Archive for August, 2010
Celebrity Most Likely To Give You A Computer Virus: Cameron Diaz
Antivirus software manufacturer McAfee has indicated that Cameron Diaz is this year’s most dangerous celebrity to search for online — that is, doing a search for her name leads to more malicious, malware-laden sites than any other. Feel free to make a joke about which celebrity you were expecting to be most virus-ridden. Business Wire reports:
McAfee research found that searching for the latest Cameron Diaz pictures and downloads yields a ten percent chance of landing on a website that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.
Fans searching for “Cameron Diaz” or “Cameron Diaz and downloads,” “Cameron Diaz and screen savers,” “Cameron Diaz and wallpaper,” “Cameron Diaz and photos” and “Cameron Diaz and videos” are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information. Clicking on these risky sites and downloading files like photos, videos or screensavers exposes surfers or consumers to…
What Else Is Built In The Shadow Of Ground Zero?
Is Lower Manhattan hallowed ground? The blog History Eraser Button presents photos of the other businesses and organizations located directly by the World Trade Center site, as near as the proposed “Ground Zero mosque” is slated to be.
The Highest Paid Authors of 2010
Dan who? James Patterson is king when it comes to making money from writing books (although I’m not sure he actually writes that much himself — a New York Times Magazine profile earlier this year says “with the help of his stable of co-authors, he published nine original hardcover books in 2009 and will publish at least nine more in 2010,” implying that most of the work is done by the co-authors). From Forbes:
Publishers are feeling the heat, with hardcover sales weak and the rise of e-books promising to upend their business models. But the world’s 10 top-earning authors are making out just fine, earning a combined $270 million over the 12 months to June 1.
James Patterson’s $70 million in earnings vaults him to No. 1 on our list, up from second place two years ago. The prolific thriller writer’s latest deal, signed last fall, involves penning a carpal tunnel-risking 17 books by the end of 2012 for an estimated $100 million.
Patterson’s literary empire includes television, comic book and gaming deals. His foreign sales alone bring in well over $10 million a year…
Virtual Reality Asks Tough Behavior and Anxiety Questions
Ever wonder what it was like to be the opposite sex? Ever wonder what it was like to be the opposite sex and abused? Virtual reality may be the key to engaging in such questions. BBC News reports:
Virtual reality is allowing scientists to ask difficult questions about human behaviour that were previously not possible or were thought too unethical.
A Spanish team has designed a trial that allows men to step inside the body of a woman subjected to violence.
Meanwhile scientists in London are simulating a controversial experiment from the 1960s in which people were persuaded to inflict pain on others.
The original experiments were condemned as immoral and too traumatic.
At Barcelona University, male volunteers have experienced life as a virtual young girl and then separately, witnessed violence towards her.
On returning to live the girl’s virtual life, the men empathized with her more than usual, feeling scared and insecure themselves.
“I want to know…
Welcome to Iceland: ‘Press Freedom Haven’
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange has been all over Scandinavia lately. First a columnist position for a Swedish tabloid, now he’s in Iceland to help parliament protect the freedom of speech in the media. From RTÉ:
After Iceland’s near-economic collapse laid bare deep-seated corruption, the country aims to become a safe haven for journalists and whistleblowers from around the globe by creating the world’s most far-reaching freedom of information legislation.
The project is being developed with the help of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
It flies in the face of a growing tendency of governments trying to stifle a barrage of secret and sometimes embarrassing information made readily available by the internet.
On 16 June a unanimous parliament voted in favour of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a resolution aimed at protecting investigative journalists and their sources.
‘We took all the best laws from around the world and pulled them together, just like tax havens do, in order…
Is Gulf of Mexico Seafood Safe, As Government Claims?
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
I’m certainly not planning on eating any Gulf shrimp, that’s for sure, despite the assurances of various government agencies that Gulf seafood is safe. Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey is skeptical too, and has started hearings to question the government scientists, as reported by NPR:
…He also questioned officials from NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration about whether seafood being caught in the Gulf now is safe to eat. The government has opened some 31,000 square miles of waters to fishing that were closed immediately after the oil from the Deepwater Horizon well started gushing.
NOAA’s Lehr says every shrimp, crab and other fish tested by the government so far has been found to be safe.
“To date every seafood sample from reopened waters or outside of the closed area has passed sentry and chemical testing for contamination of oil dispersant,” he said. “No unsafe…
The Psychic Crocodile Gives Paul The Octopus Some Competition
Anyone who paid even a little bit of attention to the World Cup this summer must have heard about Paul, the psychic octopus in Germany. Now Australia is heralding a psychic crocodile, as reported in the Telegraph:
Harry, a saltwater croc who also predicted Spain would win the World Cup, only to be overshadowed by the German mystic Paul, made his choice in his enclosure in the northern city of Darwin.
