Review of the Film “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe”

I looked at the data that the CDC whistleblower was providing to Andy and Brian and it is the most compelling evidence of fraud I have ever seen in my life. I realized in that moment that I was looking at probably the biggest story of my lifetime.As a journalist, I realized it was a story I had to tell. – Del Bigtree, Producer of Vaxxed from Cover-Up to Catastrophe

Practically from the opening scene, the film Vaxxed grabs our attention and doesn’t let go until it has elicited every ounce of empathy and outrage the human heart is capable of. Back in 2013, William Thompson, PhD, a senior scientist at the CDC was so wracked with guilt about his participation in a CDC study on the timing of the MMR vaccine and autism that he finally picked up the phone and called Brian Hooker, PhD, biologist and autism dad, to tell him where to look for the evidence of CDC deception. Vaxxed is the story of what followed, revealing evidence of collusion, corruption, and fraud at the very agency charged with protecting the public health.

The film was accepted by and then unceremoniously ejected from the Tribeca Film Festival after a firestorm of media attention which almost unanimously condemned the film even though not a single reporter had seen it. The media attention may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, as it has many people who haven’t investigated the topic before asking, Why? What is so special about this film that so many people wanted to kill it? And so it was that the film opened last night to a packed house at Angelika Film Center in New York City. As a long-time New Yorker, there was a particular thrill to seeing this film at this theater. Angelika is my very favorite theater in New York. I have many vivid memories of terrific and thought-provoking films seen there, while surprisingly I have no clear recollection of any films screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who started his adult life as a research gastroenterologist studying Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis at the Royal Free Hospital in London, had his career destroyed by a case series he wrote with twelve other eminent gastroenterologists and researchers back in 1998 that suggested the possibility that the severe bowel disease they were seeing in children with autism might be associated with the measles vaccine they received. Parents of eight of the twelve children in the series reported that their children had been developing normally or close to it until they received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR). Scientific researchers look for patterns; they don’t spend their time and energy on random guesses out of the blue. If a researcher finds a pattern in what they’re seeing, that’s usually a good sign that there’s something there to investigate. Wakefield et al’s research was merely suggestive and didn’t draw any conclusions, but it clearly touched a nerve in some very powerful circles as this case series is used as a touchstone in virtually any argument involving vaccines and autism.

The fascinating thing to me is that the facts about this research are almost universally mischaracterized in the media to the point that we get comments from people all the time making wildly inaccurate statements like “that doctor was convicted of fraud and sent to jail!”, “Wakefield admitted he made it all up,” or “he performed dangerous and unnecessary procedures on children.” (Wakefield was not a clinician; he performed zero procedures on children, and the person who did perform most of these supposedly “unnecessary” medical procedures, Dr. John Walker-Smith, had his medical license reinstated when a judge reversed the previous GMC finding.) The whole thing would be comical if the effect of silencing debate and investigation were not having such a horrendous impact on so many children’s health.

Dr. Wakefield had already turned his efforts toward documentary filmmaking (a previous effort, Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis?, is among the most affecting and thought-provoking films I have ever seen) when Dr. Hooker called him and told him what Dr. Thompson was saying. Dr. Wakefield encouraged Dr. Hooker to record the conversations without Dr. Thompson’s knowledge to ensure that there was a record of his statements in case something happened to Dr. Thompson to make him change his mind. This was totally legal as both Dr. Thompson and Dr. Hooker were in states where one-party consent is all that is required for recording. Dr. Hooker re-analyzed the data that he obtained at Dr. Thompson’s suggestion, and it was damning. The re-analysis was peer-reviewed and published in Translational Neurodegeneration in August of 2014, then later retracted when the journal received a barrage of attacks similar to what happened to the Tribeca Film Festival.

Prior to beginning the original study, there was a six-month research plan written up. The research plan was intended to make the study unassailable, unlike the CDC’s Verstraeten Thimerosal study which was riddled with problems from the outset (explained beautifully in Trace Amounts, another documentary that came out last year). But, again, researchers ran into trouble right away. When they crunched the numbers, they found two very strong associations between the timing of MMR and autism. In African-American boys, autism was 3.4 times as common in children who had received the MMR before 36 months of age than it was in children who were given the vaccine after they turned three. In addition, children who had been developing normally for the first twelve months of life and later developed autism were more than seven times as likely to have had MMR before the age of three as at later time. As Dr. Wakefield rightly points out in the film, all the children in the study were given the MMR – it was only the timing that varied – and the effects were quite strong. How strong would the effect have been if they had compared children who had the vaccine before 18 months (as is recommended by the CDC in order to be “on time”) with children who had never received the vaccine at all?

But no one knows because the CDC didn’t publish the data. Instead of publishing what they found and doing the follow-on studies that should have been performed, they set about systematically getting rid of the strong signals they had found. Instead of following the unassailable research plan, they figured out a way to plausibly dump 40% of the data by requiring Georgia birth certificates. This reduced the amplitude of the signal itself as well as the statistical power of the study, meaning that whatever signal they did find could be explained away as “not statistically significant.” Not only did they discard the data for the purposes of publication, however, they literally threw the data away. Fortunately, Dr. Thompson, realizing that this was at best unethical and at worst illegal, kept copies of all the data.

