Cyber-Thieves ‘Target Christmas Shoppers’

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Cyber-thieves are preparing malware and spam campaigns in a bid to catch out retailers and shoppers during the run-up to Christmas, experts say.

One gang had updated the sophisticated malware it used to target tills in stores, security company iSight said.

There had also been an increase in spam and phishing emails crafted to catch out people seeking bargains.

And some crime groups had made fake copies of popular shopping apps in a bid to steal payment-card data.

The warnings are being given just prior to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which bracket the weekend following the US Thanksgiving holiday, when many online and offline stores offer special deals. (Read more from “Cyber-Thieves ‘Target Christmas Shoppers'” HERE)

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China ‘Cloning Factory’ to Produce Cattle, Racehorses and Pets

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The world’s biggest animal “cloning factory” is due to open in China, producing one million calves a year, sniffer dogs and even genetic copies of the family pet.

The £21 million “commercial” facility will edge the controversial science “closer to mainstream acceptance”, Chinese media said, following the development of a technique which began when Dolly the sheep became the first cloned mammal when she was born in Scotland in 1996.

The centre may cause alarm in Europe, where the cloning of animals for farming was banned in September due to animal welfare considerations.

But Xu Xiaochun, chairman of Chinese biotechnology company BoyaLife that is backing the facility, dismissed such concerns . . .

“Legislation is always behind science. But in the area of cloning, I think we are going the wrong way and starting to kill the technology.” (Read more from “China ‘Cloning Factory’ to Produce Cattle, Racehorses and Pets” HERE)

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Study: Rude Behavior Spreads Like a Disease

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Flu season is nearly upon us, and in an effort to limit contagion and spare ourselves misery, many of us will get vaccinated. The work of Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis has helped restrict the spread of the nasty bug for generations, and the influenza vaccine is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives. But before the vaccine could be developed, scientists first had to identify the cause of influenza — and, importantly, recognize that it was contagious.

New research by Trevor Foulk, Andrew Woolum, and Amir Erez at the University of Florida takes that same first step in identifying a different kind of contagious menace: rudeness. In a series of studies, Foulk and colleagues demonstrate that being the target of rude behavior, or even simply witnessing rude behavior, induces rudeness. People exposed to rude behavior tend to have concepts associated with rudeness activated in their minds, and consequently may interpret ambiguous but benign behaviors as rude. More significantly, they themselves are more likely to behave rudely toward others, and to evoke hostility, negative affect, and even revenge from others.

The finding that negative behavior can beget negative behavior is not exactly new, as researchers demonstrated decades ago that individuals learn vicariously and will repeat destructive actions. In the now infamous Bobo doll experiment, for example, children who watched an adult strike a Bobo doll with a mallet or yell at it were themselves abusive toward the doll. Similarly, supervisors who believe they are mistreated by managers tend to pass on this mistreatment to their employees.

Previous work on the negative contagion effect, however, has focused primarily on high-intensity behaviors like hitting or abusive supervision that are (thankfully) relatively infrequent in everyday life. In addition, in most previous studies the destructive behavior was modeled by someone with a higher status than the observer. These extreme negative behaviors may thus get repeated because (a) they are quite salient and (b) the observer is consciously and intentionally trying to emulate the behavior of someone with an elevated social status. (Read more from “Study: Rude Behavior Spreads Like a Disease” HERE)

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Study: People Unlikely to Change Their Mind, Even When Facts Contradict Their Views

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A fresh study has confirmed that people are reluctant to change their minds and adapt their views, even when new information has been presented. This holds true even if they stand to lose money.

The research from the University of Iowa is based on previous studies indicating that people are particularly likely to stick to their original viewpoint when they’ve had to write their beliefs down– a phenomenon known as the ‘explanation effect’, which also affects future actions.

In the study, Tom Gruca, a professor of marketing at the Tippie College of Business, tried to find evidence of something called ‘confirmation bias’ – the tendency to give preference to existing information or beliefs, rather than considering alternative possibilities. He says equity analysts working on financial markets are particularly prone to this bias, with those who issue written forecasts being especially vulnerable to falling into the trap, despite having access to new data to influence them . . .

The study took place over a 10-year period, between 1998 and 2008, and focused on the Iowa Electronic Markets, an online futures market at the college, where payoffs are contingent upon real life events. In that time frame, Gruca had the students analyze the movie market. The students had to predict four-week opening box office totals for 18 movies, while also buying and selling contracts with real money.

It was discovered that, despite the initial box office figures giving a good indication of potential success, the student traders ignored the stocks and stuck to their original predictions. As a result, nobody was buying or selling – confirmation bias prevented the prices from becoming unstable. (Read more from “Study: People Unlikely to Change Their Mind, Even When Facts Contradict Their Views” HERE)

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At Least 12 People Overdose on Synthetic Marijuana in San Diego

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At least a dozen people became sick in San Diego Sunday after they apparently ingested a batch of synthetic marijuana, also known as “spice”, police said.

San Diego Fire Rescue Capt. Joe Amador told Fox 5 that the victims were mainly young people, including a 13-year-old. Amador said it was not immediately clear whether the victims took the drug voluntarily.

The station reported that the victims experienced symptoms varying from a bloody nose to seizures. Medical officers responded to multiple calls reporting sick patients in at least three locations in downtown San Diego . . .

