False Sense Of Security

FDA: ‘Gluten-free’ foods now must legally have less than .002 percent gluten

"The FDA began examining potential regulations more than six years ago when Congress passed the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, requiring the FDA to develop guidelines for gluten-free labels. The agency proposed gluten-free regulations in 2007 but did not finalize them. The delay came from scientific assessments, interaction with the celiac community and a safety assessment to validate 20 parts per million as a safe cut-off level, Taylor said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFDA: ‘Gluten-free’ foods now must legally have less than .002 percent gluten

When Cops Don’t Need a Warrant To Crash Through Your Door

"We know we're secure in our 'persons, houses, papers, and effects' unless the cops demonstrate probable cause to a judge and get a warrant. Except... Except when they don't. The fact of the matter is that police have a lot of leeway to bust your door down and take a look around if they fear that waiting for a warrant could lead to loss of evidence or danger to people. Or lead to something, anyway. That end run around the Fourth Amendment is called 'exigent circumstances,' and nobody really seems to be sure where it starts and stops. Except for the police. They know it when they see it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhen Cops Don’t Need a Warrant To Crash Through Your Door

Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

"Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya. Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret. Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings. The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingExclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

Controversial study finds that big and famous hospitals aren’t always the best for surgery

"The group used two measures: the percentage of Medicare patients who died in the hospital during or after their surgery, and the percentage who stayed in the hospital longer than expected based on standards of care for their condition. Both are indicators of complications and overall quality of care, said Dr John Santa, medical director of Consumer Reports Health. Many nationally renowned hospitals earned only mediocre ratings. The Cleveland Clinic, some Mayo Clinic hospitals in Minnesota, and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore rated no better than midway between 'better' and 'worse', worse than many small hospitals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingControversial study finds that big and famous hospitals aren’t always the best for surgery

Japanese university to retract Novartis study based on fabricated data

"A Japanese university is to retract a study that touted the effectiveness of a blood pressure drug made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis because it was based on fabricated data. The move was the latest chapter in a growing scandal over allegations that bogus data were used in a string of Japanese university studies for the drug Valsartan which exaggerated its effectiveness in preventing strokes and angina. On Wednesday, Tokyo's Jikei University School of Medicine said it would retract research that appeared in respected medical journal The Lancet six years ago." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJapanese university to retract Novartis study based on fabricated data

Think your password is secure from the NSA? Try this.

"Seven minutes. That’s how long it would take to crack one of the passwords I had been using for more than ten years, according to the crypto experts at Silent Circle. I’ve been using eight or ten different passwords for several years, some of them going back to my days as an intelligence officer. I had always thought they were secure– letters and numbers that I’ve been typing so long, they’re committed to muscle memory. But a few months ago when I signed up for my Silent Circle account, I was surprised to see the results when I tested one of my passwords against their crypto analysis tool. You can try it for yourself here." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThink your password is secure from the NSA? Try this.

Report: TSA employee misconduct up 26% in 3 years

"The Transportation Security Administration is probably not going to top anyone's list of Favorite Federal Government Agencies. And the stories of its failures spread faster than a speeding jetliner: TSA officers stealing money from luggage, taking bribes from drug dealers, sleeping on the job. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that a new Government Accountability Office report, citing a 26% increase in misconduct among TSA employees between 2010 and 2012, is striking a nerve with some travelers who've had to endure the shoeless, beltless shuffle on the trip through security." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReport: TSA employee misconduct up 26% in 3 years

Disturbing Video Shows Court Officer Sexually Assaulting, Then Arresting Mother, Judge Does Nothing

"The initial events took place in 2011, when Monica Contreras was led from the court into a waiting room for a supposed, though unexplained, drug search. She then says a court marshal named Ron Fox touched her and ordered her to lift up her shirt. When she fled back into the courtroom and complained to the hearing master, asking at least for a female marshal, Fox had her arrested for 'making false accusations against a police officer.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDisturbing Video Shows Court Officer Sexually Assaulting, Then Arresting Mother, Judge Does Nothing

‘Hacker heroin frame plot’ foiled by security blogger

"A respected US-based internet security expert says he has foiled an attempt to frame him as a heroin dealer. Brian Krebs says the administrator of a Russian cybercrime forum hatched a plan to order heroin to his home, then tipped off the police, making it look as if the call had come from a neighbour's house. In March he was visited by a heavily armed police unit tricked into responding to a 911 call that had been made to look as if it originated from his home. Mr Krebs says he opened the front door to find a squad of policemen pointing a battery of guns at him. After being hand-cuffed and questioned, he managed to persuade the police they had been hoaxed." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Hacker heroin frame plot’ foiled by security blogger