This study was eventually published in 2004, four years after it began, and it was immediately taken to the Institute of Medicine, a supposedly independent organization, who used this study to recommend that no more investigation be done on the subject. At the time, the study was referenced in virtually every media outlet as “proof” that “vaccines don’t cause autism.” (Though any scientist worth their salt would know it was nothing of the kind even if it weren’t fraudulent.) Thompson rightfully complained to Dr. Hooker in 2013 that we had already lost 10 years of research because of the CDC’s paralysis around anything related to autism and vaccines. If that’s not enough to make your blood boil, you haven’t been paying attention.

At the beginning of 2009, five years after this study and the Verstraeten study were published, Julie Gerberding left her job as Director of the CDC to take a lucrative position at Merck, the maker of the MMR, running their vaccine division. It’s not hard to see that Merck was quite pleased with the work she did for them.

As a bystander who has watched closely as all the events in the film were taking place, I have been indignant at the wholesale ignoring of the evidence that our children have been sold down the river by powerful and cynical collusion between CDC and corporate interests. Del Bigtree, as a producer of The Doctors, an influential medical program that often received information from the CDC, couldn’t chase the story down himself when it broke, but as a journalist with a nose for a good story, he assumed that within two weeks it would break in every major news outlet. Not only did that not happen, no major news outlet has ever brought up the subject without the obvious agenda of “debunking” the story. (As a matter of fact, my fellow Thinking Mom L.J. Goes and myself are among the very few people who have ever been able to comment on the controversy on mainstream television.) This should have been Pulitzer-Prize-winning material, and yet no one was touching it. That was when Bigtree realized that all of television (and indeed the print media as well) is controlled by pharmaceutical advertising dollars.

It is clear, both here and in the U.K., that what the respective health agencies are protecting is not children’s health, but their vaccine programs. The “collateral damage” of this policy, the broken lives of previously healthy children, is poignantly portrayed in the film by interviews with parents of affected children like Polly Tommey, another of the film’s producers, and Dr. Hooker.

I know many of the people involved in the making of the film, but one of the most potent testimonies came from a mother I don’t know. Sheila Ealey brought her African-American boy-and-girl twins to a well-baby visit where a nurse lined up three shots each, including the MMR. When her daughter reacted by screaming, Ealey was distracted and didn’t notice that the nurse accidentally gave four of the shots to her son. Ealey asked where the missing shot had gone, whereupon the nurse realized she had given Ealey’s son a double dose of the MMR. Ealey was so upset that she whisked her children out of the office without letting her daughter get the remaining vaccines. At the time of the filming, Ealey’s twins were 16 years old. While her daughter speaks three languages, plays classical piano, and is an honor student, her son sits next to her on the couch happily watching Blue’s Clues on his iPad. Ealey’s tears as she contemplates the the stark contrasts in her twins’ development and what her son lost forever at that well-baby visit will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Perhaps my favorite part of the film is when Bigtree goes back to some of his old colleagues from The Doctors, where he worked for seven years before leaving to help make this film. Bigtree presents the documents to family medicine practitioner Dr. Rachael Ross and pediatrician Dr. Jim Sears, who are both cheerfully and confidently “pro-vaccine” (as always, I find myself irritated by the ridiculous premise that attitudes around a nuanced subject like vaccines can be reduced to the binary states of “pro-vaccine” and “anti-vaccine”) before reading them and both visibly shaken by what they have read afterward. When Bigtree asks what Dr. Ross would say to the next parent who comes into her office asking about the MMR, she says she would tell the truth. She will not be giving it her own children (Dr. Ross had a baby girl in November of 2015), and she worries about what we are doing to children’s brains.

Indeed. She is by no means alone in that.

The Filmmakers’ Agenda

I recently watched the movie Spotlight about how journalists at the Boston Globe uncovered the tremendously damaging way that the Catholic church was handling sexual abuse charges against their priests. The journalists were blocked time and again by people willing to collude with the church in denying what they clearly knew was happening, but that just made the journalists more determined than ever to get to the truth. They were finally able to publish enough of the truth that they made it impossible for the Catholic church to continue institutional policies that allowed children’s lives to be destroyed.

Because of the current stranglehold that pharmaceutical dollars have on mainstream media, this story is even harder to get out. Just as in that situation, a powerful interest group is working day and night to suppress the facts — they know children’s lives are being destroyed by their policies and they just don’t care. Fortunately, the filmmakers of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe know that, in this era of increased communication and transparency, mainstream media censorship can only postpone the truth getting out, not prevent it. So they threw their hearts, minds, and souls into this film as a way of circumventing that censorship. And they did a damned fine job of telling a difficult story that needs to be told.

Now it’s your turn to do what you can to get the message out there. See the film. Share information about it on Facebook and Twitter. Encourage everyone you know to see it — especially if they are not already familiar with the facts. Just like the journalists at the Boston Globe did, let’s make it impossible for this powerful organization to continue those policies that are sacrificing children’s lives to some bizarre conception of the Greater Good.

