Worm trying to trick you into infecting your Windows computer by fake Skype chat message

There is a worm for Skype for WINDOWS circulating. It seems to take the form of a chat message, pretending to be from someone you know. If your computer becomes infected, you will be blocked from accessing Symantec and other security sites. Just receiving the message will not infect your computer; you need to follow the link and grant permission for your machine to become infected. This is worth remembering because it is likely we will see future similar attempts.


Here is an excerpt from a PC World article:

... the worm sends chat messages that attempt to trick victims into thinking they were accidentally sent a file with messages such as "look what crazy photo Tiffany sent to me,looks cool" and "oops sorry please don't look there :S."

The displayed link attempts to download a file ending with a .scr extention, used for screen savers. If double-clicked, the malware - known variously as Skipi, Pykspa and Ramex - will first attempt to disable securty software, and then install another, data-stealing piece of malware, according to research from Symantec.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005384.html

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/windows-worm-ta.html

The most distant object made by humans

Thirty years ago, Voyager I was launched... it is now more than a hundred times farther away than the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

It is now more than one-half light-day away! At that rate, if it were going toward the nearest star, it is still only about 1/3,000th way there... meaning it would take nearly 100,000 years to arrive.

Voyager I is still functioning and is still sending back data! However, the power supply will run out in about 10 years.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14261627



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_I

It is raining cats and dogs... and the typhoon isn't even here yet!

Typhoon No. 9 is still far to the south of Honshu, but it is raining like mad outside... and it is supposed to get worse tomorrow!

http://www.tenki.jp/typ/index.html

Does corn syrup cause even more problems than we thought?

Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are well documented to be linked to diabetes complications such as ulcers and nerve damage.

It seems that these harmful compounds form in substantial amounts when, instead of sugar cane sugar, you use corn syrup to make soda.

If you don't know what diabetic foot ulcers look like, try Google Images. I warn you, it is pretty shocking.

Another example of improved computing making the impossible into the practical and routine

A decade ago, the peak intensities of many meteor showers were difficult to predict and were often just guesstimates. Meteor storms were predicted, and observers saw nothing. No one was looking, and surprise showers appeared. That is why the Aurigid meteor shower is known to have been observed by only three people before yesterday. (I woke mom up at 1:20, and she saw one in a few minutes even though it was nearly completely overcast!)

Improved computing now allows much better prediction of meteoroid streams. Models are so good that the predicted peak of the Aurigids was 4:33 AM PDT, and the actual peak was 4:15 AM; the predicted peak rate was right on target. A decade ago, you would have gotten tentative guesses as to whether or not one would see anything at all.

http://aurigids.seti.org

Les Miserables

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3698104979232723548&q=les+miserables&total=2171&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3698104979232723548&q=les+miserables&total=2171&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

The expression "to jump the shark"

"To jump the shark" means, especially for a TV show, to do something desperate because of falling ratings... Here is where the expression comes from... Hilarious... and not in a good way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpraJYnbVtE&mode=related&search=

Oh, oh... the power supply is barely above the power demand

After the earthquake last month north of Tokyo, the largest nuclear power plant in the world went offline. It will probably be offline for a year. That power plant supplied a substantial fraction of the electricity in Tokyo.

Over the last few weeks, the temperature around Tokyo has gone as high as 40 degrees C (about 105 degrees F). When the temperature in downtown Tokyo reaches 36 degrees C (97 degrees F), electricity use peaks at about 62 million kilowatts... the total supply, even bringing power from as far away as Hokkaido, is 63 million kilowatts. The supply is only a few percent above the demand, which is really risky... the supply is usually 20% or more above demand.

Wednesday, August 22, was really hot, and The Daily Yomiuri newspaper reports that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) narrowly avoided the worst-case scenario. By one method of estimating demand, supply exceeded demand by only 1.6 percent.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20070824TDY03002.htm

The risk of a blackout will be relatively high over the next few days because the temperature is forecast to again hit 36C (97F).

