Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. So how do you protect yourself? By hiding your data.

Microsoft has blamed computer makers for the Windows XP service pack three (SP3) install debacle that has wreaked havoc on PCs.

The firm said today that the endless reboot cock-up reported by many XP customers after installing SP3 was not a new issue. In fact, Microsoft first identified the problem when Windows XP SP2 was released four years ago.

It said that the snafu, in part, relates to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – understood to include the world’s biggest computer vendor Hewlett-Packard – loading the wrong “Sysprepped”* XP image on to machines with non-Intel chipsets.

“Microsoft is aware of a reboot issue experienced by some users who have attempted to install Windows XP SP3,” said a Microsoft spokesman. “While the root cause of this issue is complex, it results from OEMs improperly placing a Windows XP image created for an Intel-based computer onto machines with non-Intel chipsets. Microsoft issued guidance to OEMs advising them to only load Windows XP images onto like hardware in 2004.”

Indeed, the software giant also updated a knowledge base document (888372) on the same day it spat out the final XP service pack on 6 May.

It points out that the Intel processor driver (Intelppm.sys) may try to load on non-Intel-based PCs because of an errant registry key left over from the original Sysprep image that was intended for Intel machines only.

The Microsoft spokesman, however, added that: “Until we complete our investigation, it would be premature to comment on any theory.” That suggests the firm is looking into more than one issue with installs of SP3.

Meanwhile, AMD has responded to our request for comment – perhaps unsurprisingly, it sang from the same hymn sheet as Microsoft on the service pack blunder:

“The problem is the result of applying a non-AMD processor Windows operating system image to AMD processor-based PCs; this is a configuration issue only and not an HP platform, AMD processor, or operating system issue,” it said.

However, the chip maker also reckons that Microsoft is working on a fix that should be available in the next few days.

Many will probably find that a surprising, and perhaps even optimistic statement, given that the Sysprep image issue has been something that Redmond, OEMs and chip vendors have been aware of since 2004.

Yesterday we reported one theory from Reg reader Gary who pointed out that Microsoft appears to have left key updates out of the automatic version of SP3 (316MB), given that it’s missing 238MB compared to the manual .ISO version of the service pack (554MB).

So perhaps the fix is a simple one – Microsoft will bundle all the necessary processor drivers onto the automatic update.

But while the outcome remains uncertain, we recommend you take Gary’s advice and install the manual version by downloading the full .ISO file onto a CD.

President Bush signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Described as a “national contingency plan” the justification for the new law S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is that it represents preparation for any sort of “public health emergency.”

The bill states that the federal government should “continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening” and “maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening… ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly”.

Sections of the bill also make it clear that DNA may be used in genetic experiments and tests.

Rival gangs spark chaos at high school campus; 4 students arrested

LOS ANGELES - A fight that broke out at a troubled South Los Angeles high school escalated into a campus-wide brawl involving as many as 600 students before it was quelled by police in riot gear.

The melee, which students said started around noon Friday between rival black and Hispanic gangs, forced authorities to shut down Locke High School and keep students in their classrooms. After restoring order, they rounded up students who had not returned to class and separated them by race, holding Hispanics in the gym and black students in another room.

Four people were arrested, three students for fighting and one non-student on suspicion of possessing a knife, Los Angeles school district spokeswoman Susan Cox said.

Several students were injured and treated at the scene, but nobody was hospitalized, officials said.

Music teacher Reggie Smith described to the Los Angeles Times a chaotic scene where it was difficult to distinguish between troublemakers and those trying to avoid the mayhem.

“The kids were crazy, running from place to place jumping on other kids,” Smith said. “Some of my kids were crying because they were walking to class with friends and they got jumped.”

Tagger war triggers chaos
Victor Wong, an 18-year-old senior, told the Times the melee grew out of a fight two days earlier between two graffiti gangs. He said Hispanic students who are friends of his asked him to participate in a fight planned for Friday that was to pit 10 Hispanic students against 10 black students.

The two groups met as planned at the handball courts, but the fight quickly spread throughout the campus, Wong said.

“Security didn’t know where to go,” he said. “They’d concentrate in one spot and something would happen somewhere else.”

Police teams dispatched
School district police brought in about 60 officers to the scene, while the Los Angeles Police Department dispatched about 50 officers and more than a dozen patrol cars.

Ronald White, a 17-year-old senior, said that when police arrived some of the students began fighting the officers, who responded with their batons. Another student said he saw police use pepper spray.

Locke has been marred by almost daily fights during much of the academic year, but students and teachers said Friday’s brawl was the worst in years.

