A segment of animated footage promoting the 2012 Olympics has been removed from the organisers' website after fears it could trigger epileptic seizures.
Prof Graham Harding, who developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material, said it should not be broadcast again.
Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it.
Organiser London 2012 said it will re-edit the film.
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In the late 80's while a group of us were hanging around the newsroom of a weekly newspaper in a town on the California coast complaining about Reagan and wars and things of that nature one of my colleagues a guy named Walter said something very simply, "I don't like soldiers. They kill people." He knew whereof he spoke, he and two family members escaped from the Ukraine in the mid-1940s to Canada. The rest of his family were killed or "left to die in th... (more)
"Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck. The responsibility for war falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anybody else. To stress this guilt on the part of masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom-fighters; the latter the attitude held by the power-thirsty politicians." - Wilhelm Reich, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism"
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." --Dante
Okay. Let's talk about troops. Everybody's doing it. We're bombarded round-the-clock with "support the troops . . . fund the troops . . . bring the troops home . . . surge the troops . . . use the troops for Commander Guy photo ops . . .”
Congress is embroiled in a ghoulish "troop" food fight that has gone on far too long. Democrats say Republica... (more)
Excerpts: Newsnight follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience. As they march across America to protest, shocking interviews emerge on the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians. Veterans reveal they had been trained to see Iraqis as anima... (more)
A very disturbing commercial is being shown on network television in the United States with alarming regularity. I have seen it frequently during the past few weeks on an NBC station that broadcasts from the nation’s capital, Washington, DC.
It opens with a male chorus—perhaps a military choir--singing: “Over hill, over dale; we have hit the dusty trail.” The song has the cadence of a forced march. In muted light soldiers are seen wading through fetid wate... (more)
Stock markets across the world have been skyrocketing lately. In fact, Forbes reported on Tuesday that: “all 22 of the developed-world markets tracked by Morgan Stanley Capital International are in positive territory year-to-date. …Emerging markets are looking just as flush. Of the 29 emerging market countries that MSCI tracks, only four--Argentina, Sri Lanka, Russia and Venezuela--are in negative territory.”
Yahooo! The markets are soaring and we’ve ente... (more)
In his first interview as the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan told a reporter that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country.
"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]," Milligan said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "and the naysayers w... (more)
Economic discussion in the United States is trapped in ancient ruts. Both right and left are stuck in old habitual ways of thinking. Neither shows inclination or ability to think independently of ideology. For a country beset with economic problems, this is problematic.
The ascendency of free market economics during the past quarter century has removed some constraints on corporate power. It is difficult to argue that this is a desirable result. For example, the concentration of m... (more)
Back in 1995, a document titled "Owning the Weather in 2025" was submitted to the director of the United States Air Force, under a disguised notion that it was a fictional report and was not intended to be applied to real-life scenarios. The document was a detailed research analysis ... (more)
A note of caution since I wrote about Bush’s plans to anoint himself the insurer of constitutional government in the event of emergency.
I decided to see what the American Civil Liberties Union thought of the May 9 release of the National Security Presidential Directive, and to my surprise, the ACLU did not seem that concerned about it.
"These presidential directives on the continuity of gov... (more)
The Central Intelligence Agency has received approval at least twice in the last several years to conduct an “information war” against several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon and Syria, according to current and former intelligence officials.
In addition, the Bush Administration has been running operations out of the Defense Department that are not subject to Congressional oversight, intelligence sources say. These programs appear murkier, and have... (more)
Texas judge Keith Dean, recently defeated for re- election, decided as he was cleaning out his desk in December that he would order the release of a man that he controversially sentenced to life in prison in 1990. Tyrone Brown was 17 when he committed a $2 robbery, and Dean put him on probation but changed it to life in prison when Brown shortly afterward tested positive for marijuana. (The Dallas Morning News in a series of 2006 articles had reported that Dean had failed to additionally punish ... (more)
The House of Commons and No 10 Downing Street are among 16 "protected sites" designated by the Home Secretary, John Reid, in a bid to crack down on protestors.
New criminal powers will make it an offence punishable by up to six months in prison to break through security cordons and mount protests inside a series of sensitive government buildings, and royal palaces including the Palace of Westminster.
The offence was created in response to a security breach by self-s... (more)
Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.
Surging demand for “green” fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia’s population of 3 million displaced peopl... (more)
Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in America once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling taxation and restriction on users of the internet.
State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other Internet-service co... (more)
Number of mainstream U.S. news outlets that reported on Paris Hilton over the past week: 10,000+
Number of mainstream U.S. news outlets that reported on a meeting of nearly 200 of the world's most powerful people this past weekend; Less than a handful.
The only U.S. media report this year about 200 of the most powerful people in the world meeting in secret was a single article in the Dallas Morning News - in terms of media fre... (more)
Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden admitted meeting with the chief financier of the 9/11 hijackers in the days after September 11 after being confronted by We Are Change founder Luke Rudkowski in the press room following Sunday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire.
According to the FBI and as confirmed by various news reports at the time, Pakistani ISI General Mahmoud Ahmad instructed Omar Saeed Sheikh, th... (more)
More than seven new laws have come into force every day since Tony Blair came to power a decade ago, new research has shown.
The legislatively hyperactive Blair premiership has seen an average of 2,685 new laws introduced each year - a 22 per cent increase on the previous decade under the Tories.
A new law has come into being every three-and-a-quarter hours, and that's without adding on the new laws from Brussels, which had reached 2,10... (more)
Good intentions frequently lead to unintended bad consequences. Tough choices, doing what is right, often leads to unanticipated good results.
The growing demand by the American people for us to leave Iraq prompts the naysayers to predict disaster in the Middle East if we do. Of course, these merchants of fear are the same ones who predicted that invading and occupying Iraq would be a slam-dunk operation; that we would be... (more)
“Addressing about 100 wide-eyed Wyoming high school students learning about government and the political process,” Vice President Cheney yesterday repeated one of the key fabrications that helped send the United States into war.
During the question and answer session, one student asked, “I was wondering — I’m not trying to start a debate, ... (more)
A Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war said Sunday that the threat of an other-than-honorable discharge would not stop him from speaking out against the war.
Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh, who has received an honorable discharge from active duty but remains part of the inactive military reserve, has been charged with violating Defense Department regulations by wearing fatigues, with military badges removed, during a protest of the Iraq war. He also is accused of disrespect to an officer... (more)
I came to New Hampshire with the Creative Coalition for a panel tomorrow morning and was supposed to be in the auditorium for the debate but because I am a journalist, they were told I would have to wait in the spin room. When I got to the spin room, which was an empty gymnasium, I noticed that there were chairs located on a balcony above us. So I went up there -- no one asked me for my ID or anything -- and went over to the bar and ask... (more)
Children as young as four are to take "happiness tests" in a controversial drive to force schools to improve the well-being of pupils, it has emerged.
Thousands of youngsters are expected to be quizzed on whether they are feeling optimistic, confident, loved and interested in other people.
They will be set questionnaires similar to the self-help quizzes found in women's magazines to check they are "feeling good about myself" and "dea... (more)
