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Forcing Windows XP's Disk Cleanup to delete all temporary files
Tags: Microsoft Windows | Windows XP
You may have found that Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility misses a spot from time to time, retaining temporary files most recently accessed. Here's how to perform a clean sweep of your Windows XP files by forcing Disk Cleanup to get rid of all your temporary files.
If you've ever run the Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility, you probably discovered that your temporary files occupy a significant amount of space. You might select the Temporary Files check box in order to allow the Disk Cleanup utility to delete the files in the Temp folder, but the Disk Cleanup utility will not remove all of the files. The reason for this oddity is that the configuration for the Disk Cleanup utility does not allow deletion of files accessed in the last seven days.
By altering the LastAccess value in the registry, you can configure the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder regardless of the last accessed date. Here's how:
Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersionExplorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files.
Locate and double-click the LastAccess value.
When you see the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the Value Data setting from 7 to 0 and click OK.
To complete the operation, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.
Changing the value to 0 will force the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder every time that you select the Temporary Files check box.
One suggestion go to device manager and make sure the USB ports are enabled.
received this email weird because I never signed up for anything like this
Cmkx has:
35 friends
I've added you as a friend on Facebook...
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Book review: 'Scary stuff' of debt, credit cards resonates in 'Maxed Out'
'Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders', By James Scurlock, Scribner, 248 pages, $24
By Kerry Hannon, Special for USA TODAY
When Wesley Wannemacher, an Ohio resident, testified at a congressional hearing earlier this month, his story of debt and hopelessness was a familiar one.
Wannemacher had maxed out his $3,000 Chase bank card to pay for his wedding and fell behind in his payments. Over six years, Wannemacher ended up owing $7,500 in interest fees, late-payment fees and over-the-limit fees on an original debt of $3,200. Even after making payments totaling $6,300, he still owed $4,400 in fees.
James Scurlock, author of Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory Lenders, knows that sad tale by heart.
In his cross-country road trip from rural Mississippi to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the victims of easy credit, doled out by banks and credit card companies, come to life in sickening fashion.
He interviews parents whose college-age children committed suicide because of credit card debt and the family of a woman who drove her car into the Ohio River, near New Albany, Ind., presumably unable to confront her soaring bills and the harassment of debt collectors. In all, there are a dozen or more compelling vignettes, but you sense there are hundreds he could have told.
This book emerged from the reporting for Scurlock's captivating documentary, Maxed Out. It's hard not to walk out of that 87-minute film without knowing in your heart that every high school student should be required to watch the all-too-real take on our debt culture and the horror of where it can lead.
Debt is most certainly a taboo subject in our culture, which makes Scurlock's movie and book that much harder to eyeball.
Do. Both, if possible. It's scary stuff, and oh, so real.
Putting a human face on debt isn't pretty. Scurlock has seen the fear and desperation in debtors' eyes and heard the glee in collectors' voices as they push another deadbeat to cough up a payment. He quotes a debt collector: "The trick is knowing how far you can push them. You've got to push them just far enough to the edge where they get really freaked, and then pull them back to get what you want."
He has listened while Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren and radio host Dave Ramsey, who also appear in the film, discuss a financial world where something is clearly wrong and just getting worse. He struggles to comprehend the arrogance and indifference of the financial industry honchos and congressional leaders.
"How did we allow this to happen?" he asks. "How could banks keep lending to people who can't afford to pay them back?" His answer: "The big banks realized more than a generation ago that they make far more money teaching us how to spend than to save."
He is appalled when his mortgage broker friend in Los Angeles regales him with tales of the "liar's loan" where the income listed on the application is a fictional number that neither the bank nor broker will verify. All that's really needed is a decent credit score and a signature.
But even more egregious is that his friend says that nearly all his clients are getting interest-only loans and estimates that 85% of them "have to" misrepresent their income. "He assures me that the banks know this is happening," Scurlock writes. He ponders: What happens should housing prices fall? "Does he understand these amateurs are surfing a tsunami?"
Scurlock tells the history of credit cards, visits Las Vegas gated communities and even meets Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. "I was minutes from bankruptcy, James," she tells him.
But it's the scams pulled on poor Americans, usually minorities or immigrants, who are offered a loan or a mortgage or refinancing on terms they can barely afford, that make you sick to your stomach.
Scurlock gives a new meaning to the term "preferred customer":
"The best definition I have heard yet — and this is from a vice president of MasterCard — is an individual who has a 'taste for credit,' i.e., someone 'willing to make minimum monthly payments — forever.' Now I know why, if I fail to pay off my balance in full, my credit limit is increased."
One suggestion: "Every time a president brags about the increases in homeownership and college attendance, we should balance those statistics with the corresponding increases in foreclosures and student loan defaults."
if you hit the end button on your key board it will take you to the bottom of the page or the home button to take you back to the top
why is he using cshc as a symbol thats cash can inc
CSHD MISSION STATEMENT to funny
Mission Statement
CSHC believes in advancing the human condition and actively seeks investments which impact greatly on the social and economic issues of tomorrow.
With a focus on honesty, value, transparency, accountability and innovation, CSHC offers and expects the highest degree of excellence.
The United States of America was founded on such fundamental democratic principles, CSHC fully intends to be one of its finest corporate citizens.
Our Principles
National and Global Client centered, working in partnership, accountable for quality results, dedicated to financial integrity and cost-effectiveness, inspired and innovative.
Our Values
Personal honesty, integrity, commitment; working together in teams with openness and trust; empowering others and respecting differences; encouraging risk-taking and responsibility; enjoying our work and our families.
Buckeyes all the way
Focus on corn/ethanol fuels critic
Use of crop not answer to foreign oil, expert says
Thursday, March 22, 2007
John Funk
Plain Dealer Reporter
The rush to turn corn into ethanol has driven up grain prices and will soon drive up grocery bills here. But it won't solve the nation's dependence on foreign oil, said a respected, longtime environmentalist in a new report Wednesday.
Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, argues that better solutions are a 20 percent increase in U.S. fuel-efficiency requirements, development of plug-in hybrid vehicles and growth of wind energy.
His proposal comes as Congress takes its first steps toward mandating reductions in greenhouse gases, increasing automotive fuel-economy standards and promoting wind and other renewable sources of energy.
In a teleconference with reporters, Brown said he finds it "fascinating" that federal policy makers cannot see the food problems that corn-based ethanol will create.
Corn contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade closed Wednesday at about $4.10 per bushel, up from about $2.60 a year ago.
