Blind Freedom

Americans know more about Bart and Homer than they do about their own freedom.
About 22 percent of Americans can name all five of the fictional "Simpsons" family members—Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. But just one in 1,000 people surveyed could name all five freedoms granted under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

For the record, and so you can now dazzle your friends with what can now be called trivia, the freedoms are: freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

“These survey results clearly demonstrate that many Americans don’t have an understanding of the freedoms they regularly enjoy," said Dave Anderson, executive director of the museum.
Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.
"Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions,'' said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. "It means we have our job cut out for us.''

The survey found that only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. More than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family.

The survey found more people could name the three "American Idol'' judges than identify three First Amendment rights. They were also more likely to remember popular advertising slogans.
It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Jan. 20-22 by the research firm Synovate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

above taken from:http://livescience.com/othernews/ap_060301_first_amendment.html

my opinion:

Wow people are really dissapointing me lately... I mean really 1 in 1000 people know five amendments, this makes me sad. We know the characters of a Satire Cartoon (which I must admit I do watch occasionally) but we don't know what our country is built apon. This really depresses me. We should not allow ourselves to be so stupid. Imigrants trying to obtain citizen must take a test not unlike our constitution tests. Why don't we, who have lived in this country our whole life, not know these simple things? Here is the link to a quiz showing if you truly know your freedoms:http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060302_parchment_quiz.html. I got a 10/10 on this and I hope that you will be able to do the same.

Thank you and please do not fail.

HOLY CRAP!!!!

'
Holy crap is right. A "large" cave was just found in the Venuzuela Guayana, one of the worlds most inaccessable and unexplored regions. This area is one of the most biologically rich, geographically ancient and unspoiled part of the world.

Researchers say that this is, in fact, not a cave but a huge, collapsed, steep gorge.

They also found a new type of Poison Dart Frog, the Colostethus Breweri. It is a fast moving yellow and orange that lives in the small creeks and quiet pools near this cave.

Get this this: The cave picture has two small objects at the bottom. THOSE ARE HELICOPTERS! This is a freaking huge cave. This is simply amazing in my opinion...

Damn the Tea

taken from:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060221/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_religious_tea


WASHINGTON - A small branch of a South American religious sect may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a ritual intended to connect with God, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

In its first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said the government cannot hinder religious practices without proof of a "compelling" need to do so.
"This is a very important decision for minority religious freedom in this country," said lawyer John Boyd, who represents about 130 U.S. members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal who live in New Mexico, California and Colorado.

The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of the sect, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

Roberts, in writing the opinion for the court, said the government had failed to prove that federal drug laws should outweigh the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Congress passed in 1993 to prohibit burdening a person's exercise of religion.

The Bush administration had argued that the drug in the tea not only violates a federal narcotics law but a treaty in which the United States promised to block the importation of drugs including dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.

Religious groups of various faiths, along with civil liberties organizations, filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the sect. "This is just one step in the right direction in the fight for religious liberty," said Jared Leland, legal counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington.

New Justice
Samuel did not take part in the case, which was argued last fall before Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. Alito was on the bench for the first time on Tuesday.
The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, which could consider more evidence.
Roberts, writing his second opinion since joining the court, said that religious freedom cases can be difficult "but Congress has determined that courts should strike sensible balances."
The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, 04-1084.

My oppinion

Wait a minute here....

ok ok I get it. We cannot violate your religion in any way so we can't ban the druggie tea correct? So if I were to say that my religion involved me taking heroin and smoking Mary-Jane 5 times a day would that be ok? i don't think so...

But of course! If multiple people do this it has to be ok right? I mean really, can a bunch of people doped up on hallucination inducing druggie tea really be all that dangerous? Of course they can! Drugs mess with your mind man, they like do bad stuff to it dude. Drugs are bad M'kay? Even if it is for a religous purpose It should not be ok. Its your brain your messing with, your last sanctuary, the only place tha others cannot get to. And by taking these drugs you are allowing the last safe haven you have, to be simply demolished.

I understand why they need to allow us to have our religious freedoms but this is not what that should have been intended for. If they allow this to continue we may just have new religions popping up saying that doing all drugs makes them closer to God. An then we could have "religious extremists" smuggling drugs into the country and saying that it was done in the name of their god, again taking this freedom too far.

