The question at hand: Is Mac OS X the impenetrable fortress that Apple makes it out to be, or is it really a lurking malware death trap? Macs are not good targets for viruses because Apple's market share is so low. Like real-world viruses, computer viruses can't spread very well when they don't encounter other computers to infect. Thus, more viruses are written for Windows -- which has the most market share -- than for Mac OS X. But that's not to say Mac users should be complacent. It's important to understand that the nature of online attacks is ever-changing.

By: Bree Shirvell Israeli forces began to forcibly remove Jewish settlers from a disputed building in the West Bank Hebron city, Thursday. The building, named the House of Peace by settlers and the House of Contention by the Israeli press, was home to fifteen settler families. Settlers claim that they purchased the house from a Palestinian two years ago, however, the Palestinian denies the claims. An Israeli supreme court ruled last month that the house should be evacuated until ownership is determined. Hundreds of riot police removed the settlers early Thursday morning and at least 30 people were injured, including one policeman. The Palestinian Authority praised the Israeli forces who evicted the settlers from what they call the Beith Hashalom building, however, they also warned that if all the settlers in Hebron were not evacuated, violence would continue in the city. After the settlers were removed from the home, they protested by burning Palestinian homes and trees outside of Palestinian homes. The Palestinian Authority has said that if the Israeli Army does not stop the violence against Palestinians, they should be granted the right to use all available methods to defend themselves.

By: Bree Shirvell New research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego, shows your happiness could be influenced by the happiness of someone you’ve never met. The study followed the happiness of 4,739 people for 20 years and suggests that happiness may be as contagious as a virus. The study mapped the social networks of the participants, and researchers were able to identify more than 50,000 social and family networks and studied how happiness spread through the group so that someone you have never met could end up changing your mood. The happiness of an immediate social contact increases an individual’s chances of becoming happy by 15 percent, while the happiness of second-degree contacts such as the spouse of a friend can increase the chances of becoming happy by 10 percent. The happiness of a third degree contact such as the friend of a friend of a friend can increase the likeness of happiness by 6 percent. According to the study, sadness is spread in a similar way, but not as efficiently.

Earlier this week, President-Elect Barack Obama nominated Democratic New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be the next Secretary of Commerce. Richardson has one of the most extensive resumes in Washington, so why was he offered the Secretary of Commerce position? James Warren summed up a lot of people’s opinions of the nomination when he wrote in the Huffington Post yesterday: “If only Bill Richardson, a very skillful high-stakes negotiator, could rescue Wall Street, Detroit, the credit markets or our international image, rather than be consigned partly to making sure American Idol will be broadcast digitally. Richardson began his political career as a staffer for Congressman F. Bradford Morse (R-Mass.) and later as a staff member for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He worked for Henry Kissinger's State Department during the Nixon Administration and became a U.S. Congressman in 1982. Richardson spent 14 years in Congress and served as the Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs. During the early Clinton years, Richardson was a deputy majority whip who Clinton sent to Baghdad to help negotiate the release of two American aerospace workers with Saddam Hussein. He also negotiated the release of three Red Cross workers held by Marxist rebels in Sudan twelve years ago and for the release of foreign correspondent Paul Salopek, his driver, and interpreter from a Sudanese prison two years ago. Richardson’s been the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and the U.S. Secretary of Energy and most recently the Governor of New Mexico. He has established incredible relationships around the world and had the nerve to support Obama for president over Hillary Clinton, the wife of his former friend and boss, former President Bill Clinton, during the Democratic nomination. For everything he has done he was rewarded with the post of Secretary of Commerce. Obama has tried to deny that the nomination was a consolation prize for a better position in the cabinet, but when you look at Richardson’s resume, it's hard to see it as anything else. Bill Richardson will probably make a great Secretary of Commerce; after all, it's not like he has any major responsibilities in that position. It seems like the Obama transition team is more interested in a team of rivals than in giving people jobs in roles where they could best serve this country.

By: Bree Shirvell The company heads of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler headed back to Capitol Hill, Thursday, this time without the private jets and with a lot more humility. The Chairman and CEO of GM, Rick Wagoner, CEO and President Alan Mulally of Ford, and CEO Robert Nardelli of Chrysler testified before a hearing of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and pleaded for $34 billion in federal aid to save their companies. The last time the three attended congressional hearings they were mocked by Congress, taxpayers, and late night talk show hosts for taking private jets to the meetings and for showing up without detailed plans to revitalize their companies. This time, the three made the 550 mile trip from Detroit in hybrid vehicles and agreed to work for $1 a year if their proposal for $34 billion in government aid is approved. Last month, Congress refused to provide any aid for the U.S. automobile industry. This time, there was no promise of financial assistance but the U.S. Senate was more split on the possibly of it. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) noted the effort the auto executives have made in the last month, while Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) stated that the fate of the industry should be up to the market.

