Bilderberg Conference 2007

The Bilderberg Group will be meeting May 31st - June 3rd in Istanbul, Turkey this year.

UPDATE - June 1, 2007. 5:36 pm: The meeting is at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Here is an article about it. A list of some of the guests is there.

Turkish Daily News - 'High priests of globalization' in Istanbul

Some call it "the multinational government", some call it the "elite club which shapes world policies" while others say it essentially "fixes" the world's fate. It literally breeds conspiracy theories all around the world with its secrecy, while participants say it is only a private gathering that should be respected.

Fluoride in Manchester

Manchester Evening News - Bid to put fluoride in water

FOUR schemes for adding fluoride to tap water across Greater Manchester are being considered.

Health bosses have asked United Utilities to price up four options for the highly controversial scheme to improve the region's terrible dental health. They argue adding fluoride to the water supply could help improve dental health - it strengthens tooth enamel. But some anti-fluoride campaigners claim it is potentially dangerous mass medication.

I posted articles about fluoride before. They were posted a few months back and can be seen here and here.

No point in even going into the negative things that fluoride does since you don’t have to look that far to see how totally ridiculous this whole concept of putting fluoride in the tap water is. It’s mass medication. It’s getting put in because some people are having tooth problems. What are they going to do next? Put aspirin in the water because a lot of people are having headaches. It’s totally ridiculous. Stop eating filth and brush your teeth but no, the logical solution to this problem is of course to throw away millions of dollars and mass medicate people.

Pfizer Faces Criminal Charges

The Washington Post - Pfizer Faces Criminal Charges in Nigeria

Officials in Nigeria have brought criminal charges against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for the company's alleged role in the deaths of children who received an unapproved drug during a meningitis epidemic.

Authorities in Kano, the country's largest state, filed eight charges this month related to the 1996 clinical trial, including counts of criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. They also filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and restitution from Pfizer, the world's largest drug company.

The government alleges that Pfizer researchers selected 200 children and infants from crowds at a makeshift epidemic camp in Kano and gave about half of the group an untested antibiotic called Trovan. Researchers gave the other children what the lawsuit describes as a dangerously low dose of a comparison drug made by Hoffmann-La Roche. Nigerian officials say Pfizer's actions resulted in the deaths of an unspecified number of children and left others deaf, paralyzed, blind or brain-damaged.

The lawsuit says that the researchers did not obtain consent from the children's families and that the researchers knew Trovan to be an experimental drug with life-threatening side effects that was "unfit for human use." Parents were banned from the ward where the drug trial occurred, the suit says, and the company left no medical records in Nigeria.

Phone Masts Kept Secret

The Independent - Phone mast locations kept from public

Mobile phone companies and the Government's official regulator are keeping information about the siting of radiation-emitting masts secret, despite rising concern about effects they may have on health.

The companies have stopped disclosing the sites of newly erected masts in what critics describe as "a fit of pique". And Ofcom, the communications industry regulator has refused to release information because it is afraid this might make the firms even more secretive.

News of the cover-up came as Sir William Stewart, the Government's top health protection watchdog, publicly voiced concerns about the possible effects of the radiation from the masts and Wi-Fi installations, and called for a "timely" official review.

5 Britons Questionably Abducted in Iraq

BBC - Five Britons abducted in Baghdad

Five Britons have been kidnapped from Iraq's finance ministry in Baghdad, the British government has confirmed.

Those abducted include four bodyguards from security company GardaWorld and a finance expert.

Witnesses and sources told the BBC that the kidnappers wore police uniforms and arrived in up to 40 police vehicles.

There are conflicting reports about exactly how Tuesday's abduction took place.

Witnesses said it was carried out by what appeared to be a police unit.

The street was sealed off at both ends and the kidnappers, in police camouflage uniforms, walked straight past guards at the finance ministry building on Palestine Street, the witnesses said.

A police source told the BBC that dozens of police vehicles were used in the operation.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Baghdad says that if such reports are true, it could point to the involvement of a renegade police unit, possibly special commandos.

While it has been possible in the past for criminals or militants to hire police uniforms and vehicles, he says, the scale of this operation suggests real police involvement.

It is well known that the Iraqi police are heavily infiltrated by militia groups, leading to split loyalties and corruption, our correspondent says.

Bush Chooses Zoellick to Lead World Bank

AP - Zoellick to be named to World Bank

President Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a one-time U.S. trade representative and former No. 2 official at the State Department, to lead the World Bank, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

Bush will announce the decision on Wednesday.

Here is the Wikipedia page about Robert Zoellick.

Harmful Soft Drinks

The Independent - Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health

A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

Printer Steganography

Here is an article from 2005.

AP - EFF Reveals Codes in Xerox Printers

Just because a document from a color laser printer doesn't carry your name doesn't mean no one can trace it back to you, privacy advocates warn. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has cracked the tracking codes embedded in Xerox Corp. s DocuColor color laser printers. Such codes are just one way that manufacturers employ technology to help governments fight currency counterfeiting.

"Underground democracy movements ... will always need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for governments to find dissenters," said Lee Tien, EFF senior staff attorney. "Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers."

Here is the Wikipedia page about printer steganography.

The Costs of Selling Fuel

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Running on empty

As gas prices hit another record last Friday, Jeff Curro couldn't take it anymore.

He wasn't a motorist at the pump fed up by the blur of numbers spinning higher as he filled his tank.

Curro is a gas station owner who has stopped selling gas to his own customers.

After selling gas at N. 124th and W. Burleigh streets for 20 years, Curro turned off his pumps at his Shell station in Brookfield when the price he was being asked to pay was just too much.

