How to get acute Hepatitis C from a clinic
[tags]medicare, health, healthcare, hygiene[/tags]
Answer: Move to Las Vegas or any other US city. You might not get it right away, but keep going to clinics for investigative procedures and your efforts will eventually be successful.
A clinic had been using unsterilized equipment and reusing syringes resulting in an acute hepatytis C endemic. Apparently, proper procedures were not followed at management directions. Las Vegas is not particularly well known for safety, still, I would think that most people would much rather be in control of the risks they take. The expectation is that if you pay for a service - I don't expect medical services in Vegas to be free - to get a higher quality than in socialized health care. This is a major let down and will surely be used in the upcoming presidential election.Sources
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8B3EkgPbRHRxqB6l6BG6ZL1bn9QD8V8CITO2
Vegas Hepatitis Exposure List Incomplete - Medbroadcast
LB Pearson got his Nobel prize exactly 50 years ago
If you're anything like me, and you don't happen to know who The Right Hon. Lester Bowles, P.C., C.C., O.M., O.B.E., B.A., M.A., LL.D. is, you might think "So What?!?". I think he was one of the most important politicians Canada ever had and quite possibly the best.
He did more to take this country into modernity than any other P.M. (at least that I know of, which is not saying much) and he did it mostly while in a minority government. Because so many high-schools and even the airport where I first entered Canada bear his name, it is almost impossible to find a video clip with him, but here it is:
As you can tell, the best are not also telegenic... Here's what he accomplished (mostly in a minority government):
Sources:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson
CBC.ca writeup: http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/pearson-lester.html
CBC.ca archives: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-73-1265/politics_economy/lester_b_pearson/Corrections
none so far!
Massive, unfixed security flaw at Passport Canada
We just learned about a very serious security flaw in the Passport Canada website accepting online applications. Other people's information can be easily accessed by simply applying for a passport and then altering characters in your browser's address bar. The flaw was discovered by Jamie Laning, an IT worker at Algonquin Automotive, in Huntsville, Ontario. The available data includes SINs, driver's licence numbers, mailing addresses, business and phone numbers, federal ID card numbers and even a firearms licence number. Says Carlisle Adams, professor at U of O:
This is exactly how identity theft happens. If you want to take out a mortgage, for example, this is the type of information the bank is going to ask for to make sure you're really the person you're claiming to be. Then all of a sudden there's a mortgage in someone else's name.Although Mr. Laning alerted Passport Canada of the problem last week and the site was suspended through yesterday, the problem has not been fixed, despite Passport Canada's claim to the contrary. While the security flaw in itself is not the most terrible thing, it is deeply unsettling to learn that Passport Canada was unable to fix it within one week, that it deceptively claimed it fixed it and that Canadian law does not even require disclosure of privacy breaches. This means that there may be many more security breaches that happen but we do not know about them, unless somebody makes a FOF request.
The security breach follows two significant events concerning personal information. On Nov. 21, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson introduced legislation making it an offence to obtain, possess or traffic in people's identity information for the purposes of committing a crime. Just two days earlier, Britain's tax and customs service announced it had lost disks containing banking and personal data of 25 million people."I think it's very clear that a strong, mandatory security-breach law is long overdue in this country and it's cases like these that highlight it," said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.This is not the first negative media report to hit Passport Canada. Only a couple of months ago, Canadian Press issued the following:
Canadian law does not require organizations to disclose when they've suffered security breaches. In the United States the majority of states have enacted legislation requiring organizations to disclose security breaches within a specified period of time.
Passport Canada is reporting continued long delays in processing mailed-in passport applications, despite a streamlined renewal process and hundreds of new employees. And there is concern those delays will only get longer as the busy winter travel season approaches.It now takes a minimum of six weeks to get a passport through the mail; two weeks longer than the agency's benchmark of four weeks.The way our secretive, inept government works, we would not be surprised if Mr. Laning would be charged with terrorism. It is much easier to find a scapegoat than hiring a knowledgeable IT security firm and have the problem fixed.
And that doesn't include the time it takes to get applications and documents through Canada Post.
UPDATE: Brian Masse (NDP) raised this issue in Question Period and Minister Maxime Bernier was told by CEO Gérard Cossette that the website is now "among the most secure".
