Win32 Virus Removal

So, bankrupt again?

Scientists believe they have quantified exactly what makes up a person’s “erotic capital” – a delicate interplay of six social and physical categories, writes Sarah Westcott in The Daily Express. “Dr. Catherine Hakim, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, has coined the term for that crucial combination of physical and social attractiveness which makes some people particularly desirable. … Dr. Hakim argues in the European Sociological Review that erotic capital should be recognized as a new fourth category of personal asset which each of us possesses to a degree (along with economic, cultural and social capital).”

Chuckles at the end

Rory Ford, blogging for The Guardian, picks five film apocalypses that have a lighter side:

– TV static on New Year’s Eve turns all those who see it into killers (The Signal, 2007).

– The shallow end of the gene pool proves our undoing in a film in which the human race is too dumb to survive (Idiocracy, 2006).

– Anthony Edwards mistakenly thinks he’s in a romcom when he intercepts a (possible prank) call informing him that nuclear war has just broken out and he has 70 minutes to live (Miracle Mile, 1988).

– Modern zombie comedies wouldn’t exist with this cream-pie spot of splatstick (Dawn of the Dead, 1978).

– “One of our base commanders … well, he did a silly thing …” (Dr. Strangelove, 1964).

Blackmailing virus

A new type of malware infects PCs using file-sharing sites and publishes the user’s net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal, BBC News reports. The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200 million people. It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime. The virus, known as Kenzero, is being monitored by Web security firm Trend Micro in Japan. Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC owner’s personal details. It then takes screen grabs of the user’s Web history and publishes it online in their name, before sending an e-mail or pop-up screen demanding a credit card payment of 1,500 yen ($16.50) to “settle your violation of copyright law” and remove the Web page.

Fanged leech up a nose

An enormous-toothed leech, pulled from the nose of a girl who was bathing in a river, has just been documented in the journal PLoS ONE, writes Jennifer Viegas for the Discovery Channel. Named Tyrannobdella rex (“Tyrant leech king”), the new species of blood sucker sports its “ferociously large teeth” in a single jaw, but is less than 5 centimetres in length. The leech, researchers say, can enter the body orifices of people and animals to attach itself to mucous membranes. The creature, which lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon, has “a preference for living up noses.”

Other source: BBC News

Skateboarder told off

In England, the parents of a 29-year-old skateboarder reprimanded by a police community-support officer received a letter suggesting that they should keep him in check, The Daily Telegraph reports. Manchester City Council wrote to Tony da Silva’s mother and father, urging them to talk to him after he was seen skating illegally. Mr. da Silva, a semi-professional skateboarder, does not live with his parents. The parents of his friend, 24-year-old Eddie Belvedere, received a similar warning. A council spokesman said: “These rules are in place for a good reason and we have now established that Mr. da Silva is old enough to understand them.”

Well, I laughed

North Korea’s state-run TV comedy show is It’s So Funny, reports The Huffington Post. A man and a woman dressed in military garb talk about beans and other lively topics. The woman says: “If we farm in the way the General tells us, we will become happy.”

Big Jake and Lukas

– When people tell Jerry Gilbert of Wisconsin to get off his high horse, they mean it – literally, says Associated Press. His nine-year-old Belgian gelding, named Big Jake, is the Guinness World Record-holder for world’s tallest living horse, at 20 hands, 2.75 inches (2.1 metres).

– “A 17-year-old thoroughbred gelding in Chino Hills, Calif., is being touted as the smartest horse in the world for the many amazing feats he’s been able to master – 35 in all,” writes David Moye for AOL News. Karen Murdock, the owner and trainer of Lukas, believes he should be given full credit for his high equine IQ. ‘He’s able to count and discern different shapes. To my knowledge, he’s the only horse who can do this,’ Ms. Murdock said. ‘He can also spell his name, my name and, because my husband pays for all the food and the stable, he insisted that Lukas learned to spell his name, D-O-U-G.’ … [E]ven more amazing, she said, is his ability to know the difference between objects that are the same and those that are different, those that are bigger or smaller than others, and a concept called ‘absentness’ [knowing when something is missing.]”

Thought du jour

“Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.” – Serge Gainsbourg