Category: News

This is exactly how I always pictured the inside of a circuit: Batman, magic smoke, and attitude. [xkcd] More »

In recent months, climate change skeptics have ramped up their efforts in the media and Congress to misrepresent the scientific consensus on global warming….

In response, scientists must communicate their research methods and findings more broadly and more effectively. More than 2,000 economists and scientists recently called on “our nation’s leaders to swiftly establish and implement policies to bring about deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions.” That is a step in the right direction.

But scientists do not have a bully pulpit. President Obama does — and the public desperately needs him to use it.

That’s the opening from a must-read HuffPost piece, “It’s Time for President Obama to Set the Record Straight on Climate Change,” by Dr. James J. McCarthy and Timothy Wirth.  They focus on a crucial point I’ve made many times before — only Obama can move the needle on climate science messaging.

McCarthy is the Alexander Agassiz professor of biological oceanography at Harvard and immediate past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and board chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists.  Former Colorado Senator Wirth is president of the UN Foundation and has served as undersecretary of state for global affairs.

The president clearly understands the urgency to act on global warming. Shortly after the election in November 2008, he said his administration would chart a course to reducing U.S. emissions of heat-trapping gases 80 percent by 2050 — the amount that climate scientists say is necessary to avoid catastrophe. “The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear,” he stated. “Delay is no longer an option.”

Since taking office, the president has spoken frequently about the role of clean energy technologies in creating millions of new jobs and revitalizing the economy. His fiscal stimulus bill put tens of billions of dollars into strategic investments in these technologies, and his administration has taken other important steps, including a rule that will make the new car and light truck fleet 40 percent more fuel efficient by 2016. He has brought members of Congress, business leaders, and others to the White House to build support for comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

These are all important steps and represent a complete reversal from the policies of the previous administration. An increased commitment to energy efficiency, renewable energy and other clean energy technologies is essential to U.S. leadership in the clean energy economy of the 21st century. But there is one issue on which the president can, and should, say much more: the strong scientific evidence on human-induced climate change and its impacts on the United States, and the rapidly closing window for action.

Last year, on behalf of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, an expert team of scientists summarized the science of climate change and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future, and called the evidence of a warming climate “unequivocal,” primarily due to the use of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and gas – and the loss of forests. The report emphasized that “sizable early cuts in emissions would significantly reduce the pace and the overall amount of climate change. Earlier cuts in emissions would have a greater effect in reducing climate change than comparable reductions made later.”

As the president travels around the country, he should alert citizens to these mounting costs of inaction. As temperatures rise, so do their consequences, and so does the importance of reducing emissions. Midwestern farmers could face more frequent days of extreme heat, heavier spring rains, and wider-ranging crop-damaging pests. California faces temperature increases that will affect agriculture, worsen the risk of large wildfires, and reduce the winter snowpack that is so important to year-round water supply.

The president should bring together scientists and others with relevant expertise for a White House summit on climate science, the urgency of action, and the opportunity for timely solutions. The headliners of this event should include the president and the government’s own experts — people like White House science adviser John Holdren, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco — each of them superb scientists in their own right.

In addition, the president’s secretaries of defense and homeland security should communicate to the public that climate change has the potential to produce serious threats to national security. It could endanger global water and food supplies and flood coasts with rising seas; these impacts, in turn, could trigger mass migrations and violent conflicts. The bottom line: Climate change is likely to exacerbate the conditions that foster violent extremism, with weakened and failed states being especially vulnerable.

President Obama just brokered a new treaty limiting nuclear weapons with Russia, moving another step toward his long-term goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Now it is time for him to step up his efforts on another major threat to the future of the planet. The president should deliver a major speech on climate change to the American public, using all the props and charts he can muster to bring the message home. The public interest requires it.

The scientific community has long known that emissions from burning fossil fuels are changing Earth’s climate. President Obama is uniquely qualified to cut through the fog created by misleading and manufactured controversies by telling the American public the truth. As he leads, our country will respond.

Hear!  Hear!

Related Posts:

• President Obama explains the science behind climate change and extreme weather
• Obama: “To create more of these clean energy jobs … means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.”
• Obama at MIT: “From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to producing and use energy. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation…. There are going to be those who make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.”
• Nature editorial: “Scientists must now emphasize the science, while acknowledging that they are in a street fight.”