Brown argues that the increase is caused by the increasing use of corn to make ethanol. Rising prices already have led to protests in Mexico, where the government imposed price controls on tortillas after consumer costs of that staple increased 60 percent.
Because corn is also a feedstock, the increase has a ripple effect.
Brown said wholesale prices of chicken across the nation are predicted to be 10 percent higher on average this year than last, eggs 21 percent higher and milk 14 percent more.
At the present rate of construction of new ethanol refineries, one-third of the U.S. corn crop will go to ethanol in 2008 -- up from about 16 percent last year, he said.
And President Bush's goal to push ethanol production to 35 billion gallons per year by 2017 would take the entire U.S. corn crop, Brown said.
There are plans to make ethanol from sources such as wood chips and grasses, but that technology will not be ready in time, he argued.
"What was the world's breadbasket is becoming the U.S. fuel tank," Brown said. "How the world will react [if charities can no longer afford to feed poor nations] is not clear. . . . Economists say the market will sort it out. The question is what will be the social and political costs? How will rising food prices affect political stability and add to the list of failed and failing states?"
Against that, Brown endorses Plug-in Partners, a national grassroots group of engineers, organizations and businesses that endorses so-called plug-in hybrid vehicles as a strategy to move away from oil dependence. The group's members already have pledged to buy 8,000 plug-ins - electric vehicles that can be recharged from ordinary outlets - if one of the carmakers would just start producing them.
Chrysler is testing a fleet of 50 vans, while General Motors and Toyota have built
prototypes. Making the cars affordable is the challenge because of the high cost of batteries, say analysts.
After charging overnight in a consumer's garage, the cost to drive such a car to work and back would be the equivalent of less than $1 per gallon of gas, Brown said - even in states with the highest electric rates. Today's fleet of more than 200 million cars in the United States could be replaced in about a decade, he said.
Paralleling that development is the staggering growth in wind-driven power generation - already about 30 percent a year. For example, the state of Texas, two utilities and eight wind-generating companies are proposing a set of wind farms producing 7,000 megawatts, he said. That's as much power as seven big nuclear reactors.
That should be a national model, Brown said. "If we [as a nation] at some time invest in wind farms, then we would be running our cars on wind."
Plain Dealer reporter Robert Schoenberger contributed to this story.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
I like that you show how long people are jailed, nice.
Suspended Until: 3/25/2007 4:25:12 PM Eastern
IHUB is screaming fast, on all servers for me. But I do miss the old IHUB, it seems like such a corporation now.
WOW up 200%, maybe, could be, someday ?
Thank GOD
Stamp goes to 41 cents in May; forever stamp OK'd
POSTED: 9:41 p.m. EDT, March 19, 2007
• First-class letter will be 41 cents; cost for each additional ounce, 17 cents
• Forever stamp could go on sale as soon as next month
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The cost of mailing a letter will go up on May 14, but you'll be able to lock in that price -- no matter how rates rise in the future -- by buying the new "forever" stamp.
The post office governing board agreed Monday to accept the new 41-cent rate for first class mail recommended in February by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.
The board also agreed to the proposal for a forever stamp, which will always be valid for mailing a letter no matter how much rates increase.
James C. Miller III, chairman of the postal board, said the forever stamp could go on sale as soon as next month, at the 41-cent rate.
The postal governors asked the regulatory commission to reconsider some of its proposals, saying the suggested price for sending things like catalogs was too high.
For most people, the first-class rate has the greatest impact and the cost of sending a letter will rise from 39 cents to 41 cents, a penny less than the Postal Service had originally requested.
But folks sending heavier letters -- such as wedding invitations -- will see a reduction in the price.
That's because the 41-cent rate is for the first ounce, but each additional ounce will cost 17 cents, down from the current 24 cents.
That means a two-ounce letter will cost 58 cents to mail, compared with 63 cents now.
Also expected to be attractive to many people is the forever stamp.
The first forever stamps will sell for 41 cents apiece, but they won't have a price printed on them and they will remain valid for sending a letter regardless of any future rate increases.
While a forever stamp will always be valid for mailing a letter, that doesn't mean the price won't go up. If rates were to increase to 45 cents, for example, that's what a forever stamp would sell for. But stamps already purchased at a lower rate could still be used without extra postage.
Miller said in a telephone interview that there is no limit on sales of the forever stamps but noted they are generally intended for consumers and won't be produced in the massive rolls often used by businesses.
Shape-based pricing is also included in the new rates. For example, if the contents of a first-class large envelope are folded and placed in a letter-sized envelope, mailers can reduce postage by as much as 39 cents per piece.
Implementation of one part of the new rates was delayed until July 15. That covers higher prices for magazines and newspapers. Miller said publishers need extra time to update their computers to the new rates.
Three other provisions of the ruling will take effect with the rest of the rates in May, but the post office asked the regulatory commission to reconsider them. Those are:
Standard mail flats, a category largely composed of catalogs. The commission recommended an increase for some catalog mailers of as much as 40 percent, more than double what the Postal Service had proposed.
The surcharge for larger items that cannot be sorted by machines. The postal governors would like to see incentives for mailers to provide letters that can be processed at lower cost on sorting equipment, but the commission didn't make a differentiation.
The Priority Mail flat-rate box was set at $9.15 by the commission. The post office had recommended $8.80.
The post office applied for the higher rates last May and the regulatory commission issued its decision February 26.
Postage rates last went up in January 2006.
Under new legislation the regulatory commission has been directed to devise a new, simplified system for setting postal rates, but the post office will be allowed to seek one more increase under the old system in the meantime.
Miller said the governors have not decided whether to do that.
Well something is up, stock charts no longer caries the JMCP symbol and yahoo usually keeps PRs for at least a year, but for JMCP and ONYI they only have this years PRs, nothing before, it says all doc expired, I was trying to look up info for austriaboy and can't find anything............
Will keep looking
Study Exposes 'Search Spam' Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Mon Mar 19, 1:00 PM ET
Anyone brave enough to type "cheap tickets" in a search engine can find a plethora of one-page Web sites designed to drive traffic to other Web sites and generate click-through advertising revenue.
They're an irritant to users and another way in which the Internet is being abused for profit. But a new study by a team of Microsoft Corp. and University of California researchers has shed light on how so-called "search spammers" work and how advertisers can help stop the practice.
"By exposing the end-to-end search spamming activities, we hope to... encourage advertisers to scrutinize those syndicators and traffic affiliates who are profiting from spam traffic at the expense of the long-term health of the Web," wrote authors Yi-Min Wang and Ming Ma of Microsoft Research and Yuan Niu and Hao Chen of the University of California in Davis. Their research will be reviewed at the 16th International World Wide Web Conference in Banff, Alberta, in May.
