Current Events in March 2013

A wet basement is the bane of many a homeowner's existence. No matter what they do a heavy rainfall usually finds water seeping into the basement, damaging possessions as well as the structure.

If you face this problem you aren't alone. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates more than 25% of homeowners with basements have this problem. To fix the problem, you first have to determine where the water is coming from. It can have a number of different sources – and even more than one.

One source is condensation. Basements can be damp simply because they are below ground. Sometimes, weather shifts can create water problems, with moisture forming on the walls and dripping to the floor.

Condensation test

One way to tell if condensation is the problem, tape a twelve-inch square of aluminum foil to the damp wall area. Seal all four sides of the aluminum foil as tightly as possible. If in a couple of days, the outside is wet, it is condensation. You can counteract the problem by running a dehumidifier.

If the outside of the foil is dry but the inside is wet, then the water is seeping into the walls from the outside, a more difficult fix. Your task is to learn where the outside water is coming from.

In most cases the water is coming from your roof. If you home lacks an adequate gutter system that directs water away from your foundation, water will pour off the roof and erode the ground next to your home's foundation. Unless the gutters are properly maintained and kept free of debris, they will overflow.

Water can also seep into the foundation if the ground slopes toward the house. A patio or driveway that slopes toward the house instead of away from it will funnel hundreds of gallons of water to your foundation during a heavy rain storm.

Visual inspection

A visual inspection of your home's foundation, taking note of the immediate geography, can help you isolate the source of your water leakage. Conducting this inspection 20 minutes into a heavy rain storm might be even more instructive.

If you identify the source of the water – from the roof, for example – take steps to address the specific problem. Clean and repair cutters and make sure water from the downspout flows away from the house. If that is the only source of the water, that should take care of the problem.

There are plenty of contractors that specialize in basement and foundation modifications to address wet basements. These services can be costly and, in many cases, unnecessary.

However, if you feel you need what they offer to fix your problem, check online consumer forums, the local chamber of commerce, state attorney general's office, county clerk and consumer advocate organizations for information about waterproofing firms.

Get references

You should ask each company to provide a lengthy list of references and speak with several previous customers. Don't settle for one or two pre-selected names. Ask for references in your own community or surrounding neighborhood.

Carefully examine each firm's guarantee or warranty. Are there hidden costs for repair? Does the warranty last for the lifetime of the home? Is it transferable to a new owner? Is a clearly written, understandable guarantee or warranty provided?

Be wary of a salesperson who changes a warranty to close a sale. Those revisions may not be honored by the company.

Beware of any contractor promising a final cost estimate over the phone. The actual cost will always depend on the size of your basement and the scope of the problem.

Keep in mind the services of these companies may only be needed if you determine there has been significant damage to the foundation of your home over a number of years. In some cases it might require excavating and exposing basement walls. However, the the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducted a study that found injecting waterproofing substances between the exterior and the wall "has not demonstrated a satisfactory performance and is not acceptable under HUD standards".

Finding the source of invading water and blocking it will be your most effective and least costly option.

How many budding entrepreneurs have this dream?

You just came up with a new app under the company that you and you buddy started a couple of summers ago in-between semesters. At first, the app was formed on a good idea, but there were major technical glitches to repair and a couple of user features to improve on.

After numerous attempts and enduring enough trials to realize you're are both serious about the endeavor, you and your partner finally got the app to work just the way you wanted it to, and after some strong interest in the app from your friends and classmates, you convinced your family members to put up the necessary funds to take your company and app to the next level of success and notoriety.

Then the following semester, instead of going back to campus, you and your buddy hightail it to Silicon Valley -- just because you feel you have to in order to be successful-and from there you rent a tiny apartment that serves as your office, your post-college frat house and your sleeping quarters.

And just over one year after moving to California, you're able to secure larger dollars from a major investment firm, and you and your buddy live happily ever after, posing on the cover of every tech magazine in the country. And of course you pose on every cover wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of tattered jeans, just to show that none of your youthful rebellion was lost in your quick rise to success.

That’s a nice dream, isn't it?

And for many, like the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world or the Yale students who secured a $15 million investment to further their website RapGenius.com, that dream became a sweet reality, which made a lot of people believe that most of today’s successful startups are created by tech-savvy students in their 20s, when in actuality most successful businesses are started by entrepreneurs between the ages of 30 to 49, according to new research.

More mundane

Some might say the resarch findings will cause some who believe they're too old to start a business to put their fears away and actually start one.

According to the Kauffman Foundation and the Internet document company Legal Zoom, most of the startups in the United States that become successful aren’t those tech-based companies that have young and hip college students at the helm.

“Most of the successful startups are not the kind spawned in Silicon Valley," said the Director of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation, Dane Stangler. “I don’t want to use the word mundane, but they’re run of the mill.”

Kauffman and Legal Zoom interviewed a total of 1,431 business owners and found that 57% of them started their businesses after their 20s and spent at least six years working in that industry before creating a startup.  

Additionally, 44% of the business owners started one company prior to the successful startup, and 52% created more than one business, researchers said.

Arguably the biggest reason why most successful startups are created by older people and not the tech-savvy 20 somethings is because older entrepreneurs typically don’t have the same financial barriers that younger people do.

Seed money

And since older business owners tend to work in their industry for years and can save money, many of them don’t have to search for finances or ask their family members for seed money, as the study showed only 20%  of business owners between the ages 30 to 49 had to ask their families for money or had to get finances from a bank or home equity loan.

“With over 80% of early-stage business owners using personal funds to finance their companies, founders are decidedly willing to take on risk,” said Legal Zoom’s CEO John Suh.

“However, these business owners need additional financing if they are to succeed in helping drive our economy forward. Of the 60% of respondents who said they face business difficulties, 45% cite lack of access to credit.”

And just how difficult is it for a startup to become successful?

In findings revealed by researcher and lecturer Shikhar Ghosh, and reported by The Wall Street Journal, three out of four startups fail miserably.

Noam Wasserman, who’s a professor at Harvard Business School told a New York Times reporter that many startups fail because having a good idea that investors eventually buy into is one thing, but taking those investment dollars and doing the right things to grow your company is an entirely different skillset.

