markomalley

QuickTime javascript worm spreads via MySpace Monday, December 04, 2006 - 01:39 PM EST Websense Security Labs has confirmed the existence of a worm spreading on the MySpace network. This worm is exploiting the javascript support within Apple's embedded QuickTime player. This is used in conjunction with a MySpace vulnerability that was announced two weeks ago on the Full-Disclosure mailing list. The vulnerabilities are being used to replace the legitimate links on the user's MySpace profile with links to a phishing site. Once a user's MySpace profile is infected (by viewing a malicious embedded QuickTime video), that profile is modified in two ways. The links in the user's page are replaced with links to a phishing site, and a copy of the malicious QuickTime video is embedded into the user's site. Any other users who visit this newly-infected profile may have their own profile infected as well. An infected profile can be identified by the presence of an empty QuickTime video or modified links in the MySpace header section, or both. More info and screenshot: http://www.websense.com/securitylabs/alert...php?alertID=708 F-Secure Virus Information: Name: JS/Quickspace.A Type: Worm Category: Virus Platform: JS (javascript) Source: http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/webl...ds_via_myspace/ Verification: http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/securit...-120313-2523-99 Enjoy!

Intersting thing, up until 1930, all (at least the vast majority of) churches taught against (artificial) birth control. Per the BBC, History of Christian Attitudes Toward Birth Control For most of the last 2000 years all Christian churches have been against artificial birth control. In the first centuries of Christianity contraception (and abortion) were regarded as wrong because they were associated with paganism or with heretics such as the Gnostics, the Manichees and, in the middle ages, the Cathars. Protestant attitudes to birth control began to change in the 19th century as theologians became more willing to accept that morality should come from the conscience of each individual rather than from outside teachings. Another influence was the churches' changing attitude to sex. Instead of seeing sex as something rather dangerous, many Christians began to regard sex as one of God's great gifts. Sex was a force that could preserve the institution of marriage if couples didn't feel threatened by the possibility of having children they could not support. Influenced by this, the Protestant churches concluded that as the use of birth control often led to stronger families and better marriages, churches should let believers use birth control as their own consciences dictated. This change came slowly - as late as 1908 the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church stated that birth control "cannot be spoken of without repugnance," and denounced it as "demoralising to character and hostile to national welfare." But the Anglicans were the first church to issue a statement in favour of contraception, which they did at the Lambeth Conference in 1930 by a majority of 193 to 67. A group of American Protestants followed in 1931. Nowadays most Protestant denominations permit artificial birth control to some extent.

Archaeologists claimed yesterday to have uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant. The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ. Archaeologists look over a mosaic discovered at Shiloh According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship. "I can't say for sure at the moment that it's the very first church," said Mr Aharonovitch, 38, as he oversaw a team carrying out the final excavations before winter yesterday. "But it's certainly one of the first." He said the site contained an extremely unusual inscription which referred to itself, Shiloh, by name. "That is very rare and shows early Christians treated this as an ancient, holy place," said Mr Aharonovitch. According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years. (snip) David Rubin, a former mayor of Shiloh, said: "We believe that if they continue to dig they'll reach back to the time of the Tabernacle," referring to the portable place of worship where the Israelites housed the Ark. Indiana Jones time, anybody? On edit: From The Telegraph

Well, there is now a warning disclaimer in the post. So now nobody has an excuse.

You know, I've been too involved in politics... when my first thought is a completely different subject.

There's always the mute button or the close-window "X" if it hurts somebody's feelings. I liked to it...rather than embedded it...so a person has to voluntarily click on it to see it. But thanks for that reminder.

Thanks, but why bother...there are some who simply don't let facts get in the way of their opinions... And, frankly, the topic has been discussed already...ad nauseum. See The Word of God thread. One brief quote from it: …had the Catholic Church wished to eradicate the scriptures, they surely could have done so in the first 1500 years of their existence (particularly if the power and reach of the Church was as ubiqutous as some anti-Catholic writers claim it was). If somebody was interested, they could read what I said in that thread. Honestly, I just don't care to go through it again…and again…and again.

Check out this 8-year old speaking on O'Reilly, Violence, Music, Religion, etc. The little girl sure knows how to speak her mind! (or somebody else's mind) On edit: Caution, the little 8 year old uses some course language. You've been warned.