31 Responses to Review of the Film “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe”

My daughter who was developing normally and even ahead of schedule for most her milestones showed signs of Autism after receiving the MMR vaccine at 16 months. By age two see was officially diagnosed. Since then we have had her blood tested and she has 15 times the recommended aluminum in her blood stream (most vaccines contain large amounts of aluminum in Thimersol especially the MMR). When aluminum crosses the blood/brain barrier and it can disrupt electrical signal in the brain. She also had digestive issues, allergies, and auto immune problems that were not issues prior to the vaccine. She lost speech at the time and regressed in her development until we started therapy after her diagnosis. I tell everyone that labels anyone who label those who question the status quo as an “anti-vaxxer” to do they own home work. Watch this movie form you own opinion. There is so much money and potential liability at stake that a cover up is impossible? I think most people are afraid to believe the government might be lying to them.

I posted above about my baby and his horrible reaction to vaccines, which led to Autism. What I didn’t share was the fact that I actually have 7 vaccine injured in my family. Myself, 2 sons, my brother, niece, aunt and cousin were all injured by them. We experienced fever, cellulitis, eye nerve damage, hearing loss, tendinitis, convulsions, encephalitis, and death (muscle wasting) – we all had different reactions. Come to find out these were all listed as side effects to the drugs we were given. I had to find the vaccine package inserts online because they are not required by law to discuss the side effects with you! My brother is permanently disabled and a well known hospital in Boston actually put it in writing that his condition was caused by his vaccines (keep in mind he didn’t have any for 4 years before getting sick). Thank you for reviewing this documentary. I cannot wait to see it!!

Thank you Professor for this excellent review of Vaxxed! I was beginning to wonder if other reviewers had seen a different version of the film than I did. I also attended one of the sold out showings where the filmmakers received a standing ovation; and I can honestly say that your very comprehensive review is right on; even down to your analogy (one that I have often made myself) to the scandal within the Catholic church, as depicted in the movie Spotlight. Thanks again!

You are very welcome, Jeanette! One thing we have to keep in mind: most of the reviews we see will be printed by the very same mainstream media outlets that are kept alive by pharmaceutical advertising dollars — the same mainstream media that is INDICTED in the film by journalist/producer Del Bigtree. They dropped the ball on the biggest story of our lifetimes. In other words, they will have a VERY good incentive to do what they can to destroy this film. The truth will not be allowed within 50 miles.

As much as big pharma and mainstream media will try to destroy the credibility of this film, a verse from a “very old book” reminds us . . . “For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.” – Luke 8:17 — God bless Del Bigtree, Dr. Wakefield, Dr. Hooker, Polly Tommey, the entire Vaxxed team, Congressman Posey and even Dr. Thompson, for bringing this issue “to light.” Now it is up to us to keep that light burning.

Thank you Professor for writing this. And thanks to all of those involved in this important film, who have continued to fight to bring the facts and truth to the world. DOCTOR Wakefield (you will always be “THE DOCTOR” to us), Del Bigtree, Luc Montagnier, Jim Sears, Stephanie Seneff, Mark Blaxill and everyone else who made this film possible are our heroes!

Did I hear it correctly ?
The latest Stephanie Seneff (MIT) Autism projection :
By 2032 80% of all US males will be autistic . (just 16 years away)
Did I hear this correctly ? Not Hg-enocide they say ?

Thank you for your review. Makes me want to see this film all the more. MMR changed my son forever. Doctors I deem wise and trustworthy recommend separate measles, separate mumps, separate rubella vaccines. I’m wondering how receptive pediatricians will be to this.

I hate to say this, but my son developed Autism and he never even had the MMR. He only had the DTaP, HIB, and IPV. However, I did receive a Rubella vaccine 3 days after having him and nursed him. Dr. Edward Yazbak did his own studies on Autism and the Rubella vaccine. My baby did experience fever, cellulitis, convulsions, and encephalitis from these 3 shots. These doctors who separate vaccines are ignorant….those who are genetically susceptible will still develop the condition. Read “Fear of the Invisible” by Janine Roberts to find out what else our health officials are hiding from us with regard to vaccines.

Personally, I think that we have reached a place where we are hyper-stimulating these poor children’s immune systems SO much, so frequently that individual shots will not solve much of the problem. There are too many other environmental components that are priming the kids who can’t detoxify. The only way it would make a significant difference is if people chose fewer shots (like JUST the measles component, for instance, or JUST the pertussis component) and gave them much later than they do now.

So thankful to all those courageous and committed individuals who won’t back down or give up. Your work is so important. Our childern are suffering unnecessarily. The truth must be told.
I have so much respect and gratitude
Thank you
Looking forward to seeing the movie.I will bring a box of tissues

I am a mother and a grandmother and I care about my family. I am also a healthcare professional who has been told, since way back when, to ensure that everything I do is evidence based. When I heard about Andrew Wakefield’s paper being withdrawn from publication I wanted to read it for myself. Until recently this was impossible. I have now read it and can only say that Andrew Wakefield did a study and documented his findings. If I remember rightly he stated there may be a link between autism and the combined vaccine mmvac. He suggested that this needed to be looked into further…..and for this he was crucified.
I would like to see ‘Vaxxed’ but chances are it won’t get a viewing here in Australia. One can only hope that I will be able to download it for home viewing. I am quite happy to pay to see it at home and then make up my own mind about things.

I am familiar with the back story on this as I read everyday on this subject. TMR seem committed to the view its all about the Pharma companies and I do not share that view. Governments are entirely at the centre of this, the US is the lead. To ignore that denies the scale of the problem we have. This is about all vaccines and forced medication and it is about population control and it greatly impacts the weakest in society. It is far more sinister that any of us would like to believe. Although I agree its great to target Pharma, that is only part of the story. The CDC is government, and government censorship of the media is the limiting factor imho.