About 65 percent of the 2,600 students enrolled at Locke are Hispanic, and 35 percent are black.

Microsoft’s service pack three (SP3) for Windows XP has caused havoc on hundreds of PCs, just hours after it was released as an automatic update.

Angry customers have vented their spleen on the firm’s Windows XP message board, posting complaints that include spontaneous PC reboots and system crashes after the service pack installs.

Poster Dan said: “I installed SP3 this morning but when rebooting it loops between startup screen and restarting screen. I can boot into safe mode. Is uninstalling XP service pack 3 the only resolution?”

Doug W complained: “After three attempts [to install XP SP3] with different configurations each time, System Restore was the only way to get me out of deep sh*t.”

Similar problems were reported by frustrated customers throughout the message board.

Microsoft finally released XP SP3 on Tuesday this week. It was supposed to be available last week, but an eleventh hour FAIL between the service pack and its point-of-sale application – Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) – forced Microsoft to put the cork back in the bottle while it sorted out the problem.

The cock-up also affected Windows Vista SP1.

Earlier this week Microsoft said it had deployed a band-aid filter for the automatic Windows Update to block RMS customers from getting the service packs while it scurries to fix the glitch.

Whether the latest issues will be patched remains to be seen. But it’s likely the Microsoft Windows teams will spit out further updates to address the system reboots and crashes being reported in XP SP3.

Meanwhile, Jesper Johansson, a prominent Windows blogger, has claimed that the problem only involves machines using AMD processors.

Microsoft, which wasn’t immediately available for comment, had said the long-awaited, final service pack for XP “includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system”.

ORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. — One city commission wants to divide Florida into two states: North Florida and South Florida.

The North Lauderdale City Commission says in a resolution that it’s not confident in state leaders when it comes to collecting and spending their own money. It also says it would be “in the best interests of the citizens and residents” to divide the state.

Commissioner Rich Moyle says they’re frustrated with the state Legislature “ignoring the cities in South Florida.” But he acknowledges the idea likely won’t pass.

When asked Tuesday about the resolution, Governor Charlie Crist could only muster up a laugh.

Meanwhile, other municipalities and counties are being asked to join in the resolution. The boundary line would be from Palm Beach County down through Monroe County.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (May 10) - The son of wrestler and reality TV star Hulk Hogan was sentenced to eight months in jail Friday for causing a car crash that seriously injured his passenger.

Nick Bollea, 17, pleaded no contest to a charge of reckless driving with serious bodily harm before he was sentenced by Pinellas County Judge Phillip Federico.

Bollea crashed his car into a tree in Clearwater, Florida, on Aug. 26 last year. Police said he was speeding and racing another car.

Bollea’s passenger and friend, John Graziano, 22, suffered severe head injuries and remains in a semiconscious state in a hospital.

“I think there has to be some punishment,” Federico said at the hearing. He also sentenced Bollea to five years probation and 500 hours of community service and suspended his driver’s license for three years.

Graziano’s parents asked that Bollea be sentenced to some jail time. They said their son would need medical care for the rest of his life and are suing Hogan and Bollea for millions of dollars in damages.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, defended his son.

“Nick is a good person. He’s kind, gentle and compassionate,” he told the judge.

Nick Bollea apologized to Graziano’s family and his own. “I pray for John every day. I’m terribly sorry,” he said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A type of fat that accumulates around the hips and bottom may actually offer some protection against diabetes, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said subcutaneous fat, or fat that collects under the skin, helped to improve sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar.

Mice that got transplants of this type of fat deep into their abdomens lost weight and their fat cells shrank, even though they made no changes in their diet or activity levels.

“It was a surprising result,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn of Harvard Medical School in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“We actually found it had a beneficial effect, and it was especially true when you put it inside the abdomen,” Kahn said in a telephone interview.

Kahn said he started the study to find out why fat located in different parts of the body seems to have different risks of metabolic disease such as diabetes.

Researchers have known for some time that fat that collects in the abdomen — known as visceral fat — can raise a person’s risk of diabetes and heart disease, while people with pear-shaped bodies, with fat deposits in the buttocks and hips, are less prone to these disorders.

Now it turns out that subcutaneous fat — fat found just under the skin — may be actively protecting people from metabolic disease.

Kahn and colleagues conducted a series of experiments on mice where they transplanted subcutaneous fat from donor mice into the bellies and under the skin of mice.

Mice that got subcutaneous fat transplanted into their bellies started to slim down after several weeks, and they also showed improved blood sugar and insulin levels compared to mice that underwent a sham procedure.

