February 1, 2007

Did You Know?

  • No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
  • The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum.
  • Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God.

  • A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

  • Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

  • The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges.

  • Fingerprints of koala bears are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans

  • Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

  • Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese".

  • As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates
  • Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts.
  • The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.
  • Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.
  • The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes.
  • Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history.
  • Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.
  • Up to 25% of hospital keyboards carry the MRSA infection.
  • Sex workers (Prostitutes) in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
  • As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet.
  • More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.
  • The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.
  • Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.
  • Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five liters of cooking oil a year.
  • Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.
  • For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. (As of 2006)
  • Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children
  • Forty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study.
  • The more panels a football has - and therefore the more seams - the easier it is to control in the air.
  • Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.
  • The egg came first.
  • Modern teenagers are better behaved than their counterparts of 20 years ago, showing "less problematic behavior" involving sex, drugs and drink.
  • Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based.
  • In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.
  • The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle.
  • Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk.
  • Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.
  • The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006.
  • The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.
  • The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.
  • A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species.
  • The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer.
  • All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

  • The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.

  • Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

  • The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.

  • The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.

  • The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

  • The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

  • Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (Makes you think about ambidextrous people)

  • Its impossible to smoke oneself to death with weed. You won\'t be able to retain enough motor control and consciousness to do so after such a large amount.

  • Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms.

  • The US national anthem actually has three verses, but everyone just knows the first one.

  • During World War II, IBM built the computers the Nazis used to manage their death/concentration camps.

  • The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population.

  • The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ.

  • Just about 3 people are born every second, and about 1.3333 people die every second. The result is about a 2 and 2/3 net increase of people every second. Almost 10 people more live on this Earth now, than before you finished reading this.

  • Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted.

  • The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the people that have died. Ever.

  • The average American consumes 1.2 pounds of spider eggs a year and eat 2.5 pounds of insect parts a year.

  • Men can breastfeed babies

  • There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of.

  • Scientists have determined that fungi are more closely related to human beings and animals than to other plants.

  • In some (maybe all) Asian countries, the family name is written
    first and the individual name written second

  • Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860

  • A German World War II submarine was sunk due to malfunction of the toilet.

  • Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States.Long Beach, WA

  • The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter.

  • The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula"

  • 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.This isn't true; Joseph Swan did.

  • Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

  • The Population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas.

  • Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.

  • Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

  • Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is not considered an insult! Despite the expensive food, tipping is welcome as in any other country.

  • Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine.

  • The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds.

  • The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds.

  • Pinocchio was made of pine.

  • Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.

  • A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.

  • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

  • Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.

  • The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

  • Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.

  • New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.

  • There was once a town in West Virginia called "6."

  • The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.

  • Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox.

  • Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

  • The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll.

  • Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.

  • There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.

  • The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.

  • "Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.

  • On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.

  • Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.

  • 2,500 lefties die each year using products designed for rightists.

  • Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.

  • On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

  • Blue and white are the most common school colors.

  • Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.

  • In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.

  • A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.

  • America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla.

  • Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.

  • Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.

  • The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.

  • The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.

  • The doorbell was invented in 1831.

  • The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.

  • Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.

  • There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.

  • Napoleon was terrified of cats.

  • The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.

  • The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.

  • The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.

  • The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

  • Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.

  • The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.

  • The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.

  • France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.

  • The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback."

  • The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.

  • George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.

  • Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.

  • The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.

  • Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.

  • The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.

  • The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.

  • The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.

  • Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939.

  • Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated.

  • The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used.

  • Toilet paper was invented in 1857.

  • Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States.

  • Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church.

  • If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

  • Kermit the Frog is left-handed.

  • Nondairy creamer is flammable.

  • The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.

  • If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.

  • The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

  • It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0.

  • The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.

  • The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

  • Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

  • When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

  • Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.

  • When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio.

  • The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.

  • The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.

  • The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h.

  • At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.

  • The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours.

  • The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse.

  • You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals.

  • Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names.

  • In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung.

  • By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing.

  • The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.

  • More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%).

  • Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl.

  • A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours.

  • Whales die if their echo system fails.

  • Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually.

  • Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps.

  • It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar.

  • Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night.

  • Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle.

  • In deep space most lubricants will disappear.

  • America once issued a 5-cent bill.

  • The average person can live 11 days without water.

  • In 1221 Genghis Khan killed 1,748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour.

  • There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.

  • In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000.

  • More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.

  • It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States.

  • King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats.

  • Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers.

  • Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand.

  • The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956.

  • More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States.

  • The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.

  • The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres.

  • There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.

  • During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax.

  • The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

  • Coca-Cola was originally green.

  • Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury.

  • The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawai'ian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina).

  • Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

  • The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.

  • City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.

  • State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.

  • Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%.

  • Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7.

  • Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%.

  • Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%.

  • Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400.

  • Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

  • Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

  • The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage."

  • The youngest Pope was 11 years old.

  • Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

  • First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer."