Update: Great! This morning, the forecast highs for the next few days has been reduced by several degrees! Maybe we will be OK!

One longterm solution to this problem is to raise the albedo (reflectivity) of the city as much as possible by applying elastomeric roof coatings and paints containing titanium oxide ceramic powders to as many surfaces as possible. This will reduce the heat-island effect. It can be done quickly and cheaply. Planting trees would also help, but that would be much more expensive and would take a long time.

Update, Saturday, August 25: The forecast is for above 95F today.

Take a look at the first episode of Connections by James Burke. The series is excellent. You will see why this pertinent.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2010590024183774407&q=connections&total=23594&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

And here is an explanation of the Northeast Blackout of 1965.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_1965

Some red, blue, or purple vegetables may fight colon cancer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/20/sciencenews.cancer

Carrots used to be... purple???

Orange carrots were an invention of the Dutch in the 1500s... for the House of Orange...

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html

You can buy purple carrot seeds from Park Seed

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=5074&PrevMainPage=textsearchresults&scChannel=Text%20Search&SearchText=carrots&OfferCode=TH1

HurriQuake nails seem to be widely available now

When HurriQuake nails first came out last year, they could not make them fast enough to satisfy demand, and they were generally available only in the Gulf states to help with rebuilding.

Now, it seems they are widely available at hardware stores, although you might want to search on the net first. You can also buy them from Amazon, but there were a lot of complaints at the Amazon site, so maybe it is better to inspect at a store before buying.

We are going to have hurricane straps installed and use the HurriQuake nails to reinforce structural joins. People seem to be concerned about their windows, but I think that is secondary to the roof... intact windows won't do much good if you don't have a roof.

Skype was out of service for a day

Skype was out of service for a day or two due to a software problem. The amount of screaming from users was, I think, more a reflection of how good Skype usually is... it is so good, so useful for 200 million users that when it is gone they are in shock.

For me, I missed it on that one day (I had to actually use the telephone to make a phone call!), but I am thankful for the 729 other days it worked fine over the last two years.

Once you get Skype, you too will be unable to get along without it!

Why do people of other races "all look alike"?

The answer is surprising. It seems it is not a difference in race per se. Even if everyone is of the same race, it is more difficult to distinguish faces of out-groups rather than faces of in-groups... even if that distinction is made up!

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/afps-wwa081407.php

30 years ago, the "Wow!" signal from aliens?

In 1977, at the Big Ear Radio Observatory in Ohio, a very strong signal was detected, perhaps from outer space. For the last 30 years, researchers have been trying to figure out if it was terrestrial interference or an equipment problem, but the principal researcher concludes that that is unlikely. That part of the sky from which the signal came has been monitored from time to time, but nothing...

Now, the Allen Telescope Array is about to come online, and it will be devoting some of its time to searching that area of the sky...

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/15/319127.aspx

You can use your computer to search for transmissions from extraterrestrials by going to

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum, and charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em...

The "tree museum" is Foster Botanical Garden!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi

The last 50 years

Yikes. Things used to be so bad... take a look back over the last 50 years.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/classic-articles

Forecasts about the Next 50 Years

Take a look at these forecasts about the next 50 years.


http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/science-forecasts

Most people want to stay at home and out of a care home for as long as possible

Every year you can stay out of a care home is worth 50,000 dollars or more. Almost everyone wants to stay at home for as long as possible, but very often people move into a care home earlier than they need to because of relatively minor problems like being unable to do small repairs to their houses or being unable to drive. Groups of people are banding together to solve these kinds of problems so they can stay in their own homes as long as possible.

Everyone needs to read this. One way or another we are all going to have to confront these problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/health/14aging.html

The perils of denying human nature

When I was about seven years old, I started to play with fire. My grandfather, knowing that children who are told not to play with fire sometimes hide and set the house on fire, and recognizing that this was a normal part of learning and would stop when the skill had been mastered, said: "If you want to play with fire, you can do whatever you want as long as you do it in front of me; if you hide and play with fire, you are gonna get a lickin'..."

