The 99% are with you from around the world!
Friday, 21 October 2011
READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
Jane Bryant, One Click Group Director
The new Occupy Movement phenomenon exploding all over the globe with its antecedents in Athens, Tunis and Cairo et al, is rapidly becoming the worldwide go-to event, the must see, the must join. For the many that have switched off from mainstream politics in their droves, the Occupy Movement is striking a universal chord all over the globe. In Britain we have experienced the overt corruption of our political system in the form of MPs expenses, lobby groups and their vested interests that run policy in this country, together with our politicians in bed with the tabloid media, not to mention police corruption in the hacking scandal on a mind-blowing grand scale. White collar crime committed by the bankers, politicians, the media and the police appear to the public to have reached nigh-on epidemic levels with very few arrests. Never has there been a better time to protest at the way things have been run to the advantage of the privileged 1% elite in Be nt Britain leaving the 99% majority struggling for scraps. Developing into a modern parable, so far the St. Paul’s Cathedral response to the OccupyLSX presence in their courtyard is the best PR that the Church of England has enjoyed for many a year if not decades. One Click tells the story of OccupyLSX in words from the participants themselves and shows what you can do to help. The ethos that is developing at OccupyLSX is really working as a highly organised, responsible protest. All are welcome.
Jane Bryant, The One Click Group
Related Links:
Film Director Michael Moore
A thoroughly good daily round-up from Greg Mitchell for what's going on in the Occupy Movement throughout the USA and elsewhere who says: "I’ve been live-blogging OWS since October 1." Michael Moore on Olbermann tonight calls on all Americans to occupy and carry on and “don’t fall for the trap mainstream media is setting” about needing leaders and spokesmen right now. Don’t listen to media.
Greg Mitchell, the Nation
Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study by Patrizia Frei et al. This misleading study has many flaws and serious confounders and should not give anyone reassurance that mobile phone use is not associated with an increase in brain tumours. In our opinion the paper should not have been published in this form — it should have failed peer-review. We recommend that it is disregarded as low quality science.
Powerwatch
The numbers might be alarming to some. But for those who have watched how often medication is doled out by doctors these days, it comes as no surprise. Last month, a Los Angeles Times analysis of government data found that in 2009 drug-induced deaths eclipsed traffic fatalities across the nation – the first time more people died from drugs than vehicles since the government began tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979. Experts cite America’s growing reliance on prescription drugs as a major cause for the shift in death totals, with drug overdoses accounting for a major portion of drug-induced deaths. And the drugs people are dying from aren’t narcotics such as cocaine and heroine, but pharmaceuticals such as methadone and fentanyl.
Jeff Wiehe, The Journal Gazette
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RT
David Rosen, CounterPunch
As health authorities noticed a number of serious reactions to the vaccine early last year,
the legally required product information sheets continued to rely on figures from 2005.
AUSTRALIA'S drug regulator will demand an explanation from drug-maker CSL after it emerged the company knew two years ago about research suggesting a sharp rise in fevers linked to its seasonal flu vaccine, but omitted this from information given to doctors. As health authorities noticed a number of serious reactions to the vaccine early last year, the legally required product information sheets continued to rely on figures from 2005. These showed 22.5 per cent of children under three experienced a fever afterwards, dropping to 15.6 per cent among three- to nine-year-olds. The same study that produced the 2005 figures contained updated figures for 2006 that showed the rate of fever had nearly doubled, to 39.5 per cent for children aged six months to three years and to 27 per cent for older children. Both sets of results were published in 2009, but CSL has still not included the more alarming set of figures in the product information.
Adam Cresswell, The Australian, Business Wall Street Journal
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Natasha Bita, The Australian
Natasha Bita, The Australian
ABC News
Cortlan Bennett, Sydney Morning Herald
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disease of unknown aetiology. Major CFS symptom relief during cancer chemotherapy in a patient with synchronous CFS and lymphoma spurred a pilot study of B-lymphocyte depletion using the anti-CD20 antibody Rituximab, which demonstrated significant clinical response in three CFS patients. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study (NCT00848692), 30 CFS patients were randomised to either Rituximab 500 mg/m2 or saline, given twice two weeks apart, with follow-up for 12 months. Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was not detected in any of the patients. The delayed responses starting from 2–7 months after Rituximab treatment, in spite of rapid B-cell depletion, suggests that CFS is an autoimmune disease and may be consistent with the gradual elimination of autoantibodies preceding clinical responses. The present findings will impact future research efforts in CFS.