This freedom should allow us to speak our religion freely and do our religious acts, i will agree with that, however, this should not cover acts that are illegal in our country. If part of someones Religion asked for a sacrifice (human or animal) we would certainly ban that. So why not ban the tea as well? It obviously has illegal drugs in it, and we are not allowed to have (or take) those drugs, so we should not be able to drink the druggie tea.

And He Calls This Lucky?

Taken From: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/392491p-332837c.html

WASHINGTON - The pellet-pocked man shot by Dick Cheney apologized yesterday for all the fuss the hunting mishap has caused the vice president, and said he was "lucky" the errant blast didn't do more damage.

Harry Whittington, 78, made his first public remarks as he was released from a Texas hospital after being sprayed with birdshot in the face, neck and upper body last Saturday.
"We all assume certain risks in whatever we do. Regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen. And that's what happened," Whittington said.
The GOP fat-cat donor also suffered a mild heart attack while hospitalized when birdshot traveled to his heart from his chest.

"I regret that I couldn't meet you earlier but you can see what a lucky person I am," Whittington told reporters, his face and neck clearly marked from the blast from Cheney's .28-gauge shotgun.
Nonetheless, doctors sent him home, saying he's in excellent condition, though not 100%.
A relieved Cheney, speaking to the Wyoming legislature yesterday, said, "Thankfully, Harry Whittington is on the mend and doing well."

Cheney's staff let Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the south Texas ranch where he had been hunting, break the news about the accident to a local paper a day after it happened, and Cheney didn't address it until Wednesday.

When the White House, particularly Cheney's staff, delayed the disclosure of the shooting, it set off a furor. But Whittington seemed to feel that he had caused the problem, just by getting shot.

"My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week," Whittington said. "We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves."

And Whittington offered his own perspective on the incident. "This past weekend encompassed all of us in a cloud of misfortune and sadness that's not easy to explain, especially to those not familiar with the great sport of quail hunting," he said.

Browbeaten by late-night comedians and an aggressive press corps, Cheney acknowledged he'd endured "a very long week." Even loyal Republicans said the GOP has been hurt by Cheney's stonewalling tactics and stubborn resistance to answer questions.

Potential GOP presidential candidate and Vietnam vet Chuck Hagel took a whack at Cheney's five draft deferments that kept him from serving in Vietnam. "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety," the Nebraska senator told the Omaha World-Herald.
But one political analyst predicted the uproar will quiet down.

"Whittington may very well have ended the feeding frenzy - big time," University of Virginia Prof. Larry Sabato said.

My Oppinion:

Whittington, do you really consider being shot with a .28 gauge shotgun lucky? I think that would not count as a lucky day to me. Yay I had a heart attack because the Vice President shot me. I am so lucky.

Whittingon should not have apologized to the VP. It is not Whittingtons fault that Cheney is such a stupid hunter. You and your family should not be appologizing. I mean really. Cheney almost killed you. And he waits a few days to speak about it? That is shameful in my oppinion.

Cheney needs to learn some gun safety. Never shoot a gun when there is someone in front of you. Duh. Even my seven year old sister knows that one.

Cheney needs to get his eyes checked as well. From what I have heard Whittington was wearing bright orange and it was at a very visible time of day. Maybe Cheney thought he was some kind of game fowl as well....

I don't know either way Whittington shouldn't apologize and Cheney should have spoke sooner

Oh Sure Everyone Blames the Toads!