“When you’re the creator of a company, you’re increasing the chances that you’re going to get fired," he said.

“And when you’re a smashing success, you’re also heightening the chances you’re going to get fired. There are some very concrete reasons for that. Often you begin with a technical founder, a scientific founder, someone with deep knowledge who is the best person to lead the charge during the early development of the product.”

“But as soon as they succeed at hitting that milestone, they have to go and build a company. Often they have the exact wrong set of skills for the next stage of development,” he said.

And as far as that wonderful dream about creating your own app and becoming the next beloved whiz kid, you may want to dream a different dream, because the reality of the situation is that two-thirds of the new apps released fail to get even 1,000 downloads, so of course they have to close up shop.

Stangler from Legal Zoom says his company’s research may not give a complete view of what the proper age is to begin a business, but after so many people were interviewed, he says it provides a clearer picture of what the average successful startup person looks like, in terms of age and experience.

“While the survey cannot be considered an entrepreneurship barometer, it does provide insights into the makeup and thought process of startup business owners,” he said.

So again, if you thought it might be too late to start that business and put your ideas to action, chances are, you’re dead wrong.

Starting April 25, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is changing its guidelines on Prohibited Items to allow airline passengers to carry small knives permitted in their carry-on luggage.

The knives must meet the following requirements to be allowed in carry-on bags:

• The blade must be no more than 2.36 inches or 6 cm in length -- from tip to where it meets the handle or hilt.
• The blade must be no more than ½ inch in width.

Knives with locking or fixed blades, molded grips and razors and box cutters are not permitted

If a passenger is unsure if an item meets the requirements, TSA suggests placing it in checked luggage.

Sports equipment

In addition to small knives, the following items of sports equipment will be allowed to be carried on a flight:

• Lacrosse Sticks
• Pool Sticks/Cues
• Golf Clubs (limited to 2)
• Hockey Sticks
• Ski Poles
• Bats more than 24 inches in length and less than 24 ounces

The agency says the decision to permit certain items in carry-on luggage was made as part of what it calls its “overall risk-based security approach,” and aligns TSA with International Civil Aviation Organization Standards and its European counterparts.

Difference of opinion

The president of TWU Local 556, the Southwest Airlines’ Flight Attendants Union, calls the decision "outrageous." Stacy K Martin says the new policy was designed "to make the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer."

He calls the change "an unnecessary risk for everyone who flies," adding that it is "dangerous, shortsighted and should be immediately rescinded."

Look, most of us can use a little extra sleep, but with today’s fast-paced way of doing things sometimes it can be a real challenge.

And with work, family and household pulling you in multiple directions, not to mention trying to keep up a social life, a good night’s sleep can be as elusive as an NFL running back.

And many times when we think of the people who may be sleep-deprived, we think of ourselves, our co-workers and other adults, but what most of us don’t think about, at least not usually, are teenagers.

But Dr. Lisa Meltzer, a sleep psychologist at National Jewish Health center in Denver says that adolescents need more sleep than anyone else, since their melatonin—the hormone that regulates sleep—shifts by about two hours compared to others, and requires them to get more Z's than the rest of us.

“When adolescents go through puberty, their circadian rhythm (or internal clock) moves later by about two hours,” said Meltzer in an interview with ConsumerAffairs.

“This is due to a change in the timing of their melatonin, the hormone that controls our internal clock."

"In sum, this makes it harder for teens to fall asleep early and wake early. For example, if you have a child who was sleeping from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., when they go through puberty their internal clock may now want to sleep from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. For most people, the internal clock moves back in the early twenties.”

Class times

Meltzer and her research team examined the sleep habits of 2,612 students, and among those studied, 500 students were home-schooled. The findings showed that students who were home-schooled slept about 90 minutes more than kids who either went to public or private school and those same students were in class about 18 minutes before home-schooled kids even woke up.

Meltzer believes that schools should take another look at what time classes start, as students being sleep-deprived can lead to a host of problems like poor school performance, behavioral issues and unsafe driving.

The results of the study also showed that 44.5 % of students in private and public schools lacked the proper amount of sleep, which may cause some to ask if establishing stricter sleep times and going to bed earlier would help bring some of those percentages down?

“Yes and no,” Meltzer says.

“Having a consistent bedtime and wake time seven days a week helps to regulate the internal clock, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up. If this set schedule includes an earlier bedtime, then teens may be able to get more sleep. However, if teens stay up late and sleep in on weekends, this makes it difficult to fall asleep early on school nights.”

“Also, if teens try to go to bed too early, they may lie in bed for prolonged periods of time, putting them at risk for insomnia. It is also important to understand that there are a number of factors that contribute to later bedtimes and deficient sleep, including homework, jobs, extracurricular activities, social media and technology.”

In addition, Meltzer says there are clear signs parents should look for when it comes to determining if their teens are getting enough sleep and although it’s considered pretty normal for teenagers to sleep until noon on the weekends, it could be a clear indication that they’re not getting enough sleep during the week.

“Weekend oversleep (sleeping more than two hours later on weekends than week days), difficulties waking in the morning (children should be up moving within 15 minutes of being awakened by a parent or alarm clock), falling asleep in school or other inappropriate places and behavior or mood changes following a poor night of sleep,” are all signs parents should watch for, says Meltzer.

Sleep therapy

In addition, she says that sometimes sleep therapy is needed for serious cases of improper sleep and the main goal in therapy sessions is to change all of the specific behaviors that contribute to one not sleeping enough.

“Behavioral sleep medicine is a specialty field that uses evidence-based interventions to address difficulties with falling asleep and/or staying asleep, as well as issues with poor sleep quality and daytime sleepiness,” Meltzer explains.

“Following a comprehensive evaluation, behavioral interventions focus on changing the habits, behaviors and other environmental factors that interfere with quality sleep. There is sometimes a need for cognitive interventions as well that address thoughts and beliefs that make it difficult to sleep. Interventions are usually brief, with most patients seeing improvements in 2-8 weeks.”

And sleep therapy should be sought when parents notice that a child’s daily functions are being affected, Meltzer says.