The researchers looked at "redirection spam," where a user clicks on a URL (uniform resource locator) but is then automatically transferred to a different URL or shown advertising content that originates from somewhere else on the Web.
Often, legitimate companies have their advertisements served on questionable sites through redirections designed to "obfuscate the connection between the advertisers and the spammers," the researchers wrote.
In one example, they traced the origin of advertisements for orbitz.com, a popular travel services site, that appeared on suspicious Web pages. They uncovered five layers that lie between a legitimate advertiser and a questionable search spam Web site.
For example, a business such as orbitz.com may buy advertising from a syndicator, who then buys space on high-traffic Web pages from an aggregator.
In turn, the aggregator buys traffic from Web spammers. The spammers set up the millions of "doorway" pages, designed to show up high in the search engine rankings, for products such as ringtones or prescription drugs. They also distribute URLs by inserting them as comments on users' blogs.
If those links are clicked, the doorway pages then redirect to other pages, potentially bringing revenue back to its controller via pay-per-click advertising offered by companies such as Google Inc. through its AdSense program.
But by using new spam detection and Web page analysis, the researchers say they've narrowed down some of the confusing redirection chains, from hosters of doorway pages through to redirection domains.
Three out of every four unique Blogspot.com URLs that appeared in the top 50 results for commercial queries were spam, the study said. Blogspot is the hosting site for Google's blogging service. Blogs created for marketing purposes are sometimes referred to as "splogs."
Also, one domain-- topsearch10.com-- hosted many other redirection domains that were responsible for 22 percent to 25 percent of the spam detected during the researchers' tests, the study said.
They also narrowed down two blocks of IP (Internet protocol) addresses that advertisements were directed through to spammers' pages. That bottleneck, they said, "may prove to be the best layer to attacking the search spam problem."
A responsibility also lies with advertisers to assert greater control over where and how their ads are placed.
"Ultimately, it is advertisers' money that is funding the search spam industry, which is increasingly cluttering the Web with low-quality content and reducing Web users' productivity," they wrote.
Hackers Sell IDs for $14, Symantec Says Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Mon Mar 19, 11:00 AM ET
Identity thieves are offering a person's credit-card number, date of birth and other sensitive information for as little as US$14 over the Internet, said a new report on online threats released Monday.
(This is the link to the web page)
http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2007/01/watch_the_exploit_a_targeted_a.h....
The data is sold on so-called "underground economy servers," used by criminal organizations to hawk information they've captured through hacking, Symantec Corp. said in its Internet Security Threat Report, which tracked online trends from June to December 2006. The information can then be used for identity scams such as opening a bank account in a false name.
"U.S.-based credit cards with a card verification number were available for between US$1 to $6, while an identity-- including a U.S. bank account, credit card, date of birth and government-issued identification number-- was available for between $14 to $18," the report said.
Some 51 percent of the servers hosting the information were in the U.S., in part because the growth in broadband Internet access in the U.S. has created new opportunities for criminals, Symantec said. About 86 percent of the credit and debit card numbers available on those servers were issued by U.S. banks, it said.
One way that criminals have gained access to computers is by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, or software flaws that are being exploited as soon as they are revealed and before a patch has been released.
Symantec documented 12 zero-day vulnerabilities in the period from June to December 2006. Only one was found in its two prior six-month reporting periods, the company said.
Hackers have exploited some of those vulnerabilities by creating malicious documents in Microsoft Office and other software, said Ollie Whitehouse, a security architect at Symantec.
A malicious Word or Excel document, when attached to a spam e-mail, has a greater chance of being opened by someone since it may appear legitimate and be targeted at an employee of a specific company.
While security software programs will often block executable programs attached to e-mail, common Office documents are allowed to go through, Whitehouse said.
"A business isn't going to say 'We will no longer accept Office documents received via email,'" Whitehouse said. "I think productivity would go through the floor at that point. Unfortunately, this is where the security requirement and the business requirement do really clash."
A video posted on Symantec's blog, shows a sophisticated attack where a malicious document is opened that puts a harmful executable onto the system and then opens a regular Word document. The attack is almost invisible to the user, apart from a flicker on the screen before the Word document opens.
"Office documents-- PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets-- and graphics like JPEGs aren't necessarily considered malicious file formats, so the user is more inclined to open them," Whitehouse said.
I was just reviewing some old posts this one from tallRob0 was quite funny I wonder if he feels stupid now
This list of CSHD basher crew screen names has already been requested by outside sources a few times in the last 4 days.
Is your name on the list? If so, you may want to seek an attorney for later.
