Nigel Morris - World Faces Years of Social Unrest as Economies Falter

Published on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 by The Independent/UK

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/world-faces-years-of-social-unrest-as-economies-falter-6255401.html

by Nigel Morris, Ben Chu

The international economy is on the brink of a deep new economic crisis that could cost millions of jobs around the globe and trigger mass social unrest, the world's most powerful nations were warned yesterday.

As the leaders of the G20 countries prepare for emergency talks on averting a return to worldwide recession, the United Nations' International Labour Organisation (ILO) issued a grim forecast of the social effects of the continuing economic crisis.

The UN agency warned that it could take until 2016 for global employment to return to the levels of three years ago – and that anger could erupt on the streets of Europe and other continents as a result.

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Terra Daily - Painkiller overdose 'epidemic' strikes US

Terra Daily, November 1, 2011

http://www.interndaily.com/reports/Painkiller_overdose_epidemic_strikes_US_999.html

The United States is facing an epidemic of lethal overdoses from prescription painkillers, which have tripled in the past decade and now account for more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

The quantity of painkillers on the market is so high that it would be enough for every American to swallow a standard dose of Vicodin every four hours for one full month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The unfortunate and in fact shocking news is that we are in the midst of an epidemic of prescription drug overdose in this country. It is an epidemic but it can be stopped," said CDC chief Thomas Frieden.

"Now the burden of dangerous drugs is being created more by a few irresponsible doctors than by drug pushers on street corners."

The CDC Vital Signs report focused on opioid pain relievers, including oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone, better known as Vicodin, which have quadrupled in sales to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices since 1999.

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Robert Reich - Greeks' Choice — and Ours: Democracy or Finance?

Published on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 by RobertReich.org

http://robertreich.org/post/12200736000

by Robert Reich

Which do you trust more: democracy or financial markets?

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou decided in favor of democracy yesterday when he announced a national referendum on the draconian budget cuts Europe and the IMF are demanding from Greece in return for bailing it out.

(Or, more accurately, the cuts Europe and the IMF are demanding for bailing out big European banks that have lent Greece lots of money and stand to lose big if Greece defaults on those loans – not to mention Wall Street banks that will also suffer because of their intertwined financial connections with European banks.)

If Greeks accept the bailout terms, unemployment will rise even further in Greece, public services will be cut more than they have already, the Greek economy will contract, and the standard of living of most Greeks will deteriorate further.

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Naomi Wolf - We May Be Witnessing the First Large Global Conflict Where People Are Aligned by Consciousness and Not Nation State or Religion

By Naomi Wolf, Al Jazeera English

Posted on November 1, 2011, Printed on November 2, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152932/we_may_be_witnessing_the_first_large_global_conflict_where_people_are_aligned_by_consciousness_and_not_nation_state_or_religion

America's politicians, it seems, have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments set up by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement - sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence.

In the worst incident so far, hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland's encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades and tear-gas canisters - with some officers taking aim directly at demonstrators. The Occupy Oakland Twitter feed read like a report from Cairo's Tahrir Square: "they are surrounding us"; "hundreds and hundreds of police"; "there are armoured vehicles and Hummers". There were 170 arrests.

My own recent arrest, while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan, brought the reality of this crackdown close to home. America is waking up to what was built while it slept: Private companies have hired away its police (JPMorgan Chase gave $4.6m to the New York City Police Foundation); the federal Department of Homeland Security has given small municipal police forces military-grade weapons systems; citizens' rights to freedom of speech and assembly have been stealthily undermined by opaque permit requirements.

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Kamran Mofid - Global Crises are Spiritual: A Time for Awakening

Published on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 by Share The World's Resource (STWR)

http://www.stwr.org/economic-sharing-alternatives/global-crises-are-spiritual-a-time-for-awakening.html

In modern economic thinking, greed and selfishness are upheld as guiding the ‘invisible hand’ of the market and are therefore exempt from moral consideration. It is time for us to redefine our values and build a just economy for the common good

by Kamran Mofid

Many sages, philosophers and theologians throughout history have reminded us that there are two forces at work in society, the material and the spiritual. If either of these two is neglected or ignored they will appear to be at odds with one another: society will inevitably becomes fragmented, divisions and rifts will manifest themselves with increasing force and frequency

It is clear that this is exactly what has happened today. We have a situation of disequilibrium and disharmony. Only the reawakening of the human spirit will save us from our own worst extremes. Physical wealth must go hand in hand with spiritual, moral and ethical wealth.

