Living Today: Issues of modern living

'GONER' CREATORS NABBED

Israeli police have arrested four teenagers they said wrote and spread the computer worm, Goner, which is believed to have caused trouble for tens of thousands of personal computers and communications networks around the world.

Goner was launched during a computer war among the youngsters, the Computer Crimes Squad head, Chief Superintendent Meir Zohar, told UPI. The teenagers -- who were not identified because they are juveniles -- tried to attack other youngsters' computers by encouraging them to download a new screen saver. "When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it," the enticing message read, according to CNN.

Actually the program was designed to send huge amounts of information and cause a denial of service to affected computers, police said. But the youngsters "created a monster that ran out of control," Zohar said.

The worm spread at very high speed. It can avoid detection by anti-virus programs and destroy vital anti-virus software, Zohar said.

CNN quoted the chief technology officer of MessageLabs Inc., a British-based e-mail security outsourcer, as saying the worm affected computers in 19 countries, particularly the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.

If convicted, the teens could face a jail sentence of up to five years, Zohar said.

THE FLU SEASON

This year's flu season is off to a slow start, federal health officials say -- which is good news because again the influenza vaccine was late in getting to health care providers.

"In general, what we're seeing around the country are sporadic cases of influenza," Dr. Carolyn Bridges, an influenza expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Friday.

The CDC said from Oct. 6 through Nov. 24, of the respiratory tests done for influenza, only around 1 percent came back positive -- far lower than the 24 percent to 33 percent range found from 1998 through 2000. Influenza activity was found in 16 states, and most of the cases were of the Type A virus. The CDC said, however, it was too early in the season to be sure which of the three strains included in the flu vaccine will be dominant.

Each year, the CDC, the World Health Organization and others predict what types of influenza will hit the United States hardest. They choose the top three and then pharmaceutical companies that win the government contract grow the selected strains in cultures to create the vaccine.

While it is a bit of a guessing game, in past years the vaccine has been between 70 percent and 90 percent effective in protecting people against the flu.

In 2000, the four pharmaceutical companies -- two of which ran into regulatory trouble with the Food and Drug Administration and were shut down -- had trouble growing the cultures, resulting in delays getting the vaccine to the public. For this year, there are only three pharmaceutical companies making the vaccine, Aventis Pasteur, Wyeth Lederle Vaccines and PowderJect Pharmaceuticals. Bridges said the loss of one manufacturer added to the delay.

RELIGION IN AMERICA

The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 have brought about a dramatic rise in the number of Americans believing that religion is becoming more important, according to a new national survey conducted last month and released last Thursday.

The sample group of 1,500 people told researchers of the Princeton Survey Research Associates, who were commissioned by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, that the influence of faith on American life was growing -- rating a 78 percent. This compares with 37 percent last March. It even exceeds the previously highest figure, which was 69 percent in 1959.

In a companion report on religion in American public life, titled Lift Every Voice, the Pew authors wrote, "The conclusion that religion is experiencing a comeback around the country must come as a surprise to ordinary Americans who were never aware that religion had gone away.

"After all, over 90 percent of Americans have consistently reported a belief in God since the advent of scientific polling in the mid-1930s and nearly two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) call religion very important."

The report went on, "It is not that Americans become more religious. Even the initial rise in the number of those praying and attending worship services following Sept. 11 has returned to normal levels.

"But while Americans have not fundamentally altered their personal religious practices, they have changed their perceptions about religion's importance in American life."

The Pew analysts stressed one important phenomenon, however: Those who had already been very religious before Sept. 11, have become even more so now.

Of the "very religious," 56 percent said in November that they were praying more. Of the "fairly religious," 35 percent, gave this answer, while only 10 percent of the "not very religious" reported a more intensive prayer life. Overall, 44 percent of all respondents reported to be praying more, a marked drop from 59 percent immediately after the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

HURRICANES

Long-range forecaster William Gray of Colorado State University is predicting that next year's hurricane season will see more hurricanes than average, including four major storms.

Gray and his research team predict that 13 named tropical storms will develop during the Atlantic-Caribbean season between June 1 and Nov. 30. They said eight of the named storms will become hurricanes with winds of 74 mph or more and four of those will intensify into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 110 mph.

The average year has 10 tropical storms, six hurricanes and two hurricanes.

The 2001 season that ended Nov. 30 had 15 named storms, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes. Gray had predicted 12 tropical storms and seven hurricanes, three of them major.

The new forecast employs a new forecast scheme that places more emphasis on circulation features of the middle latitudes in the Atlantic and omits African rainfall information that has not been a reliable forecast tool in recent years. It continues using the equatorial east-west stratospheric winds, the Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature and a prediction of El Nino conditions. El Nino is a warm-weather condition off Chile that influences the jet stream over North America.

"This upcoming hurricane season appears to have the potential for continued above-average hurricane activity," Gray said. "We foresee an increased level of hurricanes forming in the deep tropics in 2002 and hurricane activity coming earlier than it did this year."

He also said there will be more hurricane landfalls on the U.S. coast.

This year no hurricanes hit the United States. "We've been extremely lucky the last few years. But climatology will eventually right itself and we must expect a great increase in landfalling hurricanes in the coming years," Gray said. "With such large coastal population growth in the United States in recent decades, it is inevitable that we will see hurricane-spawned destruction in coming years on a scale many times greater than what we have seen in the past."