HEINZ apologizes for ketchup bottle QR code linked to XXX porn site... -

HEINZ apologizes for ketchup bottle QR code linked to XXX porn site... -

The man used the QR code on the back of a Heinz ketchup bottle to enter the company's online contest in Germany. But the Heinz website had expired -- and a XXX-rated site had taken its place.

"Heinz in Germany has apologized for the way in which an out-of-date QR code and website link to design a ketchup label in 2014 has been reassigned to an adult content web site," said Michael Mullen, senior vice president of Corporate & Government Affairs at Heinz, in an email to CNNMoney.
"Clearly this was never our intention and we are taking steps to avoid this from re-occurring," added the spokesman for Heinz, which is partly owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA).
The consumer, Daniel Korell, posted photos on Facebook (FB, Tech30) of the bottle with the QR code next to his smartphone depicting the porn site FunDorado, which specializes in live web cam girls. FunDorado public relations did not return a message, but it did have a Facebook message for Korell:
"Hello Daniel Korell, wow! Has Heinz perhaps confused FunDorado's Sexy Lila with its Lila Ketchup EZ Squirt? However, you won't of course be going away empty handed. We're giving you a year's free access to FunDorado.com."

Read more -

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/19/news/companies/heinz-ketchup-porn/index.html

Russia calls for an investigation into whether US Moon landings happened -

Russia calls for an investigation into whether US Moon landings happened - 

The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Russia might be about to face a new challenge: a Russian investigation into American moon landings.

In an op-ed published by Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the government's official Investigative Committee, argued that such an investigation could reveal new insights into the historical space journeys.

According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin would support an inquiry into the disappearance of original footage from the first moon landing in 1969 and the whereabouts of lunar rock, which was brought back to Earth during several missions.

“We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it. But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened,” Markin wrote, according to the Moscow Times translation.

The op-ed is unlikely to raise worries among Nasa officials. In 2009, Nasa itself admitted that it had erased the original video recordings of the first moon landing among 200,000 other tapes in order to save money, according to Reuters. However, Nasa has since restored copies of the landing, using recordings from other sources such as CBS News. The organization says that due to restoration efforts, the recordings' quality is superior to the original one that has gone missing.

Nasa did also emphasize the uniqueness of lunar soil and rock in the past. “They differ from Earth rocks in many respects,” David McKay, chief scientist for planetary science and exploration at Nasa's Johnson Space Center, where most of the material is stored, was quoted as saying by Nasa's website in 2001.

So, why is Investigative Committee member Markin speculating about conspiracy theories surrounding US moon landings that happened decades ago? In his op-ed, the Russian official also emphasized that “US authorities had crossed a line by launching a large-scale corruption probe targeting nine Fifa officials,” according to the Moscow Times.

On June 2, Fifa President Sepp Blatter announced that he would eventually step down amid an ongoing investigation into widespread corruption at the organization. "US prosecutors have declared themselves the supreme arbiters of international football affairs," Markin complained in his op-ed. The official went on to argue that US investigators had confused political bargaining with corruption. He specifically referred to media speculation that former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder authorized military arms shipments to Saudi Arabia to help Germany win the 2006 World Cup bid.

Read more - 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-calls-investigation-into-whether-us-moon-landings-happened-10327714.html

Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement -

Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement - 

Donald Trump's big presidential announcement Tuesday was made a little bigger with help from paid actors — at $50 a pop.

New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump's event.

"We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement," reads the June 12 email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "We understand this is not a traditional 'background job,' but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought." (Read the full email at the bottom of the post.)

.@realDonaldTrump staffer not too pumped i took pic of "homemade" signs (passed out to people before event) in trash pic.twitter.com/zLL2ETBI79

— Megan Specia (@meganspecia) June 16, 2015

The pay was listed as $50 for fewer than three hours of work. According to the email, Extra Mile was reaching out to potential extras in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past. Gotham GR had no comment.

Suspicions that the event had hired extras came to light Wednesday when anti-Trump activist Angelo Carusone came across an Instagram photo, showing a man he recognized as a background actor posing at the Trump event. Carusone screengrabbed the photo of the actor, Domenico Del Giacco, and published it in a blog post. Del Giacco has since deleted the account. The photo shows him with a woman, identified in the now-deleted Instagram post as actress Courtney Klotz.

