Study Linking Vaccinations to Autism Reported to be Fraudulent

The Sunday Times, NPR and other media outlets report that the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield linking the Mumps Measles and Rubella (MMR) vaccinations to increased incidents of autism worldwide was based on altered and fabricated data. That report led to a sharp decrease in vaccinations by parents concerned about autism - as well as increases in measles infections in England and the United States.


NPR reports 

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

McCarthy and others have been staunch supporters of Wakefield, who has been stripped of his medical license in Great Britain in 2010.  His paper was retracted by the British medical journal The Lancet in February 2010.   McCarthy, and Jim Carey, issued this statement last year, saying in part:

The press has been deeply misled in the way The Lancet retraction, and Dr. Wakefield’s mock trial, have been characterized. Led by the pharmaceutical companies and their well-compensated spokespeople, Dr. Wakefield is being vilified through a well-orchestrated smear campaign designed to prevent this important new work from seeing the light of day.

British journalist Brian Deer authored a new article for the Sunday Times on his investigation of Wakefield and his work. The original Wakefield article in the Lancet was later renounced by 10 of its 13 authors.


For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, United States Attorney grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

The New Year, Computer Security and the Blue Screen of Death

December 30, 2010, 9:30 am - I was on the phone with my accountant, David McClure, discussing end of the year tax records and new equipment purchases for 2011, when I mentioned that my Dell laptop, almost four years old, was showing signs of fatigue.

She overheard me.  

20 minutes later - catastrophic hard drive failure.  I've since removed the drive from my laptop and bought an enclosure, but I don't yet know if any data can be recovered. 

Today, before you renew your gym membership or start buying organic/local foods - take the time to back up your hard drive AND change your account passwords.

For small business owners who are doing their own IT work - it's easy to let the weekly backups slip to the bottom of the 'to do' pile.  But especially if you are using Outlook - key documents and emails may disappear at the drop of a hat.  (Remember - look for that *.pst file - which is the heart of where Outlook stores your emails and attachments)

Massive storage has never been cheaper. Ads in today's paper are running specials on one terabyte (TB -1000 gigabytes) drives for $70.  As a part of my unexpected computer upgrade over the last 48 hours, I picked up a 2 TB external hard drive on Amazon for $99.  TigerDirect is a great website for screaming deals on external drives and other computer accessories.  If you aren't into clicking and dragging and want an easy backup process - Clickfree offers some great products for easy backup.

While I was upgrading my system this weekend to a new MacBook Pro (aside: the key Microsoft Office suite programs are available for $120 for a Mac) - I was reminded during checkout that my credit had been compromised last year (I had to answer a myriad of questions from the bank to confirm my identity).

I think it's also worthwhile to take a few minutes to log into your bank, email, insurance and credit accounts and update your passwords. Compromise could occur through a phishing scam - but even if you think that could never happen, that you're safe from key loggers, white vans with antennas outside your home monitoring encrypted signals, etc, it just takes a minute - and I think better safe than sorry.

For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com 

American Psychiatric Association updating to DSM V in 2013 to include Broader Diagnosis for Disorders

While many attorneys deal with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the context of criminal competency examinations, the news about the coming changes in DSM V have other, broad implications for mental health care, education and drug company profits.  


The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) initiated a DSM-V Research Planning Conference in 1999.  Work groups are developing draft updates to the chapters of the existing DSM IV.  The American Psychiatric Association reports

The work groups began meeting in late 2007. While the 13 work groups reflect the diagnostic categories of psychiatric disorders in the previous edition DSM-IV, it is expected that those categories will evolve to better reflect new scientific understanding. With the understanding that some continuity from DSM-IV to DSM-V is desirable to maintain order in the practice of psychiatry and continuity in research studies, there has been no pre-set limitation on the nature and degree of change that work groups can recommend for DSM-V.

However, NPR has run an interesting piece highlighting how the updates, which will include broader definitions of many disorders, can dramatically impact school funding for special education programs, as well as drug company bottom lines. 

But [the DSM revision is] not without controversy: The proposed changes suggested this year have sparked a kind of civil war within psychiatry .... Allen Frances, [ ] blames himself for what he calls the "Epidemic of Asperger's." Frances edited the last edition of the DSM, and he's also the new DSM's most prominent critic.  Frances is the one who put the word Asperger's in the DSM in the first place, thereby making it an official mental disorder.

