Omss Politics: Feb 6, 2011

Steve Forbes: FDA Could Kill Millions of Us

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Insider Report from Newsmax.com

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Bush Daughter Barbara Backs Gay Marriage in Video
2. Steve Forbes: FDA Could Kill Millions of Us
3. Ethanol Production Fueling ‘Food Inflation’
4. Federal Debt on Pace for Record year in 2011
5. Cairo Awash in Garbage — Blame the Flu
6. We Heard: David Axelrod, John McCain

1. Bush Daughter Barbara Backs Gay Marriage in Video

Former President George W. Bush’s daughter Barbara has taped a video ad voicing her support for same-sex marriage in New York.

“I’m Barbara Bush and I’m a New Yorker campaigning for marriage equality,” Barbara Bush, 29, states in the ad.

“New York is about fairness and equality and everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love. Join us.”

The 22-second ad was produced by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy group. Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president of communications, told CBS News that the group was introduced to Barbara through mutual friends who knew she supported gay rights.

“When the opportunity became available, we immediately leapt at it,” Sainz said. “We think she’s a very effective spokesman and brings an awful lot of dignity and poise.”

Bush’s ad “sends a message to all Republicans across this country that this does not have to be — should not be — a partisan issue.”

President Bush campaigned against gay rights during his 2004 re-election campaign, saying he would introduce a constitutional amendment to restrict “marriage” to a union between a man and a woman.

But Barbara’s mother Laura Bush appeared to support same-sex marriage when she said during her book tour last year that couples that “are committed to each other and love each other” should have “the same sort of rights that everyone has.”

The ad comes on the eve of a new push by activists to legalize gay marriage in New York.

Editor's Note:

Suzanne Somers and Top Docs Share Secrets to Surviving Cancer

2. Steve Forbes: FDA Could Kill Millions of Us

Forbes magazine Editor in Chief Steve Forbes warns that the Food and Drug Administration’s foot-dragging on approving new antibiotics is leading to the “potential catastrophe” of a “bacterial apocalypse.”

The FDA has been making the approval of new drugs increasingly burdensome in recent years, Forbes — who was a Republican candidate for president in 1996 and 2000 — writes in a Forbes magazine editorial.

“The FDA’s behavior is no surprise to the organization’s watchers,” he says. “Approve a medication that has an unintended side effect and congressional headline-seekers will be giving officials the third degree. Better to let people die by depriving them of new medicines.”

As a result of the FDA’s foot-dragging, the pipeline for new antibiotics is drying up, according to Forbes.

Antibiotics have saved tens of millions of lives since the 1940s, but bacteria can become drug-resistant and new drugs are constantly needed to keep pace with new killer germs. But the flow of new antibiotics “has slowed to a trickle,” Forbes observes in the editorial headlined “How the FDA May Kill Millions of Us.”

One reason is that research is becoming more expensive, discouraging pharmaceutical companies from risking money on developing new medications that may not ultimately gain FDA approval.

“But the chief villain is the FDA,” Forbes declares.

He quotes David Shlaes, author of the book “Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm.” Shlaes writes: “Regulatory agencies like the FDA are contributing to the problem with a constant barrage of clinical trial requirements that make it harder, slower and more costly to develop antibiotics.”

Forbes also might have pointed to a new study by oncologist David Stewart and his colleagues at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The study notes that the time from drug discovery to marketing increased from eight years in 1960 to 12 to 15 years now, Reason magazine reported.

The researchers calculate that five years of this increase is the result of ever tighter regulations boosting the costs and lengths of clinical trials.

Forbes declares: “Thus today we are faced with potential catastrophe. Lethal bacteria now threaten to colonize U.S. hospitals. If nothing is done, we will be facing a bacterial apocalypse. The horrors that we thought were banished 70 years ago are coming back.”

The FDA should be overhauled to remove its capricious hurdles, Forbes says, calling on the new Congress to “hold hearings on the FDA’s increasingly deadly and bizarre behavior.”

Editor's Note:

ALERT: Every Penny You Own May Fall Victim to the Aftershock

3. Ethanol Production Fueling ‘Food Inflation’

While rising food prices have been a factor in recent riots in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, the United States is continuing to increase its use of corn to make ethanol, pushing up grain and meat prices worldwide.

