Archive for January, 2011
Doctor Who Linked Autism and Vaccines Is A ‘Fraud,’ Says British Medical Journal
Jenny McCarthy take note: Britain’s leading medical journal has declared that Andrew Wakefield’s discredited 1998 autism study was not merely riddled with errors, but was a case of deliberate, “elaborate fraud.” CNN reports:
A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an “elaborate fraud” that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study — and that there was “no doubt” Wakefield was responsible.
“It’s one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors,” Fiona Godlee, BMJ’s editor-in-chief, told CNN. “But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a…
Smoking The Cause Of Low U.S. Life Expectancy
Why does the U.S. spend more on health care than any other nation while its population has a life expectancy lower than in many other developed countries? According to a new government report: smoking. From WebMD:
Life expectancies in the U.S. are now lower than for many other industrialized countries, and the nation’s past love affair with tobacco is largely to blame, government officials say.
In a report released Tuesday, a panel commissioned by the National Research Council sought to explain why the U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet Americans are dying younger than some of their counterparts in other high-income countries.
Over the past two and a half decades, life expectancies continued to rise in the U.S., but at a slower pace than those seen in Australia, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and other high-income European countries.
The average live expectancy for men in the U.S. was 75.6 years…
Neuromarketing Invades Movies
Hollywood’s hippest executives and filmmakers have been shuttling back and forth to Park City, Utah this week for the top U.S. film festival, Sundance. One of the more interesting films debuting is Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, which he financed entirely with product placement and sponsorship money. In this interview with Jeff Sneider for The Wrap he discusses how neuromarketing works:
The Wrap: The thing that I found most fascinating was the neuromarketing stuff.
Spurlock: Amazing, right?
Yes, it was very interesting. Do you feel like that’s the future of marketing, and if so, does that worry you?
You have to think that if you can get to the point where you know that a mass of people, if you do X, Y and Z in a trailer, will want to go see that movie, or in a commercial, will make them want to go buy that thing or make them crave it…
Taco Bell ‘Meat’ Contains Only 35% Beef
Fox News reports:
You’ll have to pardon the puns, but…
Taco Bell might want to change it’s “Think Outside the Bun” campaign to “What’s Really in That Taco?” after a class-action lawsuit filed against the fast-food giant claimed its taco filler doesn’t, um, “meat” federal standards.
The suit against the YUM-brands chain also has a “beef” with the company’s advertising, charging its claims of using “seasoned ground beef” or “seasoned beef” in its food products is false.
According to the suit filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, the YUM-brands owned chain is using a meat mixture that contains binders and extenders, and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as “beef.”
Attorney Dee Miles said the meat mixture contained just 35 percent beef, with the remaining 65 percent containing water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn…
Palestinians Angry About Leaks Attack Al-Jazeera HQ
Is this the kind of thing Americans would like to do to WikiLeaks? Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem for AOL News
Palestinians supporting President Mahmoud Abbas smashed windows and sprayed graffiti outside the West Bank headquarters of Al-Jazeera today, angry that it published documents that apparently showed Palestinian officials had agreed to Israeli sovereignty over nearly all Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
About 250 protesters gathered outside the Pan-Arab TV channel office in Ramallah, and a few sprayed graffiti saying “Al-Jazeera are spies” and “Al-Jazeera equals Israel.” A few of the protesters then broke security cameras and windows.
The documents were published Sunday on Al-Jazeera’s website and by British newspaper The Guardian. They contradict the previously stated public positions of the Palestinians that all of East Jerusalem must be the future capital of the Palestinian Authority.
The cache of documents, which detail Israeli-Palestinian contacts over more than a decade, also show Abbas was warned in…
Women Activists In UK Protest Police Infiltration And Sex Tactics
For all those who still imagine that infiltration of activists is a myth… From James Meikle at the Guardian:
Women activists are to blockade Scotland Yard today, intending to demand to know the identity of any undercover police who have infiltrated their organisations.
As evidence continued to emerge of police officers having had sexual relations with people they were monitoring, the women said they wanted to know if they had been “abused” by police.
Though senior police insisted that sleeping with activists during such operations was banned, a former agent claimed such “promiscuity” routinely had the blessing of commanders.
The activists’ concerns follow the revelation that the undercover PC Mark Kennedy had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating environmental activists’ groups. Last week the Guardian identified more officers who had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on. One officer, Jim Boyling, married an activist and…
Why Rich Parents Don’t Matter
Interesting article from Jonah Lehrer in the Wall Street Journal:
How much do the decisions of parents matter? Most parents believe that even the most mundane acts of parenting — from their choice of day care to their policy on videogames — can profoundly influence the success of their children. Kids are like wet clay, in this view, and we are the sculptors.