Might We Suggest…

• Droid Incredible Pre-Order: April 19th!
  The gang over at Phandroid just broke that the Droid (HTC) Incredible will be available for pre-order in just a few days! Over the last week or so there have been brief glimpses of the Incredible bein…

Well now I can expand on yesterday’s teaser. Here’s the website for the conference. Note, it requires members of the interested public to register in order to attend. Meanwhile, here’s the abstract of what we’re going to be considering–which, I might add, is not being considered nearly enough:
The blogosphere represents a new kind of deliberative space that is both enlarging and constraining public discourse in unprecedented ways. The key factor about this space, the issue this workshop seeks to explore, is its lack of norms. It is an unruly space in the sense that there are no rules of entry, access, or conduct, except for extreme forms of behavior that are positively illegal. The consequences of this unruliness have been specially severe for scientific communication, which depends on common standards of truth-telling and civility for its progress. In turn, the erosion of scientific standards destabilizes the foundations of democratic deliberation. Can norms of discourse be inserted into the blogosphere that would advance science and democracy? Can blogs induce deliberation or must they encourage extremism and rage to the detriment of public reason? Is science helped or hurt by the new media? What particular distorting factors enter the picture as blogging becomes …

In an attempt to protect their rights, Constantin Film has send out requests to take down all “Hitler rant” clips featuring a short clip from their movie Der Untergang.

Among the target clips is a brilliant parody of the DMCA takedown requests.

The maker of the DMCA parody has filed a dispute, arguing that his work is covered under fair use so for now it’s still online.

A must see.

Article from: FreakBits

[JURIST] The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the country’s sex offender registry requirement violates the right to privacy. The case involved an appeal filed by two convicted sex offenders who challenged the notification requirement of Section 82 of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act, which mandates indefinite notification for any individual sentenced to 30 or more months in prison for a sex offense. The trial court ruled that Section 82 of the Act was incompatible with privacy rights guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court considered several issues before affirming that dismissal, including how valuable the notification requirements are for achieving the goal of lower crime, and the extent of harm to that goal if the notification requirements were subject to review. The court considered empirical evidence that, over a 21-year period, 75 percent of sex offenders in the UK were not re-convicted, and that, despite the possibility that a convicted offender may be able to prove he will not re-offend, he or she has no recourse. Lord Phillips, writing for the court, concluded:
I think that it is obvious that there must be some circumstances in which an appropriate tribunal could reliably conclude that the risk of an individual carrying out a further sexual offence can be discounted to the extent that continuance of notification requirements is unjustified. As the courts below have observed, it is open to the legislature to impose an appropriately high threshold for review.As the Court suggested, the UK legislature will have to craft a review process for the notification requirement. It is not clear what will happen to individuals already on the notification register, and any change will be delayed until the upcoming general election has passed.Wednesday’s ruling is the second high-profile result regarding individual rights and sex offenders in the UK in the past week. On Monday, a Pakistani man, currently serving a jail term for a sex offense, won an appeal against deportation because he has a wife and child in the UK and has lived there legally for 20 years. That ruling resulted in significant public outrage, and the Home Office has indicated it will appeal the ruling. There are currently more than 24,000 individuals in the UK subject to the registry requirement, and, in the past, the government has had to reduce the sentence of some sex offenders because of prison overcrowding.

The super popular “Hitler rants…” meme is now under fire by Constantin Film, the German production company behind Downfall, from which the original clip is taken. According to TechCrunch, Constantin started filing DMCA takedowns on many of the popular YouTube variants of the oft re-subtitled clip. Particularly ironic is the fact that the director of the movie enjoys the clips himself — but of course, since the producer holds the copyright to the movie, the director has no real say in the matter.

In a mind-blowing meta way, the most amusing video caught in this mess is the takedown of the video that parodies these takedowns themselves:

Since this video, which uses the same Downfall clip in question, can be considered parody, then it should be covered under fair use. Since its creator filed a dispute after it was taken down, for now, the video is viewable on YouTube (and on Vimeo, as in the link above), awaiting review from Constantin on the copyright claim.

That said, Constatin has a lot of work to do if it truly wants to remove all instances of this video online. There are thousands of variants available and, in looking through a list of the some of the most popular videos, not even all of those have been taken down yet. Even so, when a popular variant is taken down, the video can be posted to other sites, as in the case of “Hitler Finds Out About the iPhone 4g Leak,” the video that supposedly was the first of the videos to be taken down.