True to his word, I played with fire for years, burning all kinds of things, until one day, when I was thirteen, it was no longer interesting...


One night while making a bonfire at a beach house near Mokolii Island, I burned my finger and there was a big blister. My mom started to get her keys, and my uncle said to her, "Where are you going?" And my mom said, "To buy aspirin." And the only time I have ever seen my uncle angry, he said to my mom, "No! The kid got burned and it is supposed to hurt!" I could not sleep all night. But uncle was right. It is supposed to hurt. That's why I remember to this day exactly what happened, and I haven't burned my finger again... so far...

Interview with Neil Armstrong

I guess the hero worship must get tiring pretty fast. Very rare interview.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1722270428583799532

The solution to Alzheimer's disease?

In Alzheimer's disease, abnormal proteins accumulate in brain cells and cause the cells to stop functioning properly and die, so the focus of a lot of research has been on the brain cells themselves.

But what if that is not the true underlying problem?

The abnormal proteins are not found only in brain cells. There are substantial amounts in the bloodstream. What if that is the real problem?

It seems that increasing the rate at which the abnormal protein is removed from the blood will stop the progress of Alzheimer's and even reverse some of the symptoms.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/uorm-dab080907.php

The spam is REALLY becoming sneaky and annoying

I just got this spam... it is a trick... if you use Windows and you click on it, it will infect your computer with a virus.

This spam is reported at, for example

feed://www.indigomoonsystems.com/status/status.php?/feeds/index.rss2

The author says if you follow the link, then your Windows machine will likely be attacked.


From: hhs@ppower.net
Subject: School mate sent you greeting card from greetingcard.com!

School mate has created a greeting ecard for you at greetingcard.com,
the Internet's most popular greeting card service.
Your greeting card ID is: 68412571d7d419
To see your custom greeting card, simply click on the link below: http://121.141.137.125/?6847d41977b9ea

Send greeting cards from greetingcards.com whenever you want by visiting us at: http://greetingcard.com/
Copyright (c) 1996-2007 greetingcard.com All Rights Reserved


Wasting more and more of everyone's time...

Spam filters now reject real emails you really want

Spam now makes up 19 out of 20 emails.

This is due to a certain software company that has never paid all that much attention to security because it makes more money that way. According to the New York Times, 50,000 Windows computers are taken over in the US EVERY DAY and turned into spam-spewing zombie computers; no other types of computers have this kind of problem.

So now, because there is so much spam, spam filters regularly reject what they should not and send work emails and other real emails into junk folders, and these real emails are not read or are discarded.

And we have to spend a lot of time being careful of wording because the inclusion of one wrong word (like "stock") can cause a spam filter to reject an email as spam.

And this does not even include all the emails that are outright blocked before they even get to you and you never even see.

I have had work emails sent to clients' junk folders.

Yesterday, I got an email from one of my cousins. It was labeled as spam.

I have to manually delete dozens of emails per day after checking each one to be sure it is not a real email.

Thank you very much, certain software company, for wasting so much of my and everyone else's time for so many years.

Honolulu, North Carolina

I thought there was something wrong with a NASA database... when I searched for "Honolulu", it said, "Which one?" "The one in Hawaii or the one in North Carolina?" But there really is a Honolulu in North Carolina!

By the way, "hono" means bay, and "lulu" means "sheltered" or "calm".

http://starbulletin.com/2002/07/14/news/story3.html

Astronomers make crude map of planet in another star system!

Scientist have created a crude temperature map of a planet about the size of Jupiter 60 light-years away!

Earthlike planets to come in a few years!

http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2329&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Totally stunning Edward Hopper Slide-show Essay

http://www.slate.com/id/2165773/

If people don't write checks in Japan, how do they pay their bills?

