Some of the worst spammers in the United States could be in for a rude surprise shortly, as Unspam Technologies has taken the first steps in tracking them down, with help from the ISPs. The company filed a lawsuit yesterday in the Eastern District of Virginia seeking the identities of spammers under the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and the state of Virginia’s own anti-spam statue. The suit seeks damages that could potentially reach $1 billion, but Unspam said it would be happy with driving spammers out of business. The idea of suing spammers may seem as ludicrous as suing God; where do you deliver the subpoena? But Jon Praed, the lawyer on the case, founding partner of the Internet Law Group and one of the top lawyers involved in spam suits, said not to think that way. ‘We cannot fight them by treating them as if they are everywhere, because it lulls us into a false acceptance of the inevitability of the outcome,’ he told internetnews.com. ‘If we focus on what they are using or make it hard to use those tools, we’re going to beat them. We are not fighting Acts of God, we are fighting criminal […]
Do you have the after-hours gene? A genetic mutation called the ‘after-hours gene’ may explain why some people are night owls, it is revealed in Science journal today. It could also hold clues for pharmacologists working to develop drugs to help people adjust to shift work or jet lag. There are further implications for the study of causes of some psychiatric disorders. The altered gene, named ‘after hours’ or Afh, is a variant of a gene called Fbxl3, which had not been linked to the body clock that keeps our metabolism, digestion and sleep patterns in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. The discovery involved scientists from the Medical Research Council Mammalian Genetics Unit, Oxfordshire, the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and colleagues based at New York University. Pharmaceutical companies are already beginning to study this class of proteins as potential drug targets. By monitoring when and how often the mice chose to run on an exercise wheel the team spotted a change in some of the animals’ normal rhythms. Instead of following the typical 24 hour pattern, some of the mice had body clocks that stretched to up […]
Every dog lover knows how a pooch expresses its feelings. Ears close to the head, tense posture, and tail straight out from the body means ‘don’t mess with me.’ Ears perked up, wriggly body and vigorously wagging tail means ‘I am sooo happy to see you!’ But there is another, newly discovered, feature of dog body language that may surprise attentive pet owners and experts in canine behavior. When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left. A study describing the phenomenon, ‘Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli,’ appeared in the March 20 issue of Current Biology. The authors are Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscientist at the University of Trieste in Italy, and two veterinarians, Angelo Quaranta and Marcello Siniscalchi, at the University of Bari, also in Italy. ‘This is an intriguing observation,’ said Richard J. Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It fits with a large body of research showing emotional asymmetry in the brain, he said. Research has […]
TAIPEI — Taiwan’s bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather, media and experts said on Thursday. Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan’s TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan. A beekeeper on Taiwan’s northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing ‘for no reason’, and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said. Beekeepers usually let their bees out of boxes to pollinate plants and the insects normally make their way back to their owners. However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months. Possible reasons include disease, pesticide poisoning and unusual weather, varying from less than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) to more than 30 degrees Celsius over a few days, experts say. ‘You can see climate change really clearly these days in Taiwan,’ said Yang Ping-shih, entomology professor at the National Taiwan University. He added that two kinds […]
Panic selling of Spanish real estate stocks this week sent shudders through property markets worldwide. As investors bet that Spain’s 10-year construction boom is finally over, we take a look at global property hotspots to see who will be the next casualty. Spain For Brits fantasising about sipping sangria while watching the value of their Spanish holiday-home soar, the dream is over. After five years of double-digit growth, house prices rose by a relatively modest 9 per cent in 2006 and are expected to slow dramatically this year. A constant stream of bad news has shaken foreign buyer confidence in Spanish property, while relatively high prices and competition from cheaper destinations such as Morocco and Bulgaria has drained demand. Corruption scandals linked to property deals have been rife – in Marbella, several municipal councillors are in jail awaiting trial for allegedly taking kick-backs. Mark Stucklin, who runs the Spanish Property Insight consultancy, believes house prices in many parts of Spain will stagnate this year, and stagnate or fall next year. ‘I think attractive properties in good areas and on the best developments will hold their value in the short-term, and deliver solid returns in the long-term. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
