Dive into the NET

Feds: Cyber Criminals Hijacked 4 Million Computers

2011-11-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

An Eastern European pack of cyber thieves known as the Rove group hijacked at least four million computers in over 100 countries, including at least half a million computers in the U.S., to make off with $14 million in "illegitimate income" before they were caught, federal officials announced today.

The malware allegedly used in the "massive and sophisticated scheme" also managed to infect computers in U.S. government agencies including NASA and targeted the websites for major institutions like iTunes, Netflix and the IRS -- forcing users attempting to get to those sites to different websites entirely, according to a federal indictment unsealed in New York today.

The accused hackers, six Estonian nationals and a Russian national, rerouted the internet traffic illegally on the infected computers for the last four years in order to reap profits from internet advertisement deals, the indictment said. The FBI busted up the alleged international cyber ring after a two-year investigation called Operation Ghost Click.

"The global reach of these cyber thieves demonstrates that the criminal world is... flat," said Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI Assistant Director in charge of the New York field office. "The Internet is pervasive because it is such a useful tool, but it is a tool that can be exploited by those with bad intentions and a little know-how."

Though they operated out of their home countries, the alleged hackers used entities in the U.S. and all over the world -- including Estonia-based software company Rove Digital from which the group apparently gets its name -- to carry out the plot.

According to the indictment, the suspects entered into deals with various internet advertisers in which they would be paid for generating traffic to certain websites or advertisements. But instead of earning the money legitimately, the FBI said the defendants used malware to force infected computers to unwillingly visit the target sites or advertisements -- pumping up click results and, therefore, ill-gotten profits to the tune of $14 million.

The malware was also designed to prevent users from installing anti-virus software that may have been able to free the infected computers.

The six Estonian nationals have been arrested on cyber crime charges while the Russian national remains at large.

"Today, with the flip of a switch, the FBI and our partners dismantled the Rove criminal enterprise," Fedarcyk said. "Thanks to the collective effort across the U.S. and in Estonia, six leaders of the criminal enterprise have been arrested and numerous servers operated by the criminal organization have been disabled."

How the Fraud Worked, According to the FBI

The indictment describes several examples of alleged cyber fraud including two principle strategies: traffic redirection and ad replacement.

In the first case, if a user searched for the websites of major institutions like iTunes, Netflix or the IRS, the search results would return normally. However, if the user tried to click on the link to the websites, the malware on the computer would force a redirect to a different website where the criminals would profit in their advertisement deal.

In the second, when an infected computer visited a major website -- like Amazon.com -- the malware would be able to simply replace regular advertisements on that page with advertisements of their own making.

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Heavy Meth Use Linked to Schizophrenia

2011-11-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Heavy methamphetamine use may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, according to a new study.

It also confirmed previous research showing a possible link between marijuana dependence and schizophrenia.

Methamphetamine and other amphetamine-type stimulants are the second most common type of illicit drug used worldwide.

In this study, researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto analyzed the records of patients who were admitted to California hospitals between 1990 and 2000 with a diagnosis of dependence or abuse for methamphetamine, marijuana, alcohol, cocaine or opioids.

People who were hospitalized for meth dependence and who had never been diagnosed with schizophrenia or psychotic symptoms at the start of the study had a roughly 1.5- to three-fold higher risk of later being diagnosed with schizophrenia than patients who used cocaine, alcohol or opioid drugs, study leader Dr. Russ Callaghan said in a CAMH news release.

The researchers also found that the increased risk of schizophrenia in methamphetamine users was similar to that of heavy users of marijuana.

The study was published online Nov. 8 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

It's not clear how methamphetamine and marijuana may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.

"Perhaps repeated use of methamphetamine and cannabis in some susceptible individuals can trigger latent schizophrenia by sensitizing the brain to dopamine, a brain chemical thought to be associated with psychosis," Dr. Stephen Kish, senior scientist and head of CAMH's Human Brain Laboratory, said in the news release.

"We hope that understanding the nature of the drug addiction-schizophrenia relationship will help in developing better therapies for both conditions," Callaghan said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about schizophrenia.

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Angry Birds-style games will see market double to $53bn

2011-11-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

The global digital games market will more than double over the next five years: analysts

The global digital games market will more than double over the next five years to be worth $53 billion in 2016, according to analyst firm Ovum.

In a new forecast, the independent telecoms analyst predicts that revenues will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent from $24 billion at the end of 2011.

Digital games include those that are played online (on PCs or game consoles) or on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Ovum analyst Mark Little said that the explosive growth of casual games - simple games, such as Angry Birds, with mass-market appeal - is the primary driver of revenue growth. He commented: "The rise of casual games is continuing apace, driving soaring digital gaming revenues.

"With the addition of more and more casual gamers, the market is no longer the sole preserve of the teen male hardcore gamer. Gaming is fast establishing itself with a much wider mainstream audience, with serious ramifications for other rich-media entertainment such as TV, video and music.

"Casual games are often simpler to play and easier to learn, making for a more spontaneous experience, ideal for mobile phones and tablets."

Ovum's forecast predicts that revenues from the mobile gaming market alone will triple over the next five years to hit $17.5 billion in 2016.

In addition to casual gaming, another driver of revenue growth is the free-to-play business model, which has exploded onto the video games market, lowering barriers to entry and encouraging consumers to purchase low-priced virtual goods.

Little commented: "Game publishers' evolving strategy is turning game products into game services, extending product life with downloadable content that continually refreshes a title's ability to engage the gamer.

"Besides this, publishers are finding that digital distribution is delivering a host of other benefits. These include boosting margins from 20-30 per cent on boxed games, to 50-75 per cent on digital. Meanwhile online passes, increasingly required for network gaming, are cutting down the threat from the pre-owned game market."

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Market for digital games 'to grow 17% a year'

2011-11-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

The digital games market will grow at 17% a year for the next five years, making it worth $53bn (£33bn) in 2016, according to consultants Ovum.

They count digital games as those played online on PCs and consoles, as well as on tablets and smartphones.

They said that games that needed online passes were reducing the ability of gamers to buy second-hand games.

Growth will also be driven by the rise of simpler "casual" games, such as the hugely popular Angry Birds.

"With the addition of more and more casual gamers, the market is no longer the sole preserve of the teen male hardcore gamer," said Ovum analyst Mark Little.

"Casual games are often simpler to play and easier to learn, making for a more spontaneous experience, ideal for mobile phones and tablets."

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5 Auto Maintenance Procedures You Don't Need

2011-11-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

P.T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute," before the dawn of mass-produced automobiles, but peddlers of bogus mileage-enhancers and proponents of unnecessary auto maintenance procedures are carrying on Barnum's tradition. Everything from magnets to vortex generators to water injectors and useless "ectoplasm traps" are hawked in the marketplace, and unnecessary tune-up processes can further bleed consumers' wallets. The best defense is to read your owner's manual and bone up on your car's needs, but in the meantime, here's a 5-point list of dubious or unneeded engine-enhancing procedures.

