Mobiles turn into evidence vaults

[theblackalchemist]

Mobiles turn into evidence vaults

Mobiles turn into evidence vaults

NEW YORK: “Don’t try to hurt me—I’ve deposited a letter with my lawyer. If he doesn’t hear from me within 24 hours, he will mail it to the

police. It details all your murky dealings.” That hard-boiled plot device from detective novels and movies is coming to life in a free service called My Mobile Witness from a startup in Pittsburgh.

 

It works like this: When you’re in a situation you’re uneasy about—say you’re letting a stranger into the house—snap a picture of the person with your phone and message it to My Mobile Witness. Or just tap out a text message. My Mobile Witness time-stamps and stores the message, and if you end up getting into trouble, it gives law enforcement access to your “vault” of messages.

 

The main idea is that if a situation turns ugly, you can let the threatening person know that “Hey, I just took and sent a picture of your face/car/license plate to a place where the police will find it.” Just like in the movies, but with a picture message instead of a letter. Threats will do no good—the sender can’t retrieve the message or erase it from My Mobile Witness’ vault.

 

Police can access the vault without a subpoena or court order if they go through “Fusion Centres” that coordinate state law enforcement efforts.

 

The founders, Marcus Anthony and Scott Bullens, came up with the idea when they bought a real-estate firm and became concerned with the safety of their agents. They made it a policy that their employees had to take pictures of the clients they were meeting and send them to the office.

 

Mobiles turn into evidence vaults-Health/Sci-The Times of India

 

 

Arthritis drugs do not raise cancer

Arthritis drugs do not raise cancer

 

CHICAGO: Popular rheumatoid arthritis drugs that block a protein linked with inflammation do not appear to raise the overall risk of cancer,

Spanish researchers said on Saturday.

 

The drugs, known as TNF blockers, suppress the immune system by blocking the activity of an inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF. They have been used since 1998, but some studies have suggested the drugs raise the risk of cancer, particularly lung cancer and lymphoma - by toning down the immune system.

 

"Despite foreseen fears, blocking the tumor necrosis factor does not make patients more prone to develop cancer," Dr. Loreto Carmona of the Fundacion Espanola de Reumatologia in Madrid said in a statement. Carmona, who is presenting his research at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting in San Francisco, used health data collected from two Spanish registries - databases of patients.

 

One included nearly 4,500 people taking the drugs from 2001 through 2007; while the other included data from 1999 through 2005 on nearly 800 people with RA not taking the drugs. Overall, the researchers found 70 cases of cancer in the group that took the drugs, compared with 29 cases in the group that did not take the drugs.

 

NO RISK DIFFERENCE Because the groups were of different sizes and followed for different periods of time, they did a calculation that showed no statistical difference in the cancer risk between the two groups. Dr. Eric Matteson of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not part of the research, said the findings offer some assurances.

 

"What it tells us is if there is an increased risk of cancer, the overall event rate is still very low," he said in a telephone interview. But he said the study has several limitations, the main one being that people in the studies were not matched ahead of time for age, sex, and other health problems. And while the study looked at the overall risk for cancer, Matteson said it did not address whether there is an increased risk of specific types of cancer. Nor does it address whether the drugs might pose a particular threat to children and teens, something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently investigating.

 

Arthritis drugs do not raise cancer-Health/Sci-The Times of India