June 28, 2007
China says safety of exports guaranteed - Yahoo! News
Chinese-made toothpaste also has been banned by numerous countries in North and South America and Asia for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, a chemical often found in antifreeze. It is also a low-cost — and sometimes deadly — substitute for glycerin, a sweetener in many drugs.
On Wednesday, three Japanese importers recalled millions of Chinese-made travel toothpaste sets, many sold to inns and hotels, after they were found to contain as much as 6.2 percent of diethylene glycol.
Wang, the Commerce Ministry spokesman, said Chinese experts have already "explained the situation."
He gave no details, although the country's quality watchdog has in past cited tests from 2000 that it said showed toothpaste containing less than 15.6 percent diethylene glycol was harmless to humans.
um
Also Thursday, state media said Beijing police raided a village where live pigs were force-fed wastewater to boost their weight before slaughter, underscoring the country's chronic food safety problems.
Plastic pipes had been forced down the pigs' throats and villagers had pumped each 220-pound pig with 44 pounds of wastewater, the Beijing Morning Post reported.
Paperwork showed the pigs were headed for one of Beijing's main slaughterhouses and stamps on their ears indicated that they already had been through quarantine and inspection, the paper said. Suspects escaped during Wednesday's raid and no arrests were made, it said.
um
Posted by TY at 10:03 AM
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June 27, 2007
Some examples of CIA misconduct - Yahoo! News
CIA Office of Security Director Howard Osborn described a plot begun in August 1960 to kill the Cuban dictator. Ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, a top aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, was recruited to approach mobster Johnny Roselli and pass himself off as the representative of international corporations who wanted Castro killed because he'd caused financial losses for their Cuban operations.
Roselli was to be told the U.S. government should never hear of the plot. Roselli introduced Maheu to "Sam Gold" and "Joe," who were actually 10-most wanted mobsters Salvatore Giancana, Al Capone's successor in Chicago, and Santos Trafficante. The mobsters turned down $150,000 and worked for free. CIA gave them six poison pills; they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in the Cuban leader's food. This particular plot was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, but other plots continued against Castro although they are not detailed in these documents.
At one point, Giancana asked Maheu to bug the Las Vegas hotel room of entertainer Dan Rowan to see if Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire, was sexually intimate with Rowan. The technician, however, was arrested planting the bug and Osborn's office eventually had to tell Attorney General Robert Kennedy how the episode came about in order to get the Justice Department to drop charges against Maheu and the technician.
whoa
Posted by TY at 10:15 AM
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Japan's all-star speed eater suffers professional injury - Yahoo! News
Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi said he can only open his mouth to make a gap the size of a fingertip after being diagnosed with jaw arthritis.
In an entry on his blog entitled "Occupational hazard," Kobayashi said: "My jaw refused to fight any more."
The injury occurred only a week after the slender 29-year-old started training to win his seventh straight title at the annual July 4 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating event on New York's Coney Island.
"I feel ashamed that I couldn't notice the alarm bells set off by my own body," he said. "But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn't stop my training so close to the competition.
"I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw."
Tragic.
Posted by TY at 12:10 AM
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Girl in amusement park accident stable - Yahoo! News
A 13-year-old girl whose feet were severed in an accident on an amusement park ride is in stable condition in a Nashville, Tenn., hospital, her family said in a written statement Tuesday.
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Kaitlyn Lasitter, whose name had not previously been released by officials, was riding the Superman Tower of Power ride Thursday at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville when a cable broke loose on the ride, cutting off the girl's feet above the ankles, authorities said.
State officials were investigating the incident.
"The parents of Kaitlyn Lasitter would like to acknowledge everyone across the country that have been supporting their daughter with many positive thoughts and prayers over the last six days," according to the statement, which was issued through Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Authorities and the hospital have declined to say whether her feet were reattached. The statement included a plea for privacy for the girl's family, and the family has instructed the hospital not to comment further.
yipes
Posted by TY at 12:09 AM
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June 26, 2007
Accident Raises Safety Concerns On Chinese Tires - WSJ.com
"As imports grow -- and China is the largest exporter to the U.S. -- it's essential" that all manufacturers comply with U.S. safety regulations, said Daniel Zielinski, a spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the tire industry's main trade group.
The tires in question were distributed by Foreign Tire Sales Inc. of Union, N.J., and sold under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS in a range of sizes used on sport-utility vehicles, pickups and other light trucks. All were sold as replacement tires and not as original equipment on new vehicles.
interesting
Posted by TY at 12:21 AM
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June 25, 2007
Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power | Cheney | washingtonpost.com
The vice president's lawyer advocated what was considered the memo's most radical claim: that the president may authorize any interrogation method, even if it crosses the line into torture. U.S. and treaty laws forbidding any person to "commit torture," that passage stated, "do not apply" to the commander in chief, because Congress "may no more regulate the President's ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield."