A criminal complaint has been filed against 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson for abuse, accused of taunting, spitting on and groping residents who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease at the nursing home the two worked at as part-time aides, according to boston.com. The complaint accuses the girls of spitting in residents’ mouths, prodding and groping their breasts and genitals and, at times, mocking them until they screamed. A statement was issued by Larson’s father and was read on NBC’s Today show, Thursday. "My daughter was doing nothing more than performing the duties of her job." Four other teens who worked with the girls were charged as juveniles for not reporting the occurrences. Broitzman and Larson were charged as adults. If found guilty, they "most likely will face suspended jail sentences and probation, so they'd have the threat of jail hanging over them if they get in more trouble," Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

By Amy Kronenberger President-elect Barack Obama tried to call Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to congratulate her on her reelection, But Ros-Lehtinen, thinking it was a prankster, hung up, reported the Christian Science Monitor. In a second try, Obama got his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, in on the call to prove his authenticity. Still, Ros-Lehtinen could not be convinced and hung up again. “I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald. “They got Fidel Castro to go along. They’ve gotten Hugo Chavez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, ‘Oh, no, I won’t be punked.’” Finally in the third attempt, it took Ros-Lehtinen’s colleague, Rep. Howard Berman, calling her and telling her a private joke they share before she believed the call was for real. Obama and Ros-Lehtinen shared a good laugh about it when they finally connected. “He was having a good laugh,” she told CNN. “He said Michelle will get a kick out of this. Because she likes to pinch my ego — bring it down a notch.” “Trust me, Ileana,” she recounted him saying. “You will always be remembered by me, because I have made many of these calls and never once has anyone ever hung up on me. And never once has anyone hung up on me twice.”

The violence drug cartels in Mexico propel continues slashing the country with total impunity. The drug lords know no limits as they carry on exercising crimes diligently. According to MSNBC, videos of executions are posted on the Internet, as taunts, as warnings and corpses are dumped on playgrounds, with neatly printed notes beside them. And very often, the heads have been removed. When someone rolled five heads onto the dance floor in a cantina in Michoacan state two years ago, even the most hardened Mexicans were shocked. Now ritual mutilations are routine. In the border city of Tijuana, 37 people were slain over the weekend, including four children. Nine of the adults were decapitated, including three police officers whose badges were stuffed in their mouths. Although President Felipe Calderon has declared war against drug traffickers, the numbers of killings keep escalating. Since 2007, an estimated of 4,700 lives have perished due to drug-related crimes. The country seems to be losing its grip and battle over to drug bosses who have taken over the nation’s reins and who seem to be commanding it to their own will. In the past, many drug lords sought to be portrayed as tough-guy Robin Hoods, as godfather mafia dons who donated soccer balls and coloring books to schoolchildren and paid for the beer and bands at town fiestas. Now the cartels and their enforcers, who include former police and military deserters, are marketing themselves as dealers of chaos and death. According to the Associated Press, law enforcement officials in Mexico and the United States say the spasm of violence is born of overlapping struggles. The cartels, and the cells within them, are fighting each other, dealing with traitors inside the organization and competitors outside, which in many cases may include crooked cops who work for the cartels. The traffickers are also fighting the police and military. "It is three-dimensional chess," said Bruce Bagley, a drug trade expert and a professor at the University of Miami. "Where an amazingly lucrative drug trade fuels this brutality, that serves multiple functions -- for payback, for revenge, to send messages, to scare the hell out of the public and, of course, to win. Remember, these guys will do anything to win."

Newsday reported today that a "line-cutting dispute among shoppers who waited for hours outside a New York Wal-Mart and those who stayed inside their cars led to the stampede that killed a store worker" The article quoted Nassau Police Lt. Kevin Smith saying, "A whole lot of people started getting out of their cars and made a beeline for that door, It's definitely a contributing factor — the mentality of 'They're not going to cut in front of me.'" Every single day, the news media comes up with another way to keep talking about the Walmart death incident. And, in record numbers, people keep reading everything they can find about the issue. This headline made me laugh. Everything that can possibly be said about this issue has been said. A man was trampled to death at Walmart, some other people were hurt, some lawsuits are not happening. Now the news is pumping out ridiculous articles like "A Line-Cutting Dispute is to Blame." Come on people, lets stop trying to milk this tragedy for all it's worth.

Georgia’s voters went to the polls on December 2nd to choose a senator in a run-off election between Saxby Chambliss, the Republican incumbent, and Jim Martin, his Democratic challenger. The Chambliss victory guarantees the Republicans at least 41 votes in the Senate, enough for them to mount filibusters, the chamber’s formidable procedural barrier to legislation. Republicans are now talking about how they have turned a corner after their defeat in November. “Republicans still know how to win elections!”, Mike Duncan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, jubilantly declared on election night. Party luminaries rallied for Mr Chambliss; Sarah Palin drew thousands around the state in a four-stop tour the day before the election, promising to rebuild the party.