Our-street
serfom
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MR DD
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Josh Taylor
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8257OC
Related articles: There are no related articles Once concluded the initial stage of the conquest process and colonization of the new world, the native population in places from the Antilles to Brazil had been in almost total extermination. With this critical reality affecting the possibilities of economic growth the European colonos, mainly Spanish and Portuguese, make the decision to introduce in America which will possibly be defined in history like one of the most terrible tragedies of humility: the traffic of African slaves. This historical moment is without a doubt some crucial one for the formation of which today it constitutes the totality of the American continent, since not only with this the cultural roots of the new nations consolidate and define, but that also expands with it the genetic diversity of his human population. With the encounter of the “three races,” as it tends to generalize this process, the human sort also faces a great number of interchanges of biological type that in just a short time would extend to global magnitudes. From the medical point of view this is exemplified, among other many events, with the arrival from sífilis to possibly originating Europe of the indigenous population; the damage caused to the native ones by the European smallpox; and from Africa the arrival of the falciforme anemia or “sickle cell anemia.” The immense majority of the brought African slaves to America was native of the west of Africa, mainly of countries around Angola, Guinea and Nigeria. The commercial necessity of that then ones took them to be located in the river basin of the Caribbean and in Brazil, it stops to expand there to many other regions of the New World. With them they brought, in addition to its genetics, innumerable elements that with the passage of the years have given origin to unmistakable manifestations of social and cultural nature. We can count between these to the Afro-Caribbean rates like guaguancó; many of the more well-known typical meals, as the banana majado in its different forms; words of the daily vocabulary between which they are mangú, mofongo and gandinga; and religious expressions of Yoruba origin like the Santería and Palo Mayombe. The intention of this I articulate is not the one to deepen in the rich African influence in the American continent, but the one to take the data previously exposed like datum point stops to abound there in the thematic one that concerns the falciforme anemia in Puerto Rico as in the rest of Latin America as much and the world. From Africa the falciforme anemia arrives to us at America or in English “Sickle Cell Anemia.” The falciforme anemia is a hereditary sanguineous disease of genetic type where the hemoglobina within red globules is defective. This defect consists of which once the hemoglobina has unloaded oxygen that takes inside, assumes an abnormal structure that produces the deformation of red globules. Instead of having the round and flat form that allows them to flow with facility, these assume a rigid form and bending in sickle form that makes lose its elasticity and disables the passage to them by the smaller blood vessels. So soon this happens defective globules are piled up on others obstructing therefore the normal flow of the blood and oxygen towards the organs of the body. As consequence the person undergoes terrible episodes of pain that require hospitalization, it develops anemia, and finally irreversible damages to the different organs. The symptoms include pallor, yellow coloration, lack of air, palpitaciones, delay of the growth and puberty, susceptibility to infections, ulcers in the extremities, pain in the bones, painful fever, erections or priapismo, and blood in tinkles it among others. In order to diagnose this single disease it is required of a blood analysis, and several specific tests for the falciforme anemia, between which it is the electroforesis. Nevertheless it is much more important that the doctor gets to suspect that this disease is one of the causes for the symptoms or otherwise the risk is run of which the same one remains without being diagnosed, as it happens in many parts where the condition is considered like rare. The racial mixture has allowed that this condition no longer has skin color; this it is the case of Puerto Rico, the United States and Europe. The fact that this condition traditionally been has limited in the great majority of the cases people seen like of African ancestry, has been reason for racial and social conjectures. Time back has been called like the disease of the poor men, or the disease of the black; it has been considered also like a third-world and extremely rare disease in developed countries. Nevertheless the trajectory of this disease from the anthropological point of view is truely fascinating since it has contributed to the survival of the human sort in those regions where the malaria or paludismo exists. The falciforme anemia offers protection against the infestación of the parasite of the malaria and for this only reason its genetics has been perpetuated through so many generations. From the point of view epidemiologist, the falciforme anemia is extremely common in Nigeria where one of each 25 people dies by its complications. There nothing else about four million human beings suffer actively of her. In the United States one of each five hundred people of African ancestry they are diagnosed, and in the rest of America the statistics vary depending on the racial proportion. Although many people are not affected by the disease, exists the possibility that many are carrying more of the gene. Until now the treatment of the disease he is one of type continuous and focused to the handling and control of the symptoms, particularly the pain crises. Vitaminic supplements are used that stimulate the formation of the blood, analgesic, blood transfusions, and known a very complex and risky medicine like Hydroxurea. Obvious these treatments are not curativos and offer very few expectations in which to the prevention it talks about. Also the option of the transplant of bony marrow exists for some cases. The falciforme anemia is considered in the United States and Europe like a rare condition that it affects less than 200000 people and reason why has few possibilities that a greater pharmaceutical company takes the reins and investigates other alternatives for its treatment, since the costs incurred the process of investigation and launching hardly serian recovered. Therefore the National Institute of Salud (NIH) in the United States recognizes the falciforme anemia like a rare condition, and the Administration of Foods and Drogas (FDA) considers to the new potentials medicines for this, and other types of rare conditions, like orphaned drugs - in English” Orphan Drugs.” This designation that recognizes drugs under her like effective for the described condition, offers a great number of financial incentives to the pharmaceutical companies interested in the development, investigation and sale of the same ones. This is designed thus to bring to the market products that of another way never would see the public light due to the expensive thing of the process. Once approved one orphan” within the United States drugs “, their possibilities of acceptance in the rest of the world where the condition is common increase considerably, and with it the economic incentives for the companies and their investors. With this information given until now, we can deduce that the historical picture that it defines to the falciforme anemia and his treatment has been very flattering and remains little hopeful still today as much doctor as socially. Then, that there is in the future for an effective treatment? Naturally, where the condition abounds must also abound the knowledge and the options for its handling, and from Nigeria it arrives to us nowadays what pretends to be the best alternative for the treatment of the falciforme anemia and the prevention of its complications. By generations the native ones of Nigeria have practiced the use of medicinal grass as much in their religious rites as in their homemade treatments. This fact we can observe it in the traditional practices of the afro-Caribbean religions that descend from them. Within which it pretends to be like a natural remedy with grass, used by generations of tribal healers and made on the fire of a primitive stove, perhaps a treatment accepted by the western traditional medicine like the safest and effective alternative for the prevention arises from the crises caused by the falciforme anemia. This treatment represents the moment where the traditional and primitive practices with modern medical science are eeted again. Taking the millenarian knowledge from the tribal tradition, the National Institute for the Development and the Pharmaceutical investigation in Nigeria (NIPRD) it has developed a new drug that consists of the mixture of the extract of four native tropical plants of the region. This patentizada mixture and property of the town of Nigeria that consists of guineenses seeds of Piper, stems of Pterocapus osum, fruit of Eugenia caryophyllum, and leaves of Sorghum two-color pencil, have been accepted by the World-wide Organization of Salud (WHO) like safe and effective treatment against the falciforme anemia. Hardly in the 2003 in the United States FDA grants the status of “Orphan drug” to this compound, thing that definitively gives to validity and scientific recognition to this millenarian but new treatment him. A similar decision was tomoda in the European Community almost at the same time. In its beginnings the drug comenzo to investigate itself under the name of Niprisan, but finally will be known in Africa like Nicosan, and the United States and Europe like Hemoxin. Under the auspice of the company Xechem International, with it yields in New Jersey, the drug began phase I of investigation in the United States. These studies were made in the National Institute of the Heart, Lung and Blood located in Children' s Hospital of Philadelphia, and also surrounding to the Universities Howard and Rutgers. In recent and short term studies the drug has been to be effective and free of indirect effect. During last the 3 Nigeria years it has produced most of the clinical studies in alive patients and the worse reported complications to date have been for some patients the gastroesofágico ebb tide and the diarrea. Finally Nicosan/Hemoxin has been approved by equivalent to the FDA in Nigeria (NAFDAC) for the use and the distribution in this country just the past 3 of Julio of this anus, with a permission of at least two anuses until they finish phase III of investigation. This phase is for confirming how surely is the medicine in the long term. Day 6 of Julio of 2006 president Nigeriano Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated the facilities of production of Nicosan/Hemoxin in industrial complex SHESTCO, Abuja Nigeria. For August of year 2006, the reports of sales demonstrate that in only a month from the launching of the drug, the demand inside and outside Nigeria they have exceeded considerably the most bold initial expectations. The price per month is expected is between $12,00 to $20.00. The approval in Nigeria has been one of the events more waited for this year, since this solidifies the efforts of that country technologically to enter the rows of the countries advancing industrialist and, and also will accelerate the process of approval in other countries where the presence of falciforme anemia is high. Also this event delay speeds up investigativos under the FDA in the United States and Europe. With this I have wanted to present/display the odyssey of the development of a unique product; since it is considered like a done drug of grass, not synthesized chemically; accepted by medical science like safe and effective alternative for a rare condition with few alternatives of treatment; that it counts on the endorsement and recognition of the FDA in the United States; that one originates of tribal naturalistic practices and milinerias; that it is developed not by a super pharmaceutics of industrialized nation, but by a small company in a developing African nation. This podria to sound like a history of cenicienta, but is not it. It is a reality based on pure science, and list to help all the humanity. In the river basin of the Caribbean the number of cases of falciforme anemia is considerable, and for such reason the zone could fertile land for the rest of it necessary clinical tests. Of course, this depending on which the local academic centers and their investigating scientists take the interest and initiative to become involved in this avanze doctor. Nicosan/Hemoxin belongs to the Nigerian town and this being developed by the company Xechem International under the direction of the Dr Ramesh C. Pandey, M.Sc., Ph.D., D.D.G. FAIC, Head, Main Executive Official, and founder of Xechem, Inc. Xechem International is also active in the manufacture of other drugs of generic type like antibiotics and drugs for the cancer, and is in addition leader in the investigation to the VIH in Africa
MARRIAGE SEMINAR
While attending a Marriage Seminar dealing with communication, Tom and his wife Grace listened to the instructor, "It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other." He addressed the man, "Can you describe your wife's favorite flower?" Tom leaned over, touched his wife's arm gently and whispered, "It's Pillsbury, isn't it, honey?"