It’s not clear what Constantin is looking to gain by issuing these takedowns. Constantin is killing the very promotional vehicle that has been driving sales and rentals of Downfall itself. Each viewing of these videos has played a part in pulling the 2004 movie out of oblivion — without these millions of views, very few, if any, people would have ever heard of the movie.

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Want to ridicule the Noise for his Billy Butler(notes) obsession or misguided
projections? Humiliate him in 140 characters or less on Twitter.

Roughly 17 months ago St.
Louis rookie Jaime Garcia(notes) laid anesthetized on a
surgeon’s table. His left UCL, stressed from overwork, was in desperate need of
repair. Only a pup at 22, the Cardinals’ most promising pitching prospect had
reached a pivotal crossroads in his young professional career. Optimism turned
to uncertainty …

Jump to the present.

After two brilliant starts, the relative unknown
may soon be mentioned alongside pitching junior heartthrobs Tommy Hanson(notes), Brian Matusz(notes)
and Brett Anderson(notes). The sample size may seem insignificant, but over 13 innings
against two potent offenses (Milwaukee and New York) he’s exhibited
the polish and poise of a cagy veteran surrendering
just one run with 10 strikeouts (highlights versus Brewers/Mets
here).

Many pundits have already brushed off Garcia’s initial effort,
mislabeling it as nothing more than beginner’s luck. Even those close to the
organization have expressed cautious optimism. Still, despite the general
pessimism, the southpaw’s glowing April shouldn’t be ignored. He could be this
year’s Josh Johnson(notes).

Garcia’s rapid recovery is a testament to the advancement of
modern medicine. Thirty years ago a similar injury would’ve promptly ended a
pitcher’s career. Even in the mid-90s, the chances of full Tommy John recovery
stood at approximately 60 percent. At the time, Screech had better odds of
hooking up with Lisa Turtle.

But the former 22nd-round pick has climbed the mountain. Based
on his phenomenal first impression, rumors he received a tendon from Steve
Carlton might actually be true. His expressionless cool and systematic elimination of hitters bears a resemblence. 

On paper, Garcia is a blossoming prodigy. His terrific minor
league strikeout record (8.26 K/9 over 402 IP) combined with his ability to attract weak contact is very
appealing. Though the caboose’s fastball scores average, his offspeed
offerings, particularly his cutter, are downright filthy plus pitches. Corey
Hart(notes) commented earlier this month the kid’s breaking stuff was extremely
"tough to square up." His resulting 63.8 groundball percentage this
season flashes "excitement." Cardinals GM John Mozeliak commented via email Monday the hurler’s striking initial success is primarily due to two
key factors:

"Jaime has always been impressive and adding a slider
has made him even more impressive. The big difference in Jaime is that he has
matured both physically and mentally."

Naturally, questions about Garcia’s projected workload are
unavoidable. In the recent past, pitchers who’ve undergone Tommy John have
typically taken multiple seasons to  recover fully (e.g. Francisco Liriano(notes)).
However, the Cardinals aren’t married to the idea of limiting their fifth starter to a specific
innings cap.

"We don’t have an innings gauge," said Mozeliak.
"We will monitor him and make sure he is provided a safe atmosphere to
learn and grow in, without pushing him too fast."

In all likelihood, Garcia will be lucky to surpass 170
innings. Still, given his marvelous repertoire, placid demeanor and generous run
support, he could be one of the season’s surprise sensations. Having mound
Miyagi (Dave Duncan) around certainly doesn’t hurt. After all, two years ago
the esteemed pitching coach impossibly turned Todd Wellemeyer(notes) into a reliable
starter. And last season he resurrected the nearly deceased career of Joel
Pineiro(notes). The 23-year-old is a less challenging project. 

Overshadowed by Chris Carpenter(notes) and Adam Wainwright(notes), Garcia is
hardly a household name. But sizzling out of the gates, the 18-percent owned hidden
treasure could soon become indispensable in mixed leagues.

Many hungry owners may be preparing to sacrifice useful apendages for Ike Davis(notes), but the St. Louis upstart could be the NL rookie
hoisting the hardware come October.