Engine Flushes ($100-$200)

An engine flush uses a machine and chemicals to rid your engine's innards of sludge, but it's not a normal maintenance checkpoint unless you've neglected your engine. We checked in with Tom Torbjornsen, maintenance editor at AOL Autos for his perspective.

"Change your oil according to manufacturer's recommendations and you won't need an engine flush," Torbjornsen said.

An examination into your oil-filler lid will reveal deposits and gunk.

"Sometimes, if you've got an engine with high mileage and deposits, a flush will break loose sludge that can get into the engine," he said. "It's really not necessary today if you've otherwise taken good care of your car."

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Fuel-Injection Cleaning ($125-$200)

"If your Check Engine light isn't on and your car's running fine," says Popular Mechanics's Mike Allen, whose team of testers have debunked dozens of phony gadgets, "Skip this."

Torbjornsen agrees.

"An upper engine carbon cleaning is a good thing to have every 35,000 miles because of varnish deposits," Torbjornsen said. "When fuel injectors get dirty and deposits build up, you get poor fuel economy. But not every year. Once a year is overkill."

Oil Additives ($5 AND UP)

There are numerous oil additives on the market ranging from products designed to reduce friction and bolster fuel economy to those whose manufacturers claim their product will allow you to run your engine dry of oil without damaging bearings. Steer clear of all.

"Oil additives are designed to fortify and bolster the engine," Torbjornsen said. "But if you're following normal maintenance producers, you don't need it. In the testimonials you'll find on websites selling this stuff, people say they can drive without oil because of some magic elixir. But a real-world tester always fails."

Gas Savers ($10-$400)

Some of the pseudo-scientific gas savers on the market just plain don't work and may actually hurt engine performance, says Torbjornsen. The E.P.A. has tested over 100, from pills you pop into your tank to "cow magnets," and none have proven effective.

"Some of these products claim to 'polarize the molecules in the vortex'," he said. "It's all garbage."

Long-Life Antifreeze ($4-$8 Per Quart)

There isn't any evidence that "long life" antifreeze is any better for your radiator than standard antifreeze, and you shouldn't assume that because you've bought and used it, you can ignore maintaining your radiator, says Torbjornsen.

"I recommend a 2-year, 24,000 mile flush regardless of what kind of antifreeze is in your radiator," he said.

"Especially if you live in a wintery climate."

And don't mix coolants, either, says Allen.
"That's asking for trouble, especially if your car's engineered for a specific type of anti-freeze."

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The 10 Worst Excuses For Missing Work

2011-11-09T17:18:00.000-08:00

We all have to pay the bills, but sometimes the office is literally the last place in the universe you want to be. The reasons can run the gamut, but life has a way of occurring just when a deadline looms large. So employees can sometimes be led to creative extremes to find a way to take a day off.

In CareerBuilder's annual survey, 29 percent of workers admitted to playing hooky this year, citing errands and plans with family or friends among their top reasons for calling in sick. But some employees like to get more creative. Here are 15 of the strangest excuses employers said they heard:

Employee's 12-year-old daughter stole his car and he had no other way to work. Employee didn't want to report it to the police.
Employee said bats got in her hair.
Employee said a refrigerator fell on him.
Employee was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into her convertible.
Employee said a deer bit him during hunting season.
Employee ate too much at a party.
Employee fell out of bed and broke his nose.
Employee got a cold from a puppy.
Employee's child stuck a mint up his nose and had to go to the ER to remove it.
Employee hurt his back chasing a beaver.
Employee got his toe caught in a vent cover.
Employee had a headache after going to too many garage sales.
Employee's brother-in-law was kidnapped by a drug cartel while in Mexico.
Employee drank anti-freeze by mistake and had to go to the hospital.
Employee was at a bowling alley and a bucket filled with water (due to a leak) crashed through the ceiling and hit her on the head.

Inspired by CareerBuilder's weirdest excuses for calling in sick, below are our 10 worst excuses for missing work:

Food Coma. It may have been the meal of a lifetime, rendering you completely useless, but a succulent filet mignon is not a viable get-out-of-work-card. Even if you can't button up your pants after a 10-courser, and are in greater need of a nap than an infant, you should still power through.
Sad Pet. Pets are living, breathing animals just like us. Their medical care requires our full attention, and an entire field of medicine is devoted to their well-being -- veterinary care. And issues related to their physical condition might even require a visit to such a specialist. But the line stops at their emotional well-being. If your dog is in the dumps for missing a treat, that shouldn't require a furlough for his personal crisis.
Hangover. If you hit the town the night before, you should still be at your desk first thing in the morning. The office may have been a far-off thought when you threw back that 10th shot of tequila, but the two will surely be in direct conflict some eight hours later. They say coconut water is the best cure for a hangover.
Shopping Day. The deadlines are piling up, your boss won't stop riding you, and the only three words on your mind are, "off the rack." Our consumer society allows for few greater forms of catharsis than a shopping day. But it can wait till the weekend.
Headache. Your head is pounding, and the last place in the world you want to be is at your computer screen. You know some fresh air or the confines of your home is just the antidote you need for that headache, but just take an Advil to make it through the day.
Heartsick. We've all been there -- scribbling the name of that special someone on the yellow pad in the middle of a meeting. But going home to cry in bed is taking it too far with that deadline looming.
Hunting. The way our economy works is that people specialize. We may not have been put on this planet to have such specific roles at the expense of all else. But it is a way to maximize efficiency for the market. So if your jobs requires you to work as a computer technician around the block, just go to the butcher's shop, instead of taking a day to get into the wild in search of wild boar.
Concert Tickets On Sale. The ticket office opens at noon, and if you sleep outside overnight, you'll get in the first row for the reunion concert special. But you really should not call in sick when you can get someone else to stand in line. Instead, just listen to the band at your desk.
Friend In Town. After college ends, and we enter the working world, we are inevitably forced to separate ourselves from the old house/room/suitemate. And there's nothing quite like the reunion to allow yourself to return to those carefree days when the biggest concern was figuring out how to schedule your classes so you can sleep in. But such a meet-up is not an acceptable excuse to miss a morning meeting.
iPhone Release. Your life really isn't going to be all that different once you get your hands on that newest Apple product. The late Steve Jobs was a wizard in promoting the release of each new iPhone so as to boost sales. But he was also a master in overseeing a company that will surely not sell out on the first day of sales.

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Alien Invasion Not Imminent, White House Says

2011-11-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

Well, perhaps not an invasion, but the White House has issued an official statement saying that there is no evidence that life exists outside of Earth.

