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Thursday, March 05, 2009 By Andrea Thompson Aquatic animals that feed on lake and stream bottom sediments burp out small amounts of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, a new study finds.While the biological emissions from these critters pales in comparison to the nitrous oxide emitted by fossil fuel burning, their contribution could increase as more and more nitrogen-rich fertilizer runs off into lakes, streams and seas, the authors of the study said.Nitrous oxide (N2O) is more commonly known to anyone who has sat in the dentist's chair as laughing gas.In the atmosphere it is a powerful greenhouse gas, packing...

Aquatic animals that feed on lake and stream bottom sediments burp out small amounts of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, a new study finds. While the biological emissions from these critters pales in comparison to the nitrous oxide emitted by fossil fuel burning, their contribution could increase as more and more nitrogen-rich fertilizer runs off into lakes, streams and seas, the authors of the study said. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is more commonly known to anyone who has sat in the dentist's chair as laughing gas. In the atmosphere it is a powerful greenhouse gas, packing about 310 times the...

Infecting patients with worms 'could hold key to treating asthma' Infecting patients with worms could hold the key to treating asthma and other conditions on the rise because of the modern obsession with cleanliness, scientists believe. By Kate Devlin 28 Jan 2009 Researchers are testing whether parasitic worms can stimulate patients' immune systems to fight illnesses. The worms have been all but eliminated from humans in developed countries, because of an increased emphasis on hygiene. But experts believe their absence could be one of the reasons why some illnesses, including asthma and diabetes, are increasingly prevalent. A trial by scientists...

The Wilson family calls it the “Permibus”: a 1984 Bluebird school bus painted green and converted into a traveling exhibit of sustainable living. The Wilsons - Stan, 52, Delyla, 44, and their daughter Megan, 17 - have lived on the “Permibus” since it went on the road from California in February. They share their home with three dogs, three chickens and a composting bin full of worms. On Saturday, however, the Wilsons were evicted from the Permibus after it was pulled over and impounded by police on Interstate 94. Caught up in last weekend’s security sweep ahead of the Republican...

Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to distribute software patches more efficiently. Milan Vojnović and colleagues from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, want to make useful pieces of information such as software updates behave more like computer worms: spreading between computers instead of being downloaded from central servers. The research may also help defend against malicious types of worm, the researchers say. Software worms spread by self-replicating. After infecting one computer they probe others to find new hosts. Most existing worms randomly probe computers when looking for new hosts to infect, but that is inefficient, says Vojnović, because...

REFERENCES ARTICLE FROM SOURCE THAT CAN'T BE POSTED HERE. ~~~~~ eweekhickins writes to share an article *snip* highlighting the forgotten risks that a multifunction printer could possibly offer. Brendan O'Connor first called attention to the vulnerabilities of these new devices at a Black Hat talk in '06 and warns that these are no longer "dumb" machine sitting in the corner and should be treated with their own respective security strategy. ~~~~ Forum post on Slashdot: ~~~~ "The biggest issue isn't a lack of (software or physical) security regarding the machine, but a lack of a security policy in these instances....

Think twice before biting into a chocolate to loose yourself in its taste - you might actually be chewing a wee bit more then you bargained for. On Wednesday (August 29).. worms and moths crawled out of a box of chocolates imitating a popular international brand, and even a few larvae. But by the time this was noticed, a few chocolate balls had been consumed. The chocolates were picked up by a Korean consumer on his trip to China. But local manufactoring experts say it looks as though the contamination happened during the manufactoring process. "It seems to be seriously...

Doctors thought the strange, bleeding bumps on Aaron Dallas' head might be from gnat bites or shingles. Then the bumps started moving. A doctor found five active bot fly larvae living beneath the skin atop Dallas' head. "I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head," Dallas told the (Glenwood Springs) Post Independent. "I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy." Dallas said he likely received the larval infestation while on a trip to Belize this summer. Bot fly infections are not uncommon in parts of Central...

Worm composting could be doing more harm than good to the environment, a leading researcher claimed today. Composting Association research director Jim Frederickson said: “Worms produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Recent research done by German scientists has found that worms produced a third of nitrous oxide gases when used for composting.” The ‘wiggly ones’ naturally produce nitrous oxide gases when they are put into the process of composting. Worms can be used for home grown composting or commercial composting and are typically red worms. They are used to recycle food scraps and other organic material into valuable soil...

