This is damned scary.

BBC news reports that so many people are taking Prozac that it's building up in rivers and groundwater, contaminating the English drinking water supply with Prozac.  The Drinking Water Inspectorate of course says it's unlikely to pose a health risk, but I'd say it's cause for concern....

This comes after findings in April this year that when studies withheld by the drug companies were taken into account as well as those they published, the risks outweighed the benefits for all SSRI antidepressants but fluoxetine (Prozac).

Paralysis

Have you ever felt paralyzed by indecision because you've become so convinced any decision of consequence you make will inevitably turn out to be wrong?

So ... it appears we're not moving to Lakewood.

Short version:  The Americorps program in Lakewood contacted us about a week and a half ago and offered us both places in a program teaching small businesses about computer security.  I, meanwhile, had just two days earlier interviewed with Yahoo, and had been told to expect an interview with UBS (think Gnomes of Zurich) within 48 hours.  So we said, "Can we have a couple of days to think this over?  I just had an interview with Yahoo and I'd like to find out how it went before we decide."

"Sure," they said.  "But we probably need to know by August 4th."  So on August 3rd, three busiiness days later, we sent mail back accepting the Lakewood offer, only to hear nothing for five more days and then learn that because we'd asked for time to consider instead of accepting right there and then on the phone, they'd gone off -- after telling us we had time to think it over -- and interviewed some more people and given the positions to someone else.

Yahoo, meanwhile, had decided (it appears) that I don't have enough NAS experience (which is to say, none), and UBS are still sitting on their gnomish hands in Connecticut and haven't interviewed anyone for the position I've been presented for there (for which, if you believe the recruiter, I'm an excellent match).

You know the job market is bad when it's an employer's market even for subsistence-level volunteer work.

And yet....  and yet the fellow geeks I know in Silicon Valley seem to be getting hired left, right and center.  (Mostly by Yahoo, ironically.  paeyl just got hired for the job I interviewed for.)  This makes me feel like an abject failure.  There is no future in being a polymath.  If there's a sweet spot between "You're overqualified for this position"/"This job pays $amount-you-can't-support-a-family-on" and "You don't have enough experience in $specific-field for us" in this economy, I have yet to find it.