“The global economy is getting back on its feet, but so too is an old enemy: food inflation,” The Wall Street Journal states in an editorial, noting that the United Nations benchmark index for food reached a record high in December, “raising fears of shortages and higher prices.”

In 2001, only 7 percent of America’s corn crop, about 707 million bushels, was used to make ethanol fuel for vehicles. By 2010, nearly 40 percent of American corn went for ethanol — almost 5 billion bushels out of total U.S. production of 12.4 billion bushels.

American farmers account for about 39 percent of global corn production, and about 16 percent of the crop is exported, so America’s ethanol production can influence world prices.

March futures for corn recently hit a 30-month high of $6.67 a bushel, up from $4 a bushel a year ago.

Also, since 40 percent of U.S. corn production is used as animal feed, rising corn prices push up the cost of beef, poultry and other items as well.

“This trend is the deliberate result of policies designed to subsidize ethanol,” and it “coincides with a growing consensus that ethanol achieves none of its alleged policy goals,” The Journal observes.

Ethanol supporters claim it reduces American dependence on foreign oil, but a Cornell University scientist calculated that even if the entire American crop was used for ethanol, it would satisfy just 4 percent of our oil consumption.

And the Environmental Protection Agency has downplayed assertions that ethanol provides a cleaner source of energy than gasoline, saying it “has a minimal to negative impact on the environment,” according to The Journal.

The American Thinker on Monday observed: “Today there is a global food shortage and sky-rocketing prices. This has become the underlying factor in the riots in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, where up to 56 percent of a person's income is dedicated to the acquisition of food. These riots are now leading to the upheaval of governments and the very real possibility of the ascendancy of the radical elements into control.”

A significant factor “in the overall global food situation is the American decision to, in essence, burn food in its cars, a policy championed by the environmentalists since the 1990s,” American Thinker also noted.

“There is no quicker way to foment riots and revolution than to deprive the populace of food, particularly when so much daily income goes into feeding oneself and one's family. The pictures we have seen in North Africa may well be repeated elsewhere throughout the world.”

Noting that Congress recently voted to extend the $5 billion tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline, The Journal concludes: “At a time when the world will need more corn and grains, it makes no sense to devote scarce farmland to make a fuel that exists only because of taxpayer subsidies and mandates.

“If food supplies tighten and prices keep rising, such a policy will soon become immoral.”

Editor's Note:

Natural Hormones Help Treat Heart Disease, Chronic Fatigue, and PMS

4. Federal Debt on Pace for Record year in 2011

The national debt rose by $569.4 billion in the first four months of fiscal 2011, putting this year on pace to become the second-ranking year in U.S. history for accumulating new federal debt.

The federal debt increased by $105.8 billion in January, pushing the total debt to $14.13 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Fiscal 2009 set the record for increasing the debt, raising it by $1.89 trillion. In that year, Congress passed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that President George W. Bush signed in October 2008, and the $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed in February 2009.

Fiscal 2010 is currently the second-ranking year — the debt rose by $1.65 trillion that year.

But the “federal government’s accumulation of new debt in fiscal 2011 is currently on a pace to outstrip the new debt accumulated in fiscal 2010,” CNS News reported.

“If the government continues accumulating debt in the final two-thirds of the year as quickly as it did in the first third [October through January], then the total new debt accumulated for fiscal 2011 would reach $1.7 trillion,” ahead of 2010 but behind 2009.

Also at that current rate, the federal government would end up borrowing an additional $5,532 for each man, woman and child in the country. And the total debt of $14.13 trilling equals $45,769 per person.

Editor's Note:

Social Security BROKE! Why Didn’t They Tell You?

5. Cairo Awash in Garbage — Blame the Flu

Imagine a metropolis of 18 million people that produces more than 8,000 tons of garbage each day — yet has no municipal garbage collection.

That’s Cairo. Garbage has long been an unhealthy and odiferous problem in the Egyptian capital, but in the last few years it has gotten even worse, thanks in large part to the swine flu.

And while Cairo residents have lately been far more concerned with the unfolding political turmoil in Egypt than with garbage, the problem has been just one more facet of Egyptian life that angers and frustrates citizens.

For decades, Cairo’s garbage has been picked up by a Coptic Christian community called the Zabbaleen — “garbage people” in Egyptian Arabic — who moved from farms to Cairo in the 1940s looking for work and settled on cliffs on the eastern edge of the city.