  • A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (This was challenged and proved wrong by the TV show "Mythbusters")

  • The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

  • Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar.

  • If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

  • Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

  • The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

  • The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

  • The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

  • The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service.

  • Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg

  • The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles

  • Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem

  • Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated

  • Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there

  • The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep
    Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836.

  • It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush!

  • In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose

  • It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process.

  • The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of b lood pumped per heartbeat.

  • Dry cereal for breakfast was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the turn of the century

  • During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks, one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back

  • Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832,left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years.

  • Diet Coke was only invented in 1982.

  • Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud.
    There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.

  • The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.

  • Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.

  • At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

  • Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food

  • One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.

  • In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters.

  • There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

  • If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.

  • Less than 3% of NestlĂ©'s sales are for chocolate.

  • The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change

  • More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products

  • It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk

  • The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph

  • Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death.

  • The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth

  • The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X

  • Nova Scotia is Latin for 'New Scotland.'

  • The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol. It's from England.

  • The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.

  • Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word 'gadzooks'.

  • Only 2 blue moons (the saying 'only once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one calendar month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are January 1999 and March 1999

  • "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed

  • Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when al original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters
    In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'

<>


From the book "Polish Your Furniture with Panty Hose" by Joey Green.
Copyright 1995. Reprinted with permission.
For more alternative uses for products, visit www.wackyuses.com

I highly recommend visiting his Joey's site :-)

BOUNCE...the stuff you use in your dryer:

  • IT............. Repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

  • Eliminates static electricity from your television screen.

  • Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television screen with a used sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.

  • Dissolves soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a used sheet of Bounce.

  • Freshens the air in your home. Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer or hang one in the closet.

  • Prevents thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a sheet of Bounce to eliminate the static cling on the thread before sewing.

  • Eliminates static cling from pantyhose. Rub a damp, used sheet of Bounce over the hose.

  • Prevents musty suitcases. Place an individual sheet of Bounce inside empty luggage before storing.

  • Freshens the air in your car. Place a sheet of Bounce under the front sea

  • Cleans baked-on food from a cooking pan. Put a sheet in the pan, fill with water, let sit overnight and sponge clean. The anti-static agents apparently weaken the bond between the food and the pan while the fabric softening agents soften the baked-on food.

  • Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of the wastebasket. Collects cat hair. Rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.

  • Wipe the blinds with a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling.

  • Wipes up sawdust from drilling or sandpapering. A used sheet of Bounce will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.

  • Eliminates odors in dirty laundry. Place an individual sheet of Bounce at the bottom of a laundry bag or hamper

  • Deodorizes shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or sneakers overnight so they'll smell great in the morning.

COCA COLA

  • Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl, Let the "real thing"sit for one hour, then flush clean

  • The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

  • To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca Cola.

  • To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

  • To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

  • To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

  • It will also clean road haze from your windshield.


  • Lincoln and Kennedy

Here's a little part of US history which makes you go h-m-m-m:
Have a history teacher explain this if they can?

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners.
Both successors were named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born! ! in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Kennedy.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln.'
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.


Interesting Fact about the Pope John Paul II death

Pope was living 85 years - sum of those numbers = 13

Pope died on 2.04.2005 - sum of those numbers = 13

Pope died at 21.37 - again - sum is equal.... 13

13...that's Maria's number - only that time Holy Mother was showing herself to 3 children in Fatima

on 13th May 1981 - Pope was wounded and that time was saved by Holy Mother

on 13th Pope went to the hospital for the first time

on 13th died the last child of three from Fatima to whom Holy Mother showed up

Pope died on 02.04.2005 at 21.37.. add all those numbers....

2+4+2+5 = 13

2+1+3+7 = 13

13+13=26

26 years of pontificate......

Coincidence? or it had to be like this?

in the end......he died in 13th week of the year...and when you multiply the time of his death 21 x 37...you will have 777

Pope was living exactly 31 thousands days...if you reverse

figures...you will get again 13!!!


World Cup

Brazil last won the world cup in 1994. Before that they won it in 1970. Add 1970 and 1994, it equals 3964.

Germany last won in 1990. Before that they won in 1974. Add 1990 and 1974, it equals 3964.

Argentina last won the world cup in 1986. Before that they won it in 1978. Add 1978 and 1986, it equals 3964.

So going by this logic, The winner of the 2002 world cup is the same as the 3964 - 2002 = 1962 world cup. The 1962 world cup was won by Brazil. It was really Brazil who won!!!


Importance of Drinking Enough Water

  1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

  2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is
    often mistaken for hunger.

  3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

  4. One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

  5. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

  6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

  7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.

  8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.


Here is a list of what I thought very funny. I left it in the form that I received it.

  • If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.(Hardly seems worth it.)

  • If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!)

  • The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body
    to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)

  • A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.)

  • A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)

  • Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Do not try this at home...... maybe at work.)

