Category Archives: News

FDA and the US Marshals seize and shut down The Won Feng Trading Company

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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.

Here’s the link to the FDA / US Marshals article.

National Emergency Battery Ingestion Phone Number

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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.

FBI’s Los Angeles Cybersquad

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OK… I’m really, really hoping this is a fake screengrab.

It looks like Fox News interviewed Jason Smolanoff, a member of the Los Angeles FBI Cybersquad.

This is the screengrab that was posted online…

LAs FBI Cybersquad

LA's FBI Cybersquad

Tell me that’s not Windows XP in the background.

Tell me that’s not Windows XP using the Welcome screen as the login security.

Tell me that’s not a 10 year old “Matrix” green-rain screensaver running on that big beautiful monitor.

Tell me that’s not a two inch speaker hiding behind that big beautiful monitor.

Tell me that’s not a ps/2 keyboard and a “ball” mouse.

Come on FBI! I’ve got more modern tech in my garage sale pile! Spend some money! Put some FBI-worthy security and screensavers in place! Buy your Cybersquad agents some tech that was at least manufactured in 2008!!

My sincere sympathies, agent Smolanoff.

Criminals posing as FDA agents warning

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OK, this really sounds like common sense, but as my Aunt Petunia used to say, “Common Sense Ain’t So Common!”

If someone calls you on the phone and says they’re with the FDA and that you need to send money to the Dominican Republic, the answer should be something along the lines of “hell” and “no”.

Apparently there are some ballsy criminals that are posing as FDA special agents as part of an “international extortion scam.”

What happens is “…the criminals call the victims — who in most cases previously purchased drugs over the Internet or via “telepharmacies” — and identify themselves as FDA special agents or other law enforcement officials. The criminals inform the victims that purchasing drugs over the Internet or the telephone is illegal, and that law enforcement action will be pursued unless a fine or fee ranging from $100 to $250,000 is paid…. The criminals always request the money be sent by wire transfer to a designated location, usually in the Dominican Republic. If victims refuse to send money, they are often threatened with a search of their property, arrest, deportation, physical harm, and or incarceration.”

Unreal.

And the really sad thing is that this scam works!

These poozers are also pretending to be with the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Customs Service, and some kind of U.S. or Dominican prosecutors and judges.

If you get a call like this…. first of all, take a moment and reflect on why  you are buying meds off the internet. And quit that foolishness.

Second, tell the caller you need a minute to get the money together and you need their number to call them back in 10 minutes. Then take that number and call the local police department (or FBI or even the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations at (800) 521-5783) to report the crime.

Here’s the link to the FDA warning article.

FDA and DOJ tag team Spectranetics Corporation

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The following is a textbook example of why you don’t want to cross the FDA. Not only are they the most underrated heavyweights around, they’re also best buddies with The Justice Department. And together, they can bring the pain. Big time.

Spectranetics Corporation, a Colorado Springs medical device manufacturer, allegedly “…illegally imported unapproved medical devices and provided them to physicians for use in patients, conducted a clinical study in a manner that failed to comply with federal regulations and promoted certain products for procedures for which the company had not received Food and Drug Administration approval or clearance.”

It apparently wasn’t small level stuff like gauze or bandages that were illegally brought over, either.

“The company manufactures, distributes and sells certain medical lasers and peripheral devices for those lasers, such as lead wires that guide the lasers through vascular tissue and catheters that carry and contain the lasers inside the veins, including, specifically, the CVX-300 Medical Laser and the CliRpath Turbo Laser Catheter, the TURBO Elite Laser Ablation Catheter, and the TURBO-Booster Laser Guide Catheter.”

Whoops!

So now after a quick tag-team match with the DOJ and FDA, Spectranetics now “…has agreed to pay the United States $4.9 million in civil damages plus a $100,000 forfeiture to resolve claims against the company.”

There were no criminal charges filed against Spectranetics, even though they “caused false claims to be submitted to the Medicare Program during portions of the time period from 2003 to 2008.”

And as part of the no criminal charges deal, “Spectranetics has accepted responsibility for its conduct, has instituted remedial measures to prevent this conduct in the future, and will continue to cooperate in the ongoing criminal investigation.”

