GlaxoSmithKline Fined For Baby Deaths.

GSK fined after over vaccine trials; 14 babies reported dead

By Javier Cardenal Taján
BuenosAiresHerald.com staff

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/88922/gsk-lab-fined-over-vaccine-tests-that-killed-14--babies

GlaxoSmithKline Argentina Laboratories Company was fined 400,000 pesos by Judge Marcelo Aguinsky following a report issued by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology (ANMAT in Spanish) for irregularities during lab vaccine trials conducted between 2007 and 2008 that allegedly killed 14 babies.

Likewise, two doctors -Héctor Abate, and Miguel Tregnaghi- were fined with 300,000 pesos each for irregularities during the studies.

The charges included experimenting with human beings as well falsifying parental authorizations so babies could participate in vaccine-trials conducted by the laboratory from 2007 to 2008.

Since 2007, 15,000 children under the age of one from Mendoza, San Juan and Santiago del Estero have been included in the research protocol, a statement of what the study is trying to achieve. Babies were recruited from poor families that attended to public hospitals.

A total of seven babies died in Santiago del Estero; five in Mendoza; and two in San Juan.

Pediatrician Ana Marchese, who reported the case through the Argentine Federation of Health Professionals (FESPROSA in Spanish), and was working at the Eva Perón children's public hospital in Santiago del Estero when the studies wee being conducted, said this morning in conversations with Continental AM radio that "GSK Argentina set an protocol at the hospital, and recruited several doctors working there.”

"These doctors took advantage of many illiterate parents whom take their children for treatment by pressuring and forcing them into signing these 28-page consent forms and getting them involved in the trials.”

"Laboratories can't experiment in Europe or the United States, so they come to do it in third-world countries."
Colombian and Panama were also chosen by GSK as staging grounds for trials of the vaccine against the pneumococcal bacteria.

Likewise, Marchese, explained the modus operandi: "Once a picked patient arrived, it would automatically disappear to be taken somewhere else in order to be treated by those doctors specially recruited by GSK. These kind of practices are not legal and occurred without any type of state control, plus they don't comply with minimum ethical requirements.”
Marchese also remembered that "laboratory trials on human beings are not legalized in Argentina.”

Furthermore, the pediatrician explained that "it is also known that in various particular cases, the doctors who had conducted the trials did not answer the calls made by the worried parents after witnessing their babies' reactions to the vaccines.”
According to Marchese, "there already exist very good vaccines for the same diseases, but we all know how laboratories work, they only care for their own business.”

To end, Doctor Marchese aimed to Santiago del Estero Governor, Gerardo Zamora, who "never ever came out to stage to comment on the case, and same happened with national deputies and senators that didn't even bother into discussing a hot topic that was echoed worldwide. I'm also ashamed of the scientific community that also kept its mouth shut.”
Julieta Ovejero, great aunt of one of the six babies who died in Santiago del Estero, said that "A lot of people wanted to leave the protocol but they weren't allowed; they forced them to continue under the threat that if they leave they won't receive any other vaccine.”

During 2008, the vaccine trial was still ongoing despite the reports issued by FESPROSA, and those in charge of the study told reporters that the procedures were being carried out in a lawful manner.
On the contrary, the ruling states that the laboratory as well the involved doctors broke all legal requirements for conducting clinical tests on babies.

Surprisingly, during same year pediatrician Enrique Smith, one of the lead investigators told reporters: "Only 12 have died throughout the country, which is a very low figure if we compare it with the deaths produced by respiratory illnesses caused by the pneumococcal bacteria.”
In Santiago del Estero, one of the country's poorest provinces, the trials were authorized when Enrique's brother, Juan Carlos Smith, was provincial health minister.

According to Fesprosa, "the laboratory paid $8,000 pesos for each child included in the study, but none (of that money) remained in the province that lends the public facilities and the health personnel for the private research.”
Meanwhile, a press communiqué was released by the ANMAT indicating that the irregularities detected during the COMPASS vaccine trial programme were related to "failures in the process of obtaining informed consent for participation, hence violating patients' rights, and the inclusion of patients that did not fully meet the required clinical conditions to be submitted to the programme.”