That same day, Aug. 1, 2002, Yoo signed off on a second secret opinion, the contents of which have never been made public. According to a source with direct knowledge, that opinion approved as lawful a long list of interrogation techniques proposed by the CIA -- including waterboarding, a form of near-drowning that the U.S. government has prosecuted as a war crime since at least 1901. The opinion drew the line against one request: threatening to bury a prisoner alive.
[snip]
On June 8, 2004, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell learned of the two-year-old torture memo for the first time from an article in The Washington Post [Read the article]. According to a former White House official with firsthand knowledge, they confronted Gonzales together in his office.
Rice "very angrily said there would be no more secret opinions on international and national security law," the official said, adding that she threatened to take the matter to the president if Gonzales kept them out of the loop again. Powell remarked admiringly, as they emerged, that Rice dressed down the president's lawyer "in full Nurse Ratched mode," a reference to the head nurse of the mental hospital in the 1975 film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Fascinating stuff
Posted by TY at 10:37 AM
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'A Different Understanding With the President' | Cheney | washingtonpost.com
One lawyer in his office said that Bellinger was chagrined to learn, indirectly, that Cheney had read the confidential memo and "was concerned" about his advice. Thus Bellinger discovered an unannounced standing order: Documents prepared for the national security adviser, another White House official said, were "routed outside the formal process" to Cheney, too. The reverse did not apply.
Powell asked for a meeting with Bush. The same day, Jan. 25, 2002, Cheney's office struck a preemptive blow. It appeared to come from Gonzales, a longtime Bush confidant whom the president nicknamed "Fredo." Hours after Powell made his request, Gonzales signed his name to a memo that anticipated and undermined the State Department's talking points. The true author has long been a subject of speculation, for reasons including its unorthodox format and a subtly mocking tone that is not a Gonzales hallmark.
A White House lawyer with direct knowledge said Cheney's lawyer, Addington, wrote the memo. Flanigan passed it to Gonzales, and Gonzales sent it as "my judgment" to Bush [Read the memo]. If Bush consulted Cheney after that, the vice president became a sounding board for advice he originated himself.
Addington, under Gonzales's name, appealed to the president by quoting Bush's own declaration that "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war." Addington described the Geneva Conventions as "quaint," casting Powell as a defender of "obsolete" rules devised for another time. If Bush followed Powell's lead, Addington suggested, U.S. forces would be obliged to provide athletic gear and commissary privileges to captured terrorists.
According to David Bowker, a State Department lawyer, Powell did not in fact argue that al-Qaeda and Taliban forces deserved the privileges of prisoners of war. Powell said Geneva rules entitled each detainee to a status review, but he predicted that few, if any, would qualify as POWs, because they did not wear uniforms on the battlefield or obey a lawful chain of command. "We said, 'If you give legal process and you follow the rules, you're going to reach substantially the same result and the courts will defer to you,'" Bowker said.
fascinating series
Posted by TY at 10:33 AM
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June 24, 2007
Driving with rented risks - Los Angeles Times
Sternberg fell victim to a peril long familiar to U-Haul International: "trailer sway," a leading cause of severe towing accidents.
Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced — or fortunate — drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe.
U-Haul, the nation's largest provider of rental trailers, says it is "highly conservative" about safety. But a yearlong Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents.
The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. A leading trailer expert and U-Haul consultant has likened this principle to "motherhood and apple pie."
Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles.
It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies.
Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes.
Its small and midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states.
[snip]
Richard H. Klein, an authority on trailer dynamics who has served as an expert witness for U-Haul, underscored the point during one court appearance. He was asked if he'd rather be driving "a larger tow vehicle than a smaller one" if a trailer began to swing.
"Yes," he replied. "That's like motherhood and apple pie."
In keeping with this tenet, other major companies do not allow customers to pull rental equipment with passenger vehicles. Penske Truck Leasing and Budget Truck Rental compete with U-Haul in renting two types of tow equipment: tow dollies and auto transports.
But Penske and Budget provide equipment only to customers who rent large trucks to pull the load. They say safety is the reason.
Penske's trucks are "engineered to pull these types of loads," said spokesman Randolph P. Ryerson. The company has "no way to make sure other vehicles would have the same adequate towing capabilities," he said.
U-Haul allows customers to tow its trailers, tow dollies and other equipment with passenger vehicles as well as with the company's large trucks. Most renters use SUVs or pickups, which have a high center of gravity and are prone to rollovers.
whoa
Posted by TY at 4:31 PM
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June 22, 2007
Tales of a Ninth-Grade Fund Manager - WSJ.com
Brandon Conley opens his weekly Wednesday 7:30 a.m. conference call with a briefing of news items affecting the portfolio of his fund, Mariner Investment Advisers.
Japan's economy has signs of slowing. IBM is increasing its presence in China. Halliburton is considering a stock listing in Dubai. Listening in on the call are his investment analysts, 17-year-old David White-Goode and 13-year-old Jeremy Hitotsubashi. Brandon himself is 14. David, who covers the defense and aeronautics industry, gives an update on Northrop Grumman, emphasizing its strong position as a shipbuilder. His recommendation: A buy.
