Big soda is buying off big health orgs to keep profits and Americans fat

Pop producers back 96 national organizations, defeated 29 proposed regulations.

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Scott Olson)

Under the guise of sweet charitable giving, soda makers are handing out millions to big name health organizations so that the groups stay quiet about health issues that threaten to slim down drink profits—not to mention Americans themselves—a new study suggests.

Between 2011 and 2015, Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo sponsored 96 national health organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Society for Nutrition, researchers report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Meanwhile, lobbyists for the beverage makers successfully campaigned against nearly 20 proposed state and federal regulations aimed at protecting public health, such as improvements to nutrition labeling and soda taxes.

The pop makers' efforts to defeat public health policies casts doubt on the sincerity of their charitable giving to health groups. But the sponsorships alone are concerning, according to the study authors, Daniel Aaron and Michael Siegel of Boston University. Earlier studies have found that “sponsorships of health organizations can have a nefarious impact on public health,” they wrote, noting the efforts of Big Tobacco decades ago. Sponsors may directly or indirectly—through feelings of indebtedness—get an organization to take on their interests. As such, the Federal Trade Commission considers sponsorships a marketing tool. All in all, Aaron and Siegel conclude that the soda sponsorships “are likely to serve marketing functions, such as to dampen health groups’ support of legislation that would reduce soda consumption and improve soda companies’ public image,” they wrote.

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Xiaomi’s Mi alarm clock is also a portable Bluetooth speaker

Xiaomi’s Mi alarm clock is also a portable Bluetooth speaker

Xiaomi may be best known in the West for producing phones that you probably can’t buy (yet). But the Chinese company also makes a range or products including TV boxes (which you can buy in the US) air purifiers, fitness trackers, self-balancing scooters, and rice cookers.

The latest Xiaomi product? A smart alarm clock.

The Xiaomi Mi Music Alarm Clock is launching initially in China, where it will sell for 199 yuan (about $30).

Continue reading Xiaomi’s Mi alarm clock is also a portable Bluetooth speaker at Liliputing.

Xiaomi’s Mi alarm clock is also a portable Bluetooth speaker

Xiaomi may be best known in the West for producing phones that you probably can’t buy (yet). But the Chinese company also makes a range or products including TV boxes (which you can buy in the US) air purifiers, fitness trackers, self-balancing scooters, and rice cookers.

The latest Xiaomi product? A smart alarm clock.

The Xiaomi Mi Music Alarm Clock is launching initially in China, where it will sell for 199 yuan (about $30).

Continue reading Xiaomi’s Mi alarm clock is also a portable Bluetooth speaker at Liliputing.

Dealmaster: Get a Dell Latitude 14 7000 touchscreen laptop for $799

Plus savings on 4K TVs, tablets, gaming notebooks, and more.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, we have a bunch of great deals to share today. If you're in need of a new laptop, here's one at a steal of a price: you can now get a Dell Latitude 14 7000 workstation laptop, complete with a Gorilla Glass touchscreen display, a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, for just $799. The original price of this notebook is close to $1,000.

Check out the full list of deals below as well.

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Breach exposes at least 58 million accounts, includes names, jobs, and more

With 2 months left, more than 2.2 billion records dumped so far in 2016.

(credit: Hefin Richards)

There has been yet another major data breach, this time exposing names, IP addresses, birth dates, e-mail addresses, vehicle data, and occupations of at least 58 million subscribers, researchers said.

The trove was mined from a poorly secured database and then published and later removed at least three times over the past week, according to this analysis from security firm Risk Based Security. Based on conversations with a Twitter user who first published links to the leaked data, the researchers believe the data was stored on servers belonging to Modern Business Solutions, a company that provides data storage and database hosting services.

Shortly after researchers contacted Modern Business Solutions, the leaky database was secured, but the researchers said they never received a response from anyone at the firm, which claims to be located in Austin, Texas. Officials with Modern Business Solutions didn't respond to several messages Ars left seeking comment and additional details.

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New SteamVR controller prototype lets you open your hands [Updated]

Plus more virtual reality news leaking out of the Steam Dev Days conference.

