DoctorSVD - Slashdot User

Submission + - FDA Considering Allowing Fake Chocolate

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday June 25, 2007 @04:55PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "First, they replaced our cane sugar with icky, fattening high-fructose corn syrup. Now, the "great American chocolate bar" may soon be made of fake fillers so big candy companies can shave more profit off the cocoa bean.

This New York Times Op-Ed (registration maybe required) describes how "Industrial confectioners have petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to be able to replace cocoa butter with cheaper fats and still call the resulting product 'chocolate.' The reason: the substitution would allow them to use fewer beans and to sell off the butter for cosmetics and such."

The issue is not whether it would be legal for them to make it this way... this is America — they can do what they want. The issue is whether it would be legal for them to package the fake chocolate AS chocolate (and not something like "diluted chocolate substitute — contains 10% actual chocolate") so that consumers wouldn't know the difference (before tasting it). Kids would ultimately be eating this stuff. Could Corporate America really go so far just to squeeze more out of a buck?"

Submission + - Anheuser Busch has USDA changing 'Organic' (organicconsumers.org)

Submitted by

paulevans

on Monday June 25, 2007 @04:52PM

paulevans writes: "Anheuser Busch, Wal-Mart and other for-profit corporations have seeked and are getting a definition change on '95% Organic'. Such a change would allow for Anheuser Busch to "sell its 'Organic Wild Hops Beer' without using any organic hops at all".

Other changes would allow "sausages, brats, and breakfast links labeled as "USDA Organic" '..' to contain intestines from factory farmed animals raised on chemically grown feed, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics."

It is amazing how powerful the almighty dollar really is."

Submission + - Backdoor in Quicken?

Submitted by

sehlat

on Monday June 25, 2007 @04:39PM

sehlat writes: "Robert X. Cringley's blog has an entry entitled Quicken's secret backdoor? According to the article, Elcomsoft claims to have discovered and cracked a backdoor built into Quicken 2003 through 2007. The announcement is here."

Submission + - H1-B Video Angers Lawmakers (wired.com)

Submitted by PHPNerd on Monday June 25, 2007 @04:25PM

PHPNerd writes: When an attorney at a legal ceremony last month explained how to use the H1-B visa program to hire foreign high tech workers instead of Americans, it got YouTubed, quite naturally. But when Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took a peek, it really went viral. Frightening for sure.

New York Sues Dell for Poor Customer Service 295

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @04:17PM from the reaping-what-you-sell dept.

Phanatic1a writes "New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is suing Dell, alleging bait and switch financing tactics, false advertising, and 'numerous other deceptive business practices relating to their technical support services, promotional financing, rebate offers, and billing and collection activity.' According to Cuomo himself, 'At Dell, customer service means no service at all.'"

Submission + - Open Sourced Icons?

Submitted by Xailor on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @03:48PM

Xailor writes: Can one assume that graphical icons that accompany free/open software applications are also thus free/open according to their license? Is it an acceptable practice to `share' icons from one application with another? For instance, a free web site employs icons from OSS projects as its look and feel.

Is this violating the nature of OSS if those icons are available for download to the public and for use elsewhere as long as those icons (a small fraction of a software project) comply with the appropriate licensing agreements? Can an icon be part of a `library' in an LGPL case?

Submission + - Modern society will kill you if it can

Submitted by

athloi

on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @03:38PM

athloi writes: "A nagging sense of being unfairly treated at work or at home can raise a person's risk of heart attack, British researchers report."

Submission + - Full body security scans at Amsterdam airport

Submitted by Anonymous coward on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @03:27PM

Anonymous coward writes: Sciphol airport in Amsterdam in the Netherlands has started using full body security scanners for screening passengers. The scanners use radio waves that penetrate clothing and reflect off the person's skin, which allows the scanner to reconstruct a 3-D image in which concealed objects can be detected. By using radio waves instead of ionizing X-rays, the machine is allegedly quite safe. The measures used to ensure passenger privacy are also interesting: The person's face is made unrecognizable in the images and the security personnel analyzing them are in a separate closed room and never see the passenger in person.

Submission + - New Security Survival Guide: Defending with Layers

Submitted by lizzyben on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @03:17PM

lizzyben writes: In this special security report, Baseline magazine takes a detailed look at an emerging class of security tools and the pitfalls that can ensue when they are not properly configured, managed or integrated with existing systems.

From the story: "Organizations can get caught in a cycle of adding layers of technology every time a new class of security products emerges, says John Pescatore, a vice president and research fellow at Gartner in Stamford, Conn. "If you keep spending on more and more layers, you start eating up more and more of the I.T. budget, leaving less money for meeting new business demands and applications," he warns.

26 Common Climate Myths Debunked 998

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @02:53PM from the poking-holes-in-the-holes dept.

holy_calamity writes to mention that New Scientist is revealing the truth behind the '26 most common climate myths' used to muddy the waters in this ongoing heated debate. "Our planet's climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors. Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences."

40M Vista Licenses in 100 Days 579

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @11:18AM from the allright-who-did-it dept.

Gary writes "In the first 100 days since its launch in Jan 30 Windows Vista has sold an astounding 40 million licenses. Bill Gates gives the credit to accelerating consumer shift to digital lifestyles which has made it the fastest selling operating system in history. Surprisingly the more expensive premium editions accounted for 78 percent of Vista sales. With around 400,000 licenses a day new Vista users will take 8 weeks to beat Mac users, 4 days to exceed Mac sales and 3 days to exceed Linux desktop users."

Malware Hijacks Windows Update 209

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @10:39AM from the you-trust-me-right-right-right dept.

clickclickdrone writes "The BBC are reporting a new piece of malware is in the wild that can hijack Windows Update's functionality and bypass firewalls allowing it to install malicious code on users PCs. The new code was discovered by Frank Boldewin in an email. The attack utilizes the BITS system."

Treadmill Workstation 264

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 16, 2007 @10:01AM from the maybe-i-need-this dept.

coondoggie writes "Did you know you could lose as much as 66 pounds by sweating on your PC? Well using the Mayo Clinic's vertical workstation, that just might be the weight loss wave of the future. The vertical workstation is basically a desk mounted over a treadmill that lets office workers to kill two birds with one stone — send emails, check invoices and write reports and burn calories at the same time, say Professors James Levine and Jennifer Miller of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who came up with the machine/desk. There are other things you can try as well. For example, the FPGamerunner, a USB full-size treadmill that works with any first-person shooter (FPS) game, has you covered. Walking on the treadmill moves your character through the game. Handlebars and buttons at the front of the $1,299 treadmill control your direction and fire your weapons." This seems like a lot better idea than me trying to collect Pokemon on an elliptical trainer which will no doubt one day lead to a very embarrassing obituary.

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