But these criminals don't want to steal the whole car, they want something that's underneath.

A component of the exhaust system, the catalytic converter, has become a popular target for thieves. "It's kind of a honeycomb all over the inside there and that's coated with a precious metal," says Jim Champion with Charlie Graham Body and Service in Omaha.

That metal helps the catalytic converter reduce pollution in the exhaust, but it also makes it attractive for criminals.

"The engine's up here, the exhaust all comes out here and the first thing it comes through is the catalytic converter and this is filled up with precious metals inside of it. Not a bunch of it, but it's enough where it's got some value out on the street if somebody cuts it off. So they cut it off, sell it to a recycling firm and make some money."

Champion says it takes a thief about 60 seconds to remove the catalytic converter and be on his way. Trucks and SUVs are the easiest for thieves because they sit higher off the ground.

Champion says the demand for catalytic converters is high for both thieves and legitimate businesses.

"When we take a converter off of a vehicle for a customer there are people who come by and want to buy that scrap from us, even to sell it out on the market. So we need to be careful who is buying that from us and make sure they're a legitimate company that's going to do the right things with them." It can cost anywhere from $500 to more than $1,000 to replace a stolen catalytic converter.

Just a little over four days remain for you to make your donation go twice as far and do twice as much good for our ocean. 

Chris Kuebler, a member of our Board of Directors, asked his fellow board members to step up and challenge friends like you to raise at least $200,000. If we raise at least $200,000, they will double the entire amount, meaning we can put a full $400,000 toward saving the ocean. Please send a gift today. 

Since my last Chris’ Challenge message when we were $41,393 away from our goal, generous online donors have given $23,036. That leaves us just $18,357 to go.   

Won’t you please help us meet Chris’ Challenge? Here’s how: Send a gift of $100 today. Or, if you were considering making a more significant gift this year, now is the time your contribution will go twice as far.

Identity theft continues to be a big concern among Americans who engage in online transactions, and for good reason. Last year, an FTC survey found that 8.3 million American adults were victims of identity theft in 2005, and an alarming 85 percent reported that one or more of their existing accounts had been misused. Those accounts included email, credit card, banking, medical insurance, and other Internet payment accounts.

Now you may not give this much thought, but your email account is a prime target for hackers because it holds sensitive information about you that puts you at great risk of identity theft. Think about it. When you open an online account, you're likely to get an email that contains your username and password, and if you're like most Americans, then you probably keep those emails in a folder for future reference. Oftentimes, we forget to delete these emails, or get comfortable with our online filing system, so we just have to be careful with whatever method we choose.

Here are a few tips to help you keep your inbox clean, and your identity safe:

One problem many of us face is remembering multiple passwords and usernames. Instead of writing them down, or keeping those password emails in your inbox, you should create high, medium, and low security passwords you can remember. Becky Worley had some great advice on giving your accounts a password makeover in an earlier post.

Faxes, contracts, and other important documents are being sent through email as attachments. If these attachments contain sensitive information, I recommend you save them to an external hard drive or a location only you know about, and then delete them from your inbox.

Delete any sensitive email in your inbox that contain passwords or financial information, especially if you receive banking alerts with account balances.

Remember, if you lose your iPhone or Blackberry, anyone who finds it gains access to your email too. Always delete emails you don't want anyone to ever read, and put a password on your phone for extra protection.

Never forward sensitive information to anyone. Remember, they are as vulnerable as you are. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/24171

If you receive an unsolicited call or e-mail from the Internal Revenue Service, watch out. You're not talking to Uncle Sam.

The IRS recently issued a warning about identity theft schemes using the agency's name.

Since 2006, the Internet Crime Complaint Center has received more than 200 complaints about phishing schemes using the bureau as bait. This year scammers are using new twists on old tricks, including personalized e-mail salutations, live phone calls and the promise of tax rebates, to dupe consumers into divulging sensitive information.

Take care not to fall for the following cons:

1. Rebate phone calls

How it works: The IRS reports that a new scam similar to the refund e-mails that have circulated for years involves phone calls from callers posing as IRS employees. These callers tell potential victims they are eligible to receive a rebate for filing their taxes early. Phony IRS representatives ask for the consumers' bank account information, supposedly for direct deposit. Upon refusal, they will deny the rebate.

IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw says that scammers like to use current events for their purposes. In this case, fraudsters are using the rebate legislation recently passed by Congress as a lure.

Hang up on anyone calling about tax rebates. Checks will go out starting in May, and consumers will receive letters from the IRS explaining the rebates, not phone calls.

"In any case, the IRS would not call them for bank account numbers or credit card numbers," Lamishaw says. Those who choose to have money direct deposited must include their bank account information on their tax return.

The IRS communicates with taxpayers via the U.S. Postal Service; it does not initiate e-mails or phone calls.

2. Tax refund e-mails

How it works: The refund e-mails -- the more common scam using the IRS's name -- can look legitimate.

"Some have IRS logo images and signature images. Most of them have a footer at the bottom of the mail along the lines of 'Copyright 2008, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.,'" says Paul Wood, MessageLabs senior analyst.