  • The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. ("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")

    • A mantis breeder has assured me that you preying mantis can copulate with the male's head still attached, even several times.

  • The flea can jump 350 times its body length. For a human, that would be equivalent to jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes...lucky pig... can you imagine??)

  • The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)

  • Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)

  • Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)

  • The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm........won't go there.)

  • Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

  • Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (OK, so that would be a good thing....)

  • A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder who was paid to figure that out.)

  • An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.)

  • Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that too.)

  • Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer.)

  • Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig??)


• Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.
• The 'You are here' arrow on a map is called the IDEO locator.
• MTV first aired at 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981. The first video was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Bugles.
• There are more than 1,00 chemicals in a cup of coffee.
• There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous':tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous .
• The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth

• At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
• Pearls melt in vinegar.
• A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.
• Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating.
• There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history.
• Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
• Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.
• Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.
• The cockroach has a high resistance to radiation and is the creature most likely to survive a nuclear war.
• In the southern hemisphere, water always swirl anti-clockwise down into a pipe.
• About 8 million blood cells die in the human body every second, and the same number are born each second.
• Eighteen per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions are from cars.
• Every year, the Moon moves a further 3.82cm from the Earth.
• It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
• 35 meters of hair fiber is produced every day on the average adult scalp.
• Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body, second only to bone marrow.
• Dolphins don't automatically breath; they have to tell themselves to do it.

•The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol, which is a term used in England.
• The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
• Onions get their distinctive smell by soaking up sulfur from the
soil.
• Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered as a propagator of violence-he invented dynamite.
• Whoopi Goldberg was a mortuary cosmetologist and a bricklayer before becoming an actress.
• Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries.
• Charlie Chaplin won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
• Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time. Another story states that: Mickey mouse was not named after Mickey Rooney he was made on a train ride from New York after Walt found out he didn't actually own Oswald the lucky rabbit. The mouse Walt drew was originally named Mortimor But his wife Lilly didn't like that name so she suggested Mickey and the name stuck.

• Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he didn't wear pants.
• From 1942 until the end of World War II, Oscars were made out of plaster to conserve metal. After the war, the winners received "real" replacement statues.

• The only Oscar statuette ever made of wood was presented to Edgar Bergen in 1938 for his "outstanding comic creation," his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.

• A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet.
• Pamela Lee-Anderson is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.
• Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.

Know About Spyware

Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term, coined in 1995 but not widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware (software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer respectively).

Personal information is secretly recorded with a variety of techniques, including logging keystrokes, recording Internet web browsing history, and scanning documents on the computer's hard disk. Purposes range from overtly criminal (theft of passwords and financial details) to the merely annoying (recording Internet search history for targeted advertising, while consuming computer resources). Spyware may collect different types of information. Some variants attempt to track the websites a user visits and then send this information to an advertising agency. More malicious variants attempt to intercept passwords or credit card numbers as a user enters them into a web form or other applications.

The spread of spyware has led to the development of an entire anti-spyware industry. Its products remove or disable existing spyware on the computers they are installed on and prevent its installation. However, a number of companies have incorporated forms of spyware into their products. These programs are not considered malware, but are still spyware as they watch and observe for advertising purposes. It is debatable whether such 'legitimate' uses of adware/spyware are malware since the user often has no knowledge of these 'legitimate' programs being installed on his/her computer and is generally unaware that these programs are infringing on his/her privacy. In any case, these programs still use the resources of the host computer without permission.


History and development

The first recorded use of the term spyware occurred on October 16, 1995 in a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft's business model.[1] Spyware at first denoted hardware meant for espionage purposes. However, in early 2000 the founder of Zone Labs, Gregor Freund, used the term in a press release for the ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall.[2] Since then, "spyware" has taken on its present sense.

In early 2001, Steve Gibson of Gibson Research realized that advertising software had been installed on his system, and suspected it was stealing his personal information. After analysis, he determined that it was adware from the companies Aureate (later Radiate) and Conducent. Gibson developed and released the first anti-spyware program, OptOut. Many more have appeared since then.[2]

According to a November 2004 study by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 80% of surveyed users' computers had some form of spyware, with an average of 93 spyware components per computer (such counts usually include 'cookies' which report back to a website, but are not software as such). 89% of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 95% reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware.[3]

As of 2006, spyware has become one of the preeminent security threats to computer systems running Microsoft Windows operating systems. In an estimate based on customer-sent scan logs, Webroot Software, makers of Spy Sweeper, said that 9 out of 10 computers connected to the Internet are infected.[4] Computers where Internet Explorer (IE) is the primary browser are particularly vulnerable to such attacks not only because IE is the most widely-used[5] but because its tight integration with Windows allows spyware access to crucial parts of the operating system.[6]

Comparison

Spyware, adware and tracking

The term adware frequently refers to any software which displays advertisements, whether or not the user has consented. Programs such as the Eudora mail client display advertisements as an alternative to shareware registration fees. These classify as "adware" in the sense of advertising-supported software, but not as spyware. Adware in this form does not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user, and provides the user with a specific service.