The statement came in response to two petitions on We The People, the White House’s experiment in crowdsourced petitioning and public opinion. Any petition that gains at least 25,000 signatures will be passed along to a top policymaker for a response. The petitions asked the White House to “formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race” and to “immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings.”

Both petitions claim that extraterrestrials exist on Earth and that the government has gone to lengths to hide this information. The White House, though, says:

The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.

The combined signatures don’t add up to 25,000, so it’s odd the White House would respond to this petition instead of others on the platform. Here are some pros and cons of the decision.

Pro: Despite the seemingly outlandish petition, the White House responded with a respectful and fairly lengthy response penned by Phil Larson, who works in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In it, Larson says that while aliens aren’t on Earth, “that doesn’t mean the subject of life outside our planet isn’t being discussed or explored. In fact, there are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth.” He lists three programs — SETI, the Kepler spacecraft and the Mars Science Laboratory — as examples of the search for life on other planets.

Con: The White House chose to answer this petition instead of handling more controversial topics such as those addressing the electoral college, Keystone XL Pipeline or same-sex marriage.

Pro: This response is encouraging to the validity of the We The People platform. No matter the petition, if it receives enough popular support, the White House will take it into consideration and respond.

Con: Occupy Wall Street is picking up speed and influence. The 2012 election is top of mind. The job market is still dismal, and there are tensions running across political and economic divides. While space exploration is certainly an important element of the U.S.’s tech history, the decision to handle this petition, titled “Searching for ET, But No Evidence Yet,” seems like a case of bad timing especially since it has fewer than 25,000 signatures.

Now it’s your turn: Did the White House make the right decision by responding to this alien inquiry? And are your Area 51 beliefs crushed, or do you still hold out hope for alien life?

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What Advice Did Steve Jobs Give to Mark Zuckerberg?

2011-11-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

Mark Zuckerberg says he asked Steve Jobs about how to build a high-quality team and great products, but denies Apple and Facebook ever talked about an acquisition.

The revelations come as part of an in-depth interview between PBS’s Charlie Rose and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The extensive interview covers all of the bases, such as whether Facebook will ever build games (no, Zuck says) and what Zuckerberg thinks of Google+ (he calls it “their own little version of Facebook”).

However, the most interesting part of the interview comes when the trio starts discussing Zuckerberg’s relationship with Steve Jobs. “I had a lot of questions for him on how to build a team around you,” he says in response to one of Rose’s questions. “That’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are. How to keep an organization focused, right, when I think the tendency for larger companies is to try to fray and go into all these different areas.”

Zuckerberg professes respect for Apple because, like Facebook, it is out to build a company that will change the world rather than fatten the bottom line. Rose then asks Zuckerberg whether or not the two companies had ever talked about an acquisition.

“No. I don’t think it ever really got there,” he says. “I mean, nor would I have wanted to sell it.” Sandberg and Zuckerberg then start talking about how Jobs never raised the issue because he understood that Zuckerberg had no interest in selling. We here at Mashable have heard conflicting stories about whether Apple has ever tried to acquire Facebook, but we find it hard to believe the two companies never talked about the issue at some level, whether seriously or just in passing.

Sandberg ends the interview with a strong message for women. “If you survey men and women in college today in this country, the men are more ambitious than the women,” she says. “And until women are as ambitious as men, they’re not going to achieve as much as men.”

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Barnes & Noble Launches Nook Tablet

2011-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

Barnes & Noble launched a tablet reader on Monday. The Nook Tablet will rival other tablet readers on the market, including Amazon’s newly launched Kindle Fire.

The Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, which will retail for $249 and arrive in stores at the end of next week, looks very similar to the Nook Color — which Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch says is the second-best selling tablet behind the iPad.

That device’s price will be reduced from $249 to $199 starting today. The Nook Simple Touch’s price will be reduced from $139 to $99.

The Nook Tablet runs on Wi-Fi, and it has a 7-inch display, a built-in microphone, web browsing, email, the ability to play movies in HD and a “Nook Newstand” that allows users to subscribe to periodicals. Barnes & Noble’s new tablet comes with 16 GB of memory, twice that of the Kindle Fire, and enables users to add up to 32 GB more using an SD card.

For content beyond reading material, Barnes & Noble has preloaded Netflix and Hulu Plus on its new device. Like the Kindle Fire, the tablet runs Android 2.3 but does not allow access to the full Android market — only selected and Nook-optimized apps. By the holidays, it hopes to offer Nook-specific apps from third-party developers.

Lynch minced no words in positioning the tablet against the Kindle Fire.

He called the tablet “a vending machine for Amazon’s services” and criticized Amazon for selling an ad-supported version of the Kindle Fire at a $40 discount. Brick-and-mortar stores that can provide support, more memory and a device that is slightly lighter were all included in his list of reasons that the Nook Tablet had an advantage over the Kindle Fire.

Lynch also said that Netflix CEO Reed Hasting said that HD movies look better on the Nook.

“Judge for yourself,” he said, “but we think content will look and render better on the Nook than on Kindle Fire.”

The 3 Things Your Auto Insurance Company Doesn't Want You To Know

2010-11-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

In good times, it's natural that we pay less attention to our individual expenses. But today, regardless of our current situation, we all need to save as much money as possible.

And when it comes to saving money, the experts agree one of the best places to start is with your auto insurance.

While it’s natural that companies want to generate as much profit as they can, auto insurance is one area that many people end up paying way more than they should. That’s because they are unaware of some key information which insurance companies aren’t in a particular hurry to share.

How to make sure your Insurance Company is not getting rich off you

Auto insurance rates are constantly changing. In fact, in certain states and for certain policies rates have actually dropped significantly in the past 12 months. And if your record has improved you may even be eligible for additional reductions. You can be sure, however, that your insurance company isn’t going to call you up and let you know their rates have dropped.
You are not locked in to your policy. Even if you have pre-paid your current insurance company for an entire year, you have the right to cancel the policy at any time and receive a pro-rated refund. In fact there is no cost to switch policies from one company to another.
Comparing quotes from multiple insurance companies delivers the most savings. Today there are online services that let consumers quickly shop for the best rates from a nationwide selection of auto insurance companies, all competing for your business. You simply enter your requirements, and instantly receive quotes from a wide range of reputable companies.

One of the most comprehensive of these comparison services is InsuranceTree.com. It's an initiative from LendingTree, the company that's synonymous with trying to save consumers money. They operate a free website service that will find you auto insurance quotes from a wide network of premium insurers. The site also contains a wealth of reference information that helps you understand how different policies work and how to save the most money possible.

The fact is that with a minimal amount of time and the help of a service such as InsuranceTree.com you may be able to quickly save hundreds of dollars.