They may have appropriate subject lines, such as "notification from IRS," and come from e-mail addresses with "IRS" in the domain name.

Wood says refund e-mails usually present a link to claim the refund, which is typically between $100 and $400. The link takes people to a refund claim form on a spoofed IRS site. The bogus form will ask people for personal information, such as their Social Security number, credit card number or bank account information.

That data would be a goldmine of information to criminals, who could then sell it on the black market or use it to commit identity theft.

Don't get curious if you come across one of these e-mails. Simply clicking on a link can download malware designed to allow remote control of your computer or a hunt for bank account information on your PC.

"Just clicking on a link is enough to become a victim of ID theft," says Lamishaw.

Rest assured the IRS won't e-mail taxpayers about their refunds. Those who expect a refund should use the IRS' Where's My Refund tool to track down funds.

Tax refund e-mail scams

Do's:

Do use a firewall and update your Internet security software.

Do report suspicious phone calls or e-mails from the IRS to phishing@irs.gov.

Do visit the IRS's official Web site directly at www.irs.gov if you have a question.

Don'ts:

Don't click on links or open attachments from unsolicited e-mails from the IRS.

Don't give out any personal information to anyone calling on behalf of the IRS.

Don't divulge any personal information in an online form to claim a tax refund.

3. Audit e-mails

How it works: This new scam employs a scare tactic, rather than the promise of money. Taxpayers receive an e-mail warning that their federal tax return will be audited. Like its popular cousin, the refund e-mail, the message provides a link to complete a form asking for personal information.

These e-mails may greet the potential victim by name. According to Wood of MessageLabs, scammers may use contact information gleaned from social networking sites and contact lists from compromised computers to target their e-mails.

While people may not notice the personalized salutation, they are more likely to notice, and dismiss, a generic greeting.

The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails or phone taxpayers.

4. Check verification phone calls

How it works: Someone posing as an IRS employee calls consumers, telling them the IRS mailed them a check that hasn't been cashed. The caller will then ask for the taxpayer's bank account information.

In reality, the IRS will not contact you about a check you never cashed. To see what happened to a refund you're expecting, use the IRS' "Where's My Refund?" tool.

Bottom line: The IRS corresponds with taxpayers through the U.S. Postal Service. Consumers should report unsolicited phone calls and e-mails from the IRS to phishing@irs.gov.http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/104668/Don't-Fall-for-IRS-Related-Scams 

Landing an interview is becoming as rare these days as a night without a presidential debate.

Take Mike Mayer, a former marketing manager who lives in Cleveland. He's sent out hundreds of resumes but it's been six months since anyone has called him to set up an interview. "I'm looking for a sales or marketing job, and I have extensive international experience, but maybe that's working against me," he surmises.

And A.J., an accounts receivable associate for a property management company, is finding his efforts to leave his firm and embark on a new career in human resources have hit a job search dead-end. In the past three months of sending resumes out, he says, "I have not received a single call."

Welcome to the growing resume abyss. More and more job seekers are finding they're lost in it, unable to even get a call back from a prospective employer acknowledging they exist despite their credentials or experience.

"It used to be that job seekers were able to take a shot gun approach and hit something," says Kurt Weyerhauser, a recruiting expert with search firm Kensington Stone. But in this economy, he adds, "you have to get beyond the resume."

There's a host of reasons for the problem, aside from just not being right for the job: a souring economy that's gotten companies to cut back or suspend hiring; resume overload by recruiters who are inundated by electronic resumes; and a growing desire on the part of hiring managers to hire who they know, or at least hire someone who's recommended by someone they know.

"If you go back a year ago people were talking about the war for talent, you don't hear that anymore," says Steve Gross, global leader for consulting firm Mercer. The company recently surveyed 126 U.S. employers and found that 33 percent of them were considering a hiring freeze or cutting back on staff because of the economy. That translates, he says, into a slowdown of the hiring process in general.

While you can't disregard the importance of a well-crafted resume that's targeted to the individuals jobs, unfortunately, it's probably not a sharp enough spear for today's job-hunt.

Seriously folks, you could be the perfect candidate for a job and never get beyond an electronic "thank you" reply for sending your resume.

Dan Enthoven, founder of job search firm Trovix, conducted a study where he sent out fictitious resumes to companies that he knew were desperate to hire software engineers in Silicon Valley. The resumes included all the right credentials and background needed for each specific job posted on company sites, including degrees from none other than top engineering schools such as Stanford and MIT, just to make the candidates even more appealing.

Out of 35 of these perfect resumes sent only seven received emails saying, "we'd like to talk to you," says Enthoven. "That was shocking."

If the perfect candidates out there only have a one in five chance to get called back, it's not good news for someone that may not be a perfect match or someone trying to break into a new career.What's happened to the hiring world, Enthoven surmises, is recruiters just assume there is no one good to be found among the avalanche of resumes they receive with every job posting.

I know, this sounds unfair, but I suppose we're dealing with human nature here. No one really believes you can find a needle in the haystack, and who has time to search for a needle anyway.

So what we get is a so-called "trust" economy, says Weyerhauser.