Fearless Forecast (full
season): 159.1 IP, 11 W, 3.68 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 138 K

—

Discount Den
Quality commodity owned
in fewer than 30 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

Marlon Byrd(notes), ChC, OF
(24 percent-owned):  When compared to middle digit flasher Milton Bradley(notes), Byrd is Mother Theresa. His
infectious attitude and productive play has been a breath of fresh air on the
North Side. Those who drafted him in the Old Style hazy hours of drafts house
similar feelings. Since April 12, he’s notched four multi-hit games with four
doubles, a homer and six RBI. He’ll be hard-pressed to match last year’s career
numbers playing in the National League, but very useful OF4 or UTIL totals will
likely be accumulated, especially considering his excellent peripheries. An end
line around .290-18-80-65-10 is very possible.

Ooh Stream Weaver…
Widely available plug
n’ play starter heading into the weekend.

Livan Hernandez(notes), Was
(4/22 vs. Col, six percent-owned): Consuming week old cashew chicken may
seem less risky than trusting the services of an elderly contact pitcher who’s
posted a morbidly obese ERA since 2008. Both could lead to painful indigestion.
However, in two starts against quality opponents (Milwaukee
and New York),
the former World Series MVP has been surprisingly terrific. Though his
strikeout totals are unsightly, he’s yielded just nine hits and has yet to
allow a run over 16 innings. He also has two wins. Colorado is a formidable offensive club,
averaging 4.6 runs per game. Also, with Ubaldo Jimenez(notes) fresh off a no-no taking
the mound for the Rockies, Livan’s third
straight W could be elusive. But the crafty veteran has been untouchable. Go
ahead. Play with fire. 

Middle Relief Magic
ERA/WHIP savior,
potential saves/wins vulture.

Carlos Villanueva(notes),
Mil (six percent-owned): Collectively, the Brewers staff may be scrapping
the bottom of the barrel. They currently rank near the league bottom in hits
and homers allowed. However, Villanueva has been a bright spot. The righty has
thrown with more power and purpose this season. Over seven innings he’s induced
numerous groundballs and posted an otherworldly 14.14 K/9. Leaning more heavily
on his curve, the 26-year-old may be reaching maturation. He, not LaTroy
Hawkins(notes), could be next in line if Trevor Hoffman’s(notes) bones finally liquefy.

—

Image courtesy of US Presswire

This morning didn’t start as planned. At 5 A.M. there was a loud “boom”, the power at home went out, and then there was a second loud “boom”. The power was out in the immediate area, and we stumbled around in the dark until candles were lit and flashlights were located. The only good thing about this unexpected darkness was it happened right at the time my wife’s alarm clock signaled it was time to get up for the day. She has one of those job things that requires her to actually go to work, unlike me who has a 5 second commute to Mobile Tech Manor. Fortunately for us both, my home office is outfitted with outstanding mobile technology, and that comes in handy when the power decides to go away.

We normally watch the morning news on TV while sipping our first cup of coffee, and my wife didn’t want to miss this part of the daily ritual. I fired up the Sprint Overdrive hotspot, and once connected to the Sprint 3G network (we don’t have 4G coverage at home) I powered on the Acer Ferrari One laptop I have been testing. Our local ABC TV station broadcasts the news online, so my wife was able to get her morning news fix with no problem. I was on the iPad, happily tweeting via candlelight.

When the power outage entered its second hour it was clear we were in for the long haul. No worries as I have been working away on my MacBook using the Overdrive 3G connection. It’s almost like all the other mornings when we have power, just a bit darker. Working in the glow of the laptop screen reminds me of the period after Hurricane Ike, when we lost power for almost 3 weeks.

Having all of this mobile tech around is a great thing when confronted with a situation like this power outage. I figure between the MacBook and other laptops in Mobile Tech Manor I could easily go 3 – 4 days without power before all the various batteries run dry. The Overdrive modem is only good for 3 – 4 hours on its little battery but when it starts running out I will just connect it to the currently used laptop via USB. It will take a hit on the laptop battery but I won’t care, I’ll still be online and working away.

I do miss the 40 Mbps broadband I normally enjoy, and the 24-inch monitor on my desk too. But times like these remind me those are nice to have but not essential to get the work done. Just lots of batteries and mobile broadband and I am good to go.

