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science

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-d-moreno/testing-in-the-east-an-ep_b_12124206.html?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science
"Testing in the East": An Episode in Cold War Bioethics
Co-author: Ulf Schmidt, Professor of Modern History, University of Kent, Canterbury, England

In 2013 the influential German magazine Der Spiegel published an expose about clinical trials conducted by Western drug companies in East Germany during the Cold War. The magazine reported that at least 50,000 people had been test subjects for around 900 studies done by manufacturers that included leading companies from Switzerland, the United States, and West Germany. Fifty hospitals were sites of the research, including the prestigious Charite in East Berlin. The principle motivation for the East Germans was money: they desperately needed hard currency for their failing medical system. For their part the companies appreciated the far greater efficiency of recruitment in the East, and paid the East Germans up to 800,000 West German marks per study.

The agency responsible for setting up these contracts? The notorious Stasi, the East German secret police force that included hundreds of thousands of paid agents and hundreds of thousands of more informants.

Der Spiegel's series about the drug trials contained language and themes familiar to many landmark bioethics cases. The revelations were described as a scandal that used the oppressed East Germans as human guinea pigs, including deaths and injuries that had not been properly reported, the indiscriminate use of low-birthweight infants and depressed patients, inadequate informed consent, powerful drug companies and physicians largely eager to cooperate in spite of the occasional protest. Complete with interviews with former test subjects and regretful doctors, the study had all the elements of a classical bioethics case study that could take its place along with the U.S. Public Health Service's Tuskegee syphilis study; the Guatemala sexually transmissible disease experiments; and some of the well-documented human radiation, biological, and chemical warfare experiments in the U.S. and the U.K. The magazine's series concluded on a hopeful note that justice would be served when the distinguished German medical historian, Volker Hess, reviews the study archives.

Hess and two co-authors recently concluded their exhaustive review, published in German as Testen im Osten or "Testing in the East." They concluded that, far from the scandal that the press anticipated, the East German trials were conducted largely within acceptable standards of medical ethics, especially by the conventions of the day. The authors do allow that consent procedures might not have been as thorough as in the West and in some cases there are serious questions about placebo controls and the adequacy of comparative treatment arms, but the practices were not dramatically different from those in West Germany at the time, they say.

Several other groups of historians and ethicists in Germany have also examined the material and published their results. Yet this dramatic episode has received virtually no attention in the bioethics literature, in spite of the fact that it raises compelling questions about the functioning of medical ethics standards and practices in an authoritarian system. With the glaring and extreme exceptions of the Nazi concentration camp experiments and the abuses of Soviet psychiatry, these are questions that are largely absent from the literature. Medical ethics in Central and Eastern Europe during the socialist period is a matter of near total ignorance among scholars.

In the years ahead other scholars will want to weigh in on the conclusions of Hess and others. But one lesson that can already be drawn is that expectations about medical ethics in authoritarian regimes should be critically received. More investigation needs to be conducted about these seemingly contrarian results. Usual explanations don't seem to be available. For example, although East Germany was not a member of the World Medical Association and therefore not philosophically committed to its Declaration of Helsinki, they do not appear to have violated that international agreement. And although Western firms had good reason to want to conduct trials that were in line with Helsinki requirements in order to ensure that their intellectual property would be protected, they often seem to have breached those requirements in other parts of the world. And yet in East Germany they seem to have complied with those requirements. Why was this the case?

Understanding the unique conditions of medical ethics in East Germany and the other socialist states in that period will require incorporating expertise from cultural history, law, and the social sciences, as well as dogged archival work. Challenging though it is, this often troubled region presents an exceptional opportunity to assess the development, interpretation, and application of ethical theories, standards, and practices under circumstances that were quite different from those anywhere else in the world, and to obtain an illuminating comparison with our own place and time.

Originally published on the Hastings Bioethics Forum, September 21, 2016.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Wellcome Trust.

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science

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gaia

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/javier-sierra/a-life-saving-clean-power_b_12123728.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green
A Life-Saving Clean Power Plan in the Hands of a US Court
Your future and that of your family is on trial at a court in Washington, DC. On Sept. 27, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral arguments about the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the country's most relevant federal initiative to fight climate change, and then decide whether it will ever be implemented.

Attorneys from both sides will present their views and answer the judges' questions about the legal arguments submitted to the court months ago.

And for us Latinos, this is a critical decision. We disproportionately suffer the consequences of climate change and the fossil fuel pollution that causes it.

The Obama administration's EPA finalized the CPP in 2015 to curb power plant carbon emissions for the first time ever. These plants generate 40 percent of the climate change pollution. The initiative would reduce these emissions by 32 percent in relation to 2005 levels by 2030.

For Latinos these reductions are literally a matter of life and death. Almost 40 percent of us live dangerously close to a coal-burning plant, which translates into high rates of asthma --especially among our children--, emphysema, heart disease, cancer and premature death.

