It arrived this morning! I got the camera, a battery (and a little plastic case the battery was in), a/v cord, transfer cord, battery charger, software, and a few books. The camera comes with a 90 day warranty (it is a factory refurb, not new).

There are no visible marks on the camera, in fact, it looks brand new. The battery did not arrived charged, and took about two hours to fully charge (from plug-in to charging light off). The camera is incredibly light. I wasn’t expecting that. It feels kind of plasticy in my hands (you know what I mean, right?) and I’m not sure if it’s cheaply made or if I am just used to my bulkier Lumix and my dslr. The thing is tiny. Seriously. It’s about the same weight as my iPhone, about twice as thick, but about 3/4″ – 1″ shorter than it. It will fit nicely in my back pocket

It has fewer options than my other Lumix (I can’t find any presets other than power ISO and macro – I think it auto detects them, if I read correctly) and appears to be idiot proof. It has a “mode” button, that pops up a menu, but the only options are intelligent auto, normal picture, scene mode 1, scene mode 2 and motion picture. It’ll be great for on the go quick shots, you know? It has a much smaller screen on the back than my other Lumix as well.

All in all, I am not (yet) complaining. If I had wanted the *same* camera, I’d have ordered it. I took a few photos with it today and they seem just fine. I didn’t find any *bad* reviews of this camera, so I don’t expect to be complaining about it any time soon.

RefurbDepot.com shipped fast, next day I think. I ordered UPS ground (10$) and it took less than seven days to arrive (I was expecting it next week b/c of the ground shipping).

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Fashioned-Childrens-Games-Activities/dp/0786405589

I can’t find a digital copy of it anywhere, and I’d rather not spend 30$ on it, and embarrassingly enough, I don’t know how to use the library anymore. It’s not set up like Barnes & Noble lol   OK, OK, I do know how to use it, but I’d rather have a copy of the darn book, tangible or digital. I don’t want to ruin the book by scanning it in myself (ah, or waste my time).

So, if anyone has this book, and isn’t using it, I’d be willing to pay shipping and a few bucks more.

Josef Scheungraber, 90, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in a Tuscan village in 1944.

He has previously been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military court to life in prison.

Scheungraber “completely and thoroughly denies the accusations in the charge sheet” said his lawyer.

Outside the courtroom, dozens of demonstrators held banners calling for Scheungraber to be put behind bars.

Some have been outraged that he has only been put on trial now.

He has lived for decades as a free man, and served on the town council in Ottobrunn, outside Munich.

He ran a furniture shop, attended German veterans’ marches and recently received an award for municipal service.

Retaliation

Scheungraber wore a traditional Bavarian suit to the proceedings, which he followed through a hearing aid.

The court has determined that, despite his age, he is fit to be tried, though he will be allowed regular breaks.

The court heard how events unfolded 26 June, 1944.

German troops are alleged to have shot dead a 74-year-old woman and three men in the street before forcing 11 others into a farmhouse which they then blew up. A 15-year-old boy survived the attack with serious injuries.

The massacre was allegedly in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.

Scheungraber said in his statement that he had not given an order for the killings and was not at the scene of the crime.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | German tried over Nazi war crime.

I am torn. Torn between being thrilled this is probably one of last trials of it’s kind, and saddened over it. Why sad? While many of these war criminals (monsters! following orders my ass) are dying, so are our survivors. I have been lucky enough in my lifetime to hear many survivors speak, but so many have not. So many never will, and the number of voices claiming the Holocaust never happened will someday be louder, or the voices remembering it will be fewer, or both.

I have a lot of posts on here about the Holocaust. I’ve been to Yad Vashem. I’ve been to the museum in DC (a heartbreaking experience, and one I urge anyone in the area, within driving distance, to have). I have not been to the one in Miami. I just do not understand how people can say it never happened. So many families just gone, so many destroyed. It’s like saying the towers didn’t happen, or… I don’t know, that’s the most recent big event I can think of. Like saying Katrina didn’t happen.