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Old Military Planes Could Drop 900,000 Tree-Bombs a Day

2010-11-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Image: a C-130 Hercules dropping something other than tree-bombs. Suggestsoft

I've always felt that planting trees was simply too much of a non-violent affair. Digging holes, lowering in saplings, filling them with soil -- yawn. Where's the action, the excitement, the military-grade aircraft? It's also time consuming. Granted, I don't have nearly the skills this guy does, but the last time I went out planting trees, the best I could do was one every few minutes. Thankfully, somebody figured know how to plant trees right: By enlisting a fleet of a retrofitted C-130 military transport planes to literally aerial bomb forests with new trees, we could plant 900,000 of them in a single day.

Planes once used to drop landmines retrofitted to drop tree-mines
See, it turns out that there are all these military planes just idling in hangars across the world -- they were designed to drop landmines en masse in enemy territory, but now they're just collecting rust. There are some 2,500 of these planes in 70 different countries, and it turns out they make for ideal tree-bombers.

The Guardian explains:

Equipment installed in the huge C-130 transport aircraft used by the military for laying carpets of landmines across combat zones has been adapted to deposit the trees in remote areas including parts of Scotland.

An idea, originally from a former RAF pilot, Jack Walters, of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, has been developed by the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin Aerospace so that 900,000 young trees can be planted in a day.

Walters' idea was published in a scientific paper nearly 36 years ago, but was deemed technologically infeasible at the time. Lockheed then determined the plan could be an ideal way to breathe new life into outmoded military machines. Peter Simmons, a company rep, is enthused about the idea.

"The possibilities are amazing," he gushed to the Guardian. "We can fly at 1,000ft at 130 knots planting more than 3,000 cones a minute in a pattern across the landscape - just as we did with landmines, but in this case each cone contains a sapling. That's 125,000 trees for each sortie and 900,000 trees in a day."

Lockheed claims that deployment of this technology will allow the planting of 1 billion trees a year, or enough to reforest -- or simply forest -- 3,000 square miles. They plan on marketing the plane to companies seeking to offset their carbon footprints.

How Tree-Bombing Works
First, you have to pick the proper environment: Typically, an area that has experienced deforestation, and was previously home to forests. With minor adjustments, however, Lockheed says that traditionally unforested areas can be successfully planted with shrub versions of the tree bombs. Shrub-bombs.

Second, you outfit a landmine carpet bomber to drop tree-bombs instead. Finally, you have the tree-bomb itself. Here's how they work:

The tree cones are pointed and designed to bury themselves in the ground at the same depth as if they had been planted by hand. They contain fertilizer and a material that soaks up surrounding moisture, watering the roots of the tree. The containers are metal but rot immediately so the tree can put its roots into the soil.

And thus you have a suitably testosterone-fueled, 21st century-appropriate method of planting trees.

UPDATE: It should be pointed out, as some commenters have below, that the article this post references was published in 1999 -- when the retrofitting plan was first launched as a pilot program. Since then, the wider plan outlined has not been executed, and has yet to see widespread success. However, the idea remains a good one, and perhaps with even better technology, and newly minted international incentives for greater reforestation, Tree-bombing will get the trial it deserves ...

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HTG Explains: Why Do So Many Geeks Hate Internet Explorer?

2010-11-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

It’s common knowledge that almost every single geek hates Internet Explorer with a passion, but have you ever wondered why? Let’s take a fair look at the history and where it all began… for posterity, if nothing else.

Contrary to what you might think, this article is not meant to be a hate-fest on Internet Explorer—in fact, we’re pretty impressed with the hardware acceleration and new features in Internet Explorer 9—but keep reading for the whole story.

In the Beginning There Was IE, and It Was Good?

We’ve all been so used to thinking of Internet Explorer as that slow, buggy browser that is behind the times, but it wasn’t always that way—in fact, way back when, Internet Explorer pioneered many innovations that made the web what it is today.

Here’s a quick tour through the easily forgotten history of the infamous browser:

1996: Internet Explorer 3
This version of the browser, introduced in 1997, was the first browser to implement CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Yes, you’re reading that correctly—in fact, it introduced many new features like Java applets and sadly, ActiveX controls.

1997: Internet Explorer 4
IE4 introduced a blazing fast (at the time) rendering engine as an embeddable component that could be used in other applications—this was a lot more important than people realize. This version also introduced Dynamic HTML, which allows web pages to dynamically change the page using JavaScript, and added Active Desktop integration.

Even more weird? Seems like nobody remembers this anymore, but IE4 was actually cross-platform—you could install it on Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX—and by the time IE5 was released, IE4 had reached a 60% market share.

1999: Internet Explorer 5.x
Microsoft invented Ajax. Wait… what? That’s right, it was this version of IE that introduced the XMLHttpRequest feature in JavaScript, which forms the underlying technology behind every web application you’re using today—you know, like Gmail. Of course, the term “Ajax” wasn’t actually coined until years later by somebody other than Microsoft, but this release supported everything required to make it work.

So Yes, Microsoft Innovated
From IE3 until IE6, Microsoft used all their resources to simply out-innovate the competition, releasing new features and better browsers faster than Netscape. In fact, Netscape 3 Gold was a buggy piece of junk that crashed all the time, and Netscape 4 was extremely slow and could barely render tables—much less CSS, which would often cause the browser to crash.

To put it in context: web developers used to complain about Netscape the same way they complain about IE6 now.

What Made It Go So Very Wrong?

The trouble all started when Microsoft integrated IE into Windows as a required component, and made it difficult to uninstall and use an alternate browser. Then there was the whole business with them exploiting their monopoly to try and push Netscape out of the market, and a lot of people started to view Microsoft as the evil empire.

Microsoft Stopped Trying
By the time Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6 in 2001, complete with lots of new features for web developers, since there was no competition and they had a 95% market share, Microsoft just stopped trying—seriously, they did nothing for 5 years even after Firefox was released and geeks started migrating left and right.

Microsoft-Specific Features
The whole problem with Microsoft’s innovation is that much of it was done in ways that didn’t follow the web standards—this wasn’t as big of a problem when Internet Explorer was the only game in town, but once Firefox and Webkit came around and started following the standards correctly, suddenly it became a huge problem for web developers.

Security Holes and Crashing
Since Microsoft decided they didn’t need to try anymore, and they didn’t keep up with the competition from Firefox and other browsers, bugs and security holes just cropped up left and right—really terrible ones, too. For instance, this code is all that is required to crash IE6:

<script>for(x in document.write){document.write(x);}</script>

In fact, the screenshot at the beginning of this section was a live example of testing out this particular bug.