Yet in tests measuring many traits, from intelligence to self-control, the power of the home environment pales in comparison to the power of genes and peer groups. We may think we’re sculptors, but the clay is mostly set.
A new paper suggests that both metaphors can be true. Which one is relevant depends, it turns out, on the economic status of families.
For a paper in Psychological Science, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Virginia looked at 750 pairs of American twins who were given…
Tyson Foods Revokes Activist Chicken Farmer’s License To Raise Chickens; Farmer Sues & Loses Appeal in U.S. Supreme Court
Mark Sherman reports on the AP via Yahoo News:
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from a former Tennessee poultry farmer who sued Tyson Farms after losing his contract to raise their chickens.
The justices did not comment in turning away Alton Terry, who said Tyson cut him off because he helped organize area farmers and complained about the company’s practices. Lower courts had previously dismissed the lawsuit.
Terry, essentially, argued that he lost his contract to raise chickens on his 12-acre farm, because he squawked too much.
Terry was a poultry farmer who brought together a group of area farmers and told them they had the right to complain about Tyson’s practices. He also raised concerns directly with Tyson, among the world’s largest meat companies.
Terry says Tyson and other big companies have too much sway over farmers, and federal courts also have bowed to agribusiness interests by setting too high…
Anton LaVey’s Grandson Arrested For Sexual Assault
Anton Szandor LaVey, (1930-1997)
Disinfo reader Robert sent us this story about Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey’s grandson, in the Visalia Times-Delta (San Joaquin Valley, California). It doesn’t indicate whether or not any satanic ritual was involved in the sexual assault:
A man and his girlfriend were arrested Sunday on suspicion of sexually assaulting and imprisoning a teenage girl in Three Rivers, authorities said.
Stanton Zaharoff LaVey, 33, and his girlfriend Mishael Nicely, 24, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a 19-year-old they knew on Wednesday, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department reported.
Authorities said the girl went with the couple to their home, where they smoked marijuana together. The girl told authorities that the couple would not let her leave. She was tackled and bound with tape at her hands and across her mouth, she reported.
The couple sexually assaulted her and forced her to watch pornography, she reported. She was allowed to leave at…
South Carolina Woman Tortures, Kills ‘Devil’ Puppy For Chewing Her Bible
Insanity is alive and well in America. South Carolina’s GoUpstate reports on local faith-based crime:
A 65-year-old Pacolet Mills woman is accused of hanging and burning a 1-year-old pit bull after the animal chewed her Bible.
Miriam Fowler Smith, of 410 John Worthy Road, Pacolet Mills, is charged with ill treatment of animals in general, torture, according to an arrest warrant. Smith’s nephew told officers he left the animal at the home he shared with his aunt during the recent winter weather. After returning, he could not find the dog, named Diamond, and he assumed she had broken the chain that kept her on the home’s front porch, according to a report filed by a Spartanburg County environmental enforcement officer.
The man later told officers his aunt admitted to killing the animal, calling it a “devil” dog, and authorities were called to investigate.
After officers responded to the home, the woman told them she killed…
USDA Admits To Causing Mass Bird Death With Poison
At least one of the mysterious mass wildlife deaths of the past month has a (bizarre) explanation. The USDA acknowledged that hundreds of birds in South Dakota were poisoned as part of a massive and longstanding government bird-killing operation, normally kept under wraps, called Bye Bye Blackbird. The Christian Science Monitor sheds some light:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) took responsibility for hundreds of dead starlings that were found on the ground and frozen in trees in a Yankton, S.D., park on Monday.
The USDA’s Wildlife Services Program, which contracts with farmers for bird control, said it used an avicide poison called DRC-1339 to cull a roost of 5,000 birds that were defecating on a farmer’s cattle feed across the state line in Nebraska. But officials said the agency had nothing to do with large and dense recent bird kills in Arkansas and Louisiana.
Nevertheless, the USDA’s role in the South Dakota…
The Real State Of The Union – From President Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The columnists at MarketWatch must have misread the memo from Murdoch about being staunchly Republican and pro-business no matter the cost. Following Paul Farrell’s rant about the conspiracy of the super rich, now Brett Arends reminds us of Dwight Eisenhower’s warning of a military-industrial complex taking over the United States — and shows us that it’s already happened:
Forget the posturing you’re going to hear tonight. Do you want to hear the real state of the union? Just ask Ike: President Dwight Eisenhower.
