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PATH: BS | Business | Merchandising | Faulty Products
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China Has Found A Creative Way To Dispose of Toxic Waste
Posted by Pile
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[Faulty Products]
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China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.
Hey did you know that some rubber eyeballs imported from China and sold in the states are filled with Kerosene? Flame on!
Update:
When Mattel Inc. recalled nearly a million toys manufactured by Zhang Shuhong’s company, he fought hard to find a way to resume sales to America. They were the lifeblood of his firm, Lee Der Industrial Co., Ltd., and its lucrative share of the export boom driving China’s economic growth.
But as Zhang’s factories in the southern city of Foshan lay idle, workers started drifting off, fearing they would never start up again. Then Chinese authorities sealed Zhang’s ruin by announcing Thursday that he was prohibited from exporting toys until further notice because of the defects denounced by Mattel.
Zhang was found dead in a company warehouse two days later, colleagues said Monday, apparently having hanged himself in despair. His death dramatized the high stakes in an international scare over unsafe Chinese products and an increasingly vigorous government crackdown designed to restore confidence in the vital export industry |
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Criticism of Herbal Products Squelched
Posted by Pile
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One of the marketing success stories in the world of herbal pills is the hype and advertising that has made Tebonin one of the big-time sellers. If you believe the ads, popping a Tebonin pill a day will relieve tinnitus (the ringing sound some people have in their ears), dizziness and even improve mental alertness. The promoters claim the drug, which is based on a patented extract from the ginkgo biloba tree, improves "impaired micro-circulation," reduces "free radicals" and "promotes optimum cell function."
According to the German manufacturer, Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co KG, eight million pills are consumed every day. Schwabe, like so many companies in the herbal supplements sector, trades on its feel-good image. "From Nature, For Health," its website claims. That's the story the company wants you to hear. However, when a small group of Australian doctors and pharmacists, AusPharm Consumer Health Watch, drafted a report raising doubts about the benefits of Tebonin, they discovered a company that was not so warm and fuzzy. Soon after sending a copy of their draft report to the company, they were hit with a writ seeking an injunction that may bury their critical assessment forever. |
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Let Yours (Or Someone Else's) Fingers Do the Paying
Posted by Pile
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 Buying groceries with the touch of a finger could be closer than you think, if new research touting the benefits of biometric payment for retail giants like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco is anything to go by.
The report, by Sanford Bernstein analyst Emme Kozloff, found that the use of so-called "electronic wallets" reduces the potential for fraud and identity theft, speeds up the checkout process, and most importantly, lowers transaction processing fees for retailers, improving their bottom line.
Unfortunately, this highly-paid analyst didn't mention in the Fortune article that a finger made out of Play Doh can fool these machines 90% of the time. |
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Nonprofit ocean protection group Oceana took 1,215 samples of fish from across the United States in restaurants, grocery stores and sushi bars and the results were astonishing. There's more than a good chance the fish you think is "tuna" or "snapper" is not what it claims...
While government agencies like the FDA keep stalling on demanding rigorous scientific testing of numerous questionable ingredients, GMO foods, and the correct labeling of such foods, PepsiCo has recently agreed to settle out of court for $9 million over a class action lawsuit that claimed ‘natural’ and ‘non-GMO’ on their bottles was misleading since they are made with GMO ingredients, as well as synthetic and ‘unnatural’ items.
Ever wonder what a modern hospital might be like if you replaced all the scientifically-trained doctors with New Age Gurus? Here's a glimpse...
That cool USB-based battery charger you connected to your computer? Who knew it secretly installed software on your machine that allows someone to connect and control your computer remotely without your knowledge?
The Dragon's Den is an interesting tv show that originally started in the UK. The show is based on the premise that would-be entrepeneurs pitch products and services to the "dragons" - a group of successful businessmen. Sometimes the ideas are good, most of the time they're bad, but almost every time, the inventor is sure they've found "the most awesome product ever!" In one recent case, a guy hawking "miracle cure water", the same kind of stuff you'll see routinely advertised on talk radio, comes up against the Dragons... Let's watch..
More than half the baby shampoo, lotion and other infant care products analyzed by a health advocacy group were found to contain trace amounts of two chemicals that are believed to cause cancer.