"What price are we looking at?" Brandon asks. "Eighty-five dollars? Or are we looking higher, around the trading range for Boeing or Lockheed?"
"Eighty-five a share," David responds.
whoa
Posted by TY at 9:57 PM
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Rides shut after Ky. Six Flags accident - Yahoo! News
Six Flags and another company shut down eight more thrill rides Friday around the country after a teenage girl had her feet chopped off at the ankle on a Superman Tower of Power.
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State inspectors, meanwhile, returned to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom where the accident happened to examine the ride, which lifts passengers 177 feet straight up, then drops them nearly the same distance at speeds reaching 54 mph.
It was unclear at what point during the ride the 13-year-old was injured Thursday, said Wendy Goldberg, a Six Flags spokeswoman. The girl was taken to a hospital. She was not identified and details of her condition were not immediately available Friday.
Six Flags has shut down similar rides at parks in St. Louis, Gurnee, Ill., and near Washington as a safety precaution, Goldberg said. Six Flags Over Texas, near Dallas, also has a Superman Tower of Power, but it is not the same ride, Goldberg said.
There were no reports of injuries on the ride before Thursday, she said.
doh
Posted by TY at 10:26 AM
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June 21, 2007
In latest scare, China finds fake veterinary drugs | Health | Reuters
Almost one-fifth of veterinary drugs tested in China in the first quarter were not up to standard, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday, unveiling a long list of fake products.
Still, that one-fifth figure is a slight improvement over the same period of last year, the ministry said, putting a positive spin on the announcement.
"Although more of the veterinary drugs tested were up to scratch, there remains a problem with the illegal production and sale of fakes," it said in a statement posted on its Web site (www.agri.gov.cn).
"There is especially a glaring problem with underground dens selling fakes," the ministry added, vowing tougher action.
It published a five-page list of problem drugs it had found, saying some claimed to be made by companies that don't exist, some falsely claimed to have government approval, while others had been banned long ago.
Others were just undisguised fakes.
"We will keep taking proactive measures, striking hard against the illegal behavior of the production and sale of fake and shoddy veterinary drugs, raise standards and guarantee the safety of food made from animals," the ministry said.
not surprising
Posted by TY at 11:23 AM
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June 20, 2007
Oddly Enough | Africa - Reuters.com
A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole.
The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water, mostly from melting glaciers.
It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares (10-12 acres) -- about the size of 10 soccer pitches.
"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF.
"The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure," he told Reuters.
CONAF is investigating the disappearance.
One theory is that the area was hit by an earth tremor that opened a crack in the ground which acted like a drain.
Southern Chile has been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year.
dude where's my lake?
Posted by TY at 8:46 PM
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China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment
China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, figures released today show.
The surprising announcement will increase anxiety about China's growing role in driving man-made global warming and will pile pressure onto world politicians to agree a new global agreement on climate change that includes the booming Chinese economy. China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the world's biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen as early as next year.
Uh. Congrats?
Posted by TY at 10:39 AM
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June 19, 2007
Unwanted Result of Ballot Confusion: A Beerless Town - New York Times
Residents say that nearly two years ago they made a sobering mistake that has bedeviled them ever since. While trying to grant one of the restaurants permission to serve beer and wine with meals, voters unwittingly banned the sale of all alcohol in the town’s 37 square miles.
“It got all screwed up,” said Katie Brown, the manager of Federal Hollow Staples, a grocery owned by her father, Frederick Brown, that was the first in town to get a liquor license, more than 30 years ago, and now relies on beer sales for 78 percent of its annual revenue. “We’re a farming town, you know?”
[snip]
Owners of the Hitchin’ Rail, a fixture here for decades, wanted to add wine and beer to the menu at the restaurant, where hearty meat loaf and pot roast entrees top out at $8.95.
It was not as simple as it seemed. state alcoholic beverage control laws require that whenever a town wants to expand the way it sells alcohol, it must ask voters five questions — “stupid questions,” according to the town supervisor, Leonard Lisenbee, a retired federal game warden who has been in office six years and who characterized the state-mandated wording as post-Prohibition-era legalese.
The questions, requiring more than 300 words, ask whether alcohol should be allowed in a variety of settings, including a hotel and, separately, a “summer hotel.” “Shall any person be authorized to sell alcoholic beverages at retail to be consumed on premises licensed pursuant to the provisions of Section 64 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law?” was the relevant one to the Hitchin’ Rail. But there was also “Shall any person be authorized to sell alcoholic beverages at retail, not to be consumed on the premises, where sold in the town of Potter?” which relates to stores like the Federal Hollow.
“I read it and I couldn’t understand it, and I’ve got a college education,” Mr. Lisenbee said. “When voters get confused, they vote no.”
And they did.