TMR seem committed to the view it’s all about the Pharma companies? Certainly not. The FDA approves every vaccine and the ACIP “recommends” them for the vaccine schedule. Those are governmental bodies. In addition, they aren’t “required” in any state until a state legislature passes a law saying so. It’s about the corrupting influence that the profit motive has on people, whether they are the ones who MAKE the vaccines or the ones who are in a position to PUSH them onto an unsuspecting populace. None of this would be as bad as it is, if the United States Congress did not remove all liability from vaccine manufacturers for the harm done by vaccines in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. These are facts we FREQUENTLY point out. In addition, this film is about malfeasance at the CDC, also a governmental agency. I don’t know how you can even imply that we ignore the fact that at least half of the problem (if not much more) is governmental collusion.

Nicole, no one has ever said that MMR causes ALL autism. No one. Ever. As a matter of fact, the Verstraeten study I mentioned above was about the effect of Thimerosal in vaccines, and HIS first analysis showed an even STRONGER correlation between early high exposure to Thimerosal and neurological conditions such as autism. http://www.safeminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/GenerationZeroNotes.pdf In addition, there are many other environmental factors that contribute to overall risk by increasing children’s toxic loads. None of that has any bearing on whether or not MMR is the final straw that triggers autism in many children. Just as the fact that my father who never smoked a day in his life died of lung cancer has any bearing on whether or not smoking causes lung cancer.

Mine was the same. Showed early signs well before mmr. I am sure there are mint environmental factors. Let’s face it we are killing this planet but I am not comfortable with keeping kids unvaccinated either. I do believe they help many people and protect many with compromised immune systems. I believe timings need to change but not vaccinating is not the answer either.

Not vaccinating is not the answer for YOU, but it is most definitely the answer for many. Many people’s immune systems will be negatively affected by ANY vaccine. How can it be either ethical or moral to force someone to “protect” someone else from illness by inducing it in themselves?

I was lucky to see the film at one of their sold-out screenings in New York. It is deeply moving and informative. Like many people, there was a time when I knew nothing more about vaccines than: you got them without question, they prevented you from getting serious illnesses, and they were safe. Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that very intelligent and caring people like you and the makers of this film have legitimate points that must be addressed if we are to reverse the trend toward higher incidents of immunity related disorders, including autism.

I hope that this film will get more people, including the media, to take a second look at the risks inherent in vaccines, and begin to have a meaningful dialogue about the future of the vaccine program.

That is an absolute lie. The showing was sold out, and the theater was packed. The filmmakers received a standing ovation from the audience. IF there was a showing with so few people, it was the one at 11:00 in the morning. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to a number of films at that hour of the morning, and none of them have been packed.

Yes that scathing report saying only 20 people turned up to the premier was suggested on my facebook feed, utter troll reporting, Abby Haglage of the daily beast, what a liar , after all the publicity this has had, i’m sure it will be packed all week


Get for AMD based systems ACML and gcc,pgi or pathscale
Get for Intel based systems MKL and intel compiler
run N problem size around 90% workload.is, 1.8GB per core memory footprint.
Run NB 192 on AMD, I don't know the best blocking factor for MKL. I've tried
the same 192 and does fairly well.
Set affinity for the mpi even with 1 socket runs.
Run PxQ 2x2,2x4,4x4,.. depending on the number of cores.
With the above you should get on AMD and on Intel at least 77% efficiency.
As suggested by Tom, Goto library will give you good performance as well.
You can try also the multithreaded version so use PxQ=1x1 and
OMP_NUM_THREADS=4 for a single socket quadcore.
Reduce misses with huge pages.
If you get below 75% efficiency, you are doing something wrong.
If you do more than 85% on quadcore, please let me know :)
Regards,
Joshua
------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:33:25 PM PDT
From: Ellis Wilson <xclski at yahoo.com>
To: beowulf at beowulf.org
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] HPL Benchmarking and Optimization
> Ellis Wilson wrote:
> > Currently I get these kind of numbers from tested
> > computers using the
> > same environment (gentoo, fortran in gcc, hpl, all
> > same compilation
> > options):
> > 1 x Core2Duo (2.1ghz/core, 2gigs ram) - 2.3Gflops
> > 1 x Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2ghz, 1gig ram) - 1.0Glops
> > 4 x Core2Duo (2.1ghz/core for a total of 8 cores,
> > 2gigs ram/node,
> > 100mbit Ethernet interconnect) - 6.7Gflops
>> Sorry to double post all, however, I realized my issue
> involved running
> HPL on the reference library of BLAS that is generic
> for every
> architecture and didn't want to waste anyones time.
> Giving Portage the
> benefit of the doubt, I had failed to check that it's
> dependencies were
> best for HPL. Following an install of ATLAS and
> relinking to its
> libraries, I've gotten the following numbers:
> 1 x Athlon64 3500+ (2.2ghz, 1gig ram) - 3.6GFlops
> 1 x Phenom9600 Quadcore (2.3ghz/core, 2gigs ram) -
> 11.9GFlops
>> I'll likely try MKL soon for the Intel processors I'm
> interested in.
>> The phenom9600 had previously only gotten 4.5 GFlops,
> and when I tested
> it the second time I simply used the same environment
> I had compiled for
> the athlon64. Certainly compiling ATLAS native on the
> phenom will
> increase the result, hopefully about 350% like with
> the athlon64 (though
> I suspect things will be interesting due to bandwidth,
> etc for quadcores).
>> Anyway, not to end the thread I still am wondering:
>> Do those of you who have professional installations or
> even simply large
> setups that are unsure of the exact code which will be
> run upon your
> cluster utilize compilation options such as -O3,
> funroll-loops,
> -fomit-frame-pointer, etc?
>> Thanks,
>> Ellis
>>>>>____________________________________________________________________________________
> You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster
Total Access, No Cost.
>http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com> _______________________________________________
> Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org> To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit
http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
>