"We give an advantage to those candidates who are being referred by people we already know and respect," he explains.  "For instance, a candidate who is referred by a well-regarded current employee, is much more likely to be invited to an interview than a candidate we know nothing about who blindly sent in a resume."

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/custom/msn/careeradvice/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1338&SiteId=cbmsnbc41338&sc_extcmp=JS_1338_msnbc&GT1=23000

Gag grouper has long been a key reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.  But for years now, the rules our fishery managers set have allowed gag to be caught at a faster rate than the population can replace itself, leading to damaging overfishing.

You can help stop this damaging depletion and restore gag grouper to healthy levels. Please sign our petition calling on our fishery managers to end overfishing of gag grouper.

Failure to end overfishing of gag grouper threatens the Gulf’s ecology and the long-term economic vitality of our fishing communities.  We have an opportunity right now to hold our Gulf fishery managers accountable for adopting a science-based plan to end overfishing of gag grouper.

Learn more on the current state of Gulf gag grouper.

Sincerely,

Bill Blome
Gulf of Mexico Region Outreach Manager
Ocean Conservancy

Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction visionary best known for the groundbreaking 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a psychedelic epic of mankind's encounter with never-seen aliens, died Wednesday at age 90.

The English writer died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He had been in poor health in recent years, confined to a wheelchair due to the effects of post-polio syndrome.

He was a scientist, a philosopher and a prolific author who penned more than 80 books and 500 essays during his lifetime, including fiction and non-fiction. His 1951 short story The Sentinel became the foundation for 2001.

Clarke was a futurist who seemed to live ahead of his time. Many of his ideas and theories became reality. His work was embraced by both the scientific and science fiction communities. He viewed the future as something to behold, not fear.

"I'm an optimist," he told USA TODAY, half-jokingly, in 1997. "I've always said we have a 51% chance of survival."

His own odyssey began as a boy growing up in the seaside town of Minehead, England. The son of an English farming family, Clarke was born on Dec. 16, 1917 to Charles (the source of Arthur's famous middle initial) Clarke and Mary Nora Willis.

Clarke spent his boyhood years staring at the stars through homemade telescopes and launching amateur rockets using gunpowder he mixed with his mother's kitchen utensils. He was introduced to the world of science fiction as a boy through the pulp magazine Astounding Stories of Super-Science.

With no money for college, he moved to London in 1936 and took a job as a government auditor. In his spare time, he joined the British Interplanetary Society, a group devoted to the science of space flight, and began writing science fiction for several fanzines.

In 1941, at the height of World War II, Clarke volunteered for the Royal Air Force and served as a radar instructor. His military experience led to his 1945 landmark essay, Extra-Terrestrial Relays, published in the technical journal Wireless World.

In the piece, for which he was paid $40, Clarke proposed building a network of orbiting communication satellites, placed 22,300 miles above the equator, fixed at the same spot over Earth. In 1963, the world's first geosynchronous satellite was launched, making his vision a reality.

That was the first of several scientific predictions that led fans to worship Clarke as if he were a modern-day Nostradamus, though many of his overly ambitious visions of man's presence in space never materialized.

Clarke's foundation in science came from his years at Kings College in London, where he studied math and physics after the war. After graduating, he spent a year as an assistant editor of the journal Physics Abstracts before the income from his writing hobby overtook his day salary. His first book, the non-fiction Interplanetary Flight, was published in 1950.

In 1953, Ballantine Books put Clarke on the map with the publication of his sci-fi classic, Childhood's End, about a race of aliens who come to Earth and eliminate disease and poverty — at the cost of mankind's freedom. His subsequent best sellers included 1956's TheCity and the Stars, 1961's A Fall of Moondust and 1975's Imperial Earth, among others.

His 1973 critically acclaimed classic Rendezvous with Rama— about a team of astronauts who are sent to investigate an alien spacecraft (Rama) that is hurling toward our sun — won Clarke every major sci-fi writing accolade including the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter and Nebula awards.

Donna Shirley, former director of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, called Clarke "a remarkable man." Clarke served on the museum's advisory board and was inducted into its Hall of Fame.

"He (was) the creator of some fascinating and brilliant concepts in science fiction," she said, adding that he grounded his science fiction in scientific fact.

But Clarke's career remains defined by his seminal short story, The Sentinel. Written in 1948 for a BBC contest (he lost) and first published in 1951, The Sentinel told of a pyramid-shaped structure (which became the mysterious monolith left by aliens in 2001) found on the moon. It was Clarke's first attempt to tackle humanity's oldest question: Why are we here?

In 1964, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a movie about aliens after the release of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Columbia Pictures introduced him to Clarke. The two men clicked and brainstormed for several months in New York.

The Sentinel became the jumping-off point for their project. In the summer of 1964, Clarke holed up at the Chelsea Hotel to type their script. The result was 2001: A Space Odyssey. Spanning 4 million years from the dawn of man to the title year, the saga starred Keir Dullea as an astronaut attempting to decipher the meaning of an alien artifact discovered on the moon. His crew is sent to Jupiter to track the source of the monolith's radio signal, with dire consequences.

