Sunday, 19 September 2010

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk

In recent months there has been considerable discussion about the WikiLeaks phenomenon, and understandably so, given the volume and sensitivity of the documents the website has released. What this discussion has revealed, however, is that the media and government agencies believe there is a single protagonist to be concerned with—something of a James Bond villain, if you will—when in fact the protagonist is something altogether different: an informal network of revolutionary individuals bound by a shared ethic and culture. WikiLeaks is not the one-off creation of a solitary genius; it is the product of decades of collaborative work by people engaged in applying computer hacking to political causes, in particular, to the principle that information-hoarding is evil. The traditional media, governments and their security organizations just cannot get unglued from the idea that there must be a single mastermind behind an operation like WikiLe aks. While this model works great in fictional dramas, it does not track what is really happening. This is not a one-man or even one-group operation. It is a network of thousands motivated by a shared hacktivist culture and ethic. And with or without Assange, it is not going away. One Click Note: This excellent article is a MUST READ of the month.
Peter Ludlow, The Nation

After nine years of war in Afghanistan and seven years in Iraq, America finally got an unfiltered glimpse of what those conflicts are like on the ground via disclosures by WikiLeaks, including a 2007 video of a US helicopter gunship mowing down a dozen Iraqi men. The US military has responded by charging Private Bradley Manning, who was a 22-year-old intelligence analyst in Iraq, with leaking the video and investigating his suspected role in also giving WikiLeaks thousands of field reports from Afghanistan. Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for letting Americans see the truth about our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan by allegedly leaking the "Collateral Murder" videos -- of two Reuters’ journalists being shot and killed by a US helicopter -- to WikiLeaks. Much of my own military background concerns the law of warfare. Most Americans do not realize that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have violated domestic and international law, violat ions that have been fully exposed in the WikiLeaks documents that Manning is accused of releasing. Bradley Manning is a patriot of our democracy, who stayed loyal to what is right, risking his own security. His loyalty to the Constitution and the American people transcends partisan politics.
Ann Wright, US Army Col. (Rtd), Stop The War Coalition
Related Links:
Dylan Ratigan Interviews Daniel Ellsberg
Jeff Paterson, Bradley Manning Support Network
US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff
Information Release, WikiLeaks

PARIS (Rixstep) — Both AFP and Le Monde came out with an article earlier today claiming Julian Assange was 'no longer under arrest' and free to go where he wanted. The information is presumably based on a conversation with Björn Hurtig earlier today. Hurtig said the investigation was not completed but the investigators are not yet calling Assange for questioning. 'I've been told there's no arrest warrant against him', Hurtig said - which is close to what everyone understood all along, ever since Eva Finné rescinded the warrant issued by Maria Kjellstrand. Blogger 'Citizen X' came up with a theory on 10 September: 'Marianne Ny is standing there like a donkey between two bales of hay, with poor alternatives to choose from. She's most likely being pressured by the politicians at the same time. Should she choose to dismiss the case before the elections, at the same time the red-green alliance wins, she knows her days in th e prosecutor's office are numbered." 'Citizen X' believes the case must ultimately be dismissed but that the powers that be are apprehensive about losing face after all that's already transpired. Yet jettisoning the case ASAP will hurt less than carrying on any longer. 'Pushing the case to a trial would show the world what an abysmal judicial system we have in Sweden. The entire world would laugh at the trial and at the Swedish judicial system. The only way out is to take care of the matter behind closed doors, but up to now everything in the affair has leaked like a sieve.'
Information Release, Rixstep

No one at Arena Pharmaceuticals could accuse ceo Jack Lief of being a rat. In a conference call yesterday with analysts after an FDA panel rejected the drugmaker’s Lorqess diet pill due to safety concerns, Lief acknowledged that different forms of cancer had been seen in rats treated with high doses. But he stressed that “when we learned of the data, we promptly discussed it with the FDA.” But then Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau asked if the info was ever made available to the public or was the FDA briefing document released this week the first time investors might have learned of this finding. Lief replied by saying “…we believe that (Lorqess) does not pose a cancer risk to humans at the recommended therapeutic dose..." Well, when the rat data was disclosed, investors thought otherwise. Arena stock fell as much as 42 percent after the briefing documents were posted by the FDA. Jon LeCroy of Hapoa lim Securities wrote: "Cancer risk is never good, especially in a product with weak efficacy in a non-life threatening disease.” Of course, if you are or were an Arena investor the other day when the stock plunged, you would likely have preferred that the drugmaker had disclosed this data previously.
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot

A Laurieton doctor says he has “absolute proof” two of his patients have a tick-borne disease that health authorities say does not exist in Australia. GP Dr Peter Mayne said two of his patients had the bacterial illness Lyme disease. “I’ve taken tissue samples at the bite sites, and sent them off for DNA analysis, and they were positive. There are perceptions that Lyme disease doesn’t exist here in Australia, and the medical profession have been lulled into thinking that they don’t have to worry about Lyme disease,” Dr Mayne said. Debate continues about whether Australian ticks can carry Lyme disease. In its later stages, the infection can spread through the bloodstream and affect the brain, heart and joints. Lyme disease made headlines this month after an autopsy showed a Sydney man had the disease when he died. The dead man’s wife planned to launch a class action against NSW Health, The Sydney Mor ning Herald reported. Dr Mayne said he had a list of about 30 patients - from Newcastle to Coffs Harbour - with the disease.
Port Macquarie News
Related Links:
Kate Benson, Brisbane Times

Updated information for STOP CAMDEN LAB............email objections to the planning application can be sent directly to the application via Camden Council planning website ... through this link.........or please send emails to Camden Council atenv.devcon@camden.gov.uk to ensure emails are acknowledged when received. Please register your protest to the Planning Application now!
Information Release, Stop Camden Lab Campaign
Related Links:
Information Release, Stop Camden Lab
Mark Blunden, London Evening Standard

Mother and child are often torn apart by our system of child protection
Nine days ago six policemen, three psychiatric workers and three social workers from the local council arrived outside a house in south London, threatening to beat the door down unless they were given entry. Inside were a mother and her two terrified children, aged nine and 11. Once inside, they removed the mother to a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act. What had this mother done to be robbed of her children and incarcerated alongside psychotics who were drugged to the eyeballs? There is no accusation that she has in any way harmed her daughters, who have been frenziedly texting her asking why they can’t be allowed to come home. Her problems with the authorities seem to have started some years back when, after the death of her oldest child in a famous hospital, she began writing letters of complaint – first about the hospital, then about other public employees with whom she subsequently had dealings, including social workers and the police. It became clear to her that they thought she was suffering from a persecution complex. Last week, she was interviewed in the mental hospital by another psychiatrist. After receiving nothing but sane replies, the baffled expert finally said: “I’ll have to ask the social workers what’s wrong with you.” It would be interesting to know how the council’s social workers think they can justify why she is being held against her will, and why they have handed over her children.
Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph
Related Links:
Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph / The One Click Group

Julian Huppert MP
(Pic Courtesy Of One Click)
A group of MPs, lead by Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert, are lobbying the government to amend the Digital Economy Act. The act, which features measure on how to combat illegal file-sharers, was passed through parliament earlier this year. However, the Act has come in for much criticism over whether it was properly scrutinised as MPs rushed to get the legislation based before parliament was dissolved in preparation for the general election. Huppert, who described many clauses in the act as "deeply worrying", said the circumstances surrounding passing the act were "very odd" as "many MPs were not about to stay in London in the middle of an election to vote on something they didn't really know anything about". He said a number of MPs were working ways the Digital Economy Act could be improved. "It has to go back to Parliament for approval, and in this case there has to be a vote, which is quite rare. It hasn't been scheduled yet, but there will be an opportunity for those of us who have a case to make a case against sections of the Act to do so."
Carrie-ann Skinner, Network World
Related Links:
BBC News
John Hunt, thinkbroadband
Judith Townend, journalism.co.uk
Ben Camm-Jones, Webuser
Jane Bryant, The One Click Group

In 2006, sequences described as xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) were discovered in prostate cancer patients. In October 2009, we published the first direct isolation of infectious XMRV from humans and the detection of infectious XMRV in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. In that study, a combination of classic retroviral methods were used. A combination of these methods has since allowed us to confirm infection by XMRV in 85% of the 101 patients that were originally studied. Since 2009, seven studies, predominantly using DNA polymerase chain reaction of blood products or tumor tissue, have reported failures to detect XMRV infection in patients with either prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome. A review of the current literature on XMRV supports the importance of applying multiple independent techniques in order to determine the presence of this virus. We conclude that molecular analyses using DNA from unstimulated periphe ral blood mononuclear cells or from whole blood are not yet sufficient as stand-alone assays for the identification of XMRV-infected individuals.
Judy A Mikovits, Francis W Ruscetti et al, ProHealth
Related Links:
FDA Press Release
Shyh-Ching Lo, Harvey J. Alter et al PNAS
Judy A. Mikovits et al, 10.1126/science.1179052, Science Express

Dr. Paul Jolicoeur is a researcher in Montreal who is doing research on the virus XMRV. He is looking for patients to act as positive blood controls for his study on XMRV. He is requesting that due to distance difficulties only patients in Ontario diagnosed with ME/CFS who have previously tested positive for XMRV on the blood test by the Reno Nevada testing centre contact him at his address. He needs blood samples of positive patients to act as positive controls in his research study about the XMRV virus. He wants you to contact him directly and his contact details are published. Please get in touch.
Lydia E. Neilson, M.S.M., Chief Executive Officer, NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK

Posted by Britannia Radio at 18:18