Combining form and function (and just a little dash of nerdlinger-ness), these USB cufflinks actually have 2GB of flash memory each. That’s 4GB of secret documents you could be carrying with you. How very James Bond. [Cufflinks via Red Ferret] More »
Hardware – James Bond – Storage – Solid State – USB
Gregory T. Huang wrote:
How did Geoff Entress become Seattle’s go-to tech investor and startup guru? For those outside the local technology community, Entress is an angel investor who has put his own money to work in more than 35 startup companies, most of them software-based and in the Northwest. They range from firms that are now well-established like Isilon Systems (NASDAQ: ISLN), Seadragon Software (bought by Microsoft), and The Coffee Equipment Company (bought by Starbucks), to fast-rising stars like Bonanzle, Cheezburger Network, Dashwire, Swype, and Elemental Technologies.
But that only scratches the surface of the impact Entress has had in the business community. He is a trusted advisor to scores of local entrepreneurs. He’s also well-known and trusted by the VCs on the other side of the table, having worked as a venture partner at two of Seattle’s premier tech VC firms, Madrona Venture Group and Voyager Capital.
Just yesterday, Entress, 46, found another way to weave himself deeper into the fabric of the Seattle startup community. He announced he has joined Seattle-based Founder’s Co-op as a managing partner. This means he will help run the seed-stage investment fund and startup mentorship program as an equal partner along with co-founders Chris DeVore and Andy Sack. Entress had been a limited partner of the firm for the past couple of years. As if his new role won’t keep him busy enough, Entress is also retaining his position at Voyager Capital, where he will continue to advise startups and evaluate investment deals.
Overall, the move solidifies Entress’s standing as one of the most connected and successful early-stage tech investors in the country. He has been called the “Ron Conway of Seattle” (after the Silicon Valley early-stage angel investor in Google and PayPal) often enough that the comparison feels like a cliche. But to understand what Entress’s move to Founder’s Co-op really means—and what the long-term impact could be on the startup and venture capital ecosystem—you need to know more about where he came from, and where he’s going in life.
Entress is one of those guys whose track record as a boy wonder boggles the mind. He grew up in Pittsburgh, the son of an oral surgeon with the U.S. Navy who “pulled the wisdom teeth of all my friends in high school,” he says. He went to college at the University of Notre Dame, and returned to his hometown to do a master’s in industrial administration at Carnegie Mellon University. Fresh out of business school in the mid-1980s, when he was in his early 20s, he ran a hedge fund with his father. The fund was successful enough that its sale to Duquesne Capital Management helped launch Entress’s career as an angel investor.
But before he found his golden touch for startups in Seattle, he had to complete a couple more steps in the journey. He learned the ways of Wall Street in various jobs in finance, sales, and …Next Page »
Virgin Interactive had a good run at gaming up until a few years ago. You might be familiar with them if you played the original Command & Conquer, Lands of Lore, or that Lion King movie tie-in
Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet
Sovereign Independent
May 27, 2010
Editor’s comment: When I bought my PC I was under the impression that it was my PERSONAL COMPUTER. Now it seems that it’s not. Under a new law as shown in the article below it seems that information on your PERSONAL computer is not private and that Eircom and presumably anyone, including government agencies, can access your PERSONAL computer at any time without a search warrant of any type to see what you have stored there.
We are to believe that this is simply to stop ‘illegal’ downloading of music etc to save multi billion dollar corporations a few quid. Do they think people are really that stupid as to believe this will stop there?
This is an infringement of your human right to privacy. As far as I am aware it is still a criminal act to tamper with a person’s PERSONAL mail. Even post office employees cannot do so. Why then is it not illegal to enter someone’s computer remotely without their permission and without just cause or a warrant?
If this is about stopping the illegal downloading of music etc then why don’t Eircom do as they’ve done with Piratebay and simply block the site?
Furthermore, why don’t Eircom block porn sites, paedophile sites, racist sites etc etc etc?
Surely these are far more detrimental so society than a few kids downloading music costing giant corporations a few dollars?
People must realise that this is simply a slippery slope to complete control over the Internet by the authorities.
What constitutes a crime?
Perhaps sites critical of the EU? Perhaps sites critical of government, the bankers or any other group who are criticised with just cause? Are we all criminals now under this law? Have we to give up, not only our right to privacy but also our right to free speech and liberty under the guise of the illegal download of music?
Give me a break! This is simply a further restriction on Internet freedom simply due to the fact that the propagandist mainstream media are losing the infowar battle.
We must persevere and use the net to our advantage whilst we still have it. We must increase our efforts to spread the word of freedom and humanity far and wide with more vigour than ever.
We must not bow down to tyranny!
Eircom to cut broadband over illegal downloads
JOHN COLLINS
EIRCOM WILL from today begin a process that will lead to cutting off the broadband service of customers found to be repeatedly sharing music online illegally.