When reached for comment about the Trump casting call, a person who answered the phone at Extra Mile said, "We don't know anything about that." When pressed about whether this response was a denial of the story, the person said she couldn't comment further and hung up. Additional calls to Extra Mile went unanswered.

Asked if Trump paid anyone to attend the event, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said, "No," and that he had never heard of Extra Mile or Gotham GR.

"Mr. Trump draws record crowds at almost every venue at which he is a featured speaker," Lewandowski told The Hollywood Reporter. "The crowds are large, often record-setting and enthusiastic, often with standing ovations. Mr. Trumps message is 'make America great again.' "

READ MORE Jon Stewart Rejoices at Donald Trump Presidential Campaign: "There's a Crazy Person Running"
Del Giacco and Klotz did not respond to a request for comment. 

In politics, "astroturfing" is when people are hired to attend a rally or event in order to lend the appearance of grassroots support. They are typically contracted out to political consulting firms, much like Gotham GR. The practice is unsurprisingly considered bad form. 

Here's the full email from Extra Mile, with contact information redacted.

Hi there—

We are working helping one of are associates out at Gotham GR - http://gothamgr.com/ with a big event happening on TUESDAY 6/16/15. 

This is an event in support of Donald Trump and an upcoming exciting announcement he will be making at this event.   

This event is called “People for a Stronger America.” The entire group is a pro-small business group that is dedicated to encouraging Donald Trump and his latest ventures.  This event will be televised.   

We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement.  

We understand this is not a traditional “background job,” but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought. 

This event is happening LIVE and will be from 8:45AM-11:30AM. LESS THAN 3 HOURS 

This will take place inside / interior.  

The rate for this is: $50 CASH at the end of the event. 

We would love to book you if you are interested and still available. 

Please let us know and we will get back to you with confirmation. 

Read more -

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-campaign-offered-actors-803161

STUDY: Using Hand Sanitizer Can Increase Skin's Absorption of Dangerous Chemical... -

STUDY: Using Hand Sanitizer Can Increase Skin's Absorption of Dangerous Chemical... - 

Recent studies have suggested that hand sanitizer is bad for you. Triclosan, the active ingredient in hand sanitizer, can kill off the good bacteria on your hands and allow anti-biotic resistant bad bacteria to grow.
Now a study finds that using hand sanitizer can actually increase the skin’s absorbtion of a dangerous chemical.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make clear plastic packaging for food and plastic bottles for drinks.
BPA disrupts the bodies hormones in a way that disrupts the endocrine system.
Studies have linked high amounts of BPA to hormone disorders, cancer, heart disease, infertility and even diabetes.
Most commonly used hand sanitizers contain chemicals that increases the ability of certain compounds to penetrate deep under the skin.
Researchers at the University of Missouri used thermal receipt papers, the kind used in many cash registers across the country. The thermal paper contains very high amounts of  BPA.
They found that using hand sanitizer before touching the receipt paper increased the absorption of BPA by up to a hundred-fold.
BPA also lingers on the skin, so if a person eats right after using sanitizer on their hands, he or she would be effectively getting a double dose of the chemical, once through the skin, and the second time by eating it.
The levels of BPA seen in the study are high enough to increase the risk of disease for adults and the risk of developmental abnormalities in children.
The researchers say until BPA is replaced with a safer alternative, people should simply avoid using hand sanitizers. And if someone needs to use it, he or she shouldn’t eat right away.

Read more - 

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2015/06/15/study-warns-hand-sanitizer/

Google technology counts the number of calories on your plate by analysing a photo -

Google technology counts the number of calories on your plate by analysing a photo - 

Unsure whether the food you are eating is laden with calories? Google is using artificial intelligence to tell from a simple photograph.

The rise in popularity of mobile phones has bred several photo trends: retro filters, selfies and food photography, notably in photo-sharing app Instagram.

Google is taking the food snap to the next level by developing software which can determine how many calories are in your meal simply by analysing a photograph of it.

The project, called Im2Calories, is being run by researchers within Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) division and was revealed at the Rework Deep Learning Summit by research scientist Kevin Murphy.

According to Popular Science, the software works using image-recognition technology that analyses the depth of each pixel, matching it with patterns it recognises and existing calorie information.

Food items aren’t always the same size, of course (for example, a burger varies in size and thickness), so the software analyses the size in relation to the plate and any condiments.