Furthermore, the release states that "We [ANMAT] expressly remark that none of the deaths mentioned in the news stories were related to the vaccines given as part of the COMPASS programme, since all the involved patients had received blind placebo, which is a simile of the vaccine but without any active substance. The vaccine is safe.”
GlaxoSmithKline is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical company measured by revenues after Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.

Ironically, if one visits GlaxoSmithKline Argentina web site it welcomes the reader with a company disclosure that says: "We have a challenging and inspiring mission to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer."

According to www.GSK.com site, Glaxo was originally a baby food manufacturer processing local milk into a baby food by the same name, and founded in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand in 1904. The product was sold in the 1930s under the slogan "Glaxo builds bonny babies".

GlaxoSmithKline Argentina's massive 28,333 square-metre manufacturing plant is located in Northern Greater Buenos Aires town of San Fernand.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/88922/gsk-lab-fined-over-vaccine-tests-that-killed-14--babies

How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the '1 Percent' | | AlterNet

Scandinavian workers realized that, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

January 29, 2012  |  

 

Photo Credit: Christopher Neugebauer

 

 While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.

Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”

Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbo will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.

Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.

When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.

In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.

The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!

The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.

The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.

Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.

By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.

This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)

The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)

Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.

Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.

Spraying In The Air.

Long but interesting vid about chem spraying.

ACTA is worse than SOPA, here’s what you need to know

By J. D. Heyes for Natural News on January 29, 2012

(NaturalNews) As a warrior for Internet freedom, you helped defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA by supporting Web black outs by sites like Wikipedia and by contacting your lawmaker to voice your displeasure. So loud was your voice that even the president of the United States sided with you in opposing it.

But don’t take a deep sigh of relief because, after all, we’re talking about a merger of Washington, D.C., and Hollywood here, as well as global interests. After the motion picture industry, its subsidiaries and all “interested parties” have spent nearly $150 million lobbying for some sort of Internet-centric “anti-piracy” bill, you should have known the powers that be would return.

And they have, only this time they are pushing something far more onerous: ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

“Although the proposed treaty’s title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines) what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope and in particular will deal with new tools targeting ‘Internet distribution and information technology’”, says an assessment of ACTA by the watchdogs at the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

“ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet [regarding] legitimate commerce and for developing countries’ ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development,” says EFF’s assessment.

As is usually the case with dubious, rights-stripping legislation, ACTA – which Forbes.com reports was signed by the U.S. in 2011 and has already been sanctioned as well by Japan, Switzerland and many European Union nations – has largely been negotiated in the shadows and, thus, has largely been devoid of scrutiny… until now.

While the Obama administration was shying away from SOPA, it has been aggressively pursuing ACTA (full disclosure: the process was started under the Bush administration). Critics say it is much more far-reaching than SOPA, bypassing “the sovereign laws of participating nations” and “forcing ISP’s across the globe to act as internet police,” Forbes said.

But ACTA isn’t limited just to the Internet. In fact, the agreement would crack down things like generic drugs and would make food patents more difficult to obtain “by enforcing a global standard on seed patents that threatens local farmers and food independence across the developed world,” Forbes says.

The good thing is, there is not universal acceptance of ACTA and its onerous, liberty-stealing provisions. Emerging nations like Brazil and India are adamantly opposed to it for rightfully fearing its provisions would harm their economies.

But Internet freedom is also under attack from other quarters as well. The EFF also notes that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which is a separate measure, would “rewrite the global rules on IP enforcement”.

“All signatory countries will be required to conform their domestic laws and policies to the provisions of the Agreement,” said the EFF assessment. “In the U.S. this is likely to further entrench controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law. The recently leaked U.S. IP chapter also includes provisions that appear to go beyond current U.S. law. This raises significant concerns for citizens’ due process, privacy and freedom of expression rights.”

SOPA may be history but that doesn’t mean Internet freedom does not remain under assault. Tyrants never stop trying to enforce tyranny.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta

https://www.eff.org/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034802_ACTA_counterfeiting_piracy.html#ixzz1kskK7UHG

Image source: http://www.geekosystem.com/acta-primer

Broken Tv's And Birthdays.