I must admit that while it was romantic tweeting via candlelight, it is kind of sad when a power outage is no excuse to miss a little work. This situation does make me proud of the green tech work the GigaOM network does, especially the GreenNet 2010 conference kicking off this month.

Inhabitat has a post on plans to expand biogas production in the UK – UK Prepares to Use Human Poop to Power Homes.

In some parts of the UK anaerobic digesters are already being used to generate electricity from human refuse, but this summer British Gas in a partnership with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks will start piping biomethane from the sewage system — which is derived from fecal matter — right back into the homes of 130 customers in Didcot in Oxfordshire. The new gas will take 23 days to complete its waste treatment cycle and when it enters homes will smell just like natural gas.

Using human waste for power is not a new idea. Marco Polo noticed that the Chinese used enclosed sewage tanks to generate power and bath water was said to be heated with biogas in Assyria in the 10th century BC. With populations on the rise and the issue of what to do with sewage becoming an ever present problem, why not bring it back around to electrify our houses? It’s completely renewable — as long as we keep eating — and could be a big part of the no waste holy grail.

We’ve seen plenty of developers release call blocking applications lately. With an increasing number of unwanted calls from telemarketers — many of them claiming that you have “no problems with your credit card account,” but to hang on the line — having solid filter can be useful. You can find many of these application in our BlackBerry applications archives. For the most part these are premium applications, but yesterday I stumbled upon one that, for the rest of today at least, comes at no monetary cost. It takes a little extra effort, but I’m willing to bet that once you see what it entails you’ll be willing. You’ll probably also appreciate that Call Control is one of the better call blockers on the market.

(more…)

Luke Timmerman wrote:

One of the big ideas in diabetes research today is that inflammation is one of the major culprits. Tamp down inflammation, and maybe you can reduce the assault on blood vessels that leads to all sorts of complications like heart attacks, blindness, and amputations. If this can be proven over time, Cambridge, MA-based Catabasis Pharmaceuticals might have just the drugs to stop the inflammation and all its nasty effects.

That’s the concept anyway, and it’s one that Catabasis is being richly financed to pursue. The Cambridge, MA-based company has secured a $39.6 million Series A financing from SV Life Sciences, Clarus Ventures, and MedImmune Ventures. We first broke the story last week saying that Catabasis pocketed the first $7.7 million tranche of this deal. CEO Jill Milne confirmed the figure today, adding that Catabasis will get the rest of the money if it can hit certain development goals.

The Catabasis story began in the summer of 2008 when Milne and her colleague Mike Jirousek decided to leave senior jobs at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals after it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline. They started talking with Steven Shoelson, a leading researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center, about the emerging understanding of inflammation as an underlying culprit in diabetes. The diabetes market is one of the biggest in the pharmaceutical industry, with an estimated 24 million people in the U.S.—almost one out of every 12 people—suffering from adult-onset or Type 2 diabetes. Incidence has roughly tripled over the past three decades as more people eat unhealthy diets, and live sedentary lives.

The pharmaceutical market has responded to this epidemic by flooding doctors and patients with drugs like metformin, various forms of insulin, GLP-1 inhibitors, and DPP4 inhibitors that work in different ways to keep blood sugar under control. Yet despite all that intense effort at every Big Pharma company, no one has yet gotten a drug approved for Type 2 diabetes that works by controlling inflammation.

“This is a novel way of treating the disease,” Milne says. “It got me excited.”

Catabasis has a plan to tackle this problem with what amounts to a combination drug strategy. Milne and Jirousek, who are trained in biochemistry and chemistry, respectively, started piecing this plan together after they heard about some promising results from Shoelson’s research. His team had shown that a generic anti-inflammatory drug, a type of salicylate, was effective at helping reduce blood sugar in a clinical trial. But there was a catch. The patients had to get a whopping 4 grams a day, and take their pills three times daily. And, researchers saw a case of tinnitus, a serious condition in which people suffer from ringing in their ears, which isn’t an effect the FDA or patients would consider allowable for treating a chronic condition like diabetes.

“That was not acceptable,” Milne says.

While some scientists have pursuing the anti-inflammatory hypothesis, others have been studying Omega-3 fatty acids—those heralded substances in fish oil …Next Page »

Salon has an article by William Astore looking at the state of play in American politics – The business of America is kleptocracy.