Øystein Fluge et al, PLoS One
(OMNS, Oct 20, 2011) Recent much trumpeted anti-vitamin news is the product of pharmaceutical company payouts. No, this is not one of "those" conspiracy theories. Here's how it's done: Cash to study authors, advertising revenue, rigged trials, bias in what is published, or rejected for publication, censorship of what is indexed and available to doctors and the public et al. The fact is, vitamins are known to be effective and safe. They are essential nutrients, and when taken at the proper doses over a lifetime, are capable of preventing a wide variety of diseases. Because drug companies can't make big profits developing essential nutrients, they have a vested interest in agitating for the use of drugs and disparaging the use of nutritional supplements.
Press Release, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
This week, Google very quietly launched a privacy portal called Good to Know. In the UK, you may even have already seen their adverts on the London Underground or elsewhere last week, a campaign teamed with the Citizens Advice Bureau. The portal provides internet security advice, tips and privacy policy information on Google applications and pages to users worldwide. A huge first for the big players in the business. The Good to Know portal is made up of four main sections and offers information in simple breakdowns and short clips. It even offers a ‘jargon buster’ in order to make privacy advice and information accessible to the least tech-savvy users of Google. Bloggers, tech junkies and critics alike seem to be impressed at Google’s innovative approach to providing, ensuring and explaining internet security and privacy. Google’s approach to the portal is also incredibly welcome after repeated concern s with internet security have plagued some of its competitors, in particular Facebook. Google, we give you a +1 for this.
Maria Fort, Big Brother Watch
The Welfare Minister, Chris Grayling
Under new proposals, hundreds of thousands of people on incapacity benefits could be cut off from support if they challenge the ruling that they are fit to work. In April, the government began a reassessment of the 1.6m people claiming sickness benefit, as part of a plan to reduce the annual £7bn incapacity bill. The new Work Capability Assessment (WCA) has stricter criteria and finds many more people able to work. However, serious concerns have been raised about the reliability of the tests, run by French company Atos. In August last year, in Burnley, one of the areas where the WCA was piloted before being rolled out nationwide, a third of those declared fit for work appealed, and 40 per cent of them won. Currently, those judged fit to work keep receiving their benefit while their appeal is being heard. However, under these new plans, claimants would lose these payments. If they are successful, they will be reimbursed in full. According to the Time s (£), this is because ministers are concerned that continued payments are acting as an "incentive to appeal". This action is seriously inhumane, and could mean that people with serious diseases or mental illness are left without any source of income for up to nine months while they challenge an unfair ruling.
Samira Shackle, New Statesman
Arguments about the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor characterised the poor law from its earliest days. They underpinned the popular fear and loathing of the workhouse that endure in folk memory. A key concern of the creators of the postwar welfare state was to put an end to such cruel moral distinctions. But now, and with a terrible irony, it looks as if the coalition government's welfare reforms may be undoing that action. For the first time, the government seems to be treating everyone on benefits as "undeserving" – unless and until they can convince a draconian assessment system otherwise. The fallout from political support for welfare reform is about much more than any individual case. Cross-party enthusiasm for harassing people on benefits has mushroomed in recent years. Only the Green party seems to have rejected this "anti-scrounger" consensus. Benefit claimants have been presented as pariahs in all major party politicking: they have been an easy target, from the last government's rhetoric about "getting a million people off incapacity benefits" to the coalition's fervour for shopping a "benefits cheat". The Labour opposition indicates that it will still support key parts of the coalition's welfare reform plans, while pushing for some changes. The real issue is not about a few "deserving" claimants being treated unjustly. It is about a culture of routinely harassing and bad-mouthing powerless people, which ultimately degrades us all.
Peter Beresford, The Guardian
Related Links:
Jon Dean, Islington Gazette
Disability Alliance
Information Release, Black Triangle Campaign
Al Jazeera, The Stream
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