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How To Get Infected By An Email Virus

Have you ever received an email with the subject of like this: Paris Hilton Free Video. This has happened to me and to a ton of other people.

What's interesting to notice is the links inside the email. The links called: Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy... all link to Microsoft websites. Those links are safe, and the spammers (persons who send the spam email) put those links there so the email sounds more realistic, so more folks get tricked that it is an actual real, genuine email from Microsoft.

Why this email contains viruses?

How do I know it. Apart from the fact that it's rare that Microsoft will send an email about Paris Hilton there is something else. This other thing is the big bolg title inside the email: "Paris Hilton Scandal Home Video!" which links to a website. If you click that link, it takes you to a website which automatically infects your computer with a virus.

The link ends up with a exe extension. You can place your mouse above links inside any email (without clicking) and then in your web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc) at the bottom you will see the actual link address. Try this technique on any link inside any website or email.

Links with exe extensions in emails are the most dangerous, these are not websites, or web pages but a downloadable file.

Never click links inside emails that have that exe extension in the end of the website url. So if the email looks really suspicious first check out the links inside the email. Check that they do not end up in exe

I always ask myself the question once I check my emails: Who can the person who sent me this email be? In the case above I instantly got the feeling it's not someone I know or any newsletter I am subscribed to.

If in doubt do not click the links, just check them first. Extreme care and understanding is required with emails that look suspicious.

That's the most common way to get infected by a virus from emails. The other way is through attachments, by opening attachments that are send to you by spammers. These attachments contain viruses. Attachments are simple files/pictures or anything else attached through emails. Your email client like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc notifies you when an email has attachments.

Use a popular email client, they have more safety features. Some automatically block spam, sending to junk folder, a common feature nowadays. Other display warning messages when they detect something suspicious. Plus these web based email clients are free.

You Can Build Your Own Telescope

It really is easy to build your own telescope, if you are so inclined. Well, we won't say easy because it really depends on what kind of telescope you want to build. It's easy to build your own telescope if you want a simple device that conveys the basic principles of a telescope. If you are wanting a fully functional telescope that you want to use to look at the night sky, it will take a little more time, effort, and expense.

The first thing you need to know is what supplies you will need to build your own telescope. You will also need to know what type of telescope you want to build - a refractor or a reflector. Either type is good for sky gazing, but it will make a difference as to what material you will need.

Look online as there are many places that are dedicated to homemade telescopes. Many of these websites can give you not only a list of supplies, but also instructions on how to build your own telescope. There are many books on the subject that as well that can guide you toward the information you need. Look in your local library or at a book store in the do-it-yourself section.

There are many places you can go to find materials to build your own telescope. Hobby shops are a good place to start. They will have people that work there who will most likely know what you will need and the best products to buy. There are also several online stores that specialize in supplying products that will help you build your own telescope. Here are some for you to try out:
* www.telescopehobby.com
* www.universityoptics.com
* www.atscope.com
* www.photonics.com
* www.telescope.net

You can also make your own telescope supplies if you are so inclined. Many people have fashioned homemade telescopes out of things like PVC pipe, duct tape, cardboard, and wood, and these telescopes seem to work quite well for them! In fact, some of them are quite powerful and they look cool too!

Once you decide that you are going to build your own telescope, learning how to do it is the hard part. Just do a little research and then dive in. Realize that it could be a long process and one that you will have to work efficiently at. Take notes and log what you've done so that you know where you are at any given time in the project. Good luck!

Canada's 'dirty oil' challenge

In April this year, about 500 migrating ducks on their way north landed in what looked like a large lake in western Canada.

It was not a lake, but a tailings pond - a store for toxic waste from the oil sands extraction process, made up of water, clay, sand, residual bitumen and heavy metals.

Most of the ducks died, killed by the slick of oil on the water's surface.

"It was horrifying," says Ruth Kleinbub, a field naturalist in nearby Fort McMurray, the city at the heart of the industry in the province of Alberta.

How the oil sands region expanded between 1974 and 2004

Enlarge Image



"In the spring, the open water would be such an invitation for the ducks, and the second they hit, they would have just drowned."

A government investigation of the incident has been handed over to Alberta's Department of Justice, which will decide whether or not to prosecute or fine the company involved, Syncrude.

The incident was an embarrassment for Syncrude, which says its usual bird deterrent system was turned off because of the unseasonably cold weather.