and one more
UNDERSTANDING WOMEN (A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE)
I know I'm not going to understand women. I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax, pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the roots, and still be afraid of a spider.
Let's Swap Positions
"Darling" says a husband coyly to his wife: "let's swap positions tonight". "What a good idea" she replies, "you stand in front of the ironing board, and I'll sit in front of the TV and fart".
I have a frog in the back
A woman is shopping for a pet as a gift for her husband, but she is concerned that the prices that the Pet Shop are charging are very high. She goes to the clerk and explains her concern. "Well, I have a frog in the back that I can let you have for $50," the clerk says. "$50?" the woman replies. "That seems terribly expensive for a frog."
"Well, this frog is worth it. It's been trained to give blow j***."
The woman is stunned, but because her husband loves this sort of sex, and because she is not particularly fond of it, she decides the frog might be a good investment. She buys the frog, brings it home, presents it to her husband, and explains its special value. The husband is skeptical, but promises he'll give the frog a try that night. The woman goes to sleep happily knowing she won't be
bothered by her husband that night.
She is suddenly awakened by a clatter coming from the kitchen. She goes downstairs and finds the frog and her husband pulling out pots and pans and poring over cookbooks.
"What are you two doing down here?" she asks. Her husband responds, "If I can teach this frog to cook, you're out of here!"
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.
Why is it called PMS? -- Because "Mad Cow Disease" was already taken
The Top 10 reasons why a handgun is better than a woman
#10 - You can trade an old .44 for two new .22s.
#9 - You can keep one handgun at home and have another for
when you're on the road.
#8 - If you admire a friend's handgun, and tell him so, he
will probably let you try it out a few times.
#7 - Your primary handgun doesn't mind if you have a
backup.
#6 - Your handgun will stay with you even if you're out of
ammo.
#5 - A handgun doesn't take up a lot of closet space.
#4 - Handguns function normally every day of the month.
#3 - A handgun doesn't ask "Do these new grips make me look
fat?"
#2 - A handgun doesn't mind if you go to sleep after you
use it.
AND THE NUMBER ONE WAY THAT A HANDGUN IS BETTER THAN A
WOMAN . . . You can buy a silencer for a handgun.
I thought I would post a couple of good jokes for you ladies
Two guys and a girl were sitting at a bar talking about their lives.
The one guy said, "I'm a YUPPIE. You know, Young Urban Professional."
The second guy responded, "I'm a DINK. You know, Double Income No Kids."
They then asked the woman, "What are you?"
She replied: "I'm a WIFE. You know, Wash, Iron, F***, Etc."
3 'Jeopardy' contestants end up tied Sat Mar 17, 4:16 AM ET
NEW YORK - All those years of answers and questions, and it's never happened before on "Jeopardy!" What is a three-way tie, Alex?
The three contestants on the venerable game show all finished with $16,000 after each answering the final question correctly in the category, "Women of the 1930s," on Friday's show. They identified Bonnie Parker, of the famed Bonnie and Clyde crime duo, as a woman who, as a waitress, once served one of the men who shot her.
"We've had a lot of crazy things happen on `Jeopardy!' but in 23 years I've never seen anything like this before," host Alex Trebek said.
The show contacted a mathematician who calculated the odds of such a three-way tie happening — one in 25 million.
The three contestants, Jamey Kirby of Gainesville, Fla.; Anders Martinson of Union City, Calif.; and Scott Weiss of Walkersville, Md; were all declared champions and taped a rematch that will air Monday.
I say we have a contest, the one who picks when CSHD goes sub penny gets a free month membership, I'll pay for it, but if it gets halted first the contest is over.
any takers ?
your welcome
If you don't have java run time than I might say yes and you can get it from here file hippo, scroll down to the bottom
http://www.filehippo.com/
I just did it and my Java run time started maybe that will help
Google to Make Search Logs Anonymous Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Wed Mar 14, 8:00 PM ET
Google Inc. will start making its records about users' searches anonymous after 18 to 24 months under a policy announced Wednesday.
Until now, the dominant search company has indefinitely retained a log of every search, with identifiers that can associate it with a particular computer. The new policy, to be implemented within the next year, is intended to better protect users' privacy, two executives wrote in a Google Blog entry posted Wednesday.
Under the new policy, unless Google is legally required to retain them longer, server logs will still be retained but will be "anonymized" after 18 to 24 months so that they can't be identified with individual users, according to the blog entry. It was written by Peter Fleischer, Google's privacy counsel for Europe, and Nicole Wong, the company's deputy general counsel. Engineers are working out the technical details now, they wrote.
Google keeps the server logs so it can improve services and protect them from abuse and security threats, the company said. Each search record includes the query, IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and cookie details, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said his company's security measures regarding this issue are sophisticated.
