We provide our readers with the top fifteen documents and articles read/downloaded by thousands of people from all over the globe during November 2010. The News Archives are the most regularly accessed item on this site. This website not only contains the News Archives that carry the topical published items of the day, it also carries many, many documents . From academic papers, articles, case histories, legal issues, government documents, video links and more besides, we carry a great deal of information that grows every da y. Romping up the ranks this month has been information provided by the excellent whistle-blowing WikiLeaks organisation. Although only recently released, the WikiLeaks US Embassy Cable Viewer that provides the facility for people from all over the world to explore the greatest freedom of information trove ever published in our life time is proving extremely popular. Happy reading to all.
Information Release, The One Click Group
2. Frontline Club London Tonight: WikiLeaks & The US Embassy Cables
Date: December 1, 2010 7:00 PM. Following the release this weekend of 251,287 confidential United States embassy cables, this month's First Wednesday debate will focus on the revelations of this latest leak from whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. We will be joined by: WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson; James Ball a data journalist who has been working with WikiLeaks; Sir Richard Dalton, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House; The discussion will be chaired by author and broadcaster Tom Fenton. One Click Note: We will be reporting this event live this evening on Twitter @OneClickGroup.
Information Release, Frontline Club
3. WikiLeaks Unhooking The Networks
Glenn Greenwald's commentary on the pushback against Wikileaks among our elite overlords is excellent and you should read the whole thing. Like him, the thing that leaves me the most gobsmacked is the media, which seems to be the most upset over the idea that the Government is having a hard time keeping its secrets. I think we can all see how odd that is --- journalism being a field which is ostensibly about speaking truth to power and all that drivel. If you find this subject intriguing, I would highly recommend that you read this mindblowing essay on Julian Assange's philosophy. Yes, he has one. And it's radical and it's interesting. If you are a person who believes our current system is working well and that the mandarins, technocrats and their wealthy benefactors are competent and righteous and that we can safely leave our futures in their hands, then you will not like what Assange is up to. If, on the other hand, you are a teensy bit concerned that t hese elites might not know what they are doing (or even worse, might know very well what they are doing and it's clearly not in your best interest) then you may find it useful to look at the way the world is organized with a fresh set of data.
Digby, Hullabaloo
Related Links:
* WikiLeaks Shockwave Information Revolution
Jane Bryant, The One Click Group
* WikiLeaks Cable Viewer
Information Release, WikiLeaks
* WikiLeaks - ConDem Government D Notice To UK Media
Andrew Vallance, Air Vice-Marshal, Secretary, Defence Press & Broadcasting Advisory Committee
4. Bank Of America Share Price Drops As WikiLeaks Set To Expose The Banks
Bank of America Corp's shares declined 3 percent on Tuesday amid investor fears the largest U.S. bank by assets may be at the center of WikiLeaks next document release. On Monday, Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks, said his group plans to release tens of thousands of internal documents from a major U.S. bank early next year, according to an interview posted online by Forbes Magazine. He declined to identify to Forbes which bank would be the subject of the release, but expected the leak to spawn investigations. The statement came just one day after Assange's group released 250,000 U.S. government diplomatic and military documents on November 28, and analysts said the timing spooked investors. In an October 9, 2009 interview, Assange told Computerworld that the group had obtained five gigabytes of data from a Bank of America executive's hard drive. "Now how do we present that? It's a difficult problem. We could just dump it all into one gian t Zip file, but we know for a fact that has limited impact. To have impact, it needs to be easy for people to dive in and search it and get something out of it," Assange told Computerworld. U.S. authorities are conducting an intensive criminal investigation into WikiLeaks release of government documents.
Joe Rauch, Reuters
5. Dr David Southall, S/C Files, The GMC And The Court Of Appeal
Lisa Blakemore Brown, psychologist, reporting on
David Southall and the UK General Medical Council case
Dr David Southall has been up against the UK General Medical Council (GMC) again, his case definitely continuing despite the efforts of his legal team, but now adjourned until maybe May 2011. How tedious it all is. I understand that Dr Southall's S/C files (thought to mean Special Cases files) form part of the forthcoming Hearing. It seems that an S/C file had been created for a child when Dr Southall put that child in a trial which the family did not want. Was it a vaccine trial? He personally held numerous S/C files. It's so long ago now, but my very first concern about Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) involved twins who, it was discovered ten years later, had also been in a Dr David Southall trial - at the same time as the GMC child (1984/85) - the same pattern of there also being an S/C file (discovered by the GMC in 2006). In this case the mother knew nothing about it until they were 21 years old. Of course not a word of this was mentioned by Dr S outhall when he went down to Gosport then to the Court in Winchester to accuse that mother of Munchausen by Proxy in 1995, saying that her identical twins were "perfectly normal", a full ten years after involving her premature twins in this trial. They had been swiftly whisked off to the as then Westminster Hospital, their mother never having even touched them. She lost. He won. And so it goes on, ad infinitum.