Society "must not repeat the situation we had with the relationship between smoking and lung cancer where we ... waited until every 'i' was dotted and 't' was crossed before warnings were issued," said David Carpenter, director of the Institute of Health and Environment at the University of Albany, in testimony before a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Despite the day earlier, statements being issued by major cellular companies that they were prepared for Gustav, one company wasn't. AT&T customers in the New Orleans area experienced a total loss of cellular service for almost the entire day during the impact of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana.
Right now, the big PR buzz is over a new search engine launched by ex-Google employees, called CUIL - oh yea, pronounced "cool", and previously spelled CUILL - I guess they figured dropping one "L" might improve their brand image. Unfortunately, making a search engine that works before they launch a big PR blitz might have been more helpful.
Cracked has put together a list of the most retarded "fuel economy"-increasing devices being marketed. Hopefully you and your friends have not wasted money on these goofy, fraudulent gadgets.
In an amusing attempt to get around Microsoft's attempt to force dealers to stop selling XP and force users to adopt their profoundly crappy new operating system, Windows Vista, Dell has managed to continue bundling Windows XP with certain systems under the name "Windows Vista Bonus."
The Washington Post has revealed that a project by the Department of Homeland Security to install 1,400 "radiation detectors" in the nation's airports is more than fatally flawed: the detectors don't work and the testing protocol to verify their effectiveness may have been totally bogus!
Coca-Cola, the company with better name recognition than God, has started using a different artificial sweetener in the Mexican brand of Coca-Cola Zero. It's kind of like OUR revenge for Montezuma's Revenge.
In the wake of a massive Chinese toy recall, scrutiny is showing that the Bush administration has gone out of its way to weaken existing controls to insure the safety of products imported into the country.
Congress has spent more than $63 million on an experimental aircraft that has never flown more than a few feet and that the Pentagon has repeatedly rejected.
Marketers of four popular diet pills have agreed to curb their advertising claims and shell out some $25 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that they misled consumers with promises of dramatic weight loss.
Certain oils commonly referred to as "essential oils," specifically lavendar and tea tree oils, can potentially cause enlarged breasts in young boys. The condition, known as gynecomastia to scientists and a screaming nightmare to middle-school boys, occurred in three boys age 4, 7, and 10 who had been using products containing the oils. The oils can mimic the action of the female hormone estrogen, and can also block male hormones that control masculine characteristics and inhibit the growth of breast tissue.
With the Wii console due to be released in Europe tomorrow and already out in other major territories, Nintendo execs have acknowledged media reports of uncoordinated gamers causing damage to televisions, furniture, and even fellow players.
A person attending a conference in Japan sat just feet away from a Dell laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident.
Hello. My name is Amir Massoud Tofangsazan and i live in Barnet. I'm 19 but pretend to be a lot older and like to pretend that I'm a big businessman when I'm not actually that clever. on 29th November 2005 I sold a laptop on eBay.
I've known this for quite some time after doing research into these monstrosities when a friend tried to hawk some high-priced air purifier on me from his network marketing club. Ozone is the byproduct of these devices, like what you see at Sharper Image, and ozone is also a principal component of "smog" and air pollution. It also doesn't get along well with organic materials like human flesh. Read on for the science.
A motorist was trapped in his car driving at almost 130mph for 60 miles after the accelerator jammed.
John Parkinson, 62-year-old electrical engineer is showing off a new, rival keyboard design next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. After years of hunt-and-peck typing, he's convinced that his new alphabetically-arranged keyboard is an improvement over the traditional QWERTY design.
Here's a sordid tale of corporate control gone horribly wrong.
Tired of lugging firewood around? Want to spend $50,000 to impress your friends and show you can disproportionately waste huge amounts of energy while appearing to embrace alternative fuel sources? Then you need the Aqueon, a goofy high-tech fireplace that uses 220v/60amps to create hydrogen fuel via electrolysis to fuel its flames.
While promoting what he calls the "digital lifestyle," Bill Gates showed how vulnerable all consumers - even the world's richest man - are to hardware and software bugs as he stumbled through a number of embarassing moments when his products crashed and burned during a keynote presentation at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show.