Diabetes,the Vitamin&Mineral Connection.
eBook describing likely causes & cures of diabetic symptoms. Diabetes,the Vitamin&Mineral Connection. -
The federal government may be liable for tens of millions of dollars in negligence claims over its assertion that one of its own scientists used anthrax from a government laboratory to kill five people, injure 17 and terrorize the country, legal experts say. At issue is whether the government knew or should have known that scientist Bruce Ivins, whom the Justice Department says carried out the attacks alone, was potentially dangerous, said Jonathan Turley, professor at the George Washington University Law School. Ivins’ lawyers dispute the government’s assertions. In unveiling its case against Ivins last week, the government released evidence showing that Ivins was deeply disturbed. He worked for 35 years at the U.S. Army medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., with access to lethal substances. Even if his employers didn’t know he was unstable, “the question is whether they should have known,” Turley said. “It’s like saying that you didn’t know that a physician was a perfect lunatic at a hospital. The expectation is that a hospital would have sufficient monitoring to detect lunacy.” One lawsuit alleges that the government failed to properly monitor, store and secure the anthrax at Fort Detrick. The suit, seeking $50 million, was filed in 2003 on behalf of the family of Robert Stevens, the photo editor who died after anthrax was mailed to his company’s headquarters. “One of the people that worked at the laboratory told me they had better security at a 7-11 than they did at the … laboratory where they had the most dangerous substances known to mankind,” the Stevens family attorney, Richard Schuler, said last week. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said, “There’s nothing we can say. It’s ongoing litigation.” Under the law that regulates suits against the federal government, negligence claims in the anthrax case may be warranted, said…
Why Passwords Are a Weak Cyber-Defense
The best password is a long, nonsensical string of letters and numbers and punctuation marks, a combination never put together before. Some admirable people actually do memorize random strings of characters for their passwords — and replace them with other random strings every couple of months. Then there’s the rest of us, selecting the short, the familiar and the easiest to remember. And holding on to it forever. I once felt ashamed about failing to follow best practices for password selection, but no more. Experts in computer security say that choosing hard-to-guess passwords ultimately brings little security protection. Passwords won’t keep us safe from identity theft, no matter how clever we are in choosing them. That would be the case even if we had done a better job of listening to instructions. Surveys show that we remain stubbornly fond of perennial favorites like “password,” “123456″ and “LetMeIn.” The underlying problem, however, isn’t their simplicity. It’s the log-on procedure itself, in which we land on a Web page, which may or may not be what it says it is, and type in a string of characters to authenticate our identity, or have our password manager insert the string on our behalf. This procedure — which now seems perfectly natural because we’ve been trained to repeat it so much — is a bad idea, one that no security expert whom I reached would defend. Password-based log-ons are susceptible to being compromised in any number of ways. Consider a single threat, that posed by phishers who trick us into clicking to a site designed to mimic a legitimate one to harvest our log-on information. Once we have been suckered at one site and our password purloined, it can be tried at other sites. The fundamental solution urged by the experts is to abandon passwords — and to move…
What Will the Olympics Do for China?
The Beijing Olympics opened on Aug. 8th with a pyrotechnic display of Chinese organization, technology, and talent in the Bird’s Nest national stadium. The four-hour show directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou featured more than 15,000 performers including martial arts experts, singers, and musicians performing before an audience of 100,000. Dancers performed skits heralding China’s 5,000 years of history and invention while British soprano Sarah Brightman joined Chinese singer Liu Huan in singing the Olympic theme song. In attendance were more than 80 world leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, and Chinese President Hu Jintao, as well as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi. Beyond the fanfare and fireworks, the outcome of the Beijing Olympics — more than most previous Games — will have far reaching implications around the globe. A successful Games will help a newly confident China with its 1.3 billion people move more decisively toward economic openness and engagement with the world. Some believe a successful Olympics could spur a faster move toward political liberalization — much as the 1988 Seoul Olympics was seen as doing for South Korea. The Olympics too could highlight China’s many economic and social achievements, helping overcome some of the misconceptions and fears about China’s growing might still held by many in the world. But a host of potential problems could also flare up and lead China in perhaps a different direction. The Beijing Games are opening with a lot of questions: Will the air magically clear [a gray pall hung over Beijing during the opening ceremony], or will pollution problems persist during the 16 days the Games run, hitting athletes hard? Will the inevitable protests, whether they be about Sudan, Tibet, or religious freedom, be dealt…
Scientists Discover Test for Personality Disorder