The Mountain View, California, company instigated the move on its own after talking to "leading privacy stakeholders" in Europe and the U.S., the blog entry said. Data retention laws may force the company to retain logs for a longer time, it said.
Reaction
Two high-tech civil rights groups today called the move a good first step but said more work needs to be done.
"This is a big step in the right direction," said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, in a written statement.
Keeping the data around forever significantly compromises (Google's) users' privacy," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in San Francisco. The U.S. government probably has subpoenaed search log data on individuals in criminal investigations, a move it wouldn't necessarily have to reveal, he said. Another danger is that an angry spouse or business partner could obtain the information in the course of a lawsuit, Bankston said.
We'd love to see a shorter retention period and more complete anonymization," Bankston said. Google should also extend the policy to its other products, which include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and other Web-based tools.
Other major search providers, such as Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, haven't even revealed as much as Google has about what they do with server logs, Bankston said.
AOL last year posted on its research Web site about 20 million search records from about 658,000 of its members. Each user was identified by a unique number. The move created a scandal that toppled AOL's chief technology officer and two other employees. Users later sued, asking a court to order the company to stop saving the records.
Bankston believes Google has a better method of anonymizing records but said AOL does so after just 30 days. Still, Google could adopt a better technique, such as removing the associated IP address altogether, he said.
Google to Make Search Logs Anonymous Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Wed Mar 14, 8:00 PM ET
Google Inc. will start making its records about users' searches anonymous after 18 to 24 months under a policy announced Wednesday.
Until now, the dominant search company has indefinitely retained a log of every search, with identifiers that can associate it with a particular computer. The new policy, to be implemented within the next year, is intended to better protect users' privacy, two executives wrote in a Google Blog entry posted Wednesday.
Under the new policy, unless Google is legally required to retain them longer, server logs will still be retained but will be "anonymized" after 18 to 24 months so that they can't be identified with individual users, according to the blog entry. It was written by Peter Fleischer, Google's privacy counsel for Europe, and Nicole Wong, the company's deputy general counsel. Engineers are working out the technical details now, they wrote.
Google keeps the server logs so it can improve services and protect them from abuse and security threats, the company said. Each search record includes the query, IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and cookie details, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said his company's security measures regarding this issue are sophisticated.
The Mountain View, California, company instigated the move on its own after talking to "leading privacy stakeholders" in Europe and the U.S., the blog entry said. Data retention laws may force the company to retain logs for a longer time, it said.
Reaction
Two high-tech civil rights groups today called the move a good first step but said more work needs to be done.
"This is a big step in the right direction," said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, in a written statement.
Keeping the data around forever significantly compromises (Google's) users' privacy," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in San Francisco. The U.S. government probably has subpoenaed search log data on individuals in criminal investigations, a move it wouldn't necessarily have to reveal, he said. Another danger is that an angry spouse or business partner could obtain the information in the course of a lawsuit, Bankston said.
We'd love to see a shorter retention period and more complete anonymization," Bankston said. Google should also extend the policy to its other products, which include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and other Web-based tools.
Other major search providers, such as Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, haven't even revealed as much as Google has about what they do with server logs, Bankston said.
AOL last year posted on its research Web site about 20 million search records from about 658,000 of its members. Each user was identified by a unique number. The move created a scandal that toppled AOL's chief technology officer and two other employees. Users later sued, asking a court to order the company to stop saving the records.
Bankston believes Google has a better method of anonymizing records but said AOL does so after just 30 days. Still, Google could adopt a better technique, such as removing the associated IP address altogether, he said.
great site thanks
That guy is great, glad he's back
Antivirus Products Outperform Microsoft OneCare in Tests Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Sat Mar 10, 7:00 PM ET
Nearly a year after Microsoft Corp. introduced Windows Live OneCare, the company's first foray into the security market is still getting low marks from analysts and users.
A recent report comparing the antivirus products of various vendors ranked Microsoft's product at the bottom in terms of detecting potential security threats.
At the same time, users are complaining that OneCare, which includes firewall, antivirus, backup and antispyware software, quarantines the entire mail store of their Outlook and Outlook Express programs, making it impossible for them to retrieve e-mail.
AV-Comparatives, a project in Austria overseen by security researcher Andreas Clementi, published the antivirus comparison report, which also looked at products from Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc., Kaspersky Lab Ltd., BitDefender, Fortinet Inc., F-Secure Corp. and several other antivirus products from smaller vendors.
In detecting Windows viruses, worms, macros, scripts and other OS threats, Microsoft ranked last out of the 15 vendors tested, detecting them 91 percent of the time. G Data Software AG's Anti-Virus Kit (AVK) ranked first with 99.6 percent detection, while products from three vendors-- Kaspersky Anti-Virus, MicroWorld Technologies Inc.'s eScan and F-Secure Anti-Virus-- tied for second with 99 percent detection. TrustPort Antivirus Workstation from AED Ltd. came in third with 98.9 percent detection.
In preventing intrusion through backdoors, Trojans and in other malware detection, Windows OneCare also ranked last out of 13 vendors, with 79.6 percent detection. TrustPort came in first at 99.5 percent detection; AVK came in second with 99.4 percent detection; and AVIRA GmbH's AntiVir Personal Edition Premium came in third with 98.9 percent detection.
If ranking low in its rates of malware and virus detection isn't enough to irk users, a recent update to the product has been quarantining the Outlook.PST file, which stores mail in Outlook and Outlook Express, users reported recently on a Microsoft Windows user form.
"This is the most unacceptable act Microsoft has ever committed," groused one user, with the log-in TG4752, on the forum. "I run a small business and I am screwed. I have no way to respond to e-mails because I made the mistake of trusting Microsoft... and all of my e-mails and contacts are gone."
Microsoft confirmed the problem via e-mail Friday, and said it will update the Windows Live OneCare engine to fix the problem as part of its monthly patch release cycle.
The company also offered the following step-by-step fix to recover lost e-mail in the meantime:
-- Close Outlook or Outlook Express
-- Click change OneCare settings in the main OneCare user interface
-- Click on the viruses and spyware tab
-- Click on the quarantine button and then select the pst or dbx file and then click on restore.
To ensure that the problem does not continue until the next update, Microsoft said users should also do the following:
-- Click change OneCare setting in the main user interface
-- Click viruses and spyware tab
-- Click on the exclusions button
-- Click on the add folder button
-- Navigate to the specific folder that contains the.dbx or.pst file to be excluded.