Enlarge / SteamVR's new prototype controllers stay in place even when you open your hands, thanks to a hook around the back of the palm. (credit: Shawn Whiting / Twitter)

The press might not be allowed at Valve's annual Steam Dev Days gathering, but we've sent Seattle native Sam Machkovech to the conference under the incognito name "Daniel DeveloPerson" to deliver you all the news straight from the show floor.

OK, we didn't really do that. What we did do is follow along with the dozens of developers who are livetweeting all the news from the opening keynote on the #SteamDevDays hashtag (and through very shaky Periscope streams). This kind of second-hand reporting means sifting through some obvious trolling from less than reputable sources, but when we see the same information tweeted from multiple attendees at the same time, we can be pretty confident it actually came from the show itself.

Valve seems to be focusing heavily on virtual reality at this year's show, and that includes revealing a new prototype controller compatible with SteamVR. The biggest change in the new prototype seems to be the ability to open your hands completely without dropping the controller, making the prototype somewhat akin to Oculus' own Touch controllers. Attendees also say the prototype does away with the annoying "grip buttons" on the side of the current HTC Vive controllers and simply recognizes when your palms and fingers grasp the side of the controller instead. It's not clear from early tweeted pictures (above) just how that prototype attaches to your hand when it's open, but we look forward to hearing more.

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Senator wants nationwide, all-mail voting to counter election hacks

33 states have asked Department of Homeland Security to help secure voting systems.

Enlarge (credit: Gaston De Cardenas via Getty Images)

"It's not a question of if you're going to get hacked—it's when you're going to get hacked."

Those were the words of Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam as he sought to assure investors last week that the company is still interested in purchasing Yahoo despite the massive data breach of Yahoo consumer accounts.

Whether McAdam's words ring true for the hodgepodge of election systems across the US is anybody's guess. But in the wake of the Obama administration's announcement that the Russian government directed hacks on the Democratic National Committee and other institutions to influence US elections, a senator from Oregon says the nation should conduct its elections like his home state does: all-mail voting.

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Mele PCG62 fanless mini PC with Intel Skylake CPU runs Windows or Linux

Mele PCG62 fanless mini PC with Intel Skylake CPU runs Windows or Linux

Chinese device maker Mele is launching a new mini desktop computer called the Mele PCG62 with a fanless design, Intel Skylake processor options, and support for up to 32GB of RAM and up to 256GB of eMMC storage or up to 4TB of storage with a hard drive or SSD.

Notebook Italia spotted the Mele PCG62 at the HKTDC show in Hong Kong, and reports that Mele will offer models with Windows 10 or Ubuntu 16.04.

Continue reading Mele PCG62 fanless mini PC with Intel Skylake CPU runs Windows or Linux at Liliputing.

Mele PCG62 fanless mini PC with Intel Skylake CPU runs Windows or Linux

Chinese device maker Mele is launching a new mini desktop computer called the Mele PCG62 with a fanless design, Intel Skylake processor options, and support for up to 32GB of RAM and up to 256GB of eMMC storage or up to 4TB of storage with a hard drive or SSD.

Notebook Italia spotted the Mele PCG62 at the HKTDC show in Hong Kong, and reports that Mele will offer models with Windows 10 or Ubuntu 16.04.

Continue reading Mele PCG62 fanless mini PC with Intel Skylake CPU runs Windows or Linux at Liliputing.

38 million years ago, the beardog was about to take over America

An early relative of dogs and bears had a seriously fierce bite.

Enlarge / Amphicyon, or the beardog, was a predator that roamed North America for millions of years. This early relative of both dogs and bears evolved from fox-sized animals to massive megafauna before going extinct roughly 2.5 million years ago.

Two mysterious skulls sat in storage at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for 30 years. And then, thanks to one curious researcher, they changed our understanding of how one of America's fiercest predators evolved.

Beardogs, or Amphicyonids, are a diverse group of mammals who emerged on the tree of life during the mid-Eocene period roughly 40 million years ago. By 20 million years ago, they had spread to most northern continents, grown in stature, and become a bone-crushing apex predator. Their signature bulky jaw and flat teeth (for crushing) are a common sight for paleontologists excavating fossils from the Eocene and Miocene, but their origins remained murky.