It was unlike any film ever made, using imagery, symbolism and classical music rather than relying solely on dialogue to tell the story.

The film also famously gave the world the malevolent, thinking, talking mainframe computer, the HAL 9000.

2001 opened to mixed, sometimes hostile, reviews from critics and audiences who didn't "get" it. The New York Times called it "somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring." Harper's said it was "a monumentally unimaginative movie."

Despite its reception, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a shared screenwriting nod for Clarke and Kubrick. It won one Oscar for best special effects.

Today, 2001 is considered an influential masterpiece. "There have been many science-fiction films, but I don't think any of them are as cerebral or as daring as this one," says film historian Leonard Maltin. It ranks No. 22 on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movies of all time.

2001 "poses metaphysical, philosophical and even religious questions," Clarke explained in Neil McAleer 's 1992 authorized biography. "I don't pretend we have the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about. It's about concern with man's hierarchy in the universe, which is pretty low. It's about the reactions of humanity to the discovery of higher intelligence in the universe."

Clarke certainly believed in extraterrestrial, intelligent life. "They might land tomorrow on the White House lawn," he told McAleer. But he did not believe in UFOs, which he said could be reasonably explained.

Nor did he believe in God. He was an unapologetic atheist with no patience for organized religion, which he blamed for many of society's ills. "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion," he wrote in a 1999 essay.

Clarke was not oblivious to the potential abuse and side effects of new technology, evidenced by HAL and his banal droning. ("I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.") In 1997, Clarke told USA TODAY that he embraced e-mail while simultaneously calling the Internet "the most deadly drug ever developed."

Clarke's influence and admiration in the scientific world was undeniable. The command module of 1970's ill-fated Apollo 13 mission was dubbed "Odyssey" in honor of the film, as was the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. At MIT, a room dedicated to artificial intelligence is dubbed the HAL project. The area of space where geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth is known as the "Clarke Belt."

In his private life, Clarke was often portrayed as an eccentric recluse who refused to give interviews. But in truth he frequently chatted with reporters and fans via e-mail and gave speeches via satellite.

In 1953, Clarke married an American, Marilyn Mayfield. The marriage lasted less than six months. "The marriage was incompatible from the beginning," he once said. "It was sufficient proof that I wasn't the marrying type, although I think everybody should marry once."

After the marriage collapsed, Clarke's fascination with the underwater world brought him to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), where he settled in 1956 and started a scuba-diving business along with business partner Hector Ekanayake.

In December 2004, Clarke and his family survived the catastrophic tidal waves that killed more than 225,000 people in Asia, including thousands in Sri Lanka.

"The day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow," Clarke posted on his website after the disaster. He noted that his first book about Sri Lanka, 1957's The Reefs of Taprobane, chronicled a tidal wave that struck the area in 1883.

In 1998, his life was turned upside down after the British tabloid Sunday Mirror accused the writer of being a pedophile. Clarke vehemently denied the accusations and was never charged with any crime.

The controversy did not prevent Clarke from being knighted by Britain's royal family, or giving interviews as Jan. 1, 2001, approached. He spoke of the significance of 2001, which has been re-released in theaters several times since 1968, including in 2001.

He also continued to write. Sunstorm, a novel with Stephen Baxter, was released in 2005 by Del Ray.

Before his death, Clarke made provisions for the future. He donated six strands of his hair to a Houston-based company that plans to launch human DNA into space

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-18-arthur-clarke-obit_N.htm

The Federal Reserve today will attempt to get out in front of the worst financial crisis to hit the world banking system in five decades by slashing short-term interest rates from their current perch at 3% to the lowest levels in years.

But its effort will have little effect on the ability of the average American to get a cheap loan for a new home, car or college education even as it has a large effect on U.S. banks' ability to fix their balance sheets by racking up fat profits.

If that sounds unfair, welcome to the latest episode of a brutal new American business ethic, in which the government bails out bad bets by risk-taking banking executives in New York with money that it borrows from middle-class families and foreign investors. The effort is gilded with fancy financial language and cloaked in the guise of a rescue that helps all citizens, but the reality is that Washington is essentially robbing the poor to help the rich.

It seems odd, but these are extraordinary times. Normally, when the Federal Reserve cuts the rate at which it lends money to U.S. banks, those banks in turn cut the rates at which they lend money to citizens and companies for personal and commercial use. Simple enough. Yet in the past few months, banks have made three important changes in their usual practice:

They have not been passing all of their interest-rate savings to customers.

They have restricted lending only to most creditworthy, documented applicants.

They have cut the total amount they're willing to lend.

Good for banks, bad for you

Banks are taking these seemingly perverse steps in an effort to reverse the effects of the massive losses they have withstood for lending too broadly to consumers and companies with lousy credit over the past five years.

They're pulling a big 180, which is as confusing as it is disheartening. Rather than providing funds to prospective home buyers and business people with legitimate needs for moving into larger homes or expanding factory lines, records show the banks are hoarding the low-cost money they're borrowing from the Fed and investing it in Treasury bonds paying higher interest yields. They're then pocketing the windfall profits to repair their own ravaged balance sheets.