By 2030, according to the EPA, the CPP would prevent 3,600 premature deaths, 1,700 heart attacks, 90,000 asthma attacks and the loss of 300,000 school and work days every year. Also annually, the plan would save us all some $54 billion in health care costs, prevent the emission of 870 million tons of carbon and drastically reduce the dumping of toxic compounds, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides.

Speaking of savings, the CPP could bring down your electric bill by up to $17 a month, something hundreds of thousands of Latino households would really welcome as we pay a higher percentage of our income in power bills.

And to top it all off, the CPP could usher in a full-force clean energy economy generating millions of jobs, mainly in the sectors of the economy that employ the most Latinos, such as construction and manufacturing.

A plan that fights climate change and the fossil fuel pollution that causes it, that saves money for electricity users and creates good paying jobs? It's no wonder 82 percent of Latinos support the immediate implementation of the CPP. Yet some environmental justice groups do not support the CPP because it does not go far enough to secure reductions of pollution in communities of color.

However, attorneys general from 27 states, upon the urging of the dirty energy industry, early this year persuaded the Supreme Court to stay the implementation of the CPP, while the Circuit Court decided the merits of this brilliant idea.

The plaintiffs and their allies brandish the absurd argument that the hopes of our community's prosperity rest on a dirty energy economy, which in reality inflicts a daily punishment on the health of millions of Latinos and puts the future of the planet in grave risk.

The fossil fuel industry are trying to scare us all with fantastic predictions of impending ruin if the initiative is implemented, the same predictions polluters and the dirty energy industry have been foretelling for decades and that have never become reality.

A few weeks ago, Pope Francisco warned the world that destroying the environment is a sin, urging us all to act on the climate crisis. He added taking care of the God's creation must be added to the traditional Christian acts of compassion, including feeding the hungry and caring for the sick.

It would be a great idea for the enemies of the Clean Power Plant to heed the Pope's teachings, because as a matter of fact denying us and the rest of humanity a clean and bright future is a sin.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

gaia

1474485253000

science

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/llewellyn-king/no-end-to-the-cold-wars-e_b_12079208.html?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science
No End To The Cold War's Expensive Nuclear Legacy
It was the Cold War, and it was a potential race to Armageddon. The Soviet Union produced an excessive number of nuclear warheads, and we did likewise.

Now another war rages bitterly-- but not on the front pages -- over what to do with the legacy of cold war: plutonium from the warheads.

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in the honeymoon period that followed between Russia and the United States, it was obvious that there were way too many warheads and the number needed to be reduced. In particular the key ingredient, plutonium, had to be contained and, preferably, disposed of.

In 2000, the United States and Russia agreed to dismantle large numbers of nuclear warheads known as "pits."

But getting rid of plutonium is not easy. It is a transuranic element, made in special reactors and, up to this point in time, with only one purpose: to make hydrogen bombs. It also is possible to use it as a fuel in power reactors, if they are the light water reactors now in service around the world. This can be done by mixing the plutonium with uranium reactor fuel in the proportion of 95 percent uranium to 5 percent plutonium.

This is not a great rate of disposal, but it works.

The French process is the one the Clinton Administration committed to using to burn up 34 metric tons of pit plutonium from warheads being dismantled at the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The Russians committed to burning their equivalent excess plutonium in fast reactors. These are reactors with a high-neutron-flux -- a technology that the United States abandoned during the Carter Administration.

To accomplish the U.S. commitment to the Russians and get rid of the plutonium, the Department of Energy commissioned the building of a facility at its huge Savannah River Site nuclear reservation (310 square miles) near Aiken, S.C., on the Georgia border.

The plant -- a massive structure with double walls (each 10-feet thick) of the highest grade concrete and with a dense matrix of steel reinforcing -- is as close as humans can come, in my view, to building something that will last for thousands of years. It is awesome.

But the plant is troubled.

The DOE wants to halt construction and abandon the idea in favor of mixing the plutonium with a granular substance and burying it in a waste facility in New Mexico, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which is having its own difficulties after an accident. The process is called "down blending." It does not get rid of the plutonium which, with a half-life of 240,000 years, is essentially indestructible, unless it is burned in a reactor. It just stabilizes it and makes it hard to retrieve.

The suggested change has exacerbated tensions with Russia at a difficult time in U.S.-Russia relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the proposed change of plan, saying, "This is not what we agreed on."

John MacWilliams, the DOE's point man on the issue, told me that the root of the problem is money. The South Carolina facility, known as the MOX (mixed oxide fuel) plant, has cost more than anticipated with $5 billion spent and a dispute over how far along construction is.

The DOE maintains that it is only 40 percent complete, and the contractor says it is 70 percent complete. Both have relied on outside consultants for their numbers.

Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, himself a nuclear scientist, told a meeting in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 13 that the South Carolina plant would cost $50 billion to $60 billion over its life-cycle. He estimated it would cost between $15 billion and $20 billion for the alternative down blending proposal. That is a number that is likely to be challenged in Congress.

The South Carolina congressional delegation and other supporters, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), are passionate in their support for MOX. But Congress is funding the construction at just $350 million a year, less than the $500 million needed to keep to the construction schedule, thus making the whole enterprise more expensive.

