If you have heard of fighting fire with fire, perhaps you won't think it nonsensical that a germ could fight off the AIDS virus – mouth bacteria latching onto the virus and blocking it from tackling other cells, which could stop babies from catching AIDS from their mothers. That's what oral biologist Lin Tao, who led a research team that discovered the prospect, told the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans May 25. "While studies have been done so far only in the laboratory," Tao told the gathering, "we believe this work opens up new possibilities for preventing the transmission of HIV through mothers' milk. Unlike standard retroviral drugs, which are too toxic for newborns, lactobacilli are 'friendly' bacteria already inhabiting the human digestive tract and milk products, and so should pose no danger to infants."…
Unfortunately, child porn continues posing dangers enough, and the latest to get the point seem to be the Nordic countries. Police in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden said they've questioned an estimated 350 people suspected of buying child porn online. They've also seized large numbers of computers, compact discs, and videos, but various reports indicate it isn't clear yet how many will be charged or just how many images were seized. The raids, according to Norway deputy police commissioner Siri Frigaard, targeted people suspected of possessing "material documenting sexual abuse of children." Norwegian police were said to have mounted almost two hundred such raids…
Child porn is bad enough without an actual clown turning up in the mix. This is probably the last thing Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and their millions of fans needed or wanted to know: A 23-year-old clown, Thomas Allen Riccio, has been charged with 10 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor for downloading child porn, part of an international crackdown that turned up a reported 200 leads on the Florida coast. The bitter irony is that Riccio's dream had been to entertain children for a living. He was arrested in North Carolina while the circus was appearing in Fayetteville. The computer in his room on the circus's train was said to have contained two thousand child porn images…
Sometimes the law enforcers become the hunted when it comes to porn of any kind. San Francisco is figuring that one out – the city's CBS affiliate has reported police and sheriff's investigators in the City By The Bay are looking into whether two officers performed in Internet porn recently, after sheriff's deputies reportedly "became aware" May 21 of someone complaining they'd seen a female officer online, while a male officer has been removed from patrol duty pending the probe's outcome…
The outcome of Internet telephony has become a little more interesting now that Lucent Technologies has bought Telica for a reported $295 million, a move which is said to shore up Lucent's Voice-over Internet Protocol technology by filling a gap in Lucent's folio of equipment that can help phone companies offer VoIP. "With market conditions stabilizing, we felt the time was right to make this strategic acquisition to complement our internal development at Bell Labs," said Lucent senior executive for corporate strategy Bill O'Shea…
If the time is right for your need for speed, Cisco Systems has unwrapped its fastest-ever Internet router, the CRS-1. Cisco spent $500 million to develop the new router, according to the New York Times, and it's aimed at helping the company keep the lead in global Internet routing. "The new product comes at a time when telecommunications carriers are beginning to move voice calls from conventional telephone networks onto data networks," the newspaper said. "This presents an expanded opportunity for Cisco, Juniper and other companies that sell equipment used to transmit data on the Internet, though the traditional telephone equipment providers are also seeking to provide such hardware…
On the other side of the Atlantic, Internet One is offering a three-month free trial of what the company calls its first integrated, zero deployment communication package to Internet service providers and individuals alike, letting them use Internet telephony and regular-access telephony with the latest VoIP and instant messaging technologies. InOne.net members can offer a wide range of value-added services to their customers, the company said, and under their own brands, without installing one piece of soft or hardware…
Speaking of soft and hard, Microsoft is going hard against one Linux stronghold – they're said to be developing a version of Windows for high-performance computing. "High-performance computing once required massive, expensive, exotic machines from companies such as Cray," said CNET News, "but the field is being remade by the arrival of clusters of low-end machines. While the trend could be considered an opportunity for Microsoft, which has long been the leading operating-system company, Linux has actually become the favored software used on these clusters." Microsoft's answer: forming a high-performance computing team and planning Windows Server HPC…
And, speaking of high performance, some might wonder who was high here: a German woman auctioning on eBay a voodoo doll – of her husband, because he razzed her driving. Known as Careless Farmer, the husband reportedly needled his wife while trying to auction an Audi 100 he claims she wrecked, listing every scratch, dent, and bump, and blaming the missus for the whole mess. "I had to become an eyewitness to the fact that it is actually possible to drive backwards without looking. My wife did it," he told a German newspaper. So, the missus got revenge – and hence the voodoo doll. We won't reveal the bids, but let's just say the car is getting more action and leave it there for now.