Hengshan West railway station

The Hengshan West railway station () is a railway station located in Hunan, China.

Category:Railway stations in Hunan
Category:Railway stations opened in 2009


A novel oligodendrocyte cell line OLP6 shows the successive stages of oligodendrocyte development: late progenitor, immature and mature stages.
The successive stages of development from oligodendrocyte progenitor to mature oligodendrocyte have been investigated in detail by using stage-specific antibodies. However, no cell lines are available that show stepwise differentiation from oligodendrocyte progenitors to mature oligodendrocytes. Here we show the establishment of an immortalized oligodendrocyte cell line, OLP6, from adult transgenic rats harboring the temperature-sensitive simian virus 40 large T-antigen gene. The OLP6 cells had a fibroblastic morphology and continuously proliferated at 33 degrees C. They displayed growth arrest and multipolar morphology when they were cultured at 39 degrees C. They express the oligodendrocytic markers O4, 2'-3'-cyclic-nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase, galactocerebroside and second endothelial differentiation gene receptor-2 at 39 degrees C. The OLP6 cells underwent apoptosis upon serum withdrawal at 39 degrees C. Lysophosphatidic acid inhibited this apoptosis and promoted the expression of myelin basic protein. These results demonstrate that the activation of endothelial differentiation gene receptor-2 exerts anti-apoptosis and myelinogenesis effects on the OLP6 cells. Taken together, the OLP6 cells in the late oligodendrocyte progenitor stage can progress to the immature oligodendrocyte stage by shifting culture temperature. Furthermore, lysophosphatidic acid promoted the maturation of OLP6 cells in the immature oligodendrocyte stage. Such OLP6 cells should provide a potent model system for studying the precise mechanism involved in stepwise differentiation of oligodendrocytes.


Official Renders By: Arc Systems Background: so-ghislaine.deviantart.com/

Poster made with the two franchises that I really like and can't wait to play on the next year.


Q:

Vol swaps Vol of vol

I an quite unfamiliar with those products and would like to understand why they require a vol of vol model for pricing. The variance swap is replicated (assuming no cash dividends) with a delta hedged log contract and vol swaps cannot be replicated (volatility is not time linear) but where does the vol of vol come into play?
And what is the convexity adjustment applied from between the implied variance of the variance swap and the implied vol of the vol swap?
Is there any paper that explains how do we model this vol of vol?

A:

I am not entirely sure what you are asking. I cannot answer from a valuation of contract perspective but I can help on an asset pricing perspective. Vol-of-vol is important to model a volatility swap because absent vol-of-vol (or jumps in the underlying) the variance risk premium on the contract is zero.
There are two relevant references:

First Carr and Wu (2009) show that there is a large variance risk premium. Take a look at table 3 from their paper:

Second vol-of-vol is important in generating this premium. Take a look at Bollerslev, Tauchen and Zhou (2009). They basically embed vol-of-vol in a standard asset pricing framework:

\begin{equation*}
\Delta c_{t+1} \equiv g_{t+1} = \mu_c +x_t + \sigma_t \eta_{t+1}
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
\sigma_{t+1}^2 = a_\sigma + \rho_\sigma \sigma_t^2 + \sqrt{q_t} z_{\sigma,t+1}
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
q_{t+1} = a_q + \rho_q q_t + \varphi_q \sqrt{q_t} z_{q,t+1}
\end{equation*}
The last equation is the vol-of-vol. They show that in such a framework the variance risk premium is given by:
\begin{eqnarray*}
E_t^Q\left(\sigma_{r, t+1}^2\right) - E_t\left(\sigma_{r, t+1}^2\right) = (\theta - 1)  k_1^2 (A_\sigma^2 + A_q^2 \varphi_q^2) \varphi_q^2 ]q_t
\end{eqnarray*}
So you can immediatly see that if there is no stochastic vol-of-vol the variance risk premium is zero. Also if $q_t$ is constant the variance risk premium is not time-varying.