Lisa Blakemore Brown, Psychologist
Related Links:
* GMC Fitness to Practise Panel, Dr David Southall, Determination, 29 November 2010
Press Release, General Medical Council
* GMC Fitness to Practise Panel, Dr David Southall Amended Determination, 23 November 2010
Press Release, General Medical Council
* David Southall, A Very Dangerous Doctor
Lisa Blakemore Brown
6. New Report Shows Milliions At Risk From Killer Mercury Laden Amalgam Dental Fillings
A new risk assessment report submitted by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology this month to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that mercury from dental fillings is estimated to cause 67.2 million Americans to exceed the Reference Exposure Level (REL) of 0.3 ug/m3 established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) in 1995. If the more protective REL of 0.03 ug/m3 established in 2008 by the California Environmental Protection Agency is used, then the current safe-dose is probably exceeded by 122.3 million Americans. Dental fillings referred to by dentists as "amalgam" or "silver" are actually 50% mercury. Contrary to FDA's 2009 ruling that exposure from mercury fillings presents no health risks, the latest assessment, by lead author G. Mark Richardson, Ph.D., of SNC-Lavalin, concludes that the mercury vapor continually emitted from these fillings is absorbed and distributed into every tissue and organ in the body including the brain. Chronic (long-term) exposure to elemental mercury can cause kidney damage, crosses the blood brain barrier and is neurotoxic. The report states "Numerous studies have demonstrated that Hg levels in blood are increased in persons, including pregnant women, with amalgam." Dr. Richardson's report explores how the release of mercury vapor from fillings in a mother's mouth can cause harm to the fetus via cord blood and infant children via breast milk. The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease confirmed that mercury is likely a contributing cause of Alzheimer's, a disease at epidemic proportions affecting an estimated 5.3 million Americans.
PR Newswire Press Release, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
7. Pharma's Anti-Depressants Used By Millions Around The World Cause Heart Disease
Powerful anti-depressants taken by hundreds of thousands of UK people could significantly raise the chances of heart disease, scientists have found. Men and women taking tricyclics are 35 per cent more likely to develop a range of cardiac problems, from heart attacks to strokes. They also have a greater chance of needing bypass surgery and other heart operations than those taking different anti-depressants or none at all. The drugs, such as Amitriptyline and Lofepramine, are taken by 300,000 to 400,000 Britons. As well as depression, they are given to treat migraines, obsessive compulsive disorder, nerve pain and panic attacks. They fell out of favour after the advent of Prozac and other similar pills, but are becoming increasingly popular again as the newer drugs are not suitable for everyone and have been linked to suicide.
Daily Mail Reporter, Daily Mail
8. The Epilim Case Shows The Flaws In The UK Legal Aid Regime
Families who claim the epilepsy drug was linked to birth defects have few options left after the LSC [Legal Aid] withdrew funding. Earlier this month a legal action involving 100 families seeking compensation for their children collapsed within weeks of the court hearing after a six-year fight. The families in question are suing over a range of claims for birth defects such as spina bifida, heart damage, cleft palates, deformed hands and feet – some claims are in the region of £6m – which they argue are the result of the children's mothers having taken an anti-epilepsy drug when pregnant. The Legal Services Commission (LSC), which runs the legal aid scheme in England and Wales, says of its decision to withdraw funding that it "can only spend taxpayers' money where we believe there is a reasonable prospect of success". Taxpayers can make up their own minds as to whether spending £3.25m over the past six years supporting th e litigation only to pull the plug within weeks of the case going to court represents good value for money. Suing a drug company in the UK courts for a case such as Epilim appears to be nigh on impossible. It joins a truly dismal roll call of failed group actions: the 2002 oral contraception pill litigation (fell apart following 44 days of legal argument), the MMR litigation (collapsed in 2003 having cost £15m), and the notorious benzodiazepine tranquilliser cases, which swallowed up £30m of taxpayers' money without even seeing the inside of a courtroom.
John Robins, The Guardian
Related Links:
* Sir Menzies Campbell Slams Legal Aid & UK ConDem Government Injustice In Sanofi-Aventis Epilim Drug Scandal
James Meikle, The Guardian
* ConDem Coalition Gov Arranges For Legal Aid To Be Withdrawn From Sanofi-Aventis Birth Defects Drug Class Action
BBC News
* Ulster Girl Awarded €500k Settlement Over Sanofi Aventis Birth Defects Drug
Claire McNeilly, Belfast Telegraph
9. Mother Fights On To Get Justice For Daughter Damaged By Sanofi-Aventis Epilim Drug
Samantha Scott and daughter Faith
Samantha Scott, of Low Hesket, believes a drug she took for epilepsy during pregnancy has left her seven-year-old daughter with a catalogue of severe health problems. Seven-year-old Faith was born with a cleft palate, a hole in her heart and will need constant care for the rest of her life. Faith, a pupil at James Rennie School and Armathwaite Primary, is one of more than 200 children whose parents are involved in a fight for compensation from drug firm Sanofi-aventis. Lawyers Irwin Mitchell say the case has taken six years to prepare at a cost of £3.2m – within the £4m Legal Services Commission budget – and a further £750,000 was required to enable it to proceed to trial. But the Government has decided to pull further public funding just weeks before the London high court hearing was due to start. Samantha, 31, is devastated. “This is taking away childrens’ rights to defend themselves,” she told the News & Star. “I am so shocked. Any money that came from this would be Faith’s for anything she needed in the future – she will never lead an independent life.” The families allege Epilim caused a range of birth defects and that there were inadequate warnings about the possible harm.
Sarah Newstead, Cumbria News & Star
10. Under Fire, FDA's Top Cop Steps Down
On November 23, 2010, Terry Vermillion, Director of FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation announced his retirement next month. The announcement came after several years of criticism by Republicans in Congress who raised concern about his misdirection of the Office's resources: instead of pursuing drug companies and researchers who commit crimes when seeking FDA approval for drugs, OCI pursued drug-abuse cases--which are the purview of the Drug Enforcement Agency. "The thought that someone at the GAO may have compromised the testing of a system unfortunately brings the integrity of the entire report into question if it’s determined to be true," said Sen. Charles Grassley.
Vera Hassner Sharav, AHRP
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