A big thank you to everyone for my birthday wishes.

It was one of the relaxing ones ever.
I baby sat for my 5 grandchildren and no-one got hurt - yahoo.

Although a tv did get broken - tut.
But, like the only two kids in the room said, "it wasnt me".

Get On Your Bike.

David Cameron says it's time for people to stop complaining about benefit cuts and 'go out and get work' instead.

Yesterday saw a major blow to the Government's plans for benefit reform. The House of Lords added an amendment to exclude child benefits from the benefits cap, in order to protect vulnerable children in larger families.

Controversy
However, the government isn't having a bar of it. They plan to push the reforms through, and during the debate David Cameron made his disdain for benefit scroungers perfectly obvious.

The controversial plan is to cap the maximum benefits that any household can receive at £26,000 - which is what the average family brings home between them. This would more than likely mean many more compromises for people on benefits. Many will have to leave expensive areas and move into cheaper properties. Many more will see their standard of living drop.

The House of Lords amendment was made out of concern for very large families. There are at least 190 families with 10 or more children who are dependent on benefits, who would clearly struggle with a cap.

However, the government is insistent that people should not be able to breed their way around the new rules, and that no-one should get more than the cap - so that working is always a better option. It plans to take the Bill back to the House of Commons, where it could overturn the amendment.

Cameron's colours
During the debate, Cameron's comments revealed just how passionately he believed a culture of benefit entitlement has to go. In what seems like a bit of a step away from his 'hug a hoodie' reputation, he insisted that if people couldn't live with the cap, then maybe they ought to get themselves a job instead.

He said: "In many cases the answer will be for someone in that family to go out and work, and that will be the right answer for that family.We have too many children growing up in our country in households where nobody works, where a life on welfare has become an acceptable alternative".

"The way children suffer today, there are far too many children in households where no one is working," he said. "And one of the reasons why in some households no one is working is because welfare has become so available."

http://money.aol.co.uk/2012/01/24/stop-whinging-and-get-a-job-cameron/?ncid=webmail4

Happy Birthday, Grace.

It is my youngest daughters birthday, today.

Happy Birthday, Grace.
May you always have what you need.

Love Light Hugs.

The MURDOCH Empire and its Nest of VIPERS: Andy Coulson Puts His Home Up For Sale

The MURDOCH Empire and its Nest of VIPERS: Andy Coulson Puts His Home Up For Sale: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson has put his house up for sale, reports Guido Fawkes . The estate agent's asking price for the ...

Foreign Secretary MI6 Coutts Bank Fraud Bribery: Foreign Secretary - *MI6-SIS *Coutts Bank & Co. Fr...

The Royal United Services Institute RUSI former Director General is understood to have conducted a range of in-depth discussions with the Carroll Foundation Trust immediately prior to the shocking ransacking of the Carroll Foundation Trust Eaton Square Belgravia penthouse and Westminster London residences. It has emerged that the entire contents of Gerald J. H.Carroll's multi-million dollar Belgravia penthouse and Westminster residences were completely stolen including the theft of priceless US Anglo-Irish Scottish national treasures and rare illuminated manuscripts collections dating from the thirteenth century together with important HM Ministry of Defence classified documents.

UK Government leaked sources have disclosed that the Farnborough Aerospace Development Corporation Trust board of directors included a galaxy of HM Ministry of Defence and Royal Air Force public figures. It is known in the public realm that Air Chief Marshal Sir David Evans Air Marshal Sir Ivor Broom together with Sir Ewen Broadbent Sir Kenneth MacDonald were Farnborough Aerospace Corporation Trust board members some of whom did co-ordinate with Scotland Yard along with other high profile public figures including the Marshal of the Air Force Sir Michael Beetham former RUSI Director General Rear Admiral Richard Cobbold Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine Sir John Chilcot and Lord Armstrong Cabinet Secretary in Lady Thatcher's premiership to name but a few.

