The news has been widely circulated regarding a new list of potential problem drugs, which has been published by the Food and Drug Administration.

What is not being widely addressed however, are the reasons for the list and what is (or is not) being done about the named pharmaceuticals which appear on it. The first potential problem drug list, which contains some names as familiar as insulin, Ivermectin and nitroglycerin, is a simple table of drug names and the "potential" problems which may be occurring with them.

Pharmaceutical industry pundits are quick to assert that the appearance of a drug's name on the list is not to be interpreted as indicating an actual problem with the drug or its use. They assert that the list merely names drugs which have generated reports of concern from hospitals, doctors, and patients.

Brian Dean was a private, reclusive man, one who went to and from his Lancashire, England home by the dark of night, one who paid his bills on time, and one who obviously had a quite substantial amount of money in his bank account. Because when he died in his bed about two years ago, the automatic withdrawals kept occurring to fund his utilities and other expenses, and no one thought to knock on the door.

Police officers broke the door down and discovered his body and a huge pile of unopened mail inside his door. It wasn't reported how they were inspired to check on the 70-year-old Dean.

While this is surely an extreme example of the blind efficiency of modern conveniences -- and is an argument for being connected to one's community -- it makes me wonder if setting up automatic bill pay from an account large enough to pay bills for years isn't ultimately a bad idea. Today I discovered that my Fidelity 401(k) account could be configured to pay my bills; and it seems a little too convenient to think that I could sell some stock to pay my water bill. I've always thought that keeping investments and savings less accessible and definitely separate from your checking account was the prevailing wisdom. Are we sacrificing too much for ease-of-use? [Thanks to Stacy Westbrook for the link!]

I guess it was almost as inevitable as the inevitable.

Someone has found a way to marry the do-it-yourself industry with funerals. And why not? After all, software companies have given us ways to do taxes ourselves. Why shouldn't we use our PC to manage the only other thing that is certain?

At first glance, when I saw the headline for this Orlando Sentinel story, I thought, "Oh, brother," but it actually makes a lot of sense, and once you know something about this business, you can't argue for the reasons behind creating it. Nancy Bush, who lives in Minneapolis, lost her husband to cancer when he was only 53. For a year, they each knew he was going to die sooner rather than later, but he never wanted to discuss his funeral, because it just felt like to do that was some of sign that he was giving up. When his time finally came, Nancy found herself wondering just what her husband would have liked to have had at his funeral.

I swear this isn't the punchline to a joke. "Where do Pringles tube inventors go when they die??" "Their ashes are buried in a potato chip can!" When 89-year-old retired chemist Dr. Fredric J. Baur gathered his family members to discuss his eventual passing on into the great beyond, he told them he wanted to have his remains buried in the invention of which he was most proud: the Pringles tube.

Dr. Baur was working at Procter and Gamble when the iconic potato flake chip-type product was created, and he designed and obtained the patent for its tube-shaped can. According to his daughter Linda, he considered this his "proudest accomplishment."

The tube is buried (with what didn't fit in the can in a boring ordinary urn) at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio. Unfortunately, grave decorations at the cemetery are limited to fresh cut flowers placed in vases approved by Arlington, so you may not be able to leave Dr. Baur a bouquet of screamin' dill pickles in a Pringles can.

I was unable to discover which flavor of Pringles Dr. Baur's descendants emptied before filling it with his ashes. Which flavor do you think most represents eternal solitude?

Betty was excited about receiving her IRS stimulus check -- but when she called to inquire about why the money hadn't arrived in her account, she was politely informed that she was dead.

Now the IRS is taking weeks to correct its mistake and Betty, who is living on a fixed income, is struggling to cover her living expenses. Check out the video below.