A virus called Archiveus is really sneaky – once it infects your computer, it will encrypt your files and hold it for ransom!

This virus swaps files found in the "My Documents" folder on Windows with a single file protected by a 30-digit password. Victims are only told the password if they buy drugs from one of three online pharmacies.

Ms Barrow is thought to have fallen victim when she responded to an on-screen message warning her that her computer had contracted another unnamed virus. The virus asks those it infects to buy drugs on one of three websites to get their files back.

The good news is that anti-virus companies discovered that the password is encoded in the virus itself (yes, that’s the password on the left).

Link – Thanks David R!

Mark Colling of Llanelli, United Kingdom, is building a 19 ft. long model of Titanic and 8 ft. model of the iceberg that sank the original ship, from 5 million matchsticks!

As you may have guessed, Mark "buys his matches in bulk – in batches of 250,000 at a time."

Link – via digg, Thanks Yayo!

A Boston University School of Medicine study reported that kids with strict disciplinarian parents are likely to wind up fat by age 6, possibly as a reaction to stress.

The study covered 872 children who were part of a group enrolled at birth in 1991 in a U.S. Government study and followed for a number of years.

"Among the four parenting styles, authoritarian parenting was associated with the highest risk of overweight among young children," concluded the study published in the June issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"These results provide evidence that a strict environment lacking in emotional responsiveness is associated with an increased risk of childhood overweight," the study said.

Link

Literature Map is like a travel map for authors – the idea is for you to type in an author that you like, and the program will spit out "similar" authors that you may also like.

The project is part of an artificial intelligence experiment by Marek Gibney, who wrote:

Gnod is my experiment in the field of artificial intelligence. Its a self-adapting system, living on this server and ‘talking’ to everyone who comes along. Gnods intention is to learn about the outer world and to learn ‘understanding’ its visitors. This enables gnod to share all its wisdom with you in an intuitive and efficient way. You might call it a search-engine to find things you don’t know about.

Link – Thanks MattFL!

Magic sand is ordinary beach sand coated with tiny particles of pure silica, then exposing them to vapors of a silicon compound called trimethylhydroxysilane. The result is a hydrophobic or water-hating sand: when exposed to water, the sand would "stick" to each other rather than to the water, and therefore remain dry.

It’s easier to understand after you watch the video: hit play or go to Link [YouTube]. For more info, see: Magic Sand [wiki], Chemistry.org explanation – Thanks Yayo!

This statue in Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid, Spain, is probably the only public statue in the world dedicated to the devil. It depicts Lucifer, the fallen angel who was cast out of heaven to become Satan.

Link – Thanks Yayo! What a perfect entry for today (6-6-06!)

Geologist Steven Dutch of the University of Wisconsin used geological data to predict what will happen to Earth over the next million years.

His verdict? The same as the last million years : more volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters!

Even without major catastrophes, gradual geological change will dramatically alter many landscapes. …

In California the temperamental San Andreas fault will set off about 7,000 earthquakes of magnitude eight in the next million years, offsetting the geography of San Francisco more than 15 miles. That will split the San Francisco Peninsula into a fork.

Over the same million years the Hawaiian Islands will have moved about 60 miles northwest, Dutch said. The deep undersea volcano called Loihi, to the southwest of the island of Hawaii, will have grown into a new island rivaling today’s Mauna Loa volcano.

Link – Thanks Jason!

Meet Vespa mandarinia, the world’s largest hornet with body lengths of 27 to 45 mm (1" to 1 3/4"), with the queen being as large as 55 mm (about 2 1/8")!

This beast of a hornet is found in southeast part of Asian Russia, Korea, China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Japan.

As you guessed, the giant hornet is one mean flying machine:

Additional this gigantic, voracious predator has a quarter-inch stinger (6.35mm)! People are usually not the Japanese giant hornet’s prey, but those who have felt its sting describe the pain as excruciating and very painful. Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University, near Tokyo, said it’s "like a hot nail through my leg."

But they’re not invincible. Their prey, the mundane honeybees, came up with an ingenious defense: baking them alive.

The Japanese giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia japonica, preys on other species of bees and wasps. When a solitary hunter finds a nest, it marks it with a secretion from its van der Vecht gland. Other hornets in the area congregate to the area, and they begin a mass attack on the colony. While they are efficient at wiping out hives of the introduced European honeybee Apis mellifera (they are killed at rates as high as 40 per minute), the native Japanese honeybee, Apis cerana japonica, has an interesting defense against the predatory hornet! The Japanese honeybees can detect the hornet’s secretion, and attack incoming hornets en masse. With approximately 500 honeybees surrounding the hornet in a tight ball, the temperature within the cluster rises to 47º C (117º F), which is above the upper lethal limit range of 44-46 degrees for the hornet. This temperature is too high for the hornet, which quickly expires, but does not harm the honeybees.This temperature does not aversely affect the honeybees because their upper lethal limit is slightly higher, 48-50 degrees.

Link – via J-Walk Blog

MegaChess’ giant chess sets are made from fiberglass, foam, metal, plaster, plastic, and teak (there is even a topiary form!). These large chess sets are fantastic (the one on the left is a 6-foot set).

Link – Thanks Yayo!

Adam Malcolm, a University of Virginia grad student, won the Life Jacket Design Compeition with this innovative life jacket belt:

Malcom’s winning entry was essentially … a slender belt worn around the waist. The unit would stay out of the way and not retain body heat. When activated either manually with a ripcord or automatically via a CO2 gas cylinder, slender, symmetrically-arranged air bladders stored inside the belt inflate rising up to surround the wearer on all sides. No secondary action, such as sliding flotation over the head, is necessary. You simply float much like you would in an inner tube.

Link – Thanks Jason!

David Mach uses found, mass-produced objects to create public art. In this early sculpture called Polaris, exhibited in London in 1983, David used 6000 car tires arranged in the shape of a Polaris submarine.

David’s art was intended to protest against nuclear arms race. Someone disagreed, and tried to burn it down. Unfortunately, the man got caught in the flames and burnt to death.

Link | David Mach’s website | Wikipedia Entry – Thanks Yayo!