Foreign Secretary MI6 Coutts Bank Fraud Bribery: Foreign Secretary - *MI6-SIS *Coutts Bank & Co. Fr...: 

The Stars And Stripes (Of Pain)

We came, we saw, we destroyed, we forgot
The Anti-Empire Report
by William Blum
July 29, 2011

An updated summary of the charming record of US foreign policy. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States of America has …

Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of which were democratically-elected.[1]
Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.[2]
Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.[3]
Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.[4]
Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.[5]
In total: Since 1945, the United States has carried out one or more of the above actions, on one or more occasions, in the following 69 countries (more than one-third of the countries of the world):

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Australia
Bolivia
Bosnia
Brazil
British Guiana (now Guyana)
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Congo (also as Zaire)
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Fiji
France
Germany (plus East Germany)
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Libya
Mongolia
Morocco
Nepal
Nicaragua
North Korea
Pakistan
Palestine
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Russia
Seychelles
Slovakia
Somalia
South Africa
Soviet Union
Sudan
Suriname
Syria
Thailand
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam (plus North Vietnam)
Yemen (plus South Yemen)
Yugoslavia

Free Bradley Manning.

The railroading of Bradley Manning is getting out of control.

Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, the investigating officer in Manning's Article 32 hearing has recommended that Manning face a court-martial for all 23 charges of which he is accused. 1

The charges Almanza has recommended are absurdly disproportionate to the acts Manning is accused of committing — the most egregious being "aiding the enemy," a charge that carries a possible penalty of life imprisonment. This charge rests on the government's dubious claim that Manning knowingly provided intelligence to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, because he knew Wikileaks might publish the information on the internet.

Almanza's recommendation will now move up the chain of command, where Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington will ultimately decide if Manning should be court-martialed, and on what charges. Can you help us stop this snowballing, unfounded attempt to paint Manning as a traitor?

Call the Department of Defense right now, leave a message for Maj. Gen. Linnington asking him to drop the "aiding the enemy" charges against Bradley Manning.

Click here for a phone number and a sample script: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/manning-call

Manning's supporters see Lt. Col. Almanza's recommendation as just another step in what is becoming a sham trial. Almanza himself served as a prosecutor for the Justice Department, which is also investigating Manning, but refused to recuse himself as investigating officer. Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, claims the DOJ wants to flip Manning and have him testify against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.2

Of the 48 witnesses requested by Manning, Almanza only allowed 12 to testify - 10 of which were also requested by the government. Coombs has requested oral depositions of the denied witnesses, who he says have the potential to show how baseless the "aiding the enemy" charge really is. The fact that they were denied testimony in the first place says a lot about the reasoning behind such a severe accusation.

This entire process has not only been insanely cruel, it is setting a dangerous precedent for how the government deals with whistleblowers. We must stand up to the overcharging of Bradley Manning. His life and the safety of all whistleblowers depend on it. Can you call the Department of Defense, and urge Maj. Gen. Linnington to use his power to stop the over-zealous prosecution of Bradley Manning?

Call the Department of Defense right now, leave a message for Maj. Gen. Linnington asking him to drop the "aiding the enemy" charges against Bradley Manning.

Click here for a phone number and a sample script: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/manning-call

No matter the Army's decision, Firedoglake will continue to report on this case and organize actions in pursuit of a fair trial and, ultimately, justice for Bradley Manning.

In solidarity,

Brian Sonenstein
Director of Online Activism,
Firedoglake.com

PS: If you can't call, consider chipping in $5 to support Firedoglake's continuous coverage of the Bradley Manning case: https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/contribute/manning-general

1. All Charges Against Bradley Manning Referred to Court Martial, Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 1/12/2011.

2. Manning Defense Files Motion Requesting Article 32 Officer Recuse Himself, Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 12/16/2011.

Much Ado About Nothing « NOVA's Physics Blog: The Nature of Reality

Nothing is not as simple as it seems.

The concept of nothing has fascinated philosophers and scientists throughout history. The search for an ever-deeper understanding of nothing has driven scientific discovery since the age of ancient Greece, and today the pursuit of nothing defines the frontier of modern particle physics. But before we talk about nothing, let’s talk about something: air.