-- Click OK.
thats what my decoder ring said too, just glad other people see that
lol
Long article, but its a good read
Biofuels boom raises tough questions By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
Sun Mar 11, 6:13 AM ET
NEW YORK - America is drunk on ethanol. Farmers in the Midwest are sending billions of bushels of corn to refineries that turn it into billions of gallons of fuel. Automakers in Detroit have already built millions of cars, trucks and SUVs that can run on it, and are committed to making millions more. In Washington, politicians have approved generous subsidies for companies that make ethanol.
And just this week, President Bush arranged with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for their countries to share ethanol production technology.
Even alternative fuel aficionados are surprised at the nation's sudden enthusiasm for grain alcohol.
"It's coming on dramatically; more rapidly than anyone had expected," said Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
You'd think that would be good news, but it actually worries a lot of people.
The problem is, ethanol really isn't ready for prime time. The only economical way to make ethanol right now is with corn, which means the burgeoning industry is literally eating America's lunch, not to mention its breakfast and dinner. And though ethanol from corn may have some minor benefits with regard to energy independence, most analysts conclude its environmental benefits are questionable at best.
Proponents acknowledge the drawbacks of corn-based ethanol, but they believe it can help wean America off imported oil the way methadone helps a junkie kick heroin. It may not be ideal, but ethanol could help the country make the necessary and difficult transition to an environmentally and economically sustainable future.
There are many questions about ethanol's place in America's energy future. Some are easily answered; others, not so much.
WHAT IS ETHANOL?
Ethanol is moonshine. Hooch. Rotgut. White lightning. That explains why the last time Americans produced it in any appreciable amount was during Prohibition. Today, just like back then, virtually all the ethanol produced in the United States comes from corn that is fermented and then distilled to produce pure grain alcohol.
WILL MY CAR RUN ON IT?
Any car will burn gasoline mixed with a small amount of ethanol. But cars must be equipped with special equipment to burn fuel that is more than about 10 percent ethanol. All three of the major American automakers are already producing flex-fuel cars that can run on either gasoline or E85, a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Thanks to incentives from the federal government, they have committed to having half the cars they produce run on either E85 or biodiesel by 2012.
HOW FAST IS ETHANOL PRODUCTION GROWING?
About as fast as farmers can grow the corn to make it. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group, ethanol production has doubled in the past three years, reaching nearly 5 billion gallons in 2006. With 113 ethanol plants currently operating and 78 more under construction, the country's ethanol output is expected to double again in less than two years.
IS ETHANOL BETTER THAN GASOLINE?
For all the environmental and economic troubles it causes, gasoline turns out to be a remarkably efficient automobile fuel. The energy required to pump crude out of the ground, refine it and transport it from oil well to gas tank is about 6 percent of the energy in the gasoline itself.
Ethanol is much less efficient, especially when it is made from corn. Just growing corn requires expending energy — plowing, planting, fertilizing and harvesting all require machinery that burns fossil fuel. Modern agriculture relies on large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which are produced by methods that consume fossil fuels. Then there's the cost of transporting the corn to an ethanol plant, where the fermentation and distillation processes consume yet more energy. Finally, there's the cost of transporting the fuel to filling stations. And because ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline, it can't be pumped through relatively efficient pipelines, but must be transported by rail or tanker truck.
In the end, even the most generous analysts estimate that it takes the energy equivalent of three gallons of ethanol to make four gallons of the stuff. Some even argue that it takes more energy to produce ethanol from corn than you get out of it, but most agricultural economists think that's a stretch.
BUT AREN'T THERE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS TO ETHANOL?
If you make ethanol from corn, the environmental benefits are limited. When you consider the greenhouse gases that are released in the growing and refining process, corn-based ethanol is only slightly better with regard to global warming than gasoline. Growing corn also requires the use of pesticides and fertilizers that cause soil and water pollution.
The environmental benefit of corn-based ethanol is felt mostly around the tailpipe. When blended into gasoline in small amounts, ethanol causes the fuel to generate less smog-producing carbon monoxide. That has made it popular in smoggy cities like Los Angeles.
WHAT ABOUT ETHANOL'S ECONOMIC BENEFITS?
Making ethanol is so profitable, thanks to government subsidies and continued high oil prices, that plants are proliferating throughout the Corn Belt. Iowa, the nation's top corn-producing state, is projected to have so many ethanol plants by 2008 it could easily find itself importing corn in order to feed them.
But that depends on the Invisible Hand. Making ethanol is profitable when oil is costly and corn is cheap. And the 51 cent-a-gallon federal subsidy doesn't hurt. But oil prices are off from last year's peaks and corn has doubled in price over the past year, from about $2 to $4 a bushel, thanks mostly to demand from ethanol producers.
High corn prices are causing social unrest in Mexico, where the government has tried to mollify angry consumers by slapping price controls on tortillas. Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, predicts food riots in other major corn-importing countries if something isn't done.
U.S. consumers will soon feel the effects of high corn prices as well, if they haven't already, because virtually everything Americans put in their mouths starts as corn. There's corn flakes, corn chips, corn nuts, and hundreds of other processed foods that don't even have the word corn in them. There's corn in the occasional pint of beer and shot of whisky. And don't forget high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener that is added to soft drinks, baked goods, candy and a lot of things that aren't even sweet.
Some freaks even eat it off the cob.
It's true that animals eat more than half of the corn produced in America; guess who eats them? On Friday the Agriculture Department announced that beef, pork and chicken will soon cost consumers more thanks to the demand of ethanol for corn.
It's also true that there's a difference between edible sweet corn and the feed corn that's used for ethanol production. But because farmers try to grow the most profitable crop they can, higher prices for feed corn tend to discourage the production of sweet corn. That decreases its supply, driving the price of sweet corn up, too.
In fact, many agricultural economists believe rising demand for feed corn has squeezed the supply — and boosted the price — of not just sweet corn but also wheat, soybeans and several other crops.
America's appetite for corn is enormous. But Americans consume so much gasoline that all the corn in the world couldn't make enough ethanol to slake the nation's lust for transportation fuels. Last year ethanol production used 12 percent of the U.S. corn harvest, but it replaced only 2.8 percent of the nation's gasoline consumption.
"If we were to adopt automobile fuel efficiency standards to increase efficiency by 20 percent, that would contribute as much as converting the entire U.S. grain harvest into ethanol," Brown said.
ISN'T THERE A BETTER RENEWABLE FUEL SUBSTITUTE FOR GASOLINE?
Most experts think it will take an array of renewable energy technologies to replace fossil fuels. Ethanol's main drawbacks come not from the nature of the fuel itself, but from the fact that it is made using a critical component of the world's food supply. Ethanol would be more beneficial both environmentally and economically if scientists could figure out how to make it from a nonfood plant that could be grown without the need for fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs. Researchers are currently working on methods to do just that, making ethanol from the cellulose in a wide variety of plants, including poplar trees, switchgrass and cornstalks.
