In the News April 20, 2008

It is Sunday and I am starting to truely believe that spring is here. Perhaps, we have even seen the last of snow- until December anyway. Where I am writing from, the forcast is calling for 70 degree weather all week long. I can live with a few rain storms too.

Just wanted to thank some dear friends of mine for some incredible food last night. I enjoyed the broccolli, steak, chicken, and shrimp mumbo-jumbo.

Think I'll actually get caught up on my spring cleaning today.
How's yours going?
-shakespere-

There are 2 Days left until the Pennselvania Primary. Will it actually solve anything? The latest Pa. polls suggest Obama 42% Clinton 48%. So what's going on with the Pa. voters? Attracted by opposition to the Iraq war, antipathy to President George W. Bush or Clinton -- and Obama's aura of "hope" -- Pennsylvanians in the 18-29 age bracket are rallying, registering and switching parties like never before.
At the University of Pittsburgh, a "power rally" by Pitt Students for Obama got 2,000 students to register as Democrats in order to vote for the senator. The state does not allow independents to vote in primary contests.

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, or CIRCLE, which has tracked youth voting since the U.S. voting age was lowered to 18 in 1972, says this year has seen the highest national registration rate in history among those under 30.

Pennsylvania, with 15.6 percent of its citizens over 65, is second only to retirement retreat Florida in the percentage of residents who are elderly. Among registered Democratic voters, 26 percent are under 34 and 38 percent are older than 55. This age group is said to be made up largely of the blue coller supporters of Clinton.

Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.

Pope Benedict XVI began the final day of his American journey by blessing the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and pleading with God to bring "peace to our violent world."

We haven't heard much about computer hacking lately. Until now. The SANS Institute has uncovered what they've termed a "rare gem" as far as computer security investigations go that sheds new light on how up to 20,000 Web sites have been hacked since January.
They found a software tool that uses Google's search engine to hunt for Web sites running certain kinds of vulnerable applications, wrote Bojan Zdrnja, on the institute's blog.
"While we had a general idea about what they do during these attacks, and we knew that they were automated, we did not know exactly how the attacks worked, or what tools the attackers used," Zdrnja wrote.
The hacker virus was crafted to target Web sites running Microsoft's Internet Information Server and SQL Server. Once compromised, the Web sites were then rigged to serve malicious software to visitors using JavaScript, which tried various exploits based on known software vulnerabilities.
Among the malicious programs served up was a password-stealing program for the game "Lord of the Rings Online," security vendor McAfee said last month.
SANS said the software tool also reports to a server based in China, a feature that may be used to count the number of infections in order for the person using the tool can get paid, Zdrnja wrote.

Watching Baseball Today?
Okay, you got me. I deserve some r & r.

Here is the lisitng, in eastern time zone times.
Tigers Blue Jays 1:07 p.m. Robertson (0-1) Burnett (1-1)
Nationals Marlins 1:10 p.m. Perez (0-3) Olsen (2-0)
Brewers Reds 1:15 p.m. Gallardo (0-0) Harang (1-2)
Dodgers Braves 1:30 p.m. Kuroda (1-1) Jurrjens (1-2)
Yankees Orioles 1:35 p.m. Pettitte (2-1) Trachsel (1-2)
Rangers Red Sox 1:35 p.m. Millwood (1-2) Wakefield (1-0)
White Sox Rays 1:40 p.m. Danks (1-1) Jackson (2-1)
Rockies Astros 2:05 p.m. Jimenez (1-2) Chacon (0-0)
Indians Twins 2:10 p.m. Byrd (0-2) Baker (2-0)
Giants Cardinals 2:15 p.m. Sanchez (0-1) Looper (3-0)
Pirates Cubs 2:20 p.m. Duke (0-0) Dempster (2-0)
Mariners Angels 3:35 p.m. Batista (1-2) Moseley (1-1)
Royals Athletics 4:05 p.m. Hochevar (0-0) Eveland (1-1)
Padres D-Backs 4:10 p.m. Wolf (1-0) Johnson (0-0)
Mets Phillies 8:05 p.m.