Using brain imaging devices and a computer game, Houston researchers have developed an objective test for borderline personality disorder, a serious mental illness whose sufferers are unable to form and maintain stable relationships. The brain malfunction found by Baylor College of Medicine neuroscientists is thought to be the first identified for any personality disorder. “I’m hopeful this will mark a new approach for mental illness,” said Read Montague, director of Baylor’s Human Neuroimaging Lab and the project’s leader. “It should provide a tool to diagnose the condition and test therapy’s effectiveness.” The research, published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, is part of an ongoing effort to understand the neurobiology behind mental illnesses and to develop objective diagnostic tests for them, similar to the bloodwork, biopsies and X-rays used to diagnose other ailments. Baylor has been a leader in the effort. As many as one in five psychiatric inpatients have borderline personality disorder, a formidable toll on not just those afflicted but on their social network and the health-care system. Among the characteristics of the disorder are a chaotic self-image, black-and-white thinking, outbursts of rage, impulsive behavior and fear of abandonment. The Glenn Close character in the movie “Fatal Attraction” is sometimes cited as an extreme example. The Baylor research paired people with the disorder and people without it, 110 in all, in what the scientists call a “trust game.” The game involved the exchange of money between two players who could maximize profits by cooperating with each other. Functional magnetic resonance imaging devices measured the blood flow in participants’ brains while they played. Baylor researchers found that people with borderline personality disorder didn’t pick up on certain social cues of their partners. In people with the disorder, an area of the brain that responds when norms are violated didn’t activate when their partners showed signs of distrust. In…
GPS Devices Help Garbage Trucks Reduce Fuel
A couple of years ago, when Jim Oswald was an IT consultant for the city of Clemson, S.C., he and his colleagues in the public works department started talking trash. Even before gas prices went to $4 a gallon, they were looking for ways for the city to save fuel on garbage collection. Trucks were burning gas driving around looking for big items too large to be collected on regular routes. Oswald and Taji Richardson came up with the idea for a GPS device that would give drivers who handled the regular routes a touch screen on which they could note where the big items were located. Trucks picking up the large items would know exactly where to go. “When we saw it, we said, Jim you’ve got a product here,” Clemson City Administrator Rick Cotton said. Cotton says the devices, which went live in May 2007, are saving his small college town about 350 gallons of diesel a month. “There’s lots of cities just like us that need this technology,” he said. An increasing number of cash-strapped cities, in a move to cut fuel costs, are in the process of adding the Global Positioning System technology to their garbage pickup: *In South Carolina, Mount Pleasant and Newberry have the devices, Oswald said. Spartanburg was expected to install it this month, city spokeswoman Susan Schneider said. The Charlotte, N.C., suburb of Fort Mill, S.C., has it in the budget, said Justin Krueger, assistant public works director. *The Georgia Municipal Association just signed a deal to market the technology to that state’s 536 municipalities, said spokeswoman Amy Henderson. “There’s definitely some excitement among our city officials,” she said. The Toccoa, Ga., City Commission recently voted to spend $17,000 for three units, and City Manager Billy Morse said he expects to make that up in fuel savings in three years. “It…
Media Firms Skeptical of Google’s Knol Intentions
Type “buttermilk pancakes” into Google, and among the top three or four search results you will find a link to a recipe, complete with a photo of a scrumptious stack, from a site called Knol, which is owned by Google. Google created Knol as a place where experts could share their knowledge on a variety of topics. It hopes to create an encyclopedia built from the contributions of scores of individuals. But while Wikipedia is collectively edited and ad-free, Knol contributors sign their articles and retain editorial control over the content. They can choose to place ads, sold by Google, on their pages. While Knol is only three weeks old, it has already spurred fears among some media companies that Google is increasingly becoming a competitor. They foresee Google becoming a powerful rival that not only owns a growing number of content properties, including YouTube, the top online video site, and Blogger, a leading blogging service, but also holds the keys to directing users around the Web. “If in fact a Google property is taking money away from Google’s partners, that is a real problem,” said Wenda Harris Millard, the co- chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Money, of course, is very much at issue. The lower a site ranks in search results, the less traffic it receives from search engines. With a smaller audience, the site earns less money from advertising. Although Martha Stewart’s buttermilk pancake recipe appears lower than the Knol recipe in Google’s rankings, Millard does not believe that Google unfairly favors pages from Knol. But she said that Google’s dual role as search engine and content site raises an issue of perception. “The question in people’s minds is, how unbiased can Google be as it grows and grows and grows,” Millard said. Google said it would never compromise the objectivity of…
Ten Tips for Getting Out from Under Your E-Mail
How can a hapless e-mail addict wriggle out from under the weight of a bulging in-box? Here are some tips from specialists: - Turn off the alert noise. That can help you escape the addictive cycle of reflexively seeing whether something interesting came in then and creating more messages by hitting the “send” button. - Limit the number of times per day you check your e-mail. “Whether it’s once an hour or once a day — whatever works for you - check e-mails at intervals as opposed to constantly reacting,” says Deva Hazarika, vice president of Information Overload Research Group. - Use clear, informative subject lines. “Hey” as the subject requires that someone open up the e-mail to even know how to prioritize the message. But “4:00 meeting canceled” can be easily digested. - Clear your in box frequently, and file e-mails into appropriate folders. - Do not create too many folders. A 2000 study found that the more folders users had, the less efficient message storage and retrieval became. - Meet with your co-workers to discuss ways in which e-mail traffic can be reduced for everyone in your work group. That may mean avoiding sending nonessential messages, not sending “OK, thanks” notes that simply acknowledge receipt of a message, picking up the phone or walking to a co-worker’s cubicle when a subject is best handled in a conversation. - Respect your co-workers’ time and attention. Remember that notes sent to them may distract them from important tasks. - Use e-mail as a to-do list. This may seem counterintuitive, but according to a 2006 study at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, e-mail management techniques such as this “may moderate the relationship between e-mail volume and feelings of e-mail overload.” In other words, it won’t directly help your e-mail problem, but it will…