IE7 and IE8 Were Too Little, Too Late
It took 5 years after IE6 for Microsoft to finally get around to releasing IE7, which added tabs and made the browser slightly more tolerable, but for web designers it was still a nightmare to deal with, and only complicated the issue since now you had to make pages render correctly in two lousy browsers instead of just one.

It took another 2.5 years for Microsoft to finally release Internet Explorer 8, which greatly improved CSS support for web developers, and added new features like Private browsing, tab isolation to prevent one bad page from taking down the whole browser, and phishing protection. By this point, most geeks had already moved on to Firefox, and then some of us to Google Chrome.

Here’s the Real Reason Geeks Hate IE

Just because we’re geeks doesn’t mean we hate everything that’s inferior and outdated—in fact, we often love retro computing—that’s why we love Atari, NES, Commodore 64, etc. We take pride in our geek knowledge. So why’s Internet Explorer a different story?

Here’s a couple of reasons that fueled our hatred of the buggy browser, and finally put us all over the edge:

Supporting IE is Like a Fork in the Eye for Web Devs
Here’s a sample of a day in the life of a web designer: You spend hours making sure that your page looks great, and you test it out in Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and even Opera. It looks great, awesome!

Now you open up IE and the page looks like somebody put it into a blender and hit the Whip button. Then you spend double the amount of time trying to fix it to look tolerable in IE6 and IE7, cursing loudly the entire time.

Geeks Forced to Use Internet Explorer

And here’s where we come to the real issue—the whole reason that geeks can’t stand Internet Explorer:

Geeks everywhere were forced to use Internet Explorer at work even when there are better browsers, forced to support it for corporate applications, forced to make sure web sites still work in IE, and we couldn’t convince everybody to switch to a better browser.

Geeks don’t hate something that’s inferior—but they do hate it when it’s forced on them.

The Good News: The Future Might Be Brighter

Thankfully it seems like Microsoft has finally learned from their many, many mistakes in the browser world. They are below 50% in the market share wars, and they’ve finally learned to focus on using web standards.

Internet Explorer 9 is about to be released, it’s got a shiny new interface that looks a lot like Google Chrome, blazing fast hardware acceleration, and supports HTML5 surprisingly well—in fact, it’s so much better that 34% of our readers said they will switch to IE9.

Microsoft is billing Internet Explorer 9 as the browser that’s going to change the world, and they aren’t wrong—they just aren’t mentioning that they were the only ones holding the web back with their anemic browsers. And now that mess is finally over.

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Yep, Apple Killed The CD Today

2010-11-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Stop. Take a deep breath. Before my headline gets you all worked up, consider what I’m saying here. The CD and other optical discs, like DVDs and Blu-rays, are obviously going to live on for a while as a way to transport media. But make no mistake that today, with two unveilings, Apple has effectively sealed the fate of the optical disc in the computer industry. Soon, it will go the way of the floppy disk.

Last week, I wrote a post laying out what I hoped Apple would bring with a revamped MacBook Air. I came to the realization that I had never once used the optical drive in my current MacBook Pro, and it was simply taking up a lot of space and was making my computer unnecessarily bulky. I wanted to replace it with a MacBook Air. And now I can. And I’m not going to be the only one that does.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: but the MacBook Air has been around for a couple of years and it hasn’t killed off the optical disc yet. That’s true, but a couple key ingredients were missing the last time around.

First of all, the first-generation Airs were a bad combination of underpowered and overpriced. That is no longer the case. Second, they required some convoluted desktop computer CD syncing system to be able to install something from an optical disc to the Air (or an optional USB add-on). That is also no longer the case (though both still exists).

When you get your MacBook Air and you open the box, you will find exactly zero optical discs inside. Normally, Apple includes at least one back-up DVD to reinstall OS X and other software if your computer fails. But now, that has been replaced with a super-slim USB stick. This stick, packed in with your manual, is all you need to reinstall your system now.

This makes a lot of sense. CDs were replaced by DVDs because they offered a lot more storage. But flash memory cards, such as the one Apple includes with the Air, are already blowing DVDs out of the water when it comes to storage. They may still be more expensive to produce, but Apple has clearly figured out a way to make it work. I suspect we may see more drives like this one (which use much less plastic than typical USB flash drives — and appear to even use less plastic than optical discs).

But that’s only one half of the future.

The other half is a potentially much bigger announcement Apple made today: the Mac App Store. While Apple didn’t give a ton of details yet, it appears that this store will work pretty much just as their App Store does on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. There will be free and paid apps. There will be one-click downloads. There will be automatic updates. All that.

What there won’t be are any optical discs.

Up until now, the vast majority of software (at least the legal variety) has been distributed by way of CD or DVD. The Mac App Store could very well change that. Every app found on that store, undoubtedly including the big ones we all know and love and use on our computers today, will be distributed over the Internet. This is long overdue.

Plenty of companies have tried Internet distribution for a long time. Some have success, and some don’t. But none have the type of central repository that Apple is offering here. This is going to be huge.

If it sounds similar to what Google is working on with the Chrome Web Store, or what Mozilla is proposing with their Open Web Ecosystem, remember that those are only web apps. We’re talking native applications for the Mac App Store. We’re talking apps that run on your computer, just like you have now, they’re just distributed in a way that makes a lot more sense.

They’re distributed in a way that makes the CD, DVD, and every other optical disc obsolete. And that’s good, since soon the optical drives will start to fade out of existence as well.

With the launch of the iTunes Music Store seven and a half years ago, Apple put the wheels in motion to kill the CD. Today, they kicked off their final assault. There will be no survivors.

[image: flickr/stuartpilbrow]

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Scientists Turn Skin Into Blood

2010-11-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists now believe they can transform human skin cells into blood cells. That means getting a blood transfusion as part of surgery or to treat cancer could be as simple as borrowing a patch of skin off your own body.

Canadian researchers at the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Ontario have made the major step of reprogramming human skin cells into blood cells. Their research was published in the most recent issue of Nature. Up until now, scientists have been focusing research on the conversion of embryonic stem cells into blood. But those efforts have been problematic, both because it's difficult to turn the stem cells into mature cells that can be transplanted into adults and because of the controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells in research as well as their finite availability.

The research team in Canada, however, has found a way to bypass all these concerns by using growth factors that can reprogram skin cells into blood cells, allowing for the development of adult blood cells for immediate transplant. They successfully changed skin cells into blood cells several times over the course of two years, using human skin from old as well as young patients.

Dr. Andre Terzic, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, has read the new study and is excited by the research.

"I think the whole field of reprogramming ordinary tissue is truly state-of-the-art technology," he told AOL Health. "This field has a lot of potential applications." Terzic says the Canadian research could lead to better and more immediate treatments for blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma as well as for bone marrow transplant.

Terzic says the research is especially exciting because it allows for an unlimited supply of blood cells for treating disease.