Oops
Posted by TY at 9:22 AM
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Moscow ranks as world's priciest city - Yahoo! News
Moscow is the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row, thanks to an appreciating ruble and rising housing costs, a new survey reports.
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The cost of living for expatriates in the Russian capital is nearly 35 percent higher than in New York, which served as the base city for the survey released Monday.
London, estimated at 26 percent more expensive than New York, climbed three spots to second place on a strengthening British pound and steep rental prices.
In Moscow, a luxury two-bedroom apartment will cost an expat $4,000 a month; a CD rings up at $24.83; one copy of an international daily newspaper is $6.30; and a fast-food hamburger meal totals $4.80.
In Soviet Russia, city price you.
Posted by TY at 8:15 AM
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For UAW Chief, a Bid To Forestall 'Waterloo' - WSJ.com
But events overtook the deal and forced Mr. Gettelfinger into a painful retreat. By March 2005, GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner warned that the company's results would be far worse than expected when the last contract was signed, as GM's U.S. sales were slumping despite costly discounts. Mr. Wagoner blamed the huge debts owed to retired employees, and hinted GM might impose cuts in retiree benefits unilaterally and let the union fight them in court after the fact -- an uncertain proposition.
[Losing Ground]
Mr. Gettelfinger demanded time to conduct his own review. He took the unusual step for the UAW of hiring an investment-banking firm, Lazard Ltd., along with the New York-based law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Milliman, a Washington, D.C.-based actuary, to study GM's finances and economic projections. The point was to convince UAW skeptics that GM needed the help, say UAW insiders.
Mr. Gettelfinger also toured the company's normally secret design studios to study clay models of vehicles that GM had planned for the coming years. His conclusion and Lazard's: Despite a potential uptick from the new car models, GM was in even worse shape than it wanted to admit.
That must have been an awkward moment.
Posted by TY at 12:36 AM
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June 18, 2007
Wall Street's bad deal — drug addiction - Addictions - MSNBC.com
“To my knowledge, we have not seen an uptick in drug use,” Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jean Marie McFadden said.
The other five firms declined comment or did not return telephone calls.
But Cass said opiate abuse among his clients is rising and they openly talk about being hooked on prescription drugs like OxyContin, known as hillbilly heroin.
“That’s what has changed from previous booms on Wall Street,” he said.
Cass and Stratyner said their clients sometimes conceal their habits by taking prescription drugs they get for back surgery or sports-related injuries. The Internet has also expanded the black market for drugs.
Wall Street professionals in their 20s use Ritalin and Adderall, prescription drugs used to treat attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity, to enhance their performance as they grind out 100-hour weeks, Cass said.
Big bonuses and the need to blow off steam have helped invigorate demand for cocaine in Manhattan, according to two junior bankers who did not want to be named.
Juan Rodriguez, convicted of selling drugs to investment bankers and other professionals, said his clients never complained about the price of cocaine, even as it escalated.
“My customers were all business individuals,” Rodriguez said, citing Morgan Stanley bankers as among his clients.
good times
Posted by TY at 3:57 PM
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June 16, 2007
Tainted foods are daily problem in Asia - Yahoo! News
- As Nguyen Van Ninh needles his chopsticks through a steaming bowl of Vietnam's famous noodle soup, he knows it could be spiked with formaldehyde. But the thought of slurping up the same chemical used to preserve corpses isn't enough to deter him.
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"I think if we don't see those chemicals being put in the food with our own eyes, then we can just smack our lips and pretend that there are no chemicals in the food," he said, devouring a 30-cent bowl of "pho" on a busy Hanoi sidewalk. "Why worry about it?"
While the discovery of tainted imports from China has shocked Westerners, food safety has long been a problem in much of Asia, where enforcement is lax and food poisoning deaths are not unusual. Hot weather, lack of refrigeration and demand for cheap street food drives vendors and producers to find inexpensive — and often dangerous — ways to preserve their products.
Doh
Posted by TY at 5:44 PM
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Business Books: Strain on U.S. grid to make blackouts common - Yahoo! News
But unless the antiquated transmission grid is fixed, expensive blackouts that bring modern life to a grinding halt will become ever more common, according to "Lights Out" (Wiley, $27.95), a new book by Jason Makansi.
Before the 1980s, power generating companies were responsible for the entire chain of supply, from securing fuel to transmitting power to homes. Deregulation, meant to increase competition, has busted that chain apart and left the wires and substations that deliver electricity as a "neglected stepchild," Makansi writes.
As demand for electricity rises, especially in the hot summer months when air conditioners are humming, the result is an overstretched grid, exploding transformers, brownouts and blackouts.
Transmission only accounts for about 10 percent of the industry's assets, and for decades utilities and regulators have focused on more expensive parts of the system. Now, even electricity generated in ultramodern plants is dependent on the brittle transmission grid. "Imagine driving a Maserati over a road littered with potholes," Makansi writes.
Other parts of the U.S. power system make transmission rough.