Including the wholesale cost of gas and other taxes and charges, he was being asked to pay $3.44 a gallon Friday, a day when the competing stations down the street were selling gasoline for $3.47.

"Three cents a gallon doesn't cut it," Curro said. "It doesn't pay the bills."

Add to that the money he loses every time a motorist uses a credit card at the pump, and there was no reason to keep selling gas, Curro said.

Credit card companies and banks get an average of 2.75% on every gallon of gas sold, and credit card processing fees now rank as the second-biggest expense for gas station operators, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

UN Troops Traded Gold for Guns

BBC - UN troops 'traded gold for guns'

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt.

These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war.

The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened.

The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout".

Possible Wi-fi Internet Cancer Risk

Daily Mail - The classroom 'cancer risk' of wi-fi internet

Britain's top health watchdog has called for an inquiry into the use of wireless Internet networks in schools because of concerns they could be exposing children to the risk of cancer.

The demand came after it was revealed that classroom "wi-fi" networks give off three times as much radiation as a typical mobile phone mast.

M&S and Asda to Remove Artificial Colours and Flavours

Daily Mail - M&S joins race to ban artificial additives from their food

Marks & Spencer has become the latest store chain to announce it will remove artificial colours and flavours from 99 per cent of its food products by the end of the year.

Asda revealed it was doing the same with 9,000 own-brand items earlier this week.

The decision follows a study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency which drew a link between additives and poor behaviour and concentration in children.

Here is my post on the FSA funded study.

Reuters Agrees to Thomson Buyout

BBC - Reuters agrees to Thomson buyout

News and information group Reuters has agreed to be bought out by Canadian financial data provider Thomson in a deal worth about £8.7bn ($17bn).

While the companies are keen for the tie-up to go ahead, it still needs approval from competition regulators, and some analysts questioned whether they would get the go-ahead.

Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty in OxyContin Case

AP - OxyContin maker, execs plead guilty

The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said.

Purdue Pharma L.P., its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

Media Banned From Blast Scenes in Iraq

AFP - Iraq to bar press from blast scenes

Iraq's interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and cameramen from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said Sunday.

His announcement was the latest in a series of attempts to curtail press coverage of the ongoing conflict, which has already attracted criticism from international human rights bodies.

Global Warming

Here are 2 articles that go against the usual stuff that’s pedalled in the media.

Spiegel Online - Not the End of the World as We Know It

How bad is climate change really? Are catastrophic floods and terrible droughts headed our way? Despite widespread fears of a greenhouse hell, the latest computer simulations are delivering far less dramatic predictions about tomorrow's climate.

Spiegel Online - 'We Are Children of the Tropics'

Biologist Josef Reichholf discusses the benefits of a warmer climate for animals and plants, large cities as centers of biological diversity and the myth of the return of malaria.

Food Additives

Daily Mail - The proof food additives ARE as bad as we feared

Parents have been warned to avoid artificial additives used in drinks, sweets and processed foods amid a link to behaviour problems in children.

A study funded by the government's Food Standards Agency(FSA) is understood to have drawn a link with temper tantrums and poor concentration.

6 Charged with Plot to Attack Army Post

AP - 6 charged with plot on Army post in N.J.

Six Islamic militants from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested on charges of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army post and "kill as many soldiers as possible," authorities said Tuesday.

ABC Censoring Ron Paul?

2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul seems to be getting censored by abcnews.com. On May 5th, he was not included in a poll which can be seen here. He was eventually added.

ABC now seems to have once again “forgotten” to add him to their chart of candidates. (A program that opens .pdf files is required to view the chart. I would recommend Foxit Reader.)

Any comments or suggestions can be made to abcnews.com at this link.

UK to Open UFO Archive to Public

The Guardian - MoD opens its files on UFO sightings to public

The Ministry of Defence plans to open its "X-Files" on UFO sightings to the public for the first time. Officials have not yet decided on a date for the release of the reports, which date back to 1967, but it is hoped to be within weeks.

The move follows the decision by the French national space agency to release its UFO files in March, the first official body in the world to do so.

Here is my post on France opening their archives.

Members of Congress Under Investigation

Here is a list of members and former members of Congress that are under investigation.

Congresspedia - Members of Congress under investigation

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.)
Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.)
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.V.)
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.)
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.)
Former Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.)
Former Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.)
Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas)
Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)
Former Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.)
Former Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.)
Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.)
Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio)
Former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.)

Digg Censors HD-DVD Key

Looks like digg.com deleted posts/users that posted about the key and then deleted posts/users who talked about the censoring. The censoring did eventually stop.

Gizmodo - Breaking: Digg Riot in Full Effect Over Pulled HD-DVD Key Story

The power of Web 2.0 is in full effect over at Digg, where users are revolting over Digg's decision to pull a story (that netted over 15,000 diggs) and reportedly boot a user for posting the HD-DVD AACS Processing Key number, which would allow someone to crack the copy protection on an HD-DVD.

Here is a post by one of the founders of digg.com

The key: 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0

Vanunu Convicted Again

Middle East Times - Israel convicts nuclear whistleblower again

An Israeli court Monday convicted nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who once served 18 years in jail, of violating a ban on leaving Israel and contacting foreign journalists.

Vanunu, who was released from prison in 2004, is due to be sentenced in two weeks, the spokesman said.

Vanunu served 18 years in jail for lifting the lid on the inner workings of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

Here is an older post of mine which mentions this guy.

Blair Supports Gordon Brown

Reuters - Blair endorses Brown as Britain's next leader

Tony Blair endorsed long-standing finance minister Gordon Brown as Britain's next leader on Tuesday and said he would announce next week when he was stepping aside as prime minister.

My previous posts on Brown:

Brown Wants New World Order

New World Order