“Parents should seek treatment for their children when deficient or poor quality sleep interferes with daily functioning. This could include chronic tardiness, regular reports of falling asleep in school, a decline in grades or negative changes to mood or other aspects of functioning,” she says.

But isn’t there something parents and teens can do immediately to help with a sleeping problem?

Meltzer says yes, and one of the first things families should do is establish a consistent sleep time for everyone in the house, as this can directly shift one's behavior and help them develop better sleeping habits.

“Parents and teens need to go to bed and wake up at the same time seven days a week,” says Meltzer.

“If teens are going to stay up late and sleep in, this should be on Friday night/Saturday morning, but parents should make sure teens are awake early on Sunday morning in order to facilitate falling asleep Sunday night.”

“Everyone needs a consistent, relaxing bedtime routine, shutting technology off at least 30 minutes before bedtime [and] remove all technology from the bedroom by having a central charging station for smart phones, tablets, laptops and gaming devices,” Meltzer advises.

Okay, so you’re a musician and you’ve got tons of songs that you want others to hear, but you’re undecided on what route you should go in order to reach the most listeners and make a little money for yourself.

Of course you can throw your songs on Facebook or Twitter, but everyone does that and quite honestly those kinds of sites are more known for communicating between friends and followers rather than a being a place on the Internet that hardcore music fans flock to.

Also, most social networking sites don’t have a money-making component (except for themselves), so when songs are posted, the best an artist can hope for is that it's retweeted or posted again by a follower, while also hoping that your material will get to that one person who’s either in the music industry that can further your musical mission or someone not in the industry who is willing to invest in you and your project.

Either way, simply posting songs on the Facebooks and Twitters of the world doesn’t really allow you or your material to be singled out, as it's almost a certainty that your songs will be swept up with the millions of other people who are posting songs. Besides, posting material for your friends to hear, who probably already know that you do music, won’t get you or your songs very far.

Don’t get me wrong, posting your songs on these sites is a good start, but that’s all it is, a start. If you really want to get your material to the serious music listeners and connect with folks who like and appreciate your particular brand of music, you need to gete into Rhapsody, Spotify, Google Play, Zune, MOG, Amazon mp3 and of course iTunes, since these sites are solely for music and most times will allow you to make a couple of bucks from your songs.

So why not just send your material to places like Spotify and iTunes on your own, since they all seem eager to host music and work with artists who either may or may not be signed to a major label?

Well, the answer is quite simple. Although digital music stores have helped artists bypass the record label process by giving them an alternative outlet, many of the bigger stores like iTunes still won’t take just anyone, and they tend to follow the pattern of record labels, in that you either have to have a buzz or an inside connection to get on these sites.

Time for a middleman

Some unknown artists are able to get past the digital gatekeepers, but more times than not, if you’re just starting out and you think it’s going to be an easy time getting your songs on the bigger mp3 sites, there’s a good chance you’ll be very disappointed.

That’s where Catapultdistribution.com comes in, as it plays the digital middleman by allowing you to submit singles or entire albums to the company and they’ll reach out to all of the major mp3 stores on your behalf and find digital homes for your material.

Here’s how it works: Artists simply go to the website and for $25 they can upload an entire album or upload a song or ringtone for $9.

You’ll also be asked to enter needed information like song titles, guest features, and the song’s minute count. You also have to upload artwork for your project and pretty much shape what you want your album to look like once it’s sold in mp3 stores. And once the material is uploaded there are no other fees to pay.

From there, Catapult sends your songs to just about every major digital music store on the Internet and the company says that nine times out of ten, the company is successful at placing your songs in about three to six weeks’ time.

And once your songs are housed and people start purchasing them, Catapult takes 9% of the proceeds. 

Catapult also sends you all kinds of monthly reports like which of your songs sold the most and in which country each song was purchased.  The monthly reports are free with your $9 or $25 upload, but the company also offers daily reports for an extra fee of about $10 a month.

In order to use Catapult and get your songs distributed, you’ll need a barcode for your album or song, as the digital stores won’t accept your music without one, so if you haven’t set up a barcode for yourself as of yet, Catapult can set one up for you for a onetime fee of $20.

Original material preferred

Catapult is mostly for artists who have original material, but the company will also allow you to post covers of songs. However you have to get permission from the original artists and get the material licensed.

So if you want to get your songs out to the buying public and you don’t want to simply add them to the infinite pool of material that’s already on all of the social sites, than using a company like Catapult makes perfect sense, especially since you can create a link on your social site that brings your followers directly to the mp3 stores.

Because if you want to be a successful independent artist, you’ll have to use social media, mp3 stores, and any other outlet you can to get your songs heard and your music out there.

Is severe, continuous, disabling dizziness a stroke or something less serious? A small study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that a bedside electronic device that measures eye movements can make that determination successfully.

"Using this device can directly predict who has had a stroke and who has not," says David Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology and otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the study described in the journal Stroke. "We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on expensive stroke work-ups that are unnecessary, and probably missing the chance to save tens of thousands of lives because we aren't properly diagnosing their dizziness or vertigo as stroke symptoms."

Newman-Toker says if additional larger studies confirm these results, the device could one day be the equivalent of an electrocardiogram (EKG), a simple noninvasive test routinely used to rule out heart attack in patients with chest pain. And, he adds, universal use of the device could "virtually eliminate deaths from misdiagnosis and save a lot of time and money."

Diagnosing stroke

To distinguish stroke from a more benign condition, such as vertigo linked to an inner ear disturbance, specialists typically use three eye movement tests that are essentially a stress test for the balance system. In the hands of specialists, these bedside clinical tests (without the device) have been shown in several large research studies to be extremely accurate -- "nearly perfect, and even better than immediate MRI," says Newman-Toker.

One of those tests, known as the horizontal head impulse test, is the best predictor of stroke. To perform it, doctors or technicians ask patients to look at a target on the wall and keep their eyes on the target as doctors move the patients' heads from side to side. But, says Newman-Toker, it requires expertise to determine whether a patient is making the fast corrective eye adjustments that would indicate a benign form of dizziness as opposed to a stroke.

For the new study, researchers instead performed the same test using a small, portable device -- a video-oculography machine that detects minute eye movements that are difficult for most physicians to notice. The machine includes a set of goggles, akin to swimming goggles, with a USB-connected Webcam and an accelerometer in the frame.