Ireland is the first country in the world where a system of “graduated response” is being put in place. Under the pilot scheme, Eircom customers who illegally share copyrighted music will get three warnings before having their broadband service cut off for a year.
The Irish Recorded Music Association (Irma), whose members include EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, reached an out-of-court settlement with Eircom in February 2009 under which the telecoms company agreed to introduce such a system for its 750,000 broadband users.
The mechanism by which it operates was challenged in the courts by the Data Protection Commissioner.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton ruled in the High Court that a broadband subscribers internet protocol (IP) address, which Eircom will use to identify infringing customers, did not constitute personal information.
It is understood that, during the pilot phase, Eircom has agreed to process about 50 IP addresses a week. Irma is using a third-party firm, Dtecnet, to identify Eircom customers who are sharing, and not simply downloading, a specific list of its members’ copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks. The operation of the scheme will be reviewed after three months.
Dick Doyle, director general of Irma, said his organisation could potentially supply Eircom with thousands of IP addresses a week but it was a matter of seeing what the internet service provider (ISP) was able to process.
Infringing customers will be initially telephoned by Eircom to see if they are aware of the activity on their broadband network. If the customer is identified a third time, they will have their service withdrawn for seven days. If they are caught a fourth time their broadband connection will be cut off for a year.
Mr Doyle said international research suggested 80 per cent of people will stop illegal file-sharing if they get a letter from their ISP warning them of the consequences. “We are trying to encourage people to go back to legitimate networks to get their music,” he said.
Record companies are lobbying to have a graduated-response mechanism enshrined in law in other jurisdictions.
Cable operator UPC has resisted requests from Irma to implement a “three strikes” system and the case is in the courts next month. Last night, a spokeswoman for UPC said it does not see any legal basis for monitoring or blocking its subscribers’ activities.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0524/1224271013389.html
Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet
John Bolton
Arizona Daily Star
May 27, 2010
Several national news organizations are reporting that a Justice Department legal team is drafting a plan to challenge Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070.
All of the reports stress that a final decision to challenge the law has not been made and would face hurdles from other legal analysts within the Justice Department and in the White House. But the team is reported to be developing a challenge based on the idea that Arizona overstepped its authority.
Mike Levine of Fox News was first on the development with a blog entry Tuesday night: DOJ Lawyers Draft Challenge to AZ Law
The story has also been reported by the Wall Street Journal and ABC News.
Today the Justice Department hosted police chiefs from Arizona and other states who expressed concern about the Arizona bill.
SB 1070 requires police officers to determine the immigration status of anyone arrested before that person is released. The law prohibits police from using race to establish reasonable suspicion that someone is here illegally. The law makes it a state crime for illegal immigrants to work in Arizona, and makes it a state crime to transport, conceal, harbor or shield illegal immigrants.
2001 Chevrolet S-10
Despite the fact that other manufacturers are running away from the segment, GM has plans to work on a new compact pickup reminiscent of the Chevy S-10. The Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon have been fast losing sales, and last year the closure of the Louisiana plant that produces the two trucks was announced by Governor Bobby Jindal.
Currently the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger are the segments best movers, but that is poised to change. The Tacoma is the subject of many complaints regarding size and price, and Ford plans to end production of the Ranger next year; it says that small truck buyers can make do with a small car or fuel-efficient F-150.
J.D. Power reports that through April of this year, 87,895 compact and mid-size trucks have been moved. In order to be successful in the segment, GM will have to focus on size and fuel-economy; especially considering that Dodge is also planning similar production.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: PickupTrucks.com
Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 27, 2010
With public faith in the global-warming myth on the wane, leftist zealots are desperate to spin a new tale – and they’re spending your tax money to do it. Three years ago, Congress appropriated $5,856,600 for the National Academy of Sciences to complete a climate-change study. This bureaucratic attempt to cook the books, which was completed last week, may be too late to save this dying religion.
The academy now offers the taxpayer-funded research for download in three separate sections for $44 each. The first volume presents the case that human activities are warming the planet and that this “poses significant risks.”
A second report urges that a cap-and-trade taxing system be implemented to reduce so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The final section of the study explores strategies on adapting to the “reality” of climate change, meaning purported “extreme weather events like heavy precipitation and heat waves.”
None of the big-government recommendations are worth the 1,089 pages of presumably recycled paper on which they are to be printed if planetary warming is actually a phenomenon beyond human control, so the first volume is of primary interest. “Advancing the Science of Climate Change” asserts that the Earth’s temperature has risen over the past 100 years and that human activities have resulted in sharp increases in carbon dioxide.
The coincidence of these facts on their own, of course, proves nothing. The Earth has been as warm or warmer in past periods, such as the medieval and Roman warm periods, long before the internal combustion engine and coal plants were around to take the heat for a particularly sweltering summer day.