"The fundamental work has been done," he says. "It will take a significant amount of time to develop and validate this research and then put it into practice, "Terzic adds, "but this is clearly the decade of cellular programming."

The Canadian team expects clinical trials to begin as soon as 2012.

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Why So Many People Can't Make Decisions

2010-11-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

Some people meet, fall in love and get married right away. Others can spend hours in the sock aisle at the department store, weighing the pros and cons of buying a pair of wool argyles instead of cotton striped.

Seeing the world as black and white, in which choices seem clear, or shades of gray can affect people's path in life, from jobs and relationships to which political candidate they vote for, researchers say. People who often have conflicting feelings about situations—the shades-of-gray thinkers—have more of what psychologists call ambivalence, while those who tend toward unequivocal views have less ambivalence.

High ambivalence may be useful in some situations, and low ambivalence in others, researchers say. And although people don't fall neatly into one camp or the other, in general, individuals who tend toward ambivalence do so fairly consistently across different areas of their lives.

For decades psychologists largely ignored ambivalence because they didn't think it was meaningful. The way researchers studied attitudes—by asking participants where they fell on a scale ranging from positive to negative—also made it difficult to tease apart who held conflicting opinions from those who were neutral, according to Mark Zanna, a University of Waterloo professor who studies ambivalence. (Similarly, psychologists long believed it wasn't necessary to examine men and women separately when studying the way people think.)

Now, researchers have been investigating how ambivalence, or lack of it, affects people's lives, and how they might be able to make better decisions. Overall, thinking in shades of gray is a sign of maturity, enabling people to see the world as it really is. It's a "coming to grips with the complexity of the world," says Jeff Larsen, a psychology professor who studies ambivalence at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

In a recent study, college students were asked to write an essay coming down on one side or another of a contentious issue, regarding a new labor law affecting young adults, while other groups of students were allowed to write about both sides of the issue. The students forced to choose a side reported feeling more uncomfortable, even physically sweating more, says Frenk van Harreveld , a social psychologist at the University of Amsterdam who studies how people deal with ambivalence.

If there isn't an easy answer, ambivalent people, more than black-and-white thinkers, are likely to procrastinate and avoid making a choice, for instance about whether to take a new job, says Dr. Harreveld. But if after careful consideration an individual still can't decide, one's gut reaction may be the way to go. Dr. van Harreveld says in these situations he flips a coin, and if his immediate reaction when the coin lands on heads is negative, then he knows what he should do.

Researchers can't say for sure why some people tend towards greater ambivalence. Certain personality traits play a role—people with a strong need to reach a conclusion in a given situation tend to black-and-white thinking, while ambivalent people tend to be more comfortable with uncertainty. Individuals who are raised in environments where their parents are ambivalent or unstable may grow to experience anxiety and ambivalence in future relationships, according to some developmental psychologists.

Culture may also play a role. In western cultures, simultaneously seeing both good and bad "violates our world view, our need to put things in boxes," says Dr. Larsen. But in eastern philosophies, it may be less problematic because there is a recognition of dualism, that something can be one thing as well as another.

One of the most widely studied aspects of ambivalence is how it affects thinking. Because of their strongly positive or strongly negative views, black-and-white thinkers tend to be quicker at making decisions than highly ambivalent people. But if they get mired in one point of view and can't see others, black-and-white thinking may prompt conflict with others or unhealthy thoughts or behaviors.

People with clinical depression, for instance, often get mired in a negative view of the world. They may interpret a neutral action like a friend not waving to them as meaning that their friend is mad at them, and have trouble thinking about alternative explanations.

Ambivalent people, on the other hand, tend to systematically evaluate all sides of an argument before coming to a decision. They scrutinize carefully the evidence that is presented to them, making lists of pros and cons, and rejecting overly simplified information.

Ambivalent individuals' ability to see all sides of an argument and feel mixed emotions appears to have some benefits. They may be better able to empathize with others' points of view, for one thing. And when people are able to feel mixed emotions, such as hope and sadness, they tend to have healthier coping strategies, such as when a spouse passes away, according to Dr. Larsen. They may also be more creative because the different emotions lead them to consider different ideas that they might otherwise have dismissed.

People waffling over a decision may benefit from paring down the number of details they are weighing and instead selecting one or a few important values to use in basing their decision, says Richard Boyatzis , a professor in organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University.

For example, in making a decision about whether to buy a costly piece of new medical equipment, a hospital executive may weigh the expense, expertise needed to operate it and space requirements against its effectiveness. But ultimately, Dr. Boyatzis says, in order to avoid getting mired in a prolonged debate, the executive may decide on a core value—say, how well the equipment works for taking care of patients—that can be used to help make the decision.

In the workplace, employees who are highly ambivalent about their jobs are more erratic in job performance; they may perform particularly well some days and poorly other times, says René Ziegler, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Tübingen in Germany whose study of the subject is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Positive feedback for a highly ambivalent person, such as a pay raise, will boost their job performance more than for someone who isn't ambivalent about the job, he says.

Every job has good and bad elements. But people who aren't ambivalent about their job perform well if they like their work and poorly if they don't. Dr. Ziegler suggests that black-and-white thinkers tend to focus on key aspects of their job, such as how much they are getting paid or how much they like their boss, and not the total picture in determining whether they are happy at work.

Black-and-white thinkers similarly may recognize that there are positive and negative aspects to a significant relationship. But they generally choose to focus only on some qualities that are particularly important to them.

By contrast, people who are truly ambivalent in a relationship can't put the negative out of their mind. They may worry about being hurt or abandoned even in moments when their partner is doing something nice, says Mario Mikulincer, dean of the New School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.

Such shades-of-gray people tend to have trouble in relationships. They stay in relationships longer, even abusive ones, and experience more fighting. They are also more likely to get divorced, says Dr. Mikulincer.

Recognizing that a partner has strengths and weaknesses is normal, says Dr. Mikulincer. "A certain degree of ambivalence is a sign of maturity," he says.

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Nasa scientists braced for 'solar tsunami' to hit earth

2010-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

The earth could be hit by a wave of violent space weather as early as Tuesday after a massive explosion on the sun, scientists have warned.

The solar fireworks at the weekend were recorded by several satellites, including Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory which watched its shock wave rippling outwards.

Astronomers from all over the world witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, which they linked to an even larger eruption across the surface of Sun.

The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a “solar tsunami” racing 93 million miles across space.

Images from the SDO hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into space, the New Scientist reported.

Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.

It is likely to spark spectacular displays of the aurora or northern and southern lights.

"This eruption is directed right at us," said Leon Golub, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

"It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."

Scientists have warned that a really big solar eruption could destroy satellites and wreck power and communications grids around the globe if it happened today.

Nasa recently warned that Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed in June that senior space agency scientists believed the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013.