Here’s the link to the DOJ article.

AT&T says “you don’t have enough towers”

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This was too good not to immediately post this morning.

According to an article on the consumerist, AT&T is no longer selling iPhones in New York City. You know… the New York City? One of the greatest cities in the United States?

When the Consumerist went online with AT&T customer service to find out why, they were told by a rep named Daphne… “I am happy to be helping you today. Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone. You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.”

AT&T is not even trying anymore. They actually have the unmitigated balls to tell a customer that it’s their fault there aren’t enough towers in their city. Instead of getting off their duff and fixing their network, they’re restricting sales to new, paying customers… customers who want to buy their product… because their busted-ass network is past their capacity to manage.

“You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.”

I think AT&Ts solution to the problem will be to fire Daphne, then issue a press release to say “we’re striving to be the best and will continue to do everything we can to be the best because we are the best at talking about what’s the best… blah blah blah.”

AT&T’s pinhead managers apparently decided not to let anyone else into their network because they’re past the maximum threshold their ancient system can handle, so they’re done with that city. And by proxy, so is the iPhone.

Hey Apple / Steve Jobs. You might want to review your contract with these idiots to see if there’s something in there you can hammer them with. Because, quite frankly, if you don’t do something about this, every other cellular carrier is going to notice you don’t mind when someone walks all over you and smacks you around a bit. And think of it this way, too… do you think Microsoft (under Gates or Ballmer) would stand for a fraction of this treatment from their partners? Ask yourself, What Would Microsoft Do if this was happening to them?

Time to unleash the hounds and get some respect back.

Tactical errors in the news : part two

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Another article on Fox News talks about the recent disappearance of Susan Powell, 28, who “was last seen on Dec. 7, when her husband says he left their suburban home in West Valley City at about 12:30 a.m. to take their two boys, ages 2 and 4, camping in freezing conditions.”

Going camping in below freezing weather with two boys under 5 years old? According to the Weather Channel history for Salt Lake City, Utah, the temperature Sunday the 7th was 25 degrees as the high (-3.9 degrees Celsius) and 17 degrees as the low (-8.3 degrees Celsius). And at 12:30 a.m., right after midnight, the temperature was probably close to that 17 degree (-8.3 degree Celsius) range.

Catfish. I’m definitely smelling something along the lines of catfish around here.

The story about the missing Salt Lake City, Utah woman and the way things like this usually end up are not what I’m looking at. I’m looking at another glaring tactical error. Two, in fact.

Susan Powell’s husband, Joshua Powell, decided he needed to bust out in a rental car just under 48 hours after his wife disappeared. He drove hundreds of miles in a rental vehicle he got for a 24 hour period to head… who knows where.

Error #1 : There was no GPS in the rental vehicle. In this day and age, Joshua Powell got a rental vehicle from one of the last companies to implement GPS devices in their rental fleet. He could have driven to Canada or Mexico and the company would’ve never known what happened to their vehicle. What rental company doesn’t have a GPS in their rental vehicles?

Error #2 :The police had him pegged as a person of interest, and even had his minivan in their CSI room, but didn’t notice he was gone from the city for 48 hours? No drive by his home? No knock-knock on his door for a sweet Andy Griffith style “hey, hope you’re doing OK” checkup? No judicial order not to leave the city limits?

Since that little trip to nowhere, “His minivan has since been returned to him by police and he has not been named a suspect in his wife Susan’s disappearance.”

I still smell catfish.

It would be nice if when someone is named as a “person of interest” in any criminal proceeding, there’s an automatic judicial order for them not to leave the city limits for 72 hours without notifying the detective and/or police department doing the investigating. How hard would this be to make into a law on a state by state basis?

And hopefully the police are checking wireless phone records, ATM receipts, and gas stations along the freeways. But that’s a very tiny needle in a very big haystack at this point.

Here’s the link to the Fox News article on Susan Powell’s disappearance (iPhone format)

Tactical errors in the news : part one

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A recent article in Fox News says the attorney for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Ft. Hood shooter, is complaining his client is having his rights violated.