The Webcam is hooked up to a laptop where a continuous picture of the eye is taken. Software interprets eye position based on movements and views of the pupil, while the accelerometer measures the speed of the movement of the head.

Preventing misdiagnosis

Newman-Toker says the test could easily be employed to prevent misdiagnosis of as many as 100,000 strokes a year, leading to earlier stroke diagnosis and more efficient triage and treatment decisions for patients with disabling dizziness. Overlooked strokes mean delayed or missed treatments that lead to roughly 20,000 to 30,000 preventable deaths or disabilities a year, he says.

The technology, he adds, could someday be used in a smartphone application to enable wider access to a quick and accurate diagnosis of strokes whose main symptom is dizziness, as opposed to one-sided weakness or garbled speech.

The diagnosis of stroke in patients with severe dizziness, vomiting, difficulty walking and intolerance to head motion is difficult, Newman-Toker says. He estimates there are four million emergency department visits annually in the United States for dizziness or vertigo, at least half a million of which involve patients at high risk for stroke.

The most common causes are benign inner ear conditions, but many emergency room doctors, Newman-Toker says, find it nearly impossible to tell the difference between the benign conditions and something more serious, such as a stroke. So they often rely on brain imaging -- usually a CT scan, an expensive and inaccurate technology for this particular diagnosis.

Extremely accurate

The Hopkins-led study enrolled 12 patients at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, who later underwent confirmatory MRI. Six were diagnosed with stroke and six with a benign condition using video-oculography. MRI later confirmed all 12 diagnoses.

The device was developed overseas and is used in balance clinics there, but is not yet approved for use in the United States. A company, GN Otometrics, which makes the devices used in Newman-Toker's proof-of-concept study, lent them to the research team, but did not have any involvement, financial or otherwise, in the study, he says.

Newman-Toker says head CT scans are ordered for roughly 40 percent of patients who come to the emergency room with dizziness, but that CT misses more than 80 percent of acute strokes occurring in the brainstem and cerebellum, making it impossible to rule out stroke in dizzy patients this way.

Instead, MRI is the definitive test, though it isn't readily available in many emergency departments or in rural hospitals, and it costs roughly four times the price of a CT scan. MRI also misses 10 to 20 percent of this type of stroke in the first 48 hours after symptoms begin, he says.

If ADP's forecast is on the money, the economy cranked out nearly 200,000 new jobs last month.

The payroll processing firm, in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics, estimates private sector employment increased by 198,000 jobs from January to February.

The company's National Employment Report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The January report, which predicted job gains of 192,000, was revised higher by 23,000 -- to 215,000 jobs.

"In February 2013, the U.S. private sector added a total of 198,000 new jobs, with most of this job growth occurring in the services sector," noted Carlos A. Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. "This growth can be attributed to comparable contributions across all three company size segments."

Nuts and bolts

Small businesses -- those with 49 or fewer employees -- added 77,000 jobs in February. Employment levels among medium-sized companies with 50-499 employees rose by 65,000, while employment at large companies -- those with 500 or more employees -- increased by 57,000.

By sector, companies providing services created an estimated 164,000 jobs. Trade/transportation/utilities services showed the largest gain with 45,000 jobs added over the month. Business/professional services added 35,000 jobs and financial activities added 7,000 jobs.

Goods-producing employment rose by 34,000 jobs in February, driven largely by a gain in construction jobs of 21,000. Meanwhile, manufacturers added 9,000 jobs.

“The job market remains sturdy in the face of significant fiscal headwinds,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Businesses are adding to payrolls more strongly at the start of 2013 with gains across all industries and business sizes. Tax increases and government spending cuts don’t appear to be affecting the job market.”

Regency Seating, of Akron, OH is recalling about 750 Oakmont fabric stackable chairs.

The weld connecting the legs to the seat can break, posing a fall hazard to consumers.

The recalled chairs are four-legged stackable chairs sold under the Oakmont name. The chairs have a metal frame with padded fabric seat and back cushions. The cushions come in black, blue or burgundy. The model number, manufacture date "5-2011" and part number "PO000837" are on a white label under the seat of the recalled chairs. Chairs with the following descriptions and model numbers are being recalled:

The chairs, manufactured in China, were sold exclusively at Global Industrial Equipment, both online and in its catalog from May 2011 to May 2012 for between $38 and $40.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled chairs and contact Regency for a free replacement.

Consumers may contact Regency Seating toll-free at (866) 816-9822 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or by e-mail at recall@regencyof.com.

You can say what you want about greedy capitalists, money-mad CEOs and so forth, but you can't say there's no fighting spirit in American business anymore.

Here we have two companies, Google and Amazon, that already qualify for the Masters of the Universe title but neither is content to simply suck the bones of those it has already eaten and spit out.

Both continue to scour the battlefield, seeking survivors that it can feast upon. But as the field thins, the titans eventually cast their gaze upon each other.

And so it is that Google, master of the cyberworld, covets what may be the greatest marketing program of the modern era -- Amazon's Prime program. Amazon doesn't release details but anecdotal evidence -- you know, the kind you get looking in the mirror, talking to friends and eavesdropping on strangers -- indicates that Prime members are almost constantly buying something from Amazon.

Personally, not a day goes by that I don't buy a Kindle book or article, buy a piece of work-related electronics gear, order another few boxes of Keurig coffee or find an excuse to buy just a few more LED light bulbs (hey, we all have our little obsessions).

Lots of stuff

On the rare occasions when I visit an actual store, like Fry's football-field-sized electronics store in Burbank, I'm dumbfounded at how much stuff they have just sitting around, hoping someone will come along and buy it. I know, Amazon has all that stuff sitting around too but it's invisible to normal humans, i.e., those who don't work at Amazon.

So anyway, TechCrunch and other industry rags are saying that Google thinks it can match Amazon and steal away some of its prime Prime members, offering same-day delivery service, tentatively called Google Shopping Express.

Same-day delivery is sort of the Higgs Boson of retailing. It's really important but kind of hard to find when you need it.