Financial engineering has displaced systems engineering, Makansi writes, the worst effect of which was the California power crisis in 2000 and 2001, when power trading deals led to inefficient transmission, rolling blackouts, and spiraling prices.
duh
Posted by TY at 1:56 PM
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L.A. hospital outlines response to death - Yahoo! News
According to the county report, a security camera showed Rodriguez being brought to the emergency room lobby by police officers around 1 a.m. When the officers told a nurse that Rodriguez was complaining of stomach pains, according to the report, the nurse told the patient: "You have already been seen and there is nothing we can do."
A few minutes later, Rodriguez slipped off her wheelchair and on to the lobby floor, screaming in pain as she lay in a fetal position. The nurse told her: "Get off the floor and on to a chair," the report said.
The security camera also showed that for about 30 minutes, hospital staff walked past Rodriguez or cleaned the floor next to her "without interacting with her," the report said.
When Rodriguez began kicking her feet, two staff members looked at her and then walked back through the door to an area within the emergency room. Police officers then wheeled her into the emergency room as she was dying.
Federal inspectors noted that during the time Rodriguez spent in the lobby, she did not receive a screening exam to determine if she required emergency medical attention and her presence was not noted in the emergency room log.
hospitals are bad places to get sick
Posted by TY at 1:55 PM
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Credit cards cut off gas purchases - Yahoo! News
Typically, consumers who use their credit card are not liable for any fraudulent purchases, and gas merchants are not liable either.
But credit card companies have established a protective layer by setting caps on how much gas a consumer can pump at any one given time.
That means in the event of any fraud, "the merchant is protected from bearing the cost of the fraudulent transaction," said MasterCard spokeswoman Joanne Trout.
But only up to a certain amount.
For MasterCard customers, it's $75. Visa and Discover users have a $50 pay-at-the-pump limit. Transaction limits vary for corporate card holders and American Express users.
Not all gas stations have to abide by the cap. And there are no limits if a customer goes inside and pays with their credit card at the counter.
interesting
Posted by TY at 1:53 PM
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June 15, 2007
Toddler served margarita in a sippy cup - Yahoo! News
Kim Mayorga was confused when her 2-year-old started making funny faces and pushing away the apple juice he had ordered at Applebee's. The explanation came when she opened the lid of the sippy cup and was hit by the smell of tequila and Triple Sec.
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The restaurant staff accidentally gave Julian Mayorga a margarita Monday. He grew drowsy and started vomiting a few hours later and was rushed to the hospital.
"I wasn't going to make a big deal about it," the mother told the Contra Costa Times on Thursday, "but then he got sick."
The apple juice and margarita mix were stored in identical plastic bottles, and the manager mistakenly grabbed the margarita container to pour the boy's drink, said Randy Tei, vice president for Apple Bay East Inc., which owns the franchise restaurant and nine other Applebee's in the San Francisco Bay area.
oops
Posted by TY at 5:08 PM
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SAN JOSE / 2 charged in alleged tow truck scam
A father and son have been charged with perjury, embezzlement and other crimes after allegedly bilking dozens of people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through a complex "tow and sue" scam, Santa Clara County prosecutors said Thursday.
Paul Greer, 30, of Clovis -- formerly known as Vincent Cardinalli Jr. -- and his father, Vincent Cardinalli Sr., 64, of Hollister are accused of masterminding a scheme where they towed people's vehicles, sued the owners and then won small claims court judgments without the vehicle owners knowing they had been sued, prosecutors said.
Both men were arrested Wednesday after prosecutors filed an 88-count criminal complaint charging Greer, Cardinalli, other family members and a process server with felony counts that include conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to defraud, perjury, embezzlement and attempted grand theft, authorities said.
interesting
Posted by TY at 11:35 AM
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June 14, 2007
On The Media-- Star Reporter
JANCEE DUNN: - and I'd know that [LAUGHING] they'd thrown up outside. That happened a lot. I really did start carrying Tic-Tacs. And I had to devise a plan to get them to wake up and give me good quotes. And the system that I devised works 100 percent of the time, and it is when they roll in and they can't be bothered - and another thing is that they have to pretend like it doesn't matter to them that they're being interviewed by Rolling Stone or MTV, because that's not very rock -
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Right.
JANCEE DUNN: - to act like you're excited, right? So you have to be jaded and take it out on the vee-jay or the writer. So I would always pay attention to the drummer. I practically sat in his lap, and I would roar with laughter at every mild joke that he made, like wah-hah-hah-hah! You know, and I would ask him about his drumming philosophies. They often have one or two. And -
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
JANCEE DUNN: - you mentioned one of them. Oh, that's amazing! I never thought of it before, but drumming is a metaphor for life! I have said that before. I'm not proud -
BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]
JANCEE DUNN: - but I have said that before, with a big smile on my face. The drummer is puzzled at first, maybe a little suspicious, but then he can't help but blossom under your tender gaze, your hyena-like laughter. And then eventually, the rest of the band, they'd start jostling, because they can't stand it. They're hostile. Then they're eager to give you the quotes about groupies and drugs and anything else that you need. And then, of course, when you've left and you're putting the interview together, you don't use any quotes from the drummer. [LAUGHTER]
itneresting
Posted by TY at 9:02 PM
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Headphones to Shut Out the World - New York Times
PANASONIC RP-HC500 The pleasantly smushy-edged earcups on this new model do an excellent job of isolating your ears. That may be one reason the noise cancellation works so well; all but the highest frequencies are subtracted. Better still, the music reproduction is stellar, especially in the crisp, clean higher registers.