Most spyware is adware in a different sense: it displays advertising. Claria Corporation's Gator Software and Exact Advertising's BargainBuddy are examples. Visited Web sites frequently install Gator on client machines in a surreptitious manner, and it directs revenue to the installing site and to Claria by displaying advertisements to the user. The user receives many pop-up advertisements.

Other spyware behavior, such as reporting on websites the user visits, occurs in the background. The data is used for "targeted" advertisement impressions. The prevalence of spyware has cast suspicion upon other programs that track Web browsing, even for statistical or research purposes. Some observers describe the Alexa Toolbar, an Internet Explorer plug-in published by Amazon.com, as spyware (and some anti-spyware programs report it as such).[citation needed] Many users, however, choose to install it.[citation needed]

Similarly, software bundled with free, advertising-supported programs such as P2P act as spyware, (and if removed disable the 'parent' program) yet people are willing to download it. This presents a dilemma for proprietors of anti-spyware products whose removal tools may inadvertently disable wanted programs. These recent test results show how a bundled software (WhenUSave) is ignored by popular anti spyware program AdAware, (but removed as spyware by most scanners) because it is part of the popular (but recently decommissioned) Edonkey client.

Spyware, virus and worm

Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware — by design — exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.

Routes of infection

Spyware does not directly spread in the manner of a computer virus or worm: generally, an infected system does not attempt to transmit the infection to other computers. Instead, spyware gets on a system through deception of the user or through exploitation of software vulnerabilities.

Most spyware is installed without users being aware. Since they tend not to install software if they know that it will disrupt their working environment and compromise their privacy, spyware deceives users, either by piggybacking on a piece of desirable software such as Kazaa, or tricking them into installing it (the Trojan horse method). Some "rogue" anti-spyware programs even masquerade as security software.

The distributor of spyware usually presents the program as a useful utility — for instance as a "Web accelerator" or as a helpful software agent. Users download and install the software without immediately suspecting that it could cause harm. For example, Bonzi Buddy, a spyware program targeted at children, claims that:

He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you've ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he's FREE![7]

Spyware can also come bundled with shareware or other downloadable software, as well as music CDs. The user downloads a program and installs it, and the installer additionally installs the spyware. Although the desirable software itself may do no harm, the bundled spyware does. In some cases, spyware authors have paid shareware authors to bundle spyware with their software. In other cases, spyware authors have repackaged desirable free software with installers that add spyware.

A third way of distributing spyware involves tricking users by manipulating security features designed to prevent unwanted installations. Internet Explorer prevents websites from initiating an unwanted download. Instead, it requires a user action, such as clicking on a link. However, links can prove deceptive: for instance, a pop-up ad may appear like a standard Windows dialog box. The box contains a message such as "Would you like to optimize your Internet access?" with links which look like buttons reading Yes and No. No matter which "button" the user presses, a download starts, placing the spyware on the user's system. Later versions of Internet Explorer offer fewer avenues for this attack.

Some spyware authors infect a system through security holes in the Web browser or in other software. When the user navigates to a Web page controlled by the spyware author, the page contains code which attacks the browser and forces the download and installation of spyware. The spyware author would also have some extensive knowledge of commercially-available anti-virus and firewall software. This has become known as a "drive-by download", which leaves the user a hapless bystander to the attack. Common browser exploits target security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and in the Microsoft Java runtime.

The installation of spyware frequently involves Internet Explorer. Its popularity and history of security issues have made it the most frequent target. Its deep integration with the Windows environment and scriptability make it an obvious point of attack into Windows. Internet Explorer also serves as a point of attachment for spyware in the form of Browser Helper Objects, which modify the browser's behaviour to add toolbars or to redirect traffic.

In a few cases, a worm or virus has delivered a spyware payload. Some attackers used the Spybot worm to install spyware that put pornographic pop-ups on the infected system's screen.[8] By directing traffic to ads set up to channel funds to the spyware authors, they profit personally.

Effects and behaviors

A spyware program is rarely alone on a computer: an affected machine can rapidly be infected by many other components. Users frequently notice unwanted behavior and degradation of system performance. A spyware infestation can create significant unwanted CPU activity, disk usage, and network traffic, all of which slow the computer down. Stability issues, such as application or system-wide crashes, are also common. Spyware which interferes with networking software commonly causes difficulty connecting to the Internet.

In some infections, the spyware is not even evident. Users assume in those situations that the issues relate to hardware, to Windows installation problems, or a virus. Some owners of badly infected systems resort to contacting technical support experts, or even buying a new computer because the existing system "has become too slow". Badly infected systems may require a clean reinstall of all their software in order to return to full functionality.