Taken from:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18165281%255E29277,00.html

Invading cane toad evolving: study February 16, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S hated cane toads are evolving - growing faster, longer legs as they rampage through the nation's tropics.Researchers have clocked the toxic pests hopping up to two kilometres in a single night, or more than 50km a year - five times quicker than their predecessors travelled in the 1940s to 1960s.
"There is very clear evidence that toads are evolving rapidly," said Professor Rick Shine, from the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences.
Scientists have been examining the warty pests at Fogg Dam, 60km east of Darwin, for a year, attaching radio transmitters to track how far and fast they can travel.
Their research, published today in the scientific journal Nature, found the first toads invading an area now have longer, faster legs - which make up 45 per cent of their body length. When the cane toad was first introduced in Queensland 70 years ago - in a disastrous attempt to control insects in sugar cane fields - its legs made up about 35-40 per cent of its body length,

Prof Shine said. "Frogs and toads generally are slow moving little creatures," Prof Shine said. "(But) our toads are moving north west, and they are just going as fast as they can."
He said it was possible toads were evolving to be faster because there was some advantage to being first to invade an area - either juicier grubs or less competition for food.
Cane toads have marched across Queensland, northern NSW, and the NT, poisoning millions of native animals including in world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
They now cover more than a million square kilometres of tropical and subtropical Australia. The report came as the NT renewed its attack on the toad, which is fast approaching Darwin. Locals are being urged to check their yards and nearby parks for cane toads on March 14 - the official "Not in My Backyard Day" of action.
There has been fierce debate over the best way to kill a cane toad since federal MP Dave Tollner last year called on locals to smash them with golf clubs and turn the eradication of toads into a new blood sport.
The RSPCA has urged locals to wipe hemorrhoid cream on the toad before humanely freezing them, and community group FrogWatch is mulching up carcasses into Australia's first toad garden fertiliser.

My opinion:

Why is the human race so stupid? Are we honestly "smart" enough to actually let loose a swarm of freaking toads on a continent just to get rid of a few bugs? I think its amazing how a toad is evolving and yet the human mind has not evolved past smashing anything that annoys us with a club. WE ARE NOT CAVEMEN! First, we should never have releashed them onto Australia, second we should not smash them with clubs, and third this is the Australians own damn fault. They brought this upon themselves and they should deal with it in a more humane way than smacking a toad with a golf club or spreading hemorrhoid cream on them and freezing them. I dont know what your definition of humane is but that certainly is not mine.

And they call what they are doing funny names like Not In My Back Yard and FrogWatch. That is just sad. Oooh not in my back yard you are a scary toad that my ancestors released on our lands and may poison my pets. People make me sick. And then they have the nerve to call it FrogWatch??? Really now, the frogs are not suicide bombers. Oh my god watch out! Its a creepy frog! kill it! kill it! And then you Aussies hit it with a freaking Golf club. What is wrong with the world? We talk about turning frogs into fertaliser because they are doing what every animal does: eats, sleeps, moves.

What is the world coming to? I feel bad that my fellow man would be as stupid as to do something as this. I think somehow, we are DeEvolving, keeping our physical structure but our mental structure is diminishing severely. We are more interested in killing toads and tracking how fast they can go than thinking about the frogs feelings. I wonder what the frog thought when a man hit it with a golf club... Probably something along the lines of: "I'm hungry, I think I'll go eat a grub" Smack. End of it's life. Dead.

We humans care more about pointless things like how fast a toad can hop than the meaning of the toads life. I bet that toad had a family you sick person. And do you think the toad thought it was doing anything wrong? of course it didn't. It was just living out it's normal life and we kill it because of that. That is messed up. I am very appalled by this article.

They should trap the toads and relocate them somewhere else. This would be a lot more humane that the "bloodsport" they currently have going on. Call it the Toad Relocation Act instead of the Not In My Back Yard or FrogWatch days.

Anti Evolution

information taken from:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15evolution.html


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 — The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months.

The board, which became the first in the nation to single out evolution for special scrutiny under the academic standards it adopted in 2002, stripped the language from the curriculum partly out of fear of a lawsuit in the wake of a December ruling by a federal judge that teaching intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., public schools was unconstitutional.

While the Ohio lesson plan does not mention intelligent design, which posits that life is too complex to be explained by evolution alone, critics contend that the critical analysis language is simply design in disguise.

"This lesson is bad news, the 'critically analyze' wording is bad news," Martha W. Wise, the board member who offered the emergency motion, told her colleagues during 90 minutes of contentious debate here Tuesday afternoon. "It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about the nature of science."

Darwin's defenders celebrated the reversal as a sign of a backlash against the inroads made last year by critics of evolution. But leaders of the Discovery Institute, the intellectual home of intelligent design, warned that Ohio's move would create a backlash of its own.