South Korean Firm Says No Checks for Pet Cloners
A South Korean dog cloning company said Monday it has no plans to conduct background checks on future customers, despite revelations that its first client was accused of abducting a man decades ago in a British case that became a tabloid sensation. Other scientists called that policy foolish, and warned that cloning projects should be more tightly regulated. Ra Jeong-chan, head of Seoul-based RNL Bio, said he was unaware of the accusations against Bernann McKinney, who was accused in the 1970s of kidnapping a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave. McKinney returned to prominence recently when she had RNL Bio clone five puppies from her beloved pit bull, Booger. The firm claims the puppies that cost McKinney US$50,000 were the first successful commercial canine clones. After initial denials, McKinney admitted to The Associated Press over the weekend that she was indeed the person previously known as Joyce McKinney, who faced charges in 1977 of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and was never brought to justice. The company shrugged off the news, however, and the revelation drew scant reaction in South Korean media preoccupied with the country’s medal tally at the Beijing Olympics. RNL Bio head Ra said even if he had known about McKinney’s record, it would not have affected his decision to clone her pet. “There was no reason to check her background,” when she made a cloning request, Ra said, describing the matter as “a privacy issue.” He also said criminal records will not disqualify future customers, saying the cloned animals could even help them find stability and thus prevent crimes. But Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at Britain’s National Institute for medical Research called the Korean company’s policy “ridiculous.” He said clients who wanted their pets cloned should undergo counseling to ensure…
Why Cell-Phone health Concerns Persist
Why can’t we get a definitive answer about cell phones and health? Mobile phones have been around for over 20 years, and they’re now used by more than 3 billion people. Yet questions linger over whether mobile phones can contribute to health problems, including cancer. The most recent alarm came from the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, who warned school employees to limit their cell-phone use based on early unpublished data from scientific studies. “Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell-phone use,” wrote Ronald Herberman in a memo to 3,000 faculty and staff in late July. To be clear, many studies have presented evidence that cell phones are safe. The wireless industry, from Nokia and Motorola to Verizon Wireless and AT&T, says there is no cause for concern. “The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk,” said the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn., the wireless industry’s trade group, in a statement following Herberman’s memo. Not Around Long Enough But definitive scientific proof is tough to come by. One key reason is that people use their cell phones, by definition, in ways that make them hard to study. We make phone calls on the go, from the grocery store or in our cars. That makes it difficult to reap the precise details important to scientific study, like how long we used the phone or which side of the head it was pressed against. The topic also falls between areas of scientific study, with doctors expert in the human body on one side and engineers well versed in radio technology on the other. Finally, time is an…
Communist Rock Star As Computer King
Rock star, hard-driving salesman and card-carrying Communist Party member. All these terms are used to identify Yang Yuanqing, the chairman of Lenovo and the main force behind the Chinese personal computer maker’s growth. Yang hopes to push Lenovo to take a bigger share of the U.S. and European consumer business, barely three years after the company bought IBM’s personal computer unit for $1.25 billion. Yang’s timing could have been better. Lenovo faces decelerating growth this year in both its foreign and home markets. “Lenovo has just come to the forefront of the global stage,” Yang told investors last week. “We still have a long way to go.” Yang, 43, is one of a growing band of Communist Party members who have turned moribund state enterprises into viable publicly listed companies. After joining Lenovo in 1989, he was put in charge of the PC unit as a so-called young marshal to the founder, Liu Chuanzhi. While Liu served as a father figure to the company, Yang’s job was to help Lenovo go out and conquer — be it customers, corporate partners or acquisitions. “In the company, he’s very much viewed as a rock star,” Deepak Advani, Lenovo’s chief marketing officer, said. An aggressive salesman, Yang once led his team to a crossroad and made them walk in four different directions until they came across a computer store, where they had to pitch Lenovo products. Jenny Lai, an analyst for the brokerage firm CLSA, who covers Lenovo from Taipei, said, “Lenovo’s next challenges are expanding its market share through expanding its consumer portfolio and, of course, overseas acquisitions, but that will be by chance.” Yang is from Anhui Province in eastern China and is one of a generation of Chinese executives who, unlike younger corporate movers, have little overseas exposure but are savvy enough to successfully negotiate foreign markets. Perhaps knowing this, he…
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