Apparently, Hasan’s attorney, John P. Galligan, is having a problem with “police stopp[ing] a phone conversation between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and one of his brothers Friday because it was not in English.”

OK. I’m not worried about the potential civil violations that may or may not have happened here. I’m looking at a serious tactical error that just happened.

Why did the military police keep Hasan from talking to whoever he wanted to?

It shouldn’t have mattered at all if he was speaking in Arabic, German, Dutch, or Pig Latin. The military police should have had his entire cell wired as soon as he arrived. The military police should have had a live tap on every phone call he made as well as a digitally recorded copy. And keep one military police officer present in the room during any and all conversations.

After all the conversations Hasan makes (except the conversations with his attorney), get a translator to go back and review what he said on the recordings! And since he made any and all comments in front of a military police officer that was present in the room at the time, it should be fair game for everything he said to be admissible in a court of law.

Who knows what they missed by telling him to shut up.

Here’s the link to the Fox News article (iPhone format).

Verizon : ready for the iphone!

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Verizon says they’re ready for the iPhone, and I gotta tell you, it can’t come soon enough!

In an article on NeoWin, “According to BusinessWeek, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer, Anthony Melone, said that in the event that AT&T’s exclusivity deal is broken, Verizon is ready for the iPhone. Melone confirms that Verizon has been beefing up its network to prepare for the possibility of adding the world’s most popular smartphone to their lineup. “We have put things in place already… We are prepared to support that traffic.” Melone feels that Verizon’s network and equipment would do a much better job of handling the heavy traffic load produced by the iPhone, stating, “Absolutely, I think we could handle it.””

YES!!!

In addition, Verizon is serious about keeping iPhone users happy. They’re deploying 100 trucks for their technicians to… “literally drive on roads throughout the country testing the service of their own devices as well as devices of their rivals… If techies find an area that has weak service, the company can target more investment to improve the quality of the phone call or the data download.”

As soon as the day comes, I’m bailing on AT&T. I’m almost free of their two years of crap service, and it can’t come soon enough!! Since AT&T hasn’t bothered to make any serious upgrades to their rickety network for the iPhone until late this year, the best way I can think of to say “thanks” for two years of horrible service is with my pocketbook. As soon as my contract is up with AT&T, I’m going to stay month to month until the Verizon deal is announced. Then I’m jumping to Verizon as soon as I can.

I bet we will get to watch AT&T’s bottom line sink like a brick in concrete shoes next year when all the iPhone users finally get a chance to abandon the AT&T ship. And I also predict we will get to watch some very long-overdue AT&T executive heads roll soon after.

Here’s the link to the NeoWin article.

And a link to the Business Week article.

Special Forces dogs and k9 Storm Solutions

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I was reading the last issue* of Fortune Small Business when I saw this article on page 58.

The magazine did a write-up about how well a company called K9 Storm Solutions is doing, as well as highlight that they make very specialized protective gear for dogs. I’m talking about assault vests, search and rescue vests, riot prison vests and very advanced intruder communication systems. Not the kind of things you need for your typical fluffy poodle to walk around the block with.

What got me was the photo at the end of the article. Apparently, special forces dogs can (and will!) jump from airplanes along with the soldiers. And k9 Storm Solutions makes the gear to do this!

Check out the article below (click the + to enlarge as needed)…

Special Forces Dogs Jump Too

I went to the K9 Storm Solutions website and saw this particular jump with “Cara” was done at 30,100 feet! That’s nuts!!

I couldn’t find a large photo of just the jump on the K9 website, so I did a quick and dirty enlargement of the photo myself.

Special Forces Dog Jump - Click to Enlarge

Special Forces Dog Jump - Click to Enlarge

That’s pretty cool and hardcore at the same time. Can you imagine what’s going through the dog’s head as it’s skydiving? If they love an open window on a drive, this must be a massive adrenalin rush for them. I’ve been skydiving a few times myself, and I’ve been very juiced every time I land (well, except for the first time, but that’s another story). Can you imagine how wired a dog would be after landing? Stay at least 500 yards away!

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* It really was the last issue of Fortune Small Business. The editor said they got the plug pulled on them. The “farewell” is below…

End of Fortune Small Business