Think of socialism and fascism as the red herrings of this moment or, if you’re an old time movie fan, as Hitchcockian MacGuffins — in other words, riveting distractions. Conservatives and tea partiers fear invasive government regulation and excessive taxation, while railing against government takeovers — even as corporate lobbyists write our public healthcare bills to favor private interests. Similarly, progressives rail against an emergent proto-fascist corps of private guns-for-hire, warrantless wiretapping, and the potential government-approved assassination of U.S. citizens, all sanctioned by a perpetual, and apparently open-ended, state of war.

Yet, if this is socialism, why are private health insurers the government’s go-to guys for healthcare coverage? If this is fascism, why haven’t the secret police rounded up tea partiers and progressive critics as well and sent them to the lager or the gulag?

Consider this: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers’ party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the corporate-friendly “Democrat” party here.) We have no substantial fascist party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the cartoonish “tea partiers” here; these predominantly white, graying, and fairly affluent Americans seem most worried that the jackbooted thugs will be coming for them.)

What drives America today is, in fact, business — just as was true in the days of Calvin Coolidge. But it’s not the fair-minded “free enterprise” system touted in those freshly revised Texas guidelines for American history textbooks; rather, it’s a rigged system of crony capitalism that increasingly ends in what, if we were looking at some other country, we would recognize as an unabashed kleptocracy.

Recall, if you care to, those pallets stacked with hundreds of millions of dollars that the Bush administration sent to Iraq and which, Houdini-like, simply disappeared. Think of the ever-rising cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in excess of a trillion dollars, and just whose pockets are full, thanks to them.

If you want to know the true state of our government and where it’s heading, follow the money (if you can) and remain vigilant: our kleptocratic Houdinis are hard at work, seeking to make yet more money vanish from your pockets — and reappear in theirs.

HTC actually introduced new copy-and-paste features in the new version of Sense way back at Mobile World Congress, but let’s take a look at it here on the Verizon Droid Incredible. You can select one word, several words, or whole paragraphs, and from there paste them into another application, look up a word in Wikipedia, or share it with a friend. (You also can share links.) Note that these features are currently only available in the browser, and we did experience a hiccup or two. Take a look.

The FDA has launched a new web site aimed at making the processes and decision-making rationales for the development of regulations concerning radiation-emitting medical devices more transparent. 

The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Transparency web site is part of a continuing initiative by the agency to increase transparency and public accessibility, but it also comes at a time when the health risks of radiological procedures are under the microscope due to concerns over cancer and over-exposure to radiation.

CT scan procedures across the country are under close scrutiny by the FDA after the discovery that a number of patients have suffered radiation overexposure from CT Scans performed incorrectly. The FDA is currently reviewing CT scan procedures nationwide, and released interim guidance for health care professionals and radiologists in December. The guidance advised them to review procedures and CT scan settings, and to be thorough in checking the amount of dosage prescribed for each CT scan patient.

The recent FDA investigation was sparked by the discovery of CT scan radiation over-exposure problems that may have affected more than 200 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles last year. Since then, the FDA has uncovered at least 50 more radiation CT errors.

The new web site will give the public access to premarket submissions for new or improved radiation-emitting medical devices, postmarket performance and safety documents, FDA compliance and enforcement actions, science and research program data, performance metrics and educational resources. In addition, the site will allow visitors to perform a Total Product Life Cycle search, which will pull premarket and postmarket data on a particular medical device from multiple sources and compile them into a single “snapshot.”

CDRH Director Jeffrey Shuren, M.D. said that the web site will give the public a window into the FDA’s regulation of radiation-emitting medical devices. “It provides a closer and clearer look at what we do and why we do it,” Shuren said.

The new site follows an initiative announced earlier this year by the National Institute of Health (NIH), which plans to track radiation exposure in patients’ medical records. Their record-keeping will also not focus on radiation errors, but instead will watch the accumulation of radiation exposure from  a variety of treatments.

Traditionally, if you want to sell something online you would either setup a store or put it up on eBay. Even though both these options are great, they don’t work for each and every situation. For example, if you want to sell only a couple of items and want to target them to a certain group of people, none of these would work. In such situations, a better solution is to use a service like TinyPayMe.

It takes less than 2 minutes to setup a sale on TinyPayMe; you can include as little or as much information possible including price, quantity, pictures, description, tags, location and any personal info that you want to publish. You can sell physical items as well as digital content using TinyPayMe. Once you have created your listing, simply share the link with desired audience or embed it on your website or blog. A user will be able to purchase the item through PayPal instantly.