Of course there is automatic transfer, but it is really easy to pay bills at any convenience store. Gas, electric, water, and phone bills all have barcodes on them. You just take the bills to a convenience store, they scan the barcodes, and you pay. If you phone was cut off because you were late paying, the phone will be turned on within a few minutes of paying. And there is no charge for paying at a convenience store!

William Topaz McGonagall

Called the World's Worst Poet, William McGonagall's poems are hilarious. Listen to this story and then read a few of them.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1145681

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall

Now read this essay; all might not be what it seems.
http://www.geocities.com/williamtopazmcgonagall/

Perhaps he was the Andy Kaufmann of the 19th century.
If you have not see Man on the Moon, it is worth seeing once... I had no idea...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125664/

Whispering strokes

By the age of 80, we will have had hundreds of small strokes.

Sometimes, strokes are transient. These "whispering strokes" may pass in a few minutes to a few hours, and many people ignore them. However, it seems that even when a stroke seems to pass quickly, in fact, some damage is being done, and medical attention can minimize the damage.

Having a stroke of any kind indicates a higher risk of another stroke over the next few days or weeks or years.

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/08/02/hscout606918.html

The state can seize "abandoned" assets in as little as 3 years!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12379040

Undercooked beans are toxic

Many beans contain natural insecticides called lectins. The lectins are destroyed by cooking. This is why eating raw or undercooked beans, such as lima beans, can make you sick.

https://my.mcg.edu/portal/page/portal/News/archive/2007/Scientists%20find%20why%20red%20beans%20and%20rice%20can%20be%20nauseating

Grapefruit and grapefruit juice seem to be causing problems

It seems that consumption of just a quarter of a grapefruit per day increases a woman's risk of breast cancer by 30%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6900482.stm

Grapefruit also seems to interfere with many drugs.

https://secure.pharmacytimes.com/lessons/200303-02.asp

Oranges and orange juice and other citrus fruits do not seem to cause these problems.

Maybe a surprise meteor storm?

A meteor storm produces more than 1,000 meteors per hour. They are very rare, happening only a few times per century, but when they happen, they can change history. People think the world is ending. In the early 1800s, meteor storms on the east coast of the US produced more than 100,000 meteors per hour, many brighter than the full moon! This was described as silent lightning.

On September 1, 2007, the Earth will pass through a dense ribbon of material from Comet Kiess, producing the Aurigid meteor shower.

The peak will only last about 2 hours, with the true peak being much shorter, and the time can be off somewhat from the estimate since the location of the ribbon is not known precisely.

The west coast of the US, Alaska, and Hawaii are best placed to see the peak.

On the west coast, the peak should be visible at approximately 4:30 in the morning of Saturday, September 1.

Hawaii is even better positioned. The peak will be at 1:30 in the morning of Saturday, September 1.

See Figure 5.

http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/aurigids.html

Real celestial fireworks

Probably the best meteor shower of the year. The Perseids have been recorded for nearly 2,000 years. This year will be particularly favorable because there will be no moonlight to interfere.

On the evening of August 12, look for them overhead. The number of meteors you see will increase until dawn, so the later you look, the more you will see. After midnight, look toward the northeast.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11jul_greatperseids.htm

The Sumidagawa fireworks began in 1732

One of the best fireworks displays in Tokyo. Like a two-hour finale! But is so crowded, it is scary. You cannot move on the street... if you are planning on going, ask someone who has been there. You will not believe the one million people packed along the Sumida River...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumidagawa_Fireworks_Festival

Why do fruits and vegetables taste crummy these days?

