A small number of extremely wealthy people, descendants of wealthy families in Europe and the U.S, own a major part of the material wealth of the world. This power is concentrated in London which is the centre of the world banking system. The control they exercise is kept within the original families and passed down from generation to generation. They are highly organised, operating in secret through a web of 'private' organisations.
This group is known as the Global Elite.
Their wealth is accumulating on a compound basis. They determine the course of history, through virtual control of the world economy.
They are working to a 'grand plan' which is now well-advanced.

US Gives China Eminent Domain Over US PropertyBeyond High Treason

US Gives China Eminent Domain Over US PropertyBeyond High Treason

A. True Ott, PhD, ND2-28-9

Let's connect some dots today, boys and girls to learn about the HIGHEST POSSIBLE TREASON that has happened in this country.

THIS IS AS REAL AND AS UGLY AS IT CAN GET.

Dot #1 China begins its covert war on the FREE American republic in the 1950's by taking over much of the PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG manufacturing for American and British Big Pharma. This is an outgrowth of the Rothschild's OPIUM RING PROCESSING by the British West Indies company during the 1800's, and is brokered by the "City of London" and Washington D.C.

Dot #2 Arch-illuminist and satanist Henry Kissinger "normalizes" trade relations with China during the Nixon years.

Dot #3 Eventual LDS (Mormon) Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, via the church-owned Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, establishes a "hard currency" pipeline with Bejing, exchanging bank "trade credits" for CIA/BRITISH MI6 DRUG SERVICES RENDERED into hard GOLD AND SILVER while hiding behind the cloak of "World Religion". This is facilitated via the LDS-Church built and controlled "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone" adjacent to Hong Kong. When Hinckley is made LDS President, his first "official" visit as "World Prophet" is to China, where the Chinese Communist leaders give him a hero's welcome and a confetti parade. (See attached paper --- "Pensees of a Puzzled Pilgrim" pp 5-6 and Desert News, June 1, 1996 article: "President Hinckley Visits China").

Dot #4 Arkansas natives Bill Clinton and Sam Walton massively increase contracts with China's factories over 2,000%. This results in a tremendous imbalance of trade with China. Thanks to the Mormon "Special Economic Zone" -- China's communist leaders begin amassing incredible "real" wealth in gold and silver.

Dot #5 China purchases TRILLIONS of dollars worth of U.S. Treasury Bills and Bonds, paying for it with gold and silver provided by the Shenzhen Economic Zone exchanges. Much of the U.S. "national debt" is purchased from the private "Federal Reserve" banks in this manner.

Dot #6 Dr. Jeff Taubenberger of the U.S. Institute of Pathology in Ft. Dedrick MD, (The world headquarters for biologic weapons development) successfully maps the genome of the 1918 killer "flu" virus responsible for the 1918 "pandemic" that killed millions.
The worst killer virus ever to plague mankind is now ready to be used as a covert "weapon" disguised as a natural "influenza" mutations.

Dot #6 July, 2005: The Illuminati-conrolled United Nations announces that the world is long over-due for an "influenza pandemic". The H5N1 "Avian Flu" is wrongfully demonized as a COVER.

Dot #7 December 2005: The Chinese Defense Minister, Chi Haotiaon delivers a speech to the Chinese military leaders outlining the inevitable "expansion" of China into Canada, the U.S., and Australia -- He justifies this because of Chinese racial "superiority" and thus "emminent domain". To accomplish this, American would first have to be "Cleansed" by means of a powerful "biological weapon" --- causing 150 -200 MILLION AMERICAN DEATHS!!! The plan would be enacted AFTER the symbolic OLYMPIC GAMES beginning at the sacred day of 8-08-08 are concluded. China begins buying oil and gas futures, spiking the worldwide prices to historic levels.

Dot #8 March 13, 2008: A secret meeting is conducted for the U.S. House and Senate. Agents of the Club of Rome give a preview of upcoming events to elected officials who first swear an oath of secrecy. The traitors are briefed that the economy will begin its collapse in October, 2008 -- and will TOTALLY collapse in mid 2009. As events unfold in 2009-2010, Congress was told of the real possibily of massive civil unrest and even Civil War being waged. Detention camps constructed to imprison civil 'agitators'. See http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34877
for the complete meeting agenda.

Dot #9 In September, 2008 -- as soon as the Olympics are concluded, China stops buying oil and gas futures while dumping U.S. Treasury bills and bonds. Gasoline prices plummet, while the U.S. mortgage loan money becomes tightly constricted. The Club of Rome's agenda is being implemented perfectly.

Dot #10 In October, just as explained in March, the economy indeed begins its collapse with mortgage banks going bankrupt as the Chinese dump their U.S. Securities. This causes a world-wide "rush to liquidity" as money supplies DRASTICALLY tighten.

Dot #11 Billions of worthless U.S. Government "bailout" debit entries are given to bolster failing U.S. Banks. These are "worthless" because China now controls most of the U.S. "REAL" wealth in the form of gold and silver. China refuses to continue investing credit loans to the U.S. Treasury.

Dot #12 Barack Hussein Obama is elected, promising "Change you can believe in." After taking office in January, Obama sends Hillary Clinton on a critical mission to China and helps write H.R. 45 -- a complete grab of America's guns ala Adolph Hitler. State leaders who understand what Clinton and Obama agenda with China is about, are seeking legal "Sovereignty" to prevent the loss of property to a foreign power.

Dot #13 China agrees to continue investing in U.S. Treasury Bills only after securing the right of "eminent domain" to physically repossess foreclosed American PRIVATE PROPERTY. This move is the equivalent of an unconditional surrender following a bloody war.
This also gives the Chinese military the LEGAL RIGHT to use biological weaponry to "Clean up America all at once". It gives them the legal right to use deadly force in removing trespassing Americans from occupying Chinese real estate.

Connect these 13 evil dots, and this is what you get:






FEDS GRANT EMINENT DOMAIN AS COLLATERAL TO CHINA FOR U.S. DEBTS

BEIJING, China -- Sources at the United States Embassy in Beijing China have just CONFIRMED that the United States of America has tendered to China a written agreement which grants to the People's Republic of China, an option to exercise Eminent Domain within the USA, as collateral for China's continued purchase of US Treasury Notes and existing US Currency reserves.

The written agreement was brought to Beijing by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was formalized and agreed-to during her recent trip to China.

This means that in the event the US Government defaults on its financial obligations to China, the Communist Government of China would be permitted to physically take -- inside the USA -- land, buildings, factories, perhaps even entire cities - to satisfy the financial obligations of the US government.

Put simply, the feds have now actually mortgaged the physical land and property of all citizens and businesses in the United States. They have given to a foreign power, their Constitutional power to "take" all of our property, as actual collateral for continued Chinese funding of US deficit spending and the continued carrying of US national debt.

This is an unimaginable betrayal of every man, woman and child in the USA. An outrage worthy of violent overthrow.


-------------- UPDATE 1:40 pm EST

Eminent Domain is the power of government to TAKE private property for public use without the consent of the property owner. Under our Constitution, the government can only "take" when providing "just compensation" for what they've taken.

Who decides what constitutes "just compensation?" The government!

Homeowners who felt the government was not paying them enough for property in past "takings" have filed lawsuits. In absolutely every such case, the value placed upon the property by the government was upheld by the courts.

Our federal government has now granted to China, this power to "take"our homes and businesses in the event the US Gov't defaults on its debts. Let's play this out as a worst case scenario. . . .

The US Gov't goes belly-up and China comes in and says, "they owed us $2 Trillion in Treasury Notes and another $2 Trillion in actual cash money which is now worthless. We are taking the entire state of Hawaii and the entire state of California in lieu of this bad debt. "

With the stroke of a Chinese chop stick, Hawaii and California -- all the land and buildings in those states -- are now owned by China.

The "taking" would be a "valid public use" because it was "taken" in payment of the public debt!!!!

China could then turn around and declare the value of all that land to be worth. . . . . I dunno, ten cents on a dollar?