As if that's not bad enough, the Fed's swiftly conceived, unprecedented course of action harms the public in three other ways:

It boosts inflation by lifting the total number of dollars in circulation.

It undercuts the attractiveness of the U.S. dollar, which leads to higher food, energy and gold prices.

It cuts the yields of dividend-paying investments such as government bonds upon which retirees depend for steady income.

In other words, the Fed action helps imprudent bankers dig out of a hole by putting prudent citizens and foreigners in one. This gives big financial businesses a shot at staving off disaster at the risk of cutting the spending and earning power of everyone else.

Fed outwitted and outplayed

To be fair, the Federal Reserve never wanted to be in this position, and it told Congress as recently as a few months ago that the U.S. economy was in such great shape that it had no intention of lowering interest rates in a material way anytime soon. But the Fed's leaders, a dangerous mix of university professors and career bureaucrats, were drawn into a trap at amazing speed by dark forces in the global financing system that they now admit they scarcely understood.

How could this happen? Albert Wojnilower, who was chief economist at Credit Suisse First Boston for a quarter of a century, observes that the history of finance is rife with examples of financiers who successfully outwit their referees -- the accountants, auditors, rating agencies, bank examiners and government agencies that are assigned to create and enforce rules.

Wojnilower, now an adviser to Craig Drill Capital in New York, points out that just as in sports, some of these officials may be corrupt, indifferent, incompetent, or even hostile to the rules themselves, but they always fall behind the financiers. He notes that as soon as lenders are freed of constraints -- as they were in this case by Bush administration officials eager to deregulate the industry -- they are spurred by huge short-term rewards "to compete addictively with one another in taking bigger and bigger risks.” Wojnilower says that eventually havoc breaks loose, forcing responsible government authorities to halt the chaos by providing bailouts to participants considered too big to fail.

It's a bit ironic, and not a little sad, that government has come to believe it has to fight fire with fire. The Fed, whose leaders are appointed by the president, is essentially trying to battle problems created in an era of overly cheap money and loose lending by making money even cheaper and lending even more aggressively.

In just the past few weeks, it has broken all of its own rules by providing hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to brokerages at special auctions, opening a bigger "discount" window to permit a wider range of financial institutions to beg at the government till and accepting weaker-than-normal collateral such as iffy mortgage-backed securities. The Fed has put the government in the position of being the payday lender of last resort.

The Fed's hamster wheel

Just to top it all off, the Fed this week announced plans to allow the twin titans of government-supported mortgage finance, Fannie Mae (FNM, news, msgs) and Freddie Mac (FRE, news, msgs) -- which have proved themselves horrible at managing risk -- to make even bigger loans than they had previously. And it is telling banks to let individuals facing foreclosure to stretch out their payments a little longer.

It is all a bit crazy, which is why many veteran financial advisers recommend that investors remain skeptical of rallies.

If the Fed cuts rates by three-quarters of a percentage point today, or even a full percentage point, there could well be a positive reaction by stocks. But what you want to watch is the reaction of debt markets, not the equity markets. Credit investors, who are the real masters of the global economic system, believe that the Fed is like a hamster in a cage that has to run faster just to stay in place as events spin faster and faster out of its control. To have a chance at getting ahead by making money so cheap that lenders will abandon their policy of distrust toward borrowers, the Fed probably needs to cut rates by a stunning 1.25 percentage points today. Anything less, and after a short period of excitement the hamster will just go back on the wheel.

Japan has decided to beat France and the United Kingdom (both who have similar proposals) to become the first country to ban file sharers from the internet.

Oddly the agreement to do so has not come from the Japanese Government, but from Japan’s four internet service provider organizations after pressure (not surprisingly) from the record and movie industries. According to Torrent Freak, the agreement would see copyright holders tracking down file-sharers on the Internet using “special detection software” and then notifying ISPs of alleged infringers. File sharers will initially receive a warning for a first offense, then be disconnected for subsequent offenses, eventually be disconnected from the internet permanently (it wasn’t clear whether the agreement is a three strikes proposal).

The process will formally commence in April and will primarily target users of Winny, the most popular file sharing network in Japan.

Tech devices are leaving factories loaded with malicious software

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory — pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam.

Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs.

Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy stores and TomTom navigation gear.

In most cases, Chinese factories, where many companies have turned to keep prices low, are the source.

So far, the virus problem appears to come from lax quality control, perhaps a careless worker plugging an infected music player into a factory computer used for testing, rather than organized sabotage by hackers or the Chinese factories.

It's the digital equivalent of the recent series of tainted products traced to China, including toxic toothpaste, poisonous pet food and toy trains coated in lead paint.

But sloppiness is the simplest explanation, not the only one.

If a virus is introduced at an earlier stage of production, by a corrupt employee or a hacker when software is uploaded to the gadget, then the problems could be far more serious and widespread.

Knowing how many devices have been sold, or tracking the viruses with any precision, is impossible because of the secrecy kept by electronics makers and the companies they hire to build their products.

But given the nature of mass manufacturing, the numbers could be huge.

