Guardian [UK]
"U.S. health regulators on Thursday debated a consumer group's bid to
boost regulation of salt in food and revoke the ingredient's
'generally recognized as safe' status. Excessive salt in Americans'
diets is a major factor in high blood pressure and is a risk factor
for heart disease, and most Americans surpass recommended limits,
according to health experts. The consumer group, the Center for
Science in the Public Interest, cited these factors in calling for
stricter regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. ... An
FDA hearing on the matter marks the first time in a quarter century
that the agency has considered the issue." (11/29/07)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7114174
37) Scan this e-passport, watch your system crash
Wired
by Kim Zetter
"Lukas Grunwald, an RFID expert who has served as an e-passport
consultant to the German parliament, says the security flaws allow
someone to seize and clone the fingerprint image stored on the biometric
e-passport, and to create a specially coded chip that attacks e-passport
readers that attempt to scan it. Grunwald says he's succeeded in
sabotaging two passport readers made by different vendors by cloning a
passport chip, then modifying the JPEG2000 image file containing the
passport photo. Reading the modified image crashed the readers."
(08/01/07)
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/epassport
26) Libertarians rising
Time
by Michael Kinsley
"Libertarians and communitarians (to continue this unjustified
generalizing) are different character types. Communitarians tend to be
bossy, boring and self-important, if they're not being oversweetened and
touchy-feely. Libertarians, by contrast, are not the selfish monsters
you might expect. They are earnest and impractical -- eager to corner
you with their plan for using old refrigerators to reverse global
warming or solving the traffic mess by privatizing stoplights. And if
you disagree, they're fine with that. It's a free country. The chance of
the two political parties realigning so conveniently is slim. But the
party that does well in the future will be the one that makes the better
guess about where to place its bets. My money's on the libertarians."
[hat tip -- Tooch] (10/18/07)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1673265,00.html