Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SPAM: AN EXPENSIVE NUISANCE An e-mail survey by the security company MessageLabs finds e-mail spam to be an expensive nuisance. Almost 80 percent of business executives are convinced spam will be a bigger problem in the future. Advertisement More than half the managers who responded believe 30 percent or more of their e-mail is spam and the percentage is rising fast. Managers who receive 50 or more e-mail messages a day say they are forced to spend at least 10 minutes each hour of e-mail activity wading through spam. At $50 per hour, that is at least $8 every hour squandered on spam. MessageLabs' research classifies two distinct groups of e-mail users: power users, those who receive more than 50 e-mail messages per day and casual users, those who receive less than 50. TICK DISEASE POSES THREAT TO BLOODSUPPLY Advertisement A potentially fatal disease spread by ticks may be on the increase and government and public health officials are concerned it could be infiltrating the blood supply. Babesiosis is transmitted by the black-legged tick, the same creature that carries Lyme disease. So far, babesiosis largely has been confined to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and parts of Long Island, N.Y., however, the ticks, also called deer ticks, appear to be expanding their range. People who pick up the disease from a tick are at risk of death because it can be fatal in 5 percent of cases. There also is a risk they could transmit the protozoan that causes the disease to others if they donate blood, says Peter Krause of the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, Conn. More than 30 cases of people contracting the disease through blood transfusions have been documented but the total number of cases likely is much higher. (Thanks to UPI Medical Correspondent Steve Mitchell) MORE MUSLIM AMERICANS HOME-SCHOOL More Muslim Americans are choosing to home-school their children, making them one of the fastest growing minority groups within the national home-schooling movement, the Washington Times reports. Advertisement Muslim parents are educating their children on their own for reasons common to most home-schooling families: improving academics and controlling social interactions. The value clash between public-school teachings and Islamic beliefs, combined with the dearth of Muslim schools in many communities, lead many of the parents to educate their children independently, proponents of the movement say. "Parents may encounter that their school overemphasizes Judeo-Christian holidays or that their children will feel isolated," says Fatima Saleem, a South Carolina mother of two who helped create the Palmetto Muslim Homeschool Resource Network. ENTREPRENEUR-FRIENDLY STATES The most entrepreneur-friendly states, according to the Small Business Survival Index 2002 are: South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, Texas and Florida. The index compares how government in the states treat small businesses and entrepreneurs. "Small business is the true driving force behind economic growth. Every state and local lawmaker should be concerned with the well being of small business but, unfortunately, actual policies too often fail to line up with such rhetoric," says SBSC chief economist Raymond J. Keating. According to SBSC President Darrell McKigney, even in good times half of all small businesses fail within four years, yet these are the very businesses we look to for creating three-quarters of all new jobs. Advertisement The states with the most anti-entrepreneur policy environments are: California, New Mexico, Minnesota, Maine, Hawaii and District of Columbia.