Paleontologist Susuma Tomiya was working on a postdoc at The Field Museum when he came across two oddly labeled fossils, about the size of Chihuahuas. Discovered in the mid-1980s in Texas, nobody was sure what they were. Based on their skulls and age (38-37 million years old), the fossils had been assigned to the genus Miacis, which Tomiya's colleague Jack Tseng described in a release as "a kind of 'trashbin' genus" for unidentified carnivores. Tomiya added, "I thought it looked odd and too advanced for what it had been claimed to be—a more primitive carnivore. It reminded me of some much larger beardogs, so I decided to take a closer look."

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DEA reverses decision on kratom; drug stays legal for now

After massive outcry and letters from lawmakers, the agency had a change of heart.

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Joe Raedle )

The Drug Enforcement Administration is withdrawing its plan to ban the opioid-like herbal drug kratom—at least for now—according to a preliminary withdrawal notice posted today.

The notice, which will appear in the Federal Registry Thursday, nixes the agency’s emergency decision in late August to list kratom as a Schedule I Controlled Substance, the most restrictive category that also includes heroin and LSD. The DEA deemed the plant’s use an urgent threat to public health—based on concern that it could be abused and addictive—and set the date for a ban as early as September 30. But the abrupt plan drew intense backlash from public health experts, lawmakers, and thousands of devoted users, who argue that the currently unregulated herbal supplement treats chronic pain and prevents deadly opioid addictions.

After the initial notice, kratom advocates swiftly organized protests, collected more than 140,000 petition signatures, and convinced more than 50 Congress members to sign letters urging the DEA to reverse course. One of the letters highlighted the ongoing, federally funded research looking at using kratom for opioid withdrawal. That research would likely be shut down by a Schedule I listing.

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RIAA Seize Domain Name of The ‘Wrong’ MP3Skull Website

In its continued quest to keep the Internet piracy-free, the RIAA has seized the domain name of yet another MP3Skull site. However, it appears that their most recent target has nothing to do with the original service, so it’s doubtful whether the music group’s actions are legally sound.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

mp3skullnewRepresenting various major record labels, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against MP3Skull April last year.

With millions of visitors per month the MP3 download site had been one of the prime sources of pirated music for a long time. This frustrated many music industry insiders who claimed millions in losses.

Earlier this year a Florida federal court sided with the RIAA awarding the labels more than $22 million in damages. In addition, it issued a permanent injunction which allowed the RIAA to take over the site’s domain names.

Despite the million dollar verdict MP3Skull continued to operate for several months, using a variety of new domain names, which were subsequently targeted by the RIAA’s legal team.

The latest domain name it used was MP3Skull.vg. Initially, this served the original MP3 download portal, but late last month something changed.

All of a sudden, MP3Skull.vg redirected to MP3Skull.onl, an unrelated YouTube converter and direct download portal which has been operating independently for quite some time.

After some news articles started to confuse the two services, MP3Skull.onl was quick to distance itself from its namesake.

MP3Skull.onl’s tweets

mp3skulltweets

“In the past we read some articles about our service. Learn something: We are not the old mp3skull and not the owner,” the site’s operator wrote on Twitter. “I don’t know why mp3skull.vg is redirecting to us, I think they just gave up.”

Indeed, there are no signs that the two MP3Skull’s are connected. The old MP3Skull domains are associated with Emp3world.ch, which is still online, but there are no links to MP3Skull.onl as far as we can see.

However, despite this clarification the RIAA appears to have been confused as well, since they took action and seized the MP3Skull.onl domain name without warning.

The Whois information currently lists the RIAA as the domain registrant and the domain itself is no longer serving any content.

MP3Skull.onl’s Whois

onlwhois

A source familiar with the situation informs TorrentFreak that the domain name was targeted using the original MP3Skull injunction. This means that the RIAA appears to have seized a domain name of an unrelated third party.

While there is ground to argue that the “other” MP3Skull was facilitating copyright infringement, in principle it should not be targeted by an injunction that’s issued against an entirely different site.

These type of ‘mistakes’ or broad applications, are exactly why digital rights activists protest broad website blocking efforts.

The YouTube MP3 converter and download site, meanwhile, has registered a new domain name and continues to operate from Mp3.skull.to. The original MP3Skull seems to have given up for good.

TorrentFreak contacted the RIAA for a comment on the situation but we have yet to hear back.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.