That report chronicles the impact of the broader definition of the disorder to drive an "over diagnosis" of the condition to allow for increased funding for special education, as well as patient demand for new drugs marketed to adults and children.


For any questions regarding criminal charges, a law enforcement investigation, grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, cyber bully or cyber stalking law, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

Free Medical Clinic to Open Christmas Eve in Yakima, WA

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Crafts and a team of health care professional volunteers who will open a new, free clinic at the Union Gospel Mission in Yakima, Washington on Christmas Eve.

Dr. Crafts has been tireless in coordinating donated equipment, supplies and volunteers which, admittedly, only begins to scratch the surface of  a massive need for basic medical care of thousands of area residents and itinerant workers.

As Dr. Crafts explains:

A mess of health care workers have volunteered to run a clinic by appointment from 9-3 tomorrow Christmas Eve.  It's pretty sweet little clinic with dental chairs and dental xrays in a couple rooms and 2 small medical exam rooms.   There's not a lot of medical supplies like injectables and lab testing supplies and stuff but we'll get supplies as we go.

Itsa free clinic and we're starting out with just seeing folks living at the mission and working/volunteering at the mission.  Plus I'm allowed to schedule my own home-visit/email patients in there too. 

We'll be doing a walk in clinic for the mission folks on Christmas from 1-5 if anyone wants to stop by and bring us food :)

Donations will be accepted through the Union Gospel Mission in Yakima once arrangements have been made on their website. Yakima is located in south central Washington and has an economy fueled primarily by agriculture.  Much of the nation's apples, pears, cherries, hops, as well as Washington wines are produced in the region.

FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules for Wireless and Broadband Internet Providers

CNET reports the FCC has approved new rules regarding net neutrality.  This is a much debated issue that affects wireless and fixed broadband internet users.  It is a question of whether an internet provider such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable can block or significantly slow traffic of certain internet sites.

For example, if Time Warner is tired of Netflix taking away too much of its On Demand business - just put the breaks on Netflix streaming to its internet subscribers - make all internet traffic from that site painfully slow or blocked altogether.  Why not block Google or Yahoo too if it suits them?  Republicans have generally opposed Net Neutrality rules (keeping internet service providers from blocking or limiting traffic from certain websites).

CNET reports:

The new Net neutrality rules adopted Tuesday essentially create two classes of service subject to different rules: one that applies to fixed broadband networks and one for wireless networks. The FCC says this is necessary because wireless networks are technologically different from fixed broadband networks. 

The first rule requires both wireless and wireline providers to be transparent in how they manage and operate their networks. 

The second Net neutrality rule prohibits the blocking of traffic on the Internet. The rule applies to both fixed wireline broadband network operators as well as to wireless providers. But the stipulations for each type of network are slightly different.

For fixed broadband networks, operators cannot block any lawful content, services, applications, or devices on their network. Wireless providers area also prohibited from blocking Web sites, but the rule is slightly more lenient when it comes to blocking applications and services. The rule only prohibits these companies from blocking access to applications that specifically compete with a carrier's telephony voice or video services. In each case, the blocking rule also allows fixed and wireless broadband providers to reasonably manage their networks. 

And finally, the last rule applies only to fixed broadband providers. It prohibits fixed wireline broadband providers from unreasonably discriminating against traffic on their network.

It remains unclear whether federal courts recognize the authority of the FCC to enforce Net Neutrality rules. 

If you have questions regarding internet crime, federal investigations, grand jury subpoenas or other state or federal civil or criminal law issues, call the Winiker Law Firm, PLLC, www.winikerlaw.com, (704) 333-8440

Update for Google Chrome browser released today

October 19, 2010

www.winikerlaw.com

I have been a fan of the Google Chrome browser for about a year now - and today an update has been published that claims any bugs (I never saw them) are now resolved.

It starts fast, loads web pages fast, the web address bar doubles as an easy google search tool, and it has extensions for my favorite google products like Google Voice (Voice-mail for cell, work or home - transcribes and emails messages - truly 'visual voice-mail' .... and free). While some of the features I like in Chrome have been adopted in Explorer and Firefox, they don't do it like Chrome.

