60 Years Ago Today

December 7, 1941

"At 7:58 A.M., the alarm went out: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" Later that morning, the magazine of the USS Shaw exploded after being struck by a Japanese bomb. "

These images resonate more powerfully for me now, after September 11.

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The Hubble Telescope captures a nursery of newborn stars. Magnificient.

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Elmo tickles Kofi Annan's funnybone. What a great picture.

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"The mere act of cutting his penis signifies that he is psychotic,'' the doctor said. I'd say that's a reasonably well-founded diagnosis. He had several cuts on himself, indicating that he tried for quite some time before he was successful. Ouch.

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From TVBarn:

"On this day... in 1970, Harry Reasoner defects from CBS for a desk job at ABC, where he'll co-anchor "The ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner" for the next five years. "

Why is that notable? Because I can remember watching Harry Reasoner do the news and I can't believe how old I am.

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This Week's Invisibles.

Invisibles #52 is waiting for you. Jesus, I seem to be getting worse at this each time I take one of these - guessed 6 and only got 3 correct. And if you're curious, answers to That's Levitation, Holmes.

They've also posted a new contest - Somethings' Missing. You have to name both the movie and what item has been removed from the screenshot. Have fun!

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OK, Lighten Up, Gina!

Time to pick things up a bit here, wouldn't you say?

If I were a work of art, I would be Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. I am extremely popular and widely known. Although unassuming and unpretentious, my enigmatic smile has charmed millions. I am a mystery, able to be appreciated from afar, but ultimately unknowable and thus intriguing. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

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A master of the seas is killed by pirates. Pirates. Now that's something you don't hear every day. Which is a good thing, of course.

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A hero's daughter.

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"They used to be husbands and fathers, balancing the roles with the help of their wives, their children's mothers. Now they are widowers and single fathers, their lives composed of constant and inconceivable challenges, both logistical and emotional. " The tremendous loss of wives and mothers on 9/11 has increased the number of widowed fathers by the hundreds. This Salon article takes a look at the way men grieve and cope with having to be a caregiver now that theirs is gone.

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Oh, this is very cool. New Scientist's Last Word section has answers to all sorts of scientific mysteries. Why do stomachs rumble? Does an animal realize it's seeing its own reflection in a mirror?

Time well-wasted.

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"Chart numbers and ticket sales can't measure up to "the precious stones of friendship, of family, of wisdom learned through the bruises of even a good life," he says. "Those are the things you can't leave behind."

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Check out the guns on this Marine. The Few. The Proud. The Buff.

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Jesus, will this guy ever learn?

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Goner Virus

Heads up from Yahoo! News:

'Goner' Worm Hitting Corporations, Individual PCs

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new computer worm named ``Goner'' was spreading quickly through corporate and personal e-mail inboxes on Tuesday, deleting system files and clogging networks in what could be the biggest outbreak since last year's ``Love Letter'' virus, security software vendors said.

The worm, a virus that propagates itself to other computers through the Internet or other networks, is affecting users of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Outlook and Outlook Express, said Ian Hameroff, business manager of security solutions at Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news)

People using ICQ instant messenger and Internet Relay Chat also are susceptible to the worm because files can be transferred across those networks, Hameroff said.

Researchers estimated thousands of computers had been infected by the worm, which is believed to have originated in France, according to April Goostree, virus research manager at McAfee.com.

``This is at outbreak status, which is very rare,'' Goostree said. ``The last outbreak we had was 'Love Letter' in May 2000.''

A virus is given outbreak status by McAfee.com if it is determined to be spreading quickly and affecting large corporate networks as well as individual computer users, Goostree said.

The Goner worm arrives in an attachment masquerading as a screensaver, with an e-mail subject line of ``Hi'' and text that says: ``How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it!''

Once the user clicks on the attachment, the worm sends itself to everyone in the user's e-mail address book, tries to close programs that are running and deletes certain system files, including firewall and antivirus software, said Hameroff.

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A new Eddie Izzard interview. Of interest to no one except me, I'm sure, but what the hell.

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"Magic sneakers"? People will "build whole cities around it"? I don't know. It just looks silly to me.

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"IT" will be revealed at last.

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Oh, my. Semper Fi!

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This is an AP photo of the house on my street whose residents received a letter contaminated with anthrax. In his press conference, Governor Rowland explained that the "insignificant amount" that was found on the letter was indeed insignificant - one spore. He explained that it takes 8,000 to 10,000 spores to make half of the population ill, and significantly more than that to make the other half sick. I met up with our postman today as he was delivering our mail so I asked him how he was doing, what with all the "excitement". You may have seen him on the news - I was actually standing at my mailbox watching him as he was being filmed. I was putting some outgoing mail in the box when I saw him stopped up the street. I couldn't see the news crews from where I was standing, though. Anyhoo, he said that he was okay, and he told me that the contaminated letter was actually received by the residents 6 weeks ago. That makes me feel a bit better, at least as far as this being an ongoing thing. I'm still washing my hands after opening the mail and keeping it in a Ziploc bag for now, though.

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