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Linda A. Johnson - Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo Has Cancer-Causing Chemicals, Group Says

Published on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 by the Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/01/johnson-johnson-baby-sham_n_1069123.html

by Linda A. Johnson

TRENTON, N.J. -- Two chemicals considered harmful to babies remain in Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo sold in the U.S., even though the company already makes versions without them, according to a coalition of health and environmental groups.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has unsuccessfully been urging the world's largest health care company for 2 1/2 years to remove the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals – dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15 that releases formaldehyde – from Johnson's Baby Shampoo, one of its signature products.

Johnson & Johnson said it is reducing or gradually phasing out the chemicals, but did not respond directly to the campaign's demands.

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Danielle Demetriou - Signs of Possible Nuclear Fission at Fukushima Plant

Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by The Telegraph/UK

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8863967/Japan-signs-of-possible-nuclear-fission-at-Fukushima-plant.html

Signs of a possible nuclear fission have been detected at Japan's damaged Fukushima power plant raising fears of further radiation leaks.

by Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo

The radioactive gas xenon, which is often the byproduct of unexpected nuclear fission, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant during tests.

Officials were today injecting boric acid as an emergency precautionary measure to stem any accidental chain reactions which could result in further radiation leakages.

Hiroyuki Imari, a spokesman with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the quantity of gas detection was "very small" and did not indicate a major problem, with the reactor's temperature, pressure and radiation levels remaining stable.

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Steven Wishnia - Two Big Decisions Loom on the Fate of Drinking Water for 15 Million People Living Near the Marcellus Shale

By Steven Wishnia, AlterNet

Posted on November 1, 2011, Printed on November 2, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152934/two_big_decisions_loom_on_the_fate_of_drinking_water_for_15_million_people_living_near_the_marcellus_shale

The fate of fracking in the Northeast may be determined soon.

On Nov. 21, the Delaware River Basin Commission, comprising representatives from four states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) and the federal government, will vote on whether to allow the intensive method of natural-gas drilling in the river's watershed. The watershed, which supplies drinking water for more than 15 million people, overlaps the eastern end of the Marcellus Shale, an underground geological formation touted as the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas."

The commission's rules, which will apply in the Delaware watershed, will overlap with state regulations. Pennsylvania already allows fracking. New York is in the process of developing regulations about where it might be allowed and under what conditions. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will hold public hearings in November, and says it will decide sometime next year. Many environmental activists believe Gov. Andrew Cuomo is fast-tracking the issue.

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PRNewswire - Parent of Autistic Child in Wakefield Study Says Key Journalist Got Facts Wrong

PRESS RELEASE

Nov. 3, 2011, 5:53 p.m. EDT

FALLS CHURCH, Va., Nov. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- When reporter Dan Olmsted met with the father of an autistic boy whose medical history is central to a British Medical Journal article refuting the vaccine/autism link, Olmsted never expected to be shown a letter written by the boy's father that would reveal the facts of the BMJ article to be flagrantly false. In contrast to the article, the letter clearly reveals the plausibility of the boy's autism being caused by his MMR (combined measles, mumps, rubella live virus vaccination) as well as the father's belief that the shot caused his son's autism.

Today in Age of Autism, Olmsted's interview with this father of a boy with autism known only as "child 11" appears in Part 7 of the Elaborate Fraud series by Olmsted and Mark Blaxill, Age of Autism's Editor-At-Large. The contents of the letter mark another revelation in the controversy over the British Medical Journal's published report by freelance journalist Brian Deer who has received support from MedicoLegal Investigations (MLI), a bureau affiliated with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) which specializes in bringing doctors before the General Medical Council, the UK's disciplinary body.

The father's 1997 letter was written to Dr. Wakefield, who had led a team of researchers in the controversial case study of 12 children with autism. Contrary to Deer's January report in the British Medical Journal, the chronology of Child 11's MMR shot and his subsequent autism diagnosis was inaccurately reported. From Olmsted's article:

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D. Aram Donabedian & John Carey - Pirates and Librarians: Big Media, Technology, and the Role of Liberal Education

http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/

Library Philosophy and Practice 2011

ISSN 1522-0222

D. Aram Donabedian

Hunter College Library

Hunter College, City University of New York

New York, NY

John Carey

Hunter Health Professions Library

Hunter College, City University of New York

New York, NY

Because the new processes of domination to which people react are

embedded in information flows, the building of autonomy has to rely

on reverse information flows.

—Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity

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