Mystery worm scrambles Iranian databases

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A new worm?that appears to be targeted at Iran seeks to sabotage corporate databases by searching for specific phrases and values and replacing them with random ones.

This latest bug, dubbed the "Narilam" worm, goes after Microsoft SQL databases,?according to Symantec, which first uncovered the?malicious code.

Despite its ability to destroy databases, it may be cold comfort to its victims to know that Narilam does not steal data.

"The malware does not have the functionality to steal information from the infected system," Shuinchi Imano, a Symantec security researcher, said. "[It] appears to be programmed specifically to damage the data within the targeted database."

Imano went on to say that the "vast majority" of affected Symantec customers were corporate users and not individual consumers. The worm searches for words related to?financial accounts?in English and Persian.

Hackers, some of them state-sponsored, have targeted corporate and government servers in Iran in the past. The infamous Stuxnet worm, a collaboration between the United States and Israel, temporarily crippled Iran's nuclear development program in 2010. Earlier this year, the extremely sophisticated Flame spyware was found infecting computers in Iran's oil ministry.

Narilam is unusual because of its ability to write updates to a?SQL database, Imano said, and businesses without backups will have great difficulty recovering from the attack.

"The affected organization will likely suffer significant disruption and even financial loss while restoring the database," he added. "Those affected by this threat will have a long road to recovery ahead of them."

However, it's not clear whether Narilam is playing in the same league as the state-sponsored bugs. Kaspersky Lab, which has found several likely cyberweapons in the past couple of years, doesn't think this one qualifies.

"Narilam is a rather old threat that was probably deployed during late 2009 and mid-2010," read a blog posting on Kaspersky's SecureList blog. "Unlike Duqu or Flame, there is no apparent cyberespionage function. ... There are very few reports of this malware at the moment, which means it's probably almost extinct."

Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/mystery-worm-scrambles-iranian-databases-1C7265443

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Serenity Now: A Season of Serenity at Home (Christmas Series)

Today, I'm introducing a new Christmas series that I'll be running here at Serenity Now throughout the Christmas season. I've got Christmas projects, tips, recipes, activities, and more to share. Everything in the series is designed as a way to inspire you without overwhelming you. I want my focus on the important things this holiday season, so we're keeping things simple. Join me and some completely fabulous guest posters over the course of the next month for this year's series: A Season of Serenity at Home.

When I think of traditional Christmas, I think of spending time with my family, wrapping gifts for loved ones, sending out holiday cards, and singing Christmas carols while I decorate my home and bake goodies.

I try not to think about waiting in line at the post office, stressing out over trying to keep up with other bloggers, keeping family commitments, or the awful Christmas-tree-lights-debacle from last year that had me throw a tantrum in front of my kids that has probably scarred them for life. Words were said and things were thrown.

Yet, those mishaps have a way of becoming reality, don't they? I have, on?occasion, found myself wondering why exactly I stress out over creating the "perfect" holiday. Am I celebrating the true spirit of the season? Is my focus on my family and the One whose birth we honor on December 25th??

Sadly, I spent my fair share of holiday seasons wondering if various projects might be a hit with readers. I worried over not having enough extra money to buy new accessories to keep up with all the creations pouring into the blogosphere. I spent too much time messing around on blog posts and not enough time enjoying the season with my kids and husband.

This series is as much for me as it is for you. I love trying new crafts, recipes, and activities. But I don't love stressing out about spending extra money on expensive supplies, fitting everything on my "perfect holiday list" in, posting about it, and feeling like I just don't measure up.

Won't you join me for a season of Serenity??

Fill your home with love, and joy, and maybe a few cute Christmas crafts that won't break your budget.?I appreciate you understanding why I'm bringing in some guest posters this month. I love sharing creative ideas with you all, and I also love enjoying the holiday season without spending extra time on the laptop. I have a great line-up of posts for you: recipes, tutorials, activities, and more. You won't want to miss it!

I'll be using this post to catalog each post, so be sure to Pin or bookmark this URL to have a little library of Christmas fun!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+.

Source: http://www.serenitynowblog.com/2012/11/a-season-of-serenity-at-home-christmas.html

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Groucho Marx voted America?s favorite facial hair icon

Comedian Groucho Marx was voted as having the best facial hair in an online survey. (Wikicommons)A new survey confirms that America is a country full of "Marxists." But in this case, we're talking about facial hair, not political preferences.

According to results from the findmypast.com survey, Americans chose the late comedian Groucho Marx as having the best facial hair. Of course, the results were particularly noteworthy since Marx's mustache was a fake for most of his career.

Marx's trademark mustache was actually made of greasepaint, though he chose to grow a real mustache in later years rather than applying the makeup for performances.

Two of the three top finishers in the survey are fictional characters. The runners-up to Groucho Marx were the Dr. Seuss character the Lorax and the "Hunger Games" character Seneca Crane.

When it comes to the facial hair of everyday, real-life people, the survey found that North Americans overwhelmingly favor the mustache (72.8 percent) over any other kind of facial hair. Beards were a distant second (14.6 percent), followed by sideburns (6.8 percent) and "all of the above" (5.8 percent).

"Facial hair has moved in and out of fashion over the years and the historical record is full of shaggy characters," said D. Joshua Taylor, findmypast.com's lead genealogist.

Of course, you might want to stay away from the mustache, and any other facial hair for that matter, if you plan on running for public office.

Thomas Dewey was the last major party candidate for president of the United States to sport facial hair, losing the 1948 election to clean-shaven Harry S. Truman. A 1986 Boston Globe article even went so far as to argue that Dewey's mustache worked against him in the race.