Drone force

Just how Google thinks it can zap stuff to you the same day when people like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy haven't managed to roll it out on any kind of scale other than one small enough to fit on your kitchen counter is a question that's still unanswered.

Will it use those driverless Google cars to make the deliveries, maybe? That's fine but how will it get the package from the car to your door -- shoot it from a cannon? Or maybe Big G will have its own air force of drones that will fly over and drop the stuff on your house?

No, it's not quite that exotic. Apparently, from published reports, Google is hoping to serve as a "store shelf" for existing brick-and-mortar stores, like Target and Walgreens. You order the stuff and somebody grabs it off the shelf and zips it over to you.

This is sort of where Google has been headed for a long time. As my colleague Jim Hood pointed out yesterday, Google was once a search engine that, if you wanted to buy a car, helped you find the online sites that would take you to the dealers that had the car you wanted. It's now working to squeeze out the online sites and, for all we know, may hope to crush the dealers as well.

Why not? Want a car, Google it and it will drive itself over to you. Need toothpaste? Google Shopping Express is there for you.

Like Amazon Prime, Google Shopping Express would not be free. You'd pay $70 or so a year. Perhaps, just like Amazon, you'd get free video streaming from Google Play and so forth and so on.

It all sounds just peachy, I guess, though it sometimes seems like grown people with fancy degrees ought to spend their lives on something a little more important, doesn't it? Like that Higgs Boson thing. 

President Obama thinks you should be able to use your cellphone on any carrier's network. This sounds pretty simple and straightforward but it has huge implications for consumers and cellphone carriers.

It wasn't, after all, all that long ago that the only device you could hook up to your telephone line was one the telephone company installed and maintained.

It seems hard to believe now but back in, say, 1975, you couldn't just go to Office Depot, buy a fax machine and plug it into your phone line. In fact, there weren't any fax machines to speak of.

The wireless carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc. -- have been lobbying heavily against any change that breaks their stranglehold on the smartphones, tablets and other devices that run on today's cell networks. They note that their phones can now be unlocked under certain circumstances, although critics say the process is unwieldy. 

Freedom now

What's perhaps truly amazing is that the Obama Administration's change of heart is at least partly in response to a "Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal" petition drive that gathered more than 114,300 digital signatures.

The drive was organized after the Library of Congress, which has authority over certain copyright issues, banned the practice of "cracking" cellphones and switching them to another network. The cellphone companies had argued that the practice violated copyright restrictions on their software and the Library of Congress agreed.

But the hackers who would like to have control of their property -- to wit, their phones -- took it to the street, their petition drive being the shot heard 'round the world by those who think consumers should be able to use their devices on any network and with any software they choose.

This is also an issue that is bubbling along beneath the surface in the laptop, tablet and desktop world. Certain manufacturers have been making it difficult bordering on impossible to run their computers on anything but Windows. Apple, of course, has always been a proprietary system.

But a large and growing number of gearheads, artists, creative types and entrepreneurs prefer to run Linux-based Open Source software, not so much because it is freely shared but because, well, it just runs better, is more secure and can be easily customized.

Sugar Daddy phones

There is, however, one big hitch in the Open Source movement when it comes to cell phones -- namely, money.

When you walk into a Verizon, AT&T or Sprint store and plop down $200 for a new smartphone, you're also signing a two- or three-year contract to buy wireless service, in exchange for which the carrier steeply discounts the purchase price.

That $200 HTC, Samsung or Motorola that's buzzing happily in your pocket? It costs $500 or $600 without a service contract.

Freedom, as they say, is not free.

In theory, of course, if you buy your own phone outright, you should be able to sign up for wireless service at a discounted rate so that over time, you would pay about the same total amount over a two- or three-year period, maybe even a bit less.

In time, market forces will probably make that happen, especially as a more open marketplace encourages new carriers to get into the game. After all, if a carrier didn't have to have a nationwide network of stores to sell devices and didn't have to spend millions on inventory, advertising and marketing, it would be a much simpler business.

None of this will happen tomorrow, of course. Obama can't press a magic button that releases everyone from their cellphone contract and in its statement, the White House noted that consumers should honor their existing contracts but made clear which side of the fence it's landing on. 

Common sense

"Consumers should be able to unlock their cellphones without risking criminal or other penalties," said R. David Edelman, an Obama administration adviser on Internet and privacy issues. He said it's just plain "common sense" and "crucial for protecting consumer choice."

While nothing concrete will happen immediately, by throwing its weight behind unlocking cell phones, the White House is starting the process of changing public policy. It's always a messy process but it does enable lobbyists to put their children through colleges and it keeps the Audi and Lexus dealers in business, so there must be something good about it.

Sometimes it's seemingly abstract issues like this that wind up being what a presidency is remembered for.

Jimmy Carter deregulated the airlines. AT&T was broken up on Ronald Reagan's watch. Bill Clinton made it easier to get a mortgage. Oops, maybe we'd better stop there.  

Most people realize that getting a mortgage to buy a home is a lot harder than it used to be but they don't expect to jump through as many hoops when they refinance a current mortgage.

After all, assuming they work with the lender that is already servicing their present mortgage, it's reasonable to assume that refinancing a mortgage would be a smooth process. If the borrower has been making on-time payments for several years, they shouldn't be considered much of a risk, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. The lending standards and documentation requirements put in place after the housing meltdown apply to all loans. When you refinance your mortgage, you may look at it as a simple update, obtaining a lower interest rate. The lender looks at it like a brand-new loan, which it is.

Familiar complaint

David, of Galesburg, Ill., contacted us recently with a very familiar complaint. His current interest rate on his 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 5.375%. If he refinanced for 15 years at 3.1%, he'd have the same monthly payment but would pay off the loan in half the time. Since his payment wasn't changing, David thought nothing could be simpler.

David said he was surprised by how slow the process turned out to be.

“I started the re-fi November 2012,” he writes. “Every time I turn around they are claiming they need a different document. Some documents have been submitted at least twice, and most recently they want a copy of my Schedule E from my 2011 taxes. They claimed they could not read the one faxed months ago.”

David is convinced the bank is delaying on purpose, but it probably isn't. It simply needs a lot more documentation than it did in the past.

