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+ - House of Reps Gives Itself Permission to Not Report Privately-Sponsored Travel 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. House Ethics Committee has quietly done away with the requirement for House members to reveal all privately-sponsored travel on their annual financial-disclosure forms. "The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement...reverses more than three decades of precedent." The requirement was put in place in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal. Free trips for congressmen, their families, and their aids was at its highest last year since "the influence-peddling scandal that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison." These types of disclosures must still be made to the House's Office of the Clerk, but reporters, watchdogs, and the public in general refer to the annual financial-disclosure form to keep tabs on who pays their representatives and in what form that payment is made."

+ - There's More Fiber in Fast Food Than You Realize 1

Submitted by danomac
danomac (1032160) writes "It looks like McDonald's, along with other fast-food chains like Burger King and Wendy's, put more fiber in your burger than you realize.

Listed in the ingredients is "microcrystalline cellulose", also known as wood fiber. Fast-food chains have been using this for quite some time due to the cost effectiveness.

This is also not just in meat, but in all sorts of ingredients like cheese, sauces, etc."

+ - DARPA demos lightweight, 94GHz silicon system on a chip-> 1

Submitted by coondoggie
Link to Original Source

+ - Old disagreements over potential risks of 1918-like influenza study surface

Submitted by bmahersciwriter
bmahersciwriter (2955569) writes "After almost a year of wrangling over gain of function influenza studies involving H5N1 in 2011 and 2012, the Wisconsin institutional biosafety committee (bizarrely? brazenly?) still deemed similar work — by one of the same labs involved — on a 1918-like influenza bug to fall outside the remit of dual use research of concern. Documents obtained by Nature suggest laxity in the biosecurity assessment. But NIAID set them straight and forced them to re assess the work. The research was published early last month."

Comment: Re:Government fails again (Score 1) 267

by jsrjsr (#47180033) Attached to: Why NASA's Budget "Victory" Is Anything But


But long before NIST, railroads kept uniform time.

And you can listen to your favorite radio station only because the Federal Communications Commission brings organization and coherence to our vast telecommunications system. It ensures, for example, that radio stations do not overlap and that stations signals are not interfered with by the numerous other devices â" cell phones, satellite television, wireless computers, etc. â" whose signals crowd our nationâ(TM)s airwaves.

And before the FCC, radio was finding it's way towards regulation through homesteading of radio frequencies.


'Course, if you happen to live near a government-operated power plant, you're out of luck. The states seem to exempt their plants for some reason.


Actually, at home I depend upon my own monitoring of my private well. And woe be unto anyone who pollutes the groundwater as they will be providing me with water at their cost. At work, I depend upon a private water company.


Hmmm... When my house was built, the government inspector missed a bunch of problems. I'm glad the contractor did not -- he fired the sub and made it right. Most of the electrical systems in my home are UL approved -- including the coffemaker. UL is a private agency funded by the insurance industry that does testing.

Your greatest dreams are in the hands of the government everyday. And those are just the ones from the first 10 minutes after you wake up.

You live in as much of a dream world as those who oppose all government.

Comment: Re:except your products are killing children (Score 1) 584

by jsrjsr (#47048285) Attached to: Gun Rights Groups Say They Don't Oppose Smart Guns, Just Mandates

4,000 or so people in the US die every year because they're accidentally shot by children, ranging from toddlers to pre-teens.

I think that you are conflating and mangling multiple sources here, all of which have problems.

According to the CDC, in 2010 (latest available data) the total number of people of all ages that were UNINTENTIONALLY shot and killed was 606.

So where does your 4,000 number come from?
