An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The Food and Drug Administration declared the popular herbal product kratom to be an opioid on Tuesday, opening a new front in its battle to get people to stop using it. New research shows kratom acts in the brain just as opioids do, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. And he said the agency has documented 44 cases in which kratom at least helped kill people — often otherwise healthy young people. “Taken in total, the scientific evidence we’ve evaluated about kratom provides a clear picture of the biologic effect of this substance, ” Gottlieb wrote. “Kratom should not be used to treat medical conditions, nor should it be used as an alternative to prescription opioids. There is no evidence to indicate that kratom is safe or effective for any medical use.” The FDA released detailed accounts of several of the deaths. The victims often had mixed kratom with other substances, including chemicals taken out of inhalers and found in over-the-counter cold and flu drugs. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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FDA Declares Popular Alt-Medicine Kratom an Opioid
Today, Google announced that it is entering the mobile MVNO carrier field with a service called Project Fi. The service will use Sprint and T-Mobile’s network in conjunction with Wi-Fi to make one, big, seamless carrier. Read more… 
Interested in creating websites and apps? You can learn HTML5, the standard language of the web, for free with this course from W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium), which developed HTML5. Read more… 
If you want to sell or get rid of your computer, it’s important to make sure there isn’t any leftover data that someone could get to. When it comes to NTFS-formatted hard drives, simply deleting your files isn’t enough—even if you empty your recycle bin—but there are still a few things you can do. Read more… 
An anonymous reader writes Intelligence agency GCHQ has just accredited six UK universities to teach Master’s degrees in online security that meet the intelligence agency’s “stringent criteria.” From the press release: “The certification of six Master’s degrees in Cyber Security was announced by Rt.Hon Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he visited GCHQ today. This marks another significant step in the development of the UK’s knowledge, skills and capability in all fields of Cyber Security as part of the National Cyber Security Programme. The National Cyber Security Strategy recognises education as key to the development of Cyber Security skills and, earlier in the year, UK universities were invited to submit their Cyber Security Master’s degrees for certification against GCHQ’s stringent criteria for a broad foundation in Cyber Security.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 