The Zabbaleen — whose numbers have been estimated from 80,000 to several hundred thousand — go door to door collecting trash from city residents and businesses. They transport the garbage back to their communities and sort out materials that can be sold for recycling.

Several years ago the government tried to hire private companies to collect some of the trash, but the Zabbaleen said they were collecting more than 6,000 tons a day and the private carters just 2,000, according to The New York Times.

In the past the Zabbaleen tossed the food waste to their large herds of pigs, which they raised for sale and subsidence. But in April 2009, news broke that swine flu was spreading around the world. The government of Hosni Mubarak decided to kill all the country’s pigs, about 300,000, even though there had been no cases of swine flu in Egypt at that time. The slaughter continued even after it was generally agreed that pigs were not spreading the disease.

The vast majority of Egyptians are Muslim and they do not eat pork.

Without their pigs, the Zabbaleen suddenly had no way to dispose of their organic waste. Instead they have been recycling what they can from the garbage they collect, and tossing the food waste wherever they can.

“They expect me to pay to have a carter take this [garbage] away,” said one member of a Zabbaleen family who lost 125 pigs. “Forget it. I will throw it anywhere.”

The private companies have tried to place trash bins around the city, “but they failed to understand the ethos of the community,” the Seattle Times reported shortly after the pig slaughter. “People do not take their garbage out. They are accustomed to someone collecting it from the door.”

Editor's Note:

Is Your Heart Rate in the Danger Zone? Doctor Explains.

6. We Heard . . .

THAT President Barack Obama’s former Senior Adviser David Axelrod has agreed to a deal with Washington Speakers Bureau for representation on the lecture circuit.

“From his unique vantage point, Axelrod looks back at the successes and failures of the Obama administration, the events that will shape the 2012 election, and the inspiring leadership lessons he has learned working alongside the president in turbulent times,” the Bureau said in a statement.

Axelrod left the White House on Jan. 28 to begin working on Obama’s re-election campaign.

THAT Sen. John McCain says he’s not likely to endorse any candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

“I think I’m staying out of this for the first time in many years,” McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, told Politico.

If McCain stays out of the race, he would withhold an endorsement even of Sarah Palin, his 2008 running mate and a potential 2012 candidate.

Politico noted: “Of course, things could change as candidates officially enter the race.”

Editor's Note:

Special: Make 2011 the Year You Pay No Taxes

Editor's Notes:

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Newser Daily Digest - Palin: 3am Call 'Went Right to Answering Machine'

Palin: 3am Call 'Went Right to Answering Machine'

(Newser) - Just after pronouncing America "on the road to ruin," Sarah Palin weighed in on the White House's handling of the chaos in Egypt and neighboring countries in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network . "I'm not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done... More »

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[Slashdot] Stories for 2011-02-06

======================================================================
Enterprise Security 2011: A Virtual Conference
Join experts and peers for discussions on what works �� and what you should
be wary of as you evolve your security plans. See the latest and greatest
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======================================================================

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Adobe's Reader X Spoils New PDF Attack
* Supernova 2011b Gradually Fading
* Early Hands-On Preview of Dell's Streak 7 Tablet
* Google's Search Copying Accusation Called 'Silly'
* Mozilla Announces Game On Competition Winners
* UK File-Sharing Lawyers ACS:Law Shut Up Shop Ahead of Court
* Viacom Closes MTV Games
* Sarah Palin Seeks To Trademark Her Name
* Sputnik Moment Or No, Science Fairs Are Lagging
* ACLU's Mobile Privacy Developer Challenge
* Nearly 100,000 P2P Users Sued In the Past Year
* Hackers Penetrate Nasdaq Computer Networks
* Is Setting Up an Offshore IT Help Desk Ethical?
* Pentagon Sets Tone For Future Space Exploration
* US Gov't Pushing News Through China's Great Firewall
* Bill Gates Says Anti-Vaccine Effort Kills Children