Evaluation genotypes of cancer cell lines HCC1954 and SiHa by short tandem repeat (STR) analysis and DNA sequencing.
Cancer cell lines are used worldwide in biomedical researches, and data interpretation solely depends on unambiguous attribution of those respective cell lines to its original sources. Approximately one-third of all cell lines have an origin other than that assumed, leading to invalid results. It is necessary to characterize the origin of cell lines. Short-tandem-repeat (STR) fingerprinting (DNA fingerprinting) is the method for characterization of genetic identity in cultured cell lines under certain experimental conditions. We showed the fingerprinting profiles in a summed and unidentified human cancer cell line comparison to HCC1954 cell line, revealing marked alterations in DNA fingerprinting profiles up to fourteen STR loci from 16 loci. Furthermore, Sanger DNA sequencing showed no c.3140A > G heterozygous mutation in the PIK3CA gene of this suspected HCC1954 cell line. In addition, we showed the fingerprinting profiles in an unidentified cancer cell line comparison to SiHa cervical cell line, revealing same DNA fingerprinting profiles. In conclusion, we have successfully authenticated and identified both suspected HCC1954 and SiHa cell lines by STR analysis and DNA sequencing. STR analysis combined DNA sequencing may be very useful to evaluate genotypes of cancer cell lines in our cancer studies, as well as in judicial authentication and forensic sciences.


Owning a massacre: 'Ukraine's Katyn'

A WWII mass grave was recently found in western Ukraine, pointing to a horrific massacre. Yet with German bullet casings unearthed and evidence pointing to Nazis as perpetrators, Ivan Katchanovski asks why the dominant theory to emerge is of Soviets murdering Poles.

A mass-grave containing the remains of at least several hundred (and possibly thousands) of people has been uncovered in the small western Ukrainian town of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, near the border with Poland. This discovery is hardly surprising since the lands of Ukraine, dubbed by Yale history professor Timothy Snyder as 'bloodlands', are full of mass graves dating back to World War II. These lands endured a Nazi genocide that claimed about seven million lives, and a Soviet genocide and mass murder of several million other peasants, 'class enemies' and political prisoners.

What is surprising, however, is the rush-to judgment and near unanimity of Polish and Ukrainian politicians, experts, and journalists. Their conclusion they have all reached is that that the unearthed remains are of Poles murdered by the Soviet secret police (NKVD), even though the uncovered evidence and other sources indicate that these are Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide. Although both Polish and Ukrainian officials acknowledged recently that the Jewish victims of the Nazi executions might be among people buried there, they continued to advance the idea of 'Polish victims of the NKVD' as the main theory. On 13 October, Ukrainian and Polish officials and priests oversaw the reburial of the remains of 367 people at a local cemetery with a sign referring to the victims of the Soviet mass terror.

A Soviet or Nazi massacre?

The finding of remains of hundreds people in the mass grave, which was only partly exhumed and which likely contains many more remains, has already been dubbed the 'Volyn Katyn'. This is in reference to a hugely controversial mass murder in Katyn forest, Russia, of Polish POWs by the Soviet NKVD in 1940, which the Soviets misrepresented as a Nazi massacre.

The Volyn massacre case can actually best be described as the Katyn in reverse. Its similarity with the Katyn massacre lies in the misrepresentation of historical facts. It is claimed the Volodymyr-Volynskyi massacre was committed by the Soviet NKVD, yet the evidence indicates the opposite: that it was committed by the Nazis and the local Ukrainian police. The evidence, which includes spent German bullet casings, previous studies, eyewitness testimonies, archival documents, and analysis of Nazi and Soviet methods of mass murder would seem to indicate that the victims most likely were Jewish civilians, executed in 1941 by the Nazis on the grounds of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi prison.

There is no shortage of WWII mass graves in Ukraine, but if this one is seen to reveal a Soviet crime, it will serve the historical narratives of Ukrainian nationalists. (Photo: Istorychna Pravda / Pavlo Solodko)

Little time passed before the "NKVD massacre of Poles" became the dominant explanation following discovery of the mass graves in Volodymyr-Volynskyi in spring of 2011. Polish and Ukrainian television reports and media publications talked in near-unanimity about 'victims of the NKVD'. In contrast, there was only one TV report and newspaper article that challenged the NKVD version.

One Polish expert, Professor Andrzej Kola, who initially suggested that the victims were Poles executed by the Soviet NKVD, has since admitted in an interview after the reburial that they were in all probability Jews executed by the Nazis.

German bullets: it must have been the Soviets...

The consensus theory put forward was that the victims were Polish POWs, and the prime evidence offered in support was in the form of two Polish police badges, found not in the mass grave but in its vicinity. Yet the theory is inconsistent with NKVD documents which show quite clearly that Polish POWs were transferred from the Volodymyr-Volynskyi prison to other prisons and murdered there. The two Polish policemen were most likely executed by the Soviet secret police at the time of the Katyn massacre along with thousands of other Polish officers and policemen in Kalinin and Ostashkiv camps.

The badges, however, continue to be used as evidence of a Polish execution, even though remains of women, small children, and elderly uncovered in the summer and the fall of 2011 indicate that most victims were not military but civilian.

Neither is the Polish-POW theory is consistent with evidence from the only other known large-scale execution by the NKVD in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi prison in 1941. The said massacre is discussed in many studies, archival documents, and eyewitness reports of its survivors. They describe how at least 36 out of about 300 prisoners — mostly local Ukrainians — were executed by the retreating NKVD when the Soviet forces abandoned the frontline town on the second day of the war on 23 June 1941. Their remains were discovered, identified, and reburied at a local cemetery immediately after the arrival of the German troops.

In contrast, the newly found victims in Volodymyr-Volynskyi were clearly executed in large groups, and almost no remains of clothes or footwear were found. They included many small children, women, and elderly. Both of these are consistent with Nazi executions and not Soviet executions. There are eyewitness reports from Jewish survivors about Nazi executions carried out with assistance of the Ukrainian police in the area of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi prison in 1941 and 1942.

