Вера в бога делает вас глупыми, утверждают ученые.
Исследователь в области психологии утверждает что вера в бога напрямую связана с глупостью человека.
Профессор Ричард Линн из университета Ульстера сделает такое заявление в своей новой работе, которая будет опубликована в журнале “Разум” (Intelligence).
Линн и два его со-автора утверждают что средний по стране “показатель интеллекта” (IQ) - это отличный способ предсказать какая часть населения будет по настоящему верить в бога, во всех 137 странах.
Они так же цитируют опросы Американской Академии Наук и Британской Королевской Академии, которые показывают очень низкие проценты верующих в бога среди академиков.
То, что профессиональные скептики не верят в бога наверное не так удивительно. Линн тем не менее утверждает, что это именно из-за их высоко-развитого интеллекта академики не утруждают себя верой в бога. Он говорит: “Почему вера в бога среди академиков распространена меньше, чем среди общего населения? Я считаю что это связано с показателем интеллекта. Академики имеют более высокий показатель интеллекта, по сравнению с остальным населением.”
Линн обратил внимание на то что большинство детей верят в бога, но со временем их разум развивается и они начинают сомневаться или полностью отклоняют религию. Как он сказал, средний показатель интеллекта и западных странах увеличился за 20ый век, и так же увеличилось число атеистов.
Утверждения ученых о прямой связи были раскритикованы другими исследователями в области разума, по их мнению это очень упрощенная точка зрения. Доктор Лондонского Столичного Университета Дэвид Хардман сказал: “очень трудно провести истинные эксперименты, которые объяснили бы причинные отношения между показателем интеллекта и религиозной верой. Тем не менее, есть свидетельства из других областей, которые показывают что высокий уровень интеллекта связан с более высокой возможностью, или большим желанием, задавать вопросы, искать реальные доказательства, не принимать все на веру.”
New variant of dangerous blackmailing virus, Gpcode - warns Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of Internet threat management solutions that protect against all forms of malicious software, has informed the public that it has been the first to detect a new variant of Gpcode, a dangerous encryptor virus - Virus.Win32.Gpcode.ak. Kaspersky Lab added a signature for Virus.Win32.Gpcode.ak on June 4, 2008. Gpcode.ak encrypts files with various extensions including, but not limited to, .doc, .txt, .pdf, .xls, .jpg, .png, .cpp, .h and more using an RSA encryption algorithm with a 1024-bit key. Kaspersky Lab analysts succeeded in thwarting previous variants of Gpcode, when Kaspersky virus researchers were able to crack the private key after in-depth cryptographic analysis. The author of Gpcode has taken two years to improve the virus: the previous errors have been fixed and the key has been lengthened to 1024 bits instead of 660 bits.
At the time of writing, Kaspersky Lab is unable to decrypt files encrypted by Gpcode.ak since the key is 1024 bits long. Thus, the only way currently to decrypt the encrypted files is to use the private key which only the author has available at a fee.
“With this new version of Gpcode, we’ve encountered ransomware which seems impossible to crack during this early stage of detection. Next to running anti-malware solutions the best measure to fight this kind of malware is to regularly create back-ups of the files stored on the computer,” said Roel Schouwenberg, Senior Anti-Virus Researcher, Kaspersky Lab. “We strongly discourage infected people to pay the ransom as this will only encourage the author to create new versions.”
Social networking site bans oldies over sex offender fears
A social networking site has deleted most of its users over the age of 36 because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending. It claims to be forced into the action by the Government, but the part of a law it cites is not yet in force.
Faceparty has deleted what it describes as “a huge number of accounts” from its social networking site in recent weeks. It lists ‘over 36 years old’ as one of its reasons for deletion.
”We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which,” it says in its explanation of the deletion of accounts.
“New government legislation means we need to check older users on the sex offenders list,” says its notice. “This legislation is based upon checking email addresses against a government provided list. Faceparty has never insisted on validated email addresses and can therefore not participate in this new scheme.”
A new law was passed earlier this month, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which contains provisions for the Secretary of State to require sex offenders to register their email addresses or other information. That, though, is not currently part of the law and would require a ministerial order to become law.
The law makes no reference to the age of offenders. Neither that law nor any other suggests that people over the age of 36 are more likely to be sex offenders.
“Having discussed the use of our website with the home office and the police, and further some pretty serious crimes caused by older users, we were left with no option but to terminate a huge amount of accounts, and without notice, immediately,” says the notice.
Faceparty has defended itself against accusations that it is simply trying to create a younger, more valuable user base for itself.
“Despite malicious rumours spread by a few people on the website, it is not true that we have deleted members due to ‘ageism’,” its notice said.
Faceparty did not respond to a request for comment. It did say in its notice, though, that the site did have a serious problem with sex offenders. It said that accounts were deleted without notice “because a gang of paedophiles had arrived on the website and had carried out a series of attacks on younger users”.
The Government has proposed a system which bears some similarity to that described by Faceparty. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has suggested a future system involving sex offenders registering their email addresses with the Government.
That list would then be made available to social networking sites who could check their users against it in order to help prevent offenders using the networks to contact potential victims.