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Adobe's Reader X Spoils New PDF Attack
| from the stopped-clock-can-still-be-thrown-with-force dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 04, @19:08 (Security)
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/02/04/2359258/Adobes-Reader-X-Spoils-New-PDF-Attack?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer reports that Adobe's Reader X [0]stymied a
recent attack campaign, researchers said Thursday. But they're not sure
why. 'I don't want to take anything away from Adobe �� after all, a win is
a win �� but this particular exploit appears to be designed with previous
versions of Reader in mind,' said Chris Greamo, who heads the security
research lab at Invincea. 'What appears to have happened is that the
exploit breaks, but we don't have a good sense if the sandbox was able to
contain it.' Reader X, an upgrade issued last year, features a 'sandbox'
designed to protect users from PDF exploits. Adobe claimed that a
recently-addressed bug in Chrome that lets attackers escape the browser's
sandbox was not present in Reader X's sandbox code. Google patched that
bug, the [1]first to earn the company's top bug bounty of $3,133, three
weeks ago. Adobe [2]said Thursday it will would ship its next regular
update for Reader on Tuesday, Feb. 8."

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/11/02/04/2359258/Adobes-Reader-X-Spoils-New-PDF-Attack?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9208239/Reader_X_spoils_new_PDF_attack
1. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9204882/Google_pays_record_bounty_for_Chrome_bug
2. http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb11-03.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Supernova 2011b Gradually Fading
| from the worth-it-for-the-pictures-and-reflections dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 04, @20:00 (Space)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0036255/Supernova-2011b-Gradually-Fading?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "The recent stellar explosion known as
'supernova 2011b' is [0]gradually fading after outshining its host galaxy
for over a month. The explosion first flared up in early January, and
peaked at magnitude 12.9, putting it within the reach of many amateur
telescopes. The host galaxy, NGC 2655, lies 64 million light years away,
meaning that the star exploded while the dinosaurs still roamed the
planet. My own sketches are available at [1]gkastro.tk/."

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0036255/Supernova-2011b-Gradually-Fading?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-deep-sky/128409-supernova-2011b.html
1. http://gkastro.tk/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Early Hands-On Preview of Dell's Streak 7 Tablet
| from the maybe-it's-the-year-of-linux-on-the-tablet dept.
| posted by timothy on Friday February 04, @23:04 (Android)
| https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0153241/Early-Hands-On-Preview-of-Dells-Streak-7-Tablet?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MojoKid writes "Dell recently started shipping their Streak 7 tablet and
it's the highly anticipated big brother of Dell's 5-inch tablet, the
Streak 5 that came out in September of 2010. The larger Streak 7 goes up
against stiff competition with the likes of Samsung's Galaxy Tab, though
the Streak 7 is retailing slightly lower with or without a contract
through T-Mobile. Regardless, the Dell Streak 7 offers some pluses over
the Galaxy Tab, like its 5MP rear-facing camera, but comes up short in
other areas, such as its lower resolution (800x480) display �� versus the
Galaxy Tab's 1024x600 display. The Dell Streak 7 also has NVIDIA's Tegra
2 dual-core 1GHz processor under its hood for a rather snappy Android 2.2
experience, as you can see here in this early, [0]hands-on preview of the
device. In early benchmark testing, the Streak 7 is looking pretty strong
versus the Galaxy Tab, which comes in neck-and-neck with the Streak 7 in
Neocore, at around 54 FPS."

Discuss this story at:
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0153241/Early-Hands-On-Preview-of-Dells-Streak-7-Tablet?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Dell-Streak-7-Android-Tablet-HandsOn-Preview/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Google's Search Copying Accusation Called 'Silly'
| from the well-that's-not-very-silly-now-is-it? dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday February 05, @02:02 (Google)
| https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0332213/Googles-Search-Copying-Accusation-Called-Silly?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

itwbennett writes "Google's [0]Bing sting, [1]reported in Slashdot just
days ago and subsequently [2]denied by Microsoft, is now being called
'silly' and 'petty' by search industry analysts and execs. The reason: it
would be impossible for Microsoft to use the copied results to reverse
engineer Google's search algorithms. And in fact it is more likely that
Microsoft was conducting competitive research. Charlene Li, founder of
technology research and advisory firm Altimeter Group, saw Google's
actions as a [3]misguided response to a real threat from a competitor in
its core search business. 'Google isn't used to having competition. You
look at this incident and you wonder why they are doing this. It feels
amateurish in a way, a kind of 'they're not playing fair' attitude,' she
said."