*** IT Security Alert *** ** This is a very serious matter ** Increasingly over the past few weeks, specifically targeted social engineering attacks have been made via email messages designed to be extremely tempting to target recipients. These attacks are exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook and other applications to secretly plant malicious software on the targeted user's machine. The malicious software can be used to gain access to other network resources, allowing hostiles to extract proprietary data that can be extremely damaging. Malicious payloads can also lie dormant ("zombies"), to be activated in a manner that disrupts network operations...

Excerpts - ... 1. Make ISPs (and all organizations providing computer access to more than 100 people) responsible for filtering scan and attack traffic across their networks. ... 2. Make ISPs (and all organizations providing computer access to more than 100 people) responsible for knocking customer PCs off their network if they become bots. ... 3. Make end users liable if losses are incurred because of outdated security software. ... 4. Write some kind of law concerning efficient security software. ...

LOS ANGELES - MySpace devotee Kary Rogers was expecting to see a gut-busting video when a friend from the popular online hangout messaged him a link. First, though, he was directed to a page where he was supposed to re-enter his password. Rogers realized that someone was trying to steal his information, and he didn't take the bait. At best, he would be spammed with junk e-mails; worse, the Web thief might steal his real-life identity. "I immediately went back and changed my password," said Rogers, 29, a network analyst for Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss. MySpace bills itself...

A potentially fatal disease rarely seen here has popped up in Houston four times in the past two months. It's linked to tapeworms and their eggs. He ate at mobile kitchens until he found out food contaminated with eggs from a tapeworm almost killed him. "He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside," said Marjorie, his daughter & translator. The tile worker immigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago said early symptoms were subtle. "It was a mild headache but it wouldn't go away," Marjorie explained. "It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol." Doctors...

Microsoft's browser gets upgraded IE 7 will be the browser that ships with Windows Vista Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) available to the general public.The new version is the first upgrade to the web browsing program for more than five years. New features include tabbed browsing, the ability to search the net directly and an anti-fraud system to thwart phishing attacks. The new program is available as a free download on 19 October, but many will get it as an automatic update to Windows XP in November. Phish fighter The new version of the browser has...

<p>A tiny worm that can regrow its body if chopped into little pieces could help explain how human stem cells function and could lead to better ways to manipulate them. Research has found that a molecule gives the stem cells of the worm, known as a planarian, regenerative power. A planarian can grow an entire new worm from a tiny piece of any part of its body except for the pharynx (a digestive organ) and the region in front of its light-sensing eye spots.</p>

Bot Networks What could you do if you controlled a network of thousands of computers -- or, at least, could use the spare processor cycles on those machines? You could perform massively parallel computations: model nuclear explosions or global weather patterns, factor large numbers or find Mersenne primes, or break cryptographic problems. All of these are legitimate applications. And you can visit distributed.net and download software that allows you to donate your spare computer cycles to some of these projects. (You can help search for Optimal Golomb Rulers -- even if you have no idea what they are.) You've got...

Palaeontologists have used a particle accelerator to reveal for the first time the structure of 500-million-year-old fossilised embryos. The researchers harnessed powerful X-ray beams from a synchrotron particle accelerator to create three-dimensional scans of embryos from two worm-like species from the Cambrian period called Markuelia and Pseudooides. The scans revealed previously unseen growth mechanisms for the worms' segments and provided further evidence of their evolutionary significance, says Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol, UK, who led the research team (Nature, vol 442, p 680). "This imaging technology is truly stupendous. It could revolutionise the study of fossils," he says....

Rockets bursting in air, fireworks everywhere! Thank you for helping mark the 200,000th entry into the VirusScan malware (malevolent software) detection database. But truly, this is not a moment to celebrate. For, larger and larger numbers of malware is a plague, not a cause to celebrate. Instead, we mark this moment simply as a milestone in our continual trip to fend off the bad stuff from everyone’s machines. It is alarming that we reach this milestone so soon after September 2004 when the count reached 100,000. Eighteen years to reach 100,000. Less than two years to double. Looking ahead, our...

Excerpt - A security researcher with expertise in rootkits has created a working prototype of new technology that is capable of creating malware that remains "100 percent undetectable," even on Windows Vista x64 systems. Joanna Rutkowska, a stealth malware researcher at Singapore-based IT security firm COSEINC, says the new Blue Pill concept uses AMD's SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology to create an ultra-thin hypervisor that takes complete control of the underlying operating system. Rutkowska plans to discuss the idea and demonstrate a working prototype for Windows Vista x64 at the end at the SyScan Conference in Singapore on July 21 and at...

Excerpt - Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks. The move pits the world's largest software maker head-to-head with longtime business partners Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc. and others. Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft's effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks. Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers,...