Meh. I don’t really have much to say about the article itself. Just the taste it left in my mouth.

Experts say autism may have helped boy survive ordeal

By MARK HARPER

Staff Writer

For some autistic children, the sensation of water is as comforting as a blanket.

So what was Christopher Marino feeling during the 14 hours he was swept out to sea last weekend?

“He can’t tell me. I don’t know. I wish I did know,” his mother, Robyn Bishop of Oviedo, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Yet she said his autism — the brain development disorder that blocks Christopher from telling his mom what it was like to be all alone, drifting away from his dad in the dark — might well have helped save him.

Front page news – newsjournalonline.com.

And here is number two. Still amazing. My son loves to play in the water. Loves it. Loves to wash his hands, loves to let the water run over them. Loves bath time. It took us a while to realize that was one of his “things” but once we realized it, it made total sense.

4 silver daisy chainmaille flowers connected by beautiful blue glass beads
silver toggle clasp
a one of a kind piece made by my 2 little hands

Go check it out!

Obviously not all of them, there are some really exceptionally talanted new artists out there. Seeing their work, I really feel like this is something viable that I can really do. Am I deluding myself? Not like, yah Jenn, if you work real hard and really get in there and try, but based on what I am doing *now*, I feel like it is something worth doing.

Not something I picked up as a lark (not as a lark, I really effing want to do this) and to put down just as quickly because I wasn’t awesome out of the starting gate. I just feel like… it’s something I could really excell at as long as I don’t let it fall by the wayside. I let so many things do that, or they lose my interest just as quickly as they gained it. Maybe this wont.

I can find a dehydrator new for 210, shipping included
The juicer new for 230 shipping included
The blender I can get refurbished from them with a full warranty for 400

So I want to beat those prices. Maybe you bought one and it’s taking up room in your kitchen or garage and want to get rid of it or know a friend of family member who does?

I looked on ebay and they are going for anything from 100$ to 240$. Amazon has it new for 320$ I am asking 200$, priority shipping included for the following:

Canon S3IS
AA-size battery (x4)
SD Memory Card SDC-16MB plus a 128 meg Lexar SD card
Lens Cap
Neck Strap NS-DC4
USB Interface Cable IFC-400PCU
Denali camera bag (currently holds my personal battery charger, plus the camera, plus the chord, plus room for extra batteries, cards, etc..
English instruction manual

I do not think I have the disk it came with, but the drivers can be downloaded from the canon site (linked below) but I’ve never needed anything that was on the included disk. If I find it, hey, added bonus The camera is totally plug n play and as soon asyou plug it into your machine to transfer the images, your machines default program will open.

I love this camera. You guys have heard me tout how fabulous it is almost everytime a camera thread come sup, and frankly, I am probably going to have sellers remorse right up until I buy a brand spankin’ new DSLR. I spent about as much (new) on my new camera just last month as I did on the S3IS when I bought it, and judging by the auctions and sites I found selling the S3, 200$ is a steal. The camera is used, but has zero scratches or any other imperfections. It works beautifully, feels great in my hands and I actually was tempted to buy the S5 instead of the Panasonic I bought. Michael talked me out of it because well, I already had a Canon S-series lol

You can see the specs better laid out here: http://www.newegg.com…N82E16830120043
and here is the company page: http://www.usa.canon.com…p;modelid=13077