Underwriter demands

For one thing, the investors who are underwriting the mortgage are demanding it. They got burned on mortgage-backed securities four years ago and are taking no chances. It's possible the lender hasn't completely adjusted to the new circumstances and isn't managing the document flow as efficiently as it should.

“So I began the application process and provided all of the required information and documentation needed for the application including credit information, employment verification, 4605T IRS information and returns for the last two years, letters of explanation (LOX) for credit inquiries and income verification statements,” Carlton wrote. “This occurred for about a month. I was informed that I would have to have to pay for two non refundable appraisals done on both of my properties in order to get the loan approved. The cost of two appraisals was over $1,100. I asked were there any other concerns regarding my financial status before moving forward with the appraisals and I was told 'no' by the loan officer. The appraisals were done on January 31, 2013. The loan officer stated that the appraisals were in good shape and that we could proceed to the underwriter to have the loan cleared to close. This was on February 7, 2013.”

Things changed

Carlton said three weeks went by without approval. Every time he called the loan officer he said he was told it was in the hands of the underwriter. Finally, he was told that refinancing both properties would make his debt-to-income ratio too high; one of the properties would have to be kicked out.

Though Carlton doesn't think it's fair, the lenders will argue that the tougher standards are what was needed to stem the surge of defaults and foreclosures. And, they will tell you it's working.

In February the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.09% of all loans outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, the lowest level since 2008, the start of the housing collapse. The serious delinquency rate, the percentage of loans 90 days or more past due or in the process of foreclosure, was 6.78%, a decrease of 25 basis points from last quarter, and a decrease of 95 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2011.

“We are seeing large improvements in mortgage performance nationally and in almost every state,” said Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research. “With fewer new delinquencies, the foreclosure start rate and foreclosure inventory rates continue to fall and are at their lowest levels since 2007 and 2008 respectively.”

While consumers may be unhappy, the lenders are seeing their numbers move in the right direction. It all means that consumers must prepare themselves for this new reality if and when they decide to refinance their mortgage.

You've probably seen the upbeat, peppy TV commercials for car title loans -- scenes of happy people who were loaned instant cash, just for turning over their car title as collateral.

But these consumers are rarely ever smiling for long, according to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Consumer Federation of America (CFA). The report finds that, like payday loans, car title loans are a huge business in the U.S, raking in $3.6 billion in interest payments each year, often at rates of over 300%.

“These are loans that don't benefit the consumer,” said Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for CRL. “They put them in a debt trap, requiring them to take out the same loan over and over. There's no attempt by the lender to assess the borrower's ability to repay. It's a predatory, payday loan with the use of a car as collateral.”

What missing a payment can mean

Magala, of Fontana, Calif., says she took out a $2,500 car title loan from 1800 Loan Mart in December and made a $250 payment the first month.

“We failed to make a payment for the month of January,” Magala writes in a ConsumerAffairs post. “Come the first week of February our vehicle was missing, it got repossessed.”

Magala says she called the company and was told she needed to make a payment of $970 to get her vehicle back.

“We asked what the full amount of the loan was and they said it was $3,500,” Magala writes. “A $2,500 loan went to $3,500 in a matter of a month!”

Day says such things are fairly common in the car title loan industry.

Crazy

“The people who get these loans pay twice as much in interest as the principal they borrowed,” she said. “They pay back the loan, plus twice that much in interest. It's crazy.”

In effect, car-title loans are high-cost loans usually structured as a small, 30-day debt secured by the title to a vehicle owned outright by a borrower. To get one of these loans, the borrower must own the vehicle free and clear. Since the people who get car title loans rarely are able to finance a vehicle, that's hardly ever an issue.

According to Day, car title loans share many of payday loans’ predatory features: A triple-digit interest rate, a balloon payment at the end of the loan’s term, and – critically – a failure by the lender to evaluate a borrower’s ability to repay.

They usually have a similar effect as a payday loan. The borrower is caught in a debt trap that leaves many borrowers worse off than when they started.

One in six faces repossession

The new report found, for example, that one in six car-title borrowers studied faced repossession, endangering what is often a family’s most important asset: their car. Repossession fees compound the damage, piling additional costs on the borrower that typically equal half of the outstanding loan balance. Adding insult to injury, it's a terrible deal for the borrower.

“A typical borrower receives cash worth 26% of the car's value,” Day said. “So oftentimes, if the car does get repossessed, the car is worth way more than the amount of the loan.”

The report found that there are more than 7,000 car title lenders operating in 21 states, making 1.7 million loans each year. The average car-title borrower renews a loan eight times, paying $2,142 in interest for $951 of credit.

The report concludes these loans would be less predatory if they were structured as an installment loan, with reasonable limits on interest. It calls for an evaluation of the borrower's ability to pay and a range of consumer protections in case of default. In the meantime, consumers should realize a car title loan is not the answer to their problem.

“Oftentimes, the people who take out these loans are desperate and are doing it to try and avoid borrowing from a relative or friend,” Day said. “And then they end up having to borrow from that person anyway to repay the loan.”

A frightening family of "nightmare" bacteria kills up to its victims, who are often hospital patients infected by health care personnel, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling for an urgent response from hospitals and their staffs.

The bacteria, Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), kill up to half of patients who get bloodstream infections from them.

"CRE are nightmare bacteria.  Our strongest antibiotics don’t work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.  "Doctors, hospital leaders, and public health  must work together now to implement CDC’s "detect and protect" strategy and stop these infections from spreading."

During just the first half of 2012, almost 200 hospitals and long-term acute care facilities treated at least one patient infected with these bacteria, according to the CDC's Vital Signs report published today.

In addition to spreading among patients, often on the hands of health care personnel, CRE bacteria can transfer their resistance to other bacteria within their family. This type of spread can create additional life-threatening infections for patients in hospitals and potentially for otherwise healthy people.

Currently, almost all CRE infections occur in people receiving significant medical care in hospitals, long-term acute care facilities, or nursing homes.

According to the report, during the first half of 2012, four percent f  hospitals treated a patient with a CRE infection.  About 18 percent of long-term acute care facilities treated a patient with a CRE infection during that time.

