Mayor’s speed cameras would help political ally

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14 March 2012
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When Rahm Emanuel was a first-time candidate for Congress, Greg Goldner was behind him, quietly marshalling the patronage troops that helped get him elected. When Emanuel ran for mayor, Goldner was there again, doling out campaign cash to elect Emanuel-friendly aldermen to City Council.

And when the rookie mayor was looking for community support for his school reform agenda, there was Goldner, working behind the scenes with the ministers who backed Emanuel’s plan.

Now, it turns out the longtime allies share another interest — the installation of automated speed cameras in Chicago.

As consultant to the firm that already supplies Chicago its red-light cameras, Goldner is the architect of a nationwide campaign to promote his client’s expansion prospects. That client, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc, is well-positioned to make tens of millions of dollars from Emanuel’s controversial plan to convert many of the red-light cameras into automated speed cameras — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Government uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97%

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14 March 2012
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In a landmark decision that could set a precedent on how life-saving drugs under patents can be made affordable, the government has allowed a domestic company, Natco Pharma, to manufacture a copycat version of Bayer’s patented anti-cancer drug, Nexavar, bringing down its price by 97%.

In the first-ever case of compulsory licencing approval, the Indian Patent Office on Monday cleared the application of Hyderabad’s Natco Pharma to sell generic drug Nexavar, used for renal and liver cancer, at Rs 8,880 (around $175) for a 120-capsule pack for a month’s therapy. Bayer offers it for over Rs 2.8 lakh (roughly $5,500) per 120 capsule. The order provides hope for patients who cannot afford these drugs.

The approval paves the way for the launch of Natco’s drug in the market, a company official told TOI, adding that it will pay a 6% royalty on net sales every quarter to Bayer. The licence will be valid till such time the drug’s patent is valid, ie 2020. As per the CL (compulsory licence) order, Natco is also committed to donating free supplies of the medicines to 600 patients each year — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hobbit pub in Southampton threatened with legal action

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14 March 2012
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The Southampton pub has been accused of copyright infringement by lawyers representing the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) in California.

The company owns the worldwide rights to several brands associated with author JRR Tolkien, including The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

Landlady Stella Mary Roberts said: I can’t fight Hollywood — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Judge Orders Failed Copyright Troll to Forfeit ‘All’ Copyrights

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14 March 2012
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Righthaven, a copyright-troll law firm that failed in its attempt to make money for newspapers by suing readers for sharing stories online, was dealt a death blow on Tuesday by a federal judge who ordered the Las Vegas company to forfeit all of its intellectual property and other “intangible property” to settle its debts.

The order is an ironic twist to a copyright trolling saga that began in 2010, when Righthaven was formed with the idea of suing blogs and websites that re-post newspaper articles or snippets of them without permission — via ars technica

Nodding disease: First Ugandan treatment centres open

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14 March 2012
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Uganda has opened its first clinics specifically set up to help thousands of children who have a mysterious fatal condition known as nodding syndrome.

The centres in the north — where the disease is most common — are to control the worst of the symptoms.

The disease’s cause is unknown, but it affects only children — who suffer from seizures, stunted physical and mental growth and nodding of the head.

There have also been cases of the disease in South Sudan and Tanzania — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years

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14 March 2012
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Its legacy winds back through centuries and across continents, past the birth of America to the waning days of the Enlightenment. It is a record of humanity’s achievements in war and peace, art and science, exploration and discovery. It has been taken to represent the sum of all human knowledge.

And now it’s going out of print.

The Encyclopedia Britannica has announced that after 244 years, dozens of editions and more than 7m sets sold, no new editions will be put to paper. The 32 volumes of the 2010 instalment, it turns out, were the last. Future editions will live exclusively online — via redwolf.newsvine.com

WWII Bomber Regulator / Bell & Ross

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14 March 2012
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The Bell & Ross WII Bomber Regulator has an oversized crown that has been placed on the left at 9 o’clock, rather than the more traditionally placed 3 o’clock. The large crown and the wide-notched bezel ensure optimal ease of use, facilitating operation while wearing gloves as a WWII pilot would have. This piece has a higher-end Dubois Dépraz movement — via Perpetuelle

Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia chief to advise Whitehall on policy

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13 March 2012
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The American internet entrepreneur, 45, will become an unpaid adviser across all government departments to help civil servants develop innovative new technology.

Under his role, it is expected that Mr Wales will also advise civil servants on how the public can be better engaged through the internet as part of its open government initiatives.

A Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday night that Mr Wales was one of a number of unpaid advisers who would provide help to civil servants rather than ministers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hollywood Hills House / Francois Perrin

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13 March 2012
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This private residence [Francois Perrin] is located in the Hollywood Hills, overlooking the City of Los Angeles. It is one of the rare remaining building lots of this neighborhood, also one of the few protected areas in the City. The building engages with the surrounding environment in order to produce an Architecture that merges with the Landscape. The contemporary design of the house interacts as well with the natural elements (air, sun and vegetation) but has only a little visual impact in the Hills — via ArchDaily

Police: Stalker planned wedding for her, victim

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13 March 2012
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A Des Moines woman accused of planning to wed a man she relentlessly followed for more than a year has been charged with felony stalking.

King County prosecutors contend Madeline Ann Desmet went so far as to order a wedding ring and reserve a Seattle courtroom for the ceremony before she was arrested in late February. Having been convicted of stalking previously, she’s now again charged with the crime — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Twitter buys microblogging service Posterous

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13 March 2012
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Twitter has bought the microblogging service Posterous and will be running it as an adjunct to its main client — for the time being, at least.

This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the web and mobile devices simple — a goal we share, said Twitter in a statement. Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better — via redwolf.newsvine.com

One Hertz Fire / Grönefeld

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13 March 2012
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The Grönefeld One Hertz Fire comes in a titanium case with striking orange accents. It is a new variation on the One Hertz watch introduced by Grönefeld last year. The One Hertz features a rare complication called dead beat seconds, which means that the seconds hand, which has a prominent place on the dial, makes one tick per second — much as a quartz watch would, but it is achieved through mechanical means — via Perpetuelle

Modify an Ikea Lack Table into a Dog Dining Table

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12 March 2012
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If you have medium-large to large dogs it can be difficult to keep their food area organised. My dog loves to push around his food and water bowls, often spilling them in process. Instead why not cut out holes in an $8 Ikea Lack side table to fit your dog’s food and water bowls to make sure they stay in one place.

This simple mod comes from the good folks at Ikea Hackers weblog. The author measured the cuts for standard steel food and water bowls and cut the holes with a Dremel so that the bowls can be easily popped in and out of the table. If your dogs are like mine it may be worth a try — via Lifehacker

Keep Single Serving Microwave Cake Mix on Hand for a Quick Fix

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12 March 2012
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For a quick pick me up at work or at home you can keep this cake mix in a ziplock bag for a fast coffee mug full of cake. You’ll just need to mix one box of Angel Food cake mix with one box of any other cake mix and combine them together in a freezer bag. When you need a shot of cake-y goodness put 3 tablespoons of this mix in your mug with 2 tablespoons water and microwave on high for 1 minute — via Lifehacker

Dropbox’s URL shortener abused by spammers

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12 March 2012
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Spammers are abusing a Dropbox feature that lets users share a shortened link, directing people to websites selling questionable pharmaceuticals, according to security vendor Symantec.

Dropbox, the file-sharing and synchronisation service, has a public folder that is dedicated to sharing content. Dropbox’s URL (uniform resource locator) shortening service can be used to create links to content in that public folder.

Spammers have seized on this and are creating shortened links to images stored in the public folder. The images contain a link to online pharmaceutical retailers, wrote Nick Johnston, a senior software engineer at Symantec.

We saw over 1,200 unique Dropbox URLs being used in spam over a 48-hour period, Johnston wrote. We have informed Dropbox, providing them with the full list of URLs — via redwolf.newsvine.com

E-health record will be hacked, says AusCERT

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12 March 2012
2 min read
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In Health, Politics, Technology
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One of Australia’s top IT security organisations has warned that the Federal Government’s flagship e-health records project is likely to be broken into, with Australians’ medical and identity information to be used for fraud and other criminal activities.

AusCERT, Australia’s Computer Emergency Response Team, which is not associated with the Government, in its submission to an inquiry about the legislation dated in January (PDF), criticised the Government’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) Bill (2011). In its commitment to protecting the privacy and security of Australian Internet users, AusCERT has expressed concern that miscreants could potentially use the PCEHR for identity theft and fraud. The submission was first reported by the AustralianIT.

AusCERT opines that enabling accessibility to personal identifying information in the form of the PCEHR from personal computers over the Internet will only worsen an ongoing problem that will make Australians vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. The submission focuses on the use of untrustworthy end point computers and mobile devices, which when compromised, will enable attackers exert full control over the PCEHR to look at or change its contents with the same privileges as the owner or authorised users — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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