Via Prison Planet.com » World News
AFP
May 27, 2010
MOSCOW — Russia will not support efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship until it is fully convinced Pyongyang was behind the incident, a foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday.
“We need to receive 100 percent proof of North Korea’s role in the sinking of the corvette,” the spokesman, Igor Lyakin-Frolov, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“Our specialists are currently studying the materials of the investigation. We need to draw our own conclusions about what happened. Everything will depend on the situation and the body of evidence.”
The comments came a day after Russia announced that it was sending a team of experts to South Korea to assess the evidence about North Korea’s involvement in the sinking of the warship, which left 46 sailors dead.
I keep waiting for some large city to take initiative and declare bankruptcy to escape onerous burden of public pensions. Perhaps Miami is that city.
NBC Miami reports Miami Budget Begging for Bankruptcy
Please click on the above link to see a very interesting video. The video is not embeddable.
Partial Transcript
The city of Miami is in such financial dire straits that commissioner Marc Sarnoff is using the “B” word, bankruptcy.
“We are not the only city, municipality to be going through this. It looks like Los Angeles sometime next week or the week after will be going bankrupt. It looks like there will be 30 more cities following suit.”
Increases in public worker salaries is one of the main reasons why the budget is so tight. The average salary for a Miami city employee is $76,000. The average salary for a Miami city resident is $29,000.
Employee pensions are choking the budget too. In 2000, pension payouts cost taxpayers $16 million. In 2009 that number spiked up to $70 million.
Should the city go into bankruptcy, the commissioners and their politics would no longer be in charge of city finances, the judge would be.
[Sarnoff] “You no longer have 5 people making political solutions. You now have one person who is looking after the best interest of the taxpayer of the city of Miami, without any politics getting into his or her way.”
The Judge could order union contracts be renegotiated. He or she could decide what creditors get paid or not get paid.
….
Commissioner Sarnoff offers 3 options to avoid bankruptcy.
1. Renegotiate those union contracts
2. Layoff about 800 city workers
3. Raise your property taxes
In this economic climate that last option is not likely at all
…..
I see no indication Los Angeles is about to declare bankruptcy anytime soon as Sarnoff suggests. However, it is perfectly clear that Los Angeles is indeed in pathetic shape and bankruptcy is the best option.
The same applies to Houston and many other large cities as well. I look forward to the day one of these big cities finally tells their public unions where to go.
All it takes is one big city to start the ball rolling.
New Jersey Careening `Toward Becoming Greece’ as Costs Rise
Inquiring minds are reading New Jersey Careening `Toward Becoming Greece’ as Costs Rise, Christie Says
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the state is “careening our way toward becoming Greece” and can’t afford the cost of benefits and pensions for current workers.
The governor, speaking today to members of the Manhattan Institute, said his state must reduce its tax burden and control government spending. He has proposed a constitutional amendment to cap growth in property taxes, the main source of funding for schools and towns, at 2.5 percent a year.
“Higher taxes are not going to solve the problem,” said Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 19. “We’ve got to change the course.”
New Jersey, like Greece, has a high proportion of public workers who have been entitled to benefits such as free health insurance that outstrip taxpayers’ ability to pay for them, Christie said. In the past decade the state added 11,000 public- sector jobs as it lost more than 120,000 private positions, he said.
Politicians in New Jersey have bowed to public unions for too long, failing to cut teacher benefits and enacting civil- service laws that have tied governments’ hands in trimming workforces, Christie said. Over the last decade, municipal spending has grown by 69 percent, and property taxes have climbed by 70 percent, according to the governor’s office.
The average New Jersey household paid $7,281 in property taxes last year, the highest rate in the nation, according to the state Department of Community Affairs.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo, a Democrat from Wood-Ridge, proves he is mathematically challenged and unfit for office by stating “The governor’s spending cuts may lead to property-tax increases of as much as 8 percent next year”.
I salute Chris Christie. We desperately need more governors to follow his lead. I also salute commissioner Marc Sarnoff. Bankruptcy is the only option that makes any sense for Miami.
Read more at Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis –>
Join the conversation about this story »
Italy now has something more to boast about besides awesome architecture and breath-taking scenic views. The largest solar plant being built currently in the country will now be supplied by the Japanese firm, Sanyo. The Sanyo Electric Co. will supply the giant solar power plant with solar batteries to the plant, confirming to doing so in a statement on Wednesday. The project is a consortium by the Deutsche bank AG, and a long term consortium has been indicated by choosing Sanyo.
Sanyo’s HIT solar panels will be used for the plant, with each cell containing 32,202 solar panel modules. The solar cells can generate around 7.6 megawatts of electricity. The construction on Italy’s new pride, the largest solar power plant, will be completed in September.
Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary
JONATHAN COOK
Counterpunch
May 27, 2010
Israel faces unprecedented pressure to abandon its official policy of “ambiguity” on its possession of nuclear weapons as the international community meets at the United Nations in New York this week to consider banning such arsenals from the Middle East.
Israel’s equivocal stance on its atomic status was shattered by reports on Monday that it offered to sell nuclear-armed Jericho missiles to South Africa’s apartheid regime back in 1975.
The revelations are deeply embarrassing to Israel given its long-standing opposition to signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing instead that it is a “responsible power” that would never misuse nuclear weapons technologies if it acquired them.
Reports of Israel’s nuclear dealings with apartheid South Africa will also energise a draft proposal from Egypt to the UN non-proliferation review conference that Israel — as the only nuclear power in the region — be required to sign the treaty.
Israeli officials are already said to be discomfited by Washington’s decision earlier this month to agree a statement with other UN Security Council members calling for the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear arms.
The policy is chiefly aimed at Iran, which is believed by the US and Israel to be secretly developing a nuclear bomb, but would also risk ensnaring Israel. The US has supported Israel’s ambiguity policy since the late 1960s.
Oversight of Israel’s programme is also due to be debated at a meeting of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna next month.
The administration of US President Barack Obama is reported to have held high-level discussions with Israel at the weekend to persuade it to consent to proposals for a 2012 conference to outlaw weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
As pressure mounts on Israel, local analysts have been debating the benefits of maintaining the ambiguity policy, with most warning that an erosion of the principle would lead inexorably to Israel being forced to dismantle its arsenal.
Echoing the Israeli security consensus, Yossi Melman, a military intelligence correspondent for the Haaretz newspaper, also cautioned that declaring Israel’s nuclear status “would play into Iran’s hands” by focusing attention on Tel Aviv rather than Tehran.
Israel refused to sign the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, having developed its first warhead a few years earlier with help from Britain and France.
Tom Segev, an Israeli historian, reported that Israel briefly considered showing its nuclear hand in 1967 when Shimon Peres, Israel’s current president, proposed publicly conducting a nuclear test to prevent the impending Six-Day War. However, the test was overruled by Levi Eshkol, the prime minister of the time.
Mr Peres, who master-minded the nuclear programme, later formulated the policy of ambiguity, in which Israel asserts only that it will “not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East”.
That stance — and a promise not to conduct nuclear tests — was accepted by the US administration of Richard Nixon in 1969.
According to analysts, the agreement between Israel and the US was driven in part by concerns that Washington would not be able to give Israel foreign aid — today worth billions of dollars — if Israel declared itself a nuclear state but refused international supervision.
Nonetheless, revelations over the years have made it increasingly difficult for the international community to turn a blind eye to Israel’s arsenal.
Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the Dimona nuclear energy plant in the Negev, provided photographic evidence and detailed descriptions of the country’s weapons programme in 1986. Today the Israeli arsenal is estimated at more than 200 warheads.
In 2006 Ehud Olmert, then the prime minister, let slip Israel’s nuclear status during an interview with German TV when he listed “America, France, Israel and Russia” as countries with nuclear arms.
Even more damaging confirmation was provided this week by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which published documents unearthed for a new book — The Unspoken Alliance by Sasha Polakow-Suransky, an American historian — on relations between Israel and South Africa’s apartheid regime.
The top-secret papers reveal that in 1975 Mr Peres, then Israel’s defence minister, met with his South African counterpart, P W Botha, to discuss selling the regime nuclear-armed missiles. The deal fell through partly because South Africa could not afford the weapons. Pretoria later developed its own bomb, almost certainly with Israel’s help.
Israel, Mr Polakow-Suransky said, had fought to prevent declassification of the documents.
Despite publication by the Guardian of a photographed agreement bearing the date and the signatures of both Mr Peres and Mr Botha, Mr Peres’ office issued a statement on Monday denying the report.
Israel’s increasingly transparent nuclear status is seen as an obstacle to US efforts both to impose sanctions on Iran and to damp down a wider potential nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
This month the US surprised officials in Tel Aviv by failing to keep Israel’s nuclear programme off the agenda of the IAEA’s next meeting, on June 7. The issue has only ever been discussed twice before, in 1988 and 1991.
Aware of the growing pressure of Israel to come clean, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, declined an invitation to attend a nuclear security conference in Washington last month at which participants had threatened to question Israel about its arms.
At the meeting, US President Barack Obama called on all countries, including Israel, to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
A draft declaration being considered at the UN review conference later this week again demands that Israel — and two other states known to have nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan — sign the treaty.
Egypt has proposed that the 189 states that have signed the treaty, including the US, pledge not to transfer nuclear equipment, information, material or professional help to Israel until it does so.
