Bad Behavior Squared

Besides The Guardian and other mainstream newspapers, Foreign Policy magazine has also been reading through the most recent batch of Wikileaks cables and publishing what it finds on a special section of its website called Wikileaked.

Today, they published this little gem. I think the title says it all: "More stellar corporate behavior in Nigeria". (Newsflash: Diplomats are jaded, cynical bunch.)

This brief article discusses the behavior of Pfizer in the aftermath of its illegal clinical trial of the Trovan antibiotic during a meningitis epidemic in 1996 in Kano, Nigeria. It was an illegal clinical trial because the parents of the children had no idea that Pfizer was using their children as human test subjects and therefore had no way to give informed consent. Of the 100 children given the antibiotic, five children died and dozens of others were left maimed for life due to liver complications. Pfizer's actions would later serve as the basis of John le Carré's novel The Constant Gardener.

There was a great deal of legal wrangling in both Nigerian and US courts and Pfizer finally reached a $75 million out-of-court settlement in early 2009.

The leaked cable, however, discusses how Pfizer tried to intimidate the Nigerian Attorney General to drop his legal inquiry by instigating a smear campaign:

According to Liggeri [Pfizer's manager for Nigeria], Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to Federal Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer’s investigators were passing this information to local media, XXXXXXXXXXXX. A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s “alleged” corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles.

I'm not particularly shocked that a multinational corporation would try to interfere with the affairs of a sovereign government because the corporation wasn't getting its way. I am far more shocked that a corporate executive would so casually discuss his company's bad behavior with a diplomat and neither would feel remorse.

JP Morgue

Conspiracy-inclined, but still funny.

What the heck goes on at this school?

A Real Life Hurt Locker

This is more than a little weird.

I appreciate what happened at Virginia Tech, but this simply doesn't pass muster. Whittington didn't make actionable threats. He wasn't even vaguely threatening. He just simply articulated his reactions to the very dark and crazed business of combat. And he did it quite well, it seems.

And really, what he was writing about is exactly what won The Hurt Locker all those Academy Awards.

I don't think he needs a psych eval. I think he needs to be encouraged to write more.

I think it's sad that we should glorify these wars in this country, but not allow our returning vets to speak honestly of them. We expect them to keep hushed about it because war doesn't affirm a positive, sunny outlook about the good intentions of mankind, I guess.

I feel sorry for this guy and I hope psychiatry doesn't damage him even more.

Can you say Party Town?

Something to pick him up. Something to chill him out. And for those extra-special times when he can't tell if his heart is still beating, he can have a hit of some prescription poppers. Good times.

from Pharmagossip

This is very exciting.

There aren't many works by Giotto left in the world. Many of his works were whitewashed and repainted over by later Renaissance artists. He is given the title "First Painter of the Renaissance," although his rendering of the human form was not quite there, as it would be with the work of the later artists.

His Flight into Egypt is the one most often seen in the anthologies:



One of my all time favorite works is his Adoration of the Magi:




I like it because of the camels. Giotto had obviously never seen a camel before. Like most people of 14th century Europe, he was insulated from things and experiences outside of his small world. He could only paint the camels from other people's descriptions and how he imagined them to be. They are not accurate camels, but they are *honest* camels, painted as passionately and as honestly as he could humanly paint them.

Winners and Losers

This dude just got elected for Florida governor. His resume sounds just as impressive as Meg Whitman's. CA had the good sense to reject nutMeg. However, endemic stupidity seems to have overcome all hurdles in FLA.