virus •

How to tackle West Nile virus mosquitoes.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – Everyone is glad that summer is here. However, warm weather means more mosquitoes and a higher risk of West Nile virus infection.

Residents are encouraged by the DeKalb County Health Department to protect themselves against mosquito bites and to get rid of any possible source that might be ideal for the disease-carrying insects to breed.

Standing water is the most dangerous place where West Nile virus mosquitoes might be. Health Department officials are monitoring their activity by setting traps in the area.

Plus, residents are advised to follow an important set of rules so that they will prevent mosquitoes from biting them. While you are outside, clothing is the most valuable asset. More precisely, light-colored clothing will reduce the risk of getting bitten.

But when you are indoors, you have to make sure that window screens and doors fit perfectly and that every hole is repaired. This way, mosquitoes will not be able to break into the house. Another important measure of precaution is the use of a good repellent which includes IR 3535, lemon eucalyptus oil, picaridin, and DEET.

However, experts advise people to follow the instructions on the labels and ask their doctor before thinking of using the repellent on children. Many people have their own gardens, so they need to know their best options for preventing mosquitoes from breeding.

First of all, you need to change the water in plant urns and bird baths at least once a week. Plus, people must look out of hollow stumps and tree rot holes that usually hold water and fill them in with something else. This way, they won’t be filled with standing water.

Furthermore, plastic wading pools must be emptied weekly and stored indoors when you do not use it to prevent mosquitoes from coming close to it. It is also worth mentioning that trash containers must be covered at all times.

In addition to this, people have to discard any water-holding containers, drums, buckets and old tires because they are like a magnet for the disease-carrying insects. Last but not least, check your downspouts and gutters to be sure that they are always clear of debris.

The symptoms of the West Nile virus hardly manifest as many people realize they are sick only after three up to 15 days if one of the mosquitoes bit them. Symptoms in older people might lead to paralysis, convulsions, stupor, stiff neck, encephalitis, muscle weakness, coma and even death.

Image Source:CBS News

"The Malware Museum Lets You Glimpse Past Viruses"

Some of the viruses in the museum were just meant to be funny and didn’t cause any damage.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – The Internet Archive has now a new surprise for the public. It has gathered a long collection of pesky virtual bugs that used to invade our computers in the ‘80s and ‘90s and organized them into a virtual museum. The malware museum lets you glimpse past viruses that use to give intense headaches to computer owners all around the world.

The flashy internet archive gathered all of the colorful and pixelated viruses that used to affect computers that ran with MS-DOS. The malware museum contains even one of the first viruses that were created to bug the computer users.

Usually featuring flashy graphic and some text, the viruses came in a wide array. Some were just meant to bother the user, some to block the access to certain computer features while others were downright dangerous and were able to burn the hard drive.

No matter the intention with which they were created, the viruses have been now stripped of all their destructive capacities and gathered into an Internet Archive that people can access and experience the thrills an MS-DOS user got when encountering the flashy images on the screen.

The curator of the collection, Mikko Hypponen who is also an expert in computer security has spent more than half of its life collecting, analyzing and writing about the pesky computer viruses that started to spread as soon as the internet was launched. So he took his impressive, harmless collection to Jason Scott, the “curator” of the Internet Archives. This collaboration brought the malware museum which can be freely visited by any person with an internet connection.

One of the most interesting viruses in the collection is the Casino virus. This one was a particularly interesting nuisance. The virus didn’t affect the computer’s hardware in any harmful way, but it did obligate the user to play a game.

The basic idea of the Casino was that it copied all of the files in the RAM. If you managed to beat the Disk Destroyer game that it generated it would restore your files and disappear, but if you didn’t it would destroy all of your files and all data in the computer would have been lost.

There were others, harmless viruses, too. The Coffshop virus would display a pixelated image of a cannabis plant with message “Legalize Cannabis” next to it.

Or the Elvira virus that made the screen go black and a very romantic message would flow on the screen in a Star Wars style. The virus was inspired by a famous ‘90s woman, Elvira.

The entire collection can be seen here.

Image source: www.wikipedia.org

How To Make Mosquitoes Back Away

The Malware Museum Lets You Glimpse Past Viruses

Categories