"It's an outrageous slap in the face to the citizens of Ohio," said John G. West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the institute, referring to several polls that show public support for criticism of evolution in science classes.

"The effort to try to suppress ideas that you dislike, to use the government to suppress ideas you dislike, has a failed history," Mr. West said. "Do they really want to be on the side of the people who didn't want to let John Scopes talk or who tried to censor Galileo?"

But Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, called the Ohio vote "a significant victory" and said it should give pause to school districts and states considering changes in how evolution is taught.

The Discovery Institute had offered Ohio as a national model for its "teach the controversy" approach on evolution. Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico and Pennsylvania have adopted similar "critical analysis" standards, and the South Carolina Board of Education is scheduled to vote next month on whether to add a similar phrase to its curriculum guidelines.

"This language from Ohio, the critically-analyze-evolution type language, is sprouting up all over, in both the local level, as well as with other state standards," Ms. Scott said. "The Ohio board has recognized its error, and other school districts should not make that same error."
The model lesson plan is voluntary, and it is unclear how many of Ohio's 613 local school districts use it. At Tuesday's meeting, Robin C. Hovis, a board member who urged its deletion, said that "we allow a Dover risk to remain if we leave this lesson plan on the shelf."

The vote followed Mrs. Wise's failed effort last month to kill the lesson plan, after which Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, called for a legal review of the lesson in light of the Dover ruling. On Tuesday, a board member who supports the critical-analysis approach tried to pre-empt Mrs. Wise's motion by asking the attorney general to take a formal look, but defenders of evolution prevailed in a parliamentary maneuver.

Michael Cochran, one of three lawyers on the 19-member board, criticized Mrs. Wise's supporters as undoing a lengthy process that had led to adoption of the standards with an emergency motion on an afternoon that four members, three of whom support the lesson, were absent.

"It is absolutely disgraceful that we've had this for three years, and we can't wait another month," Mr. Cochran said. "I think that's by design. Not intelligent design, but by design."
Deborah Owens Fink, who along with Mr. Cochran voted against eliminating the critical-analysis language, said after the meeting that the vote was just another round in the culture war, not a knockout.

"There are no permanent victories in politics," Ms. Fink said. "You do not get paradigm shifts overnight. Whether the ultimate victory is today or it's tomorrow or it's two years from now, people demand that they get open discussion of this issue."

My Opinion:

Why the hell would anyone in their right mind ban Evolution teachings? Isn't that breaking the first amendment? Also, why would you want to hide knowledge of something like Evolution? If we continue to hide knowledge from the people we will come closer to a Brave New World or 1984 every day. If we continue to HIDE knowledge instead of SHARE it we might as well not even learn it. Sure it may seem to be against the Bible, that which Christians and many other religions hold so dear, but I think that this is a little harsh.

If a family did not want their child to be taught about Evolution they should have a different class that perhaps has them re-read Genesis or something, So either way you are learning about a THEORY of the creation of mankind, be it evolution or christianity. Or maybe, just maybe, they could homeschool their children and shelter them even more, so they only learn what the parents want them to.

Why is it that Science and Religion cannot live with the other? Does one fear the other? Why do religions continuously try to abolish everything that goes against them? In ancient times they banished the number Zero because they feared it. Are they so weak as to ban Evolution itself?


Either way I feel that we should not hide science, but use it to advance into a better future. Obviously not into a future like Brave New World or 1984 but a future still.

Albert R Gonzales

Taken from:http://www.gameshout.com/news/022006/article3101.htm


Gonzales called the National Security Agency surveillance of phone calls and e-mail without a warrant an indispensable "early warning system" against attacks, but skeptical senators, including some Republicans, challenged his assertion that the Constitution and the U.S. Congress gave President George W. Bush the authorization to act.

During the often testy daylong hearing, Gonzales fielded scores of questions but repeatedly declined to answer, citing the secrecy of the program and saying operational details could not be made public without ruining the ability to monitor contacts between militants abroad and their U.S. affiliates.

