Street Soup

High Mercury Levels Are Found in Tuna Sushi

2008-01-26T23:04:00.000-05:00

Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October. �No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks," said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of

Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn

2008-01-11T10:44:00.000-05:00

Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas brought the U.S. closer to becoming a biofuel economy, planting huge tracts of land for the first time with switchgrass�a native North American perennial grass (Panicum virgatum) that often grows on the borders of cropland naturally�and proving that it can deliver more than five times more energy than it takes to grow it. Link

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-04T13:04:00.000-05:00

For many people their New Year's Resolution are the same every year. Here is the list of 10 most popular New Year's Resolutions on Ask.com Spend more time with familyGet more regular exercise Loose WeightQuit SmokingEnjoy Life MoreQuit DrinkingGet out of DebtLearn Something NewHelp OthersGet Organized What is your New Years Resolution? Link

Merck Recalls Children's Vaccines

2007-12-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

Merck announced that it is voluntarily recalling 1 million doses of two common childhood vaccines, PedvaxHIB and Comvax, routinely given to children under 5. During a routine inspection of their manufacturing process, Merck officials found that some equipment was contaminated with a bacteria called Bacillus cereus. Link

Hackers Launch Cyberattack on Federal Labs

2007-12-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

A "sophisticated cyberattack" has been detected at Oak Ridge National Laboratory over the last several weeks, and authorities suspect the hackers are based in China. The breach might have compromised the personal information of thousands of visitors to the lab. Link

Russian Elections was not democratic

2007-12-04T09:26:00.000-05:00

President Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, overwhelmingly won the parliamentary elections in Russia. But many believe that elections were 'not free and fair' and 'not democratic'. Now EU calls on Russia to answer election criticism. Link

Russian Election is a Joke

2007-12-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

As it has been expected by everyone, polls conducted by Russian state-controlled companies show President Vladimir Putin's party winning more than 60% of the vote in parliamentary elections. The communist party was running with about 12% of the vote and other parties followed. Critics also note that "United Russia" was the only party allowed to campaign on national television. Earlier Sunday,

FDA to regulate salt content in food

2007-11-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

It's not a secret that the excessive salt in diets is a major factor in high blood pressure and increases risk for heart disease and most Americans exceed recommended limits The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) cited these factors in urging stricter regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at a public hearing, held on Thursday at the FDA. Reducing the salt content in

Elections without choice in Russia

2007-11-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin's party (United Russia) will win an overwhelming majority in Russia's parliamentary election on Sunday but non in a democratic way. State-run media brainstorms people to vote for president and United Russia. State employees being pressured to vote at work or to fund United Russia and even of schools encouraging parents to do their patriotic duty and back the

Police Break Up Anti-Putin protesters in Russia

2007-11-25T11:24:00.000-05:00

There no fredom of speech in Russia and there is still many people arrested for political reasons. Many of opposition activists were arrested by police Sunday as they tried to rally against President Vladimir Putin's government in central St. Petersburg. Demonstrators were chanting "Russia without Putin!" "What we are seeing now in St. Petersburg resembles a military operation," said Olga

CBS Giving Free Wi-Fi to Manhattan

2007-11-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

CBS has announced its upcoming CBS Mobile Zone, which is a free Wi-Fi network for laptops and other wireless devices, granting Internet access. From Times Square to Central Park South, and 6th Ave. to 8th Ave., the free wireless zone is an experiment between CBS and the MTA. Link

Yahoo and Google will Turn E-Mail Into a Social Network

2007-11-14T16:52:00.000-05:00

Google and Yahoo are moving to to turn their e-mail systems and personalized home page services (iGoogle and MyYahoo) into social networks. Web-based e-mail systems already contain much of what Facebook calls the social graph � the connections between people. Yahoo and Google realize that they have this information and can use it to build their own services that connect people to their contacts.

