Clipmarks | lisaann2007's clips

Computer visuses hit one million

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:31:33 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They say it is due to an increasingly professional digital criminal underground. Doesn't that just mean they're making increasing amounts of money? Looks like Vista is as infectious as Windows has ever been. I suppose it pays to become more well versed on the capability, and mechanisms of computer viruses, and watch out for them in addition to relying on antivirus programs.
If my programs have found a virus trojan etc, I can't delete it until I've found out what I can about it. I don't remember having any real trouble since I started using firefox, but I'd be surprised if any could compete with some of the operator errors I've had to fix. It can be hard to fix something when the answer can be found on line, and the computer won't boot.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The number of viruses, worms and trojans in circulation has topped the one million mark.

The new high for malicious programs was revealed by security firm Symantec in the latest edition of its bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report.

The vast majority of these programs have been created in the last twelve months, said Symantec.

Cyber criminals pump out malware to fool anti-virus programs which look for characteristics they have already seen.

Throughout 2007 Symantec detected more than 711,912 novel threats which brings the total number of malicious programs that the security firm's anti-virus programs detect to 1,122,311.

The vast majority of these viruses are aimed at PCs running Microsoft Windows

Popular malicious installations include key loggers that spring to life if particular websites are visited or programs, such as online games, are started up.

The report also put the growth in malicious code down to the increasingly professional digital criminal underground.

Singularity by 2045 - incredible life in a tamed world

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:07:54 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Other possible advancements from 2050 to 2100 could include colonies on Moon, Mars and beyond, finding and harnessing wormholes that break “light speed” barriers in extraterrestrial travel, and whisking information through time to meet ourselves at an earlier age, or go forward and see what the future has in store for us. It may even become possible to gather scanned minds from lost loved ones before their death enabling them to continue living in our time. How wild would that be?

Clip Source: memebox.com

Imagine living in an ageless, disease-free body with youthful looks, superhuman strength and a brain that can out-think computers. Now further imagine an affluent, happy, crime-free population residing in a world terraformed for comfort without dangerous storms, tsunamis, or unbearable weather.

This is the vision many forward-thinkers believe humanity can achieve during this century.

Author James John Bell, in his Exploring the Singularity article in The Futurist says, “We won’t just experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years

Forward-thinkers believe by 2050, explosive information growth created by the Singularity could thrust our world into what astronomer Nikolai Kardashev describes as a “Type 1” civilization – 150 years earlier than some have predicted – giving us abilities to terraform our planet making it free from earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and dangerous weather.

Tags: singularity, futurism, utopia

Nearly Half of All The World’s Primates at Risk of Extinction

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:43:43 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: We're killing our fellow apes.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

· Study paints bleak picture for hundreds of species
· Loss of habitat and boom in bushmeat trade blamed

Nearly half of all primate species are now threatened with extinction, according to an evaluation by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The study, which drew on the work of hundreds of scientists and is the most comprehensive analysis for more than a decade, found that the conservation outlook for monkeys, apes and other primates has dramatically worsened.

In some regions, the thriving bushmeat trade means the animals are being “eaten to extinction”.

The 2007 IUCN “red list” has 39% of primate species and sub-species in the three highest threat categories - vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered. In today’s revised list, 303 of the 634 species and sub-species - 48% - are in these most threatened categories.

The two biggest threats faced by primates are habitat destruction through logging and hunting for bushmeat and the illegal wildlife trade.

Amazing - Largest freely on online - "Sacred Text"

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:20:58 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: online books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric on the Internet.
There is more in the sight

Clip Source: www.sacred-texts.com

Welcome to the largest freely available archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric on the Internet. The site is dedicated to religious tolerance and scholarship, and has the largest readership of any similar site on the web.

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African
Age of Reason
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Buddhism
Celtic
Christianity

The Feral Child

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:12:21 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: She weighed 46 pounds. She was malnourished and anemic. In the pediatric intensive care unit they tried to feed the girl, but she couldn't chew or swallow solid food. So they put her on an IV and let her drink from a bottle.

Aides bathed her, scrubbed the sores on her face, trimmed her torn fingernails. They had to cut her tangled hair before they could comb out the lice.

Her caseworker determined that she had never been to school, never seen a doctor. She didn't know how to hold a doll, didn't understand peek-a-boo. "Due to the severe neglect," a doctor would write, "the child will be disabled for the rest of her life."