For your $200,000 house, you get a Chinese check for $20,000.

Needless to say, the property owners would go ballistic and demand "just compensation" for what was taken. Who gets to decide what is "just?" China! Don't think you got a fair price for what they took? No problem, sue China.

You'll lose.

People who live in those states and own their land outright, might be able to negotiate with China to "rent" back their own property, as long as the property owner continued to pay all his taxes; but the land and buildings would belong to China.

This is what our own Government has just done to us and it is the single most vile act of betrayal in the history of human existence.

------------- SECOND UPDATE 3:48 PM

In early February nine U.S. States began the process of re- asserting their Sovereignty pursuant to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution; declaring null and void any actions by Congress that violated the Constitution.

The states took action to make certain the feds couldn't give away cities or the states themselves!

This situation is going to get VERY ugly, VERY fast as one sovereign power (the feds) try to literally give away the land of other sovereign powers, (the states). This is the type of thing that starts Civil War.

Our present federal government makes the treachery and betrayal of Benedict Arnold look like child's play.


China Speaks (pdf)

READ THIS

Che The West's Fatal Embrace of Communism

Che! The West's Fatal Embrace of Communism
February 27, 2009
by Henry Makow Ph.D.Americans can't expect to avoid destruction as long as they continue to embrace Communism in all its myriad disguises.

Nation's Food System Nearly Broke

John Kinsman: Nation's food system nearly broke
John Kinsman — 2/26/2009 12:30 pm
As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack Obama announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster threatens family farmers and their communities.The government's response to plummeting commodity prices and tightening credit markets leads to the basic question: Who will produce our food? This is a worldwide crisis. U.S. policy and the demand for deregulation at all levels -- from food production to financial markets -- contribute greatly to the global collapse. The solution must be grounded in food sovereignty so that all farmers and their communities can regain control over their food supply. This response makes sense here in Wisconsin and was the global message from the 500+ farmer leaders at the Via Campesina conference in Mozambique in October.Many U.S. farmers are going out of business because they receive prices equal to about one half their cost to produce our food. How long could any enterprise receiving half the amount of its input costs stay in business? As an example, dairy farmers in the Northeast and Midwest must be paid between 30 and 35 cents per pound for their milk to pay production costs and provide basic living expenses. Until 1980, farmers received a price equal to 80 percent of parity, meaning that farmers' purchasing power kept up with the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, a 1981 political decision discontinued parity, and today the dairy farmers' share is below 40 percent."Free trade" and other regressive agricultural policies have decimated farms. We are now a food deficit nation dependent on food imports, often of questionable quality.Our food system is nearly broke, which is almost as serious as our country's financial meltdown. With fair farm policies, farmers would get fair prices that would not require higher consumers prices. The Canadian dairy pricing system is the best example that proves fair farmer prices can and often do bring lower consumer prices and a healthier rural economy. In addition, excessive middleman profits are taking advantage of both consumers and producers.As more farmers face bankruptcy, we all face a food emergency. European farmers speak from thousands of years of experience on the importance of family farms when they warn us, "Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will soon collapse. It may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and that of the country."Despite the magnitude of this food emergency, the "farm crisis" does not appear in headlines, so politicians are not compelled to provide political or financial assistance to something that would likely fail to bring votes. As farmers, we are now only about 1 percent of the U.S. population, and have little power to expose and prevent our demise. However, our urban and rural friends could be vital voices and advocates.Bailing out the financial giants will not solve the financial crisis in the country, but the right policies and stimulus dollars could prevent a severe food crisis by saving farmers and workers. Furthermore, farm income dollars remain in and multiply at least two to four times in the local economy.Family farmers have proposed fair food and farm policies that can be implemented at a fraction of the present multibillion-dollar policies destroying us. As the Treasury Department develops plans to distribute the bailout funds, the National Family Farm Coalition and others urge it to require banks receiving funds to treat their borrowers fairly by providing debt restructuring as an alternate to home or farm foreclosure or bankruptcy.Concerned citizens can call the White House, 202-456-1111, or your members of Congress, 202-224-3121, to urge them to support policies that enable farmers to earn a fair market price; request an emergency milk price at $17.50 per hundred weight; provide price stability through government grain reserves and effective supply management; support the TRADE Act to be reintroduced in Congress; increase direct and guaranteed loans to family farmers; and ensure that the food we raise can be marketed to local schools and institutions, providing a better food supply at a fair price. We need these immediate changes in our food and farm policy.John Kinsman, a dairy farmer from La Valle, is president of Family Farm Defenders, based in Madison.

Australia Seeks Ways to Reduce Animal Gas Emissions

Australia Seeks Ways to Reduce Animal Gas Emissions

Friday, February 27, 2009By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor
(CNSNews.com) – In its ongoing quest to reduce the emissions of gases blamed for climate change – and placate grumbling green activists – the Australian government has earmarked $17 million for research into how to prevent the country’s 120 million farm animals from emitting so much methane. The project, launched this week by Agriculture Minister Tony Burke, will fund 18 areas of research, including dietary changes, genetic manipulation and ways to control stomach bacteria to reduce methane production. As the animals chew, belch and pass wind, they release methane, while nitrous oxide is released from their waste. Both are “greenhouse gases” and are, scientists say, considerably more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas that gets most attention from global warming proponents. Among the 18 research projects is one that look into ways of reducing nitrous oxide emissions, through “manure management innovations.” According to Burke, methane from Australian ruminants alone accounts for about 12 percent of the country’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. This makes the country’s livestock – 85 million sheep, more than 31 million beef and dairy cattle, and three million goats – the third-largest source of greenhouse gases in Australia, after energy and transportation. Just one grazing beef cow in northern Australia accounts for the equivalent of 1.65 tons of CO2 a year, Burke said. (A medium-sized, 21 mpg car running 1,000 miles a month, emits about 6.6 tons a year, according to a popular online CO2 calculator.) In a radio interview, Burke acknowledged that Australian farmers would have to pay for the new project, through increased transportation and input costs. “There is no cost-free method of dealing with this,” he said. “Of course, there are costs involved with action … but the alternative is far, far worse.” The government has not, so far, broached the possibility of taxing farmers for the methane produced by their animals. In 2003, the center-left government in neighboring New Zealand backed down on a proposal to levy a “fart tax” on farmers for their livestock’s flatulence, after drawing angry protests and not a little ridicule. Since then, both countries have had a change of government, New Zealand edging rightwards and Australia to the left. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, like President Bush, opposed the Kyoto Protocol, which sets specified targets for industrialized countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. Australia greenhouse gas emissions are the highest, per capita, in the developed world, largely as a result of the use of coal for electricity, and green activists vilified Howard for his stance. His successor, Kevin Rudd, made signing of instruments to ratify the agreement his first official act on taking office in December 2007. Rudd’s embracing of Kyoto won him praise internationally, but within a year activists were attacking him as a climate villain for announcing relatively modest greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. He said Australia, through measures including the introduction by 2010 of a carbon trading scheme, would aim for cuts of at least five percent of 1990 emissions levels by 2020. By comparison, the European Union aims to cut emissions by 20 percent by then, and the U.N.’s climate change panel wants industrialized countries, as a group, to aim for 25-40 percent reductions. Unlike sheep and cows, kangaroos release a negligible amount of methane when they eat. This prompted the Rudd government’s climate change adviser, Prof. Ross Garnaut, to suggest in a report last October that Australian livestock producers consider shifting to kangaroo meat. He conceded that “consumer resistance” may pose a difficulty. In a recent survey, reported by the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, only 17 percent of more than 200 chefs at restaurants in Australia’s three biggest cities said they offered kangaroo meat. Almost half of those surveyed cited “greater public acceptance” when asked what it would take to increase consumption of the animal.

American form of government

"I'm a lefty," Barack Obama joked last month as he signed his first official papers as U.S. President."Get used to it."

