Free Republic

More than four million PCs have been enrolled in a botnet security experts say is almost 'indestructible'The botnet, known as TDL, targets Windows PCs and tries hard to avoid detection and even harder to shut down. Code that hijacks a PC hides in places security software rarely looks and the botnet is controlled using custom-made encryption. Security researchers said recent botnet shutdowns had made TDL's controllers harden it against investigation. The 4.5 million PCs have become victims over the last three months following the appearance of the fourth version of the TDL virus. The changes introduced in TDL-4 made it...

As Congress begins to tackle the causes and cures of global warming, the action focuses on gas-guzzling vehicles and coal-fired power plants, not on lowly bovines. Yet livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. And as meat becomes a growing mainstay of human diet around the world, changing what we eat may prove as hard as changing what we drive. It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about flatulence and manure of grass-chewing cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes,...