PFIZER AND OTHER large pharmaceutical corporations are pushing to block legislation that would make it easier for whistleblowers to hold companies liable for corporate fraud. In the midst of a dizzying legislative environment, with much attention focused on the Build Back Better debate, major corporate interests, including Pfizer, are fighting an update to the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law that rewards whistleblowers for filing anti-fraud lawsuits against contractors on behalf of the government. The law has historically returned $67 billion to the government, with whistleblowers successfully helping uncover wrongdoing by military contractors, banks, and pharmaceutical companies. The law has been particularly thorny for Pfizer.…

E-books in relation to study and research There is much debate in the literature about which format will prevail – electronic or print. Some authors argue that electronic will replace print, while others do not see electronic as ever being an alternative to print books for all purposes. Most have hedged their bets. Studies on user behaviour indicate that print and e-books are not used in the same way. In the academic environment, e-books are generally used for quick reference, but for more serious study users prefer print books. Obviously, print books and e-books enable different learning styles, and as…

Some key questions lie at the heart of investigations into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, including what is known about the earliest COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, China, and what can be learned from them? Despite assertions to the contrary (1), it is now clear that live mammals susceptible to coronaviruses, including raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides), were sold at Huanan Market and three other live-animal markets in Wuhan before the pandemic (2, 3). Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs) were found in raccoon dogs during the SARS outbreak, which was facilitated by animal-to-human contact in live-animal markets in China. However, because…

A massive internet outage Tuesday that took down multiple sites, including Breitbart News, appears to be the result of a global issue with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). ZDNet reports that at around 12:53 p.m. EST multiple sites went down across the internet. Google reported at the time that it was facing a global issue with its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) networking at the time. Websites including Spotify, Facebook, and Breitbart News were affected by the outage. At its peak, DownDetector showed how widespread the issue was noting that online services from Pokémon Go to the Home Depot website were being affected. Experts…

LiKE most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what…