Only rarely does a single piece of software render a computer unusable. Rather, a computer will likely have multiple infections. As the 2004 AOL study noted, if a computer has any spyware at all, it typically has dozens of different pieces installed. The cumulative effect, and the interactions between spyware components, cause the symptoms commonly reported by users: a computer which slows to a crawl, overwhelmed by the many parasitic processes running on it. Moreover, some types of spyware disable software firewalls and anti-virus software, and/or reduce browser security settings, thus opening the system to further opportunistic infections, much like an immune deficiency disease. Some spyware has disabled or even removed competing spyware programs, on the grounds that more spyware-related annoyances make it even more likely that users will take action to remove the programs. One spyware maker, Avenue Media, even sued a competitor, Direct Revenue, over this; the two later settled with an agreement not to disable each others' products.[9]

Some other types of spyware (Targetsoft, for example) modify system files so they will be harder to remove. Targetsoft modifies the "Winsock" Windows Sockets files. The deletion of the spyware-infected file "inetadpt.dll" will interrupt normal networking usage. Unlike users of many other operating systems, a typical Windows user has administrative privileges, mostly for convenience. Because of this, any program the user runs (intentionally or not) has unrestricted access to the system. Spyware, along with other threats, has led some Windows users to move to other platforms such as Linux or Apple Macintosh, which are less attractive targets for malware. This is because these programs are not granted unrestricted access to the operating system (due to the Unix underpinnings upon which both Linux and Mac OS X are built) though some allege it's partly due to the far smaller number of machines installed with these operating systems making spyware development potentially less profitable for these platforms.[citation needed]

Advertisements

Many spyware programs display advertisements. Some programs simply display pop-up ads on a regular basis; for instance, one every several minutes, or one when the user opens a new browser window. Others display ads in response to specific sites that the user visits. Spyware operators present this feature as desirable to advertisers, who may buy ad placement in pop-ups displayed when the user visits a particular site. It is also one of the purposes for which spyware programs gather information on user behavior. Pop-ups are one of users' most common complaints about spyware.[citation needed]

Many users complain about irritating or offensive advertisements as well. As with many banner ads, many spyware advertisements use animation or flickering banners which can be visually distracting and annoying to users. Pop-up ads for pornography often display indiscriminately. When children are the users, this could possibly violate anti-pornography laws in some jurisdictions.

A further issue in the case of some spyware programs has to do with the replacement of banner ads on viewed web sites. Spyware that acts as a web proxy or a Browser Helper Object can replace references to a site's own advertisements (which fund the site) with advertisements that instead fund the spyware operator. This cuts into the margins of advertising-funded Web sites.

"Stealware" and affiliate fraud

A few spyware vendors, notably 180 Solutions, have written what the New York Times has dubbed "stealware", and what spyware-researcher Ben Edelman terms affiliate fraud, also known as click fraud. Stealware diverts the payment of affiliate marketing revenues from the legitimate affiliate to the spyware vendor.

Spyware which attacks affiliate networks places the spyware operator's affiliate tag on the user's activity—replacing any other tag, if there is one. The spyware operator is the only party that gains from this. The user has their choices thwarted, a legitimate affiliate loses revenue, Networks' reputations are injured, and vendors are harmed by having to pay out affiliate revenues to an "affiliate" who is not party to a contract.[10]

Affiliate fraud is a violation of the terms of service of most affiliate marketing networks. As a result, spyware operators such as 180 Solutions have been terminated from affiliate networks including LinkShare and ShareSale.[citation needed]

Identity theft and fraud

In one case, spyware has been closely associated with identity theft.[11] In August 2005, researchers from security software firm Sunbelt Software believed that the makers of the common CoolWebSearch spyware had used it to transmit "chat sessions, user names, passwords, bank information, etc.",[12] but it turned out that "it actually (was) its own sophisticated criminal little trojan that's independent of CWS."[13] This case is currently under investigation by the FBI.

That case aside, identity theft remains theoretically possible as keyloggers are routinely packaged with spyware. Information security researcher John Bambenek estimates that identity thieves have stolen over $24 billion US dollars of account information in the United States alone.[14]

Spyware-makers may commit wire fraud with dialer program spyware. These can reset a modem to dial up a premium-rate telephone number instead of the usual ISP. Connecting to these suspicious numbers involves long-distance or overseas charges which invariably result in high charges. Dialers are ineffective on computers that do not have a modem, or are not connected to a telephone line.

Digital rights management

Some copy-protection technologies have borrowed from spyware. In 2005, Sony BMG Music Entertainment was found to be using rootkits in its XCP digital rights management technology [15] Like spyware, not only was it difficult to detect and uninstall, it was so poorly written that most efforts to remove it could have rendered computers unable to function. Texas state attorney general Greg Abbott filed suit,[16] and three separate class-action suits were filed..[17] Sony BMG later provided a workaround on its website to help users remove it.[18]

Beginning April 25, 2006, Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications application[19] install on most Windows PCs as a "critical security update". While the main pupose of this deliberately non-uninstallable application is making sure the copy of Windows on the machine was lawfully purchased and installed, it also installs software that has been accused of "phoning home" on a daily basis, like spyware[20][21]. It can be removed with the RemoveWGA tool.