Discuss this story at:
https://search.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0332213/Googles-Search-Copying-Accusation-Called-Silly?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/internet/135542/bing-sting-is-microsoft-search-engine-copying-google
1. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/01/1614211/Bing-Is-Cheating-Copying-Google-Search-Results#comments
2. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/02/03/1428244/Microsoft-Vehemently-Denies-Googles-Bing-Sting#comments
3. http://www.itworld.com/internet/136002/googles-copying-accusation-called-silly

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mozilla Announces Game On Competition Winners
| from the game-on-apply-directly-to-the-forehead dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @03:40 (Mozilla)
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0554228/Mozilla-Announces-Game-On-Competition-Winners?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla has [0]announced the winners of the
Game On competition, a contest designed to encourage the development of
games based on web technologies. In the various competition categories
[1]Far 7 won Best Technology, [2]Sketchout won Best Aesthetics,
[3]Favimon won Most Original, [4]Websnooker won Most Polished, and
[5]Robots Are People Too won Most Fun. [6]Z-Type won the Community Choice
category and [7]Marble Run won Best Web-iness and Best Overall."

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0554228/Mozilla-Announces-Game-On-Competition-Winners?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://mozillalabs.com/gaming/2011/02/03/game-on-winners/
1. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/133/far-7
2. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/169/sketchout
3. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/72/favimon
4. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/148/websnooker
5. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/149/robots-are-people-too
6. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/126/z-type
7. https://gaming.mozillalabs.com/games/130/marble-run

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| UK File-Sharing Lawyers ACS:Law Shut Up Shop Ahead of Court
| from the oh-your-honor-don't-you-know-a-joke? dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday February 05, @04:58 (Piracy)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0048231/UK-File-Sharing-Lawyers-ACSLaw-Shut-Up-Shop-Ahead-of-Court?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

nk497 writes "Controversial legal firm [0]ACS Law and its sole
file-sharing client Media CAT have [1]shut down their businesses, days
before a ruling is due in a case they brought to the UK Patent Court. ACS
Law is infamous for sending out letters to alleged illegal file sharers,
demanding payment and threatening law suits. Now that ACS has a case
before a judge, it's trying to drop the cases, and has now completely
closed its doors. The defendants' lawyers are trying to keep the case
going, in order to be able to claim back costs." That sounds right in
line with other recent ACS happenings, from [2]getting upbraided by a
judge to [3]being blacklisted by an ISP, and even [4]putting the brakes
on the file-sharing cases themselves.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0048231/UK-File-Sharing-Lawyers-ACSLaw-Shut-Up-Shop-Ahead-of-Court?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACS_Law
1. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/365029/file-sharing-lawyers-acs-law-shuts-down
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/10/0229235/UK-Copyright-Blackmailers-Rebuked-By-Court
3. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/09/28/2351222/British-ISP-Sky-Broadband-Cuts-Off-ACSLaw
4. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/25/161243/ACS-Law-Withdraws-Pursuing-Illegal-File-Sharers?from=rss

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Viacom Closes MTV Games
| from the fads-only-take-you-so-far dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @06:54 (Businesses)
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0558203/Viacom-Closes-MTV-Games?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

eldavojohn writes "The Escapist is reporting that [0]the MTV Games
division of Viacom is being closed. After [1]selling off Harmonix for an
alleged [2]equivalent of a single Red Lobster Gift Card, it turns out
that Viacom's division known as MTV Games has little left on its plate.
There's [3]some bickering over missed performance-based payments, and MTV
Games failed to secure a publishing deal for all the Rock Band games in
Europe �� which appeared to be the final nail in the coffin for them."

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0558203/Viacom-Closes-MTV-Games?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107531-MTV-Games-Closes-Its-Doors
1. http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/11/12/0455231/Viacom-To-Sell-emRock-Bandem-Creator-Harmonix
2. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106620-Report-Viacom-Sold-Harmonix-for-50
3. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42870/MTV-Games-closed

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Sarah Palin Seeks To Trademark Her Name
| from the bob-dole-doesn't-trademark-his-name dept.
| posted by timothy on Saturday February 05, @08:13 (United States)
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0013253/Sarah-Palin-Seeks-To-Trademark-Her-Name?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that former Alaska governor and
2008 Republican vice presidential candidate [0]Sarah Palin has filed
paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office in November to
trademark her name. On her initial application, Palin listed usage of the
trademark for a website featuring information about political issues; and
educational and entertainment services, including motivational speaking
in the fields of politics, culture, business and values. Legal experts
say [1]it is relatively unusual for politicians to formally trademark
their names because they are generally not associated with commercially
valuable products or services and that trademarking a name is more common
for celebrities in the fields of entertainment, fashion or sports. 'Sarah
is somebody who is now out of government and pursuing other activities,
in particular, speaking engagements ... and it looks like she's looking
to protect her name with those activities,' says attorney Claudia Ray."

