Free Republic

Researchers tracked three browsers (MSIE, Firefox, Opera) in 2004 and counted which days they were "known unsafe." Their definition of "known unsafe": a remotely exploitable security vulnerability had been publicly announced and no patch was yet available. MSIE was 98% unsafe. There were only 7 days in 2004 without an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole. Firefox was 15% unsafe. There were 56 days with an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole. 30 of those days were a Mac hole that only affected Mac users. Windows Firefox was 7% unsafe. Opera was 17% unsafe: 65 days. That number is accidentally a little...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Dancer's death earns man 10 years By DAVID GRIMES for The Hawk Eye MONMOUTH, Ill. — A Galesburg, Ill., man responsible for a deadly highway crash a year and a half ago received a 10–year prison sentence Monday from Judge Greg McClintock in Warren County Circuit Court. McClintock found Sonny Morris El, 32, guilty of aggravated DUI, cannabis, during the defendant's bench trial May 9. Morris El and Kristina Valerio, 25, an exotic dancer at a Gulfport, Ill., nightclub, were headed east on U.S. 34 just west of Monmouth in the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2002. As a...

UNSAFE SEX WIDESPREAD Many teens and adults don't think oral sex is sex. It's not intercourse, but it is not "safe sex," either. Meanwhile, millions of teen-agers who are engaging in such intimate contact are becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases every year. According to a study in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, adolescents were more likely to report engagement in oral sex than intercourse, report more oral sex partners than intercourse partners and were unlikely to report use of STD protection during oral sex. o Three million U.S. teens are infected with one or more sexually transmitted diseases --...

Detroit's top auto executives, plus legions of Explorer, Grand Cherokee, Durango, Navigator and Tahoe owners, will be squirming -- and probably fuming -- over publication today of a provocative book, "High and Mighty: SUVs, the World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way." This book assaults sport-utility vehicles with a gusto recalling Ralph Nader's 1965 broadside against the Corvair in "Unsafe at Any Speed." Written by New York Times correspondent Keith Bradsher, "High and Mighty" (Public Affairs, $28) bashes auto companies, auto buyers, the government and even Sierra Club tree huggers for the sport-utility vehicle craze that Bradsher...

Here is another installment of the saga of our unsafe airports. As some of you know, the closest short-term parking spaces have been re-opening at many airports after receiving an FAA waiver. Immediately after the WTC, all close parking lots were shut down across the country. Authorities worried that a car bomb would be parked in them. Airport structures are required to survive a 400-lb blast from 300 feet away. Those airports getting the waivers are showing info from structural engineers that the building will survive such a blast and passenger and cargo flights can continue. Here is the problem....

More relatives keeping preschool children Family members paid to be baby sitters often untrained in child development, study finds Wednesday, May 1, 2002 By REBECCA COOK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nearly one-third of paid child care workers are relatives who often lack formal training and government oversight, according to a national study being released today that says the child care work force is larger than previously estimated. About 2.3 million people are paid to care for preschoolers, the study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services found. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Center for the Child...