The service however is not free, they do charge 5% of the selling price as their service fee. You can also donate a portion of every sale to a specific charity if you want. There is also an option to display pageviews, include listing in search results and require a shipment address from the buyer. Over all, TinyPayMe is not a world-changing solution but can work really well if you are trying to do a very targeted sale and think the convenience is worth the 5% fees.

[Via DownloadSquad]

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Charles Schwab could face close to $1 billion in damages and settlements stemming from securities fraud lawsuits over their Schwab YieldPlus bond fund. 

In an earnings release issued by Charles Schwab Corp. last week, the company announced that it faces at least 194 individual stockbroker arbitration claims for up to $34 million, in addition to a YieldPlus Bond Fund class action lawsuit that looks to recoup $890 million for investors. In addition, other claims may still be filed against the brokerage firm over investment losses allegedly caused by their handling of the bond fund.

The Schwab YieldPlus funds are ultra-short bond funds that were heavily promoted as conservative investment alternatives to money market funds or cash. Despite being advertised to generate income with minimal changes in share price, the fund lost more than 30% of its value between June 2007 and June 2008 due to heavy investments in risky subprime mortgage securities, which some experts indicate violated the prospectus.

The funds lost much of their value when the sub-prime mortgage market crashed in late 2007, leaving investors with substantial losses. The investor claims allege that Schwab misled investors and failed to properly disclose the nature of the risks associated with certain securities held by the bond funds.

In October, Schwab announced that it had received a “Wells notice” from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating that they plan to recommend that the company be brought up on civil charges. No charges have yet been filed.

Earlier this month, a summary judgment from a federal judge in California determined that the company erred in failing to get investors’ approval before shifting half of the fund’s assets into mortgage-backed bonds. The ruling clears the way for the pending class action lawsuits for three classes of plaintiffs to proceed.

Two classes of plaintiffs are scheduled to go to trial on May 10.

Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy has announced his retirement from acting.

Nimoy began his acting career in the early 1950s and rose to international fame as Mr. Spock in the sci-fi series. Now the almost 80-year-old star — who has also tasted fame as a director, photographer — is stepping away from the camera.

“I’ve been doing this professionally for 60 years. I love the idea of going out on a positive note. I’ve had a great, great time,” says the Fringe actor.

As for his iconic character Spock, Leonard say he’s happy to let Heroes actor Zachary Quinto take over the reigns from now on. Quinto turned in a well-received performance as Spock in last year’s Star Trek prequel.

“He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2010

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010

In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.

The President and the Vice President will then meet with the bipartisan leaders of the Senate and the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Oval Office to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Stevens. Expected attendees include Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Senator Leahy, and Senator Sessions. There will be a pool spray at the top.

In the afternoon, the President and the Vice President will have lunch in the Private Dining Room. This lunch is closed press. Later, the President will attend a reception for G-20 labor ministers in the Diplomatic Reception Room. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will also attend. This event is closed press.

The President and the First Lady, with the White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, will host members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic teams on the South Portico. The President and First Lady will congratulate Olympians and Paralympians on their performance and thank them for representing the United States during the Vancouver Winter Games. They will also discuss the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will also attend. This event is open press. (Note: This event may be moved indoors due to bad weather. If so, the event will be closed press.)

Later, the President and the Vice President will meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Oval Office. Following the meeting, the President and the Vice President will then meet with Secretary Geithner and Secretary Sebelius in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.

In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: ABC
Print: Scripps Howard
Radio: ABC

EDT

9:30AM Pool Call Time

9:30AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:00AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Economic Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:30AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with bipartisan leaders of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee
Oval Office
Pool spray at the top (Gather time 10:25AM – Briefing Room)

12:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT have lunch
Oval Office
Closed Press

2:15PM THE PRESIDENT attends reception for G-20 labor ministers
Diplomatic Reception Room
Closed Press

2:50PM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press

3:50PM THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY welcome members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House
South Portico
Open Press (Pre-set 2:00PM – Final Gather 3:20PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)

4:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary of Defense Gates
Oval Office
Closed Press

5:45PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary Geithner and Secretary Sebelius
Oval Office
Closed Press

Briefing Schedule

12:00PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

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