It’s not totally automatic, but if the software incorrectly recognises a piece of food, you can correct it using a drop-down menu.

Murphy admitted Im2Calories isn’t 100% accurate: “Ok fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20 percent. It doesn't matter. We're going to average over a week or a month or a year.”

As well as being a useful tool for dieters, Murphy believes the information could be useful on a bigger scale.

“We can start to potentially join information from multiple people and start to do population level statistics,” he said. “I have colleagues in epidemiology and public health, and they really want this stuff.”

The technology could also be used beyond food, analysing streets.

“We want to do things like localise cars, count the cars, get attributes of the cars, [and] which way are they facing. Then we can do things like traffic scene analysis, predict where the most likely parking spot is,” said Murphy. “And since this is all learned from data, the technology is the same, you just change the data.”

Google has filed a patent for Im2Calories, but there’s no news yet when it will be available to the public.

Read more - 

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/tech-news/google-technology-counts-the-number-of-calories-on-your-plate-by-analysing-a-photo-11363984890150

As their currency dies, Zimbabweans will get $5 USD for every $175 Quadrillion local dollars -

As their currency dies, Zimbabweans will get $5 USD for every $175 Quadrillion local dollars - 

Zimbabweans will start exchanging 'quadrillions' of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency, the central bank said on Thursday.

The southern African country started using foreign currencies like the U.S. dollar and South African rand in 2009 after the Zimbabwean dollar was ruined by hyper-inflation, which hit 500 billion percent in 2008.

At the height of Zimbabwe's economic crisis in 2008, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with bank notes to buy basic goods like bread and milk. Prices were rising at least twice a day.

From Monday, customers who held Zimbabwean dollar accounts before March 2009 can approach their banks to convert their Zimbabwean dollar balance into dollars, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya said in a statement.

The process will legally end the local currency. Zimbabweans have until September to turn in their old bank notes, which some people sell as souvenirs to tourists.

Bank accounts with balances of up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars will be paid $5. Those with balances above 175 quadrillion dollars will be paid at an exchange rate of $1 to 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

The highest - and last - bank note to be printed by the RBZ in 2008 was 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. It was not enough to ride a public bus to work for a week.

The RBZ said customers who still have stashes of old Zimbabwean dollar notes can walk into any bank and get $1 for every 250 trillion they hold.

That means a holder of a 100 trillion bank note will on Monday get 40 cents. The RBZ has set aside $20 million to pay Zimbabwean dollar currency holders.

Read more - 

http://news.yahoo.com/currency-dies-zimbabweans-5-175-quadrillion-local-dollars-153844646.html

STUDY: Dogs snub people who are mean to their owners... -

STUDY: Dogs snub people who are mean to their owners... - 

Dogs do not like people who are mean to their owners, Japanese researchers said Friday, and will refuse food offered by people who have snubbed their master.

The findings reveal that canines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- a characteristic found in a relatively small number of species, including humans and some other primates.

Researchers led by Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University, tested three groups of 18 dogs using role plays in which their owners needed to open a box.

In all three groups, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know.

In the first group, the owner sought assistance from one of the other people, who actively refused to help.

In the second group, the owner asked for, and received, help from one person. In both groups, the third person was neutral and not involved in either helping or refusing to help.

View galleryCanines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- …
Canines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- a characteristic found in a relatively small num …
Neither person interacted with the dog's owner in the control -- third -- group.

After watching the box-opening scene, the dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room.

Dogs that saw their owner being rebuffed were far more likely to choose food from the neutral observer, and to ignore the offer from the person who had refused to help, Fujita said.

Dogs whose owners were helped and dogs whose owners did not interact with either person showed no marked preference for accepting snacks from the strangers.

"We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest," Fujita said.

If the dogs were acting solely out of self-interest, there would be no differences among the groups, and a roughly equal number of animals would have accepted food from each person.

"This ability is one of key factors in building a highly collaborative society, and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans," he said.

The trait is present in children from the age of about three, the research papers said.

Interestingly, noted Fujita, not all primates demonstrate this behaviour.

"There is a similar study that showed tufted capuchins (a monkey native to South America) have this ability, but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them," he told AFP.

The study will appear in the science journal "Animal Behaviour" to be published later this month by Amsterdam-based Elsevier, he said.