For millennia, philosophers thought that “empty” air was nothing. Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, though, recognized air as a “thing” in its own right. Wind, after all, is nothing but air, yet it can be felt powerfully. Indeed, the Greeks considered air to be one of the basic elements, along with earth, water, and fire. These elements, in turn, were believed made of some basic something which they called “ur-matter.” A familiar modern example, sucking on a drinking straw, seems to illustrate the impossibility of creating a vacuum: The straw doesn’t fill up with vacuum but instead “implodes,” apparently confirming the Greek belief that “Nature abhors a vacuum.”

About two millennia would pass before Galileo and others realized that the implosion is due to the external pressure of the air, and not a cosmic law against nothingness. This soon led to the invention of the barometer and a remarkable discovery: Air pressure decreases with altitude. The reason is that the atmosphere has a finite height and the nearer you get to the surface, the less air there is pressing down on you. This inspired the thought that above the atmosphere is nothing—or, at least, no air.

By the end of the 17th century, then, when people talked about “nothing,” they were no longer talking about air: They were talking about the void of space. Today, we know that though space is empty of air, it is filled with gravitational forces which guide the planets and order the galaxies. It is also full of electric and magnetic fields that give us sunlight and starlight in the form of electromagnetic waves.

This created great problems for 19th century scientists: Since the electromagnetic waves from the sun and stars were making it all the way to Earth, they must be traveling through something. After all, they knew that sound waves need a medium through which to travel. I speak and air molecules bump into one another until some hit your eardrums, making them vibrate, generating signals that your brain interprets as sound. The absence of air in space leaves the sun silent, yet we can see it.

To resolve this paradox, scientists argued that there must be some medium through which the electromagnetic waves traveled. “Waves in what?” was answered with: “The ether.” And so began one of the greatest wild goose chases in the history of science, as many of the leading lights in the field went in search of this weird ether that was capable of transmitting light at about 300,000 km every second while still allowing the planets to pass through as if there were nothing there at all. The search did not end until Einstein finally introduced his theory of relativity in 1905, which eliminated the need for the ether. (But that’s a story for another day.) The tables had turned on nothing: Aristotle was wrong. Nothing could exist—or so we thought. And then came quantum mechanics.

In the quantum realm of tiny subatomic particles, the more closely you look at nothing, the more things you discover. What looks empty to our gross senses turns out to be effervescing with particles of matter and anti-matter. The apparent void is a medium filled with stuff, a froth of will-o’-the-wisp particles of matter and antimatter.

This new quantum mechanical view of nothing began to emerge in 1947, when Willis Lamb measured spectrum of hydrogen. The electron in a hydrogen atom cannot move wherever it pleases but instead is restricted to specific paths. This is analogous to climbing a ladder: You cannot end up at arbitrary heights above ground, only those where there are rungs to stand on. Quantum mechanics explains the spacing of the rungs on the atomic ladder and predicts the frequencies of radiation that are emitted or absorbed when an electron switches from one to another. According to the state of the art in 1947, which assumed the hydrogen atom to consist of just an electron, a proton, and an electric field, two of these rungs have identical energy. However, Lamb’s measurements showed that these two rungs differ in energy by about one part in a million. What could be causing this tiny but significant difference?

When physicists drew up their simple picture of the atom, they had forgotten something: Nothing. Lamb had become the first person to observe experimentally that the vacuum is not empty, but is instead seething with ephemeral electrons and their anti-matter analogues, positrons. These electrons and positrons disappear almost instantaneously, but in their brief mayfly moment of existence they alter the shape of the atom’s electromagnetic field slightly. This momentary interaction with the electron inside the hydrogen atom kicks one of the rungs of the ladder just a bit higher than it would be otherwise.

This is all possible because, in quantum mechanics, energy is not conserved on very short timescales, or for very short distances. Stranger still, the more precisely you attempt to look at something—or at nothing—the more dramatic these energy fluctuations become. Combine that with Einstein’s E=mc², which implies that energy can congeal in material form, and you have a recipe for particles that bubble in and out of existence even in the void. This effect allowed Lamb to literally measure something from nothing.

This suggests that the contents of the vacuum—the “stuff” of nothing—could be organized in different ways at different times in the history of the universe. Think of water molecules: They can roam freely in the liquid or lock tightly to one another in ice crystals. This analogy hints at an intriguing possibility: Could the contents of the quantum vacuum be in a different configuration in today’s cool universe than they were in the first moments after the hot Big Bang?

