Unintended consequences

[dieseltaylor]

1.Having almost bought one of these devices it is kind of a shock to realize how problematic things can be.

The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has warned that the software included in the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access.

In an advisory, the US-CERT warned that he installer for the Energizer DUO software places the file UsbCharger.dll in the application’s directory and Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory.

When the Energizer UsbCharger software executes, it utilizes the UsbCharger.dll component for providing USB communication capabilities. UsbCharger.dll executes Arucer.dll via the Windows rundll32.exe mechanism, and it also configures Arucer.dll to execute automatically when Windows starts by creating an entry in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key.

US-CERT said that Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp.

Here’s the major risk:

An attacker is able to remotely control a system, including the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs. The backdoor operates with the privileges of the logged-on user.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5602&tag=nl.e539

2. Science is your harmless friend:

The Olympic skiers who recently dazzled the world on Canadian slopes couldn't have reached the speeds they did without ski wax. But the material may have a dark side. Researchers have found perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA)—a chemical found in ski wax and nonstick cooking surfaces—in the blood of professional ski waxers at concentrations over 50 times normal, they report online in Environmental Science & Technology. What's more, the substance seems to stick around in the body: Novice ski wax technicians showed a spike in PFOA blood levels during the season that barely diminished in the off-season; experienced technicians sported massive, year-round concentrations similar to those seen in employees at plants manufacturing the chemical. The findings could be cause for concern, as PFOA has been linked to diminished fertility.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/scienceshot-no-gold-medal-for-sk.html?etoc

Which also makes me wonder why everyone has stock skis so we can see who is the best skier not who has the best science for waxing.

[Sergei]

I don't know how Microsoft does things like that - spending probably quite a few bucks to improve the safety of their system, and then a USB device can unintentionally make the system vulnerable for attacks? I can symphathize that there are more viruses for Windows than other OS's simply because Windows is the most common OS, but virus writers and hackers try to break your protections. In this case, just some bad coding manages the same. It should be harder than that.

Sports today is 50% athletics and 50% engineering. We can only imagine how well they'd do without all the drugs they are fed.

[Lt Belenko]

Unintended consequences

The new LED traffic lights use much electricity than the old incandescent lamps- a good thing. The problem occurs when snow fills the shield around the light. The old style produced enuff heat to melt the snow. The new ones remain obscured until the weather warms.

[dieseltaylor]

Good point Belenko.

In the UK we have big campaigns about avoiding too much sun - and in fact our OFFICIAL guidelines are derived from Australian rules ..... which given we are a lot further North sucks. We also have lots of problems with children with broken bones ....

"Our bodies make vitamin D when the sun shines, and new research suggests the positive effects on health are greater than we ever guessed. But too much sun causes skin cancer. It's a dilemma provoking fierce discussion among scientists

For any expectant mother, a brief stroll in the summer sunshine would seem a pleasant diversion from the rigours of pregnancy, a chance to relax in the warmth and to take in a little fresh air. It is a harmless - but unimportant - activity, it would seem.

But there is more to such walks than was previously realised, it emerged last week. In a new study, Bristol University researchers revealed they had found out that sunny strolls have striking, long-lasting effects. They discovered that children born to women in late summer or in early autumn are, on average, about 5mm taller, and have thicker bones, than those born in late winter and early spring.

Nor was it hard to see the causal link, said team leader Professor Jon Tobias. The growth of our bones, even in the womb, depends on vitamin D which, in turn, is manufactured in the skin when sunlight falls on it.

Thus children born after their mothers have enjoyed a summer of sunny walks will have been exposed to more vitamin D and will have stronger bones than those born in winter or early spring. "Wider bones are thought to be stronger and less prone to breaking as a result of osteoporosis in later life, so anything that affects early bone development is significant," said Tobias.

The study is important, for it indicates that women should consider taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy to ensure their children reach full stature. However, the Bristol team's findings go beyond this straightforward conclusion, it should be noted. Their work adds critical support to a controversial health campaign that suggests most British people are being starved of sunshine, and vitamin D - a process that is putting their lives at risk.

These campaigners point to a series of studies, based mainly on epidemiological evidence, that have recently linked vitamin D deficiency to illnesses such as diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and tuberculosis. Last week also saw George Ebers, professor of clinical neurology at Oxford University, unveil evidence to suggest such a deficiency during pregnancy and childhood could increase the risk that a child would develop multiple sclerosis.

The studies require rigorous follow-up research, scientists admit - but they have nevertheless provoked considerable new interest in vitamin D. Indeed, for some health experts, the substance has virtually become a panacea for all human ills. Dietary supplements should be encouraged for the elderly, the young and the sick, while skin cancer awareness programmes that urge caution over sunbathing should be scrapped, they insist. We need to bring a lot more sunshine into our lives, it is claimed.