Reuven Pedatzur, an Israeli defence analyst, warned recently in Haaretz that there was a danger the Egyptian proposal might be adopted by the US, or that it might be used as a stick to browbeat a recalcitrant Israel into accepting greater limitations on its arsenal. He suggested ending what he called the “ridiculous fiction” of the ambiguity policy.
Emily Landau, an arms control expert at Tel Aviv University, however, said that those who believed Israel should be more transparent were “misguided”. Ending ambiguity, she said, would eventually lead to calls for Israel’s “total and complete disarmament”.
The last Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, five years ago, failed when the US repudiated pledges to disarm and refused to pressure Israel over its nuclear programme.
Adapted from “Matching Rights: A Boon to Both Sides,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
As dealmakers look for more sophisticated ways to reduce risks and increase returns, a matching right—a contractual guarantee that one side can match any offer that the other side later receives—has become a common and useful tool in negotiations.
As an example, imagine that a procurement officer reaches a five-year, fixed-price agreement with a longtime supplier but is concerned that market fluctuations might make the agreement less attractive to her company in the future. The officer proposes an exit for her company, with appropriate notice, if an alternative supplier can offer a better price. The supplier agrees but demands the right to match any competitor’s offer and keep the business. The parties reach agreement and sign the five-year deal.
As this story shows, matching rights (sometimes known as rights of first refusal or rights of first offer) can create enormous value. While the details vary depending on the negotiation, most matching rights share an underlying structure. Specifically, the grantor gives the right holder the right to buy an asset on the same terms that the grantor would receive from any other bona fide, prospective bidder, otherwise known as the third party.
As a prospective right holder, you should know precisely what a proposed matching right will give you. Many deals that seem to guarantee a matching right are, in fact, murky about the exact consequences that could arise.
For potential right holders, the most common mistake is to fail to specify what will happen if you choose to match a bid. Will your matching bid call off the contest with the third party or launch a bidding war?
Other details are equally important. How long do you have to decide whether to match an offer? If the duration of the matching right is ambiguous, a third party could short-circuit your right by making an exploding offer with a short fuse, forcing the grantor to give you only limited time to match the offer. If you haven’t thought through this possibility in advance, you may fail to match the offer due to time pressure rather than to your unwillingness to pay. The end result is a matching right that is worth significantly less than you thought.
Another important detail is the matching-right “trigger.” Suppose that the contract between the procurement officer and supplier specifies that a “more attractive offer” (from the buyer’s perspective) triggers the supplier’s matching right. If a “more attractive offer” simply concerns the price of a known commodity, this language may be sufficient. But what about a competing offer that provides not only a higher price but also a better-quality product? In this case, a “more attractive offer” trigger doesn’t offer much guidance—and can harm the right holder. The lesson: when considering a matching right, figure out exactly what you’ll receive.
I will be the first one to admit that the World Cup is a wonderfully fun and compelling event that deserves the attention of every nation that competes and many of them that don’t. I will also be the first one to admit that, as Americans, getting hip to the developments of international soccer would require a cram session the efforts of which would probably far outweigh the benefits. ESPN Soccernet put together a quick cheat sheet that may help sell you as an expert. If you’re not trying to pass as an expert, read it anyway. It’s got some good points and may help you decide where to focus your attention.
Our friend the internet has dutifully provided Cliff’s Notes for the drama to take place in South Africa, so sit back, enjoy the games, and let the experts do the heavy lifting while you pound another one of those Godless American light beers.
Related posts:
Adapted from “Team Negotiating: Strength in Numbers?”, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
According to conventional wisdom, when it comes to negotiation, there’s strength in numbers. Indeed, several experimental studies have supported the notion that you should bring at least one other person from your organization to the bargaining table if you can. On average, this research has found that teams exchange more information than solo negotiators, make more accurate judgments of the other side, and create more value, resulting in greater profits compared to individuals.
Researchers Michele J. Gelfand, Jeanne M. Brett, Daphne Huang, Lynn Imai, and Hwa-Hwa Tsai tested these findings across cultures and contexts. In the United States, teams engaged in an exercise involving a potential deal outperformed solo negotiators; however, teams underperformed solo negotiators in the same exercise in Taiwan. When participants had to resolve a dispute rather than a deal, the results changed: teams and solo negotiators achieved similar outcomes in the United States, and teams outperformed solo negotiators in Taiwan.
What explains these intriguing findings? The researchers hypothesize that in collective cultures such as Taiwan, negotiating teams focus on developing relationships, both within the team and across the table, and thus are less likely to challenge each other. The result is greater harmony—and less of the friction that is needed to generate novel alternatives. By contrast, the stress of disputing in collectivist cultures may lead Taiwanese solo negotiators to engage in a “flight response” and take a minimum offer, while a team provides the support and assurance needed to stay at the table. The researchers further hypothesize that U.S. teams in a dispute will succumb to excessive competition, thus inhibiting value creation and distribution.
