Don't back away just yet, from destinations set
I dare you to be proud! To dare to shout aloud!
For convictions that you feel, like sound from bells to peal. I dare you to speak of your despise - For bureaucracy, hypocrisy - all liars.
There is a virus in our language. It's real. And it's spreading now. You know people who have been infected, and you've seen the changes. You sense it's happening everywhere but can't put your finger on what it is. But you know it's happening.
This movie is about that, at least (barely) metaphorically . You should buy it. Or at least watch it.
Nothing gets people interested in watching TV or reading newspapers
& magazines quite the way that impending doom does. Just like
clockwork, whenever the mainstream media runs out of legitimate stories
(or when the current legit story get stale like, say, an ongoing debacle
of a war in Iraq) they will trot out the latest "_This_ will scare the sh*t out of You!!" Story.
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I have color coded these in the following way:
Green - While it might have been real to some extent, if you never fretted about it, you'd be no worse off Orange - Maybe you should (or should have) worried a little about this one. Red- OMG, the Media was right! We're all DOOMED! Black - An ongoing event (too early to tell...so you'd better worry yourself into an ulcer just to be on the safe side).
Of course, an item's color code will change if the situation warrants.
Originally Posted: 4/24/2008
Last updated: 02/17/2016
On Monday (4/15/13) I watched a show on the Science Channel called Scam City. The gist of the show is that the host travels to some of the most scam-ridden cities and shows you, a potential tourist, how not to get taken by being taken himself. This episode focused on Rio de Janeiro. In one of the scams, a local comes up to a tourist on the beach and asks them to watch his stuff while he goes for a swim.
Unbeknownst to the tourist, while they are focused on this guy's stuff (that he's now entrusted them to watch) his partner is looting their wallets, camera, bags, etc.
This morning, I awoke from an awful dream that mixed this show with a bit of the horror from Boston. What if, instead of dropping a bag with explosives, the bomber(s) simply asked a stranger to watch their bag for them? I've had this happen myself more than once and have seen it happen several times to others: A stranger, who doesn't want to take their stuff somewhere (frequently the bathroom) turns and asks you "Hey, can you watch my stuff for me while I run to the ...?" Almost always, people say "Sure". It's an odd interaction. You have suddenly been entrusted with someone's belongings. Someone that doesn't know you but somehow trusts you. When will they return? What if I have to leave before they get back?
Most people being honest, almost feel a sense of loyalty to this persons' belongings, which is why the Rio scam works so well. You're focused on their stuff, more than your own.
This well known phenomenon is also behind this well known Aly Bank Commercial
My point is this: someone dropping off a bag and walking away is very suspicious as is an unattended bag in a public place. Someone asking a stranger to watch their bag and walking away, isn't. And to other people around the bag(s), nothing appears odd because there is no 'unattended' bag. While I have no evidence this happened, my sleeping brain seems to think this is what happened in Boston.
So the next time a stranger asks you to watch their bag(s), you're going to have to ask them to open the bags and show you what's inside.
Or maybe just tackle them and scream for the police.
Avast! free antivirus - I'm still recommending this over the other free options out there (MS Security Essentials, Avira Free & AVG Free ). The new version 8 is, in my opinion, a game changer for Avast! The inclusion of a software updater feature, which monitors other applications on your PC and lets you know if there are updates for the software, is huge. It's a pain to keep up with all the Java updates, Acrobat updates, etc, etc, etc. Avast! will now do this for you. Pretty freaking cool. I predict that this is a feature that all antivirus makers will offer in the next year or so. Why wait. If you're a nerd and you're interested in real world anti-virus test results, take a look here. Avira Free does really well also, but I used it many years ago and wasn't impressed. Things might be different. Either way, make sure you at least HAVE an anti-virus app and that it's still getting updates.
Windows 7 Firewall Control(for Windows 8 also) - ZoneAlarm dropped the ball on a 64-bit version for Windows 7. During their non-support period....I found something better. Sphinx-soft's Windows 7 Firewall Control provides a ZoneAlarm-like interface to Window's existing firewall. That also means no additional software overhead, since you're using the firewall built into Windows.
Malwarebytes - Pretty impressive anti-malware scanner. Works with your antivirus. I've seen it remove some of the toughest malware out there.
Super-Antispyware - Another very good malware scanner. If you're really paranoid, you can run scans with this and Malwarebytes.
TrueCyrpt - Still absolutely needed if you keep anything remotely confidential on your PC. Use Turbotax? Who's reading your tax returns when your PC gets stolen?
A rich philanthropist (someone like Bill Gates) creates a massive trust fund. The fund continues to re-invest its money to maximize the size of the trust. The purpose of the trust is to reward the person/company that discovers the cure for some disease. A "cure" could be defined as a reasonable treatment period followed by lifelong remission for 90% of patients....or whatever would be relatively air tight on defining a real cure.
The goal of the fund would be to give a massive incentive to someone (most likely a company) for curing a disease rather than providing treatments for diseases. This incentive would be in addition to whatever patent rights they would get as well. If the fund got into the hundreds of millions of $$'s, it would serve not only as an incentive to innovate, but also an incentive to be the first to market (and thus, first to claim the prize).