This camera has the following features:
#
Specifications
Type of Camera
Type of Camera
Compact digital camera with built-in flash, 12x Optical / 4x Digital / 48x Combined Zoom
Image Capture Device
Type
6.0 Megapixel, 1/2.5 inch type Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
Total Pixels
Approx. 6.2 Megapixels
Effective Pixels
Approx. 6.0 Megapixels
Lens
Focal Length
6.0-72.0mm f/2.7-3.5 (35mm film equivalent: 36-432mm)
Digital Zoom
4x
Focusing Range
Normal: 1.6 ft./50cm-infinity (WIDE), 3.0 ft./90cm-infinity (TELE)
Macro: 3.9 in.-1.6 ft./10-50cm (WIDE)
Super Macro: 0-3.9 in./0-10cm (WIDE)
Autofocus System
TTL Autofocus (continuous/single)
Viewfinder & Monitor
Viewfinder
Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color viewfinder
LCD Monitor
2.0 inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD with variable-angle function
LCD Pixels
Approx. 115,000 pixels
LCD Coverage
100%
Aperture and Shutter
Maximum Aperture
f/2.7 (W) – f/3.5 (T)
Shutter Speed
15-1/3200 sec. (settable in Tv or M)
Exposure Control
ISO Sensitivity
Auto, High ISO Auto, ISO 80/100/200/400/800 equivalent
Light Metering Method
Evaluative, Center-weighted average, Spot** Metering frame is fixed to the center or linked to the AF frame
Exposure Control Method
Program AE, Shutter Speed-Priority AE, Aperture-Priority AE, Manual; AE Lock is available
Exposure Compensation
+/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
White Balance
White Balance Control
Auto, Preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash), Custom
Flash
Built-in Flash
Auto, Auto w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash Off
Flash Range
Normal: 1.6-17 ft./50cm – 5.2m (W), 3.0-13 ft./90cm-4.0m (T)
Macro: 1.0-1.6 ft./30-50cm (W) (when sensitivity is set to ISO Auto)
Recycling Time
12 sec. or less (battery voltage=6.0V)
Flash Exposure Compensation
+/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
Shooting Specifications
Shooting Modes
Auto; Creative: P, Av, Tv, M, C; Image: Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Indoor, Night Snapshot, Color Accent, Color Swap), My Colors, Stitch Assist, Movie
Photo Effects
Vivid, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Custom Color
Self-Timer
Activates shutter after an approx. 2-sec./10-sec. delay, Custom
Wireless Control
Not available
Continuous Shooting
High-speed: approx. 2.3 fps
Normal: approx. 1.5 fps
Image Storage
Storage Media
SD Memory Card, SDHC, MultiMediaCard
File Format
Design rule for camera file system, DPOF Version 1.1
Image Compression
Still Image: Exif 2.2 (JPEG)
Movie: AVI (Image: Motion JPEG; Audio: WAVE (Stereo))
JPEG Compression Mode
Normal, Fine, SuperFine
Number of Recording Pixels
Still Image: 640 x 480 (Small), 1,600 x 1,200 (Medium 2), 2,272 x 1,704 (Medium 1), 2,816 x 2,112 (Large), 2,816 x 1,584 (Widescreen)
Movie: 640 x 480 (30 fps/15 fps) / 320 x 240 (60 fps/30 fps/15 fps) available up to 1GB or 1 hour for each file size

So it was nice to see, when I scanned for anyplace in Florida, that my little town (ok, not so small, 135K people or so) is on this list. Who knew?

http://men.msn.com/articlebl.aspx?cp-documentid=7560549&GT1=32001

The 100 Best Places to Raise a Family
Find out which cities in America are the best—and the worst—for you and your brood.
Research by Sara Vigneri; Illustration: Sean McCabe

Television executives seized the idea long ago: American families value where they plant their roots. The Cosbys had Brooklyn. The Cunninghams, Milwaukee. The Simpsons, Springfield.

But fathers face reality when they’re not in prime time. They want to raise their children somewhere safe, where they can attend good schools with favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, and respectable budgets. Plenty of museums, parks, and pediatricians also contribute to a good quality of life, whereas multihour commutes, expensive houses, and divorcing friends and neighbors do not.

Best Life editors used these categories and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, FBI, American Association of Museums, National Center for Health Statistics, and American Bar Association to evaluate 257 cities. Here are the best—and worst—places to raise a family.