IT Business published an article citing concerns that the privacy breach will lead to ID theft.
Source: Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach, Globe and Mail Read More to See the Light...
EU Commissioner for Consumer Policy Web Chat
In yet one more sign that the European Commission is more committed to the interests of the individual citizens they represent, EU-commissaris - Meglena Kuneva will engage in a web chat on Wednesday, December 12. The topic of the discussion will be "product safety", particularly the last high-profile incidents with dangerous toys.
Information is a key element for making you, as Europe's citizens, fully aware of your fundamental rights as consumers. But, awareness alone is not enough. You should be able to play your full role as consumers; confident and able to discuss consumer issues. To this end, I plan to set up a web-chat. We at the Commission must be directly connected to your daily lives and we cannot do that without talking with you.
Kudos, Ms. Kuneva! :) Read More to See the Light...
US elections - the dream contenders
Why would ConsumedConsumer.org care about the US elections? Frankly, because we cannot afford not to. Most governments take their cues from US. If US talks freedoms, they talk freedom, and torture in secrecy. If US tortures, they kill even more and torture openly. If US encourages stealing and does not punish its high-level crooks, corruption spreads like wildfire in the world. If US endures a housing bubble, the rest of the world has no other choice. And the beat goes on...
Here are the most interesting pairings I would like to see in the upcoming presidential campaign.
1. The Most Likely Candidates: Giuliani vs Hillary. They are also the most annoying, but that seems to be a prerequisite lately. In this pairing, my personal favourite would be Hillary, as I dislike her, complete with that creepy laugh track, less than I dislike the President of 9/11. There is another Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart clip that is a great study of Giuliani's facade, but you have to be an American to be able to watch it (you can only access thedailyshow.com archives through a proxy with an American IP, otherwise they'll redirect you).
2. Possible, but unlikely candidates: Obama vs McCain. They are both down to earth and average, a bit naive, and as such, unlike the first two, they are likeable. Unless they get their act together, neither of them will get to run. I don't have my mind made up about who I'd like to win in such a race, it would be very tough. So far, Obama has been slightly better, since McCain gave a speech to the Christian right about how important it is to have a Christian president (rather silly, since all American presidents have been and probably always will be Christians).
3. The ideal pair: Kucinich vs Ron Paul. They are the most principled, the most honest, the least likely to compromise their ideals, the only ones to have voted consistently against the war in Iraq, the only ones to end it immediately upon nomination, and as such, the least likely to get to run for president. My all time favourite is clearly Ron Paul. Not only he's a Libertarian, like myself, but he's an all-around awesome, honest, amazing man. Read more about Ron Paul and you'll see why. If you haven't heard about them and don't know who they are, the following clips will likely give you an idea.
Kucinich & wife
Ron Paul Tea Party 07 (5:33)
Ron Paul Stop Dreaming (8:46)
Ron Paul Speaks the Truth (13:41)
Ron Paul @ Google (65min, but well worth it)
Finally, after so much pro Ron Paul stuff, here something apparently against him: Republicans and Democrats, Please Protect Us from Ron Paul! :)
OK, these clips were nice, but what if you really haven't followed the US race for president, don't know anything else and would like to get up to speed? Watch one of Jon Stewart's segments on "Clusterf@#k To The White House" (Clusterf@#k is a term used mostly in the military, meaning huge, messy, chaotic movement of a large group). I would normally link to YouTube, but the war that Viacom is waging upon everybody else means that you can no longer find clips from their properties on YouTube. The clip is available for download in two formats: Windows Media and QuickTime. The clips are provided courtesy of the Crooks and Liars blog, which seems to be the only place where you can still access TDS clips, irrespective where you are in the world. You see, Comedy Central's excellent collection of TDS clips is only accessible to Americans. If your IP belongs to another country, you'll be redirected elsewhere. Once again, thank the beloved Viacom and its decrepit CEO for this.
When is the Gov going to wake up?!?
Scan This Guy's E-Passport and Watch Your System Crash presents further proof that blindly investing in technology just because it's new, while raising the bar for forgeries, it actually creates far more possibilities for fraud. Furthermore, the more sophisticated and complex a system becomes, the less likely it is that tampering can be found. Try expalining that to a Microdrone flying, noisy-paranoid government bureaucrat.
Read More to See the Light...