FWIW, before we got a washer with a fabric softener dispenser, we used to use a "downy wash ball:" From "How Stuff Works" The Downy fabric-softener ball has to be one of the simplest inventions ever. The ball is a self-contained timing device, meaning that you don't have to wait for the spin cycle to insert the liquid fabric softener into a load of laundry. The ball utilizes Newton's first law of motion -- "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force" -- in an ingenious way to dispense the liquid at the correct time during the wash. Initially, the ball floats on top of the water in a top-loading washer (front-loading washers cannot use the ball because it needs a vertically aligned cylinder for the release mechanism to work). The ball stays this way through the first few normal cycles. The liquid fabric softener is kept inside the ball by a rubber gasket connected to a rubber weight that hangs toward the center of the ball. The seal that is formed can withstand a fairly hefty force, which you can see for yourself if you try to open it. As the spin cycle begins, the ball is thrown against the side of the washer with a great deal of force. This is where Newton's first law comes into play. As the ball travels towards the side of the washer, both the hard outer shell and the rubber weight in the center are travelling at a certain speed and in a certain direction -- they have momentum. Once the ball hits the wall, the outer shell is immediately stopped, but the rubber weight can still move inside the ball. The weight keeps travelling with the same momentum toward the wall. Since the weight is connected to the gasket, once the weight reaches a certain angle the gasket is popped and the seal is compromised. At this point, the ball sinks, and the water in the base of the washer flows in to mix with the fabric softener. The mixture then flows out of the ball and into your clothing at precisely the right moment -- and you didn't have to time it yourself!

and a happy Monday to you when it comes up this year. Hope you don't work too hard that day (but your commute ought to be VERY easy )

Ah yes, Blessed James Grissinger (yes, I had to look) Well, I spent a few years in muslim territory. One thing that struck me was a devotion to prayer. (A lot of things struck me in a negative fashion about the religion...but prayer wasn't one of them)

I changed ISPs and forgot to move the avatar over. How about this one: Blessed Charles de Foucauld, priest, martyr CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (Brother Charles of Jesus) was born in Strasbourg, France on September 15th, 1858. Orphaned at the age of six, he and his sister Marie were raised by their grandfather in whose footsteps he followed by taking up a military career. He lost his faith as an adolescent.His taste for easy living was well known to all and yet he showed that he could be strong willed and constant in difficult situations. He undertook a risky exploration of Morocco (1883-1884). Seeing the way Muslims expressed their faith questioned him and he began repeating, “My God, if you exist, let me come to know you.” On his return to France, the warm, respectful welcome he received from his deeply Christian family made him continue his search. Under the guidance of Fr. Huvelin he rediscovered God in October 1886.He was then 28 years old. “As soon as I believed in God, I understood that I could not do otherwise than to live for him alone.” A pilgrimage to the Holy Land revealed his vocation to him: to follow Jesus in his life at Nazareth.He spent 7 years as a Trappist, first in France and then at Akbès in Syria. Later he began to lead a life of prayer and adoration, alone, near a convent of Poor Clares in Nazareth. Ordained a priest at 43 (1901) he left for the Sahara, living at first in Beni Abbès and later at Tamanrasset among the Tuaregs of the Hoggar. He wanted to be among those who were, “the furthest removed, the most abandoned.” He wanted all who drew close to him to find in him a brother, “a universal brother.” In a great respect for the culture and faith of those among whom he lived, his desire was to “shout the Gospel with his life”. “I would like to be sufficiently good that people would say, “If such is the servant, what must the Master be like?” On the evening of December 1st 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders who had encircled his house. He had always dreamed of sharing his vocation with others: after having written several rules for religious life, he came to the conclusion that this “life of Nazareth” could be led by all. Today the “spiritual family of Charles de Foucauld” encompasses several associations of the faithful, religious communities and secular institutes for both lay people and priests. Some quotes: 'Jesus took the lowest place in such a way that no one has ever been able to take it away from him." “I no longer want a monastery which is too secure. I want a small monastery, like the house of a poor workman who is not sure if tomorrow he will find work and bread, who with all his being shares the suffering of the world.” "Ask yourself in each situation: 'What would the Lord have done' and do that. This is the only absolute rule." "Faith is incompatible with pride, vanity and the desire of esteem of others. To believe, we must humble ourselves." Some notes on his spirituality: After a variety of experiences as a Trappist monk and a time spent in the Holy Land, he conceived of a new form of religious life, a life closer to the daily lives of the poor. As Jesus at Nazareth, he wanted to live amidst the people, rooted in a culture, sharing the condition of those who live from day to day by the work of their hands-- of those who have no security at all and who are the poorest of the poor. He did not envision preaching the Gospel in words as such, but by crying it out with the witness of his whole life; a life lived in shared friendship, silence and prayer. He wanted to go beyond all of the boundaries of religion and race and to become known as a "universal little brother"; the little brother of his beloved Jesus. Brother Charles hoped to found small fraternities of brothers..."What I dream of is something very plain and few in number, similar to the little communities of the first Christians...living the life of Nazareth, through work and the contemplation of Jesus...a little family, a little home, very small, very plain"... This dream would not be realized until after his death. Bl. Charles' prayer of abandonment: Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; do with me what You will. Whatever You do I thank You. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me, as in all Your creatures, I ask no more than this, my Lord. Into Your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to You, O Lord, with all the love of my heart, for I love You, my God, and so need to give myself-- to surrender myself into Your hands, without reserve and with total confidence, for You are my Father.

