Ransomeware programs encrypt all the data on a computer, then demand a payment to get the decryption key.

When the article says this "only affects PCs", I think that means it only affects Windows and that a PC running the GNU/Linux system is safe.

However, the crucial technical question is about your mail-reading program through which the program is introduced. If you ask to see more than a one-line summary of the message, will that run programs in the message? We've known for years in the free software community that that must not happen.

With my mail reader, Rmail in Emacs, I'd have to go out of my way to copy the program into a file to get it to run. I would hardly do that for a program sent to me by a bank.

JP Morgan may have to pay 13 billion dollars as a penalty for various crimes connected with the housing and fiscal crisis.

I wonder how this compares with what it gained from the crisis.

A report from a journalist who spent a day with a thug patrol in London, watching how people are searched.

It appears that some sort of grounds are required to search someone, that searches are not totally arbitrary. That is a step in the right direction; I don't think New York thugs need any grounds to search someone on the street.

I expect the thug department picked a model officer for the journalists to follow, and that he was on his best behavior. Thus, the usual facts are probably worse than the picture this article presents.

Ralph Nader explains how the Democratic Party has faded to the point where it has no positive program to offer.

A few Democrats, such as the two new senators from Massachusetts, do have good positive programs.

Most, including Obama, endorse the harmful goal of budget cuts, which serves only the rich.

Fukushima cleanup workers are badly paid and their morale is suffering. That tends to provoke mistakes, which are occasionally very dangerous. For instance, any mistake in handling the very hot and dangerous "spent fuel" in Fukishima #4 could lead to spewing far more radioactive material.