With our condolences to Tom Selleck, the rest of the top 10 facial hair favorites:

4. Filmmaker and actor John Waters, known for his pencil-thin mustache

5. Ambrose Burnside, a Union Army general in the American Civil War whose facial hair style coined the word "sideburns"

6. Artist Salvador Dali

7. Funnyman Zach Galifianakis

8. Fictional anchorman Tom Tucker from "Family Guy"

9. Brian "Fear the Beard" Wilson, closing pitcher for the San Francisco Giants

10. Clark Gable, famed American actor

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/groucho-marx-america-favorite-facial-hair-icon-194615033.html

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Jessica Simpson Diet Secrets: Revealed!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/11/jessica-simpson-diet-secrets-revealed/

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Nepali artists turn Everest garbage 'into gold'

Laurence Tan / Reuters, file

A basket of garbage sits at Everest Base Camp, with the Himalayan range seen in the background, in May 2011.

By Reuters

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Fifteen Nepali artists were closeted for a month with a heap of 1.5 tons of trash picked up from Mount Everest. When they emerged, they had transformed the litter into art.

The 75 sculptures, including one of a yak and another of wind chimes, were made from empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, food cans, torn tents, ropes, crampons, boots, plates, twisted aluminium ladders and torn plastic bags dumped by climbers over decades on the slopes of the world's highest mountain.

Kripa Rana Shahi, director of art group Da Mind Tree, said the sculpting -- and a resulting recent exhibition in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu -- was aimed at spreading awareness about keeping Mount Everest clean.

"Everest is our crown jewel in the world," Shahi said. "We should not take it for granted. The amount of trash there is damaging our pride."

Nearly 4,000 people have climbed the 29,035-foot Mount Everest, many of them several times, since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953.

Although climbers need to deposit $4,000 with the government, which is refunded only after they provide proof of having brought the garbage generated by them from the mountain, activists say effective monitoring is difficult.

PhotoBlog: Nepali teen says she is youngest woman to climb Mount Everest

Climbers returning from the mountain say its slopes are littered with trash, which is buried under the snow during the winter and comes out in the summer when the snow melts.

'Nothing goes to waste in art'
The trash used in the art works was picked up from the mountain by Sherpa climbers in 2011 and earlier this year and carried down by porters and trains of long-haired yaks.

The yaks were commemorated in one work. For another, empty oxygen cylinders were mounted on a metal frame to make Buddhist prayer wheels.

Another, by wall painter Krishna Bahadur Thing, is a Tibetan mandala painting showing the location of Mount Everest in the universe -- made by sticking yellow, blue and white pieces of discarded beer, food cans and other metals on a round board.

Climbers hoping to conquer the world's tallest peak hit a bottleneck over the weekend when the weather cleared, which caused a greater number of climbers to attempt the same route without the ability to pass one another. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

Visitors said they were amazed at the way waste products were turned into useful items.

"It shows that anything can be utilised in an artistic way and nothing goes to waste in art," said 18-year-old fine arts student Siddhartha Pudasaini.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

The art is on sale for prices from $15 to $2,300, with part of the proceeds going to the artists and the rest to the Everest Summiteers' Association, which sponsored the collection of garbage from the mountain, organizers said.

"Garbage on Everest is shameful. We are trying to turn it into gold here," association chief Wangchu Sherpa told Reuters.

More world stories from NBC News:

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Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/26/15446567-turning-garbage-into-gold-nepali-artists-transform-everest-litter-into-art?lite

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Video: Bike lawyer: cyclists often a 'target'

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49478854/

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Berlin Summer School | fass news

Nov 26th, 2012 by fasswebmaster.

By Dina Marie Delias (Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology), Department of Sociology

The Berlin Summer School is an intensive two-week program organised by the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS) at the Humboldt- Universitat zu Berlin and the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). It is intended to be a venue for discussion between and among young and senior scholars, so the former can develop an even deeper understanding of the linkage of theory and empirical research. It?s pretty selective in choosing participants, and they look for research topics that can fall under the themes of Democracy and Democratisation, Social Inequality and Welfare, Civil Society, and Politics, Economy and Society in a Globalising World.

In this year?s summer school (July 15 ? 27, 2012), there was a mix of big lectures, small group discussions, one-on-one consultations with senior professors, poster presentations and dialogues between the 30 participants from universities around the world. The first week involved lectures and/or debates between senior academics including Donatella della Porta and Ronald Inglehart on ?Concepts as Building Blocks of Theory?, Peter Bearman and Craig Calhoun on ?Linking Micro- and Macro- Perspectives?, Delia Baldassari and Henry Bradly on ?Causation and Explanation in the Social Sciences?, Mark Bevir on ?Epistemological Implications of Methodological Paradigms?, and the insightful keynote- lecture from Prof.Dr.rer.soc. Klaus Eder. These were apart from the more intensive theme-based lectures and small- group discussions on the second week. The program made sure that each of the participants would have the chance not only to talk about their research but also receive substantial feedback.

It was also a great bonus that the Summer School was in Berlin where you are surrounded by so much history that reminds you of the best and the worst that humanity can do. After the hard work put into the presentations and discussions, participants would be hard-pressed in choosing where to visit in order to know the city and its stories further, or to just sit back and take a break.

Humboldt University Summer School Venue

Summer School Participants during lecture

Discussion with Prof. Peter Bearman and Prof. Craig Calhoun

Post-Poster Presentation Review

Dina Marie Delias at the Brandenburg Gate

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Posted in: Graduate Studies.

Source: http://blog.nus.edu.sg/fassnews/2012/11/26/berlin-summer-school/

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