San Diego police said the drug was being sold in black packages with blue dragons on the side. A police spokesman told the San Diego Union-Tribune that officers were trying to track down victims and witnesses, and were also warning the public about the overdoses in case others had purchased the drug in the downtown area. (Read more from “At Least 12 People Overdose on Synthetic Marijuana in San Diego” HERE)

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Captagon: The Amphetamine Fueling Syria’s Civil War

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As Syria sinks ever deeper into civil war, evidence is starting to emerge that a brutal and bloody conflict that has left more than 100,000 people dead and displaced as many as two million is now also being fuelled by both the export and consumption of rapidly increasing quantities of illegal drugs.

Separate investigations by the news agency Reuters and Time magazine have found that the growing trade in Syrian-made Captagon – an amphetamine widely consumed in the Middle East but almost unknown elsewhere – generated revenues of millions of dollars inside the country last year, some of which was almost certainly used to fund weapons, while combatants on both sides are reportedly turning to the stimulant to help them keep fighting.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Syria has long been a transit point for drugs coming from Europe, Turkey and Lebanon and destined for the wealthy Gulf states. But the breakdown of law and order, collapse of the country’s infrastructure and proliferation of armed groups have now turned it into a major producer, Reuters says. Production in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley – a traditional centre for the drug – fell 90% last year from 2011, with the decline largely attributed to production inside Syria.

Neither investigation found conclusive evidence that the warring sides were using profits from the drug directly to buy weapons, but both quoted experts and officials as saying this was highly likely. A former US Treasury official, Matthew Levitt, pointed out that the Iranian-funded, Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which is robustly backing Syria’s Assad regime, “has a long history of dabbling in the drug trade to help with funding”. (Read more from “Captagon: The Amphetamine Fueling Syria’s Civil War” HERE)

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Mcdonald’s Sued After Costumers Exposed to Disease

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A customer sued the operator of a McDonald’s restaurant in Waterloo, New York, on Wednesday after diners were exposed to food and drinks prepared by a worker with hepatitis A, the virus that causes contagious liver infections.

The lawsuit was filed in New York state court in Seneca County against Jascor Inc. It seeks class-action status for potentially affected customers, who plaintiffs said could number more than 1,000.

Representatives from Jascor could not immediately be reached for comment. Most McDonald’s restaurants are operated by franchisees rather than McDonald’s Corp . . .

Public health officials said diners had a low risk of contracting the illness, but urged those who had consumed food and/or drinks from the restaurant on Nov. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 to consider treatments if they were not previously vaccinated against hepatitis A.

Christopher Welch, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, purchased and consumed products from the restaurant on at least one day when the infected worker was on duty, according to the lawsuit. (Read more from “Mcdonald’s Sued After Costumers Exposed to Disease” HERE)

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Secret Pagan Basilica in Rome Emerges From the Shadows After 2,000 Years

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A mysterious Roman basilica built for the worship of an esoteric pagan cult and now lying hidden more than 40ft below street level has opened to the public for the first time.

The basilica, the only one of its kind in the world, was excavated from solid tufa volcanic rock on the outskirts of the imperial capital in the first century AD.

Lavishly decorated with stucco reliefs of gods, goddesses, panthers, winged cherubs and pygmies, it was discovered by accident in 1917 during the construction of a railway line from Rome to Cassino, a town to the south. An underground passageway caved in, revealing the entrance to the hidden chamber . . .

The subterranean basilica, which predates Christianity, was built by a rich Roman family who were devotees of a little-known cult called Neopythagoreanism.

Originating in the first century BC, it was a school of mystical Hellenistic philosophy that preached asceticism and was based on the writings of Pythagoras and Plato. (Read more from “Secret Pagan Basilica in Rome Emerges From the Shadows After 2,000 Years” HERE)

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Hospitals Turning to ‘Last-Resort’ Antibiotics as Drug-Resistant Infections Continue to Rise

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Hospitals are increasingly turning to “last-resort” antibiotics as the number of drug-resistant infections continues to rise.

More people suffered a “significant antibiotic-resistant infection” – both in hospitals and the community – between 2010 and 2014, a new report from Public Health England (PHE) shows.

Rates of bloodstream infections caused by E. coli jumped 15.6 per cent and Klebsiella pneumoniae increased by 20.8 per cent from 2010 to 2014.

E. coli can cause severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea that may be bloody, and in serious cases can lead to kidney failure and death. Klebsiella pneumoniae causes urinary-tract infections and pneumonia but can also lead to blood poisoning.

While overall resistance to key antibiotics used to treat infections has remained constant in E. coli, the fact there are more bloodstream infections means more people have suffered a significant antibiotic-resistant infection. (Read more from “Hospitals Turning to ‘Last-Resort’ Antibiotics as Drug-Resistant Infections Continue to Rise” HERE)

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The First Genetically Modified Humans Could Exist Within…

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Humans who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within two years after a private biotech company announced plans to start the first trials into a ground-breaking new technique.

Editas Medicine, which is based in the US, said it plans to become the first lab in the world to ‘genetically edit’ the DNA of patients suffering from a genetic condition – in this case the blinding disorder ‘leber congenital amaurosis’.

The disorder prevents normal function of the retina; the light-sensitive layer of cells at the back of the eye. It appears at birth or in the first months of life and eventually sufferers can go completely blind.

The rare inherited disease is caused by defects in a gene which instructs the creation of a protein that is essential to vision.

But scientists at Editas Medicine in the US believe they can fix the mutated DNA using the ground-breaking gene-editing technology Crispr. (Read more from “The First Genetically Modified Humans Could Exist Within…” HERE)

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