[sunnykerr]

How Will the April Fools' Computer Worm Affect You? (CNN) -- Remember the dire predictions surrounding the "millennium bug?" The doom-and-gloom scenarios bandied about by security analysts on how computers could act when their clocks turned to January 1, 2000? Computer users will not know that Conficker.c has infected their machine. Well, researchers are hoping that a potential April Fools' time bomb -- the Conficker.c that is supposed to hit computers on April 1 -- turns out to be equally unfounded. But realizing that hope alone is not a prudent option, here is a primer on the worm so you can adequately prepare yourself -- and your computer. What is Conficker.c and what do analysts fear it may do? Conficker.c is a worm, a malicious program thought to have already infected between 5 million and 10 million computers. Those infections haven't spawned many symptoms, but on April 1 a master computer is scheduled to gain control of these zombie machines, said Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA, a New York-based IT and software company. What happens on April Fools' Day is anyone's guess. The program could delete all of the files on a person's computer, use zombie PCs -- those controlled by a master -- to overwhelm and shut down Web sites or monitor a person's keyboard strokes to collect private information like passwords or bank account information, experts said. More likely, though, said DeBolt, the virus may try to get computer users to buy fake software or spend money on other phony products. Experts said computer hackers largely have moved away from showboating and causing random trouble. They now usually try to make money off their viral programs. How does the Conficker.c work? Conficker.c imbeds itself deep in the computer where it is difficult to track. The program, for instance, stops Windows from conducting automatic updates that could prevent it from causing damage. Who wrote the program? It's unclear who wrote the program, but anti-work researchers -- a group calling itself the Conficker Cabal -- are looking for clues. First, they know that some recent programs have come from Eastern European countries outside the jurisdiction of the European Union, said Patrick Morganelli, senior vice president of technology for Enigma Software. Worm program authors often hide in those countries to stay out of sight from law enforcement, he said. In a way, the Conficker Cabal is also looking for the program author's fingerprints. DeBolt said security researchers are looking through old programs to see if their programming styles are similar to that of Conficker C. The prospects for catching the program's author are not good, Morganelli said. "Unless they open their mouth, they'll never be found," he said. So, the most effective counter-assault simply may be damage control. How can I tell if my computer's infected? One quick way to see if your computer has been infected is to see if you have gotten automatic updates from Windows in March. If so, your computer likely is fine, DeBolt said. Microsoft released a statement saying the company "is actively working with the industry to mitigate the spread of the worm." Users who haven't gotten the latest Windows updates should go to Windows Live OneCare if they fear they're infected, the company's statement says. People who use other antivirus software should check to make sure they've received the latest updates, which also could have been disabled by Conficker.c. How did the worm evolve? The first version of Conficker -- strain A -- was released in late 2008. That version used 250 Web addresses -- generated daily by the system -- as the means of communication between the master computer and its zombies. The end goal of the first line was to sell computer users fake antivirus software, said Morganelli. Computer security experts largely patched that problem by working with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to disable or buy the problematic URLs, he said. A second variant, Conficker.b, was released in January and infected millions more machines. The Conficker, strain C, will generate 50,000 URLs per day instead of just 250 when it becomes active, DeBolt said. What is being done to fight Conficker? Members are searching for the malicious software program's author and for ways to do damage control if he or she can't be stopped. They're motivated in part by a $250,000 bounty from Microsoft.

How will the April Fools' computer worm affect you? - CNN.com

So, I'm freaking out, because I've got a craptastic laptop and I'm pretty sure my anti-virus stuff is NOT up to date.

Anyone else freaking out?

[Callace]

This was just what I needed right now (literally, not ironically)

I really HATE my anti-virus program. It was it, not a virus, that made my computer completely useless on April 1 (and really, the day before too) It kept loading new updates and performing scans all the time, zapping all the computer power, so that I could not use the comp at all. Reading this makes me hope that it at least did it for a good reason

(but then again, I sort of dont too. Dont hope that program is right in everything it does. the last obsession that damn anti-virus program had was screaming up about being a dangerous website, spouting so many warnings for each time I changed page that it took me forever to get a clean enough screen to be able to see the new page I was on That program is just being mean to me)

[sunnykerr]

Yeah, so far I seem to be off the hook...

But I'm so not sure. I'm crossing my fingers, knocking on wood and living on a prayer here...