But plant cellulose is more difficult to break down than the starch in corn kernels. That's why people eat corn instead of grass. Plus it tastes better.
There are also technical hurdles related to separating, digesting and fermenting the cellulose fiber. Though it can be done, making ethanol from cellulose-rich material costs at least twice as much as making it from corn.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE BEFORE CELLULOSIC ETHANOL IS COMPETITIVE WITH CORN ETHANOL AND GASOLINE?
Some experts estimate that it will take 10 to 15 years before cellulosic ethanol becomes competitive. But Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, thinks it will be a lot sooner than that. The Colorado-based company has started building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia that converts wood chips and other waste left behind by the forest products industry. Another company, Iogen Corp., has been producing cellulosic ethanol from wheat, oat and barley straw for several years at a demonstration plant in Ottawa, Canada.
HOW MUCH MORE EFFICIENT WOULD CELLULOSIC ETHANOL BE COMPARED TO CORN ETHANOL?
Studies suggest that cellulosic ethanol could yield at least four to six times the energy expended to produce it. It would also produce less greenhouse gas emissions than corn-based ethanol because much of the energy needed to refine it could come not from fossil fuels, but from burning other chemical components of the very same plants that contained the cellulose.
HOW MUCH GASOLINE COULD CELLULOSIC ETHANOL REPLACE?
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the United States could produce more than a billion tons of cellulosic material annually for ethanol production, from switchgrass grown on marginal agricultural lands to wood chips and other waste produced by the timber industry. In theory, that material could produce enough ethanol to substitute for about 30 percent of the country's oil consumption.
A University of Tennessee study released in November reached similar conclusions. As much as 100 million acres of land would have to be dedicated to energy crops in order to reach the goal of substituting renewable biofuels for 25 percent of the nation's fuel consumption by 2025, the report estimated. That would be a significant fraction of the nation's 800 million acres of cultivable land, the study's authors said, but not enough to cause disruptions in agricultural markets.
"There really aren't any losers," said University of Tennessee agricultural economist Burton English.
REALLY? NO LOSERS AT ALL?
There might be losers. Simple economics dictates that if farmers find it more profitable to grow switchgrass rather than corn, soy or cotton, the price of those commodities is bound to rise in response to falling supply.
"You can produce a lot of ethanol from cellulose without competing with food," said Wallace Tyner, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. "But if you want to get half your fuel supply from it you will compete with food agriculture."
There may also be ecological impacts. The government currently pays farmers not to farm about 35 million acres of conservation land, mostly in the Midwest. Those fallow tracts provide valuable habitat for wildlife, especially birds. Though switchgrass is a good home for most birds, if it became profitable to grow it or another energy crop on conservation land some species could decline.
WILL ETHANOL SOLVE ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS?
Ethanol is certainly a valuable tool in our efforts to address the economic and environmental problems associated with fossil fuels. But even the most optimistic projections suggest it can only replace a fraction of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline that Americans consume every year. It will take a mix of technologies to achieve energy independence and reduce the country's production of greenhouse gases.
"I think we're in a very interesting era. We are recognizing a problem and we are finding lots of potential solutions," said David Tilman, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota.
But if we're serious about achieving energy independence and mitigating global warming, Tilman and other experts said, one of those solutions must be energy conservation.
That means doubling the fuel economy of our automobiles, expanding mass transit and decreasing the amount of energy it takes to light, heat and cool our buildings. Without such measures, ethanol and other innovations will make little more than a dent in the nation's fossil fuel consumption.
Antivirus Products Outperform Microsoft OneCare in Tests Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Sat Mar 10, 7:00 PM ET
Nearly a year after Microsoft Corp. introduced Windows Live OneCare, the company's first foray into the security market is still getting low marks from analysts and users.
A recent report comparing the antivirus products of various vendors ranked Microsoft's product at the bottom in terms of detecting potential security threats.
At the same time, users are complaining that OneCare, which includes firewall, antivirus, backup and antispyware software, quarantines the entire mail store of their Outlook and Outlook Express programs, making it impossible for them to retrieve e-mail.
AV-Comparatives, a project in Austria overseen by security researcher Andreas Clementi, published the antivirus comparison report, which also looked at products from Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc., Kaspersky Lab Ltd., BitDefender, Fortinet Inc., F-Secure Corp. and several other antivirus products from smaller vendors.
In detecting Windows viruses, worms, macros, scripts and other OS threats, Microsoft ranked last out of the 15 vendors tested, detecting them 91 percent of the time. G Data Software AG's Anti-Virus Kit (AVK) ranked first with 99.6 percent detection, while products from three vendors-- Kaspersky Anti-Virus, MicroWorld Technologies Inc.'s eScan and F-Secure Anti-Virus-- tied for second with 99 percent detection. TrustPort Antivirus Workstation from AED Ltd. came in third with 98.9 percent detection.
In preventing intrusion through backdoors, Trojans and in other malware detection, Windows OneCare also ranked last out of 13 vendors, with 79.6 percent detection. TrustPort came in first at 99.5 percent detection; AVK came in second with 99.4 percent detection; and AVIRA GmbH's AntiVir Personal Edition Premium came in third with 98.9 percent detection.
If ranking low in its rates of malware and virus detection isn't enough to irk users, a recent update to the product has been quarantining the Outlook.PST file, which stores mail in Outlook and Outlook Express, users reported recently on a Microsoft Windows user form.
"This is the most unacceptable act Microsoft has ever committed," groused one user, with the log-in TG4752, on the forum. "I run a small business and I am screwed. I have no way to respond to e-mails because I made the mistake of trusting Microsoft... and all of my e-mails and contacts are gone."
Microsoft confirmed the problem via e-mail Friday, and said it will update the Windows Live OneCare engine to fix the problem as part of its monthly patch release cycle.
The company also offered the following step-by-step fix to recover lost e-mail in the meantime:
-- Close Outlook or Outlook Express
-- Click change OneCare settings in the main OneCare user interface
-- Click on the viruses and spyware tab
-- Click on the quarantine button and then select the pst or dbx file and then click on restore.
To ensure that the problem does not continue until the next update, Microsoft said users should also do the following:
-- Click change OneCare setting in the main user interface
-- Click viruses and spyware tab
-- Click on the exclusions button
-- Click on the add folder button
-- Navigate to the specific folder that contains the.dbx or.pst file to be excluded.
-- Click OK.