It’s nice to see a major government agency taking great strides to keep up with current public expectations.
Today the FDA announced earlier today they have launched the first phase of its Transparency Initiative which will “explain agency operations, how it makes decisions, and the drug approval process.”
The FDA, one of the few agencies who have already fulfilled President Obama’s mandate for more openness in government agencies, is really pulling back the curtain for everyone to see how the machine works. This is wonderful project, and exactly how the rest of the government agencies should work.
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
* California shut down their recycling centers to save money. Now if Hollywood would quit recycling garbage, we’ll all be all set! [OAKLAND TRIBUNE and SACRAMENTO BEE]
* Oh no! The super rich who have never had to work for a living are losing money in this recession too! They’re having to take trips on friends’ yachts because they no longer have their own private yacht anymore! They’re having to purchase apartments for their mistresses as opposed to getting them a new home! The shame! The horror! To quote officer John McClaine (Bruce Willis) on the matter… “WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!” [SPIEGEL]
* US car manufacturers still can’t figure out why nobody is buying any of their cars. Captain Obvious just flew in would and would like to point out there are now “246 milion licensed cars for 209 million licensed drivers”. Ah hah! That sounds like a clue! [GUARDIAN.UK]
* It’s not looking good long term for the United States. The Economist magazine just issued a big red honkin’ “Bubble” warning on government spending saying… “the prices of many assets are being held up by unsustainable fiscal and monetary stimulus. Something has to give.” These guys know money like Santa knows cookies, so if they say somethin’ bad is coming, you better go ahead and plan for it. [THE ECONOMIST]
* Oh, and unemployment is still at 10%. And it’s predicted to rise to 11% or more this year. Conveniently, the government doesn’t count people whose unemployment checks have run out as being unemployed since they are no longer receiving any unemployment checks after a year. Isn’t that kind of like saying someone no longer counts as being overweight after they’ve been overweight for over a year? I think the official unemployment level of 10% may be just a tad on the low side. [YAHOO]
* And to put the cherry on top, PBS did a special on the debt and how bad things are seeming. You know it’s bad when PBS puts a fork in you. [PBS and PBS FRONTLINE]
* China was down to their last tiger. Their last of these terrifying yet majestic of the great beasts in their whole entire country. And what did they do? Did they keep him safe by moving him away to another country or putting him in a giant secure habitat? Nah… they let a villager eat him. Tiger sandwiches anyone? [TELEGRAPH.CO.UK]
* And finally, something completely different. Peter Pan seems to be a home wrecker! At least in this high school play he was! And later, you can see some of the kids were also hitting the pixie dust a little hard that night.
It looks like Lexar is giving away a free tool to recover deleted files on your digital camera’s memory card.
According to the Lexar Image Rescue 3 website, the application… “recovers photo, video, and audio files from any brand or type of memory card, using any card reader”
That’s a pretty good tool to have in case of emergencies.
There’s a version for both the Mac and PC, and the site requires an email address before letting you proceed with the download.
U.S. Marshals and the FDA late yesterday seized and shut down the Won Feng Trading Company for having food “…under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth.”
If you do business with the Won Feng Trading Company, you should get ready to toss a lot of things in the dumpster.
“FDA investigators found evidence of an active and widespread rodent infestation in the building, including live and dead rodents, rodent hair, rodent nesting material, evidence of rodent-gnawed food, and rodent urine. The FDA investigators also observed insect filth and live birds in the building, and found that the building had defects that could allow pests to enter food storage areas.”
Yuck.
The Won Feng Trading Company sells their items as bulk restaurant foods, so some of their items may already be in the mainstream food supply. 44-pound bags of rice, fresh produce and frozen foods are items they sell, and were also the same items that were seized.
Every so often I hear some loon in the wilderness cry out for the FDA to be abolished. If the FDA ever does get cut, we’re in for some big problems. Because companies like this are out there. Companies that willfully disregard basic safety procedures just to save money. And even worse, companies that will sell these contaminated items, knowing full well what condition they are in, to the general public without shame.
If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now. The FDA rocks.
File this number under “hope you never need to call.”
In case someone swallows a battery, call…
(202) 625-3333
This is the 24-hour National Battery Ingestion Hotline.
I’m totally serious.
This phone number is slowly going mainstream and is being printed and included with certain sets of battery packs and gift sets that include batteries. You may also find this number in the fine print of newer electronics instructions and setup guides.
I called the number a few minutes ago and the operator was very professional. They are in Washington DC but will answer calls from anywhere and do everything they can to help in case of accidental battery ingestion. Collect calls are also accepted.
Of course, you should also call 911 or your local emergency services in case someone very young swallows a battery. And once a battery has been swallowed, you need to get help fast. According to poison.org… “batteries lodged in the esophagus can cause severe burns in just 2 hours! Battery removal is done with an endoscope; surgery is rarely, if ever, indicated.”
Maybe it’s a little too cautious. But having this number in my address book is just good peace of mind.
Back in December, I posted an article about how Dragon Dictation, made by Nuance Communications for the iPhone, seemed to have a pretty serious privacy problem.
I just got around to reviewing their updated application today, and found that there is now an option NOT have every contact and name in your address book updated to their servers.
That’s a great improvement on respecting the customer’s privacy! Great job Nuance!
On their website, they say that “when you install the application, you will be presented with a screen asking you if it is OK to add your names to the vocabulary, after accepting the EULA… If you click ’NO’, Dragon will not read your address book and will not upload any names to the server. When you dictate, Dragon may have a harder time understanding phrases or sentences that contain names and spelling of names. And Dragon will not upload names in the future unless you change the settings.”
Perfect! That’s exactly what I wanted!
The “yes” part of the agreement is still what it was before…
“If you click ’YES’, ragon will read only the names from your contact list, not email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, or other personal information. Dragon will upload these names to the server, where they will be associated with the unique, anonymous 40-character device ID (UDID) from your iPhone. Whenever you dictate, Dragon will use these names to improve accuracy and spelling when you refer to friends, colleagues, etc. in your dictations. When you use Dragon, it will periodically synchronize names in your contact list to the server unless you change the Settings.”
I’m now going to try the application this weekend and see if it really does what it says it can do.
Some Harry London Chocolate Pecan Caramel Stars are getting pulled today because “they have not been labeled to include Wheat, FD&C colors Yellow #5, Red # 40 and Blue #1 as an ingredient(s).”
The specific item getting pulled is the Harry London Chocolate Pecan Caramel Stars with a lot code of 9238-1.
Even though the package had a statement that “product was manufactured on equipment shared with peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, and wheat, Harry London is undertaking this voluntary recall out of an abundance of caution.”
Sounds like Harry London’s legal department paid the quality control guys a little visit.
No other Harry London products are affected by this recall.