Discuss this story at:
https://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/0013253/Sarah-Palin-Seeks-To-Trademark-Her-Name?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-palin-trademark,0,5454977.story
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-palin-trademark-idUSTRE7135WI20110204?pageNumber=1

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Sputnik Moment Or No, Science Fairs Are Lagging
| from the joe-vs-the-papier-mache-volcano dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @09:32 (Education)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/134233/Sputnik-Moment-Or-No-Science-Fairs-Are-Lagging?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "The NY Times is running a story about the
response from some high school science teachers to Obama's State of the
Union address. It's nice that he wants to celebrate science fair winners,
they say, but his obsession with standardized math and reading test
scores means they have [0]no time to teach students the fundamentals of
how to do science. 'I have so many state standards I have to teach
concept-wise, it takes time away from what I find most valuable, which is
to have them inquire about the world,' said one teacher."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/134233/Sputnik-Moment-Or-No-Science-Fairs-Are-Lagging?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11036/1123356-84.stm

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| ACLU's Mobile Privacy Developer Challenge
| from the apps-that-delete-facebook-apps dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @10:43 (Privacy)
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1315236/ACLUs-Mobile-Privacy-Developer-Challenge?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "Privacy groups [0]announced a mobile privacy
developer challenge yesterday. The competition, [1]Develop for Privacy,
challenges mobile app developers to create tools that help ordinary
mobile device users understand and protect their privacy. It's sponsored
by the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Washington, and the Tor
Project, with the assistance of the Ontario Information and Privacy
Commissioner's Office. Submission deadline is May 31, 2011. The winner
will be announced in August 2011 at an event in Las Vegas, coinciding
with the DEFCON and Black Hat security conferences."

Discuss this story at:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1315236/ACLUs-Mobile-Privacy-Developer-Challenge?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/020511-mobile-developers-challenged-to-boost.html
1. http://www.develop4privacy.org/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Nearly 100,000 P2P Users Sued In the Past Year
| from the cholesterol-for-the-courts dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @11:58 (The Courts)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/166217/Nearly-100000-P2P-Users-Sued-In-the-Past-Year?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader writes "The avalanche of copyright infringement
lawsuits in the United States, mainly against BitTorrent users, are about
to hit a dubious milestone. In total [0]99,924 defendants have been sued
in the last 12 months, and new cases are being filed at a rapid rate.
Adult companies in particular have embraced the profitable pay-up-or-else
scheme where tens of millions of dollars are at stake." Though, as other
readers point out, both [1]judges and [2]cable companies are getting
tired of the endless subpoenas in P2P porn cases.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/166217/Nearly-100000-P2P-Users-Sued-In-the-Past-Year?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://torrentfreak.com/100000-p2p-users-sued-in-us-mass-lawsuits-110130/
1. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/lawyers-cant-handle-opposition-give-up-on-p2p-porn-lawsuit.ars
2. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/big-cable-getting-fed-up-with-endless-p2p-porn-subpoenas.ars

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hackers Penetrate Nasdaq Computer Networks
| from the turn-on-your-firewall-gentlemen dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @13:14 (Crime)
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1723227/Hackers-Penetrate-Nasdaq-Computer-Networks?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PatPending tips a Wall Street Journal report claiming that hackers have
repeatedly [0]broken into the computer networks of the company running
the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. "The exchange's trading platform��the part of
the system that executes trades��wasn't compromised, these people said.
However, it couldn't be determined which other parts of Nasdaq's computer
network were accessed. Investigators are considering a range of possible
motives, including unlawful financial gain, theft of trade secrets and a
national-security threat designed to damage the exchange. The Nasdaq
situation has set off alarms within the government because of the
exchange's critical role, which officials put right up with power
companies and air-traffic-control operations, all part of the nation's
basic infrastructure."