But this unbridled enthusiasm has gone down badly with health officials concerned about soaring rates of melanomas in Britain, the result of over-enthusiastic suntanning by holidaymakers decades ago. Existing, restrictive recommendations for limits on sunbathing must be rigorously maintained, they argue, or melanoma death rates will rise even further.

So just how much sunlight is safe for us? And which is the greater risk: skin cancer or diseases triggered by vitamin D deficiency? Answers for these questions now cause major divisions among health experts.

In fact, vitamin D is not strictly a vitamin. Vitamins are defined as nutrients which can only be obtained from the food we eat and which are vital to our health. For example, vitamin C, which wards off scurvy and helps the growth of cartilage, is found in citrus fruits, while broccoli and spinach are rich in vitamin K, which plays an important role in preventing our blood from clotting. And while it is true that vitamin D is found in oily fish, cod liver oil, eggs and butter, our principal source is sunlight.

"Vitamin D should really be thought of as a hormone," said Dr Peter Berry-Ottaway, of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, and an adviser to the EU on food safety. "It forms under the skin in reaction to sunlight. We do get some from our food but our principal source is the sun.'

The key component in sunlight that stimulates vitamin D production in our bodies is ultra-violet light of wavelengths between 290 and 315 nanometres. Crucially, this component of sunlight only reaches Britain during the months between April and October. "The rest of the year, between November and March, the sun is low in the horizon. Its light has to pass through much more of the atmosphere than in summer and doesn't reach the ground," said Cambridge nutrition expert Dr Inez Schoenmakers. "For half the year we cannot make vitamin D from sunlight, so what we make in summer has to do us for the whole year."

In relatively sunny southern England, this is not a problem but in the north and in the cloudier west, noticeable health problems build up - particularly among ethnic minorities. People with dark skin are less able to manufacture vitamin D than those with pale skin and in places with relatively gloomy skies - cities such as Bradford or Glasgow, for example - the impact can be severe.

In 2007, the Department of Health revealed that up to one in 100 children born to families from ethnic minorities now suffer from rickets, a condition triggered by lack of vitamin D in which children develop a pronounced bow-legged gait. The disease once blighted lives in Victorian Britain but was eradicated by improved diets. Now it is making a major resurgence, a problem that has been further exacerbated in ethnic communities by women wearing hijabs that cover all of their bodies and block out virtually every beam of vitamin-stimulating sunshine.

A major health campaign, offering dietary advice and vitamin D supplements has since been launched. But for many doctors, it is not enough. The nation's health service needs to re-evaluate completely its approach to vitamin D as a matter of urgency; establish new guidelines for taking supplements; and scrap most of the limits on sunbathing currently proposed by health bodies.

These calls have been made not because of concerns about rickets, however. They follow the appearance of studies from across the globe that suggest vitamin D plays a key role in the fight against heart disease, cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Vitamin D is not so much an important component of our diets as a miracle substance, they believe. It costs nothing to make, just some time in the sun, and lasts in the body for months.

A classic example of the potential of vitamin D was provided by a study published in a US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, last year. This revealed that people with higher levels of vitamin D were more likely to survive colon, breast and lung cancer. In the study, Richard Setlow, a biophysicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US and an expert on the link between solar radiation and skin cancer, calculated how much sunshine a person would get depending on the latitude on which they lived.

Setlow - who worked with colleagues at the Institute for Cancer Research in Oslo - also calculated the incidence and survival rates for various forms of internal cancers in people living at these different latitudes. Their results showed that in the northern hemisphere the incidence of colon, lung and breast cancer increased from south to north while people in southern latitudes were significantly less likely to die from these cancers than people in the north.

"Since vitamin D has been shown to play a protective role in a number of internal cancers and possibly a range of other diseases, it is important to study the relative risks to determine whether advice to avoid sun exposure may be causing more harm than good in some populations," Setlow warned.

And then there is the impact of vitamin D levels on the heart. In a study published last year in the journal Circulation, scientists at the Harvard Medical School in Boston found that a deficiency of vitamin D increased people's risk of developing cardiovascular disease. In addition, other studies have connected vitamin D deficiency to risks of succumbing to diabetes and TB.

And there was last week's publication of the study by Professor Ebers which provided compelling evidence that lack of vitamin D triggers a rogue gene to turn against the body and attack nerve endings, a process that induces the disease multiple sclerosis. In each case, researchers urged that people ensure they take vitamin D supplements to help ward off such conditions.

But others believe such calls underestimate the problem. They point to a study, published in 2007, which indicates that more than 60 per cent of middle-aged British adults have less than optimal levels of vitamin D in their bodies in summer, while this figure rises to 90 per cent in winter. Given the links between deficiency and all those ailments, only a full-scale reappraisal of the vitamin's role in British health will work, says Oliver Gillie, of the Health Research Forum.

In a report, Sunlight Robbery, he calls for the scrapping of Britain's current SunSmart programme; the setting up of an international conference of doctors and specialists to establish vitamin D's importance to health; promotion of the fortification of food with vitamin D: and the creation of a new committee whose membership would include representatives of groups of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer and other conditions linked to vitamin D.