Quite remarkably, it is claimed the discovery of not Soviet but 9-mm German bullet casings from 1941 Walther P38 pistols is "evidence" of the NKVD being the perpetrator of the massacre. The German army and the security police adopted this type of a handgun in large numbers from 1940 onwards. The Soviet NKVD used other types of guns and other caliber bullets, specifically during its murder of the prisoners in Volodymyr-Volynskyi. The use of German pistols and bullets in the Katyn massacre by the NKVD executioners was largely an exception. Those weapons were, moreover, of a different make and caliber, and produced before the Nazis came to power in 1933.

'The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army are celebrated as national heroes in western Ukraine, while their involvement in the Nazi genocide is ignored or downplayed. Similarly, the Katyn massacre is used as a political symbol in post-communist Poland and its relations with Russia.'

An old Russian rifle found at Volodymyr-Volynskyi has also been cited as evidence of the NKVD role. Such logic ignores the documented fact that the Ukrainian police, which assisted in Nazi mass executions, was often armed with such trophy rifles. There are plenty of eyewitness reports that suggest the local Ukrainian police helped to carry out massacres of Jews in Volodymyr-Volynskyi. Indeed, archival documents that I personally examined during my recent visit to the region show that the commander of the police at the time (Summer 1941) was installed by the local administration controlled by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

A large proportion of policemen from Volodymyr-Volynskyi deserted their posts on the OUN orders in spring 1943 and joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Konstantyn Berezovsky, one of the town's police commanders, became the head of the Security Service of the OUN-UPA in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi district. There are uncorroborated reports that Ivan Klymiv, one of the leaders of the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, became a deputy commander of the police in Volodymyr-Volynskyi in 1942, at a time when some 20 thousand Jews and other civilians were murdered. Finally, there are also accounts that Polish police, who replaced Ukrainian police who defected in spring 1943, assisted in Nazi executions in the area of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi prison.

Convenient histories

It is, therefore, simply a matter of political convenience for Western Ukraine and Poland to claim a mass murder of Poles by the Soviet NKVD in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, and ignore or downplay the much clearer evidence of the massacre of Jews and other civilians by the Nazis and the local police. Even after the defeat of pro-OUN President Yushchenko, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army continue to be celebrated as national heroes in Western Ukraine. The OUN and UPA leaders are commemorated with monuments and street names, while their involvement in the Nazi genocide is ignored or downplayed. Similarly, Katyn is used as a political weapon in post-communist Poland and its relations with Russia.

Incidentally, the small town of Volodymyr-Volynskyi already has a site that is much more similar to the real Katyn than the mass grave recently uncovered. This site is a former POW camp, and contains the remains of Soviet officers — mostly Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish — who were executed or killed during the Nazi occupation. The number killed exceeds the number of the imprisoned Polish officers executed in Katyn and other POW camps in Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. In contrast to Katyn, however, the mass murder of POWs in the Volodymyr-Volynskyi camp is almost completely unknown in the West, because of the Cold War and other political reasons. It is of great irony, therefore, that Volodymyr-Volynskyi will come to be remembered for a Katyn-style misrepresentation of the real perpetrators of a massacre.

About the author

Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

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" Even like myself" "And that at my age" "Only speed is my companion" "I only ride alone And on my way" "Time runs shorter" "I need help Please give me a hand" "I live all alone" "If on a curve I remember my world" "Are you selling me that bike or not?" "No, sir." "He says he came from the north, with his family on bikes." "My Lord!" "I prefer the curves On Santos road" "Where I try to forget" "A love that I had" "And I saw through the mirror Vanish in the distance" "Bad day!" " Could you tell me something?" " Sure." "The bridge over there." "Is that the way to Brasilia?" "No, to go to Brasilia you take Washington Luis." "Now here's the deal." "We traveled for six months on those bikes to get here." "We're not going back on the road." "But if the love that I lost I find again" "The curves end" "And on the Santos road I'll no longer go" "No I'll no longer go" "I prefer the curves On Santos road" "Where I try to forget" "A love that I had" "And I saw through the mirror Vanish in the distance" "But if the love that I lost I find again" "The curves will end" "And on the Santos road I'll no longer go" "No, no, no, no, no" "On the Santos road" "The curves will end And I'll no longer go"


KILIS, Turkey, July 30 (UNHCR) - For a woman who fled war and arrived in Turkey wearing flip-flops, Najlaa Sheekh has come a long way. Today, as the driving force behind the only known Syrian-run women's community centre in southeast Turkey, she is proving just how far.

Najlaa's journey began in the midst of Syria's civil war, when armed men raided the apartment block in Damascus where she was living with her two sons. Grabbing them, she hid in the elevator until the men left. Then she escaped to Aleppo.

There, she lived with relatives and helped to deliver medical supplies for vulnerable families displaced within Syria. Soon after, the airstrikes began.

Uprooted once more, the family moved to Najlaa's hometown of A'zaz. Najlaa commuted back and forth between Aleppo, determined to continue helping women and the vulnerable. But Syria's war was never far away.

In 2012, bombs hit the town, destroying the house where her family lived. They had little choice but to flee to Turkey, where her nine-year-old son Amer was admitted to Kilis State Hospital emergency room to treat injuries to his face.