1 Honolulu, Hawaii (Schools spend almost $9,000 per pupil, unemployment ranks less than half the national average, and you can play on the island of O’ahu’s 125 beaches.)
2 Virginia Beach, Virginia
3 Billings, Montana
4 Columbus, Georgia
5 San Diego, California
6 Des Moines, Iowa
7 Minneapolis, Minnesota
8 Madison, Wisconsin (Madison has a high number of pediatricians per capita.)
9 Colorado Springs, Colorado
10 Santa Rosa, California
11 Wichita, Kansas
12 Los Angeles, California
13 Corona, California
14 Austin, Texas
15 Stamford, Connecticut
16 Omaha, Nebraska
17 Naperville, Illinois
18 Fort Wayne, Indiana
19 Springfield, Illinois
20 Boise, Idaho
21 Manchester, New Hampshire
22 South Bay Area, California
23 New York, New York
24 Fontana, California
25 Louisville, Kentucky
26 Plano, Texas
27 Oceanside, California
28 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
29 Sacramento, California
30 Ann Arbor, Michigan
31 Reno, Nevada
32 Las Vegas, Nevada
33 Lincoln, Nebraska
34 San Bernardino, California
35 Grand Rapids, Michigan
36 Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (Median value of a home: $202,733)
37 Kansas City, Kansas
38 Fremont, California
39 Buffalo, New York
40 Berkeley, California
41 Cambridge, Massachusetts
42 Kansas City, Missouri
43 Waterbury, Connecticut
44 Syracuse, New York
45 Phoenix, Arizona
46 Albuquerque, New Mexico
47 Akron, Ohio
48 Boston, Massachusetts
49 Escondido, California
50 Fairfield, California
51 Antioch, California
52 Elgin, Illinois
53 Rochester, New York
54 Seattle, Washington (Residents spend $266 per person annually to maintain the city’s parks.)
55 Tucson, Arizona
56 Santa Clarita, California
57 Denver, Colorado
58 Indianapolis, Indiana
59 Glendale, Arizona
60 Chicago, Illinois
61 Atlanta, Georgia
62 San Antonio, Texas
63 Mobile, Alabama
64 Concord, California
65 Denton, Texas
66 Coral Springs, Florida
67 San Francisco, California
68 Cedar Rapids, Iowa
69 El Paso, Texas (Classrooms average fewer than 16 students for every teacher.)
70 San Buenaventura, California
71 Worcester, Massachusetts
72 Baltimore, Maryland
73 Richmond, California
74 Lowell, Massachusetts
75 Portland, Oregon
76 Jacksonville, Florida
77 Fort Collins, Colorado
78 Orlando, Florida
79 Modesto, California
80 Montgomery, Alabama
81 Tampa, Florida
82 Salinas, California
83 Newport News, Virginia
84 Oakland, California
85 Augusta, Georgia
86 Fort Worth, Texas
87 Washington, D.C.
88 Tulsa, Oklahoma (Residents spend just 17 minutes commuting to work.)
89 Bellevue, Washington
90 Cincinnati, Ohio
91 McKinney, Texas
92 St. Louis, Missouri
93 Hayward, California
94 Midland, Texas
95 Sterling Heights, Michigan
96 Greensboro, North Carolina
97 Arlington, Texas
98 Alexandria, Virginia
99 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
100 Lexington, Kentucky

The 10 Worst Places to Raise a Family (from best to worst)

Springfield, Missouri
Dayton, Ohio
Corpus Christi, Texas
Flint, Michigan (Country’s highest violent-crime rate)
Columbia, South Carolina
Waco, Texas
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Beaumont, Texas (Long-standing air-quality challenges)
Clarksville, Tennessee (Low educational spending: $6,729 per student)

The article touches on the question of, what if all the autism diagnosis are not autism, but a disease that mimics autism. Autism, by definition, is a set of features (much like fibromyalgia, by definition, is a set of features) and not a biological diagnosis. We had a ton of genetic tests done on Malachai, as well as an MRI and EEG to look for other things. The markers they were looking for (specifically for Fragile X and other known genetic defects) all came back negative. The look for seizures came back negative, with a.. footnote almost.. that he could have microseizures that we would never notice. I am not going to have testing done on him, it doesn’t matter and we can’t afford it. Even if we could, it wouldn’t matter. But think of the possibilities this opens! My god, the autism rate is 1 in 150 right now. If this was accurate, how many people are misdiagnosed and how would the rate change and how would the world change?

