on this HOLY week

"Let this Lent remind us that our life and material possessions are just LENT to us. We are all passers by... Pilgrims on the road. We bring nothing when we die, but leave behind the LOVE we have shared, the HOPE we have given and the GOODNESS we have done."

In the season of Lent, as we commemorate his passion we must remember that HIS love is unconditional, HIS mercy is for all of us, and HIS wisdom is to save us.

Have a blessed HOLY week!

Conficker watch out!

Computer experts watched warily today as a virus infecting millions of PCs activated itself as predicted on April 1. But fears of internet chaos have proved unfounded – so far – as machines infected with the "Conficker" worm tried to establish a link to command servers as expected from midnight to no ill effect. With April Fool's Day already nearly over in the Far East, where the majority of infected computers are located, internet security experts reported that no new instructions have been detected from the virus's creators. Fear of what the virus might do next has spread round the world as April 1 approached – the date when Conficker was scheduled to use local time clocks to change programming. No one knows who created the virus or what they intend to do with the vast network of infected machines they, in theory, now control.
The Conficker virus started spreading late last year. At first it was a relatively simple worm but its creators issued updates turning it into a more sophisticated and resilient virus that has found new ways to spread. It has also gained the ability to shut down a computer's defences. The programming on the latest version of Conficker tells infected machines from today to generate 50,000 new internet addresses each day that they can try and "phone home" for instructions. Previously, they had been looking for commands from just 250 sites each day. The point of the change is to make it harder for the security community to pre-register those addresses and block them.

Conficker infects machines by exploiting a weakness in Windows, the software that runs on most computers. At its peak it had compromised about 12 million PCs, although that may have fallen to about two million thanks to new security measures. Once the worm is on a computer, that PC becomes part of a “botnet” – a network of computers that can be controlled by the virus's creator.

In the past year the virus has spread to computers in schools, hospitals and government departments. It has got into the defence forces of Britain, Germany and France, grounding the French Navy's fighter jets for a time. A leaked House of Commons memorandum revealed that the parliamentary IT network had also been infected. One popular theory is that the makers are setting up a “computing-for-hire” scheme, where time on infected PCs is rented out. Others warn that the makers could try to steal identity data such as credit card details.

Despite lurid headlines, few security experts expected anything major to happen on April 1, speculating that the creators would probably wait until some of the attention had died down before making another move.

"These guys have been pretty smart until now — the worm is unfortunately very well done," said Patrik Runald, chief security advisor for F-Secure. "So far they haven't been stupid. So why should they start on April 1?"

Paul Ferguson, of Trend Micro, an internet security company, said that the best guess as to who was behind Conficker was a gang based in Ukraine – the first version of the virus was designed not to infect computers there. "It doesn't seem to be doing anything right now," he said as Conficker activation made its way to the western United States. "I hope April 1st comes and goes with no trouble. But, there is this loaded pistol looming large out there even if no one has pulled the trigger."

A task force assembled by Microsoft has been working to stamp out the worm, referred to as Conficker or DownAdUP, and the US software colossus has placed a bounty of $250,000 on the heads of those responsible for the threat. The worm, a self-replicating program, takes advantage of networks or computers that have not kept up to date with Windows security patches. Microsoft has modified its free Malicious Software Removal Tool to detect and get rid of Conficker.

Among the ways one can tell if their machine is infected is that the worm will block efforts to connect with websites of security firms such as Trend Micro or Symantec where there are online tools for removing the virus. Cyber-criminals have taken advantage of Conficker fears to lure internet users to websites loaded with malicious software with fake promises of security tools.

The Driver is Dead

A smart and active child was playing with a battery-operated toy car. It fell from his hands and stopped working. He took it to his father who was an engineer.

His father opened the car with a screwdriver to examine the trouble. The curious child was watching carefully. Suddenly he cried out in joy, "Daddy, I have found out why it doesn't work." He put his tiny fingers into the car's front seat and took out a dead fly. He declared aloud, "How can it work when the driver is dead?"

Actually, it was a wrong diagnosis. The father had found that the cells had been displaced by the fall. But he enjoyed the child's innocent comment. Later he repaired it and returned it to the child who resumed his play.

Whenever we encounter a failure or disaster in our life or career, we assign the responsibility to some other person. In some cases, the actual fault may be our own. But we attribute it to others or to 'ill-fate'.

Failures and negative incidents in life should be seen as part of God's plans for our ultimate welfare.

. God has definite and specific plans about every man.

"The Lord says I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for" {Jeremiah 29: 11}.

what is Cerebrovascular accident

Cerebrovascular

(CVA), also known as a stroke, is an acute neurologic injury whereby the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted, either by a clot in the artery or if the artery bursts. The result is that the part of the brain perfused by that artery no longer can receive oxygen carried by the blood and it dies (becomes necrotic) with cessation of function from that part of the brain. In addition to tissue death, hemorrhages also cause damage from physical impingement of blood on the brain tissue. Stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurologic damage or even death if not promptly diagnosed and treated. It is the third leading cause of death and adult disability in the US and industrialized European nations.

Risk factors
Risk factors include advanced age, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes mellitus, high cholesterol, and cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking is the most important modifiable risk factor of stroke.

Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of stroke depend on the type of stroke and the area of the brain affected. Ischemic strokes usually only affect regional areas of the brain perfused by the blocked artery. Hemorrhagic strokes can affect local areas, but often can also cause more global symptoms due to bleeding and increased intracranial pressure.

Treatment
Early assessment
It is important to identify a stroke as early as possible because patients who are treated earlier are more likely to survive and have better recoveries.
If a patient is suspected of having a stroke, emergency services should be contacted immediately. The patient should be transported to the nearest hospital that can provide a rapid evaluation and treatment with the latest available therapies targeted to the type of stroke. The faster these therapies are started for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, the chances for recovery from each type improves greatly. Quick decisions about medication and the need for surgery have been shown to improve outcome.
Only detailed physical examination and medical imaging provide information on the presence, type, and extent of stroke.
Studies show that patients treated in hospitals with a dedicated Stroke Team or Stroke Unit and a specialized care program for stroke patients have improved odds of recovery.

Pathophysiology

The ductus arteriosus is part of the normal fetal circulatory system. This vessel connects the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Prior to birth the ductus arteriosus allows for antegrade flow from the right ventricle to the aorta. Following birth the ductus arteriosus normally closes. If the ductus remains open, blood will shunt from the aorta into the pulmonary artery due to the decrease in pulmonary vascular resistance. The amount of left-to-right shunting depends upon the size of the PDA and the relative resistances of the systemic and pulmonary circulations. Left-to-right shunting of blood caused by patency of the ductus arteriosus results in increased pulmonary artery blood flow as well as left atrial and left ventricular overload. Extensive aortic runoff, with low aortic diastolic pressure secondary to a large patent ductus arteriosus can result in systemic organ hypoperfusion. Pulmonary vascular obstructive disease may occur, sometimes as early as one year of life.

In very rare instances, usually in the presence of other complex cardiovascular anomalies, there is a bilateral DA. In the typical left aortic arch, the aortic end of the DA arises distal to the left subclavian artery and the pulmonary end inserts at the junction of the main and left pulmonary arteries.