I waited to look up the prices for these products until after I’d tested them. So I was astonished to discover that you can find these online for $100. You get quality that’s nearly indistinguishable from the Boses — for a third the price.
AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-ANC7 Here is another winner, with another surprising price: $132 for these comfy, solidly built, absolutely great-sounding headphones. The circuitry cuts out a huge swath of engine, road or train noise, and the music is crystal clear, sweet and finely textured.
It’s “Bose” without the marketing campaign.
interesting
Posted by TY at 10:25 AM
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In Health Care, Cost Isn’t Proof of High Quality - New York Times
“For most consumers, the fact that there is no connection between quality and cost is one of the dirty secrets of medicine,” said Peter V. Lee, the chief executive of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a California group of employers that provide health care coverage for workers.
Some Pennsylvania employers said the state’s findings, based on data from 2005, might put more pressure on insurance carriers and hospitals to start demonstrating the value of care. “It now provides us a tool to have a serious dialogue with our carriers,” said Mark Dever, a benefits consultant for Duquesne Light, a regional utility in Pittsburgh.
“We have to question,” he said. “There’s a big difference in price — why?”
The report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, a state agency, provides a rare public glimpse of detailed information about hospital payments and patient outcomes. And the seemingly random nature of the payments is striking.
[snip]
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Marc P. Volavka, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. “Certain payers are paying an awful lot for poor quality.”
don't get sick
Posted by TY at 10:24 AM
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June 13, 2007
Las Vegas Caters to Asia’s High Rollers - New York Times
About 80 percent of Las Vegas’s biggest whales are from Asia, he said, echoing the estimates of other casino executives. Most of them are baccarat players from China and Hong Kong.
“One difference between our domestic and Asian guests are that our Asian guests spend much more time gambling,” said Mike Zanolli, manager of the 50 butlers the Venetian places at the service of its high rollers. “We see our Asian guest mainly in the baccarat salon,” Mr. Zanolli said, adding that they even take all or most of their meals there.
whoa
Posted by TY at 11:49 AM
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June 12, 2007
Incentives Limit Any Savings in Treating Cancer - New York Times
Some physicians say that cancer doctors responded to Medicare’s change by performing additional treatments that got them the best reimbursements, whether or not the treatments benefited patients. Those doctors also say that Medicare’s reimbursement policies are responsible.
“The system doesn’t value the time we spend with patients,” said Dr. Peter Eisenberg, a cancer doctor in Greenbrae, Calif., and director of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “The system values procedures.”
The ballooning cost of cancer treatment, one of Medicare’s most expensive categories, offers a vivid example of how difficult it may be to rein in the nation’s runaway health care spending without fundamentally changing the way doctors are paid.
Cancer patients and their families play a role in rising costs, too, because they understandably want doctors to exhaust every possible treatment, even if the doctors might serve their patients better simply by talking and listening to them.
In general, oncologists make money by providing chemotherapy, even when it has little chance of success. Oncologists naturally dislike telling cancer patients that they have exhausted all available treatments. Ending chemotherapy, after all, means acknowledging that a patient’s disease has become terminal.
interesting
Posted by TY at 8:53 PM
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Safe cars versus fuel efficiency? Not so fast. | csmonitor.com
In radio ads and over the Internet, it's pushing a message that implies that tougher standards will force automakers to make smaller and lighter cars that are not as crashworthy as today's less efficient models.
(Graphic)
Click to enlarge
RIch Clabaugh
That's a message that has worked before. But this time, as Congress is set to begin debate Wednesday over whether to boost Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for new cars and light trucks, some experts are not sure the argument holds water. Recent research suggests that new technology can make small cars safer and guzzlers more efficient. Some fuel-efficient cars are already safer than bigger, less less-efficient counterparts, a new study finds.
"There's no reason that higher fuel-economy standards would force automakers to change the size of the vehicle, [its] structural integrity or crash-worthiness," says David Greene, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher and co-author of the study released last Thursday by the International Council on Clean Transportation. "It's unfortunate that manufacturers are trying to cast the debate in that way."
Instead, technology can help make cars and trucks lighter and more efficient without compromising their safety, says the report, which reflects a number of peer-reviewed studies in the past four years.
duh
Posted by TY at 10:44 AM
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June 11, 2007
The Middle Seat - WSJ.com
In New York, the $500-a-night hotel isn't what it used to be.