As fund manager Jeremy Grantham notes, it was 50 years ago this month that the old general delivered his famous farewell address to the nation after a lifetime of service that few will ever match.
Less well-remembered: His warning against hocking ourselves up to the eyeballs as the easy way out of any problem.
“We… must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and…
Hands Off “The Body”: Jesse Ventura Sues The TSA
“The Body” wants Homeland Security and its tag team partner TSA to step into the ring. Caroline Black reports on CBS News’ Crimesider:
Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler, sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration Monday, claiming full-body scans and pat-down at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Ventura who was known as “The Body” during his tenure as a wrestler is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting his body to “warrantless and suspicionless” scans and searches.
Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, and John Pistole, TSA Administrator, are named as defendants in the lawsuit which argues that searches are “unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura’s personal privacy and dignity and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being.”
Al Jazeera Publishes Confidential ‘Palestine Papers’
From Al Jazeera’s own introduction:
Over the last several months, Al Jazeera has been given unhindered access to the largest-ever leak of confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are nearly 1,700 files, thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These documents – memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations – date from 1999 to 2010.
The material is voluminous and detailed; it provides an unprecedented look inside the continuing negotiations involving high-level American, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority officials.
Al Jazeera will release the documents between January 23-26th, 2011. They will reveal new details about:
- the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to concede illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, and to be “creative” about the status of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount;
- the compromises the Palestinian Authority was prepared to make on refugees and the right of…
Republican Budget Cuts Show Real Deficit
Photo: David Iliff
Aaron Cynic writes:
The Republican Study Committee released a breakdown of spending reductions and cuts, which they argue can save $2.5 trillion over the next ten years. Nearly all of the cuts come from the “discretionary spending” portion of the budget, which makes up just 16% of the total federal budget. The Republican plan is to simply push back spending levels to what they were in 2006 and hope for the best. Predictably, the Pentagon’s budget is off the chopping block. John Boener spokesman Michael Steele said “our immediate goal is to cut spending to pre-bailout, pre-stimulus levels.” Pre-bailout and stimulus levels for everyone but the defense department.
Some of the measures the RSC recommends make sense. Halving the printing budget to save $47 million in the age of digital information seems like a no brainer. Saving $15 billion by selling off unused federal property is something almost any businessperson would recommend.…
Davos Is A Disastrous Conspiracy Of The Rich
The fact that Paul Farrell is allowed to publish such fierce criticism of the World Economic Forum’s Davos gathering in a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication is more than a little disarming and in stark contrast to the non-Murdoch-owned Economist.
Davos. Swiss Alps. Annual meeting of the notorious World Economic Forum. Invitation-only club for the Super Rich and friends since 1971. Feel-good mantra: “Committed to improving the state of the world.”
But they’re failing. In 40 years the Haves got richer. Have-nots got shafted. Something’s terribly wrong. When it comes to global economics, Davos is a disaster.
Why? Inside Davos is a secret society, a Conspiracy of the Super Rich, more than half the 2,500 attending the event. They’ve got trillions. And it’s not enough. Right now, many are cruising to Davos at 50,000 feet, enjoying caviar, foie gras, filet mignon and Dom Perignon in the comfort of their tax-exempt Gulfstream 5 jets.
For them a Davos…
11 U.S. Police Officers Shot Within 24 Hours
Photo: nycpba.org
CNN reports:
As police in Florida prepared for the funeral of two Miami-Dade County police officers gunned down in the line of duty, shots rang out Monday in St. Petersburg, on the other side of the state. Two other officers fell dead and a federal marshal was wounded.
On any given day, such violence against police officers would be disturbing. But the fatalities capped a particularly violent 24 hours in the United States for the men and women in blue. Eleven police officers were shot.
“It is a very disturbing trend for all of us,” said Hal Johnson, general counsel for the Florida Police Benevolent Association. “Florida has never seen a streak like this. I don’t think anybody has.”
It is natural to search for answers, Johnson said, even if there aren’t any. The shootings do not appear to be related, and the motives may never be known. Declaring it to be open season…
Vermont Proposes Resolution To Ban ‘Corporate Personhood’
Talk about a victory for common sense, in the face of one of the most harmful and breathtakingly idiotic judicial precedents in U.S. history. AlterNet reports:
A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its bizarre Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections as a form of “free speech” for the corporate “person.” Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent, had the task of recalling the majority to planet earth and basic common sense.
“Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires,” wrote Stevens. “Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
Fortunately, movements are afoot to reverse a century of accumulated powers and protections granted to corporations by wacky judicial decisions.
In Vermont, state…