But most controversial of all is his call for people to sunbathe far more frequently than currently advised. "It is time for the UK government to encourage people to sunbathe safely to reduce cancer risk," he said.

Not surprisingly, the notion horrifies many health advisers. "There are now 9,000 new cases of melanoma in Britain every year and 2,000 deaths because people have sunbathed without proper care," said Sara Hiom, director of health information for Cancer Research UK. "Figures have increased dramatically over the past 20 years and will continue to do so unless we are very careful."

However, Hiom acknowledged that new studies did indicate that vitamin D deficiency was now linked to an increasing number of cancers and other diseases. "That is no excuse for behaving irresponsibly, however. People must avoided getting sunburned; stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm even in this country in summer; and use factor 15 or stronger sunblock creams."

In addition, other scientists cautioned that links between vitamin D deficiency with diseases like multiple sclerosis had yet to be proved. "People with low vitamin D may be more likely to have MS but that might simply happen because their condition makes it difficult to get out in the sunshine and make vitamin D in their bodies. We have yet to distinguish cause and effect in many of these cases," said Dr Schoenmakers.

These points are crucial and suggest we need to be cautious about claims that vitamin D is capable of triggering miraculous cures. On the other hand, enough evidence is now emerging from laboratories round the world to indicate that a nutrient once thought to be a bit-player in the battle against disease, clearly has a key role to play in helping to maintain the general health of large numbers of the population of Britain"

[costard]

re: the Vitamin D stuff (good read by the way DT, thanks) - it occurs to me that people getting out in the sun and manufacturing more Vitamin D are also getting more exercise, something which is already proved to have much the same benefits for many of the same diseases.

[Sergei]

In the UK we have big campaigns about avoiding too much sun - and in fact our OFFICIAL guidelines are derived from Australian rules ..... which given we are a lot further North sucks. We also have lots of problems with children with broken bones ....

But even if you don't live in the tropics you may get too much UV radiation during the summer. Also, many Brits fly south to scorch themselves in Mediterranean tourist gulags. You gingers really should stay indoors.

[Affentitten]

Unintended consequences

The new LED traffic lights use much electricity than the old incandescent lamps- a good thing. The problem occurs when snow fills the shield around the light. The old style produced enuff heat to melt the snow. The new ones remain obscured until the weather warms.

Haven't noticed that problem here in Australia.

[JonS]

Yeah, but once you start installing traffic lights you might.

[Stalins Organ]

There have been pasty poms since long before there were any guidelines on exposure to the sun!

[Affentitten]

Yeah, but once you start installing traffic lights you might.

Or rather, once we start looking at them.

[JonS]

touché, mate.

[Michael Emrys]

Yeah, but once you start installing traffic lights you might.

They still using those guys with flags standing in the middle of intersections? I hear their attrition rate is awful high.

Michael

[Affentitten]

Have you ever been to Egypt. Emrys? (I mean, since the time you were there for the consecration of Cheops' pyaramid?) At every major intersection they have traffic lights and about a dozen cops. One of them sits in a sentry box and changes the traffic lights with a manual switch. Got to find jobs for all those people!

[Sergei]

And I suppose unless you give them a little gift, you might be staring at a red light for two hours?

Although, it makes some sense - with Egyptian wage rates, a guy in the box probably comes cheaper than a fully automated system.

[Michael Emrys]

Have you ever been to Egypt. Emrys? (I mean, since the time you were there for the consecration of Cheops' pyaramid?) At every major intersection they have traffic lights and about a dozen cops. One of them sits in a sentry box and changes the traffic lights with a manual switch. Got to find jobs for all those people!

Didn't have to travel that far. I was in Chicago in the early '70s and was amazed to see that every intersection of State Street in the Loop had a cop who would watch the lights and direct the cars according to whether the light was red or green. Cops must have had a strong union there.

Oh, another curious fact, each and every one of the cops was the spitting image of Herman Göring at his fattest.

Michael

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Oh, another curious fact, each and every one of the cops was the spitting image of Herman Göring at his fattest.

Michael

Were they wearing the same spiffy outfits?

Regards

KR

[Michael Emrys]

Were they wearing the same spiffy outfits?

I didn't examine them that closely, but I imagine not quite. Chicago PD lacked the Reichsmarschall's good taste.

Michael

[gunnergoz]

Chicago seems to go its own way in several respects. I recall, some years ago, calling a probation officer in Chicago (I was then one in San Diego) and he asked me casually how much it cost to make supervisor in San Diego. The going rate was $10K in Chicago he said. He did not believe me when I said that there was no way to bribe a promotion where I worked (although there was a lot of fraternization that led to directors being married to supervisors, etc. and then oddly enough most of those married supervisors also made director.) In retrospect, I like the Chicago system more...