Spyware and cookies

Anti-spyware programs often report Web advertisers' HTTP cookies, the small text files that track browsing activity, as spyware. While they are not inherently malicious, many users object to third parties using space on their personal computers for their business purposes, and so many anti-spyware programs offer to remove them.

Examples of spyware

These common spyware programs illustrate the diversity of behaviors found in these attacks. Note that as with computer viruses, researchers give names to spyware programs which may not be used by their creators. Programs may be grouped into "families" based not on shared program code, but on common behaviors, or by "following the money" of apparent financial or business connections. For instance, a number of the spyware programs distributed by Claria are collectively known as "Gator". Likewise, programs which are frequently installed together may be described as parts of the same spyware package, even if they function separately.

  • CoolWebSearch, a group of programs, takes advantage of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. The package directs traffic to advertisements on Web sites including coolwebsearch.com. It displays pop-up ads, rewrites search engine results, and alter the infected computer's hosts file to direct DNS lookups to these sites.[22]
  • Internet Optimizer, also known as DyFuCa, redirects Internet Explorer error pages to advertising. When users follow a broken link or enter an erroneous URL, they see a page of advertisements. However, because password-protected Web sites (HTTP Basic authentication) use the same mechanism as HTTP errors, Internet Optimizer makes it impossible for the user to access password-protected sites.[22]
  • 180 Solutions (now Zango) transmits detailed information to advertisers about the Web sites which users visit. It also alters HTTP requests for affiliate advertisements linked from a Web site, so that the advertisements make unearned profit for the 180 Solutions company. It opens pop-up ads that cover over the Web sites of competing companies. [23]
  • HuntBar, aka WinTools or Adware.Websearch, is a small family of spyware programs distributed by TrafficSyndicate. TrafficSyndicate.com is a trademark of IBIS, LLC. It is installed by an ActiveX drive-by download at affiliate Web sites, or by advertisements displayed by other spyware programs — an example of how spyware can install more spyware. These programs add toolbars to IE, track browsing behavior, redirect affiliate references, and display advertisements.[24][25]
  • Movieland, also known as Moviepass.tv or Popcorn.net, is a movie download service that has been the subject of thousands of complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Washington State Attorney General's Office, the Better Business Bureau, and others by consumers claiming they were held hostage by its repeated pop-up windows and demands for payment.[26] The FTC has filed a complaint against Movieland.com and eleven other defendants, charging them with having "engaged in a nationwide scheme to use deception and coercion to extract payments from consumers." The complaint alleges that the software repeatedly opened oversized pop-up windows that could not be closed or minimized, accompanied by music that lasted nearly a minute, demanding payment of at least $29.95 to end the pop-up cycle; and claiming that consumers had signed up for a three-day free trial but did not cancel their membership before the trial period was over, and were thus obligated to pay.[27][28]

Legal issues related to spyware

Criminal law

Unauthorized access to a computer is illegal under computer crime laws, such as the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act and similar laws in other countries. Since the owners of computers infected with spyware generally claim that they never authorized the installation, a prima facie reading would suggest that the promulgation of spyware would count as a criminal act. Law enforcement has often pursued the authors of other malware, particularly viruses. However, few spyware developers have been prosecuted, and many operate openly as strictly legitimate businesses, though some have faced lawsuits. [29][30]

Spyware producers argue that, contrary to the users' claims, users do in fact give consent to installations. Spyware that comes bundled with shareware applications may be described in the legalese text of an end-user license agreement (EULA). Many users habitually ignore these purported contracts, but spyware companies such as Claria claim these demonstrate that users have consented.

Despite the ubiquity of EULAs and of "clickwrap" agreements, under which a single click can be taken as consent to the entire text, relatively little case law has resulted from their use. It has been established in most common law jurisdictions that a clickwrap agreement can be a binding contract in certain circumstances.[31] This does not, however, mean that every such agreement is a contract or that every term in one is enforceable.

Some jurisdictions, including the U.S. states of Iowa [32] and Washington [33], have passed laws criminalizing some forms of spyware. Such laws make it illegal for anyone other than the owner or operator of a computer to install software that alters Web-browser settings, monitors keystrokes, or disables computer-security software.

Civil law

New York State Attorney General and Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has pursued spyware companies for fraudulent installation of software.[34] In a suit brought in 2005 by Spitzer, the California firm Intermix Media, Inc. ended up settling by agreeing to pay US$7.5 million and to stop distributing spyware.[35]

The hijacking of Web advertisements has also led to litigation. In June 2002, a number of large Web publishers sued Claria for replacing advertisements, but settled out of court.