Read more - 

http://news.yahoo.com/dogs-snub-people-mean-owners-study-053213855.html

Texas Man Trapped Inside His Dream Car Dies Alongside His Dog -

Texas Man Trapped Inside His Dream Car Dies Alongside His Dog - 

A 72-year-old Texas man died alongside his dog on Monday after he reportedly became trapped in his car.

James Rogers of Port Arthur was having a morning coffee at a local Waffle House he regularly frequented when he stepped outside to check on his Shih Tzu inside his 2007 Chevrolet Corvette. The Port Arthur Police Department told the Beaumont Enterprise that Rogers arrived at the Waffle House around 8 a.m. and checked on the dog around 11:55 a.m. He left his phone to charge inside the restaurant, the paper reported.

Police believe a battery cable came loose, disabling the car's electric locks and other systems and leaving Rogers unable to exit the vehicle, according to KBMT. Authorities believe Rogers struggled to escape and he and the dog eventually succumbed to heat exhaustion.

Waffle House employees reportedly called in another regular patron, who owns a local roadside assistance company, to try to free Rogers, but Rogers was already dead. Firefighters eventually broke a window to access the vehicle.

The owner of a used Corvette dealership in nearby Beaumont told the news station that the 2007 model does have a manual door release on the floorboard but not all owners are aware of it.

Rogers only recently acquired the Corvette, according to the Beaumont Enterprise, and his daughter Tricia Hernandez told KBMT it was his dream car.

A spokesman for General Motors told The Huffington Post that the company does not have any further details beyond what has been reported in the media. He confirmed that Corvettes do have an emergency release for the locks and said it is described in the owner's manual.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/11/man-dies-trapped-in-car_n_7561456.html

Lakes and rivers are flooded with artificial sweeteners - up to 72 metric tons of sweetener floating in Lake Erie -

Lakes and rivers are flooded with artificial sweeteners - up to 72 metric tons of sweetener floating in Lake Erie - 

Artificial sweeteners are found in many foods and beverages worldwide, but did you know that the fish are drinking them as well?
In a 2012 study, Canadian researchers discovered artificial sweeteners could be found in lakes, rivers and oceans worldwide.
The researchers are concerned about the effects of these sweeteners on wildlife and plants, CTV News reports. As part of World Oceans Day (June 8), scientists asked us to ponder where sweeteners wind up after they are eaten.
The Canadian study reported that the effect of these sweeteners in the water is largely unknown. Nevertheless, scientists should be on alert, said Amy Parente, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Penn.

Parente conducted her own study in Lake Erie, and she was looking for sucralose, which is the substitute used by Splenda. As expected, the team found the sweetener in the water. While the other studies took samples from the mouths of the treatment plants, Parente tested the water around the lake's beaches, where the sweeteners were likely to be more diluted. She and her team found 0.15 micrograms of sucralose per every liter of water. This may not sound like much, but when added up, it means there may be up to 72 metric tons of sweetener floating in Lake Erie.