“What we found was that when we put it in either place, there was some improvement in metabolism,” Kahn said.

“I think it’s an important result because not only does it say that not all fat is bad, but I think it points to a special aspect of fat where we need to do more research,” he said.

Kahn’s team is working to find the substances produced in subcutaneous fat that provide the benefit with the hope of developing a drug that might copy this effect. Although fat is known to produce several hormones, Kahn said none of the known hormones appeared to be involved in this process.

“If we can capture those (substances), we might have an opportunity to convert them into drugs or use them as guides to help develop drugs,” he said.

If you’re using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you’ve got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on it.

WASHINGTON – From Pennsylvania to Nebraska and from Europe to New Zealand, there is growing and fierce opposition to plans to fluoridate public drinking water, fueled by a battery of shocking new studies that seriously question a practice routine among U.S. municipalities for nearly the last 50 years.

• In Clearfield, Pa., the municipal authority asked the state Department of Environmental Protection for permission to stop adding fluoride to its water. But before city officials got an answer, they got a lawsuit threat from the Pennsylvania Dental Association, which promised not only an injunction against any plans to stop adding the chemical to drinking supplies but litigation against the individual board members who approved the action. The city backed down and continues to fluoridate water.
• In Port Huron, Mich., officials are considering a halt to fluoridation that began in 1974, as residents have argued the treatment poses health risks to newborns and infants, those with thyroid conditions and others. Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Fisher said: “Fluoride is cumulative in your body. … There’s a fairly large body of scientists that believe it’s not good for your health.”
• In South Blount, Tenn., it’s the opponents of fluoride who are threatening to sue city officials planning to introduce the chemical into water supplies. They cite new studies suggesting fluoride leads to brittle bones, cancer, kidney disease, neurological problems and other ailments, including lower IQs.
• In the Canadian community of Dryden, Ontario, residents voted against fluoridation of their water last month, ending a raging debate that has gone on for more than one year.
• In Smithfield, Va., the fluoride problem is a little bit different. There the concern is too much naturally occurring fluoride in the town’s supplies. The state’s Department of Health has ordered those levels be reduced, but the state’s Department of Environmental Quality is stopping action because the plan would draw too much water from a deep underground aquifer.
• In England, where most public drinking is not artificially fluoridated, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pushing the practice by municipalities such as Southampton. Pushing back, however, is a strong effort by the country’s Green Party, which says adding the chemical to water supplies removes the people’s freedom to choose. Eric Hyland of the party said: “Fluoride is toxic waste. It is more toxic than lead and marginally less so than arsenic. This is what the government wants to put in your drinking water. It is illegal under the Poisons Act to administer poisonous or noxious substances to anyone, and the Green Party will continue to campaign against it.”
• In the Canadian community of Drayton Valley in Alberta, where fluoride has been added to the tap water since the mid-1960s, the town council is considering backtracking. Last month, officials heard a presentation from water plant manager Bernie Berube, who urged them to abandon the process because of the inability to accurately measure amounts of fluoride in the water. He said it was a matter of health and safety for the community.
• In Nebraska, the unicameral legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a bill mandating fluoridation of all water supplies serving 1,000 or more people, unless those communities hold referenda opting out before June 1, 2010. Communities like Chadron, which voted against fluoridation in 1978, would have to vote again before the new deadline to be eligible to maintain their fluoride-free status.
• Quebec City discontinued water fluoridation treatments last month.

• And in the Stuart, Fla., area, well owners are angry that they will be prohibited from using their own private wells in favor of the fluoridated water supplied by the city.

It all illustrates the once-contentious issue of fluoridation is back on the front burner. What’s stirring the controversy? After all, fluoride proponents say, just look at the facts:

• The American Dentistry Association calls fluoridation of community water supplies “the single most effective public health measure to prevent tooth decay” in its “Fluoridation Facts” brochure.
• The Centers for Disease Control lists fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
• Approximately 170 million people in the U.S. drink water treated with fluoride. The ADA contends that community fluoridation reduces dental decay by 20-40 percent.

It has been going on throughout much of the United States for a half century, say proponents. So what’s the problem?

Sweden’s Dr. Arvid Carlsson, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine, objects to the practice, saying that everyone reacts differently to medication and what is beneficial for one person may be harmful for another. He calls community fluoridation “obsolete.”

Opponents like Carlsson point out that each person drinks a different amount of water, meaning dosage cannot be controlled, and could become toxic for someone who drinks more water. Add to that variable the widespread use of fluoride toothpastes by the American public and the fact that much of the food supply is grown or raised using fluoridated water, and you can see the great potential for overdosing, they say.