Visibly frustrated, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, abruptly broke in at one point: "Of course, I'm sorry, Mr. Attorney General, I forgot you can't answer any questions that might be relevant to this."Leahy accused the administration of acting "illegally without safeguards."New York Democrat Charles Schumer told Gonzales, "I know it's been a long day for you. Especially with all that bobbing and weaving, it's not so easy."

Gonzales refused to discuss the scope of the program that Bush authorized in 2002, any successes, possible abuses or any safeguards in place.Some Republicans also criticized the administration, saying it should have asked Congress to authorize the program specifically, instead of relying on a broad authorization to use force after the September 11 attacks, the Constitution and inherent executive authority.

Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the committee, said while "the president of the United States has the fundamental responsibility to protect the country ... the president does not have a blank check."Ohio Republican Mike DeWine said the administration would stand on firmer ground if it had sought specific congressional backing, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he never envisioned such eavesdropping to be part of the post-September 11 legislation he helped pass.

He also said that in times of war other Presidents such as Washington and Lincoln have used electronic surveillance to monitor enemies.

my oppinion

Gonzales needs to speak the truth. He continued to deny all questions and refused to answer most of them. That is not cool. We need to know what is currently going on and he will not tell us what is happening. I can see reason behind hiding information in some cases however, I think that this would not be one. He was dodging all of these questions way too much.

And please, someone please, inform me as to how in the hell Abraham Lincoln used electronic surveillance to monitor its enemies? God that was a stupid statement. sad really....

Worm set to attack on february 3rd

Information taken from http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Kama-Sutra-Worm-Set-for-Attack-Friday/story.xhtml?story_id=00100040P7W8

Security analysts are warning us computer users about a new and probably destructive Internet Worm that can destroy important documents. The worm, called the Kama Sutra, is making the rounds now, but is scheduled to have its first massive attack on February 3rd.

This malicious worm targets computers running Windows and spreads mainly by copying itself to shared network locations and then sending itself to e-mail addresses found on afflicted computers. With subject lines that read "the best videoclip ever," "give me a kiss," and "school girl fantasies gone bad," the worm entices computer users to open the attached file.

"This worm feeds on people's willingness to receive salacious content on their desktop computer, but they could be putting their entire company's data at risk," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

According to Sophos, on the third of each month, the worm will attempt to disable existing antivirus and firewall software and also will delete specific files, such as Microsoft Office documents.( great...)

The worm is also known as Blackworm, Nyxem-D, and W32.Blackmail.E, among others. There are disagreements in the security industry about the severity of the worm, with Symantec and F-Secure taking different positions on the issue.

To address what is so far the most expansive malware attack in 2006, speculation among security vendors and researchers has focused on the destructive nature of the worm. Unlike most viruses currently in the wild, the Kama Sutra code is not intended to reap the code writer a windfall of ill-gotten gains. The hacker designed the worm to create mayhem by destroying documents

Frost & Sullivan analyst Rob Ayoub said he is not convinced that the worm represents the work of an old-school hacker, but did suggest it is unusual. "This is just something we haven't seen in a while. It's not a botnet or a zombie. It's a throwback to malware that only seeks to create havoc."

Analysts are urging computer users, especially home users, to make sure that they have up-to-date antivirus software installed on their machines. "There should be no excuse for any data being lost on February 3 by this worm, but there is always the danger that some home users will not have heard that warning," Cluley said.

A new planet

taken from:http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060125_smallest_planet.html

Astronomers announced today the discovery of what is possibly the smallest planet known outside our solar system orbiting a normal star.

Its orbit is farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun. Most known extrasolar planets reside inside the equivalent of Mercury’s orbit.

The planet is estimated to be about five and a half times as massive as Earth and thought to be rocky. It orbits a red dwarf star about 28,000 light-years away. Red dwarfs are about one-fifth as massive as the Sun and up to fifty times fainter. But they are among the most common stars in the universe.

"The team has discovered the most Earth-like planet yet,” said Michael Turner, assistant director for the mathematical and physical sciences directorate at the National Science Foundation, which supported the work.


Prior to this discovery, the smallest extrasolar planet found around a normal star was about seven and a half times earths mass . Earth-sized planets have been detected, but only around dying neutron stars

The newfound planet, named OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, is probably too cold to support life as we know it, astronomers said. It has a temperature of -364 degrees ferenheit, nearly as cold as pluto.