When we take in sugar substitutes like Splenda and Sweet'N Low, our bodies aren't able to break them down, so they pass right on through. Once these sweeteners leave our bodies, wastewater treatment facilities have the same problem. Studies have also shown that they can't break down these complex chemicals either, so they wind up in oceans, lakes, and rivers in pretty much the same form in which they were eaten.
Each day, the equivalent of 81,000 to 190,000 cans of artificially flavored soda flow through Ontario's Grand River, say researchers from the University of Waterloo and Environment Canada. This river flows into Lake Erie, Anadolu Agency reports. As a result, as much as 72 metric tonnes (160,000 pounds) of sweetener are flowing into the lake.
In the earlier study, researchers tested for sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin, and acesulfame and found variations of each of these in tap water in Brantford, Ontario, CTV News reported.
In their studies, Parente and her students noted that the sweeteners tricked animals into thinking there was nutrition in the water, causing the creatures to not be hungry, and reducing the calorie intake needed for them to be healthy and reproduce, Anadolu Agency reports. This was especially true for the snails that Parente and her students studied--indeed, they did stop eating as much, and this affected their calorie intake and reproduction.
Parente thinks the sweeteners may have the same effects on other foraging animals.
"When people think about small animals and small organisms, they tend not to be concerned," she said.
A subsequent study, published by Environmental Science and Technology also discovered large amounts of sucralose, saccharin, aspartame, and acesulfame in the vicinity of wastewater treatment plants in New York State. This study found that the sweeteners may damage a plant's ability to perform photosynthesis, and that, in turn, may mean less food for animals that depend on the plants, creating a domino effect that may make its way to us.
Unfortunately, artificial sweeteners aren't the only chemicals that wind up in our water.
There have been numerous studies in the last decade that highlight pharmaceutical compounds in treated wastewater, rivers, lakes, and ground water. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), more than 80 percent of waterways sampled in the U.S. show traces of everyday medications like acetaminophen, hormones, blood pressure medicine, antibiotics, and codeine, the Watershed Council reports. In 1999 and 2000, samples from 139 streams in 30 states were tested for 95 chemicals. Some 82 of these 95 chemicals were detected at least once. For the most part, these chemicals were in very low concentrations (usually less than one part per billion). Mixtures of these chemicals weren't unusual; 75 percent of the streams had more than one, and about 50 percent had seven or more, and 34 percent had 10 or more.
Besieged by low levels of these pharmaceuticals, aquatic communities suffer harm. This is because many pharmaceutical compounds are specifically designed to affect living organisms. Although the concentrations in the environment are below acutely toxic levels, the biggest worry is the chronic and /or synergistic effects of these pharmaceutical "cocktails" we have released into the water. On a scientific level, it isn't known how damaging the discharge of these highly concentrated drug compounds into the nation's waterways will be, because exactly how these compounds will affect the creatures that ingest them isn't known.
The Watershed Council says that more scientific study and analysis will be needed to better understand the impact presented by these chemicals. However, researchers have already observed endocrine disruption in fish that inhabit areas close to wastewater treatment plants. Endocrine disruption is widespread and is the most frequently documented effect that pharmaceutical drugs have on aquatic wildlife. Constant exposure to endocrine disruptors--such as the compounds found in birth control, can feminize male fish and harm their ability to reproduce.
While there have only been a few studies, they definitely shouldn't be ignored, Parente says, per CTV News. She described them as the canary in the coal mine.
"I feel that out of these small organisms are early warnings," she said. "We need to head those warnings."
Another worrisome problem is the potential for the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria populations. Numerous studies have shown that if antibiotics are widespread in the environment, they are less effective.
For the scientists who are studying the effects of artificial sweeteners on aquatic communities, this is going to be a busy time. Work is underway all around the world, said John Spoelstra, a research scientist with Environment Canada.

Read more: - 

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/environment/lakes-and-rivers-flooded-with-artificial-sweeteners-researchers/article/435300

Detergents linked to genital defects in babies -

Detergents linked to genital defects in babies - 

Pregnant women regularly exposed to a range of detergents, solvents and pesticides have a substantially greater risk of giving birth to boys with genital deformities, according to a new French study.

The research, led by two professors at the Regional University Hospital Centre in the French city of Montpellier, found that women who regularly work with such chemicals, including cleaners and hairdressers, were at greatest risk of having sons born with hypospadias.

The birth defect, which affects about three in 1,000 newborn boys, is a condition where the urinary opening is abnormally positioned on the penis.

Hypospadias can be treated with surgery but it can affect the boy's fertility once he reaches adulthood.

The study, led by pediatric surgeon Nicolas Kalfa and pediatric endocrinologist Charles Sultan, was carried out over five years and examined 600 children at hospitals in four French cities, 300 of whom were boys born with hypospadias.

"The study shows for the first time that regular professional or domestic exposure (to these chemicals), and more generally being in contact with them, seriously raises the risk of genital deformity," Sultan told AFP.

A summary of the research said boys were three times more likely to be born with hypospadias if they had been exposed to chemicals that interfered with their endocrine systems in the womb at the moment when the sex of the foetus is determined.

Both parents' professions and where they live can play a role, the study added.

The study identifies mothers working as cleaners or housekeepers, hairdressers, beauticians and laboratory workers as being particularly at risk.

For the father, being a farmer, lab worker, cleaner, mechanic or painter was found to bring a greater chance of the son having the defect.

Living within three kilometres (1.8 miles) of an incinerator, landfill site or a chemical factory brings a greater risk of having a son with hypospadias, Sultan said.

"For a long time there has been contradictory data over the genetic and environmental causes," Sultan added.

Read more - 

http://news.yahoo.com/detergents-linked-genital-defects-babies-study-222738802.html