It was a public relations nightmare for the Alberta government, which has been trying to convince national and international public opinion that its oil sands industry is environmentally responsible.

Environmental laggard?

It is an argument that environmentalists say the government has lost.

"When we are looking at the tar sands, we are looking at a project that is the largest capital investment project on the face of the planet, the largest industrial project on the planet, and the ecological implications are just as great," says Mike Hudema, an Edmonton-based climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Canada.


Oil sands production, which requires large amounts of energy and water to extract the bitumen from the sand, is said to produce on average at least three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil extraction.

The industry is already Canada's largest single greenhouse gas emitter, which has led opponents to call oil from the oil sands "dirty oil". Output is expected to triple by 2020.


The oil sands are single-handedly preventing Canada from meeting any of its Kyoto obligations, Mr Hudema says.

Under the UN climate agreement, Canada was to have reduced its emissions to 20% below 2006 levels by 2020. The federal government has said it will not even attempt to meet those targets.

See how the industry is projected to grow


Ron Stevens, the conservative deputy premier of Alberta, denies the oil sands are responsible.

He says "dirty oil" is a tag that people have developed "to smear the oil industry".

If you take into account the lifecycle of the oil, including refining and transportation, he says, "the CO2 emissions become very comparable to oil from a number of other countries, including Venezuela".

Even on that "well-to-wheels" basis, oil from the oil sands produces about 15% more emissions than conventional oil.

There has been some debate as to whether US reliance on Canadian oil (Canada is the largest oil exporter to the US) could make it difficult for California to meet its new Low-Carbon Fuel Standard.


Steam rises from a tailings pond in northern Alberta, Canada


During the US election campaign, President-elect Barack Obama's team talked of breaking the US's addiction to "dirty, dwindling" oil - seen by many as a direct reference to the oil sands.

In recognition of the growing concern, the Alberta government announced a C$2bn ($1.6bn; £1.1bn) plan to fund a number of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which by 2015 could be sequestering 5m tons of CO2 annually.

It has also imposed legislation that requires all industries to cut emissions by 12% or face fines of C$15 a tonne.

A Calgary-based environmental think thank, the Pembina Institute, is sceptical that the projects will do much to mitigate emissions, which are predicted to rise to 141m tonnes of CO2 by 2020.

"I think we're overselling this as a solution," says its oil sands programme director Simon Dyer.

'Too much money'

Earlier this year, the Pembina Institute withdrew from a government-sponsored advisory body, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (Cema), saying the government was failing to impose recommended limits to protect the environment.

The Fort McMurray Environmental Association, which manages air monitoring stations throughout the region, left Cema at the same time over what it described as a lack of planning to deal with the long-term effects of large-scale development.

"It's full speed ahead when it comes to the oil sands, that's the government's mentality," says association president Ann Dort-McLean.

"This is northern Alberta. It's absolutely gorgeous up here, and that beauty needs to be protected," she says.

Ms Dort-McLean is not alone. A poll commissioned by the Pembina Institute in 2007 suggested that 71% of Albertans felt that oil sands development should be slowed down or stopped until infrastructure and environmental management issues were addressed.

I'm concerned about any community and any ecosystem downstream or downwind
Kevin Timoney
Environmental scientist


For their part, oil sands companies say they have to deal with some of the world's strictest environmental regulations when it comes to reclamation and water use.

The industry uses regulated amounts of water from the Athabasca River to separate bitumen from the sand.

The water leftover from the extraction process, known as tailings, contains arsenic, mercury, napthenic acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Much of the water is reused, but the industry is producing 1.8m litres of tailings a day which need to be contained in large earthen dams. As of March this year, tailings covered 130 sq km.

Industry and government are adamant that no tailings ever leak back into the river, or into deep aquifers.

It has been widely reported in the Canadian media that oil sands company Suncor admitted to a leak of 1,600 sq m from its Tar Island Pond 1 tailings pond in 1997, although a current spokesman for Suncor says he does not have any information about the incident.

Environmental scientist Kevin Timoney says he has seen data that suggest elevated levels of PAHs downstream of the plants, which he says could only be attributable to oil sands production.

"I think eventually, when all the studies are complete, we should be able to conclude that the tar sands industry is creating an environmental catastrophe," Mr Timoney says.