Well, now, that is an interesting question. Did people get saved as a result of TWI? or Did people in TWI get saved in spite of TWI? You're welcome...

Pizza is healthy!!! If you want maximum low-cal, though, I'd try a genuine pizza napoli to make that, use homemade dough (as above), roll it out THIN, and put it in an oven. Bake it for about 10 minutes...until it's mostly done...about 10 minutes. Pull it out and cover with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle oregano and basil on top. Then drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes and then serve. If you want cheese, suggest you use genuine mozzarella buffala. Again, thinly sliced. You want healthy? Use homemade crushed/pureed tomatos. Avoid the canned stuff: too much salt. And remember that pizza is supposed to be THIN... The order should be dough (thin), tomatos (thin), oregano/basil, olive oil (extra virgin ONLY...drizzled), uncooked meats (thin), cheese (thin), veggies and pre-cooked meats...on top. Good, high nutrient toppings that increase the health value: fresh spinach...put on the pizza just a couple of minutes before it's done eggplant: thinly sliced arugula fresh sardine filets (fresh, not canned) fresh clams/mussels (fresh steamed...never canned, again) prosciutto (enough for flavor...not to the point of overwhelming) onion zucchini, squash It's largely a matter of personal taste. But real pizza is hardly fattening and can be served almost any way. But the key is fresh ingredients and remember to keep everything thin and...again...fresh.

Disclaimer: the following reflects the views of the organization responsible and does not reflect the views of Mark O'Malley, his family, friends, or co-workers. Sign hanging up in the Wisconsin Capitol. Click on the sign for an accompanying press release. (for those who hang out in the 'tacks mosh-pit, you will recognize the signifance of the expression "press release.") One word of commentary: I certainly hope that none of the members of the group sponsoring the above sign: a) take the day off from work, unless it falls on a normal day off. b) have any decorations in their house reflecting any type of festival with any religious origins whatsoever c) do not exchange gifts of any type d) do not allow their children to receive any type of gift, candy, special food, and so on e) attempt to involve their children in routine daily work so that they recognize how they are being discriminated against during the winter holiday break (since the religious majority discriminate against them through having the week before and week after as school holidays -- in most places, at least) f) insist that the television be turned off during any holiday specials etc. OK, well, maybe more than one word

Here you go, George: It's URL is: http://www.tnm.go.jp/gallery/search/images/300/C0008374.jpg the quick way is to copy and paste the above URL into the appropriate spot in your profile. The program can size the file so that it will be 'avatar'-sized.

Actually, most of the ones I have heard of who said those words were leaders in twi, vice posters here. There have been several who said those things here...my observation is NOT just about one particular poster or another. It is just a general observation...

Have any of you noticed that those who say either: - there was never widespread sexual abuse of women in twi or - the women who were sexually abused asked for it (therefore it wasn't abuse) or - the women who were sexually abused were actually wimps and should have shown some courage or some other permutation of the above (either directly or by implication) are, in the vast majority of the cases, men? I find not a little irony in that... ...am I the only one who sees that as a bit ironic?

This thread should be moved to "just plain silly."

Just when I think I've heard it all, I find out that I'm nowhere near hearing even part of it! The latest: Fake Your Space. From their website: Welcome to Fake Your Space. You have found a new and exciting service which offers help to all the men and women out there who don't feel like they are popular enough on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. If you are tired of seeing everyone else with the hottest friends and want some hotties of your own, then this is the place for you. But how can this be??? FakeYourSpace is an exciting new service that enables normal everyday people like me and you to have Hot friends on popular social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. Not only will you be able to see these Gorgeous friends on your friends list, but FakeYourSpace enables you to create customized messages and comments for our Models to leave you on your comment wall. FakeYourSpace makes it easy for any regular person to make it seem like they have a Model for a friend. It doesn't stop there however. Maybe you want to appear as if you have a Model for a lover. FakeYourSpace can make this happen! The possibilities are endless. You can have our Models leave you any type of customized message you may wish. Want to make an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend jealous? No problem. Have one of our Models personally flirt with you on your comment wall. Are you interested in being one of the most popular people on MySpace or FaceBook? Then FakeYourSpace is just what you need. You never need to worry about people finding out about your fake friends because all of our Models profiles are set to private. You may be asking yourself why should you pay for something like this? Our answer to you is because it's dirt cheap. Our basic plan starts at only $.99 This will give you 2 messages per week for 4 weeks. So for only $.99 you will receive 8 messages that will be there forever, not to mention our Models picture which will show up on your friends list. A pretty small price to pay for online popularity don't you think? Have we come up with a new definition for pathetic here?

You beat me to it, Geo...

Mother of 2, Welcome...pull up a chair. I bumped up a poll we did a while back asking what peoples' beliefs are currently. If you take a look at that thread, you'll see that it goes across the spectrum.

Bump to the top for mother of 2

Mat 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Mat 18:2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, Mat 18:3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Mat 18:4 Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Mat 18:5 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; Mat 18:6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. There are many who became like children in TWI. Just as nobody would blame or, in fact, affix any sort of responsibility to a teenage boy (even a 16, 17, or 18 year old) who was sexually abused by a homosexual Catholic priest, it is inappropriate, in my opinion, to affix any sort of responsibility to those who were spiritually abused by twi leadership. I am not saying that a person bears no responsibility to check the scriptures for him or herself, but, scripturally, the responisbility for abuse lays squarely and solely with those charged with pastoring, not with those pastored.

Sorry for the delay in my response...been sort of busy...and our exchange cannot be accomplished in sound bytes: Abigail, However, it seems to me that if universities simply refused to offer such high salary's, those who truly want to teach would accept a lower one. That too we see in our school. We simply cannot afford to offer $50,000 plus. Yet, because so many teachers are currently unemployed in our state, we have no problem finding highly qualified and wonderful teachers. In fact, our charter school has 100% highly qualified teachers while the local city school district only has 83%. Yes, if universities...as a whole...simply refused to offer such high salaries...it's likely that those who truly wanted to teach would accept a lower salary. But it's also likely that those who had to deal with modern society and its costs would move on to a better paying job. There is a fundamental disconnect between elementary education, of which I'm assuming you're referring, and secondary/ university education. With elementary education, the teachers have a degree in education, while, with secondary and university education, the teachers have degrees in their respective professions. An elementary teacher teaching English will have a degree in elementary education...a high school teacher teaching English will have a degree in English. Likewise with History, Math, Phsyics, and so on. The point is that unemployed educators are likely elementary school teachers, while those who are high school and university educators would be unemployed historians, chemists, and linguists. I agree, those are factors. I think our reliance upon the government is another huge contributing factor. We now rely more and more on the government to take care of those family members that are elderly, ill, or otherwise incapacitated and unable to support themselves. Social climbing also contributes - that too I see within my own family. The wealthier members have little, and in most instances, nothing to do with the less weathly members. Reliance upon the government is a horrible thing. Agreed. I have also seen the issue with social climbing; however, I've seen enough exceptions to that (particularly with my wife's family) to question whether or not this is the norm or the case with a minority of families. Yes, and since the dawn of time, or at least the dawn of our country, we have cycled back and forth in trying to find a balance between greed and need. For small periods of time we wave at it as it we cycle toward one extreme or another. The current trend is for the rich to get richer, while the middle class becomes poorer I would disagree with you on the current trend. I don't have time to look up economic statistics, but I've again seen enough examples of upward mobility with people to call it into question. Bill Gates started off as a poor geek. Oprah had a very humble beginning. Shoot, Andrew Carnegie started off as an accountant. There are plenty of other examples: I started off as an enlisted man in the Air Force...the next promotion I receive at work will be with the title "vice president of _____." The neighbor across the street from me started off as a stock girl at the electric company warehouse; she now runs the purchasing department for that same electric company. A couple of doors down, our neighbor came over as a poor immigrant from Italy: he is now the district manager for a large restaurant chain. Lots of other examples. Not that any of us are rich; around this area, we'd be classified as "middle class" or even "working class," but all of us, without exception, crawled our way to where we are now. And none of us are getting poorer. (Having said that, I realize that there are different economic forces in play in Michingan as opposed to Maryland, but that's where the old "mobility" concept comes in play. A person could move to Maryland or Virginia or South Carolina or someplace else where jobs are) The bottom line, Abigail, despite everything, is that we're both seeing the same things and are, in most cases, drawing the same conclusions from them. But I am seeing an underlying theme to those conclusions that causes me to see something below the surface. I think that's the crux of our disagreement.