Lefties Survive (Barely) Due to Element of Surprise?
James Owen for National Geographic News
February 27, 2009
"I'm a lefty," Barack Obama joked last month as he signed his first official papers as U.S. President.
"Get used to it."


Given the evolutionary marks against them, how has the left-handed minority managed to dodge extinction?

A key clue may be the success of left-handed athletes over right-handed competitors in one-on-one sports, the researchers say. Among tennis players, for example, champions such as John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Jimmy Connors, Rafael Nadal—the world's current number one—are all left-handed.
Study co-author Charlotte Faurie found a close parallel in her study of homicides resulting from violent fights.
Because left-handers are less common, "their opponents will be surprised by the way they fight, and this will provide [lefties] an advantage," she added.
"It's exactly the same in tennis or in boxing or in any sport where there is face-to-face opposition," Faurie added.
Faurie studied the use of traditional weapons such as knives and arrows.
But "it could be the same way with guns, because the direction of the bullet will also be different when it comes from the right or the left," she said.
And "because left-handers have a strategic advantage in fights, [left-handers] become more frequent generation after generation, through natural selection," Faurie said—though those gains are tempered by the evolutionary disadvantages.
Fight winners, she said, also "attract more sex partners and are therefore more likely to reproduce."
Since mortal combat is traditionally a male activity, left-handed females didn't need this deadly element of surprise. Yet left-handedness is most commonly passed from mothers to sons, Faurie noted (quick human-genetics overview).
"So for women, there could be an indirect advantage through [the success of] their sons," she said.
Left-Handed Benefits
The left-handed 10 percent of humanity has a lot more to be thankful for than just fighting prowess.
The team noted, for example, that lefties are more likely to show better coordination between both hands. And gifted children with IQs higher than 131 are more likely to be left-handed.
The team also found that left-handed French men have a higher average income than right-handers, mirroring findings from other European countries.
Since economic status is known to promote reproductive success, those riches may result in higher birth rates for left-handers—and therefore more lefties, Faurie said.
Faurie said economic status is known to promote reproductive success, even in industrialized countries. And "in traditional society, having a higher socioeconomic status is strongly correlated to the number of offspring produced," she said.
"That's relevant in natural selection," Faurie added, "because it increases the likelihood [one will] have a child," Faurie added.

CNBC Analyst: Global Bank, Global Currency Within 15 Years

CNBC Analyst: Global Bank, Global Currency Within 15 Years
Globalists exploit financial crisis to pose as saviors and achieve new world economic order
Paul Joseph WatsonPrison Planet.comFriday, February 27, 2009
Head of market analysis for Schneider Foreign Exchange Stephen Gallo told CNBC yesterday that the financial crisis will lead to the creation of a global central bank and a global single currency within 15 years, echoing the call of top globalists who have exploited the problems they created to push for a new world financial order.
Highlighting the significance of the introduction of the Euro, Gallo said that the single currency was “where we are headed globally on a monetary basis over the course of the next 10 to 15 years.”
Stating that one of the things that caused the financial crisis was an over expansion of the money supply on a global basis, Gallo said, “Over the course of the next couple of decades central banks are going to need to pay more attention to what’s going on with the global money supply rather than the money supply just in their own borders,” a necessity that, “might call into question the need for some kind of global central bank or a global central bank that’s united by central banks for bigger monetary areas underneath that global central bank.”
As we have highlighted before, the elite have exploited the problem that they created to push for increased centralization and regulation of the world economic system in the pursuit of a de-facto global financial dictatorship.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, EU heads such as Joaquin Almunia and establishment media outlets like the Wall Street Journal amongst many others have all used the economic crisis as an excuse to argue for greater financial power, a “new world economic order” in which control is concentrated into fewer hands - with the IMF and the World Bank enjoying the spoils.
UK Business Secretary and top Bilderberg member Peter Mandelson has also pushed for a “Bretton Woods for this century,” to help build the “machinery of global economic governance”.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all made the same appeal at a conference in Paris on the future of capitalism last month.
Merkel called for the creation of a new global economic body under the UN, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.
Sarkozy called for a “new world, new capitalism” during his speech, as he commented “In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state.”
Meanwhile, Blair called for a new financial order which he said should be constructed upon “values other than the maximum short-term profit.”
The globalists created the problem of wildly irresponsible fractional reserve banking, the debt bubble and the credit crunch by ceaselessly inflating the money supply and now they are offering their solution to the crisis by posing as the saviors and promising to fix the crisis, but only if complete control of the global financial system be signed over to them.
As Ron Paul, Peter Schiff and their ilk have tirelessly argued, the only way to solve the financial crisis is to allow incompetent banks and companies to fail, not to reward their misdeeds by giving them billions in taxpayer money. The only way to re-capitalize the world is to provide incentives for people to work hard and save money, not by creating more credit out of thin air, which is what caused the problem in the first place.
The globalists’ call for a centralized global economic order has nothing to do with providing solutions to the crisis but everything to do with providing themselves with more power and control over the world financial system.
Watch the CNBC clip below.

Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity

Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity
Western media completely ignores major report from Japan’s Energy Commission
Steve WatsonInfowars.netFriday, Feb 27th, 2009
A major scientific report by leading Japanese academics concludes that global warming is not man-made and that the overall warming trend from the mid-part of the 20th Century onwards has now stopped.
Unsurprisingly the report, which was released last month, has been completely ignored by the Western corporate media.
The report was undertaken by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER), the academic society representing scientists from the energy and resource fields.
The JSER acts as a government advisory panel, much like the International Panel on Climate Change did for the UN.
The JSER’s findings provide a stark contrast to the IPCC’s, however, with only one out of five top researchers agreeing with the claim that recent warming has been accelerated by man-made carbon emissions.
The government commissioned report criticizes computer climate modeling and also says that the US ground temperature data set, used to back up the man-made warming claims, is too myopic.
(Article continues below)

In the last month, no major Western media outlet has covered the report, which prompted British based sci-tech website The Register to commission a translation of the document.
Section one highlights the fact that Global Warming has ceased, noting that since 2001, the increase in global temperatures has halted, despite a continuing increase in CO2 emissions.
The report then states that the recent warming the planet has experienced is primarily a recovery from the so called “Little Ice Age” that occurred from around 1400 through to 1800, and is part of a natural cycle.
The researchers also conclude that global warming and the halting of the temperature rise are related to solar activity, a notion previously dismissed by the IPCC.
“The hypothesis that the majority of global warming can be ascribed to the Greenhouse Effect is mistaken.” the report’s introduction states.
Kanya Kusano, Program Director and Group Leader for the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology (JAMSTEC) reiterates this point:
“[The IPCC's] conclusion that from now on atmospheric temperatures are likely to show a continuous, monotonic increase, should be perceived as an unprovable hypothesis,”
Shunichi Akasofu, head of the International Arctic Research Center in Alaska, cites historical data to challenge the claim that very recent temperatures represent an anomaly:
“We should be cautious, IPCC’s theory that atmospheric temperature has risen since 2000 in correspondence with CO2 is nothing but a hypothesis. ”
“Before anyone noticed, this hypothesis has been substituted for truth… The opinion that great disaster will really happen must be broken.” Akasofu concludes.
The key passages of the translated report can be found here.
The conclusions within the report dovetail with those of hundreds of Western scientists, who have been derided and even compared with holocaust deniers for challenging the so called “consensus” on global warming.
The total lack of exposure that this major report has received is another example of how skewed coverage of climate change is toward one set of hypotheses.
This serves the agenda to deliberately whip up mass hysteria on behalf of governments who are all too eager to introduce draconian taxation and control measures that won’t do anything to combat any form of warming, whether you believe it to be natural or man-made.

Obama's draft budget projects cap-and-trade revenue

Obama's draft budget projects cap-and-trade revenue
February 26, 2009 in Society & Policy 0 comments Post a comment
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Obama's draft budget projects cap-and-trade revenue
Emissions permits could generate billions and cut emissions 14 percent by 2020, according to budget proposal
By Darren Samuelsohn and Robin Bravender



President Obama's proposed budget laid out his assumptions that a new cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions would begin to generate billions of dollars in revenue as companies are forced to comply with a market-based program.

AstraZeneca Suppressed Information about Seroquel Link to Diabetes

AstraZeneca Suppressed Information about Seroquel Link to Diabetes, Told Sales Reps to LieFriday, February 27, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews EditorKey concepts: Diabetes, Astrazeneca and Seroquel





-->(NaturalNews) Drug maker AstraZeneca, seller of the Seroquel antipsychotic drug, suppressed clinical studies showing its drug significantly increased the risk of diabetes, say internal e-mails. As Bloomberg is reporting today (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...), employee emails that were unsealed as part of a lawsuit reveal AstraZeneca deliberately hid at least three studies that established a significant link between its Seroquel drug and the onset of diabetes in patients. This fact was blatantly admitted in a 1999 e-mail sent by an AstraZeneca official.The Wall Street Journal is also reporting today that "AstraZeneca instructed its U.S. sales representatives to tell doctors that its powerful psychiatric drug, Seroquel, didn't cause diabetes even though a company physician had at one point stated years earlier that such a link was probable in some individuals." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123...)Today, AstraZeneca remains in spin control, once again apparently lying about its past behavior by saying, "None of the documents can obscure the fact that AstraZeneca acted responsibly and appropriately as it developed and marketed Seroquel." (spokesperson Tony Jewell, reported in Bloomberg.com)AstraZeneca currently faces over 9,000 lawsuits over Seroquel, involving more than 15,000 people who say the company lied about the diabetes risks of taking the drug. It is well known in the natural health industry that antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs disrupt blood sugar metabolism and promote diabetes, but drug companies and the FDA have seemingly conspired to prevent the public from learning this fact (the FDA routinely approves drugs like Seroquel by trusting the clinical trial data provided by the very same company selling the drug!).
Why Big Pharma's "science" is pure junkWhat AstraZeneca did with suppressing some clinical trials while highlighting others is called "cherry picking" the study data. It's a red flag that scientific fraud is underway, and no self-respecting scientist would ever support any conclusion derived from clinical trials that were selected in this manner. Cherry picking the science is a routine practice at drug companies: They might commission ten (or so) studies on their drug, compile the results, then throw out all the studies showing their drug to be dangerous or deadly. The rest of the studies -- which magically show the drug to be safe and effective -- are then forwarded to the FDA for "review." The FDA, which conducts no scientific studies on its own, completely trusts the drug trials funded by the drug company, so it declares the drug to be "safe and effective" and gives it the stamp of approval for nationwide consumption.This is how drugs get approved in America today. It is laughingly called the "gold standard of evidence-based medicine" by drug pushers and FDA bureaucrats. Anyone familiar with this process, however, realizes the whole drug approval system is based on scientific fraud and has nothing whatsoever to do with rigorous science or consumer safety (but it has everything to do with profits).

CNBC Analyst: Global Bank, Global Currency Within 15 Years

CNBC Analyst: Global Bank, Global Currency Within 15 Years
Globalists exploit financial crisis to pose as saviors and achieve new world economic order
Paul Joseph WatsonPrison Planet.comFriday, February 27, 2009
Head of market analysis for Schneider Foreign Exchange Stephen Gallo told CNBC yesterday that the financial crisis will lead to the creation of a global central bank and a global single currency within 15 years, echoing the call of top globalists who have exploited the problems they created to push for a new world financial order.
Highlighting the significance of the introduction of the Euro, Gallo said that the single currency was “where we are headed globally on a monetary basis over the course of the next 10 to 15 years.”
Stating that one of the things that caused the financial crisis was an over expansion of the money supply on a global basis, Gallo said, “Over the course of the next couple of decades central banks are going to need to pay more attention to what’s going on with the global money supply rather than the money supply just in their own borders,” a necessity that, “might call into question the need for some kind of global central bank or a global central bank that’s united by central banks for bigger monetary areas underneath that global central bank.”
As we have highlighted before, the elite have exploited the problem that they created to push for increased centralization and regulation of the world economic system in the pursuit of a de-facto global financial dictatorship.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, EU heads such as Joaquin Almunia and establishment media outlets like the Wall Street Journal amongst many others have all used the economic crisis as an excuse to argue for greater financial power, a “new world economic order” in which control is concentrated into fewer hands - with the IMF and the World Bank enjoying the spoils.
UK Business Secretary and top Bilderberg member Peter Mandelson has also pushed for a “Bretton Woods for this century,” to help build the “machinery of global economic governance”.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all made the same appeal at a conference in Paris on the future of capitalism last month.
Merkel called for the creation of a new global economic body under the UN, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.
Sarkozy called for a “new world, new capitalism” during his speech, as he commented “In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state.”
Meanwhile, Blair called for a new financial order which he said should be constructed upon “values other than the maximum short-term profit.”
The globalists created the problem of wildly irresponsible fractional reserve banking, the debt bubble and the credit crunch by ceaselessly inflating the money supply and now they are offering their solution to the crisis by posing as the saviors and promising to fix the crisis, but only if complete control of the global financial system be signed over to them.
As Ron Paul, Peter Schiff and their ilk have tirelessly argued, the only way to solve the financial crisis is to allow incompetent banks and companies to fail, not to reward their misdeeds by giving them billions in taxpayer money. The only way to re-capitalize the world is to provide incentives for people to work hard and save money, not by creating more credit out of thin air, which is what caused the problem in the first place.
The globalists’ call for a centralized global economic order has nothing to do with providing solutions to the crisis but everything to do with providing themselves with more power and control over the world financial system.
Watch the CNBC clip below.
Research related articles:
Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency
EU Leaders Call for Global Currency
Canada Rejects Global Financial Overhaul, Currency Intervention
Brown: Economic Crisis Represents Birth Pangs Of “New Global Order”
ECB’s Nowotny Sees Global `Tri-Polar’ Currency System Evolving
Ron Paul Confronts Bernanke On Global Currency Plans
I warned of global financial crisis ten years ago, claims Brown
Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power
The IMF Can Print Money Like a Central Bank
US Banks Will Lose $450 Billion More in 2 Years: Analyst
Bank says crisis has cost estimated 1.8 trillion pounds
European Leaders Call For New Global Order
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Ron Paul on CNBC Banking Committee

Ron Paul's opening statement 2, 25, 09

Vaccine Court Awards MMR Victim Millions. Conceals Diagnosis with Word Games.

February 25, 2009
Vaccine Court Awards MMR Victim Millions. Conceals Diagnosis with Word Games.
Managing Editor's Note: If you're joining us after having read the Generation Rescue ad in USA Today, welcome. The Banks v. HHS file link is below.By Dan Olmsted

David Kirby
Posted February 25, 2009 08:29 PM (EST)

A major health official within the United States Government today endorsed more research into possible links between vaccination and autism, saying that such studies are "legitimate."
The official, Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), an NIH agency, said scientists must investigate susceptible subpopulations of children, including kids with mitochondrial disorders and those who have trouble metabolizing mercury.

Schizophrenia Risk and Father's Age

Schizophrenia Risk and Father's Age
In a separate article, a study conducted by Dolores Malaspina, MD, a research psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and associate professor at Columbia University, shows a link between father's age and the child's risk of developing schizophrenia. The study, published in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, indicates that if the father is over the age of 40 at the time of conception it doubles the child's risk of developing schizophrenia. Dr. Malaspina told WebMD, "Father's age is certainly as important and may be even more important than mother's age in terms of schizophrenia risk and in terms of many birth defects as well. For the last 20 years, it's been quite clear that fathers above age 40 have at least a one in 200 incidence of new genetic diseases in their children."
Click here for more detail from Living with Schizophrenia.
Study: Older Men Risk Having Schizophrenic KidsReuters Health News September 6, 2002STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish scientists have found that older men face a much greater risk of fathering schizophrenic children than younger men.Schizophrenia is a widespread and debilitating form of mental disease with symptoms ranging from delusions and an altered sense of self to apathy and social withdrawal.Scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Institute found that children fathered by men aged 45 or older were three times as likely to develop schizophrenia as offspring of men aged 20-24."We already knew there was an increased risk when older women have children," Christina Dahlman, the physician who led the study, told Reuters Friday."When I looked closer at the men I noticed that many children with schizophrenia had old fathers."The findings, released this week, support earlier studies by Israeli and American scientists.As in many Western countries, couples in Sweden are delaying having their first child. In the past three decades, the average age of a first-time mother has risen five years to 28.5 years.Dahlman and colleague Peter Allebeck studied 524 schizophrenics for more than seven years and found that being fathered by an older man doubled the risk of developing the disease.As most older men tended to have older wives, the cumulative risk was three times greater.The reasons for the link were unclear, but Dahlman said sperm cell mutations, which increase with a man's age, have been known to cause various other diseases.Children of older men may also lose their fathers at an early age, possibly increasing the risk of schizophrenia.Around 24 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia, according to the World Health Organization ( news - web sites). Symptoms can be treated but there is no cure

Another Blow to Magic Bullet Drugs: Statins Impair Brains

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 by: Sherry Baker, Health Sciences EditorSee all articles by this authorEmail this authorKey concepts: Health, Statins and The brain
-->(NaturalNews) Statin drugs can reduce soaring cholesterol levels, according to countless ads touting these supposed "wonder" drugs, that means they are brimming with health benefits because they lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. The problem is a host of side effects from eye problems and muscle pain to heart arrhythmias and liver disorders have been linked to these widely prescribed medications. Now comes research by an Iowa State University scientist that strongly suggests statins also could be robbing brains of thinking power and memory by doing exactly what they are supposed to do -- reduce cholesterol.It turns out that statins inhibit not only the liver from making cholesterol but may also block the brain from making cholesterol. That's a serious consequence, according to Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology at Iowa State, because cholesterol is vital for healthy and optimum brain function. "If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words, how smart you are and how well you remember things," said Dr. Shin in a statement to the media.In a study published in the February issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Shin and colleagues tested the activity of the neurotransmitter-release processes of brain cells without cholesterol present to see how well they functioned. Then cholesterol was placed in the system and the scientists measured the transmitter function again. The result? Cholesterol increased the neurotransmitter function by five times."Our study shows there is a direct link between cholesterol and the neurotransmitter release. We know exactly the molecular mechanics of what happens in the cells. Cholesterol changes the shape of the protein to stimulate thinking and memory," Dr. Shin said in the press statement. "If you try to lower the cholesterol by taking medicine that is attacking the machinery of cholesterol synthesis in the liver, that medicine goes to the brain too. And then it reduces the synthesis of cholesterol which is necessary in the brain."However, just because cutting down on cholesterol in the brain may mess up memory and cognitive skills, it doesn't mean that more cholesterol in the blood will make you more intelligent and able to remember more facts. That's because no matter how much cholesterol is in your diet, the cholesterol in the blood doesn't cross over the blood brain barrier.In addition, by loading a diet with saturated fat from animal products and junk food, too much low-density lipoprotein (LDL), often called "bad" cholesterol, can build up in cells and cause hardening of arterial walls contributing to strokes and heart disease -- unless you have enough high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol, to keep LDL out of cells. Fortunately, there are many proven ways to lower the "bad" artery logging cholesterol without resorting to statin drugs. For example, the Mayo Clinic web site notes garlic, ground flaxseed, barley and artichoke extract may be helpful in keeping cholesterol levels in healthy balance.For more information:http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nsce...http://www.naturalnews.com/002692.htmlhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ch...

Children Of Older Fathers More Likely To Have Bipolar Disorder, New Report Finds

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Children Of Older Fathers More Likely To Have Bipolar Disorder, New Report Finds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2008) — Older age among fathers may be associated with an increased risk for bipolar disorder in their offspring, according to a new report.Bipolar disorder is a common, severe mood disorder involving episodes of mania and depression, according to background information in the article. Other than a family history of psychotic disorders, few risk factors for the condition have been identified. Older paternal age has previously been associated with a higher risk of complex neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism.Emma M. Frans, M.Med.Sc., of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues identified 13,428 patients in Swedish registers with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. For each one, they randomly selected from the registers five controls who were the same sex and born the same year but did not have bipolar disorder.When comparing the two groups, the older an individual's father, the more likely he or she was to have bipolar disorder. After adjusting for the age of the mother, participants with fathers older than 29 years had an increased risk. "After controlling for parity [number of children], maternal age, socioeconomic status and family history of psychotic disorders, the offspring of men 55 years and older were 1.37 times more likely to be diagnosed as having bipolar disorder than the offspring of men aged 20 to 24 years," the authors write.The offspring of older mothers also had an increased risk, but it was less pronounced than the paternal effect, the authors note. For early-onset bipolar disorder (diagnosed before age 20), the effect of the father's age was much stronger and there was no association with the mother's age."Personality of older fathers has been suggested to explain the association between mental disorders and advancing paternal age," the authors write. "However, the mental disorders associated with increasing paternal age are under considerable genetic influence." Therefore, there may be a genetic link between advancing age of the father and bipolar and other disorders in offspring."As men age, successive germ cell replications occur, and de novo [new, not passed from parent to offspring] mutations accumulate monotonously as a result of DNA copy errors," the authors continue. "Women are born with their full supply of eggs that have gone through only 23 replications, a number that does not change as they age. Therefore, DNA copy errors should not increase in number with maternal age. Consistent with this notion, we found smaller effects of increased maternal age on the risk of bipolar disorder in the offspring."Journal reference:1. Frans et al. Advancing Paternal Age and Bipolar Disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2008; 65 (9): 1034 DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.65.9.1034Adapted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080901205719.htm

Lawmaker Warns Of “Forced Servitude” Under Obama

Lawmaker Warns Of “Forced Servitude” Under Obama
New Hampshire state representative Dan Itse leading charge for states’ rights
Paul Joseph WatsonPrison Planet.comTuesday, February 24, 2009
New Hampshire state representative Dan Itse, who is one of many lawmakers leading the charge to assert state sovereignty against federal encroachment, has warned that the Obama administration seeks to institute “involuntary servitude”.
Appearing on Fox News to discuss the states’ rights movement, Itse told hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, “This is about drawing a line in the sand and saying we’ve tolerated usurpations for so long but we’re not going to tolerate you violating the constitution, we’re going to hold you accountable.”
Asked if his warning about involuntary servitude under Obama meant young people being forced to attend community service, Itse responded, “Exactly, I mean, if you are required to do a job against your will with a pay scale not set by you or not agreed to by you, that’s involuntary servitude.”
Despite denials that Obama plans to institute a mandatory program of national service, his original change.gov website stated that Americans would be “required” to complete “50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year”. The text was only later changed to state that Americans would be “encouraged” to undertake such programs.
In addition, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, publicly stated his intention to help create “universal civil defense training” in 2006. Such fears were also stoked when Obama himself said that a “national civilian security force,” that is “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the U.S. military was required.

Global Systemic Geopolitical DislocationBy GEABGlobalResearch.ca
2-24-9

Back in February 2006, LEAP/E2020 estimated that the global systemic crisis would unfold in 4 main structural phases: trigger, acceleration, impact and decanting phases. This process enabled us to properly anticipate events until now. However our team has now come to the conclusion that, due to the global leaders' incapacity to fully realise the scope of the ongoing crisis (made obvious by their determination to cure the consequences rather than the causes of this crisis), the global systemic crisis will enter a fifth phase in the fourth quarter of 2009, a phase of global geopolitical dislocation. According to LEAP/E2020, this new stage of the crisis will be shaped by two major processes happening in two parallel sequences: A. Two major processes

1. Disappearance of the financial base (Dollar & Debt) all over the world 2. Fragmentation of the interests of the global system's big players and blocks B. Two parallel sequences 1. Quick disintegration of the current international system altogether

2. Strategic dislocation of big global players. We had hoped that the decanting phase would give the world's leaders the opportunity to draw the proper conclusions from the collapse of the global system prevailing since WWII. Alas, at this stage, it is no longer possible to be optimistic in this regard (1). In the United States, as in Europe, China and Japan, leaders persist in reacting as if the global system has only fallen victim to some temporary breakdown, merely requiring loads of fuel (liquidities) and other ingredients (rate drops, repurchase of toxic assets, bailouts of semi-bankrupt industries,) to reboot it. In fact (and this is what LEAP/E2020 means ever since February 2006 using the expression &laqno; global systemic crisis"), the global system is simply out of order; a new one needs to be built instead of striving to save what can no longer be saved.

Orders in the manufacturing sector, Quarter 4 2008 (Japan, Eurozone, United Kingdom, China, India) - Sources : MarketOracle / JPMorgan History is not known to be patient, therefore the fifth phase of the crisis will ignite this required process of reconstruction, but in a harsh manner: by means of a complete dislocation of the present system, with particularly tragic consequences in the case of several big global players, as described in this 32nd issue of the GEAB (see the two parallel sequences).

According to LEAP/E2020, there is only one very small launch window left to prevent this scenario from shaping up: the next four months, before summer 2009. Practically speaking, the April 2009 G20 Summit is probably the last chance to put on the right tracks the forces at play, i.e. before the sequence of UK and then US defaults begin (2). Failing which, they will lose their capacity to control events (3), including those in their own countries for many of them; and the world will enter this phase of geopolitical dislocation like a "drunken boat". At the end of this phase of geopolitical dislocation, the world will look more like Europe in 1913 rather than our world in 2007. Because they persisted in bearing the ever-increasing weight of the ongoing crisis, most states, including the most powerful ones, failed to realise that they were planning their own trampling under the weight of History, forgetting that they were merely man-made organisations, only surviving because they matched the interest of a large majority. In this 32nd edition of the GEAB, LEAP/E2020 has chosen to anticipate the fallout of this phase of geopolitical dislocation so far as it affects the United-States, EU, China and Russia.

US Monetary base - (12/2002 ­ 12/2008) - Source US Federal Reserve /
Last but not least, our team now estimates that the most monolithic, the most &laqno; imperialistic » political entities (5) will suffer the most from this fifth phase of the crisis. Some states will indeed experience a strategic dislocation undermining their territorial integrity and their influence worldwide. As a consequence, other states will suddenly lose their protected situations and be thrust into regional chaos.

Notes (1) Barack Obama, like Nicolas Sarkozy or Gordon Brown, spend their time chanting about the historic dimension of the crisis, but they are just hiding the fact that they fully misunderstand its nature in an attempt to clear their names from the future failure of their policies. As to the others, they prefer to persuade themselves that the problem will be solved like any normal technical problem, albeit a little more serious than usual. Meanwhile everyone continues to play by decades old rules, unaware of the fact that the game is vanishing from under their noses. (2) See previous GEABs. (3) In fact it is probable that the G20 will find it more and more difficult to simply meet, as the growing trend is one of &laqno; every man for himself ». (4) Source : New York Times, 102/14/2009 (5) Idem companies. Lundi 16 Février 2009 In the same category

End of 2008: The world enters the decanting phase of the global systemic crisis - Anticipations over 2008-2013 for six groups of countries experiencing very different evolutions - 05/02/2009

Real estate: A bottomless pit - 08/01/2009

Factor N°4 ­ Economic recession in the US - 11/12/2008

LEAP/E2020 offers the GEAB archives to 100 academic libraries worldwide! - 05/11/2008

LEAP/2020: Global systemic crisis September 2008 - Special announcement - 24/09/2008

Traffic Info LEAP/E2020 - May 2008 - 12/05/2008

Issues of your choice for 50 euros - 22/01/2007

French prospectivist, Pierre Gonod, analyses LEAP's work of anticipation - 30/08/2006 Global Research Articles by GEAB
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12332

[1] 2 Next »
March/April 2009
A Hole in the Genome
A small chunk of DNA linked to schizophrenia, mental retardation, and autism may change the way we think about disease.
By Emily Singer



Credit: Martin O’Neill
Go about 145,000,000 bases (or "letters") down the long arm of chromosome 1 and you'll come to 1q21.1, the genetic address of a small but important piece of DNA that is particularly prone to mistakes. When chromosome 1 is duplicated during normal cell division (say, in creating sperm or eggs), short, repetitive bits of DNA within this stretch are all too likely to mistakenly pair up, raising the chances that the new cells will have extra or missing copies of specific pieces of DNA.
Those small mistakes can have a big impact on people who carry them. Several studies in the last year have found that missing or extra pieces of DNA in the 1q21.1 region put the bearer at risk for a surprisingly broad range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, including autism, schizophrenia, and mental retardation. The discovery that one piece of DNA can lead to such diverse outcomes is opening new avenues in the study of disease. Rather than focusing solely on finding a common genetic flaw in everyone with a particular disease, researchers have begun to examine the various consequences that the same genetic flaw may have in different people. These studies suggest that even patients with different diagnoses may share common biological problems. "It's been eye-opening," says Mark Daly, a geneticist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, "because it's made us realize that in searching for the molecular basis of disease, it may be profitable to search for connections between seemingly unrelated phenotypes." Last year, Daly and his colleagues identified a section of DNA on chromosome 16 that also raises the risk of several different brain disorders, suggesting that this pattern may be common in the genetics of disease.
Physicians have long known that structural abnormalities in our genomes--deletions, duplications, and rearrangements of large stretches of DNA--trigger developmental problems and disease. Down syndrome, for example, results from an extra copy of chromosome 21. But over the last few years, new kinds of microarrays--small slides dotted with specific sequences of DNA--have begun allowing scientists to efficiently search the genome for architectural flaws too small to be visible with a microscope. These errors, called copy number variations, are distinct from the single-letter changes that until recently have been the focus of most research into genetic variation. Ranging in size from one thousand to more than one million base pairs, they can encompass part of a gene or one or more entire genes.
The far end of region 1q21.1, which at about one million bases long constitutes a tiny percentage of the roughly 3.2 billion pairs of letters that make up human DNA, harbors just one of the genome's many "hot spots"--so called for their tendency toward structural instability. But in this region, structural abnormalities--especially missing sequences--seem particularly troublesome. Intrigued by this mysterious morsel of DNA, Heather ­Mefford, a pediatric geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle, compiled data on variations in 1q21.1 from clinical genetics labs around the world. She found that 25 patients in a sample of more than 5,000 people with autism, mental retardation, or other congenital abnormalities were missing the same chunk within the region. While that is a small percentage, no one in a similar-sized group of healthy people carried that particular mistake, meaning that the deletion is the likely cause--or at least partial cause--of the patients' problems. Studies by other researchers have linked similar changes in the region to schizophrenia, as well as to abnormal head size and accompanying developmental delays.
Different studies linking 1q21.1 to mental retardation, autism, and schizophrenia all identified deletions or duplications in approximately the same region. That's because this particular stretch is flanked by repetitive sequences prone to rearrangement. It contains at least eight known genes, the functions of which are mostly unknown. "This region of the genome must clearly have one or more genes that are important for normal cognitive development," says Mefford, whose research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October.



Scientists hope that identifying the underlying mechanisms affected by the missing or duplicated piece of DNA will provide new targets for drug development. But at this point, it's not clear whether it's one gene or several that raise the risk of disease, or how deletions and duplications of the same piece of DNA can trigger outcomes as different as schizophrenia and mental retardation.
The findings do hint that autism, schizophrenia, and mental retardation have common biological underpinnings, a conclusion that has some precedent. Children with mental retardation often have psychiatric and behavioral problems as well, although these may be undiagnosed or underappreciated in the face of their cognitive deficits. And some families may have a history of mental illness, but not of a specific illness.
Mental retardation, autism, and (to some extent) schizophrenia are developmental diseases, diagnosed in childhood or adolescence. So identifying a common biological flaw may shed light on the crucial components of neural development and suggest ways to help when that development goes awry. Perhaps a disruption in the 1q21.1 region of the chromosome inherited from one parent can send some fundamental developmental process off course. The ultimate impact might depend on environmental factors, variations in other parts of the genome, or the version of the gene inherited from the other parent. Someone whose genome has mistakes in other regions that are important for brain development and cognitive function might end up with mental retardation. Someone whose genome is largely intact, but who has a mutation in a gene linked to autism, may end up with high-functioning autism.
A better understanding of the molecu­lar consequences of errors in 1q21.1 and other recently identified hot spots may help redefine autism and schizophrenia and even change the way they are diagnosed. Both disorders cause a wide range of symptoms, and they are currently identified through behavioral and cognitive tests. Physicians may now be able to augment that diagnosis with the results of genetic testing. Only a small percentage of people with autism or schizophrenia will carry a particular genetic variation. But researchers hope that as more copy number variations are linked to these disorders, such genetic characterizations will become useful tools for predicting the best treatment for a given patient.
"At one time in the history of medicine, when you had a cough and an infection of the lungs, they called it pneumonia," says James Lupski, a physician and scientist at Baylor College of Medicine. Now we know that pneumonia is actually a group of different diseases, both bacterial and viral, that must each be treated differently. Eventually, someone developed a way to distinguish bacterial pneumonia from other forms, ­Lupski says, and that set the stage for the development of different treatments.
A diagnostic test that can detect copy number variations already exists: array CGH, the same test scientists use in research studies. It is currently used in clinical genetics labs to diagnose unexplained cases of mental retardation, developmental delay, and, increasingly, autism as well. It's not yet clear how to use the results to guide treatment--especially in disorders such as autism, for which no drugs are available to treat the root cause. But when it comes to other disorders, scientists are optimistic. "We have lots of effective psychiatric drugs, but it often takes weeks to find the right one," says Lupski. "Could this simple characterization predict the one that works best? That alone would be of tremendous benefit to patients."

Breast cancer drug gets boost
Natural protein could make the most aggressive breast cancers vulnerable tamoxifen, and may even prevent the cancer’s spread
By Solmaz Barazesh
Web edition : Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Banking collapse has already happened; Crisis is worst ever; Financial system has effectively disintegrated; Mass social insurrection likely

Analysts: New Era Of Chaos Has Taken Hold
Banking collapse has already happened; Crisis is worst ever; Financial system has effectively disintegrated; Mass social insurrection likely
Steve WatsonInfowars.netMonday, Feb 23rd, 2009
A wave of economists, investors and other financial experts issued a series of dire warnings concerning the global financial crisis over the weekend, stating that a new era of chaos has taken hold all over the globe.
Some asserted that a total banking collapse has already occurred, while others said that the downturn is now the worst on record, far outstripping the great depression.
Hedge fund manager and billionaire philanthropist George Soros said the financial system has effectively disintegrated, with the turbulence more severe than during the Great Depression and with the decline comparable to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker said he could not remember any time, even in the Great Depression, when things went down so fast and quite so uniformly around the world.
Financial market analyst Martin D. Weiss has stated that the banking collapse has already occurred and a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Leading forecasters, The National Association for Business Economics, have warned that the recession is projected to worsen and unemployment could hit 9% this year, 10% percent next year and continue to rise into 2011. In 2008, the jobless rate averaged 5.8 percent, the highest since 2003.
Financial professors Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University have said that the crisis is “as bad as they come”, warning that if the averages of previous crises hold, Americans can expect unemployment to reach 11 or 12 percent, housing prices nationally to drop 36 percent, stocks to lose more than half their value, and real output per capita to plunge 9.3 percent.
New York University economist Nouriel Roubini has predicted a lost decade of Japanese-style stagnation (a deadly combination of stagnation, recession and deflation) but on a worldwide basis.
“The global economy is now literally in free fall as the contraction of consumption, capital spending, residential investment, production, employment, exports and imports is accelerating rather than decelerating,” Roubini wrote.
(Article continues below)

Though the Obama administration has denied it plans to nationalize swathes of U.S. banks, speculators have asserted it is already happening, and will continue if Obama converts the government’s preferred shares in Citigroup Inc. into common equity to help the firm withstand losses. The Treasury has also announced that it is ready to throw even more money at the banks, in addition to the trillions in taxpayer dollars that have already disappeared.
While some economists have resigned themselves to accepting this as “the only way out”, CNBC’s Jim Cramer has warned that nationalization would crush America and plunge the financial system into “a world of chaos” which throughout history has led to “deep down insurrection and social unrest”.
Similar reports and analyses have recently predicted that the world is on the brink of severe social unrest due to the financial crisis. The weekend saw protests reach boiling point in Ireland, Governments in Iceland and Latvia have already been toppled, while police in the UK are preparing for a “summer of rage” and mass protests against the mishandling of the economic crisis by the government.
An increase in urban warfare training drills throughout the U.S. does not bode well in the light of such reports, particularly given that Northcom has highlighted that active duty troops inside the U.S. will be designated to deal with “civil unrest and crowd control”.
Of course, out of this chaos, as we have consistently warned for over a decade, is being presented a new order. Today British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a “global New Deal” which would see a government “clampdown” on all financial markets including hedge funds.
Essentially this would be the final nail in the coffin of the free market, and would usher in a new period of global government regulation of the financial system

Why Doesn't the Simons Foundation Fund Research on Paternal Age and Non Familial Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia?

February 23, 2009 02:28 PM Eastern Time
Stanford/Packard Researchers Recruit Children for Study of the Biology of Autism
STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scientists have put forward many theories about why children with autism struggle to communicate with other people, but they have yet to find definitive answers. Now, a research team at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is recruiting autistic and typically developing children and their parents for a study of whether one particular biological mechanism plays a role in causing the disorder.
The researchers will test whether impaired social behaviors in autism are linked to levels of the hormone oxytocin. In healthy individuals, oxytocin primes maternal behavior, enhances social interactions, increases the ability to read facial expressions and recognize individuals, and boosts trust and empathy. Preliminary research has hinted that autism may be associated with oxytocin deficits, but those studies involved limited samples.
“We’re hoping to find a biomarker for autism,” said lead researcher Karen Parker, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford. Parker and colleagues will study 50 children ages 3 to 12 who have been diagnosed with autism; 50 of their healthy siblings, some of whom may have moderate social or emotional impairments; and 50 typically-developing children who do not have siblings with or a family history of autism. The researchers will test whether oxytocin signaling falls on a spectrum that matches variations in social behaviors. If the findings show a correlation between oxytocin and behavior, further research will be needed to determine whether a causal relationship exists.
“Autistic” and “typical” social behaviors exist on a continuous spectrum, Parker explained. That means children diagnosed with autism have varied degrees of social and emotional impairment, and typically-developing children also vary in their social and emotional function. The researchers hope that participants in the study will represent the whole of the behavioral spectrum.
Children in the study will complete an IQ test and several standard psychological and behavioral tests. Each child will give one blood sample, which will be used to measure oxytocin levels and to look for tiny variations in the gene that encodes the oxytocin receptor. The researchers suspect such gene variations change how the oxytocin signal is transmitted, and will test whether certain variations might be characteristic of autism.
Parker is collaborating with child psychiatrist Antonio Hardan, MD, director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Packard Children’s Hospital, and Joachim Hallmayer, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford. The study is funded by a two-year, $300,000 award from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

Volcker: Crisis May be Even Worse than Depression

Volcker: Crisis May be Even Worse than Depression
Topics:Economy (U.S.) Economy (Global) Barack Obama White House Congress Politics & Government
By: Reuters 20 Feb 2009 03:34 PM ET

The global economy may be deteriorating even faster than it did during the Great Depression, Paul Volcker, a top adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Friday.
Volcker noted that industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.
"I don't remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world,'' Volcker told a luncheon of economists and investors at Columbia University.

Do brain exercises prevent memory loss?

Do brain exercises prevent memory loss?

Published: Wednesday, 18-Feb-2009



Medical Research News
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Participating in certain mental activities, like reading magazines or crafting in middle age or later in life, may delay or prevent memory loss, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009.
The study involved 197 people between the ages of 70 and 89 with mild cognitive impairment, or diagnosed memory loss, and 1,124 people that age with no memory problems. Both groups answered questions about their daily activities within the past year and in middle age, when they were between 50 to 65 years old.
The study found that during later years, reading books, playing games, participating in computer activities and doing craft activities such as pottery or quilting led to a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the risk of developing memory loss compared to people who did not do those activities. People who watched television for less than seven hours a day in later years were 50 percent less likely to develop memory loss than people who watched for more than seven hours a day.
People who participated in social activities and read magazines during middle age were about 40 percent less likely to develop memory loss than those who did not do those activities.
"This study is exciting because it demonstrates that aging does not need to be a passive process. By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss," said study author Yonas Geda, MD, MSc, a neuropsychiatrist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Of course, the challenge with this type of research is that we are relying on past memories of the participants, therefore, we need to confirm these findings with additional research."
http://www.aan.com/

Texans unknowingly donate children's blood to research

Texans unknowingly donate children's blood to research
Medical privacy advocates, ethicists say parents should be asked for consent before newborns' screening samples are kept.
By Mary Ann RoserAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, February 22, 2009
For almost seven years, the state has been indefinitely storing blood from nearly all newborns in Texas without their parents' consent for possible use in medical research.
The blood is collected as part of a 44-year-old state-mandated newborn screening program in which hospitals, birthing centers and midwives draw blood from a baby's heel — parental consent isn't required for that, either — so the state can test for a host of birth defects. The state either discarded the blood after six months or, more recently, stored it for three years before destroying it.
But starting in 2002, the state health department began collecting and keeping blood indefinitely for current or future medical research, a practice that has been the subject of a legal challenge in Minnesota.
Five dots of blood are collected on paper for the screening and then stored.
Under the health department's policy, the samples can be used by the medical community for things like cancer research, birth defects studies and calibration of lab equipment, said Doug McBride, spokesman for the Department of State Health Services.
The law doesn't require that parents be told how the blood might be used. But if parents are aware of the blood draws, Texas law lets them opt out only for religious reasons.
Parental consent isn't obtained, McBride said, because "requiring permission might be more costly and could require more time of hospital staff. But our real concern would be for the babies with detectable disorders that weren't detected because their parents declined the screening — babies who had no say in that decision."
The blood spots are stored at Texas A&M University's School of Rural Public Health, and each card bears a code number instead of a name, McBride said. The names matching those codes are kept at the state health department and are not released to researchers without parental consent, McBride said. The state considers the stored samples to be "de-identified."
Since 1965, Texas law has required the screening of newborns for birth defects, and the state now checks for 27 different health conditions — ranging from a gene that can cause severe mental disability to sickle cell anemia.
In 2002, the state health department's Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch asked that the blood be stored for research rather than discarded; the department's leadership agreed.
It contracted with Texas A&M in 2006 to store the samples because the agency did not have room to keep them indefinitely, according to a Nov. 15, 2006, health department memo.
The agency says in the memo that it did not need to change state law to store the blood samples because "the agency's position has been that health-related research that uses these bloodspots is consistent with this agency's overall mission."
The same memo says the department considers the blood samples to be "state records," which state law allows agencies to store indefinitely.
Quinn Godfrey, a 32-year-old father of two from San Antonio, said he had no idea when his daughter was born three years ago that newborn blood was being collected or stored indefinitely.
"My concern is they might not be able to do much with it right now, but 10 years from now? They could do a lot with it the way technology is going," Godfrey said.
When his second child was born Feb. 9, Godfrey said, he objected and asked to have an outside lab do it. But when he was told that wasn't possible, he gave in, he said.
Researchers in Texas said they hope to allay any parental concerns by pointing to the good being done with the blood and the future benefits to society.
"I'm using it to extract genetic variations and causes of certain birth defects: cleft lip and cleft palate and club foot," said Jacqueline Hecht, a professor of pediatrics and vice chairwoman for research at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
Hecht gets selected blood samples of children known to have those defects from the state's birth defects registry, but the names are excluded, McBride said.
By knowing the genetic fingerprints of disorders, researchers can suggest ways to prevent birth defects, Hecht and others said.
Without access to the blood samples, Hecht said, "we might miss the opportunity to make huge breakthroughs to help humanity. I'm using them to try and make life better."
Hecht said she considers privacy concerns to be overblown because she and her colleagues have no idea to whom the blood belongs.
"There are a lot of hoops you have to jump through" to use samples, she said, such as getting approval from an institutional review board, which looks out for patients' rights. "I don't see what the issue is."
But if the stored blood is so scientifically beneficial, "why isn't it more publicized?" asked Godfrey, the San Antonio father. "It just seems like they're being awfully sneaky about it."
James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said that although his three grown children were all born in Texas, he had no idea of the practice and was "stunned by the whole thing."
Harrington said that he has no problems with screening newborns for birth defects but said he opposes storing samples without consent.
"I believe it's a violation ... of unlawful search and seizure," he said. "We're dealing with the most confidential information we have, and (for the government) to say, 'Trust us,' ... I find it impossible to believe."
McBride said, "There is nothing illicit, untoward or threatening going on. The purpose is to save lives, not to steal them." He's heard no complaints from anyone in Texas, he said.
"I would bet most parents aren't aware in Texas," said Twila Brase, a nurse who is president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care in St. Paul, Minn. The nonprofit has advocated patient and physician relationship rights since 1998.
Her group is fighting the practice in Minnesota after learning about it six years ago, she said.
"Our greatest concern is that this blood is being stored unbeknownst to the parents, and genetic research is being conducted without the consent or knowledge of the parents," Brase said. "And it's available for whatever legislators would decide to do with it in the future. When parents here discovered that, they got absolutely steamed."
What surprised Brase and others even more than not requiring parental consent was what they call the "warehousing" of the blood samples. Minnesota has stored more than 815,000 samples in the past 11 years, and as in Texas, no law authorizes that, Brase said.
Texas has stored 4.2 million samples since July 2002 — two per child, McBride said.
In Minnesota, Brase's organization won a ruling from an administrative law judge ordering that the state get informed consent from parents to store the blood, and the group aims to start a national outcry against the policy. Already, Brase said, blood from 52,000 Minnesota children has been used for genetic research without their parents knowing.
What if someday someone's genetic information got out to insurers and employers and was used to discriminate against certain people, Brase asked. "This is my DNA; it's not yours," she said. "Ask me if you want to use me for some project."
McBride said the state is bound by state and federal laws to protect the privacy rights of patients so it would not release the names to researchers or anyone else without parental consent.
Andrew Olshan, chairman of the epidemiology department at the University of North Carolina, said there is strong interest among researchers in creating a national database drawing on research from the samples to help solve the riddles of what causes autism, cancer and various birth defects. He said the potential benefits outweigh privacy concerns.
Art Caplan, a nationally known ethicist who directs the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said he isn't troubled by the lack of consent or the indefinite storage. He said he sees a "ton of benefits" to having the blood available for research but said Texans should be educated about it and a public commission should control the samples.
But a Texas medical ethicist said parental consent should be obtained at the time the blood is drawn.
"Even if something is a social good, there can be a social harm," said Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the UT Medical Branch at Galveston. "It's important to have trust in the scientific community ... and the more things that are done without consent, the more trust goes down."
The argument that scientists have a right to the blood because what they are doing with it is good "runs roughshod" over the rights of others, Brody said.
At minimum, the issue deserves more public discussion and transparency, he said.
"This is exactly the kind of issue," Brody said, "that is going to come back and bite us as a scientific community."
maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619