Courts have not yet had to decide whether advertisers can be held liable for spyware which displays their ads. In many cases, the companies whose advertisements appear in spyware pop-ups do not directly do business with the spyware firm. Rather, they have contracted with an advertising agency, which in turn contracts with an online subcontractor who gets paid by the number of "impressions" or appearances of the advertisement. Some major firms such as Dell Computer and Mercedes-Benz have sacked advertising agencies which have run their ads in spyware.[36]

Libel suits by spyware developers

Litigation has gone both ways. Since "spyware" has become a common pejorative, some makers have filed libel and defamation actions when their products have been so described. In 2003, Gator (now known as Claria) filed suit against the website PC Pitstop for describing its program as "spyware".[37] PC Pitstop settled, agreeing not to use the word "spyware", but continues to describe harm caused by the Gator/Claria software. [38] As a result, other antispyware and antivirus companies have also used other terms such as "potentially unwanted programs" or greyware to denote these products.

Remedies and prevention

As the spyware threat has worsened, a number of techniques have emerged to counteract it. These include programs designed to remove or to block spyware, as well as various user practices which reduce the chance of getting spyware on a system.

Nonetheless, spyware remains a costly problem. When a large number of pieces of spyware have infected a Windows computer, the only remedy may involve backing up user data, and fully reinstalling the operating system.

Anti-spyware programs


Report on scan of an infected system from Lavasoft's Ad-Aware

Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products designed to remove or block spyware. Steve Gibson's OptOut, mentioned above, pioneered a growing category. Programs such as Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search & Destroy rapidly gained popularity as effective tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs. More recently Microsoft acquired the GIANT AntiSpyware software, rebranding it as Windows AntiSpyware beta and releasing it as a free download for Windows XP and Windows 2003 users. In early spring, 2006, Microsoft renamed the beta software to Windows Defender, and it was released as a free download in October 2006. Microsoft has also announced that the product will ship (for free) with Windows Vista. Other well-known anti-spyware products include Webroot Spy Sweeper, Trend Micro's Anti-Spyware, PC Tools' Spyware Doctor, and Sunbelt's CounterSpy (which uses a forked codebase from the GIANT Anti-Spyware, now called Microsoft's Windows Defender). Blue Coat Systems released a gateway anti-spyware solution in 2004.

Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec, McAfee and Sophos have come later to the table, adding anti-spyware features to their existing anti-virus products. Early on, anti-virus firms expressed reluctance to add anti-spyware functions, citing lawsuits brought by spyware authors against the authors of web sites and programs which described their products as "spyware". However, recent versions of these major firms' home and business anti-virus products do include anti-spyware functions, albeit treated differently from viruses. Symantec Anti-Virus, for instance, categorizes spyware programs as "extended threats" and now offers real-time protection from them (as it does for viruses). Recently, the anti virus company Grisoft, who make the AVG anti-virus program, acquired anti-spyware firm Ewido Networks, re-labeling their Ewido anti-spyware program as AVG Anti-Spyware. This shows a trend by anti virus companies to launch a dedicated solution to spyware and malware. Zone Labs, who make the Zone Alarm firewall have also released an anti spyware program.


Microsoft Anti-Spyware, in real-time protection blocks an instance of the AlwaysUpdateNews from being installed.

Anti-spyware programs can combat spyware in two ways:

  • Real-time protection, which prevents the installation of spyware;
  • Detection and removal, which removes spyware from an infected computer.

Writers of anti-spyware programs usually find detection and removal simpler, and many more programs have become available which do so. Such programs inspect the contents of the Windows registry, the operating system files, and installed programs, and remove files and entries which match a list of known spyware components. Real-time protection from spyware works identically to real-time anti-virus protection: the software scans incoming network data and disk files at download time, and blocks the activity of components known to represent spyware. In some cases, it may also intercept attempts to install start-up items or to modify browser settings. Because many spyware and adware are installed as a result of browser exploits or user error, using security software (some of which are antispyware, though many are not) to sandbox browsers can also be effective to help restrict any damage done.

Earlier versions of anti-spyware programs focused chiefly on detection and removal. Javacool Software's SpywareBlaster, one of the first to offer real-time protection, blocked the installation of ActiveX-based and other spyware programs. To date, other programs such as Ad-Aware and Windows Defender now combine the two approaches, while SpywareBlaster remains focused on prevention.

Like most anti-virus software, many anti-spyware/adware tools require a frequently-updated database of threats. As new spyware programs are released, anti-spyware developers discover and evaluate them, making "signatures" or "definitions" which allow the software to detect and remove the spyware. As a result, anti-spyware software is of limited usefulness without a regular source of updates. Some vendors provide a subscription-based update service, while others provide updates gratis. Updates may be installed automatically on a schedule or before doing a scan, or may be done manually.

