Hello:
Having been a lurker up to this point, I have been inspired by reading
the Bruce Ames editorial that was forwarded to ECOFEM to offer a comment.
My reading of the piece is that the author is evading all the social, political
and economic issues related to the production and control of synthetic
pesticides with a spurious argument that they are not easily distinguished from
what he calls "natural" toxins. Well, MAYBE in the chemistry lab, but the
political implications of what he is saying are staggering. Many of the people
who do this kind of research have ties to the petro-chemical industry.
Julia Murphy, York U, Toronto.
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Dec 8 11:07:31 MST 1994
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 13:10:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Swarr Amanda Lock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: "Good times" isn't really bad times!
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 23:40:34 -0500 (EST)
From: Doug Sackin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Swarr Amanda Lock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Thought you might like to pass this on
I got this letter from a listserv. It addresses one of the mailings you
passed on about the Good Times virus.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 21:25:21 -0600
From:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: How to exploit fear & newbie-ness
Newbie Newz 06 December 1994
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Soon to become an Urban Legend: the "Good Times" baloney
A friend of mine (who I thought would know better) just forwarded a
message to me. It got to her through a longish string of people,
including many at Microsoft, though it seems to have originated on
AOL. I've included the mail header that was closest to the original
message in case it aids someone in tracking this.
Apparently some unmentionable person has hit upon the idea of getting
unsuspecting, innocent people to simulate a chain letter by giving
them a bogus reason to forward a letter to all their friends. No
doubt adding to the fun for this person is the fact that the reason
itself is literally impossible.
See further discussion at end.
> id AA02636; Fri, 2 Dec 94 13:03:02 -0800
> Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> I am sending this to everyone I know!!! BEWARE!!!
>
> > I just got this, please take it seriously, especially if you're at
> > an university.
>
> >> There is a virus on America Online being sent by E-Mail. If you
> >> get anything called "Good Times", DON'T read it or download it.
> >> It is a virus that will erase your hard drive. Forward this to
> >> all your friends. It may help them a lot.
This is impossible. A virus must be *EXECUTED* to do anything, much less
anything harmful. Reading a text file (when the text file came from
elsewhere or anywhere, but the program you read to use the text file is
local and safe) can never hurt you. In contrast, if the program you use
to read the text file (or whatever) is something you downloaded, then
that could be dangerous.
Put another way, a virus is a program. For it to do its work (which
happens to be something you probably don't want), you have to run it,
just like any other program. Reading your way through every single
bit in Microsoft Excel isn't going to amount to anything as far as your
spreadsheet, and it works the same way for a virus.
Please feel free to pass this on. And if anyone, anywhere, has any
questions about this, please, PLEASE ask me. Disinformation like this
is _evil_, and only a real jerk would deliberately start a rumor like
this.
(I don't blame anyone who passed it on because they thought it was true,
or thought it was funny and self-evidently untrue, but I'd sure like to
get my hands on the jerk who started it.)
- don
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"Nothing recycles like a technological solution" - Don Z'Boray
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
IO.COM IP = 199.170.88.5
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