Heinz’s pulled this funny ad because of Christian fundamentalists bitching; and has caused me to have bought my last Heinz product.

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Judge Sanctions Lawyer for Issuing Subpoena to Blogger Kathleen Seidel

Posted June 23rd, 2008 by David Ardia

A federal magistrate judge in New Hampshire has sanctioned Clifford Shoemaker, a Virginia attorney, for abusing the legal process by issuing a subpoena to Kathleen Seidel. Seidel publishes the blog Neurodiversity, where she writes about autism issues. In February 2008, she wrote about a lawsuit against various vaccine manufacturers, Sykes v. Bayer, in which the plaintiffs Lisa and Seth Sykes sought to link exposure to mercury to their son's autism. (For more on her statements about the lawsuit, see my previous post: Blogger Kathleen Seidel Fights Subpoena Seeking Information About Vaccine Litigation.)

On March 24, 2008, Shoemaker, an attorney for the Sykes, served Seidel with a subpoena in connection with the Sykes v. Bayer lawsuit. The subpoena demanded that Seidel appear for a deposition on April 30, 2008, and that she produce a shockingly broad collection of information, including her bank statements, tax returns, communications with religious organizations, and personal correspondence with other bloggers.
Other Info:

1. Seidel's motion to quash
2. sanctioned under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11
3. Shoemaker's filed opposition to potential sanctions
4. Seidel filed response

Say What You Will (Requiem for a TV News Career)

CNN has fired Chez Paziena because of his personal blog.
I say this with the knowledge of implied complicity: I continued to draw a salary from stations at the local level and national networks long after I had noticed an unsettling trend in which real news was being regularly abandoned in favor of, well, crap. I may not have drank the Kool-aid, but I did take the money. I may have been uncomfortable with a lot of what I was putting on the air, but I was comfortable in the life that it provided me. I just figured, screw it, most people don't like their jobs; shut up and do what you're told, or at least try to. Besides, I told myself, what the hell else do you know how to do?

I guess its good I am unemployed.

Just how many astroturf groups did tobacco fund?

Thanks to the Tobacco documents we've learned how tobacco companies have secretly funded astroturf organizations like junkscience.com, secretly paid for think tanks to run political campaigns for them, and even created their own astroturf scientific journal. The latest pile of astoturf to be uncovered is detailed in a new paper by Anne Landman, Daniel Cortese and Stanton Glantz:

Homemade key unlocks Diebold voting machine

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Sears Installs Spyware

Sears is now another store I will never shop at again.

Gandalf_the_Beardy writes in with news that's been around a while but is getting more attention lately. Last month Benjamin Googins, a security researcher at CA, determined that Sears Holding Corp. installed ComScore spyware without adequate disclosure.
Sears said, yes we tell people about tracking their browsing. On Jan. 1 spyware researcher Ben Edelman weighed in, noting that Sears' notice occurs on page 10 of a 54-page privacy statement,
and twits Sears because its installation identifies the software as "VoiceFive" and later claims it's coming from a company called "TMRG, Inc." even though a packet sniffer confirms the software belongs to ComScore, adding "These confusing name-changes fit the trend among spyware vendors."

I will never buy another Western Digital hard drive.

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Verizon cuts Copper-line when Installing Fiber

When Verizon installs the fiber-optic connection to your home, the technicians cut down the old, copper-line connection to the telephone network and will not replace it if you later decide to cancel.

Worm Poop Threatens Corporate Profits

Well I have just bought the last thing I will ever get from Scotts Miracle-Gro. Its TerraCycle from now on.

Some of the nation's biggest corporations have found that baseless lawsuits are often a useful tool for squashing upstart competition. The latest example of this kind of noxious behavior comes from Scotts Miracle-Gro, a $2 billion company that claims 60 percent of the nation's garden-care market. Earlier this year, Scotts sued the tiny New Jersey start-up TerraCycle, which sells fertilizer made from all-natural worm poop, packaged in recycled soda bottles. Scotts alleges that TerraCycle has copied its packaging design and engaged in false advertising.
TerraCycle was started by college students and has never made a profit, but has made in-roads into some of the bigger retail outlets.
Apparently Scotts sees the worm poop as a threat. TerraCycle has fought back mainly with PR. They've put up a cheeky website that notes that the Scotts CEO gets a half-million dollars worth of "personal aircraft use" each year, while TerraCycle's CEO's biggest perk is unlimited free worm poop. The website also has some funny photos comparing the two companies' headquarters.

120 other lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels

81 lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels

39 additional lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels

No Apples for me

'Every portable gadget with a rechargeable battery has a charging circuit that recognises when the external mains charger has been plugged in. It then manages the transfer of current to the battery. Apple's patent suggests that by attaching a "guardian circuit" to the charging circuit, it would be possible to block the charging process. When a device is plugged into an unauthorised computer, software would compare a security code in the device to a code buried in the software in the computer.

The Austin Chronicle: News: AG on Sony Spyware: 'Cloak-and-Dagger Deceit'

The Austin Chronicle: News: AG on Sony Spyware: 'Cloak-and-Dagger Deceit': "

BY JORDAN SMITH
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment, alleging the company secretly installed an invisible 'spyware' program onto millions of music CDs, in violation of state law, leaving consumers and their computers vulnerable to identity thieves, hackers, and viruses. 'Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak-and-dagger deceit,' Abbott said. He filed suit under the state's new Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act of 2005, which went into effect in September and bans concealed tracking software. The software – reportedly intended as an anti-piracy measure – was installed on 4.7 million CDs released by Sony under 52 different titles. The CDs are designed so that they will not play through a computer until the user acknowledges a user agreement, which, when accepted, causes the surreptitious installation of undetectable spyware tracking files."

The Talent Show

The Talent Show: "What people like the George W. Bush don't understand is that capitalism is not a one-way street. When the demand for workers is high and the supply of laborers is low, the rational solution would be for employers to raise wages, increase benefits, or both to ensure that supply catches up to demand. But that would mean actually spending more money, and we can't have that.

Instead, employers have found a way to get around their obligations by employing 'undocumented' workers (and thus creating a demand for illegal labor)."