One way or another the Cold War is going to keep on costing for a long, long time. -- For InsideSources

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

science

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images

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https://500px.com/photo/173679971/queen-of-the-dolomites-by-lorenzo-nadalini
Queen of The Dolomites by Lorenzo Nadalini

Queen of The Dolomites by Lorenzo Nadalini

Dolomites - Italia “Marmolada” is the highest mountain group of Veneto and it's called the Queen of the Dolomites. Its beauty has always struck me. Its greatness has always impressed me. Unfortunately, global warming is melting the glacier which lies on the mountain and its valleys, revealing a molded and burned rock scarred by the weight of ice in constant motion. I hope you enjoy it :) A historical curiosity, unique in its kind: in the deepness of Marmolada's glacier lay the “Ice City”, a thick web of tunnels overall 12 km, together with barracks, kitchens, chapels, sanatoriums, stores, dug by Austro Hungarian soldiers. No one before had dug into a glacier and overall in such a difficult conditions: there was no scientific documentation about it. They had to test materials, explosives (the few that they owned) and technologies, to eventually build something unique in its kind. In 1916 the whole Marmolada had transmuted into a battlefield of the World War I. The most strategic position was occupied by the Austrian troops and was called “Forcella V“ for its shape. The position was right on the top of the glacier, connected with the near bastion on the “Quote 3153“. That position was really difficult to supply because of the Italian troops watching from their bastion of Serauta, too close: from there they could control the whole glacier day and night, in order to avoid any movement on it. But the glacier was the only way to reach the top, walking on its surface with the danger of italian fire, avalanches and snow storms. That was why during the summer 1916, Ten. Leo Handl got the idea to dig a tunnel in the deepness of the glacier, to reach the top, hidden from the Italian. After that they found out what living into the ice was: no avalanches, only above, on the surface, no snow storms, 0°C of temperature: really better than outside. So the original tunnel transmuted in a very extended web of tunnels, that connected all the Austrian positions in around. Under there, there was kitchens, baracks, sanatorium, deposits, everything they needed to survive. At the end, after ten months of hard work, more than two hundred soldiers could live under there. Nowadays only few materials can tell us the story of the Ice City. When the soldiers had to abandon the Dolomiti's front, the ice tunnel kept on collapsing, moving and smelting, without anyone to take care of them. Some of the rests of that time have been found and brought to the museum after the smelting of the glacier (overall over recent years); some other are still buried deep somewhere.

Lorenzo Nadalini: Photos

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/41087279@N00/29178468354/
DSC_2827 London West End Soho Sunset Strip Striptease Cabaret Show 30 Dean Street

photographer695 posted a photo:

London West End Soho Sunset Strip Striptease Cabaret Show
I went to the Sunset Strip on my first visit to London back in 1966 at the age of 18, 50 year ago. Back then strip tease was more of an art form and it really did tease. There was different acts such as a nurse and her patient, Teacher and her pupil, Police Lady and her criminal etc. It was real Burlesque a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. Wikipedia Quote. It really was an art form. Unfortunately, in this world of instant gratification the show has now been reduced to Pole Dancing. One thing that has remained the same is the entrance fee which is now £15. With this fee you are welcome to come and go for the entire DAY with say a visit at lunch time returning for the evening show. Totally unique concept for a strip club.

www.sunsetstrip.co.uk/theclub.htm

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4722801/The-naked-truth.html

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design

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http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/20/12987942/makerbot-replicator-plus-mini-3d-printer-education-design
MakerBot's two new printers are meant for professionals and schools

3D printing company MakerBot has announced two new printers and an official shift of focus, away from general DIY printing and toward the specialized worlds of professional design and education. The MakerBot Replicator Plus and Replicator Mini Plus are new generations of existing products, both promising a simpler process and better results. Launching today, they're accompanied by a new software system and some supplementary services, as well as a new printing material.

The MakerBot Replicator Plus looks similar to its predecessors, but MakerBot promises that nearly every part of it has been rebuilt. That includes an extruder motion system that allows for faster and more precise prints, a build plate that will grip prints better and...

design

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design

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http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/20/12987310/baller-yoga-mat-football-leather
I know who this yoga mat made out of footballs is perfect for

TheBallerYoga mat is $495 to $1,000 worth of the same leather they use to make NFL footballs, but it's also a statement piece for your home.

What does it state? Either that you're a committed "baller" who knows that "nothing beats the grip and control of leather," or that you're Zachary Quinto's character in American Horror Story: Asylum and everything in your house is made out of skin.

BallerYoga promises that every element of its BallerYoga mats are made in the USA — the decorative football laces and all the skins. They also promise that your BallerYoga mat will smell better and look better the more you use it, sort of like the opposite of the skin on your body.

Below you can observe...

design

Above the Bankers by BRXSON

Sitting on TD Canada Trust Tower's neon green sign, accompanied by my neon green socks.

Queen of The Dolomites by Lorenzo Nadalini