High demand and aggressive pricing have pushed the price of many second- and third-tier Manhattan hotels like Sheratons, Hiltons, Radissons and Marriotts over $500 a night for business travelers. Even a Comfort Inn with plastic orchids in the lobby and a pre-paid calling-card vending machine (exact change only) was recently priced at $429.
ouchers
Posted by TY at 9:39 PM
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Sale of Fake Blood Protein In China Is Found in Probe - WSJ.com
China's food-safety agency said a government probe uncovered the sale of fake blood protein to hospitals and pharmacies in at least eight provinces and autonomous regions across China.
The real protein, called albumin, is made in the liver and maintains blood volume in the body. It is given to chronically ill people.
A notice about the sale of the fake albumin was posted on the State Food and Drug Administration's Web site late yesterday afternoon, following reports by state television over the weekend that the practice was widespread. It remains unclear if any of the fake albumin was exported.
Yesterday's disclosure comes days after China pledged stronger surveillance and export controls amid a wave of questions over the safety of its food and drugs. Last week, China announced that it had launched a five-year plan to effectively contain "illegal activities behind the production and sale of fake and shoddy foods and pharmaceuticals."
The latest incident stems from a report by state-run China Central Television that 59 hospitals and pharmacies in the northeastern province of Jilin had purchased fake albumin. It didn't say what the counterfeits were made of but said they could "make a patient's condition worsen and could cause death."
ew
Posted by TY at 9:39 PM
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June 10, 2007
American buys slices of South America - Yahoo! News
The American multimillionaire who founded the North Face and Esprit clothing lines says he is trying to save the planet by buying bits of it. First Douglas Tompkins purchased a huge swath of southern Chile, and now he's hoping to save the northeast wetlands of neighboring Argentina.
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He has snapped up more than half a million acres of the Esteros del Ibera, a vast Argentine marshland teeming with wildlife.
Tompkins, 64, is a hero to some for his environmental stewardship. Others resent his land purchases as a foreign challenge to their national patrimony.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Tompkins said industrialized agriculture is chewing up big chunks of Argentina's fragile marshland and savanna, and that essential topsoil is disappearing as a result.
interesting
Posted by TY at 11:58 PM
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June 9, 2007
Don't be fooled by $1 salaries - Yahoo! News
A handful of CEOs in the AP executive pay list take home a salary of $1 a year or less. But all of them manage to make millions anyway, illustrating the point that if you're running the show, your salary doesn't mean much.
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"Salary has become such a minuscule component of CEO compensation that it is now largely irrelevant," said J. Richard Finlay, founder of the Centre for Corporate & Public Governance.
Of the 386 Standard & Poor's 500 CEOs whose companies reported under the
Securities and Exchange Commission's expanded disclosure requirements this year, salary accounted for only 9.5 percent of total pay. For the 11 CEOs in the group who earned more than $30 million, salary was just 2.7 percent of total pay.
In the group, the CEOs with the smallest salaries were:
• Terry Considine, chairman, president and CEO of Apartment Investment & Management. He reported a salary of zero, although footnotes in the company's proxy statement show that he received stock options valued at $600,000 as his base salary. Considine's total pay, as calculated by the AP, was $4.8 million in 2006.
• Richard D. Fairbank, president and CEO of Capital One Financial Corp., also had zero salary, as well as no bonus. But he was awarded $18 million worth of stock options.
Since 1997, Fairbank has been paid almost entirely in stock and options, which are pegged to Capital One's long-term performance. The company's proxy said the board's compensation committee believes this is "the mechanism that most aligns the CEO's financial rewards to the value he delivers to stockholders."
Fairbank has 5.9 million unexercised options, as well as unearned shares and options that have not vested that the company values at $27.3 million.
• James Rogers, president and CEO of Duke Energy Corp., received no salary in 2006. But like Fairbank, he receives most of his compensation in stock and options. His total pay for 2006 was $27.5 million.
• Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc., took home exactly $1 in salary. And his overall compensation totaled $557,466, a fraction of the $71.7 million granted last year to competitor Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) CEO Terry Semel, the No. 1 executive on the AP pay list.
Almost all of Schmidt's package covered the cost of $532,755 for personal security. Schmidt, along with Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, has refused to take anything more than a token paycheck for the past three years to promote an egalitarian spirit at the company.
But all three own handsome stock stakes in the company. Schmidt, 52, owns 10.7 million shares currently worth $5.5 billion.
Another $1-a-year CEO is Apple's
Steve Jobs, who's been treading water at that level for the last three years. But Jobs, 52, also owns more than 5.4 million Apple shares that are now worth more than $660 million.
No kidding
Posted by TY at 7:22 PM
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June 4, 2007
U.S. cuts back climate checks from space - Yahoo! News
The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.
A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago.
Because of technology glitches and a near-doubling in the original $6.5 billion cost, the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites paired into two orbits, instead of six satellites and three orbits.