It remains unclear, however, how much damage this latest eruption will cause the world’s communication tools.

Dr Lucie Green, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey, followed the flare-ups using Japan's orbiting Hinode telescope.

"What wonderful fireworks the Sun has been producing,” the UK solar expert said.

“This was a very rare event – not one, but two almost simultaneous eruptions from different locations on the sun were launched toward the Earth.

"These eruptions occur when immense magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere lose their stability and can no longer be held down by the Sun's huge gravitational pull. Just like a coiled spring suddenly being released, they erupt into space.”

She added: "It looks like the first eruption was so large that it changed the magnetic fields throughout half the Sun's visible atmosphere and provided the right conditions for the second eruption.

"Both eruptions could be Earth-directed but may be travelling at different speeds.

“This means we have a very good chance of seeing major and prolonged effects, such as the northern lights at low latitudes."

A Nasa spokesman was unavailable for comment.

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Gods In Color: Painted Sculpture Of Classical Antiquity

2010-11-14T09:12:00.000-08:00

A recent touring exhibition is turning a long held common belief on its head. The common perception is that the great statues and buildings of ancient Greece and Rome were all pure unpainted stone or green tarnished bronze, but researchers have been arguing that this may not been what these classic monuments really looked like back in the era of their creation. That, in fact, these statue's were quite alive and vibrant, full of color.

Researchers believe, particalurly Vinzenz Brinkmann who has been doing this research for the past 25 years, that artists used mineral and organic based colors and after centuries of deterioration any trace of pigment leftover when discovered, would have been taken off during any cleaning processes done before being put on display, washing the historical art clear of its true colors.

The findings of this research completley changes the commonly held modern ideas of the ancient world, and the way we view modern sculpture and art today, much of which was based on those classical Greek and Roman styles.

Stiftung Archaeologie

The exhibition, 'Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity' features more than 20 full-size color reconstructions of Greek and Roman works, alongside 35 original statues and reliefs. In two reviews of the exhibition, which is running at Harvard University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with additional works at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California, the authors describe the experience of first seeing something that was, for so long, thought to be a bare, lifeless statue, now come to life with color.

Stiftung Archaeologie

Walking through the galleries, I pause in front of a color reconstruction of a marble portrait of the Roman emperor Caligula, who ascended the throne in a.d. 37 at age 25, and ruled until his assassination four years later. I'm used to seeing him in "classic white": his pupil-less eyes set against a ghostly pallor, frozen in a regal gaze. But color makes me focus on different facial features, such as the mop of thick, brown hair that frames his fleshy face, which is accented by bright hazel eyes and soft rosy lips. His cheeks are shaded in areas that bring out a plumpness, revealing his youth. I feel as if the deceased despot from my dry history books was actually once young, handsome, and alive.
archaeology.org

Stiftung Archaeologie

One of the greatest statues of Augustus, first emperor of Rome, has come down to us in marble. His carved armor and rippling robe meld into the symphony of cream on cream we all expect. At the Getty, a reconstruction of the piece, retouched with colors based on tints that still cling here and there to the original, has the great Augustus togaed in a cherry red that matches his lips. His tunic's touched with blue. What he's lost in elegance he's regained in verve
washingtonpost.com

Stiftung Archaeologie

With examples from literature like this: "If only I could shed my beauty and assume an uglier aspect/The way you would wipe color off a statue," a quote used by one of the authors said by Helen of Troy, in lines written by Euripides in 412 B.C., it is a wonder how it took us as long as it did to realize the colorful truth behind some of Man's oldest artistic relics.

The authors go on to talk about Brinkmann and his research.

Stiftung Archaeologie

And even after extensive visual and scientific analysis of the original sculptures, Ebbinghaus admits, scholars still don't know if the paint was applied in one or two coats, how finely the pigments were ground, or exactly which binding medium would have been used in each case--all elements that would affect the appearance of a finished piece. Generally, though, the color reconstructions in the exhibition "truly look closer to ancient sculpture than just the plain white marble," she says.
archaeology.org

Stiftung Archaeologie

When Brinkmann was a graduate student working on toolmarks in Greek marbles. He realized that the special lighting used to spot where a chisel had once passed could also reveal where ancient colors had been.

If you looked closely enough, with scientific equipment and rigor, many sculptures started to look like a coloring book just waiting to be painted in. Lab analysis of the microscopic grains of pigment that had survived here or there on many sculptures, along with close examination of the faded tints that had survived intact on another few, supplied the colors of the paint
washingtonpost.com

Stiftung Archaeologie

Gods in Color is a traveling exhibition, previously shown throughout Europe. It is on view at the Sackler, the first U.S. venue, through January 20. Some pieces will be displayed at the Getty Villa in Malibu in an exhibition titled The Color of Life (March 6-June 23, 2008).

Image rights: Stiftung Archaeologie

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How much a country's leader is paid compared to GDP per person

2010-11-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

ON MONDAY July 5th Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, rejected the pay increase he was awarded by the country's parliament last week. MPs had granted Mr Odinga a rise to nearly $430,000 a year, while giving themselves a 25% increase to $161,000. This boost would place Mr Odinga among the highest-paid political leaders in the world. More worryingly, his salary would be some 240 times greater than the country's GDP per person (measured on a purchasing-power parity basis). Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, tops our list of selected leaders' salaries. He is paid more than 40 times the city-state’s GDP per person. At the other end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking a modest sum from Indian taxpayers.

Correction: We originally understated the salary of the prime minister of Canada. This was revised on July 6th 2010.

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Bizarre last writes for suicide man. 1,905-page Web rant after Harvard tragedy

2010-11-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

A New York native shot himself to death in Harvard Yard last week -- after penning an epic 1,905-page suicide note.

Mitchell Heisman, 35, quoted Thomas Jefferson, Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Einstein as he attempted to explain his motives in the rambling missive, which included a lengthy preface and 1,433 footnotes.

LEGACY: Mitchell Heisman posted the online manifesto at far left before shooting himself in the middle of the Harvard campus.

Heisman put the encyclopedia-sized note online and asked that the Web page be kept up after his death, so that everyone could know his feelings about life and the universe.
"I propose opening your mind towards the liberation of death; towards exposing the blind faith in life as a myth, a bias, and an error," he wrote.

Heisman arranged to send delayed e-mails to about 400 friends with a link to the rambling farewell before he fired a bullet from a silver revolver into his head at Memorial Church in the Harvard Yard in front of about 20 people touring the campus last Saturday.

Friends who scanned the note tried to reach him to talk him out of it, but it was too late.

The massive document contains little information about his life, but includes many long passages touching on issues such as Jesus, the Battle of Hastings in 1066, sociology and the First Amendment.

"If my hypothesis is correct, this work will be repressed," he surmised on the first page.