While more work must be done to pinpoint the factors underlying these results, it is clear that the notion of “strength in numbers” is context specific. The next time you are preparing for an important business negotiation, think through cultural and contextual factors before deciding whether to face your counterpart with a team or by yourself.
When I was a little kid I can remember my mom warning me not to swim too close to the drains in pools and not to put my head under the water in hot tubs. She was concerned that my ponytail would get caught and I would drown.
I always thought that was a little morbid. I was just a kid and wanted to have fun.
But my mom had reason to be concerned. The Consumer Product Safety Commission launched the Pool Safely campaign earlier this week in response to the number of injuries and deaths from submersions and entrapments in pools and spas.
The commission released some scary statistics:
From 2005-2007, for children younger than 15, there was an average of 385 drownings in pools and spas each year.
74 percent of those fatalities happened at a home and not in a public pool.
The new campaign will help educate people about the simple steps they can take to make sure their kids stay safe around the water.
Tips include:
What tips do you have for keeping you and your kids safe in the pool?
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Study: highly-efficient semi-trucks lead to 120,000 new jobs by 2030 Say what? |
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Report: Toyota and Daimler planning “extensive cooperation” on fuel cell development H2, here they come. |
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Honda updates popular “Impossible Dream” commercial, adds a touch of green Meet the FCX Clarity, the CR-Z, and more. |
Other news: | |
AutoblogGreen for 05.27.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 05:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet
Seattle Times
May 27, 2010
A group of doctors and professors from UC San Francisco are raising new concerns about the safety of a type of airport full-body scanner built by Torrance, Calif.-based Rapiscan Inc.
To reveal weapons hidden under a traveler’s clothes, the scanner relies on “backscatter technology,” which uses the ricochets from low-level X-rays to create what looks like a nude image of the person.
The experts said they fear that the scanners may expose the skin to high doses of X-rays that could increase the risk of cancer and other health problems, particularly among people with weak immune systems.
But officials at the Department of Homeland Security say there is no need to worry.
“The risk is so low it’s almost negligible,” said Dr. Alexander Garza, the assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer for the department.
The punks loved them, doctors study them and the pirates flaunt them on their flags. You guessed that right, we’re talking about skulls. Now this may sound weird and disgusting to some, but skulls are now inspiring artists more than ever. And using recycled materials to make skulls of different shapes and sizes gives this emblem of death and danger a new lease of life. The Skateboard Skull is made by a Japanese artist Hiroshi using old skate decks. The artist loves skating, and instead of having the decks thrown away, he came up with the Skate Board skull. Artist Brian Dettmer from Atlanta came up with the cassette-tape skull, made from old derelict cassettes. Subodh Gupta from India came up with the kitchen utensil skull, representing the poor and starvation.
Noah Scalin’s Skull-A-Day project had him creating skulls everyday out of things he could lay his hands on, one of which is a recycled cardboard skull.
Using discarded Apple keyboard keys, Roger of RubyRed T-Shirt designs came up with a T-shirt skull. Recycling is turning into an aide for artists to flaunt their creativity.
Via Prison Planet.com » World News
Russia Today
May 27, 2010
A massive explosion has shattered the peace of the Southern Russian city of Stavropol, killing at least five people and injuring more than forty. The region’s governor called the attack an unprecedented act of provocation.
Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech
Mike Adams
Natural News
May 27, 2010
The Alliance for Natural Health, a nonprofit organization committed to protecting access to natural and integrative medicine, has recently come up with a Congressional bill designed to stop government censorship of truthful, scientific health claims about natural foods and herbs, and restore free speech to natural health. The Free Speech About Science Act (FSAS), also known as HR 4913, will allow manufacturers and producers to reference peer-reviewed, scientific studies that highlight the health benefits of a particular food or herb that they grow or sell.
For too long, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have blatantly censored the truth about food, herbs and dietary supplements. These government agencies are supposed to be protecting public health and well-being, but they accomplish precisely the opposite by actively censoring the truth about natural products and working to keep the public ignorant about the health benefits of nutritional products. It’s all part of the plan to prop up the profits of Big Pharma by eliminating the competition.
The FDA says, ridiculously, that only pharmaceutical drugs are capable of preventing or treating disease. Even though this is scientifically false, the agency has structured the rules to categorize anything that treats or prevents disease as a drug. So if you eat walnuts, and those walnuts lower high cholesterol (which they do), the FDA declares your walnuts to be “drugs.”
Existing law dictates that if anything is advertised as providing health benefits without the FDA’s approval, it’s automatically considered to be an “unapproved drug”, even if it’s a common, everyday food like walnuts, cherries, grapes or oranges.
Amazingly, references to peer-reviewed scientific studies are not allowed to be made by companies without permission from the FDA because the agency considers this to be an illegal health claim. So if you sell walnuts, and your website merely links to published scientific studies that describe the cholesterol-lowering benefits of walnuts, then you can be threatened, arrested, imprisoned and fined millions of dollars by the FDA for selling “unapproved drugs.”