Once he had recovered, Najlaa planned to build a new life in Kilis, reconnecting with many of the Syrian women who had fled there. But she was shocked to find that many were simply letting the time pass. These were not the strong and brave women that she had known in Syria. "What has happened to us?" she remembers asking herself. "We were the kind of people who could do anything."

It didn't take long for Najlaa to realise that knitting and handicrafts were common skills among the women, and she began wondering how she could use these to build a community. To her surprise, the answer was right in front of her. "I told my landlord about 18 talented women that I have met and without even knowing the value of Turkish money, he generously lent me 1,000 Turkish Lira," she says.

Najlaa invested the full amount in materials and, together with the 18 women, began knitting workshops at her home. Having studied psychology, she was also able to combine these with psychosocial activities on weekends, allowing the women to deepen their relationship and share their hopes, worries and dreams.

Word soon spread and, in an effort to create a sustainable business model, Najlaa sought approval from Kilis Governorate to hold a charity sale that would help more women to join the community and enable them to earn extra cash to support their families. Her hopes were quickly realised. In January 2013, the first sale, fully supported by the Governorate, was held in Kilis.

In just over a year, the knitting group alone has grown to support 45 women, among the centre's 260 participants. Eighteen trainers now offer workshops in hairdressing, Turkish and Arabic, and sewing. The women have also been able to find new premises.

Najlaa hopes that the centre can continue to receive support, such as much-needed stationary from UNHCR, and is proud of her work so far. "With every challenge, I thought that this time is the worst, but I knew I had to continue," she says. "I feel a lot of pressure and will feel a lot of sorrow if I cannot ensure that the women who put their soul into their work at the centre cannot make ends meet."

And despite her fears, Najlaa remains hopeful for the future, buoyed by her success and the arrival of her husband from Syria. "I have taught myself not to cry and show fear, but to struggle," she concludes. "And I continue teaching women that they should do the same, struggle for their rights and well-being."


Big-eyed referee is watching you

Pierluigi Collina’s steely gaze tells its own story. He is about to let rip and suddenly it’s easy to see why David Beckham once admitted the Italian was the only referee who scared him.

Collina’s instantly recognisable features are creased into a frown because he is contemplating the increasingly intolerable pressure put on the officials who take charge of football’s biggest matches.

The 47-year-old was regarded as the best referee in the world during his 14-year career and, although he has been retired for two years now, he retains a burning enthusiasm for the sport and his profession’s role in it.

He knows football can captivate millions around the globe, but he is also only too aware that the huge rewards on offer at the highest level have placed officials in an unenviable position.

Players and managers are ready to use referees as a convenient fall-guy when they fail, and television is only too keen to put them under the microscope for the sake of a talking point.

Collina, speaking as he was unveiled as Mastercard’s new Football Ambassador, believes the answer is simply a matter of respect.

The habit of intimidating referees by surrounding them like a pack of baying dogs when contesting a decision is a recurring problem, especially in the English Premier League.

Collina insists players are disrespecting the game when they lose control in that manner and wants them to think before they start complaining.

“Football needs respect from every angle. We can speak about different situations where respect is needed and certainly this is one,” he told AFP.

“We need respect between players and referees on the field, and between managers and players as well.

“Every player has to do everything in their capacity to make a better atmosphere. They must be calm. At Euro 2008 and in the Champions League we have the perfect opportunity to set a better example.”

Television’s all-pervasive influence will only increase, while satellite companies pump vast sums of money into football. In return for the cash, they want to have a bigger say in the game and that leaves the referee in their spotlight as multiple camera angles pick holes in every decision.

It is not a development that sits easily with Collina, who believes the referee must be allowed to do his job without becoming a hate figure.

“I would say even from the time I started refereeing in the Italian first division in 1991 and in the Champions League in 1995, there is a big difference,” he said.

“Nowadays television cameras show you things differently from 10 or 15 years ago. You have to be aware that everything you did is not enough because you are scrutinised by 24 cameras.

“There are many chances to offer something to the viewer differently to how players, coaches, or even the spectators in the stadium saw it live.

“Sometimes you finish the match thinking everything is okay, but at home people are watching a totally different thing.

“It is so easy using 24 cameras to find something different to the referee’s view. It is very unfair to be assessed thanks to the cameras.

“We should consider everthing before we say referees have not performed well enough.”

A referee who makes an honest mistake in a big match puts not only his reputation, but also his health, at risk.

Swedish official Anders Frisk retired after receiving death threats following Jose Mourinho’s outburst against him in the wake of Chelsea’s defeat at Barcelona in 2005.

Then in 2007, Herbert Fandel was attacked on the pitch by a Denmark supporter, angry at his decisions during a Euro 2008 qualifier against Sweden.

Collina, who refereed the 2002 World Cup final and the 1999 Champions League final, believes having unshakable self-belief is the only way to survive as a modern referee.

“The pressure on the referee’s shoulders is very big. For example, in the Champions League final you might have done a good job for the whole match, but you know that one mistake could be the end,” he said.

“You would be remembered not for what you did before, but the mistake you made at the end. This is the pressure on you. The only thing you can do is be very self confident. To be sure you did everything in your capacity to be prepared, to be ready so you don’t miss one chance.”

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