Edition 3 (22nd March 2008)

Yes there are things happening in the world other than the McCartney Divorce and Chocolate Egg consumption.
Some interesting articles from the mainstream media over the last week (plus a little added sarcasm):

Health:
Study finds 98% of child drug trials lack independent safety checks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/19/children.medicalresearch
But what they hey lets pump them full of injections anyway, it's great for the P&L account

Vaccine Companies Investigated for Manslaughter
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/2/23/vaccine-companies-investigated-for-manslaughter.aspx
Pharma companies don’t disclose all adverse effects – shock!

Stressed parents 'make kids ill'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7302955.stm
CALM DOWN!

How Cellphone Radiation Affects Your Cells
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/18/how-cellphone-radiation-affects-your-cells.aspx
Are we going to look back in years to come at our use of mobile phones in the way that we currently look back at smoking?

Coca-Cola drops artificial sweetener from Coke Zero
http://www.drinks-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=1ACA38BA-CAB3-4578-AE1B-494BBD626289
In trouble with a Government over an additive that has cancer causing properties? Don’t worry! Just replace it with two different additives with cancer causing properties. Sorted!

Does Diet Soda Make You Gain Weight?
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/fake-sugar-study-44031708
Does Diet Soda Make You Gain Weight? Yes, it does – as evidenced in last weeks edition too

Depleted uranium turns earthworms into glowworms
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2123280.0.depleted_uranium_turns_earthworms_into_glowworms.php
Just imagine what it'll be doing to the children of Iraq for the next 10,000 years

Science:
Methane found on distant world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7301390.stm
Is there other life out there?


Education:
Iraq: teachers told to rewrite history
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/iraq-teachers-told-to-rewrite-history-795711.html
First rule of fascism. Re-write the history being taught - and especially don't tell the children about the tens of thousands of people who have been killed in their name. Goebbels would have been impressed.


Finance & Economics
Bear Stearns exposed as a bank saddled with toxic sub-prime debt
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/15/ccom115.xml
Is it time to put all your savings either under the mattress or into gold?

US Congress scrutinises bailout of Bear Stearns
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3599417.ece
History repeats itself. In 1929 the big banks swallowed up the little ones after the federal reserve let them get over-extended. Now remind me, who owns the federal reserve? (clue - it's not the US government. Research it yourself. Its is revealing)


Religion:
Millions marking spring festival
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7306131.stm
people buy presents and special foods, observe specific rituals, and visit friends and family. Sounds just like Easter really - but without the chocolate and fertility (rabbits) symbolism


Civil Liberties:
DNA database plans for children who 'could become criminals'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/17/nasbo217.xml
Not so much Thought-crime, and more like DNA-crime or Future-Crime. Charming.

MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/16/uksecurity.terrorism
big brother is watching YOU!


Travel:
Nick Bryant's Australia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/nickbryant/
Western Australia is the place to be!


The War on Terror
Bleak picture of Iraq conditions
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7299914.stm
- as Dubya said back in 2003 “Job done!”. In other words create chaos, turn the people against one & other, and then re-appropriate what is of value to them (oil). It’s great to see that “civilization” has come so far since it was conceived 10,000 years back in what is now Iraq.

http://www.blogger.com/
- Dubya, “The world is a safer place now” – Orwellian doublespeak methinks


The next war......
Israel to hold massive emergency drill
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420704459&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
It is funny how security drills that exactly mirrored the actual events were being simulated on 9/11 and 7/7. Might be safe to mark April 6th in the calendar just in case. (listen to this taped BBC interview from 7/7 that I heard live on Radio 5 at the time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEbUQiYOGjU )

Advert of the week:
http://www.nationalexpositor.com/News/1079.html
- brave of MTV really - will you see it many times before the Viacom Corporation stops it being broadcast?

Quote of the week:
"Even later in the game (the slow tiptoe shift towards fascism), violent dicatorships keep many of the trappings of a civil society. It is a point of pride to do so. What they do not have - and everyone who works in the press, the judiciary, the universities, the electoral system, and so on, understands the rules about this - is freedom"
- Naomi Wolf, The End of America