Hunched in an over sized crib, Danielle curled in on herself like a potato bug, then writhed angrily, kicking and thrashing. To calm herself, she batted at her toes and sucked her fists. "Like an infant," one doctor wrote.

Clip Source: www.tampabay.com

Two officers went into the house — and one stumbled back out.

Clutching his stomach, the rookie retched in the weeds.

"I've been in rooms with bodies rotting there for a week and it never stunk that bad," Holste said later. "There's just no way to describe it. Urine and feces — dog, cat and human excrement — smeared on the walls, mashed into the carpet. Everything dank and rotting."

First he saw the girl's eyes: dark and wide, unfocused, unblinking.

She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor.

Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice

she was naked — except for a swollen diaper.

"The pile of dirty diapers in that room must have been 4 feet high," the detective said. "The glass in the window had been broken, and that child was just lying there, surrounded by her own excrement and bugs."

When he bent to lift her, she yelped like a lamb.

Choking back rage, he approached the mother. How could you let this happen?

Tags: child, children, health, psychology, child abuse

Saving the High Seas

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:39:47 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.nature.org

By Mark Spalding

Mark Spalding is a senior marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy, where he leads work to analyze global marine biodiversity, conditions and threats. He has published a number of influential books, reports and papers, particularly relating to tropical coastal environments such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses.

There is a strange slow-motion battle going on in the Southern Ocean as I'm writing this in early spring 2008.

A Japanese whaling fleet is hunting minke, fin and humpback whales. Direct-action conservation organizations are trying find the fleet and stop the hunt. It is an odd, tense affair — the Japanese operating covertly, in hiding, while their “hunters” are offering web-cams and blogs and 24-hour Internet coverage.

But this battle is symptomatic of a much, much broader dynamic. The high seas — the area beyond any nation's jurisdiction, and 50 percent of the Earth's surface — have no owner and no steward.

World's Most Dangerous Animals

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:35:42 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.nature-spot.com

World's Most Dangerous Animals

1. Mosquito over 2 million deaths per year resulting from malaria infection caused by mosquito bites.

2. Snake over 100,000 deaths per year.

3. Scorpion up to 5,000 deaths per year.

4. Crocodile up to 2,000 deaths per year.

5. Elephant over 600 deaths per year.

6. Bee over 400 deaths per year.

7. Lion over 250 deaths per year.

8. Hippopotamus over 200 deaths per year.

9. Jellyfish over 100 deaths per year.

10. Shark 30 -100 deaths per year.

Solar-Power Breakthrough

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:13:15 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Solar-Power Breakthrough

Researchers Have Found a Cheap and Easy Way to Store the Energy Made by Solar Power.

By KEVIN BULLIS

August 2, 2008

Researchers have made a major advance in inorganic chemistry that could lead to a cheap way to store energy from the sun. In so doing, they have solved one of the key problems in making solar energy a dominant source of electricity.

Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry at MIT, has developed a catalyst that can generate oxygen from a glass of water by splitting water molecules. The reaction frees hydrogen ions to make hydrogen gas. The catalyst, which is easy and cheap to make, could be used to generate vast amounts of hydrogen using sunlight to power the reactions. The hydrogen can then be burned or run through a fuel cell to generate electricity whenever it's needed, including when the sun isn't shining.

The Biggest Cruise Ship in the Making

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:09:06 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.cracked.com

The Biggest Cruise Ship in the Making

Submitted by: PanterO on Aug 2nd, 2008 at 1:37PM: 0 comments

Imagine a ship that will accommodate 5400 passengers, come complete with its own full-blown shopping mall, bars, restaurants and an amphitheater the size of a football field.

Cat saves 97 year-old woman from fire

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:02:22 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.kansascity.com

‘Boo Boo’ gets it right, saves owner from fire

By KAREN UHLENHUTH

The Kansas City Star

Boo Boo the cat has a new name.

“I’m going to name her Hero,” Grace George said today, a day after Boo Boo saved George from a burning house.

George, 97, was sleeping soundly Wednesday morning in her Independence home when Boo Boo began yowling from the open bedroom window by George’s bed. George picked up the pesky cat and walked through the dark house to the back door.

That’s when she smelled the smoke.

“I knew I had to get out of the house,” George said. When the fire department arrived George was waiting in a car in front of the house. However, Boo Boo was still inside. Firefighters rescued the cat and gave it oxygen.