A study released in February by the Collaborative on Health and the Environments Learning and Development Disabilities Initiative found excessive ingestion of fluoride can decrease thyroid hormone levels. It also cited a recent Chinese study that links lower IQ levels in children with fluoridated drinking water.

In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences found the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum standard for fluoride of 4 milligrams per liter could cause health problems such as dental fluorosis and weakened bones over a lifetime of consumption.

The EPA’s Headquarters Professionals Union, made up of scientists, lawyers and other professionals, also now opposes community fluoridation.

In January, the New York State Dental Journal reported fluoride overexposure is resulting in children developing tooth disorders including white spots, brownish discoloration and pitting. It also warned children 6 months to 3 years should consume no more than ¼ of a gram of fluoride per day – the equivalent of one 8 ounce glass of water in a fluoridated community.

And, despite the CDC’s conclusion that fluoridation is one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century, it recommends infant formulas should never be mixed with fluoridated water.

“The early studies that purported to show ingested fluoride reduced tooth decay were seriously flawed,” says Dr. Paul Connett, emeritus professor of environmental chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and executive director of Fluoride Action Network. “There is no significant difference in tooth decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated industrialized countries. The vast majority of countries are not fluoridated.”

Indeed, opposition to the kind of widespread fluoridation American communities launched in the 1960s is becoming an international movement.

“The days of wholesale deliberate fluoridation … are numbered,” said Warren Bell, former head of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

The anti-fluoride activists make their case effectively by telling consumers to read the U.S. government’s own warnings regarding toothpastes and mouthwashes containing fluoride. They include:

“Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age.”

“If you swallow more than used for brushing, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.”

“If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Centre right away.”

“Never give fluoridated mouthwash or mouth rinses to children under six years of age, as they may swallow it.”

“Use non-fluoridated toothpaste or no toothpaste for young children.”

While few would argue that topical application of minute amounts of fluoride on teeth would reduce cavities, deliberately ingesting it – even in trace amounts – is risky.

The fluoride added to public drinking water is actually fluorosilic acid. It is described by critics as an industrial waste product. Supporters prefer to call it an industry byproduct. Most of it has come from Florida’s phosphate fertilizer industry.

Florida’s phosphate rock is about 3.5 percent fluorine. To make phosphoric acid for fertilizer, the rock is mixed with sulfuric acid. The mixture produces a gas called silicon tetrafluoride. The gas is sent through ductwork and a water scrubber to create fluorosilic acid, a clear liquid that in high concentrations is toxic. The acid is what fertilizer companies sell as a fluoride additive.

However, one of the little-known effects of Hurricane Katrina was to cripple the production of fluoride. Since then, more of America’s supply of the controversial chemical is coming from China – a country not always known for the highest safety standards on exports.

Just because you live in a municipality that does not fluoridate doesn’t mean you are safe from the effects of fluoridation, say critics. For instance, children in non-fluoridated communities consume sodas and beverages bottled in fluoridated localities using fluoridated water. This is known in fluoridation debate circles as “the halo effect.” Grapes and grape products, teas and processed chicken can be high in fluoride because of water used in processing and preparation.

Fluoridation is not just a community issue. Some states – including big ones like California – mandate their towns and cities fluoridate their water supplies.

Another major source of fluoride intake for children is swallowed toothpaste. Fluoride toothpaste contains about 1000 ppm fluoride. While adults on average ingest 3 percent of the toothpaste they use for brushing, 2-year-old children, in one study, swallowed a mean of 65 percent of the toothpaste they brushed with. It was found that many small children don’t even rinse after brushing.

If you’re not sure if this is truly a dangerous practice, just ask your vet about using fluoride treatments on your dog. You will be advised against it because dogs swallow the fluoride.

In 1965, a landmark year in the fluoridation debate, the federal government determined fluoride was safe in drinking water at levels as high as 4 ppm. Officially, that is still the government’s threshold of safety on the high side. Yet, in 2006, the National Research Council determined 4 ppm was unsafe and couldn’t assert with certitude that even half that level was safe.

On the basis of the NRC’s review, the Georgia-based Lillie Center last year filed an ethics complaint against the CDC Division of Oral Health. In its complaint the center charged the CDC with “mislead[ing] the public concerning the results of studies about harm from ingesting fluoride,” and “omit[ting] vital information in its information disseminated to the public concerning vulnerable population groups that are particularly susceptible to harm from fluoride.”