At creation, the thinking goes, particles had no mass and moved through the vacuum at the speed of light. Around a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe was cool enough that a mass-giving field called the “Higgs field” condensed in the vacuum, as water condenses from steam.

The Higgs field is believed to disturb the motion of fundamental particles like electrons as they move through it, producing the effect that we call mass. If this is correct, there should be particle manifestations of the Higgs field, known as Higgs bosons, just waiting to be discovered. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is hot on the trail of these particles, but decisive evidence of the Higgs boson—which is very massive and can only be produced in an enormous blast of energy—is still elusive. Scientists working on the LHC expect that they may see the first glimpse of the Higgs by the end of 2012. Whether this is the real deal or whether we are being fooled by some cruel, random throw of Nature’s dice, time will tell.

Aristotle was right: There is no thing that is nothing. Is the Higgs field part of the something? Within a few months we may know the answer.

Daniel Morgan Murder Cover-Up.: #Leveson Inquiry : Dave Cook Led a Met Investigati...

 A former Scotland Yard officer arrested over allegations of unauthorised leaks to a journalist has asked to play a key role in the judicial inquiry into press standards.

Ex-detective chief superintendent Dave Cook yesterday requested core participant status, which means he is able to cross-examine witnesses who appear before Lord Justice Leveson.

Mr Cook, 52, who returned to work as an investigator for the Serious Organised Crime Agency this week after six months off sick, is understood to have encountered "obscene corruption" while at the Met. A source close to the inquiry claimed he is due to give evidence to Leveson and could reveal the full scale of alleged wrongdoing he encountered at the force.

Mr Cook was questioned yesterday on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and bailed. The Independent Police Complaints Commission had been passed information by Met detectives from Operation Elveden, investigating alleged payments to police officers by newspapers.

In 2002, Mr Cook led a Met investigation into the axe murder of private eye Daniel Morgan in Sydenham 25 years ago. Main suspects included Met officers and private investigators who also worked for the News of the World. The investigation collapsed last year amid criticism of police evidence.

Soon after Mr Cook made a fresh appeal about the case on Crimewatch in June 2002, he discovered he was under surveillance by men working for the defunct Sunday tabloid.

Mr Cook, whose phone was hacked by the NoW, challenged then editor Rebekah Brooks in December 2002. She admitted the paper had been following him but claimed it was investigating whether he was having an affair with Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames. However, it was well-known the pair were married.

Today, a friend said of the leak allegations: "I believe this arrest is a measure to quieten him down ahead of his involvement in the Leveson inquiry. He knows where all the bodies are buried. This is an attempt to blacken his name."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24026779-former-yard-detective-arrested-over-leaks-to-journalist.do

 

Daniel Morgan Murder Cover-Up.: #Leveson Inquiry : Dave Cook Led a Met Investigati...: 

Guest post: Last chance to save Disability Living Allowance

 Last week’s votes in the House of Lords in which the government were defeated 3 times in their plans to make Britain a crueller place were an outstanding success for this country’s disability rights activists. The Uncut community helped make this happen by tweeting and emailing peers telling them that dismantling state assistance for people unable to work was not acceptable.

We need your help again.

Tomorrow, the Lords will vote on amendments to preserve Disability Living Allowance (DLA). The most glaring fact that you need to know is this: They plan to cut the Disability Living Allowance budget by 20% despite the fact that only 0.5% of claims are fraudulent. This means that one in every five genuine DLA claimants will be losing out on money we depend on to get by.

Despite what you’ve probably read in the papers; DLA is not an out-of-work benefit. If you need to use a wheelchair to get around or you need help to get out of bed; those needs don’t go away because you’ve got a job so the money to pay for that help doesn’t go away either.

As a manual wheelchair user who gets the care component for supervision because of my unfortunate habit of doing things like snapping a rib when I bend down to pick something up: I’m set to lose everything. I honestly don’t know how I’ll be able to cope without that small amount of support. The government keep saying that the reforms are about “making work pay,” but as DLA is what enables many disabled people to work, these cuts will force a lot of people out of the workplace. 