"It's like the old cockroach thing, you flip the lights on in the kitchen and they run away," said Marcus Sachs, a former White House cybersecurity official who now runs the security research group SANS Internet Storm Center. "You think you've got just one cockroach? There's probably thousands more of those little boogers that you can't see."

Jerry Askew, a Los Angeles computer consultant, bought a new Uniek digital picture frame to surprise his 81-year-old mother for her birthday. But when he added family photos, it tried to unload a few surprises of its own.

When he plugged the frame into his Windows PC, his antivirus program alerted him to a threat. The $50 frame, built in China and bought at Target, was infected with four viruses, including one that steals passwords.

"You expect quality control coming out of the manufacturers," said Askew, 42. "You don't expect that sort of thing to be on there."

Security experts say the malicious software is apparently being loaded at the final stage of production, when gadgets are pulled from the assembly line and plugged in to a computer to make sure everything works. If the testing computer is infected — say, by a worker who used it to charge his own infected iPod — the digital germ can spread to anything else that gets plugged in.

The recent infections may be accidental, but security experts say they point out an avenue of attack that could be exploited by hackers.

"We'll probably see a steady increase over time," said Zulfikar Ramzan, a computer security researcher at Symantec Corp. "The hackers are still in a bit of a testing period; they're trying to figure out if it's really worth it."

Thousands of people whose antivirus software isn't up to date may have been infected by new products without even knowing it, experts warn. And even protective software may not be enough.

In one case, digital frames sold at Sam's Club contained a previously unknown bug that not only steals online gaming passwords but disables antivirus software, according to security researchers at CA Inc.

"It's like if you pick up a gun you've never seen before — before you pull the trigger you'd probably check the chamber," said Joe Telafici, vice president of operations of McAfee Avert Labs, the threat-research arm of security software maker McAfee Inc.

"It's an extreme analogy, but it's the right idea. It's best to spend the extra 30 seconds to be sure than be wrong," he added.

Sam's Club and Target say they are investigating complaints but have not been able to verify their frames were contaminated.http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzviruses0318sbmar18,0,7484020.story

First sail of the year this weekend, the weather was wintry with a 5 Beaufort wind (20/25mph), the air was crisp, the skies dramatic, an all around great day for sailing and some dramatic photographs. 

We sailed out on a Catalina 290, with the most international crew I have sailed with (France, UK, yep, on the same boat...lol, Philippines, Spain Russia, and yes, a few Americans…lol)  We had a blast.

We sailed in San Diego Bay, up the channel out to sea to watch the few seal braving wind and cold to lounge on the channel markers, fought a few wind (quite a few) and rain squalls, it was not a day for sissies and few boats were on the water, but we had a great time and look forward to more sailings like this in the future, before Summer comes with light winds.

We ended the afternoon at the Bali Hai for apetizers and coktails, a great way to close a great afternoon on the water.

Just a friendly reminder: Most of the U.S. will turn its clocks ahead one hour Sunday at 2 a.m., taking daylight from the early morning and moving it to the evening. Daylight saving time is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. The practice is observed throughout the country except for Arizona, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas

Remember, "Spring" forward, "Fall" back, in the Spring we move the clock forward an hour, in the Fall we move the clock back an hour

Take a bath, adjust your attitude, darken your room and the rest will follow

The brown bat sleeps for nearly 20 hours each day. Humans function best on a comparatively thrifty seven to nine, but more and more people are having trouble getting even that. The National Sleep Foundation recently found that just 25 percent of Americans get at least eight hours of rest on weekdays and that 60 percent of women say they often sleep poorly.

"Insomnia is a bona fide health problem," says Rubin Naiman, clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona's Program in Integrative Medicine and sleep director at the Miraval Resort in Tucson. "Skimping on sleep has a price, including weight gain, diminished immune responses, lack of concentration, irritability, and depression."

Why should something that seems to come naturally to other creatures prove so elusive for us? "Our society doesn't value sleep," says Phyllis Zee, a professor of neurology at and director of Northwestern University's Sleep Disorders Center. "We see it as a sign of laziness or a waste of time" — so much so that sleeplessness has become something to brag about. Plus, "the culture we've created is geared to keeping us awake," Zee says. Our minds are constantly aroused by stress, caffeine, and even e-mail. "Scans of metabolic activity in the brain show that people who suffer from insomnia have more activity than people without sleep problems when they're trying to get to sleep," Zee says. "When people say, 'I can't turn my brain off at night,' they're actually right."

It probably doesn't help that we're all preoccupied with our sleep problems and inundated with pills, gadgets, and treatments that claim to cure them. We asked experts to tell us which solutions they recommend, and then we put them to the test with bleary-eyed women. After all, sleep is the birthright of most animals; but to toss and turn is uniquely human.

Free your mind

The problem: Anxiety. You're alone with your thoughts for the first time all day, and you become so fretful that you feel like a character in a Woody Allen movie. "Worrying prompts your body to produce the adrenaline-like chemical epinephrine, which keeps you awake," says Joyce Walsleben, associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, who has studied sleep extensively. It also constricts your blood vessels, making your extremities cold — and it's easier to fall asleep when they're warm.