Health Insurer Tied Bonuses To Dropping Sick Policyholders

2007-11-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved. Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than

Hackers install maleware on Alicia Keys MySpace Page

2007-11-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

MySpace pages of several musicians, including the personal page of R&B songstress Alicia Keys, were targeted this week by hackers. Experts warn that they're now very dangerous places to visit online. Among the attacks being served by Keys' page (and those of French funk band Greements of Fortune and Scottish rock band the Dykeenies) are Trojan horses disguised as new video codecs. When someone

Mattel recalls Mexican-made toy kitchens

2007-11-06T20:19:00.000-05:00

Mattel Inc, the world's largest toymaker, is recalling over 170000 Mexican-made toy kitchens sold in the United States and Europe because small pieces pose a choking hazard to young children. Link

Apple's Leopard early bugs

2007-11-02T10:56:00.000-04:00

Although most of Mac OS X Leopard,the latest version of Apple's operating system, users seem satisfied, there have been a fair amount of complaints from those who were first down the road to Leopard. Most are relatively minor, some were quite annoying, and a few raise questions about how Apple's operating system strategy might be different when it's time to ship the next release. The "blue

Google Launches OpenSocial

2007-10-31T18:05:00.000-04:00

Google Launches OpenSocial. OpenSocial is a set of APIs that will allow independent developers to build applications that run on any participating network, using the data stored by that network. Techcrunch, which posted the first details of the announcement, claims that OpenSocial�s hosts, or the participating social networks, include Google�s Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo,

Key HIV strain 'came from Haiti'

2007-10-31T17:39:00.000-04:00

Key HIV virus which predominates in the United States and Europe has been traced back to Haiti by an international team of scientists. The strain passed from Haiti to the US in about 1969 before spreading further, says the team in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences. They hope knowing this could help find a cure for HIV, which can lead to Aids. Link

Microsoft Pays $240 Million for 1.6% Stake in Facebook

2007-10-25T11:08:00.000-04:00

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it will pay $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, which puts a $15 billion valuation on the less than four-year-old online social network. Microsoft also sells online ads for Facebook. Link

KickApps Enables Mobile User-Generated Content Authoring

2007-10-25T10:42:00.000-04:00

KickApps, a hosted social media platform, announced new, Mobile User-Generated Content (UGC) Authoring functionality for sites powered by the KickApps platform. �By supporting mobile phone media capture we've expanded user-generated content authoring to a new and very broad community,� said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. �Together with today�s announcement about our collaboration with VeriSign to

Woman sues Facebook over Unwanted Text Messages

2007-10-24T11:06:00.000-04:00

An Indiana woman has sued online social network Facebook, claiming the company is profiting when its users mistakenly send unwanted text messages to mobile phones whose numbers previously belonged to other consumers, the Associated Press reported. Link

Hiring managers use social networking sites to screen job candidates

2007-10-23T13:56:00.000-04:00

A CareerBuilder survey of 1,150 hiring managers in 2006 found that 12% of the respondents said they have used social networking sites to screen job candidates. Of these hiring managers, 63% said they did not hire the person based on what they found. So, be careful what you post on those site :) Link

House Passes Bill Shielding Journalists, Some Bloggers in Court

2007-10-18T14:54:00.000-04:00

The U.S. House on Tuesday passed a bill that would shield journalists and bloggers from having to identify their confidential sources in the course of federal investigations. "Freedom of the press protected by the First Amendment has been a cornerstone of our democracy, one that we cherish and promote around the world," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote. Justice Department opposes

AOL will lay off about 2,000 employees

2007-10-15T18:01:00.000-04:00

AOL LLC will lay off about 2,000 employees, or approximately 20 percent of its staff, as it continues its transformation into an online, ad-supported business and moves further away from its traditional revenue model based on dial-up Internet access fees. The layoffs will begin on Tuesday and will continue over the coming months. Link

Kickapps, social media platform now integrates with Joomla

2007-10-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

KickApps, social media platform, announced the integration of the community-building platform with one of the industry�s most commonly used open source content management systems (CMS), Joomla! Developers and web publishers using Joomla CMS can now easily integrate their KickApps powered communities with their existing websites to fuel audience growth and engagement via social networking,