My head is spinning. We obviously don’t fall under any vaccine damage, it’s impossible because my kids have never had any. What if this was true, what if it is vaccine-induced (not caused) and they can find a root cause? A real root cause, not just speculation of genetics (the rate of autism goes up in siblings an additional 6 – 10%, and [so far] neither of our other kids have presented) or speculation of environment (if it’s environment, why isn’t the rate higher?).

So onto the article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/government-concedes-vacci_b_88323.html

Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court – Now What?

By David Kirby
Posted February 25, 2008 | 12:42 PM (EST)

After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.

The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff’s identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.

The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal “Vaccine Court,” was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the “defendant” in all Vaccine Court cases.

The child’s claim against the government — that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism — was supposed to be one of three “test cases” for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court.

Keisler wrote that medical personnel at the HHS Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) had reviewed the case and “concluded that compensation is appropriate.”

The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal).

Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism, including: No response to verbal direction; loss of language skills; no eye contact; loss of “relatedness;” insomnia; incessant screaming; arching; and “watching the florescent lights repeatedly during examination.”

Seven months after vaccination, the patient was diagnosed by Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a leading neurologist at the Kennedy Krieger Children’s Hospital Neurology Clinic, with “regressive encephalopathy (brain disease) with features consistent with autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development.” The girl also met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) official criteria for autism.

In its written concession, the government said the child had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was “aggravated” by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis.

“The vaccinations received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder,” the concession says, “which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of ASD.”

This statement is good news for the girl and her family, who will now be compensated for the lifetime of care she will require. But its implications for the larger vaccine-autism debate, and for public health policy in general, are not as certain.

In fact, the government’s concession seems to raise more questions than it answers.

1) Is there a connection between vaccines, mitochondrial disorders and a diagnosis of autism, at least in some cases?

Mitochondria, you may recall from biology class, are the little powerhouses within cells that convert food into electrical energy, partly through a complex process called “oxidative phosphorylation.” If this process is impaired, mitochondrial disorder will ensue.

The child in this case had several markers for Mt disease, which was confirmed by muscle biopsy. Mt disease is often marked by lethargy, poor muscle tone, poor food digestion and bowel problems, something found in many children diagnosed with autism.

But mitochondrial disorders are rare in the general population, affecting some 2-per-10,000 people (or just 0.2%). So with 4,900 cases filed in Vaccine Court, this case should be the one and only, extremely rare instance of Mt disease in all the autism proceedings.

But it is not.

Mitochondrial disorders are now thought to be the most common disease associated with ASD. Some journal articles and other analyses have estimated that 10% to 20% of all autism cases may involve mitochondrial disorders, which would make them one thousand times more common among people with ASD than the general population.

Another article, published in the Journal of Child Neurology and co-authored by Dr. Zimmerman, showed that 38% of Kennedy Krieger Institute autism patients studied had one marker for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, and 47% had a second marker.

The authors — who reported on a case-study of the same autism claim conceded in Vaccine Court — noted that “children who have (mitochondrial-related) dysfunctional cellular energy metabolism might be more prone to undergo autistic regression between 18 and 30 months of age if they also have infections or immunizations at the same time.”

An interesting aspect of Mt disease in autism is that, with ASD, the mitochondrial disease seems to be milder than in “classic” cases of Mt disorder. In fact, classic Mt disease is almost always inherited, either passed down by the mother through mitochondrial DNA, or by both parents through nuclear DNA.

In autism-related Mt disease, however, the disorder is not typically found in other family members, and instead appears to be largely of the sporadic variety, which may now account for 75% of all mitochondrial disorders.