The note ends with a 19-page list of sources and the comment "What good suicide note would be complete without a bibliography?"

Heisman, who grew up in Monroe, NJ, told his friends and mother, Lonni Heisman, 76, that he was looking forward to completing his enormous research on a book.
"All I knew was he was finishing his book and he was happy about that," she told the Harvard Crimson newspaper.

"I'm devastated. I just can't believe it," she said. "I don't think I ever will."

The document, posted at www.suicidenote.info, makes convoluted claims about democracy, Hitler, Jews, Christians, the American Revolution, and what he called "Jesus's penis of the spirit."

Heisman dryly prefaces the document by saying, "I will likely be unable to defend its content."

Heisman, who lived in Somerville, Mass., graduated from the University of Albany with a BA in psychology. He worked in several Boston-area bookstores and was able to work on his farewell note thanks to an inheritance from his father, an engineer who died when Heisman was 12.

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What Happens to Your Body If You Drink a Coke Right Now?

2010-11-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? Because it gets you high. They removed the cocaine almost 100 years ago. Why? It was redundant.

In the first 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor, allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (And there’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate; your blood pressure rises; as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
> 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
> 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.
> 60 minutes: As the rave inside you dies down, you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like hydrating your system, or building strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) Want to know what happens after that? Check out what happens to your body after you drink a coke, every day for a long time.

Coke itself isn’t the enemy here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid, which are found in almost all sodas. Moderation, people!

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WikiLeaks Founder to Release Massacre Video

2010-11-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Julian Assange, who the Feds fear may release State Dept. secrets, denies having them—but he’s readying video of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan.

After several days underground, the founder of the secretive website WikiLeaks has gone public to disclose that he is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last year that left as many as 140 civilians dead, most of them children and teenagers.

In an email obtained by The Daily Beast that was sent to WikiLeaks supporters in the United States Tuesday, Julian Assange, the website’s Australian-born founder, also defends a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist who is now under arrest in Kuwait on charges that he leaked classified Pentagon combat videos, as well as 260,000 State Department cables, to WikiLeaks.

American officials have said they are eager to determine the whereabouts of Assange, who canceled an appearance last Friday in Las Vegas, to discourage him from releasing any more classified information on his website, which is nominally based in Sweden and promotes itself as a global resource for whistleblowers. As recently as two weeks ago, Assange, who first gained global notoriety as a computer hacker, was in his native Australia.

In April, his website posted a copy of a classified Pentagon video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Baghdad in which a dozen people were killed; that video is also believed to have been leaked by the Army intelligence analyst, Specialist Bradley Manning of Potomac, Maryland.

While denying again that WikiLeaks has the State Department cables, Assange acknowledges in the email today that he is in custody of the May 2009 video that shows the airstrike on the Afghan village of Garani, believed to be the most lethal combat strike in Afghanistan—in terms of civilian deaths—since the United States invaded the country in 2001. Assange writes that “we are still working on” preparations for release of the video of “the Garani massacre.”

The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately comment on Assange’s email message.

>American officials have acknowledged in the past that they are concerned about the release of the Garani video, fearing that it could undermine public support for the American military campaign in Afghanistan both in that country and in the United States. Pentagon officials were outraged by WikiLeaks’ release of the Baghdad video this spring.

In the email, Assange does not confirm any relationship between the website and Manning, describing him as “one of our alleged sources.”

But he suggests that Manning is being treated unfairly—“detained and shipped to a US military prison in Kuwait, where he is being held” without trial.

“Manning is alleged to have acted according to his conscience and leaked to us the Collateral Murder video and the video of a massacre that took place in Afghanistan last year at Garani,” Assange continues.

“Mr. Manning allegedly also sent us 260,000 classified US Department cables, reporting on the actions of US Embassy’s [sic] engaging in abusive actions all over the world. We have denied the allegation, but the US government is acting as if the allegation is true and we do have a lot of other material that exposes human rights abuses by the United States government.” Assange does not reveal exactly what that other material might be.

American officials are treating Assange’s claim that he does not have the State Department emails with skepticism, suggesting that he is playing word games—that while he may not have exactly 260,000 cables, he has a large number of them.

Assange seems to enjoying taunting the United States government and news organizations with information that is not always accurate. Last Friday, WikiLeaks—which tends to communicate with the outside world through Twitter messages–created a flurry when it disclosed via tweet that Assange was scheduled to appear that afternoon at a journalists’ conference in Las Vegas. The Twitter notice failed to mention that Assange had canceled his appearance several days earlier because of unspecified security concerns.

The arrest of Manning became public last week after Wired magazine disclosed that Manning had been turned in to authorities by another former computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, who had been contacted by Manning for counsel. Much of the evidence against Manning is contained in an Internet chat log that Lamo has already turned over to authorities.

The 'God particle' may exist in five forms, Large Hadron Collider's rival project finds

2010-11-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

The elusive "God particle" - or Higgs boson - being sought in the Large Hadron Collider may exist in multiple forms, according to a new study.

The Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois
Photo: Fermilab

Finding the Higgs boson is the primary aim of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment in Geneva, but new results from a rival study taking place in the US suggest there may be five versions of the elusive subatomic particle, which has never been detected despite five decades of research.

Leon Lederman, the Nobel laureate, dubbed the theoretical boson "the God particle" because its discovery could unify understanding of the content of the universe and help humans "know the mind of God".

It is crucial to the accepted Standard Model of the cosmos which explains how subatomic particles are bound together by three of the four fundamental forces of nature - weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force and electromagnetism.

The Higgs boson is thought to mediate the force through which all the other particles acquire mass. But scientists overseeing the DZero experiment at the Tevatron particle accelerator in Illinois said the suggestion that five different particles could be responsible for this transaction may point to new laws of physics beyond the Standard Model.

Researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago observed that collisions of protons and anti-protons produced pairs of matter particles one per cent more often than they yielded anti-matter particles.

This "asymmetry" of matter and anti-matter is beyond what could be explained by the Standard Model and could be accounted for by the existence of five Higgs bosons with similar masses but different electric charges, the researchers said.

Three would have a neutral charge and one each would have a negative and positive electric charge. This is known as the two-Higgs doublet model.

Dr Adam Martin said: "In models with an extra Higgs doublet, it's easy to have large new physics effects like this DZero result," he explained.

"What's difficult is to have those large effects without damaging anything else that we have already measured.

"The Standard Model fits just about every test we've thrown at it. To fit in a new effect in one particular place is not easy."

Evidence for the Higgs boson in one or many forms could be uncovered by the LHC, the world's most powerful "atom smasher" which is buried 100 metres under the French-Swiss border.

The researchers have published the latest DZero study on arXiv.org. The results were reported by Symmetry magazine.

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