Give Chrome a shot - I think you'll like it.

Google Chrome Releases: Stable Channel Update


For any questions regarding a law enforcement investigation, grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, cyber bully or cyber stalking law, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com

Searching Digital Images on your Computer, the Internet and Google Goggles

October 10, 2010 
www.winikerlaw.com


A mixed topic, but the common theme in this article is digitized images - pictures that (usually) have been taken by a phone or other device, or (as in the old days) scanned in after a roll of film had been taken by horseless carriage to the corner store to be developed.  I learned, while with the Department of Justice*, is that each digital image contains metadata, and other data that makes them unique.


You can alter a picture on Photoshop - but a true copy of a picture will have all the same ones and zeros as the original.  This means there is a way you can make sure the digital picture you have is a complete duplicate of another picture.  (The explanation is way oversimplified - primarily for me - but there's a concept called Hash Function involved too)


All that means a couple of things at home and on the internet.  If you are like me, you take dozens of pictures of the kids and family every weekend, download them to the computer every few months - but not deleting old pictures you already downloaded.  You end up with hundreds or thousands of duplicates.


Two programs that search your computer's images for exact, or comparable metadata that work great are:

    

• Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder  

It has an easy interface - select the folder you want to search (My Pictures) and it scans the computer for duplicates.

For me, it helped me find other folders with a lot of duplicates - using the program to actually delete them was time consuming.

Easy Duplicate Finder 

The interface appears more intimidating - but it does the same thing - and pulls up files in a way that you can delete a batch at a time.  I have not played around with it enough though to trust it entirely yet - just used it to identify duplicate folders at this point.

There are search engines that purport to index the same information from the internet to find the same information, such as Tin Eye - but have not seen a dramatic application or functionality.

A search on Tin Eye using the DOJ logo from CCIPS (Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, USDOJ), where you inset the link of the logo (picture) - told me the logo has been copied onto a number of websites, including UK based pornography enthusiasts, and more benignly, a USA Today blog.


A screenshot of the search:

Facial recognition software made available in Google image searches caused a real dust-up a few years ago.  Companies that offered it took it off the market.  Google apparently used it in their image search functions, but my research shows they dropped it circa 2007.


They have now released an interesting new product - Google Goggles - an app for a Droid or iphone that allows you to photograph a building, monument, etc, and run an internet search to pull information about that image.  It is essentially image recognition to identify the object (Big Ben, Eiffel Tower - but does it have the Penguin?)


When first released over a year ago, the question of facial recognition created a furor.  According to the Daily Mail, Google says:

Google spokesman Anthony House said: 'We do have the relevant facial recognition technology at our disposal. For instance with our Picasa picture service a user can tag a friend in their photo album and it will search for and tag any other pictures of that person. 'But we haven't implemented this on Google Goggles because we want to consider the privacy implications and how this feature might be added responsibly. 'So if someone uploads a picture of a stranger on Goggles there is no process to identify them and the search will come up with "no matches found."

'We will have talks with privacy advocates and consumers before we consider any changes - it may be people want such a service, but we don't have a rigid timescale on when any decisions will be made.'

 While facial recognition is mostly out of the hands of the general public, it's a tool that exists for some right now - and may bring very interesting uses for business and government.  Imagine surveillance cameras identifying faces, then running automatic internet searches - cross referencing shopping or web surfing history - and producing an individual ad right there in the shopping aisle for a product it thinks you want - or sending a note to the mall cops to pick you up on an outstanding warrant?  Some people may start wearing sunglasses more when they go shopping.


*[I was a line Asst. US Attorney in Spokane and Yakima, Washington- and worked with "Main Justice's" CEOS -Child Exploitation Section and CCIPS -Computer Crime Section in national investigations as well as conducted and organized classroom training]

For any questions regarding a law enforcement investigation, grand jury subpoena, federal indictment, cyber bully or cyber stalking law, computer crimes, white collar criminal (fraud) charges, or any Mecklenburg County state charges, contact the Winiker Law Firm at (704) 750-9212 or info@winikerlaw.com