If you flee the country, you can be then be listed on INTERPOL as an international fugitive wanted for “drug offenses.” This is exactly what happened to Greg Caton, who was recently kidnapped from Ecuador by U.S. agents working on behalf of the FDA (http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_G…), brought back to the USA against his will, and sentenced to federal prison where he remains to this day.
If you’re skeptical that what I’m saying here is true, take a look at the warning letter the FDA sent to Diamond Food, Inc. back in February concerning the health claims the company had been making about its walnuts.
Diamond Food, Inc., a large producer of nuts and nut products, had put some information on its website about the health benefits of walnuts (which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids). Some of this information included the following statements (all of which are verifiably true):
1) “Studies indicate that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts may help lower cholesterol; protect against heart disease, stroke and some cancers; ease arthritis and other inflammatory diseases; and even fight depression and other mental illnesses.”
2) “[O]mega-3 fatty acids inhibit tumor growth that is promoted by the acids found in other fats…”
3) “[I]n treating major depression, for example, omega-3s seem to work by making it easier for brain cell receptors to process mood-related signals from neighboring neurons.”
4) “The omega-3s found in fish oil are thought to be responsible for the significantly lower incidence of breast cancer in Japanese women as compared to women in the United States.”
All of these statements are true and have been demonstrated in various scientific studies about omega-3s. In fact, the University of Maryland has a complete reference page about the benefits of omega-3s that verifies the statements made by Diamond Food. Sixty-five different scientific studies are cited on that reference page alone!
But apparently the FDA has little concern with truth and science, because the agency wrote in its warning letter to Diamond that, “[b]ecause of these intended uses, your walnut products are drugs… they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions.” It goes on to say that, “they may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.”
When all was said and done, Diamond was essentially coerced into removing virtually all the truthful information about the health benefits of walnuts from its website in order to stay in compliance with the FDA’s ridiculous demands.
So when science discovers the amazing health-promoting and healing abilities of natural, whole foods, you are not allowed to actually tell people about it. If you do, those foods automatically become unapproved drugs, according to the FDA, and they are subject to seizure. This is how the FDA enforces nutritional ignorance across America. The agency is actually an ANTI-EDUCATION group of knowledge destroyers who want the American people to remain ignorant of the health benefits of natural foods and supplements.
What’s interesting about this recent Diamond walnut case is that, back in 2004, the FDA (sort of) approved a request made on behalf of the California Walnut Commission to include information about the benefits of walnuts for lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of coronary heart disease.
The petition to the FDA included references to scientific information that backs these claims (which were largely rejected by the agency), but it did allow a modified version of the claim to be made that included the phrase “Supportive but not conclusive research shows…”. Some other details included a reference to eating a diet low in saturated fat.
But in the Diamond case, the FDA decided to launch an all-out attack on true health claims about walnuts, despite comprehensive evidence that they are extremely beneficial to your health in many scientifically-proven ways.
It’s important to note here that the FDA believes there is no such thing as any food, vitamin, herb or supplement that has ANY beneficial effect on the human body. Sadly, this outrageously ridiculous and indefensible position has become the law of the land in the USA.
All foods are inert, the FDA claims. And the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in those foods have no effect on your body. This impossible belief is what the FDA continues to maintain as “scientific” fact.
But it’s obvious to anyone with a couple of brain neurons still firing that the FDA’s position is pure madness. Of course foods have beneficial health effects on the human body! Foods contain more than mere calories… they are storehouses of phytochemicals and nutrients that have medicinal effects on the body.
It’s important to note that a new drug application is not the only way certain health claims can be made. Similar to how the California Walnut Commission issued its request, producers and manufacturers can request permission from the FDA to make certain health claims about products, and the agency makes it sound as if it is more than willing to approve such claims as long as proper evidence is given. But in reality, no matter how much evidence is provided to back a set of claims, it’s almost never enough for the FDA to actually approve them.
Omega-3s are one of the most studied nutrients in recent years, but the FDA apparently considers all this research useless. It hides behind all kinds of legal mumbo jumbo in defending its position to reject credible science about the health benefits of omega-3s. To anyone paying attention, it’s becoming abundantly clear that the agency is completely irrational in the way it approaches the regulation of health claims and the definition of a “drug.”
Based on its track record of how it handles truthful health claims, it’s also clear that the FDA doesn’t actually care about the truth. The agency has decided that only drugs prevent and treat disease, and that’s the end of it. So only those companies that complete its expensive drug application process will be granted permission to make health claims — and the only organizations with the funding to do this are drug companies!