The solution: Imagine placing all your negative thoughts in a bubble and then watching them drift away, Walsleben says. Replace each worry with a restful thought of a beach or spa. Other calming ideas: Take a warm bath an hour before you turn in, and put on a pair of socks before slipping into bed.

Why it works: "Learning to control your worries will reduce epinephrine production," Walsleben says. Most people find a bath psychologically relaxing. Plus, the body warms up in the tub, and then "the fall in body temperature afterward can entice sleep," Zee says. The socks keep your feet warm, which will make you even sleepier.

The challenge: We tried to inject our worries into a bubble, but found that they just kept leaking back out again. Plus, we started to fret about why we weren't able to do it. But the bath really worked — we began to feel drowsy minutes after climbing out of the tub.

Get physically tired

The problem: You simply haven't been active enough to feel sleepy.

The solution: Shoot for at least a half-hour of moderate aerobic activity every day, even if it's only brisk walking, says James Maas, a professor of psychology at Cornell University and author of "Power Sleep" (HarperCollins).

Why it works: "The body must exert energy to get physically tired," Maas says. Studies show that a half-hour of exercise can improve sleep about as well as benzodiazepines (sleeping pills sold under the brand names Restoril, Halcion, and Valium), which are pre-Ambien and are still prescribed. In addition, "exercise over the long-term can help you lose weight and reduce stress, both of which can inhibit sleep," says Shelley Tworoger, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Harvard School of Public Health, who has studied the effects of exercise on sleep.

The challenge: The results were immediate and dramatic: After never working out, we found that we fell asleep far more quickly and slept far longer on days when we jogged for 30 minutes on the treadmill. We also woke up during the night just once — rather than two or three times — on those days.

Increase darkness

The problem: Even the light l
evel in most living rooms (100 lux) can suppress melatonin, making it hard to sleep, reported researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 2005.

The solution: An hour before bed, dim the lights and turn off the TV and computer, then make your bedroom as dark as possible, Zee says. If outside light keeps you up, buy blackout shades.

Why it works: "We all suffer from light pollution — we have lights on 24/7, which keeps our brains chronically aroused," Naiman says. "Most people don't recognize how essential darkness is for a sound night's sleep." Indeed, in the days before Edison invented the light bulb, people slept ten hours a night.

The challenge: An hour before bedtime, we dimmed the lights, switched off our TV and laptop, and transformed our bedroom — normally ablaze from city lights outside — into a cave by putting up blackout shades. We tossed a scarf over our alarm clock … and the next thing we knew, it was 11 hours later.

Cut back on caffeine

The problem: Caffeine stays in the body at least four to eight hours, and researchers in Mexico recently reported that in people prone to insomnia, the stimulating effect may be more intense.

The solution: Drink half a cup less coffee each day — until you quit entirely. That should minimize the killer headaches that often accompany caffeine withdrawal. If that's too daunting, at least abstain after noon.

Why it works: "Caffeine is more stimulating than most of us think," says Meir Kryger, director of research at the Gaylord Sleep Center at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, Connecticut, and author of "A Woman's Guide to Sleep Disorders" (McGraw-Hill). By keeping your brain in a semi-awake state, it can increase the number of times you awaken and decrease your total sleep time. "I've had so many people say, 'Caffeine doesn't affect me,' and yet they're sitting in my office complaining that they can't sleep," Kryger says. "Eliminating it can really help your brain and body relax."

The challenge: We scaled back our normal five cups of coffee a day by a half-cup per day as prescribed, but we still had pretty vicious headaches. And although it did help our ability to fall — and stay — asleep at night, we felt tired all day. On the fifth day, the headaches subsided, but the general fatigue did not. After day ten, we chose to go back to two cups per day and not after noon — and our sleep is still better.

Limit alcohol

The problem: More people use alcohol to sleep than any other substance, but a nightcap can cause insomnia in the middle of the night, according to Kryger.

The solution: "Some people can have one drink before bed; others need to cut it out," says Mark Mahowald, a neurologist and director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center.

Why it works: "Alcohol changes your sleep patterns, and once it clears your system — usually four to five hours after you fall asleep — the brain becomes hyperaroused, and you wake up," Kryger says. Plus, this hyperaroused state can persist for several hours.

The challenge: Although we missed the dreamy feeling our bedtime glass of wine inspired, we did find that avoiding it helped. We also found we could still have a drink — as long as we finished it in the early evening — without negatively affecting our sleep.

Reset your body clock

The problem: Anyone who often lies awake until 2 a.m. has problems with the clock, but not the one ticking on the side table. "If you can't fall asleep until late and have trouble waking up, your body clock may be out of sync with day and night," Maas says. This can be caused by an erratic sleep schedule.

The solution: Get 20 minutes of bright light (from the sun or an outdoor-light simulator, such as the Litebook) within 15 minutes of awakening. You should be back on schedule within a week.

Why it works: "When bright morning light hits your eyes, it prompts a drop in melatonin, the hormone that promotes sleep," Zee says. Melatonin is typically suppressed for about 12 hours, then it rises gradually until you feel a strong urge to sleep 15 or 16 hours later.

