to sharply increase corporate profits at the expense of those who can least pay the inflated prices and are just struggling to live. The merger, if it goes through, will also push out smaller pharmacies, who may be ensuring the contaminated meds from abroad do not reach American consumers, and give large corporate pharmacies access to almost everybody's medical information.