Drug Lord Turns Porn Star
José Figueroa-Agosto
You have to hand it to the guy, he has cojones! Story from TIME:
Street vendors in Santo Domingo usually eke out a living selling pirated DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters to motorists caught in the notorious traffic jams of this bustling Caribbean capital. But these days, the motorists are the ones seeking out the vendors. “This porno is all people want,” says Wilfredo Ortiz, 22, who has sold DVDs on the streets here for five years. “It’s so popular, I’ve never seen anything like it. This is bigger than that Paris Hilton.” But the star of this homemade movie is no American socialite. He’s the Dominican Republic’s most wanted man. Known as “Junior Capsula,” “Angel Rosa,” and by a slew of other aliases and nicknames, José Figueroa-Agosto is more aptly described as the Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean, an alleged drug trafficker whose network was extensive and whose rule was…
Brazil Hosts First Presidential Debate Online
The Presidential campaign enters the digital age in Brazil this week. From People’s Daily:
Brazil held on Wednesday its first online presidential debate, which gathered the three front-runners in the presidential campaign.
They were: Dilma Rousseff from the Workers’ Party, handpicked by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for succession; Jose Serra from the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, the main opposition candidate; and Green Party’s Marina Silva.
Topics such as education, public health system, basic sanitation and taxes were debated by the participants, who also had the opportunity to question each other and answer questions from journalists and netizens.
The debate, marked by frequent accusations and criticisms, was more fierce than a previous TV debate two weeks ago.
Serra kept his strategy of criticizing the Lula administration, while both Rousseff and Silva intensified their attacks on Serra’s records as governor of Sao Paulo state (Jan. 2007 to March 2010) and health minister under former president…
North Korea Tweets
After the launch of North Korea’s YouTube channel (majority of which are postings of government propaganda) the country has created a Twitter account. It’s nice to see that North Korea is taking a steps towards joining the global internet community, next step, joining the rest of the global community. BBC News reports:
Last Thursday, the North Koreans created a Twitter account – @uriminzok, a shortened version of a Korean word that translates as “our people”.
It already has more than 4,500 followers.
The move to Twitter follows last month’s launch of a North Korean YouTube channel, which now hosts close to 80 videos.
“The North Koreans are technologically literate,” says Hazel Smith, a long-time North Korea researcher at Cranfield University in Britain.
Ms Smith says that the North Koreans have been investing heavily in information technology now for more than 20 years.
“They have a cadre of people who can use modern social networking sites. But the…
Australians Driving Over 110 MPH to Summon Ghost of Dead Motorcyclist (Video)
Neil Keene writes in the Daily Telegraph:
It could be one of the most bizarre reasons ever offered by a speeding driver — “A ghost made me do it.” But that is exactly the story being put forward by superstitious motorists hitting speeds of up to 180km/h on a road north of Newcastle, supposedly to conjure a ghost.
Port Stephens police have issued a warning to drivers after it emerged that young people were driving at dangerously high speeds along a stretch of Lemon Tree Passage Rd to conjure the spirit of a 20-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash with a speeding driver in the area three years ago.
A handful of videos have been posted on YouTube, allegedly showing a ghostly bright light appearing in the rear windscreen of cars that start driving at dangerous speeds.Some locals are convinced the light is that of the motorcyclist’s ghost, in pursuit of people who drive dangerously.
13-Year-Old Boy Hit By Lightning at 13:13 on Friday the 13th
Via MSNBC:
A 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning — at 13:13 hours on Friday the 13th, according to reports. The teen was watching an air show at Lowestoft, England, when he was struck and was later treated for burns to his shoulder, the UK’s Mirror newspaper said. He is expected to fully recover.
Rex Clarke, leader of the St. John Ambulance team that treated the child, described what happened. ”Suddenly there was this huge crack of lightning really close to the seafront and really loud thunder,” he told the Mirror. “Seconds later we got a call someone had been hit. The boy was breathing and was conscious.”
“He had a minor burn to his shoulder and was taken to hospital as a precaution. It could have been a lot worse,” he said, adding: “It’s all a bit strange that he was 13, and it happened at 13:13 on Friday the 13th.”
Will Amazon Push Ads into eBooks?