Not all programs rely on updated definitions. Some programs rely partly (for instance many antispyware programs such as Windows Defender, Spybot's TeaTimer and Spysweeper) or fully (programs falling under the class of Hips such as BillP's WinPatrol), on historical observation. They watch certain configuration parameters (such as certain portions of the Windows registry or browser configuration) and report any change to the user, without judgment or recommendation. While they do not rely on updated definitions, which may allow them to spot newer spyware, they can offer no guidance. The user is left to determine "what did I just do, and is this configuration change appropriate?"

Windows Defender's Spynet attempts to alleviate this through offering a community to share information, which helps guide both users, who can look decisions made by others, and analysts, who can spot fast-spreading spyware. A popular generic spyware removal tool used by those with a certain degree of expertise is HijackThis, which scans certain areas of the Windows OS where spyware often resides and presents a list with items to delete manually. As most of the items are legitimate windows files/registry entries it is advised for those who are less knowledgeable on this subject to post a HijackThis log on the numerous antispyware sites and let the experts decide what to delete. Open source anti-spyware programs are also available. One program, wssecure, can detect new processes and change in system files using checksum verification, a technique that can be helpful in detecting spyware that are downloaded automatically due to Windows vulnerabilities.

If a spyware program is not blocked and manages to get itself installed, it may resist attempts to terminate or uninstall it. Some programs work in pairs: when an anti-spyware scanner (or the user) terminates one running process, the other one respawns the killed program. Likewise, some spyware will detect attempts to remove registry keys and immediately add them again. Usually, booting the infected computer in safe mode allows an anti-spyware program a better chance of removing persistent spyware. Killing the process tree can also work.

A new breed of spyware (Look2Me spyware by NicTechNetworks is a good example) is starting to hide inside system-critical processes and start up even in safe mode. With no process to terminate they are harder to detect and remove. Sometimes they do not even leave any on-disk signatures. Rootkit technology is also seeing increasing use,[39] as is the use of NTFS alternate data streams. Newer spyware programs also have specific countermeasures against well known anti-malware products and may prevent them from running or being installed, or even uninstall them. An example of one that uses all three methods is Gromozon, a new breed of malware. It uses alternate data streams to hide. A rootkit hides it even from alternate data streams scanners and actively stops popular rootkit scanners from running.


Malicious websites attempt to install spyware on readers' computers.

[edit] Fake anti-spyware programs

Malicious programmers have released a large number of fake anti-spyware programs, and widely distributed Web banner ads now spuriously warn users that their computers have been infected with spyware, directing them to purchase programs which do not actually remove spyware — or worse, may add more spyware of their own.

The recent proliferation of fake or spoofed antivirus products has occasioned some concern. Such products often bill themselves as antispyware, antivirus, or registry cleaners, and sometimes feature popups prompting users to install them. They are called rogue software.

Known offenders include:

  • errorsafe
  • Pest Trap
  • SpyAxe
  • AntiVirus Gold
  • SpywareStrike
  • Spyware Quake
  • WorldAntiSpy
  • Spy Sheriff
  • Spy Wiper
  • PAL Spyware Remover
  • PSGuard
  • Malware
  • WinAntiVirus Pro 2006
  • WinFixer

On 2006-01-26, Microsoft and the Washington state attorney general filed suit against Secure Computer for its Spyware Cleaner product.[42] On 2006-12-04, the Washington attorney general announced that Secure Computer had paid $1 million to settle with the state. As of that date, Microsoft's case against Secure Computer remained pending.[43]

Security practices

To deter spyware, computer users have found several practices useful in addition to installing anti-spyware programs.

Many system operators install a web browser other than IE, such as Opera or Mozilla Firefox. Although these have also suffered some security vulnerabilities, they are not targeted as much as IE because most users who are likely to fall for spyware are not using them.[citation needed] Though no browser is completely safe, Internet Explorer is at a greater risk for spyware infection due to its large user base as well as vulnerabilities such as ActiveX.

Some ISPs — particularly colleges and universities — have taken a different approach to blocking spyware: they use their network firewalls and web proxies to block access to Web sites known to install spyware. On March 31, 2005, Cornell University's Information Technology department released a report detailing the behavior of one particular piece of proxy-based spyware, Marketscore, and the steps the university took to intercept it.[44] Many other educational institutions have taken similar steps. Spyware programs which redirect network traffic cause greater technical-support problems than programs which merely display ads or monitor users' behavior, and so may more readily attract institutional attention.

Some users install a large hosts file which prevents the user's computer from connecting to known spyware related web addresses. However, by connecting to the numeric IP address, rather than the domain name, spyware may bypass this sort of protection.

Spyware may get installed via certain shareware programs offered for download. Downloading programs only from reputable sources can provide some protection from this source of attack. Recently, CNet revamped its download directory: it has stated that it will only keep files that pass inspection by Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor.