The vaccine to prevent every strain of flu
by FIONA MacRAE

British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.

Described as the 'holy grail' of flu vaccines, it would protect against all strains of influenza A - the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu.

Just a couple of injections could give long-lasting immunity - unlike the current vaccine which has to be given every year.

The brainchild of scientists at Cambridge biotech firm Acambis, working with Belgian researchers, the vaccine will be tested on humans for the first time in the next few months.

A similar universal flu vaccine, being developed by Swiss vaccine firm Cytos Biotechnology, could also be tested on people in 2007 - and the vaccines on the market in around five years.

Importantly, the vaccines would also be quicker and easier to make than the traditional jabs, meaning vast quantities could be stockpiled against a global outbreak of bird flu.

Martin Bachmann, of Cytos, said: "You could really stockpile it. In the case of a pandemic, that would be a huge advantage.

"If you were to start making a traditional vaccine at the start of a pandemic, there is no way there would be enough."

The Government believes a bird flu pandemic is inevitable, killing 50,000 people in Britain alone.

However, it acknowledges that the bug could be much more lethal - infecting one in two people and claiming more than 700,000 lives.

Normal winter flu can also kill, claiming up to 12,000 lives a year in the UK.

Although a vaccine exists, constant changes in the virus's appearance have until now made it impossible to create just one flu vaccine. Instead a new vaccine is put together each year to protect against the particular strains circulating at that time.

In addition, the virus used in the jab is grown in hen's eggs - a time-consuming process that yields just one shot of vaccine per egg.

The new jabs would be grown in huge vats of bacterial 'soup', with just two pints of liquid providing 10,000 doses of vaccine.

Current flu vaccines focus on two proteins on the surface of the virus. However, these constantly mutate in a bid to fool the immune system, making it impossible for vaccine manufacturers to keep up with the creation of each new strain.

The universal vaccines focus on a different protein called M2, which has barely changed during the last 100 years.

The protein is found in all types of Influenza A, including the current bird flu and the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which killed up to 50 million across the globe.

Normally, such vaccines would have to go through at least five years of human tests before going on the market. However, if a bird flu pandemic occurs before that, they could be made more quickly available.

Zurich-based Cytos, which is also developing anti-smoking and obesity vaccines, has showed that its version of the jab stops mice dying from a dose of flu strong enough to kill them four-times over.

The vaccinated animals were also spared the fever that normally goes along with flu.

Although it is too early to say what the effect would be in humans, an initial course of two or three shots could provide long-lasting immunity, topped up with booster shots given every five to ten years.

Dr Ashley Birkett, of Acambis, said: "It wouldn't be that one shot protects for life but you would need fewer doses over your lifetime."

In addition, the jabs could be produced in vast quantities and stockpiled ahead of a flu pandemic - or even given to people in advance.

In contrast, a traditionally-produced vaccine, matched to the specific strain of flu, would not be available until around six months after the start of the pandemic.

The new vaccines only protect against influenza A - the version of the bug responsible for pandemic flu and the most severe cases of winter flu.

However, it may also be possible to create a similar jab against influenza B, which causes a milder form of winter flu.

Professor John Oxford, Britain's leading flu expert, said the development of a universal vaccine was the "holy grail" of flu research.

He added: "If you get a M2 vaccine which protects against the whole caboodle in the same vaccine, the possibilities are huge."

But, others cautioned that there is no guarantee that the jabs would be as effective in humans as it has been in animals.

Virologist Professor Ian Jones, of the University of Reading, said: "It is an encouraging technique which may have a role to play but it is too soon to assume that it will translate into a universal vaccine in the human population."

Dr Jim Robertson, a vaccine expert from the government-funded National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said the main advantage of a universal jab would be lasting immunity.

"If it works, it will be lovely," he said. "The best result would be that it would last for a long, long time."

Dr Ron Cutler, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East London, said: "Continual protection would be a tremendous advantage against flu."

He cautioned however, that there is no guarantee that the M2 protein will not mutate in the future - meaning the jab will have to be regularly reformulated.

This article from the Washington Post's Federal Page provides an opportunity to "meet" the new senate committee staff directors who will be effectively setting the legislative agenda for the next two years. The committee staff directors often know far more about the issues than the Senators themselves, and are more attuned to the agendas that drive the legislative battles. They are also targeted relentlessly by lobbyists for legislative "adds" --a multi-billion dollar enterprise in Washington....

Senate Committee Staff Directors Set Session Agenda
Tuesday, December 26, 2006;


There is a whole new lineup of committee staff directors as the Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate next week. They all bring long years of service and expertise to highly demanding jobs, and they will be working for Democratic chairmen who have vowed to provide close scrutiny of the Bush administration and its handling of domestic policies and the war in Iraq. Here is a sampling of the staff directors of major Senate committees:

Appropriations

Terrence E. Sauvain, 66, graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received a master's degree from George Washington University. A Cleveland native, Sauvain started his public service career in 1965 as a budget analyst for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He joined the Appropriations Committee in 1973. He has worked as the majority staff director once before, between 2001 and 2003.

Sauvain and his wife, Veronica, have three children. He was awarded the University of Notre Dame's 2006 Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Award, presented annually to one of its alumni for accomplishment in public service.

Armed Services

Richard D. DeBobes, the staff director-designate, is a veteran: 26 years in the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, attaining the rank of captain, and 18 for the Armed Services committee -- the last three as the top staffer for the incoming chairman, Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.).

The spotlight will be on the committee, not only because it will focus on Iraq, but also because it includes two likely presidential candidates: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

The committee is known for its bipartisanship and, DeBobes said, "there's no reason for that not to continue."

Still, that atmosphere may become strained. DeBobes, 68, is putting together a new three-person investigative team to challenge the administration on detainee treatment.

Budget

Mary Naylor comes to her new post from the office of Democratic staff director, where she has served since 2001, when Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.) became ranking Democrat. Before that, Naylor served as Conrad's deputy chief of staff.

When these profiles were compiled, staffers said Naylor was battling through the snow en route to her hometown of Fargo, N.D., for the holidays.

Naylor, 39, graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in political science. She began work in Conrad's office in 1989, and she served there for three years before embarking on a two-year stint on the staff of former senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.). Then, in 1993, it was back to Conrad's office, where she served as a senior legislative assistant before becoming deputy chief of staff in 1999. She became minority staff director of the Budget Committee two years later.

Environment and Public Works

Bettina Poirier, the first woman to serve as staff director and chief counsel for the committee, has a work history that has placed her in touch with many of the stakeholders in environmental regulation. An environmental lawyer for nearly two decades, she has served for the past six years as senior counsel to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) working on environmental and agriculture issues.

Boxer has said "her focus will be on . . . global warming issues," Poirier said. "We'll be making sure that issue gets a lot of hearings and plenty of discussion so we can look for solutions that come with a lot of benefits" to local economies, providers of technology and labor for efforts to combat the problem.

Beyond that, Poirier, 45, will pursue Boxer's aim of "making sure that children are specifically considered in the environmental laws," such as clean air and water regulations. She points out that while many of its issues are seen as classic Democratic concerns, in fact the committee has a long history of bipartisan cooperation. "We'll look for opportunities to reach and work across the aisle on these issues," she said.

Finance

Russ Sullivan has been in the heart of the committee's business, tax policy, since the tax fights of President Bush's first months in office. Chief tax counsel in those days, he moved up to Democratic staff director in 2004.

Nowhere in Congress will the transition from minority to majority be as seamless as in this committee. Under Republican leadership, Democratic staffers were given wide latitude to explore policy and oversight options, taking their cue from the close relationship between then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Max Baucus (Mont.). That bipartisanship is likely to continue.

From 1995 to 1999, Sullivan, 55, was tax counsel and legislative director for then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). He then became the Finance Committee Democrats' chief tax counsel under then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

Foreign Relations

Antony J. Blinken brings skills as an academic, journalist and policy planner to his new role. A former international lawyer, for the past four years Blinken, 44, has served as the committee's Democratic staff director and as senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.). Prior to that, he served six years on the White House National Security Council staff in the Clinton administration.

The committee's "first and most urgent challenge is Iraq," Blinken said. "Putting us on a better path in Iraq would give us much more freedom, flexibility and credibility to deal with other important issues," such as Iranian and North Korean nuclear plans, unrest in Darfur and Afghanistan, and the emergence of China and Russia.

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

J. Michael Myers has worked, on and off, for the incoming committee chairman, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), for 20 years. If the past is a predictor, Myers, 51, will spend next session focused on a long list of issues including immigration and refugee policy, early childhood education, college loan costs and the effort to raise the minimum wage.

While pursuing his master's degree in political science at Columbia University in the late 1970s, Myers worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He came to Kennedy's staff to work on foreign policy issues after six years with the humanitarian relief group Church World Service. During the Clinton administration, Myers worked for nearly two years at the Pentagon's Office of Humanitarian and Refugee Affairs, and worked on immigration and refugee issues in various roles for the Senate Judiciary Committee throughout the mid-1990s. Myers has been minority staff director on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions since 1998.

Homeland Security

Michael L. Alexander, 50, has served on the committee for five years and has worked on intelligence reform, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and issues surrounding disaster relief -- including emergency preparedness, first responders and communications.

Before joining the committee, he was legislative director for then-Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) and served as acting deputy director of the USDA Office of Civil Rights. A native of Griffin, Ga., Alexander worked as a reporter and columnist for the Jackson Advocate in Mississippi before coming to Washington.

He said the top priority for the committee and its incoming chairman, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) is to enact laws that implement the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. Other priorities include improving rail and transit security, oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and securing more funding for first responders.

Intelligence

Andrew Johnson will serve as staff director, one of the most unusual jobs in the Senate. Unlike most other committees, the intelligence panel does not have a majority and minority staff, and it works in great secrecy in an office with no windows and a guard out front.

Johnson, 47, received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park. Selected as a presidential management intern at the Department of Navy, he worked on contracting issues until coming to Capitol Hill in 1990 to work on defense and international affairs for then-Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.). Under Michigan's Levin, he came to the intelligence committee to monitor satellite and geospatial agencies. In 2004, he became the staff director for the committee vice chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.).

Johnson said the committee has much work to do in terms of oversight and restoring a bipartisan tone to its efforts. "The committee has not done its necessary work in understanding and evaluation of national intelligence," Johnson said, referring to the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program and the CIA's system for detention and interrogation.

Judiciary

Bruce Cohen brings 15 years' experience as a litigator and a decade as Democratic staff director and chief counsel on the Judiciary Committee to his new, majority role.

During his early law career, Cohen, who received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975, practiced in Philadelphia and Washington, where he was a partner in the law firm of Dechert Price and Rhoads, and in Los Angeles, where he was a partner in the law firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro. He spent two years in the early 1980s as chief counsel of the subcommittee on juvenile justice, when it was chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Cohen, 56, joined Sen. Patrick J. Leahy's (D-Vt.) staff in 1994 and served as chief counsel of the subcommittee on technology and the law. A year later, he became Democratic chief counsel of the subcommittee on antitrust, business rights and competition, filling that role for a year.

Other Committees

Veterans Affairs: William E. Brew

Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry: Mark Halverson

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs: Shawn Maher

Commerce, Science and Transportation: Margaret Cummisky

Energy and Natural Resources: Bob Simon

Staff writers Al Kamen, Lyndsey Layton and Elizabeth Williamson and special correspondent Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this report. Photo Credit: By Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post

One of the theorists studied at the National War College is Alexander George--a leading professor of strategy and policymaking who popularized an innovative concept to explain how presidential decisions were often very problematic, contentious and, at the time of their occurence--seemingly unresolveable. The term he coined to describe this phenomena is value complexity. George defined value complexity as the "presence of of multiple, competing values and interests." Value complexity means, among other things, that most strategic problems cannot be resolved through objective analysis, management, a simple phone call, outsourcing, cost-benefit tables or mathematical "solutions;" rather, he says, now, more than ever, they tend to be resolved through subjectivity, human instinct, relationships, interdependence, leadership, personal intervention, and deliberative value judgments and tradeoffs. Today, as in war, politics, business or in our personal lives, and in this era of globalism, it seems that value complexity is the order of the day. Strategists who deal effectively with value complexity in these arenas will ultimately prevail.


Source: National War College, Core Course 6100 Syllabus

If you haven't already run across it, this 2005 profile of John Rendon, "The Man Who Sold the War," published by Rolling Stone Magazine, won the 2006 National Magazine Award in the reporting category. Written by James Bamford, it provides a fascinating glimpse of the man who ran the $100 million PR campaign for the war in Iraq...and many others. A fascinating look at what goes on behind the curtain....


The Man Who Sold the War
Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war

JAMES BAMFORD

The road to war in Iraq led through many unlikely places. One of them was a chic hotel nestled among the strip bars and brothels that cater to foreigners in the town of Pattaya, on the Gulf of Thailand.

On December 17th, 2001, in a small room within the sound of the crashing tide, a CIA officer attached metal electrodes to the ring and index fingers of a man sitting pensively in a padded chair. The officer then stretched a black rubber tube, pleated like an accordion, around the man's chest and another across his abdomen. Finally, he slipped a thick cuff over the man's brachial artery, on the inside of his upper arm.

Strapped to the polygraph machine was Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a forty-three-year-old Iraqi who had fled his homeland in Kurdistan and was now determined to bring down Saddam Hussein. For hours, as thin mechanical styluses traced black lines on rolling graph paper, al-Haideri laid out an explosive tale. Answering yes and no to a series of questions, he insisted repeatedly that he was a civil engineer who had helped Saddam's men to secretly bury tons of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. The illegal arms, according to al-Haideri, were buried in subterranean wells, hidden in private villas, even stashed beneath the Saddam Hussein Hospital, the largest medical facility in Baghdad.

It was damning stuff -- just the kind of evidence the Bush administration was looking for. If the charges were true, they would offer the White House a compelling reason to invade Iraq and depose Saddam. That's why the Pentagon had flown a CIA polygraph expert to Pattaya: to question al-Haideri and confirm, once and for all, that Saddam was secretly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

There was only one problem: It was all a lie. After a review of the sharp peaks and deep valleys on the polygraph chart, the intelligence officer concluded that al-Haideri had made up the entire story, apparently in the hopes of securing a visa.

The fabrication might have ended there, the tale of another political refugee trying to scheme his way to a better life. But just because the story wasn't true didn't mean it couldn't be put to good use. Al-Haideri, in fact, was the product of a clandestine operation -- part espionage, part PR campaign -- that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling the world a war. And the man who had long been in charge of the marketing was a secretive and mysterious creature of the Washington establishment named John Rendon. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE GO TO:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war/

Yesterday it was announced that Bank of New York has agreed to acquire Mellon Financial of Pittsburgh in an all-stock transaction valued at $16.5 billion that will create the world’s largest securities-servicing firm. Combined, the company will be called Bank of New York Mellon. It is anticipated to have annual revenue of more than $12 billion. The deal was approved by both companies’ boards and they expect to close during the third quarter of 2007. The merger will immediately add to earnings--the combined company will have $16.6 trillion in assets under its custody and act as corporate trustee for an additional $8 trillion in assets.
The deal will substantially strengthen Bank of New York’s leadership position in securities servicing and processing, which provides the backbone of the world’s stock and bond markets—a business where scale is crucial to compete in the capital-intensive and low-margin business of providing back-office functions such as record-keeping, custody, and administration.
By shedding retail, the Bank of New York has taken a step that other processing banks have made in recent years to concentrate their businesses on securities servicing and asset management. Already this year, Bank of New York nearly doubled the size of its corporate trust business--the record-keeping for debt issues—in agreeing to swap the bank's 300-plus retail branches for J.P. Morgan Chase’s corporate trust unit. It’s been no secret that JPMorgan Chase wanted to build on its retail division. JPMorgan Chase, led by the charismatic Jamie Dimon, is seen as wanting to get bigger in retail. It was one of the chief motivations of the 2004 merger that brought the investment bank and Dimon's retail-oriented Bank One together, after all, bringing balance to JPMorgan Chase's commercial and investment bank. Bank of New York's branch network has attractive pockets of concentration in wealthy suburban towns, whereas J.P. Morgan's branches have been concentrated in the city itself. Dimon has plans to build branches in New York and spend money on marketing and promotion. He has said he wants to "blanket" the U.S. with branches.




Bank of New York’s chairman and chief executive, Thomas A. Renyi, 61, told investors and analysts today: “Mellon is going to have the opportunity to accelerate what are very compelling growth rates for the company. This is a combination that has extraordinarily similar and very complimentary businesses.” Indeed, Renyi has aggressively pursued deals in the past...to include a failed deal with Mellon.
So what has changed?
In 1998, Renyi launched an unsolicited $24 billion bid for Mellon Financial but was rebuffed by Mellon's then chairman Frank Cahouet in a nasty fight that ended just a few weeks after the first salvo. In 2003, he bought Credit Suisse First Boston's correspondent clearing operation, Pershing, for $2 billion. Bank of New York under Renyi's watch has completed dozens of smaller transactions for asset managers and other financial companies. Mellon's performance has not lived up to its potential. Radical change in the bank's structure has been needed for some time to make Mellon an attractive investment relative to the stocks of its competitors. Mellon's ranking among securities processing firms remains stuck behind industry leaders like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York, and State Street.
Takeover speculation has surrounded Mellon for months. Highfields Capital Management, a Boston hedge fund, sent a letter in December urging Mellon to split its operations to help boost the company's share price.
The merger would leave Northern Trust Corp. (Charts) and State Street Corp. (Charts) the only major rivals in the low-margin area of securities servicing, which involves the custody of assets for institutional investors.
Wall Street responded favorably to the deal. Bank of New York’s shares climbed $4.27, or 12 percent, to close at $39.75 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, while Mellon’s shares gained $2.73, or 6.8 percent, to $42.78.
When the deal is completed, Bank of New York’s shareholders will own 63 percent of the stock in the combined company, with Mellon’s shareholders owning the remainder. Under the terms of the deal, Bank of New York’s shareholders will receive 0.9434 shares of the combined company for each their current shares. Mellon’s shareholders will exchange their stock on a one-for-one basis.
The combined company’s board will have 10 members appointed by Bank of New York and eight members appointed by Mellon. Its headquarters will be in New York.




“Several business divisions” are expected to be based out of Pittsburgh, said Robert Kelly, 51, Mellon’s chairman and chief executive, who become chief executive of the combined company. Mr. Renyi will serve as executive chairman for 18 months after the transaction closes, to be succeeded as chairman by Mr. Kelly.
The companies said today that their merger would allow for annual cost reductions of about $700 million. The companies’ combined work force of about 40,000 will be reduced by about 3,900 over three years, though specific businesses or locations where jobs are to be shed have not yet been determined.
Kelly joined Mellon in February, after activist investors had pushed the company for change in strategy. In his previous job as chief financial officer at Wachovia, Kelly led the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking company through a series of large acquisitions. Still, many analysts saw Mr. Kelly’s hiring at Mellon as a sign that the company would not put itself up for sale any time soon. Shortly after his appointment, he is reported to have said, “I am not focused on M.&A.”
Last month, Kelly gave a presentation to investors and analysts outlining his strategy for improving the company’s margins and expanding its international presence. After the presentation, an analyst at Prudential securities, Michael Mayo, raised his rating on Mellon’s stock to “overweight” from “underweight,” writing in a research note that Mr. Kelly had “outlined a series of steps that should help liven up what we had considered a sleepy organization.”
Mr. Mayo also noted that Mellon’s securities-processing business would fare well if the stock market continued its recent rise. Each 10 percent increase in the stock market would bolster Mellon’s revenue by 1 to 2 percent, he estimated.
While the deal ends a longstanding rivalry for both companies, it will bring together institutions whose heritage is tied to two titans of American business history. Mellon was founded more than a century ago by Judge Thomas Mellon, who handed over the business to his son Andrew. Five years before he became the U.S.'s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton helped found the Bank of New York. As Treasury Secretary, Hamilton negotiated the first loan for the U.S. - the country borrowed $200,000 from the bank Hamilton helped found. In 1792, when the New York Stock Exchange was formed, the first corporate stock traded was that of the Bank of New York. Today, the Bank of New York is the 14th-largest bank holding company in the U.S. and the oldest American bank operating under its original name.
In 1922, the Bank merged with the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the first of many mergers with trust companies that would establish the Bank in that industry. In addition, the Bank began to expand geographically, with operations and subsidiaries in several states and foreign countries. In the 1980s, the Bank's successful entry into the credit card business helped compensate for the poor performance of its portfolio of highly leveraged transactions and nonperforming loans.
Bank of New York's highest profile businesses are its trust and custodial operations. Custody and trust businesses largely involve administrative handling of private or corporate assets. With close to $4 billion in assets under administration, the Bank is one of the three largest asset custodians in the U.S. Its commercial lending business is not as strong; the firm ranked No. 12 in 1998. The firm and has been on the prowl for other financial services firms--industry analysts have been saying for years that Bank of New York would not fit well with a traditional retail bank and they should be looking for deals with other trust-intensive firms. It seems they have listened.

This post, from interestalert.com

Most Americans Surprised, Concerned that 90 Percent of Flu Shots Contain the Toxin Mercury
Health Officials' Aggressive Flu Shot Campaign May Disregard Safety, According to Survey of 9,000 Americans 74 Percent of Respondents Unaware Flu Shots Contain Mercury, 78 Percent Disagree with CDC About Vaccinating Pregnant Women and Children
PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As health officials step up their effort to vaccinate Americans against the flu, a new survey suggests serious concerns over the toxin mercury, an ingredient in over 90 percent of this season's flu shot supply. PutChildrenFirst.org, a parent-led organization advocating vaccine safety, commissioned a survey of over 9,000 Americans to learn their plans for getting flu shots, their knowledge of its ingredients, and who they hold responsible for making sure vaccines are safe.

The survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of Americans were unaware that most flu shots contain mercury and that they would refuse a shot with mercury. (See page two for the key findings.)

"More than 75 percent of Americans feel a mercury-containing flu shot should not be given to a pregnant woman or a child, despite recommendations from medical authorities to do just that," said Lisa Handley, a founding parent of PutChildrenFirst.org. Her own son, Jamison, had an adverse reaction to a flu shot containing mercury in 2003. "I know firsthand how life-changing a flu shot with mercury can be, since our son began his regression into autism after his flu shot."

In 1999, government agencies called for the removal of Thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative in most vaccines. Then, in 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that, "mercury in all of its forms is toxic to the fetus and children, and efforts should be made to reduce exposure to the extent possible to pregnant women and children as well as the general population." Despite these actions, 90 percent of this season's flu vaccines still contain Thimerosal, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are recommending the vaccine for pregnant women and children six months and older.

These recommendations come on the heels of recent studies that reveal new findings about the neurological effects of mercury and question the effectiveness of flu shots. Mercury, the second most toxic element after plutonium, is estimated to be 500 to 1,000 times more toxic than lead.

"A common myth is that Thimerosal is added to vaccines in 'trace' amounts," said Mike Wagnitz, who has over 20 years experience evaluating materials for mercury and is employed as a senior chemist with the University of Wisconsin. "The concentration of mercury in a multi-dose flu vaccine vial is 50,000 parts per billion. To put this in perspective, drinking water cannot exceed 2 parts per billion of mercury, and waste is considered hazardous if it has only 200 parts per billion. Is it really safe then to inject pregnant women, newborns, and infants with levels of mercury 250 times higher than what is legally classified as hazardous waste?"

Agreeing that mercury has no place in vaccines, seven states have passed Thimerosal bans in recent years: California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New York, and Washington. California is the first to have implemented the ban for the current flu season, but Governor Schwarzenegger temporarily overturned the ban on November 2 after a shortage of mercury-free flu shots led to pressure from state medical groups.

"Parents need to be informed about all aspects of their children's healthcare, including vaccines," said Deirdre Imus, President and founder of The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center and co-founder and co-director, with husband Don Imus, of The Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer. "It doesn't make common sense to inject Thimerosal, a known neurotoxin, into the bloodstream of our babies."

This fall, two studies were published in leading medical journals admitting that limited data exists to support the effectiveness of flu shots. One study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that, "there is scant data on the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine in young children."

"So, not only is the flu shot's effectiveness in doubt, there is plenty of evidence revealing the devastating effects of mercury," said J.B. Handley, Lisa's husband and a founder of PutChildrenFirst.org. "Our health authorities are not being forthcoming about mercury's presence in shots and its toxicity to the nervous system. Our children deserve better."

"With everything we know about the dangers of mercury and the havoc it can wreak on young, developing brains, there is no excuse for any vaccine to contain mercury," said Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, President of SafeMinds, a nonprofit committed to ending mercury-induced neurological disorders. "The survey reveals that Americans are overwhelmingly in the dark about what is in most flu shots. They do not want a known neurotoxin injected into their children, and they believe Congress and medical professionals must be more vigilant about keeping vaccines safe and mercury-free."

Key findings from the poll, conducted October 27-30 by Zogby International, include:

* 74 percent of respondents are unaware that most flu shots contain mercury.
* After learning that mercury is an ingredient, 74 percent are less likely to get a flu shot and 86 percent of parents say they are less likely to get their child a flu shot.
* 78 percent of respondents believe mercury should not be an ingredient in flu shots given to pregnant women and children.
* 73 percent believe the government should warn pregnant women not to get a flu shot if it contains mercury.
* More than 70 percent agree that Congress, doctors and medical groups (e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics) should take responsibility for ensuring that vaccines do not contain mercury.
* 80 percent of respondents and 82 percent of parents are willing to pay the $2.50 additional cost for a mercury-free flu shot.

PutChildrenFirst.org

PutChildrenFirst.org is a parent-led initiative advocating vaccine safety and a division of Generation Rescue, a nonprofit organization providing parents with information on the relationship between mercury and its relationship to Autism Spectrum Disorders. Generation Rescue gives parents information to make informed decisions about treatment options and physicians. Generation Rescue is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit founded in 2005.
PutChildrenFirst.org

Web site: http://PutChildrenFirst.org/

This blog post from "Russian Spy" provides an update on the Yegor Gaidar situation....




Former Russian prime minister , being treated in a Russian hospital for a mystery illness after collapsing at a conference in Ireland last week, was ill before he arrived, a conference attendee said on Friday.“I was there when he was taken ill, or when his illness reached its peak basically,” said Seamus Martin, a former Moscow correspondent for The Irish Times newspaper, who was at the conference in Maynooth in Ireland last week.

“He had been complaining of being ill right from the very start of that morning but he collapsed at about half five in the evening,” Martin told Irish broadcaster RTE.

He said one of Gaidar’s entourage was “very clear” that the architect of Russia’s market reforms was feeling ill on his way to Dublin, “particularly during a stopover at Budapest airport”.

When Leo Durocher was manager of the Dodgers he was booed for pulling a pitcher out in the eighth inning of a close game. A reporter later asked him how he felt about the crowd's reaction. He replied, "Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand."

Letters revealed secret hit squad

Detectives are investigating letters smuggled out of Russia purporting to show the existence of a secret squad set up to target poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko and others.

Scotland Yard has been passed copies of two letters apparently penned in jail by former Russian intelligence officer Mikhail Trepashkin, in one of which Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk.

Mr Litvinenko's London friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession on Thursday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.

Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's successor the FSB until 1997, was tried in 2004, accused of being a British spy and passing secret information to Mr Litvinenko and his close friend the tycoon Boris Berezovsky, both exiled in London.

Mr Litvinenko, who died a week ago from radiation poisoning, believed he had been murdered for criticising Russian president Vladimir Putin. A special post-mortem examination is taking place on his body at the Royal London Hospital. Traces of the radioactive substance polonium 210, which was found in a sample of Mr Litvinenko's urine, have since been detected at 12 sites, including British Airways planes.

The letters include one to Mr Litvinenko which he never received, as well as one to his friend Mr Goldfarb. In the message to Mr Litvinenko on November 20, Mr Trepashkin recalls a conversation in August 2002 in which he warned Mr Litvinenko - already living in London - that he and his family were at risk from the FSB.

Mr Trepashkin tells his friend that he had met an FSB contact near a railway station in Russia who told him that a "very serious group" had been set up, which "will knock out all those associated with Berezovsky and Litvinenko".

The letter says that Mr Trepashkin was urged to co-operate with the group and provide information on Mr Litvinenko and members of his family. Mr Goldfarb said the other letter, addressed to him and written on November 25, detailed an offer to be a witness in the British investigation.

Mr Goldfarb, who says that he can attest to the authenticity of the handwriting, said he had immediately passed the letters to police. Scotland Yard said that it could not confirm specific details on the investigation.

"This continues to be an extremely complex investigation and detectives are pursuing many lines of inquiries," a spokesman said, adding: "I think it is significant because it shows that there was an FSB group set up back in 2002 that targeted Litvinenko and Berezovsky."

Hawking: Humans must go to other planets
By MARIA HEGSTAD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Nov 30, 3:39 PM ET

LONDON - Humans will have to colonize planets in far-flung solar systems if the race is to survive, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview Thursday as he was awarded a top honor.

"The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet," he said in a radio interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. "Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out. But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe."

Because there are no other planets like Earth in our own solar system, Hawking said humans will have to travel to another star to find a hospitable planet to colonize. At the speed of chemical-propelled rockets like the Apollo, the trip to the next nearest star would take 50,000 years, he said.

While the warp drives described in science fiction are just that, Hawking said that using matter/antimatter annihilation, described in the TV series "Star Trek," would allow for travel at almost the speed of light.

When a particle and its antiparticle destroy each other, the entire mass is converted into energy. Some scientists, including Hawking, believe this process could be used to propel spacecraft.... READ MORE at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_sc/stephen_hawking_2





Single massive asteroid wiped out dinosaurs: study

By Will Dunham Thu Nov 30, 7:09 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A single, gigantic asteroid slammed into Earth 65 million years ago, dooming the dinosaurs and many other species, scientists said on Thursday in a new study rebutting theories that multiple impacts did the deed.

An examination of rock sediments drilled from five sites at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean strongly supports the notion that one massive hunk of space rock caused the mass extinction, a research team led by University of Missouri-Columbia geology professor Ken MacLeod found.

"It's a completely straightforward, single-impact scenario," MacLeod, whose findings appear in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, said in an interview. "It was a haymaker that nobody saw coming. One shot, and that's all you need to explain it."

Scientists believe that an asteroid about 6 miles wide hurtled to Earth 65.5 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, plunging into what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to carve out the Chicxulub (pronounced CHIK-shu-loob) crater measuring about 110 miles across.

To put it mildly, it was a bad day to live on Earth...READ MORE at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061201/sc_nm/dinosaurs_impact_dc_1