19 Oct 2006
IE7 Vulnerability Discovered

This has to be some sort of record, even for M$ ...

Not 24 hours after the release of IE7, Secunia reports Internet Explorer Arbitrary Content Disclosure Vulnerability. So much for the "you wanted it easier and more secure" slogan found on Microsoft's IE Website.

(link) [Slashdot]

14:00 /Technology | 2 comments | permanent link

Despite popular belief, the world is not running out of oil, UW scientist says

Ya know, I'm not a geologist, but I have got a brain, and I think it's pretty safe to say that is nonsense.

"The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil.' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Eric Cheney. "It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon."

"Never" is a long time, you idiot.

The Earth is not making more oil or natural gas or coal. Those are products of biological processes, and it no longer has the correct ecosystem to create them. Given that the Earth is a finite body, there's a finite amount of oil available for extraction at any price - and a lesser amount available for extraction at an economic price people are willing to pay.

Furthermore, those mineral resources that are not products of biological processes were all present in the Earth at it's formation - they're not just generated willy-nilly on planets, they're made from the lighter elements in the nuclear furnaces we call stars. So unless he's discovered a hidden fusion engine that creates new gold, iron, silver and other minerals deep in the Earth, we're going to be running out of those as well.

We will run out of oil. And other mineral resources. All of them, That's not geology, nor is it the whining shill of a oil company hack - it's simple common sense. The only real question is when.

The foremost myth about resource geology is that the world is running out of oil, a University of Washington geologist says, and he wants to dispel that and other false notions about mineral resources.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

13:58 /Technology | 4 comments | permanent link

Cattle protozoa help shift antibiotic resistance

I wonder if it every occurred to these guys that you wouldn't get antibiotic resistant bacteria in cattle if you weren't stuffing cattle with antibiotics in the first place?

Scientists in Ames, Iowa, have made another big finding about protozoa, single-celled predatory organisms, found in the gastrointestinal tract of cattle.

(link) [The Prairie Star]

13:39 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

A Brief History of Medicine

2000 BC - Here, eat this root.

1000 AD - That root is bad; here, say this prayer

1850 AD - That prayer is superstition; here, drink this potion.

1940 AD - That potion is snake oil; here, take this antibiotic.

2000 AD - That antibiotic doesn't work anymore; here, eat this root.

12:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Simple change in cattle diets could cut E. coli infection

From Cornell and the USDA itself, no less. Note the date on the article: September 1998. Nearly 10 years ago. However, no changes in commercial feeding practices have been implemented due to this knowledge.

I think this more or less proves that the USDA knows what's happening, that feedlot operators know what's happening, and that, by inference, the FDA knows what's happening. And nobody's doing squat to prevent it - they only issue recalls on contaminated products after people have died.

Which shows the real priorities of government and their agribusiness "partners". Gag me ... just not with organic spinach.

A simple change in cattle diets in the days before slaughter may reduce the risk of Escherichia coli (E. coli) infections in humans, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Cornell University microbiologists have discovered.

(link) [Cornell University]

09:06 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Not it! Mass. elementary school bans tag

Whaddya wanna bet that these are the same set of folks bitchin' and moanin' about the rise of childhood obesity?

I think I hear the clue phone ringing ... I wish somebody would get it!

AP - Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

07:24 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link