Kindle 2. Photo: Jon 'ShakataGaNai' Davis (CC)
A book editor at Houghton Mifflin argues ebook advertising is “coming soon to a book near you.” Report in the Wall Street Journal:
Amazon has filed a patent for advertisements on the Kindle, and the book editor joins with a business professor in today’s Wall Street Journal to make the case for advertisements in ebooks. Book sales haven’t increased over the last decade, and profits are being squeezed even lower by ebooks. According to another industry analyst, Amazon is being pressured to make ebook sales more profitable for publishers, party because Apple offers them more lucrative terms in Apple’s iBookstore. One technology site notes that Amazon’s preference seems to be keeping book prices low, and wonders whether consumers would accept advertising if it meant that new ebooks were then free?
Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has confused the issue even more by publishing a “shoppable” children’s storybook online – narrated…
Grant Morrison On Superman
Larger than life comics scribe Grant Morrison reveals his thoughts on Superman to Wired’s Adam Rogers:
The New Villains of New Media: Apple, Google & Facebook
Brent Lang explains why for The Wrap:
They’re supposed to be the good guys, right?
No longer. Over the past year, several technology giants have begun to shed their status as white knights. And it’s precisely because they’ve been held to such a high standard that when they behave like the multi-billion-dollar corporations they are, their image takes a shellacking.
Move over, MIcrosoft. The tech triumvirate of Google, Apple and Facebook have surpassed even that longtime evil empire to become the new villains of New Media.
“These companies have wrapped themselves in a lot of the idealism surrounding the web, but their business realities are beginning to be in conflict with the rhetoric they use to promote themselves,” Nicholas Carr, a technology writer and the author of “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google,” told TheWrap.
By failing to live up to their lofty talking points…
Western Scientists Finally Tell Patients Why Tai Chi Is Good For Them
Photo: Craig Nagy (CC)
The Chinese have known this for thousands of years. Better late than never, I suppose! From WebMD:
Just 12 weeks of tai chi — the slow-motion Chinese martial art — relieved longstanding fibromyalgia symptoms and improved quality of life in a clinical trial.
Compared with patients who received wellness education and stretching exercises, those who practiced tai chi saw their fibromyalgia become much less severe. They also slept better, felt better, had less pain, had more energy, and had better physical and mental health, says study researcher Chenchen Wang, MD, of Tufts University School of Medicine.
“We definitely saw better results than reported in trials of drug treatments for fibromyalgia,” Wang tells WebMD. “One patient with previous arthritis pain kept saying, ‘No pain! No pain!’”
It wasn’t for everyone. Wang says 10% to 20% of patients randomly assigned to tai chi did not feel it helped them. But he says 50%…
1 in 5 Americans Think Obama Is Muslim
Most of the news media seem to think this is a bad thing. Personally I think it’s great – a significant number of Americans voted for a man they thought was Muslim when electing their president. Story from NPR:
Americans increasingly are convinced – incorrectly – that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.
Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.
The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don’t know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.
The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is…
Asterix – French Comics Hero – Endorses McDonald’s
As you might expect, the French are more than a little testy about the offending ad, shown at right, part of a BETC EuroRSCG publicity campaign for McDonald’s. Report from Reuters:
A new McDonald’s ad featuring Gallic champion Asterix enjoying a burger and fries has sparked outrage among French comic purists who see it as an insult to their national heritage.
The billboard shows the fearless Gaul and friends celebrating their traditional banquet at the fast-food chain — with Cacofonix the bard tied to a tree outside as usual.
“My childhood hero sacrificed like a wild boar! What next? Tintin eating at Subway?” said one horrified blogger called sirchmallow.
“How ironic, the indomitable Gauls making an advert for the invaders,” was another outraged comment on Twitter.
The ad is of three designed by advertising agency Euro RSCG for McDonald’s’ “Come as you are” campaign…
[continues at Reuters]
Is There Anyone The Right Doesn’t Hate?
Rex Nutting poses the question for Marketwatch:
Whenever America faces her toughest challenges, you can always count on the right to be there.
Sowing hate, stoking fear.
So it’s no surprise that in the midst of a great economic catastrophe, the right would search for scapegoats instead of answers.
And so we have the fabricated crisis of the “Mosque at Ground Zero.”
Leave aside the fact that it’s not a mosque and it’s not at Ground Zero. This is really about hate and fear, the right’s old friends.
For the last 45 years, at least, no matter who the Republican candidate has been, hate and fear were really at the top of the ticket.
Recall that in 1968, Richard Nixon won the presidency by stoking fear of Negroes and hippies. The vaunted Southern Strategy of the Republican Party was at its core a campaign of fear. What a ride it’s had.
It’s no longer fashionable to be officially…