The planet and star are separated by roughly 2.5 Astronomical Units. One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Until now, no small planet had been found farther than 0.15 au from its parent star.

The finding means planet hunters are one step closer to detecting their "Holy Grail": a habitable Earth-like planet that can sustain liquid water and support life.

"We may predict with reasonable probability that microlensing will discover planets with masses like that of Earth at a similar distance from their stars and with comparable surface temperature," said study co-author Bohdan Paczynski from Princeton University.


Of the more than 150 planets have been discovered so far, most were found using the Doppler technique, in which astronomers look for wobbles in a star caused by the gravitational pull of a planet. This method has found dozens of huge worlds but cannot spot small planets that are far from their stars.

Happy Birthday Virus

This month is the 20th anniversary of the PC virus! The Brain Virus was the first PC virus created. It was not a very common virus because it was only transmitted through floppy discs
No one can tell exactly when the Brain virus was created, but the the most commin theory is that it was created by two engineers, named Basit and Amjad, at a software firm in Pakistan.
The virus reportedly replaced the executable code on a bootable floppy disk with the Brain code designed to infect each floppy subsequently opened on the PC.

In 1983 Fred Cohen, a computer scientist first used the phrase "computer virus".
He defined it as "a computer program that can affect other computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include a (possibly evolved) copy of itself."
In 1990, Symantec launched Norton Antivirus, one of the first antivirus programs ever developed by a major software company. The move by Symantec spawned a new industry. In 1992, some 1,300 new viruses were created, a 420 percent increase from December 1990.
Between 1990 and 1998, the computer world suffered from all kinds of new viruses, even those that could change their appearance with each new infection to thwart antivirus software. This era also saw the birth of e-mail-borne malware and Microsoft Word viruses. Currently, there are some 150,000 viruses circulating in the wild.
"In 20 years, viruses have moved from floppy disks to file viruses, to e-mail viruses, to Internet worms, to targeted Trojan-horse attacks," said Graham Cluley, senior security consultant at Sophos.
Evolving Threat
In the 1990s, viruses amounted mostly to electronic graffiti. Occasionally, the virus would cause some financial harm, but only with regard to damage to computers. Today, viruses have become the bread and butter for a new breed of criminals and crime syndicates.

An FBI computer crime survey of 2,000 public and private organizations released last week found that, in 2005, nine out of 10 organizations experienced "computer security incidents."
Viruses topped the list of attacks with nearly 84 percent of respondents saying that they had been adversely affected, with spyware coming in second at just under 80 percent. The financial impact of attacks from viruses and worms accounted for some $12 million in losses out of total losses of $32 million.

My oppinion:

Why in the hell would anyone be stupid enough to create computer viruses? I mean really. If you want to annoy someone do it in a more creative and less evil way. Sure even the average joe can create a virus nowadays with even microsoft word. But why would you want to?Cyberterrorist's annoy me.The FBI survey was insane. 12 million dollars of losses??? wow thats insane. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAIN VIRUS!!!

The botnet hacker!

taken from: http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5225


A computer hacker responsible for a botnet army of compromised machines has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in LA.( the internet, The next war frontier?)


Jeanson James Ancheta pleaded guilty to four felony charges and could face between five and 25 years in prison (that bites), said James Aquilina, assistant US attorney with the cyber and intellectual property crimes section.
The case is the first time in the US that a hacker has been convicted not only for creating and spreading malicious code but also for making money from it, Aquilina said.