One part of the new Criminal Justice and Immigration Act allows a Secretary of State to increase the notification requirements of sex offenders. Offenders can already be required to notify details such as their name, address and national insurance number to their local police station.
Those notification requirements could include a person’s email address, their passport number, and notice of any foreign travel, the Home Office said.
A spokeswoman for the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre, a Government-backed centre, said that trying to ban users older than 36 may not be very effective in combating child abuse.
“It’s pretty easy to lie about your age,” she said. “One of the things we’d like to see all sites do is adopt a Report Abuse mechanism. We think social networking sites are fantastic but providers have a duty of care to children. Children should be able to use these environments but make it easy for them to report abuse.”
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act also made it an offence to possess extreme pornography, a move which had attracted objections from some civil liberties campaigners. That part of the Act is not yet in force.
The real reason your company’s computer guy doesn’t want to work on your personal PC.
“I’m sorry, I don’t work on personal PC’s. It’s nothing personal, I promise”.
Have you ever heard these words come from the lips of your company’s in house IT guy? Have you ever asked and been rebuffed? Well don’t fret. Rest assured dear user, it really isn’t personal. A lot of us computer guys just don’t work on personal PC’s.
“But why not?” you ask. A computer is a computer right? If it’s broke you can certainly fix it and maybe make a little money on the side. It shouldn’t take you long, you’re an expert.
As tempting as tax free money on the side sounds, it usually just isn’t worth the hassle. That’s right, I said it. It’s a hassle for us to work on personal PC’s. The laundry list of why it is a hassle is long, but I will try to just touch on the most significant aspects of it.
First off you have to realize that people that work in a corporate or government IT dept are used to dealing with standardized hardware and software configurations and being in total control over the goings on of their network. We know the hardware and software inside and out. We are in control of the inventory, we know what types of printers we have, and know what the most common problems are that occur with our standardized hardware and software. We like to be in control. When you bring us your personal PC from home, we don’t know what kind of software you have installed, where it came from, or what kind of hardware you may have connected to it that may or may not be causing your issues.
Secondly, we don’t like to have to “overlook” stuff you may have on your computer that may or may not be “legal”. Is that copy of Office 2007 you have installed on your PC properly licensed? Did you pay for the thousands of mp3’s you have in your “My Music” folder? It honestly bothers us to work on somebody’s computer and see software like Limewire or the likes of it, because we then know you are illegally downloading music. Honestly we want no part of that. We don’t want to know because many of us possess professional technical certifications from Microsoft and others, and with those designations come ethical responsibilities and the like. These companies are our bread and butter if you will, and we don’t like to see them ripped off. Plus when you get sued by the RIAA, we don’t want to be called on to testify against you.
Thirdly, we honestly can’t charge you what our time is actually worth. When you bring in your PC loaded down with viruses and trojans, we could literally have to spend hours cleaning it up, and even then we may not be able to successfully clean it. Nasty infections are generally very difficult to get rid of and usually require that the operating system be reinstalled from scratch, which just adds time to our task.
Fourthly, (is that even a word?) we don’t enjoy working on computers as much as you might think. You know those guys you see on TV that are always messing with computers and talking about the latest whiz bang graphics card that renders a bajillion polygons per second? Guess what. We’re not them. We are IT professionals. We are usually highly specialized in our fields and concentrate on one area of expertise. We usually don’t know about the latest graphics card unless one of our AutoCAD users is getting a new machine and it requires a high end graphics processing unit. To us computers are just a job, a way to make a living. When we go home at night, we want to spend time with our families, chilling in front of the tube and eating dinner. We don’t want to spend all evening trying to figure out why your ipod won’t talk to your computer.
Please understand I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just trying to make it easier for you to understand that it’s really not personal, it’s not that we don’t like you. We really just don’t like to work on personal PC’s.
DNS attack left service provider down for five hours
The hackers responsible for Wednesday’s attack on Comcast say they were angry with the company, and “wanted to take them out,” according to a news report.
Comcast, one of the largest Internet service providers in the U.S., found that its primary Website, Comcast.net, had been defaced at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. The hackers had redirected the traffic to another Web server, replacing some of the site’s content with their own greeting.
Comcast replaced the greeting with an “under construction” message in the wee hours of Thursday morning, as the hackers led Comcast technicians on a merry chase, redirecting traffic to multiple hosts for several hours. Comcast’s users were unable to access their email via the site for as long as 12 hours.
Yesterday, the two teenage attackers granted an interview to Kevin Poulsen, a well-known hacker who now writes for Wired magazine. In the interview, the two hackers said they tried to warn Comcast about the vulnerability, but a Comcast engineer scoffed at them, inciting the angry exploit.
“If he wasn’t such a prick, he could have avoided all of that,” says 19-year-old “EBK,” who perpetrated the attack along with his 18-year-old compatriot, who goes by the handle of “Defiant.” “I wasn’t even really thinking. Plus, I’m just so mad at Comcast.”
The report indicates that the teenagers found a vulnerability in Comcast’s domain management console at Network Solutions, which also maintains domain names and administration for many other sites. A Network Solutions spokesperson denied the report, stating that “we now know that it was nothing on our end.”
The hackers expect to be found and arrested, according to the report.