The about-15-year-old cat — a black and gold brindle, weighing 8 pounds — and George are staying with George’s daughter, Patty Young, who lives down the block.

Gray wolves regain endangered-species protections

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:56:06 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Gray wolves regain endangered-species protections

A Montana judge sides with environmentalists who had challenged the species' delisting.

By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 19, 2008

Gray wolves in the northern Rockies regained endangered-species protections Friday when a federal judge in Montana granted a preliminary injunction to environmentalists, who had challenged the wolves' delisting.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced in February that gray wolves would be removed from the endangered species list after what they termed a successful 20-year effort to reestablish the wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Environmentalists sued.

The judge's ruling nullifies plans by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to hold wolf hunts this fall.

In a strongly worded 40-page order issued late Friday, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of Missoula, Mont., called the wolves' delisting arbitrary and capricious, and said it "demonstrated a possibility of irreparable harm" to the species.

cat and dog pic...awwww!

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:15:34 GMT

clipped by: boozich

Clip Source: vi.sualize.us

English Bulldog Is A Hero: Saves Kittens From Lake

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:14:08 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Napoleon got a much deserved hero’s welcome at the adoption center as crowds gathered to praise the brave bulldog and cuddle the rescued kittens.

English Bulldogs are notoriously bad swimmers. With a giant head and chest compared to a lighter tail end, they have a tendency to go bottoms up in the water. It’s hard to keep that head up above the waves when it’s the largest part of your body!

Most owners are very aware of this problem, and will take care to see that their dogs have a good life vest on if they’re going to be boating or there’s a chance the bulldog could end up in some deep water without someone right at hand to save them if they look like they’re starting to struggle.

Don't call me Napoleon, call me Churchill

Clip Source: www.bulldogabbie.com

Because of the breeds history of poor swimming ability, this morning’s news came as a bit of a shock to me! Napoleon, an obedient and well behaved two year old white English Bulldog in Michigan abruptly left his master’s side yesterday and raced out across a road and into a nearby lake.

Napoleon’s owner met him in the driveway as the bulldog came back up out of the lake dragging something in his mouth. It looked like a burlap sack, and Napoleon appeared determined to drag it up from the shore and back to his master’s side.

It was then that Napoleon’s owner heard the meowing and realized that there were abandoned kittens inside the bag! Six kittens in total, although two of them didn’t survive and the remaining four were in bad shape. Napoleon’s mom cared for the survivor’s for the next two weeks until they could be taken in to the city pet adoption center and found new homes.

Tags: "napoleon", english bulldog, michigan, kittens in lake, rescue

There's water in dem dar clouds!

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:14:55 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.cleantechblog.com

With seawater covering seventy-one per cent of the Earth’s surface, at an average depth of four kilometers, and another 1,000,000,000,000,000 liters of water in the first kilometer alone of the earth' atmosphere, water could hardly be described as a rare element. Its more a case of 'water water everywhere and not a drop to drink'. I'm going to highlight a few different ways in which renewable energy can be used to produce drinking water.

One of the readers last week commented that use of wind turbines or wave energy to power desalination would be a great idea. Well in Perth Australia they are doing exactly that. Perth Australia has now established one of the largest desalination plants outside of the Middle East and set up a wind farm to power it.

Speaking of windmills, another Australian, Max Whisson, an energetic septuagenarian inventor, believes he can solve the current water crisis with his Water Windmill invention

Tags: water, clean tech, wind power

Is our universe fine-tuned for life?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:06:08 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Claims of fine-tuning have generally been based on what happens when you vary a single characteristic of the universe, say the strength of gravity, while holding all others constant. That, says Adams, is too artificial a scenario to tell you anything about whether there are other universes that can support life. "The right way to do the problem is to start from scratch," he says. "You have to turn all the knobs and find out what happens."

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

DON'T take our starry skies for granted. If you were unlucky enough to be living in some other universe, you might have nothing to stare at but black holes.

At least, that's the view of a new study that examines the nature of other universes that might support life and suggests that our cosmic habitat is nothing special after all - wondrously starry skies apart.

The idea that certain aspects of our universe make it uniquely suited to life has never been properly tested, says Fred Adams of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "You hear people say our universe is fine-tuned for life, that stars are rare and couldn't form if certain things were different," he says. "The truth is, no one has done the calculations." Adams has now rectified that situation and found that it is not unusual for stars to form that can support life.

Tags: life, universe