Reclamation or restoration?

The tailings ponds, and the mine sites, which currently cover 420 sq km, will eventually have to be reclaimed to "equivalent land use".

"The industry is applying a lot of technology to minimising the impact of tailings ponds, " says Martyn Griggs of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.


Syncrude even have a herd of bison living on reclaimed land


Syncrude says it has reclaimed 47 sq km since 1978, including its Gateway Hill site, covering just over one sq km, in March this year.

Steve Gaudet, Syncrude's environmental manager, says reclamation is slow by its very nature, and often takes at least 20 years.

However, the Pembina Institute's Mr Dyer says Gateway Hill is "completely unrepresentative of the challenges the industry faces".

The site was not a former mine, but a low-lying wetland used to store earth moved to make way for a mine elsewhere. It is now a forested hill with walking trails.

"The industry talks a lot about potential technological solutions, but you'll notice they always talk about solutions in the future tense," Mr Dyer says.

The Pembina Institute and Greenpeace have both called for a halt to new oil sands developments.

Greenpeace's Mr Hudema says what happening with the oil sands is fundamentally changing people's perception of Canada as an environmentally progressive country.

"What we are doing in Alberta is simply beyond imagination and beyond belief," he says.

On this day 12 December

1992: Princess Royal remarries
Princess Anne today became Mrs Timothy Laurence after a small family wedding in Scotland.

The 42-year-old arrived at Crathie church near Balmoral Castle accompanied by her father Prince Philip, and her daughter and bridesmaid 11-year-old Zara.

Before a small family congregation she and the groom, Commander Laurence, 37, exchanged vows to stay together "until God shall separate us by death."

Well wishers

Anne, dressed in a simple white suit with white blossoms in her hair, and Mr Laurence, in a Royal Navy uniform, emerged from the church to cheers from about 500 well wishers.

The newlyweds are expected to join the rest of the royal family for a short celebration at Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral estate.

Among the guests were the Queen, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Anne's son from her first marriage Peter, 15.

Anne married Mark Phillips in 1973 at Westminster Abbey and they divorced this year.

But this is the first marriage for her groom whom she met during a tour of duty on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Turbulent Royal year

In 1986, he was appointed an equerry to the Queen.

Their relationship became known in April 1989 when letters from the Commander were stolen from Anne's briefcase and given to newspapers.

Four months later Anne announced her separation from Mark Phillips.

It is hoped Anne's wedding celebrations will end a turbulent year for the Royal Family.

It was announced this week Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales have separated and Diana chose not to attend today's ceremony.

The Queen's second son, Prince Andrew, also separated from his wife the Duchess of York this year.

Both brothers accompanied Prince Edward at today's ceremony.

The palace would not reveal if there are any plans for a honeymoon.

On this day 12 December

1988: 35 dead in Clapham rail collision
Up to 35 people have died and 100 others have been injured after three trains were involved in a collision during morning rush hour in south London.

Two commuter trains carrying an estimated 1,300 passengers between them collided shortly after 0800 GMT at Clapham Junction - Europe's busiest railway junction.

A third empty train later ran into the wreckage killing some passengers who had survived the first crash.

Surgery at the scene

Many passengers are still trapped as fire crews are cutting through the tangled carriages to reach them.

Emergency services have said the extent of the injuries mean some passengers have received operations at the scene.

At nearby St George's Hospital in Tooting staff are on emergency alert as coaches and ambulances wait to take those needing medical care to its new accident and emergency unit.

Passengers well enough to leave by foot, stood by the rail track and were described as "visibly shocked and distressed".

Many have been taken to a nearby school for first aid treatment.

Witnesses, unable to reach survivors because of the extent of the wreckage, have reported seeing appalling injuries.

They described how carriages were sent hurtling into the air before crashing back down again after the collision.

'Signalling failures'

The accident took place when the 0718 from Basingstoke to Waterloo approached the junction.

Early reports indicate it was slowing for signals when the 0614 from Poole, travelling from Bournemouth due to track problems, ran into the back of it.

Experts have said this train would have been travelling at about 40mph.

Shortly afterwards an empty train leaving Clapham junction hit the wreckage.

British Rail has said initial reports indicate the crash was caused by signalling failures.

The Transport Secretary Paul Cannon is understood to be on his way to the scene of the tragedy.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has promised a full public inquiry.