Sentencing has been scheduled for 1 May. Judge R. Gary Klausner is presiding over the case and must approve the plea agreement.
Last November, the FBI arrested 20-year-old Ancheta, whom they believe to be part of a "botmaster underground" that seizes control of computers to and sells those computer armies to people who want to commit cybercrimes (stupid people and their cybercrimes...).
Ancheta pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, one for selling botnets that were used to launch Internet-based attacks and send spam, and the other for directing botnets to adware servers that downloaded adware surreptitiously to the hijacked systems, Aquilina said.
Ancheta made about a profit of about $3,000 from selling botnets, and about $60,000 from the adware scam( wow I'm in the wrong business), Aquilina said.
Ancheta also pleaded guilty to government intrusion for breaking into computers at both the Weapons Division of the United States Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, and the Defense Information Systems Agency , a component of the US Department of Defense(wow nice defense system...). The last count in the guilty plea is computer fraud, for accessing computers without authorisation with the intent of profiting from it,( how stupid can you be?) Aquilina said.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ancheta must surrender more than $58,000 in profits and give up a BMW he purchased with money from illegal activity, as well as computers and other evidence seized in the investigation. (that's it???)
He has also agreed to pay the U.S. government about $20,000 for infecting computers at China Lake and DISA.

Are we ready???

taken from: http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6029652.html

Twenty percent of U.S. college students graduating from 4-year colleges don't have the skills to handle tasks like estimating whether their car has enough gas, or calculating the total cost of ordering office supplies, a new study has found.

A study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts surveyed 1,827 graduating students from eight randomly selected two and four year schools. they tested them on three types of literacy: performing basic computations; understanding documents like job applications; and comprehending news articles or instructional materials.

"The surprisingly weak quantitative literacy ability of many college graduates is troubling," Stephane Baldi, who directed the study, said in a release. "A knowledgeable workforce is vital to cope with the increasing demands of the global marketplace."

This scares me. Are those people not our future? i don't want our country to be run by people who cant even calculate the cost of office supplies. OOPS!!! Too late....

Probe to Pluto

taken from: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060119_pluto_nh_launch.html


NASA sent their first probe bound toward Pluto on thursday, two days later than expected because of bad weather.

A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket flung the New Horizons spacecraft spaceward at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time sending the probe speeding away from Earth at about 36,250 miles per hour, the fastest ever for a NASA mission. The probe should pass the Moon at 11:00 EST on January 20th for a nine-year trek towards Pluto.

Initail reports show that the probe is in good health. Ground stations got their first signal at around 2.50 EST. this showed that the spacecrafts radioisotope thermoelectric generator is online and preforming as expected. the vehicle is currently where it needs to be.

This probe is scheduled to come back to earth on July 14, 2015. The initial launch was delayed because winds were to strong at the launch pad. On a later day severe storms over Maryland knocked out the power, forcing them again to reschedule yet again. The probe was finally launched at 2:00 on january 20th.

You too can find Stardust

Information taken from
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060110/sc_space/stardusthomeprojectbringscosmicdusttoyourdesktop

At UC Berkeley Researchers are asking internet users for help to join stardust@home. Which is a project to help find small grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA's stardust probe.

Stardust was launched in 1999 and is expected to land in Utah in the early morning of January 5th. They are hoping it will be laden with cometary fragments and interstellar dust grains. The comet and dust samples are trapped within a material named aerogel which researchers will have to pore through to find the miniscule grains.

Scientists hope that these samples will shed new light on composition of distant stars as well as the origions of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago

"These will be the very first contemporary interstellar dust grains every brought back to Earth for study," said Andrew Westphal, the associate director of UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory who developed the technique NASA will use to digitally scan Stardust's aerogel packs, in a statement. "Twenty or 30 years ago, we would have hired a small army of microscopists who would have hunched over microscopes...looking for the tracks of these dust grains."

However, Westphal and his colleagues will rely on an online "virtual microscope" that will allow anyone with an Internet connection to sift through the anticipated 1.5 million aerogel images for interstellar dust tracks. Each image will cover an area smaller than a single grain of salt, researchers said. Dust grain discoverers will get to name their tiny finds

Volunteer scanners must pay close attention to aerogel images to pick out the dust tracks from false signals. They must also first pass an initial test using sample pictures, project officials said.

According to the Stardust@home plan, if two out of four volunteers claim to find a dust track the corresponding image will be sent to 100 more volunteers for verification. Should at least one-fifth of those reviewers affirm the find, the image will be kicked up to a team of UC Berkeley undergraduates trained to spot aerogel dust tracks.

"Stardust is not only the first mission to return samples from a comet, it is the first sample return mission from galaxy," Westphal said.