Nexus - 0806 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS LAB ANIMALS DRIVEN SO MAD THAT TESTS ARE INVALID the $100 million test was rigged!" Conason's article complained that the mainstream media didn't pick up on this, even though the Pentagon confirmed the role of the GPS device to a reporter for Defense Week magazine several days after the test. "They either buried the news or ignored it," the columnist said, because they "had so obediently celebrated the technological breakthrough two weeks earlier". But this is just the tip of what's going on in an effort to sell the defence system, Conason insisted. "The Pentagon and the Bush White House mean to stifle any dissent about the capabilities of their favorite toy," he added. "They have repeatedly sought to reclassify documents that show that the system doesn't function as advertised. And within the past few weeks they have bla- tantly attempted to intimidate Theodore Postol, a professor at MIT who is currently the country's leading critic of missile defense." (Source: by Dave Zweifel, August 21, 2001, posted at www.rense.com) meningitis drug in 1996. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, seeks unspecified damages on behalf of 30 children who participated in the drug trial in Kano, northern Nigeria. The children were among 200 young- sters who were part of the testing of Trovan, an unproven drug administered in a form never before tested on humans, the lawsuit says. The families of seven of 11 children who died after participating in the test were among plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the tests were conducted during an epidemic of bacterial meningitis in Nigeria that left children des- perate for medical care. "Rather than provide the children with a safe, effective and proven therapy for bac- terial meningitis, Pfizer chose to select children to participate in a medical experi- ment of a new, untested and unproven drug without first obtaining their informed con- sent,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit asserts that the drug was known to have life-threatening effects, which soon surfaced during the tests in an impoverished city experiencing epidemics of bacterial meningitis, measles and cholera. It says Pfizer hurried plans to carry out its tests, taking a variety of steps that vio- lated international law, federal regulations and medical ethics. (Source: Tampa Bay Online, August 29, 2001, http://ap.tbo.com) lhe multibillion-dollar industry called "animal research" has reached a new peak of madness. US scientists say they have found evi- dence that the sheer boredom of life as a captive lab animal may be enough to incur brain damage or insanity and thus render many experiments invalid. Using animals to test effects of poten- tially dangerous drugs and chemicals as a measure of human health is insane non- sense in the first place. Testing on animals is for the legal protection of the manufacturers only, and represents little or no scientific foundation. That is why people die every day from the effects of so-called safe drugs and chemicals. Piles of data exist showing that animal physiology differs widely between species, let alone among humans in terms of response to drugs, vitamins, chemicals or psychology, so why the concern over whether results are flawed because of insanity? (Source: The Guardian, London, August 28, 2001, www.newsunlimited.co.uk) LIVING BRAIN CELLS LINKED IN ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT cientists for the first time have linked multiple brain cells with silicon chips to create a part-mechanical, part-living electronic circuit. To construct the partially living elec- tronic circuit, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany managed to affix multiple snail neurons onto tiny transistor chips, and demonstrat- ed that the cells communicated with each other and with the chips. The advance is an important step towards a goal that is still more science fiction than science: to develop artificial retinas and prosthetic limbs that are exten- sions of the human nervous system. The idea is to combine the mechanical abilities of electronic circuits with the extraordi- nary complexity and intelligence of the human brain. Such combinations of biology and tech- nology may not only one day help the blind to see and the paralysed to move objects with their thoughts, but also help to build computers that are as inventive and adaptable as our own nervous systems and a generation of robots that might truly deserve to be called intelligent. (Source: Washington Post, August 28, 2001) PFIZER ACCUSED OF KILLING KIDS WITH UNTESTED DRUGS fizer Inc. was accused in a lawsuit this Wednesday of causing brain damage and even death to Nigerian children when it conducted "secret testing" of a new Fomeae,.] FRc aes a 1 it} we ay ‘ney i Mead, OV? (7 ae = Clever...they always stock those things around about adult eye-height. == if ay NEXUS +7 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com