The satellites were intended to gather weather and climate data, replacing existing satellites as they come to the end of their useful lifetimes beginning in the next couple of years.
The reduced system of four satellites will now focus on weather forecasting. Most of the climate instruments needed to collect more precise data over long periods are being eliminated.
not surprising
Posted by TY at 11:40 AM
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Making Perfect Rice The Japanese Way Can Cost Big Bucks - WSJ.com
More than four years ago, Japan's Toshiba Corp. began working on a top-secret electronic device. The $830 machine -- which some say resembles a tiny spaceship -- had a powerful vacuum pump to suck all the air out. It was designed to withstand 264 pounds of pressure, and it made use of silver and powdered diamonds. Production of the contraption, which takes about 30 people to assemble, started last year.
Toshiba's creation is the "Vacuum Pressure Cooker," the company's most expensive rice cooker ever. The pressure makes it possible to boil the water in the cooker at a higher temperature, thus making for fatter, shinier and sweeter grains of rice. The air-sucking filter creates a vacuum causing the rice to absorb water more quickly while it soaks. The silver and diamond dust are used to coat the cooking vessel so as to distribute heat evenly, so every grain of rice has the same texture.
[Photo]
Toshiba's vacuum-pressure rice cooker
"It was a lot of work," says Noriko Saito, one of Toshiba's chief rice-cooker developers. She test-cooked as much as 330 pounds of rice a week to determine the best cooking process, using both the vacuum and pressure technologies.
Such an all-out effort might seem bizarre for something as mundane as cooking rice, which is easy to do in a pot on the stove or in a $10 electric rice cooker of the sort used throughout the world.
But many Japanese, who are fiercely proud to be obsessed with rice, wouldn't dream of anything so simple. After all, they're connoisseurs. While Japan imports a small percentage of rice from countries such as the U.S. and China, most of it is processed into foods like rice crackers and soybean paste for soup. The vast majority of the rice that is eaten is grown in Japan, which has about 300 different varieties of rice, some with romantic names like "Dream of Stars" and "Love at First Sight." Rice aficionados subscribe to rice-of-the-month clubs and are willing to pay about $5.50 a pound for premium rice. Japanese consumers spend an average of $150 for their rice cookers, the highest price in the world.
whoa
Posted by TY at 9:53 AM
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Public denied access to Calif. beaches - Yahoo! News
Before getting to some of the world's most beautiful beaches, it helps to know a few things about the law — and the locals. While California's Coastal Act of 1976 ensures beach access, the rich and famous who want to keep the state's dramatic coast exclusive have been posting bogus "no parking" and "private beach" signs here and elsewhere.
They've done it so effectively in Malibu for so long that unfortunate beachgoers occasionally get ticketed.
"It doesn't sound like a big deal to put in a sign or two," said Linda Locklin, of the California Coastal Commission. "But pretty soon if you have all the public access ways with signs or gates, it's a huge problem."
The promise of safe passage to the sea is just one front the commission concedes it's losing amid budget constraints.
Development projects the agency must review are put on hold, communities are left without an updated blueprint for regulating growth along their shore, and the state can't process paperwork to accept offers of free land.
Since 1980, while inflation has increased 160 percent, the commission's total funding has risen only 9 percent — from $13.5 million to $16.3 million. At times it has been cut nearly in half.
The commission's full-time staff has been slashed from 200 in 1980 to 138 today; only 11 enforcement officers investigate violations along the 1,100-mile coastline.
"We haven't had an officer north of San Francisco since 2001," said Lisa Haage, the agency's chief of enforcement. "It's a full day drive and then we can't pay for a hotel."
Classic
Posted by TY at 9:42 AM
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The 6 Percent Solution: Skip Real Estate Agents - New York Times
But some buyers just freeload. (The Internet has a way of encouraging this behavior.) They can search the M.L.S. for a house with no brokerage firm listed, meaning it's being sold by the owner, and then work out a no-commission deal directly with that owner. So you can see where this is headed. If agents want to protect their commissions, they have to restrict access to the M.L.S. to sellers who are working with them, not going it alone.
Local realty groups have tried suing agents or brokerage firms that put "for sale by owner" listings in the M.L.S., accusing them of copyright infringement. Those agents have countersued, charging restraint of trade. Then two years ago, the Realtors association found what it thought was a better solution. It passed rules that essentially allowed a local M.L.S. service to block access to the listing service to any brokerage firm who discounted commissions or who posted listings for homeowners who intended to sell their own houses. The antitrust division of the Justice Department cried foul. This month it sued the Realtors' trade group, asserting that the rules stifled competition and hurt consumers.
The Realtors changed the rules just as the federal case was filed. But J. Bruce McDonald, deputy assistant attorney general, said that the group's policies continued to discriminate against innovative brokers and "stifle competition at the expense of home buyers and sellers."
not surprising
Posted by TY at 9:39 AM
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