[sunnykerr]

Scientists Concerned as Arctic Sea Ice Gets Thinner The giant mass of Arctic sea ice is getting younger and thinner, and scientists say the physical changes are cause for global concern. Researchers with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado released new information Monday that shows the northern polar ice cap continues its decade-long shrinking trend. Thicker, older ice floating on the Arctic Ocean is not replenishing like it used to. And younger, thinner seasonal ice now makes up about 70 per cent of the ice in winter -- up from 50 per cent in the 1980s and 1990s. "What we're finding is that the ice is now thinner than ever," said Thomas Wagner with the Cryospheric Sciences Program at NASA in Washington, D.C. "It's receding a lot in the summer. And then, when it begins to grow back in the winter, it's not growing back to the size it once was." Arctic ice is important for constraining the planet's heat budget, said Wagner. The ice works like an air conditioner for the world, naturally cooling air and water. It also acts like a mirror, reflecting solar radiation back into space. "As that ice melts, it's replaced with darker sea water that absorbs a lot more light and begins to heat up." The shrinking ice cap also is opening up new shipping routes and opportunities for exploring natural resources, said Wagner. The different "geo-political landscape" already has some countries laying claim to the Arctic and beefing up their security measures, he pointed out. Canada, Russia, the United States and a number of Nordic countries are competing for jurisdiction and control over untapped natural resources. It's believed the Arctic contains as much as 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Walter Meier with the snow and ice data centre said shrinking ice also has an effect on Arctic wildlife such as polar bears and seals, as well as on people living in the region who rely on ice for transportation and hunting. He said Arctic ice measured about 15 million square kilometres at the end of February -- down about 287,000 square kilometres from the winter average and a decline that's roughly the size of Texas. Ronald Kwok with the NASA jet propulsion laboratory in California described how the space agency first launched a satellite in 2003 to precisely measure differences in the Earth's surface elevations within a couple of centimetres. Ice thickness had been measured before by submarines. "Now we can do it almost over the entire Arctic Ocean from space," said Kwok. He said researchers are still calculating the last five years worth of data to determine melting trends and predictions. Summers in 2005 and 2007 were unusually warm and offered almost no replenishments of ice, he said. "If the same melting and ice area is blown off the arctic area this year, then we can expect a fairly low ice extent this coming summer." Meier said the suggestion of an ice-free Arctic in the summer was laughable a few years ago. But some studies have predicted that scenario could happen within the next five to 30 years. "That seems fairly unlikely, but it's not totally out of the realm of possibility," he said.

CTV.ca | Scientists concerned as Arctic sea ice gets thinner

Well, this was a bit of a nasty shock.

Not the part about the thinning Artic ice. We all knew that a long time ago.

I mean the part about the reason everyone's fighting to gain control over our/Canada's waters up North is because there might be black gold somewhere in there?

Are we totally devoid of souls? Or, you know, any sense of self-preservation at all?

[Callace]

Not really news. But I came across this really amusing and eductive vid, that you might enjoy

YouTube - Large Hadron Rap

[sunnykerr]

"Missing Link" Found: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs? Meet "Ida," the small "missing link" found in Germany that's created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins. In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution. The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs. "This is the first link to all humans," Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents "the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor." Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs. "This specimen looks like a really early fossil monkey that belongs to the group that includes us," said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study, published this week in the journal PLoS ONE. But there's a big gap in the fossil record from this time period, Richmond noted. Researchers are unsure when and where the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans split from the other group of primates that includes lemurs. "[Ida] is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree," Richmond said, "but it's not the only branching point." At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. "From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there," Richmond explained. "So you can't say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology." In Ida's case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves. What's more, the newly described "missing link" was found in Germany's Messel Pit. Ida's European origins are intriguing, Richmond said, because they could suggest—contrary to common assumptions—that the continent was an important area for primate evolution.

"MISSING LINK" FOUND: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs?

So, this is an exciting time in science, isn't it?

Of course, it's probably an exciting tme in anti-science circles as well. Nothing like new fodder for rhetoric.

[Callace]

In Ida's case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves.

Wow, that's amazing!! that many years in the ground, and she is still intact down to her stomach contents:eek;

[wanderer78]

That article on Ida was fascinating. Thanks for that.

[sunnykerr]

It was all over the news here... I have to say that I understand a lot of it, but I do think it's awesome that Ida was found in Germany. You know, spreading the archeological wealth around a bit.

[Callace]

Yeah, kind of surprising, after all we heard about the primates coming out of Africa. But I guess that was at an earlier stage of developement

[wanderer78]

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) It was all over the news here... I have to say that I understand a lot of it, but I do think it's awesome that Ida was found in Germany. You know, spreading the archeological wealth around a bit.

I hadn't heard about it at all. But then again, I haven't really read any papers or watched the news this week.

I agree, the fact that it was found in Germany is really interesting.

[Callace]

I've heard about it briefly, but I never really took the time to read it till it came up here

[vc318]

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) It was all over the news here... I have to say that I understand a lot of it, but I do think it's awesome that Ida was found in Germany. You know, spreading the archeological wealth around a bit.

That really was an interesting discovery.

[fetch]

I'm biased because my Dad is working on this, but I think this is interesting.
Study shows depressed people see the world differently | Health | Jerusalem Post

[sunnykerr]

Makes sense. Studies show the brain of persistently happy people actually functions differently.