What to do

In 2012, CDC released a concise, practical CRE prevention toolkit with in-depth recommendations for hospitals, long-term acute care facilities, nursing homes and health departments. Key recommendations include:

• enforcing use of infection control precautions (standard and contact precautions)
• grouping patients with CRE together
• dedicating staff, rooms and equipment to the care of patients with CRE whenever possible
• having facilities alert each other when patients with CRE transfer back and forth
• asking patients whether they have recently received care somewhere else (including another country)
• using antibiotics wisely

In addition, CDC recommends screening patients in certain scenarios to determine if they are carrying CRE.  Because of the way CRE can be carried by patients from one health care setting to another, facilities are encouraged to work together regionally to implement CRE prevention programs.

In some parts of the world, CRE appear to be more common, and evidence shows they can be controlled.  Israel recently employed a coordinated effort in its 27 hospitals and dropped CRE rates by more than 70 percent. Several facilities and states in the U.S. have also seen similar reductions. 

"We have seen in outbreak after outbreak that when facilities and regions follow CDC’s prevention guidelines, CRE can be controlled and even stopped," said Michael Bell, M.D., acting director of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. "As trusted health care providers, it is our responsibility to prevent further spread of these deadly bacteria."

It seems that American Express is trying its hand in the e-commerce game in its new partnership with Twitter, and so far, it looks like consumers can take advantage of some pretty good deals, well at least for now.

Although this is probably Amex’s biggest foray into e-commerce, it’s not its first, as the global company has already linked with the likes of Facebook and Foursquare in an attempt to take advantage of the growing relationship between social media and online shopping.

Leslie Berland, Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships and Development at American Express says the company is moving aggressively to link itself with social media platforms, which she says is necessary due to the wide-ranging number of services that American Express provides its cardholders.

“The digital transformation occurring at American Express cuts across many business units, and it has to because of the breadth and depth of our business,” she said in a published interview.

“From customer service to merchant services to our entertainment and travel business units, to corporate affairs, as well as our newly-formed digital partnerships and development team, social media is a company-wide initiative.

Berland says as social media expands so will American Express’s attempts to expand with it, which is imperative for the company to do if it wants to remain competitive in today’s Internet-driven world, where consumers look at shopping and being online as one and the same.

How it works

Here’s how the new Amex program will work:

American Express card holders will have to sync their cards to Twitter at sync.americanexpress.com/twitter, but the program only works for actual cardholders and not for folks who hold American Express prepaid or gift cards.

From there, users check the Twitter feed to look for certain hashtags, and if they see a hashtag that’s attached to a desired product, they would tweet it, which syncs the deal to your card. You would then take your card into a brick-and-mortar store or to an online site to take advantage of the discount.

What’s different about Amex Sync is that users won’t have to retrieve a confirmation number or show a printed document to take advantage of the discounted offer; they would simply use their card as they normally would, since the offer is automatically transferred onto the card.

More to come

And according to Berland, American Express cardholders should expect to see a lot more opportunities that will allow them to take advantage of both e-commerce and social media, as this appears to be a very strong focus for the company moving forward.

“We are continuously evolving, and as a 162-year old company, have done that over the course of our history, she says. “That evolution will continue as the digital space matures, and social media platforms are the digital manifestations of community and membership—which are at the core of American Express.”

In addition, the program is really great for American Express, since it provides free marketing for the company with each Tweet that’s sent, and it also makes the company more relevant to younger consumers who tend to stay on Twitter day and night.

“Based on the initial success of Amex Sync for offers, we know there is significant power in combining our assets with Twitter’s platform to bring value to Card members and merchants,” said Berland.

“Now, we’re leveraging our unique technology and closed-loop network to introduce a seamless solution that redefines what’s possible in the world of social commerce.”

For months, Fox has been rumored to be planning a sports cable network, and it turns out that baseball fans' gain will be car-racing fans' loss.

Fox will be rebranding its Speed channel to Fox Sports 1, an all-purpose sports network, presumably along the lines of ESPN.

While Speed might be considered a niche channel, it's a pretty big niche and it puts Fox in the pole position to launch a more broadly focused channel, since Speed already reaches an estimated 80 million homes -- a huge chunk of the cable universe.

But while the new channel. launching in August, hopes to carry Nascar races, Major League Baseball, college basketball and football and so on, it will have to wrest the rights away from ESPN in many cases.

ESPN is a media Goliath with eight domestic cable channels and an estimated $6 billion in revenue. Of course, Fox is no slouch either and its impresario, Rupert Murdoch, loves nothing better than a good fight, race, bout, match or contest, so it should be an exciting time for sports fans.

Now all we need is for someone to build an affordable multi-screen TV so we can watch all this stuff.

You normally think of IKEA as providing cheap furniture in a box. But in a new venture, an IKEA subsidiary will be providing a cheap hotel room in a box.

IKEA and Marriott Corp. are putting together an effort to create thousands of cheap hotel rooms in Europe. But you can leave your Allen wrench at home, the hotels won't use IKEA furniture.

Marriott calls the new chain its "first entry into the economy tier, three-star hospitality segment in Europe." That's what we said -- cheap rooms.

"Designed to capture the rapidly emerging millennial traveler, the new brand combines contemporary stylish design, approachable service and, most importantly, an affordable price," Marriott said in a prepared statement. 

Inter IKEA, the furniture chain's parent company, is investing around $500 million to help build 50 of the budget hotels in Europe over the next five years, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

As Europe transforms itself into a gigantic Disneylandish attraction dedicated to memorializing its quaint ethnic and cultural history, there's an unending demand for cheap hotel rooms to accommodate a world population that increasingly spends its time plodding around touristy cities visiting the same clothing and curio shops that exist back home, taking time out for an occasional break at the nearest Starbucks.

The rooms themselves will be modular, we're told. They'll be prefabricated offsite, then snapped together by assemblers who'll be paid a lot less than the skilled construction workers who now build and remodel hotels.

