Archive for November, 2010
Scientists Warn Airport X-Ray Scanners May Be Unsafe
November 17th, 2010Via: AFP: Some US scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe. “They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays,” Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray […]
PRICE CONTROLS ON FOOD IN CHINA
November 17th, 2010Via: BBC: China’s premier Wen Jiabao has said the government is preparing new measures to stem double-digit food price inflation. “The state council is formulating measures to curb the overly fast rises of prices,” he said in a statement on the government’s website. He gave no details, but they are said to include price caps, […]
Britain Now Offering Support to Ireland as Banking Wreck Continues
November 17th, 2010Via: AP: As EU and Irish officials sought a way out of the country’s debt storm, Britain on Wednesday offered support on top of any that might come from the 16-country eurozone. Britain, not part of the eurozone, “stands ready to support Ireland” in whatever the debt-stricken country needs to do to stabilize its troubled […]
Clues Suggest Stuxnet Virus Was Built for Subtle Nuclear Sabotage
November 16th, 2010Via: Wired: New and important evidence found in the sophisticated “Stuxnet” malware targeting industrial control systems provides strong hints that the code was designed to sabotage nuclear plants, and that it employs a subtle sabotage strategy that involves briefly speeding up and slowing down physical machinery at a plant over a span of weeks. “It […]
One in Seven U.S. Households Hit by Hunger Issues in 2009
November 16th, 2010Via: Reuters: The number of U.S. households that reported getting emergency food from a food pantry almost doubled between 2007 and 2009, at the height of the recession, a government report said on Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the number of households jumped to 5.6 from 3.9 million. “Households also accessed additional assistance […]
Euro Under Siege After Portugal Hits Panic Button
November 16th, 2010Via: Telegraph: The euro is facing an unprecedented crisis after another country indicated that it was at a “high risk” of requiring an international bail-out. Portugal became the latest European nation to suggest it was on the brink of seeking help from Brussels after Ireland confirmed it had begun preliminary talks over its debt problems. […]
Texas Officials Covered Up Dangerously Radioactive Tap Water for Years
November 15th, 2010Via: Raw Story: Texas officials charged with protecting the environment and public health have for years made arbitrary subtractions to the measured levels of radiation delivered by water utilities across the state, according to a series of investigative reports out of Houston. Those subtractions, based on the test results’ margin of error, made all the […]
Man Made Half Million Dollars from Sale of Virtual Space Station in Video Game
November 15th, 2010Via: Forbes: Many people might balk at the idea of paying even a dollar for virtual cow in a game like Farmville. But Jon Jacobs has just sold a virtual space station he’s spent the past five years managing for a whopping $635,000 in total, making over half a million dollars. … In virtual life, […]
Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S.
November 15th, 2010Not news, but… Via: New York Times: A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and […]
McDonald’s and PepsiCo to Help Write UK Health Policy
November 14th, 2010Via: Guardian: The Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald’s and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease, the Guardian has learned. In an overhaul of public health, said by campaign […]