The challenge: After using the Litebook every morning for four days, we found we were dozing off almost as soon as our head hit the pillow at 11 p.m.

Take a supplement

The problem: Melatonin, known as the Dracula of hormones because it comes out in the dark (the pineal gland starts secreting it at about 9 p.m.), decreases as you age and may be low in women with certain illnesses, including bulimia and fibromyalgia. If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, your body may not produce enough — or may secrete it late.

The solution: Take a melatonin supplement in the evening to fall asleep faster.

Why it works: In normal sleepers, the body produces enough melatonin at night to induce drowsiness. Melatonin supplements may promote sleep for those who have trouble falling asleep, Zee says. One caveat: While it doesn't affect the content of dreams, it can make nightmares more vivid.

The challenge: Our significant other clocked us falling asleep only about five minutes faster after taking melatonin. We still woke up twice during the night.

Investigate sleeping pills

The problem: You lie in bed, unable to fall asleep until 2 or 3 a.m. — and this has been going on for a full week.

The solution: Although the latest sleeping pill ads make it sound like medication is a panacea, it’s not. "Ambien and other drugs that are similar, like Lunesta, are best for acute situational insomnia — to use for a few days if you're going through a stressful time or as a treatment for jet lag," Mahowald says. "They're expensive — $3 to $4 per tablet — and in some people they cause odd behavior during sleep, like eating or driving. It doesn't happen often, but it's a possibility."

Why it works: Nonbenzodiazepines such as Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata bind with receptors in the brain that trigger sleep. "Medication can prevent a short-term problem from becoming entrenched," Mahowald says. But don't expect miracles. An analysis of sleeping-pill studies financed by the National Institutes of Health shows that these pills reduce the average time it takes to get to sleep by 12.8 minutes compared with a placebo and increase total sleep time by 11.4 minutes. People may think they work better than that because they might cause mild amnesia, says Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and the codirector of research at the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in San Diego — you can't remember if you woke up. The newest sleep medication, Rozerem, stimulates melatonin receptors in the part of the brain that controls circadian rhythms, so it may help people whose body clocks are off. But it only gets you to sleep 7 to 16 minutes faster than a placebo, and increases total sleep time 11 to 19 minutes, according to one analysis. (Rozerem reportedly is not likely to cause amnesia.)

The challenge: We tried Ambien for three nights during a spell of sleeplessness, and it seemed to knock us out every time — and we felt refreshed the next day. We also tried it on a plane — and zonked out until, four hours later, the flight attendant jerked our seat back to its original upright position.

Adjust your attitude

The problem: If sleep has eluded you for at least three weeks and you find yourself extremely anxious about lying awake at night, you might benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. "People who have had insomnia for a while often start worrying about sleep," Zee says. "They tell themselves, 'I"ll never get to sleep tonight, and I'll be exhausted tomorrow morning.' That's how short-term insomnia becomes a more entrenched problem." CBT can work for a variety of issues — trouble falling or staying asleep, and restless sleep.

The solution: CBT is designed to address the factors that underlie chronic insomnia. "For instance, people think there's something wrong with them if they wake up in the middle of the night, so when it happens, they look at the clock and start to worry, which prevents them from getting back to sleep," Walsleben says. A CBT therapist would explain that sleep is made up of both deep and light phases, and it can be perfectly normal to awaken every 90 minutes or so. "Instead of worrying, we tell patients to congratulate themselves for sleeping so normally and let their bodies drift off again," Walsleben says.

Why it works: "CBT gives you the basic skills you need to sleep better — and it helps you understand the structure of sleep, which is enormously reassuring," Walsleben says. Researchers from the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, recently reported that after just four sessions of CBT, nearly 60 percent of people saw a significant improvement.

The challenge: We've often wondered whether our panic about never sleeping well was a self-fulfilling prophecy — and it turns out, it was. We found we tossed and turned less once we told ourselves that we didn't have a larger sleep issue.

Restrict sleep

The problem: You lie in bed for eight hours, but you sleep five — and you're exhausted come morning. "After a few nights of insomnia, some people associate their bed with being awake, and they can't fall asleep," Mahowald says.

The solution: Figure out how much time you actually sleep at night, and then start limiting your total time in bed to just below that amount. If you normally sleep five hours, say, restrict yourself to four in bed. After a few days, you’ll get so tired, you'll start sleeping the whole time you're in bed. Then, go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night until you're sleeping seven or eight hours. If you start tossing and turning, reduce your time in bed by 15 minutes and build up again gradually.

Why it works: "This works because you build up a sleep debt — your body's homeostatic drive to sleep becomes stronger and stronger when you're sleep-deprived — so you end up spending more of your time in bed actually sleeping," Mahowald says. "After a few nights, you start associating your bed with sleep instead of insomnia."

The challenge: Like a strict diet, this approach felt nearly Draconian. We forced ourselves to restrict our sleep to four hours for five days, and we felt exhausted and depressed — and we came down with a cold. But, like a strict diet, it started working. After two weeks, we were sleeping seven hours a night.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23052850/