Forwarded emails warn of a new security vulnerability in Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 systems consisting of a pop-up window directing users to press the F1 key, which sends them to a website that downloads malicious software.

The warnings are accurate, confirms Microsoft, though as yet there have been no reports of actual attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability.

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The egg being the most literal and obvious of all fertility symbols, ancient eggish customs survive not only in the form of egg rolling and Easter egg hunts, but also in the quaint superstitious belief, most often attributed to the Chinese, that you can stand a raw egg on end during the vernal equinox (March 20). Apparently this derives from the notion that, due to the sun's equidistant position between the poles of the earth on the first day of spring, special gravitational forces apply. More...

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A tidbit that caught my (evil) eye in the summary of a Pew Research poll on the religious beliefs of Americans:

Fully 16% of Americans believe in the "evil eye" or that certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone. Although the overwhelming number of Americans describe themselves as Christians, belief in non-Christian mystical experiences is widespread according to a Pew Forum survey. Nearly three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with someone who has already died, almost one in five say they have seen or been in the presence of ghosts and 15% have consulted a fortuneteller or a psychic. Similar percentages of American Christians express these supernatural experiences and beliefs.

Most interesting of all, despite what some may perceive as a trend toward religious skepticism or even outright atheism in recent years, the percentage of Americans unaffiliated with a particular faith who say they've experienced a "moment of sudden religious insight or awakening" has nearly doubled since 1962.

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• Pew Poll: Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths

Email tale echoes an urban legend dating back several decades about police interrogators wiring a metal colander to a photocopy machine and convincing a suspect it's a lie detector, thereby extracting a confession. Read more...