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https://web.archive.org/web/20120212171619/http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/guest-post-last-chance-to-save-disability-living-allowance#.TxR7mnE5V2Q.blogger

US Troops Deployed In Israel.

ttp://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q12012/us-troops-going-to-israel483/

US Troops going to Israel

In one of the most blacked-out stories in America right now, the US military is preparing to send thousands of US troops, along with US Naval anti-missile ships and accompanying support personnel, to Israel. It took forever to find a second source for confirmation of this story and both relatively mainstream media outlets are in Israel. With one source saying the military deployment and corresponding exercises are to occur in January, the source providing most of the details suggests it will occur later this spring.

Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part.

While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.

In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”.

The Jerusalem Post reports that US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc was in Israel meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Brig.-Gen Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Defense Division. While there, the US General visited one of Israel’s three ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile outposts. The Israeli Air Force has announced plans to deploy a fourth Iron Dome system in the coming months. Additional spending increases in the Jewish state will guarantee the manufacture and deployment of three more Iron Dome systems by the end of 2012. The Israelis are hoping to eventually have at least a dozen of the anti-missile systems deployed along its northern and southern borders.

In a show of escalated tensions in the region, Iran test fired two long range missiles today. One, called the Qadar, is a powerful sea-to-shore missile. The other was an advanced surface-to-surface missile called the Nour. According to Iranian state news, the Nour is an ‘advanced radar-evading, target-seeking, guided and controlled missile’. Additionally, the Iranian military reportedly test-fired numerous other short, medium and long-range missiles. Yesterday, Iranian authorities reported that they test-fired the medium-range, surface-to-air, radar-evading Mehrab missile. Today is supposed to be the final day of Iranian naval drills in the Straits of Hormuz.

Iran recently made global headlines when it threatened to blockade the Straits of Hormuz if Europe and the US went ahead with their boycott of Iranian oil and the country’s central bank. One-quarter of the world’s oil passes through that waterway every day. President Obama has announced that a closure of the Straits was unacceptable and vowed to take whatever measures are necessary to keep the vital shipping lane open.

In response to the Iranian missile tests this weekend, French authorities were the first to respond, calling it a, “very bad signal to the international community."We want to underline that the development by Iran of a missile program is a source of great concern to the international community,"the French Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. Israeli officials suggested the flamboyant Iranian military drills this weekend were a sign that international sanctions on the country were taking a heavy toll and that any additional boycotts, on its banks or oil industry, would be crippling.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the large missile tests showed, “the dire straits of Iran in light of the tightening sanctions around her, including the considerations in the last few days regarding the sanctions of exporting petroleum as well as the possibility of sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank." While the chances of Iran going through with its threat of closing the Straits of Hormuz are slim, the deployment of thousands of US troops and naval ships to Israel shows the US isn’t taking any chances.

Nuclear Iran - Flimsy Pretext for Aggression

 by Andrew Smith
(henrymakow.com)
 

I view the hysteria in this country over Iran's nuclear energy program with amusement.

Here we are holding the largest stockpile of NUKES on the planet--AND A HISTORY OF USING THEM--telling the rest of the world who can and can't have them.

To say this is hypocrisy at it's height is a gross understatement. It's out there in the stratosphere of hubris and arrogance. People forget that without NUKES, we would have had several more world wars after WWII ended.

If Russia had no nukes to DETER AMERICA, we would have been at war in a WEST against EAST conflagration.

Iran needs nukes beyond the obvious deterrent capability against Israel (which has NUKES) but also more importantly--in my opinion--nuclear power is a technology that cannot be ignored if a nation intends to stay on its evolutionary path of technological progress.

Abdicating that right of knowledge in the field of nuclear technology is condemning that nation to a second class status in the technological world. When Iran says it wants to build nuclear power plants for peaceful purposes and how its research on this technology is aimed towards peaceful pursuits as well, it's funny how the American media people dismiss that notion out of hand. Yet they know it was the study of atoms which opened the door towards advancement in the nuclear biology field and discovery of DNA.

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Nuclear Iran - Flimsy Pretext for Aggression