Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Merck Mumps Vaccine Fraud
July 1st, 2012Via: Courthouse News Service: Merck has known for a decade that its mumps vaccine is “far less effective” than it tells the government, and it falsified test results and sold millions of doses of “questionable efficacy,” flooding and monopolizing the market, a primary caregiver claims in a federal antitrust class action. Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care […]
Land of the Free: the Best Investigative Reporting on U.S. Prisons
July 1st, 2012Via: ProPublica: The U.S. has the highest reported incarceration rate in the world. We’ve rounded up some of the best investigative journalism on U.S. prisons and the problems that plague them. These stories cover juvenile justice, private prisons, immigration detention and other aspects of America’s vast incarceration system. Research Credit: noncompliant
Your Ebook Is Reading You
July 1st, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes […]
Google Was Secretly Planting Cookies on Millions of iPhone Browsers
June 28th, 2012Via: Pro Publica: Jonathan Mayer had a hunch. A gifted computer scientist, Mayer suspected that online advertisers might be getting around browser settings that are designed to block tracking devices known as cookies. If his instinct was right, advertisers were following people as they moved from one website to another even though their browsers were […]
Rotten to the Core: Barclays Paying $453 Million to Settle Libor Probe
June 28th, 2012Via: Reuters: U.K. bank Barclays will pay $453 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations that it manipulated key interest rates, increasing pressure on other banks to cooperate in a probe that could cost the financial industry billions of dollars. The settlement raises fresh questions about the reliability of the London interbank offered […]
Mutated Pests Are Quickly Adapting to Biotech Crops
June 28th, 2012Via: io9: Genetically modified crops are often designed to repel hungry insects. By having toxins built into the plant itself, farmers can reduce their use of environmentally unfriendly insecticide sprays. But as any first-year evolutionary biology student can tell you, insects are like the Borg in Star Trek: they quickly adapt. And this is precisely […]
Top CIA Spy Accused of Being a Mafia Hitman
June 27th, 2012Via: Wired: Enrique “Ricky” Prado’s resume reads like the ultimate CIA officer: veteran of the Central American wars, running the CIA’s operations in Korea, a top spy in America’s espionage programs against China, and deputy to counter-terrorist chief Cofer Black — and then a stint at Blackwater. But he’s also alleged to have started out […]
Google Tries Something Retro: Made in the U.S.A.
June 27th, 2012I initially thought that this was just a PR stunt, and that the bulk of the components were manufactured in China and then shipped back to the U.S. for assembly. My maximally cynical guess turned out to be wrong. A lot of it is actually made in the U.S. Via: New York Times: Google’s Q […]
America Sets a New Record for Old Cars
June 27th, 2012Via: CNBC: Feel like you’re driving an old car? You’re not alone. In fact, the average age of vehicles in the U.S. has hit a new all-time high. Experian Automotive says the average age of the 245 million vehicles registered in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year was 11 years. That’s an […]
Bank Scam ‘Operation High Roller’ Incorporates Attack for Two-Factor Authentication
June 27th, 2012Via: SC Magazine: Many banks utilise a two-factor authentication (2FA) system that combines something you know with something you have. Solutions banks use range from clumsy card reader devices to SMS/text messaging, each with their own merits and pitfalls. These systems aim to prove that you are who you say you are, and not to […]