This is not just about peaches... it explains how agriculture has changed over the last century... and why suburbs are even more detrimental than you thought...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12125929

The World Now Eats (and Dies) Like Americans

This clip is only three minutes long. Worth seeing.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/10

A solar tower is completely different from what I thought

I though a solar tower for generating electricity was some incredibly hot awful thing in a desert that would produce really hot air and would suck you up the tower if you were not careful... Ha, ha. It is nothing like that at all. At least this one isn't. You will be surprised.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C-EvV90MeDY

Hans Rosling explains the state of the world

Two of the best talks at TED. Probably the best place to start.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92


http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/140

Greatest collection of liberal videos ever

If edge.org is the greatest salon the world has ever seen, here are the videos. Liberal, visionary, and optimistic. Exhilarating. A perfect antidote to all the nonsense, all the hate, all the destructive and unhelpful people.

www.ted.com

TED

Technology Entertainment Design (TED) annually brings together some of the world's greatest thinkers. Their lectures are available online for free. Sorta like a video edge.org.

http://www.ted.com

How to play a broken record

Suppose you have a very old recording that is so fragile it cannot be played without damaging it, and suppose it was actually broken. How could you play it?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11851842

The Big Question: Why are We Here?

Richard Dawkins explains in 23 minutes why we came to be, what our purpose is, and where we are going.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=13NPZ5Nv_fc

The quake was not so bad in Tokyo

There was a pretty big quake in Niigata, about 150 miles north of Tokyo. It was a strong 6 on the Japanese scale, which suggests there may be structural damage in Niigata.

The Japanese scale is a measure of actual shaking at the surface, so it is a better indicator of damage than magnitude. While magnitude does tell you how big a quake is, it does not tell you how deep it is. There are many quakes with magnitudes of 8 or even 9, but if they happen deep under the ground, the shaking at the surface may not be very bad.

Initial reports by the BBC made it sound as if a 6.6 quake happened in Tokyo. The shaking here was moderate, and some people in Tokyo said "What quake?"

Depending on how your software is set up, you can see a short video clip of some of the damage at

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy

The Rattleback

This is a really surprising toy. It seems to behave in a totally unexpected way when you spin it.

Go to www.newscientist.com

and search for rattleback.

There is a good video of it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQMoZr_x7Q&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enewscientist%2Ecom%2Fblog%2Fshortsharpscience%2F

The creation of artificial life

We just learned how to read DNA easily a decade ago. Now, it is routine and cheap and becoming cheaper by the day.

But just reading DNA still does not yield the ultimate prize: artificial organisms, constructed from inanimate pieces, designed for specific purposes.

That era has begun.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/28/nlife228.xml

Why people behave the way they do?

Have you ever noticed that people who don't know what they are doing are going gangbusters to do it? On the other hand, people who are well versed in the complexities of an issue have a hard time making a final decision and are not very confident that the decision is the best possible.

It is all summed up in this Darwin quote.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge...

Just three glasses of fruit or vegetable juice per week reduces risk of Alzheimer's by 76%!

Our food has become really distorted. We are now missing huge numbers of chemicals that had always been part of our diet. The distortion is so great that some people now eat nearly no fruits and vegetables, and fruits and vegetables used to make up the majority of our diet because there was nothing else to eat.

Here is a good example. Some people almost never drink fruit/vegetable juice. Other people drink three or more glasses per week. Hundreds of people were followed for 10 years, and those who drank three or more glasses per week were found to have had a 76% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease!

We can expect to live to our 90s or more. By the age of 95, the risk of developing Alzheimer's is 50%.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=50938

Video clips show you how to do anything

Reading directions and trying to figure out how to do something can be really annoying. Suppose someone would just show you instead?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19638199/site/newsweek


videojug.com
Watch "Brushing Your Dog's Teeth", for example.

expertvillage.com
Watch "The Spoon Bending Trick Explained". Uri Geller. Ha!

Planny Aloha Make Mo Planny Aloha

Translation: Lots of generosity makes more generosity.

Ever wonder why some groups are cooperative and some groups are full of backstabbing dirty rats?

It turns out that even rats (real ones) can be taught to be cooperative, and they will continue to be cooperative as long as everyone else is.

However, if too many start cheating, the cooperation will stop.

This can lead to groups in which there is a lot of cooperation and groups of backstabbing dirty rats.

Since we can see this kind of behavior even in rats, we know that the roots of altruistic behavior go back many millions of years.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526115.100-rats-influenced-by-the-kindness-of-strangers.html