Meanwhile, an informal survey of seven families of children with cases currently pending in Vaccine Court revealed that all seven showed markers for mitochondrial dysfunction, dating back to their earliest medical tests. The facts in all seven claims mirror the case just conceded by the government: Normal development followed by vaccination, immediate illness, and rapid decline culminating in an autism diagnosis.

2) With 4,900 cases pending, and more coming, will the government concede those with underlying Mt disease — and if it not, will the Court award compensation?

The Court will soon begin processing the 4900 cases pending before it. What if 10% to 20% of them can demonstrate the same Mt disease and same set of facts as those in the conceded case? Would the government be obliged to concede 500, or even 1,000 cases? What impact would that have on public opinion? And is there enough money currently in the vaccine injury fund to cover so many settlements?

When asked for a comment last week about the court settlement, a spokesman for HHS furnished the following written statement:

“DVIC has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim. Accordingly, in every case under the Vaccine Act, DVIC has maintained the position that vaccines do not cause autism, and has never concluded in any case that autism was caused by vaccination.”

3) If the government is claiming that vaccines did not “cause” autism, but instead aggravated a condition to “manifest” as autism, isn’t that a very fine distinction?

For most affected families, such linguistic gymnastics is not so important. And even if a vaccine injury “manifested” as autism in only one case, isn’t that still a significant development worthy of informing the public?

On the other hand, perhaps what the government is claiming is that vaccination resulted in the symptoms of autism, but not in an actual, factually correct diagnosis of autism itself.

4) If the government is claiming that this child does NOT have autism, then how many other children might also have something else that merely “mimics” autism?

Is it possible that 10%-20% of the cases that we now label as “autism,” are not autism at all, but rather some previously undefined “look-alike” syndrome that merely presents as “features” of autism?

This question gets to the heart of what autism actually is. The disorder is defined solely as a collection of features, nothing more. If you have the features (and the diagnosis), you have the disorder. The underlying biology is the great unknown.

But let’s say the government does determine that these kids don’t have actual “autism” (something I speculated on HuffPost a year ago). Then shouldn’t the Feds go back and test all people with ASD for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, perhaps reclassifying many of them?

If so, will we then see “autism” cases drop by tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people? Will there be a corresponding ascension of a newly described disorder, perhaps something like “Vaccine Aggravated Mitochondrial Disease with Features of ASD?”

And if this child was technically “misdiagnosed” with DSM-IV autism by Dr Zimmerman, how does he feel about HHS doctors issuing a second opinion re-diagnosis of his patient, whom they presumably had neither met nor examined? (Zimmerman declined an interview).

And along those lines, aren’t Bush administration officials somewhat wary of making long-distance, retroactive diagnoses from Washington, given that the Terry Schiavo incident has not yet faded from national memory?

5) Was this child’s Mt disease caused by a genetic mutation, as the government implies, and wouldn’t that have manifested as “ASD features” anyway?

In the concession, the government notes that the patient had a “single nucleotide change” in the mitochondrial DNA gene T2387C, implying that this was the underlying cause of her manifested “features” of autism.

While it’s true that some inherited forms of Mt disease can manifest as developmental delays, (and even ASD in the form of Rhett Syndrome) these forms are linked to identified genetic mutations, of which T2387C is not involved. In fact little, if anything, is known about the function of this particular gene.

What’s more, there is no evidence that this girl, prior to vaccination, suffered from any kind of “disorder” at all- genetic, mitochondrial or otherwise. Some forms of Mt disease are so mild that the person is unaware of being affected. This perfectly developing girl may have had Mt disorder at the time of vaccination, but nobody detected, or even suspected it.

And, there is no evidence to suggest that this girl would have regressed into symptoms consistent with a DSM-IV autism diagnosis without her vaccinations. If there was such evidence, then why on earth would these extremely well-funded government attorneys compensate this alleged injury in Vaccine Court? Why wouldn’t they move to dismiss, or at least fight the case at trial?