It’s sort of like the old floating witch test: Throw the suspected witch in a pond. If she floats, she’s a witch and gets burned at the stake. If she sinks, she wasn’t a witch… may she rest in peace after drowning. The test is rigged for failure by the “authorities.” And yes, the FDA’s assault on dietary supplements is a metaphorical witch hunt.
Of course this isn’t the first time the FDA has gone on a witch hunt to stop health claims from being made about healing foods. Back in 2006, the FDA demanded that 29 companies cease making claims about the health benefits of cherries.
Of course all the claims were true and backed by scientific studies, but this didn’t matter to the FDA or the FTC, which acts as the enforcement arm of the FDA. The agencies threatened to take action against these companies if they didn’t comply with removing the health claims, indicating that they would even go so far as to seek a court order to seize the products that were in violation.
An interesting fact about this case is that many of the scientific studies that supported the health claims being made were funded by none other than the USDA, another arm of the U.S. federal government. Talk about a bureaucratic failure!
All of this seems almost too crazy to actually be true, but it’s all quite real, I assure you. It happens all the time. Millions of taxpayer dollars are spent trying to reclassify food as drugs, censor truthful health claims and rid the market of safe, healthy items like raw dairy products. Meanwhile, drug companies are fraudulently marketing dangerous chemical medications that injure and kill milliosn of people every year around the world. But these chemicals are, of course, “generally recognized as safe and effective” by the FDA.
Cherries and walnuts, in other words, are dangerous. But statin drugs, antidepressants and rat poison blood thinners are all backed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Like almost everything else the FDA does, there’s a double standard in the enforcement of health claims. Over at the Frito-Lay website, there are a whole lot of ridiculous health claims being made about Frito-Lay snack foods that the FDA doesn’t seem too concerned about.
Statements include the following, which are in reference to “how much good stuff goes into your favorite snack”:
“Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the world’s most popular grains, packed with Thiamin, vitamin B6, and phosphorus – all necessary for healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles.”
Too bad all these ingredients are fried at really high temperatures and can’t be considered “healthy” by any stretch of the imagination. The page goes on to claim that its frying oils are filled with “good fats” that help to lower cholesterol (seriously, I’m not making this up).
Somehow Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, gets away with marketing its junk food snack products as healthy, making all kinds of ludicrous claims about them, but walnut and cherry growers are the target of FDA investigations about labeling fraud.
The message? Raw natural foods and non-processed fruits and nuts are bad for you, but fried snack foods, dead foods and processed foods are incredibly healthy. In opposition to all common sense, this is the position the FDA now maintains.
Things are seriously out of control.
The Life Extension Foundation has also written about the madness of this situation. Read “FDA Says Walnuts are Illegal Drugs” at: http://www.lef.org/featured-article…
There is some good news, though. My friends over at the Alliance for Natural Health have come up with a solution to take back our freedom to tell the truth about the health benefits of natural products. It’s called the Free Speech About Science Act, or HR 4913.
You can read the entire legislative text of the bill at the following link:
(http://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/u…)
The bill is only seven pages long, and you can read it fairly quickly if you want to. Here’s a quick summary of its primary objectives with some added commentary:
1) Food producers and manufacturers, dietary supplement makers, and any others who sell or market natural health products will no longer be restricted from referencing and citing independent and respected scientific research that highlights the health benefits of natural products. (Current FDA guidelines are in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits government restrictions on free speech, even those that relate to natural health.)
2) Referencing valid research will no longer convert food and dietary supplements into “unapproved drugs” in the eyes of the FDA.
3) Only legitimate research may be referenced, and guidelines for what is considered legitimate include studies that are conducted in accordance with sound scientific principles (because natural health is not in opposition to science; science actually supports the healing properties of foods and supplements).
4) The FDA and FTC will still be permitted to go after fraudulent claims, but they will no longer be able to censor the truth about healing foods and supplements.
As it currently stands, most Americans are unable to make responsible, informed lifestyle decisions about foods and supplements because truthful information is restricted by agencies like the FDA and FTC. Mainstream society is flooded with drug advertising making all sorts of false claims, but true claims about natural products are routinely censored.
It’s time to put a stop to this FDA madness, and one way to go about that is to support the Free Speech About Science Act. Every American deserves access to the truth so that he or she can make informed lifestyle choices, and you can help make that happen by supporting this bill.
The Alliance for Natural Health has created a convenient legislative portal by which you can contact your Congressman and urge support for the bill.
Access the portal here:
(https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=529)
To learn more about the bill itself, visit the following link:
(http://www.anh-usa.org/main-menu/ca…)
In the mean time, keep on buying (and consuming) natural foods, medicinal herbs and truly natural supplements, because that’s where the real medicine in our world is found. The FDA can try to censor the claims about healing foods, but they cannot stop your body’s own innate healing process from being activated by those foods.
Eating healing foods, in other words, helps your body heal whether the FDA approves or not.
