“They described the cases of 10 patients at a Michigan hospital who were so ill they had to be put on ventilators. Three died. Nine of the 10 were obese, seven were severely obese, including two of the three who died.”

I find this absolutely amazing.  The H1N1 influenza virus seems to kill people in the 20 to 40 year old demographic. Scientists postulate that this is because this demographic has the most active immune system. H1N1 induces a cytokine storm which hyperactivates the immune system causing massive damage to the lungs and other organs. In obese people the immune system would probably be suppressed, making a cytokine storm harder to happen.

Obesity emerges as risk factor in severe flu

According to Richard Stephens of Keele University, we do it for pain releif. Swearing triggers the amygdala which is responsible for our “Fight or Flight” reflex. One of the effects of the “Fight or Flight” reflex is a lessening of our sensitivity to pain. Don’t swear too oftten though, because when swear words become commonly used by the subject, they loose thir ability to stimulate the amygdala. That ^%^&*^*& sucks.

Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief

My favorite is #6 “Emergency Radio”

“An earthquake takes out the power. You get stuck in traffic afer hearing an explosion. Your building is evacuated and you don’t know why. We can think of a million reasons to have an emergency radio handy. For $0.99, you can have the emergency frequencies of almost all the major police and emergency departments in the U.S., as well as air traffic control.”

The only problem is that when an emergency situation happens, the cell phone network is probably going down…hard. One of the lessons learned by law enforcement during the recent terrorist events in Mumbai is that you need to cut off the terrorist’s command and control structure. In Mumbai that was cell phones.

In another recent disaster, when the 35W bridge in Minneapolis MN collapsed, there were thousands of people sitting in the Metrodome less than a mile away. Most had cell phones. The sheer call volume overwhelmed the cell phone network that day. It made it difficult for first responders and any equipment that relied on the cell phone network.

But at least you might be able to hear what’s going on, if you’re lucky. That’s better than nothing. Personally, I have a 2M VHF transceiver in my car. If I can get to my car, I’m good. The radio allows me to contact a myriad of people within a 100 mile radius using a decentralized repeater network. If the repeater is down the simplex range is about 30 miles.

7 iPhone Apps That Can Save Lives

I especially like number six:

How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position?

Overcome objections and close the sale.  After all, a job interview is probably the one time we all will be in sales.

Seven Great Questions to Ask at a Job Interview

Put those baby pictures in your wallet!  According to Richard Wiseman people will return a wallet 88% of the time if it has a baby picture in it.

The baby photograph wallets had the highest return rate, with 88 per cent of the 40 being sent back. Next came the puppy, the family and the elderly couple, with 53 per cent, 48 and 28 respectively. At 20 per cent and 15, the charity card and control wallets had the lowest return rates.

You might want to leave the charity card at home.

I cringe whenever I have to look at a relative’s computer. Despite my best attempts at education, they are usually so full of malware that the only prudent course of action is to wipe them out and start over.  Invariably in three to six months, the machines are infected with a new crop of malware. I affectionately refer to it as “The Malware Cycle.”

In the upcoming years, the “Malware Cycle” is going to become critical to our nation’s cyber-defense. We as “Computer Security” professionals have figure out ways to keep Grandma’s computer malware free. Grandma’s computer is where the next generation of cyber-warfare is going to take place. Currently gianormous botnets exist.  According to the Conficker Working Group, the conficker worm has infected over 35 MILLION unique IP addresses.  Since I’m in a charitable mood today, let’s assume that 75% of the infections have been cleaned up. That leaves us with a botnet comprising of  8,750,000 computers, most of which are sitting on a cablemodem or DSL line. That’s an incredible amount of unused bandwith that can be harvested for nefarious purposes.

Most news reports attribute the control of these botnets to faceless hackers or Russian mafiosos. Ladies and Gentlemen, girls and boys watch and be amazed, you are witnessing the dawn of the state sponsored botnet. In recent news reports, North Korea is being accused of launching a massive DDOS attack on many U.S. government web sites. The estimate is that this botnet  consists 0f 50,000 computers.  Your guess is as good as mine what will happen when a rogue state obtains control of a 1,000,000+ computer botnet. When (not if) they do, it will be spectacular.

So, go be a good grandchild, have dinner at Grandma’s and clean up her computer… Again.

Well, it looks like I’ll be attending DEFCON and Black Hat this year. I’ll be tweeting from inside of the various talks. I’m planning on posting a “Schwag Report,” so make it good vendors, Daddy needs some new t-shirts!

Looks like it’ll be more durable than the plastic tray that comes with the phone.

Stainless Steel Sim Card Tray Holder for iPhone 3G