6) What are the implications for research?

The concession raises at least two critical research questions: What are the causes of Mt dysfunction; and how could vaccines aggravate that dysfunction to the point of “autistic features?”

While some Mt disorders are clearly inherited, the “sporadic” form is thought to account for 75% of all cases, according to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. So what causes sporadic Mt disease? “Medicines or other toxins,” says the Cleveland Clinic, a leading authority on the subject.

Use of the AIDS drug AZT, for example, can cause Mt disorders by deleting large segments of mitochondrial DNA. If that is the case, might other exposures to drugs or toxins (i.e., thimerosal, mercury in fish, air pollution, pesticides, live viruses) also cause sporadic Mt disease in certain subsets of children, through similar genotoxic mechanisms?

Among the prime cellular targets of mercury are mitochondria, and thimerosal-induced cell death has been associated with the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, according to the International Journal of Molecular Medicine among several others. (Coincidently, the first case of Mt disease was diagnosed in 1959, just 15 years after the first autism case was named, and two decades after thimerosal’s introduction as a vaccine preservative.)

Regardless of its cause, shouldn’t HHS sponsor research into Mt disease and the biological mechanisms by which vaccines could aggravate the disorder? We still do not know what it was, exactly, about this girl’s vaccines that aggravated her condition. Was it the thimerosal? The three live viruses? The two attenuated viruses? Other ingredients like aluminum? A combination of the above?

And of course, if vaccine injuries can aggravate Mt disease to the point of manifesting as autism features, then what other underlying disorders or conditions (genetic, autoimmune, allergic, etc.) might also be aggravated to the same extent?

7) What are the implications for medicine and public health?

Should the government develop and approve new treatments for “aggravated mitochondrial disease with ASD features?” Interestingly, many of the treatments currently deployed in Mt disease (i.e., coenzyme Q10, vitamin B-12, lipoic acid, biotin, dietary changes, etc.) are part of the alternative treatment regimen that many parents use on their children with ASD.

And, if a significant minority of autism cases can be linked to Mt disease and vaccines, shouldn’t these products one day carry an FDA Black Box warning label, and shouldn’t children with Mt disorders be exempt from mandatory immunization?

What are the implications for the vaccine-autism debate?

It’s too early to tell. But this concession could conceivably make it more difficult for some officials to continue insisting there is “absolutely no link” between vaccines and autism.

It also puts the Federal Government’s Vaccine Court defense strategy somewhat into jeopardy. DOJ lawyers and witnesses have argued that autism is genetic, with no evidence to support an environmental component. And, they insist, it’s simply impossible to construct a chain of events linking immunizations to the disorder.

Government officials may need to rethink their legal strategy, as well as their public relations campaigns, given their own slightly contradictory concession in this case.

9) What is the bottom line here?

The public, (including world leaders) will demand to know what is going on inside the US Federal health establishment. Yes, as of now, n=1, a solitary vaccine-autism concession. But what if n=10% or 20%? Who will pay to clean up that mess?

The significance of this concession will unfortunately be fought over in the usual, vitriolic way — and I fully expect to be slammed for even raising these questions. Despite that, the language of this concession cannot be changed, or swept away.

Its key words are “aggravated” and “manifested.” Without the aggravation of the vaccines, it is uncertain that the manifestation would have occurred at all.

When a kid with peanut allergy eats a peanut and dies, we don’t say “his underlying metabolic condition was significantly aggravated to the extent of manifesting as an anaphylactic shock with features of death.”

No, we say the peanut killed the poor boy. Remove the peanut from the equation, and he would still be with us today.

Many people look forward to hearing more from HHS officials about why they are settling this claim. But whatever their explanation, they cannot change the fundamental facts of this extraordinary case:

The United State government is compensating at least one child for vaccine injuries that resulted in a diagnosis of autism.

And that is big news, no matter how you want to say it.

David Kirby is the author of “Evidence of Harm – Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, A Medical Controversy” (St. Martins Press 2005.