The hotel chain is being called Moxy. It's aimed at younger, stylish travelers on a budget, not creaky retirees who demand more lavish surroundings. The first hotel is expected to open in Milan in a year or so. Marriott describes the concept in this video:

“Moxy Hotels is the essence of the next generation traveler, not only Gen X and Y but people with a younger sensibility, for whom contemporary style is paramount,” said Arne Sorenson, President and CEO of Marriott International. “Every aspect of the hotel was thoughtfully researched and crafted to reflect and deliver on the changing lifestyles and expectations of this fast-growing customer segment. We believe Marriott will lead the way in redefining the traditional economy hotel experience throughout Europe."

Flying around the country -- or at least getting on the plane -- is about to get easier for some travelers.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says five more airports will offer Pre-Check, bringing the total number of airports participating to 40.

By April 1, 2013, eligible passengers flying on participating airlines out of Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS), Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE), Memphis International (MEM), Nashville International (BNA) and Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) airports may receive Pre-Check benefits.

Select passengers traveling on Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways are eligible to participate in expedited screening at available locations. To date, more than 6.5 million passengers have experienced Pre-Check which allows passengers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belt, keep their laptop in its case and their 3-1-1 compliant liquids/gels bag in a carry-on.

“Offering Pre-Check at five additional airports is a key step to including more low risk travelers in the expedited screening process,” said TSA Administrator John S. Pistole. “This pre-screening initiative helps TSA focus its resources on those individuals we know less about, and strengthens our capabilities to ensure security for travelers when they fly.”

Who's eligible?

Eligible passengers include U.S. citizens who have opted-in through Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways as well as those who are members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler programs, including Global Entry, SENTRI and NEXUS.

Canadian citizens traveling domestically in the United States who are members of NEXUS are also qualified to participate in Pre-Check. Individuals interested in joining a CBP Trusted Traveler program can learn more here.

Passengers 12 and younger are allowed through Pre-Check lanes with eligible passengers. Additionally, U.S. military active duty members may also participate when traveling through Charlotte Douglas International, Denver International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Honolulu International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Seattle-Tacoma International and Washington Dulles International airports.

TSA anticipates expanding these military benefits to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall and Lambert-St. Louis International airports when operationally ready.

How it works

If TSA determines a passenger is eligible for Pre-Check, information is embedded in the barcode of the passenger’s boarding pass. TSA scans the boarding pass at the designated Pre-Check lane where the passenger may experience the expedited screening process.

TSA incorporates random and unpredictable security measures throughout the airport and no individual is guaranteed expedited screening. TSA’s multi-layered approach to security also includes behavior detection officers, explosives-detection systems, canine teams, and federal air marshals -- among other measures -- both seen and unseen.

The fact that healthcare costs are continuing to rise is well-known to almost everyone. And that, naturally provides a market for those who would try to cash in by offering you ways to avoid those hefty costs by with products claiming to be a “miracle cure,” a “revolutionary scientific breakthrough,” or an “alternative to drugs or surgery.”

Health fraud scams have been around for hundreds of years with the snake oil salesmen of old morphing into the deceptive, high-tech marketers of today. They prey on people’s desires for easy solutions to difficult health problems -- from losing weight to curing serious diseases like cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a health product as “fraudulent” if it is deceptively promoted as being effective against a disease or health condition but has not been scientifically proven safe and effective for that purpose.

Scammers promote their products through newspapers, magazines, TV infomercials and cyberspace. You can find health fraud scams in retail stores and on countless Websites, in pop-up ads and spam, and on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Not worth the risk

Health fraud scams can do more than waste your money. They can cause serious injury or even death, says Gary Coody, R.Ph., FDA’s national health fraud coordinator. “Using unproven treatments can delay getting a potentially life-saving diagnosis and medication that actually works. Also, fraudulent products sometimes contain hidden drug ingredients that can be harmful when unknowingly taken by consumers.”

Coody says fraudulent products often make claims related to:

• weight loss
• sexual performance
• memory loss
• serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and Alzheimer’s.

A pervasive problem

Fraudulent products not only won’t work -- they could cause serious injury. In the past few years, FDA laboratories have found more than 100 weight-loss products, illegally marketed as dietary supplements, that contained sibutramine, the active ingredient in the prescription weight-loss drug Meridia. In 2010, Meridia was withdrawn from the U.S. market after studies showed that it was associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Fraudulent products marketed as drugs or dietary supplements are not the only health scams on the market. FDA found a fraudulent and expensive light therapy device with cure-all claims to treat fungal meningitis, Alzheimer’s, skin cancer, concussions and many other unrelated diseases. Generally, making health claims about a medical device without FDA clearance or approval of the device is illegal.

“Health fraud is a pervasive problem,” says Coody, “especially when scammers sell online. It’s difficult to track down the responsible parties. When we do find them and tell them their products are illegal, some will shut down their Website. Unfortunately, however, these same products may reappear later on a different Website, and sometimes may reappear with a different name.”

Tip-offs

FDA says these are some signs that a product or service may be bogus:

• One product does it all. Be suspicious of products that claim to cure a wide range of diseases. A New York firm claimed its products marketed as dietary supplements could treat or cure senile dementia, brain atrophy, atherosclerosis, kidney dysfunction, gangrene, depression, osteoarthritis, dysuria, and lung, cervical and prostate cancer. In October 2012, at FDA’s request, U.S. marshals seized these products.
• Personal testimonials. Success stories, such as, “It cured my diabetes” or “My tumors are gone,” are easy to make up and are not a substitute for scientific evidence.
• Quick fixes. Few diseases or conditions can be treated quickly, even with legitimate products. Beware of language such as, “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days” or “eliminates skin cancer in days.”
• “All natural.” Some plants found in nature (such as poisonous mushrooms) can kill when consumed. Moreover, FDA has found numerous products promoted as “all natural” but that contain hidden and dangerously high doses of prescription drug ingredients or even untested active artificial ingredients.
• “Miracle cure.” Alarms should go off when you see this claim or others like it such as, “new discovery,” “scientific breakthrough” or “secret ingredient.” If a real cure for a serious disease were discovered, it would be widely reported through the media and prescribed by health professionals—not buried in print ads, TV infomercials or on Internet sites.
• Conspiracy theories. Claims like “The pharmaceutical industry and the government are working together to hide information about a miracle cure” are always untrue and unfounded. These statements are used to distract consumers from the obvious, common-sense questions about the so-called miracle cure.