Movie Reviews: Shrink

I'll start by saying that I'm no movie critic. However, this movie was very good. It stars Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, and Robin Williams. It's a sad, kinda melancholy film about grief, specifically regarding Spacey, and his inability to deal with a personal tragedy while turning to smoking pot to cope with the pain and despair. The story travels between 4 or 5 characters, all of whom are intertwined in some way (sometimes that 'web' is cheesy and predictable in some movies, but it was used well here). The soundtrack was very good, a lot of instrumental music - created a very good tone for the movie. I'd caution you to watch this if you are experiencing any level of despair yourself, due to the obvious story, but the movie line allows the watcher to accept grief, and the realities of pain and loss, while making just enough room for the real possibility of hope and well... not the absence of grief, but the moving forward with grief. Two thumbs up.

:: nW

Longrunning Controversy on Autism and Vaccines - by Dr. Redwood

From his blog, the www.dailyhitblog.com,

"I do not hold a firm opinion on this topic. This controversy has swirled for an extended time and allegations of falsifying data by both sides have muddied the waters to the point where uncertainty seems a reasonable response.

If one is to believe the preponderance of evidence in the peer-reviewed literature, a causal link is hard to find.

But in this article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, a man whose intelligence and integrity I trust, a series of very serious questions are raised about the quality of that evidence and the honesty of the central figure behind the research used to attack claims of a vaccine-autism link.

A central figure behind the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) claims disputing the link between vaccines and autism and other neurological disorders has disappeared after officials discovered massive fraud involving the theft of millions in taxpayer dollars. Danish police are investigating Dr. Poul Thorsen, who has vanished along with almost $2 million that he had supposedly spent on research.Thorsen was a leading member of a Danish research group that wrote several key studies supporting CDC’s claims that the MMR vaccine and mercury-laden vaccines were safe for children. Thorsen’s 2003 Danish study reported a 20-fold increase in autism in Denmark after that country banned mercury based preservatives in its vaccines. His study concluded that mercury could therefore not be the culprit behind the autism epidemic.

His study has long been criticized as fraudulent since it failed to disclose that the increase was an artifact of new mandates requiring, for the first time, that autism cases be reported on the national registry. This new law and the opening of a clinic dedicated to autism treatment in Copenhagen accounted for the sudden rise in reported cases rather than, as Thorsen seemed to suggest, the removal of mercury from vaccines. Despite this obvious chicanery, CDC has long touted the study as the principal proof that mercury-laced vaccines are safe for infants and young children. Mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, has relied on this study as the basis for its public assurances that it is safe to inject young children with mercury — a potent neurotoxin — at concentrations hundreds of times over the U.S. safety limits.

I encourage you to read the whole article. I hope it is not true that researchers (and possibly the CDC itself) have engaged in fraudulent activity. This article leads me to keep an open mind on the topic and await further developments."