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1723227/Hackers-Penetrate-Nasdaq-Computer-Networks?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704709304576124502351634690.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Is Setting Up an Offshore IT Help Desk Ethical?
| from the food-on-the-table dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @14:30 (The Almighty Buck)
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1837242/Is-Setting-Up-an-Offshore-IT-Help-Desk-Ethical?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

theodp writes "Except for a few odd jobs,' [0]wrote an advice seeker to
The Ethicist (NYT, reg. may be required), 'I had been out of work for
nine months when I was offered a job setting up an [IT] offshore help
desk. Would it be ethical to accept the offer?' Randy Cohen, who pens The
Ethicist column for the Times, not only advised the job seeker that it
was indeed okay to help co-workers lose their jobs, but also seemed to
suggest that it would be unethical for him not to offshore the jobs,
saying: 'Some people feel we have a greater ethical duty to those closest
to us �� our neighbors �� but in an era of global trade and travel, that is
a recipe for tribalism and its attendant ills.' The job seeker, who noted
his father's auto-industry job was outsourced, chose to ignore Cohen's
ethics advice �� as well as his own wife's �� and declined the job out of
principle. He continues to seek work. Comments?"

Discuss this story at:
https://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/1837242/Is-Setting-Up-an-Offshore-IT-Help-Desk-Ethical?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06FOB-Ethicist-t.html?ref=theethicist

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Pentagon Sets Tone For Future Space Exploration
| from the let's-bomb-the-moon-again dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @15:48 (NASA)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/208206/Pentagon-Sets-Tone-For-Future-Space-Exploration?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

coondoggie writes "It obviously leans heavily on the military's concerns
for outer space exploration, but the [0]National Security Space Strategy
(PDF) released yesterday by the Department of Defense [1]outlines
concerns like protection from space junk and system security that all
space travelers in theory would want addressed. The NSSS document
emphasizes the Obama administration's desire to protect US space assets
and to further commercialize space but also to ensure that the US and
international partners have unfettered access to outer space."

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/208206/Pentagon-Sets-Tone-For-Future-Space-Exploration?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2011/0111_nsss/docs/NationalSecuritySpaceStrategyUnclassifiedSummary_Jan2011.pdf
1. http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/pentagon-sets-tone-future-outer-space-explora

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| US Gov't Pushing News Through China's Great Firewall
| from the we-shouldn't-suffer-through-our-media-alone dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @17:05 (Censorship)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/2036208/US-Govt-Pushing-News-Through-Chinas-Great-Firewall?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

eldavojohn writes "The US government's [0]Broadcasting Board of Governors
has revealed in a completed FOIA request the development, testing and
planned [1]use of Feed Over E-mail (FOE) to push news through China's
firewall. This [2]FOIA request (PDF) indicates that the US government is
interested in making sure Chinese people receive up-to-date news, and it
wants to expand the arsenal of anti-censorship tools (for news at least).
The [3]FOE project is GPLv3 and [4]maintained by Sho Ho of BBG."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/2036208/US-Govt-Pushing-News-Through-Chinas-Great-Firewall?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_Board_of_Governors
1. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/05/government-slips-china-internet-censors-new-technology/
2. http://www.governmentattic.org/4docs/BBG-FOE-test_2010.pdf
3. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/25557/
4. http://code.google.com/p/foe-project/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bill Gates Says Anti-Vaccine Effort Kills Children
| from the won't-somebody-think-of-the-oh-wait dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 05, @18:31 (Medicine)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/2146223/Bill-Gates-Says-Anti-Vaccine-Effort-Kills-Children?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hugh Pickens writes writes "CNN has an interesting interview with Bill
Gates who says that unbelievable progress is being made in both inventing
new vaccines and making sure they get out to all the children who need
them. The improvements could cut the number of children who die every
year from about 9 million to half that. But [0]Gates has harsh words for
those who engage in anti-vaccine efforts, especially Dr. Andrew
Wakefield, who falsified data to 'prove' a fraudulent link between
vaccines and autism. 'It's an absolute lie that has killed thousands of
kids,' says Gates. 'Because the mothers who heard that lie, many of them
didn't have their kids take either pertussis or measles vaccine, and
their children are dead today.'"

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/05/2146223/Bill-Gates-Says-Anti-Vaccine-Effort-Kills-Children?from=newsletter#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/03/gupta.gates.vaccines.world.health/index.html?hpt=C2

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