In the news today was a story about the Australian government banning TV for children under 2. They say that children under 2 years of age “should not spend any time watching television, or other electronic media (DVD’s, computers, video games).

First, let me say that there’s something to be said for keeping kids active, and today’s society of electronic entertainment has definitely contributed to a new wave of childhood obesity. But for some reason – sometimes smaller countries seem prone to creating wacky legislation or “guidelines” that make no goddamn sense.

Being the father of a 3 years – I can tell you that the television can be an overwhelming and positive source in the growth of a child. Has the Australian government seen or heard any of the TV programming created solely for kids under the age of 3? Have they watched shows on Noggin, Sprout, or Nick Jr.? Have they monitored kids that have learned to read and talk at more advanced rates because they were watching childrens educational programming? What about the “My Baby Can Read” series, which includes a DVD you have your baby watch twice per day (as early as 6 months old), and all the documented cases of children actually reading childrens books at 18 months?

Thank God I don’t live in Australia – because I’d have to fly the big ‘ol “FU” flag on this one. We taught our son to use the computer at 3 years old, and he knows how to use the mouse, start educational games, go to his favorite web sites, and more. Like most things, all electronic media can be abused, but it can be one of the greatest educational resources as well. TV can also dramatically speed up the learning process for most children when used properly.

Sounds kinda weird doesn’t it – transsexual tasting water? I just read this article over at Treehugger about Gender Bending Chemicals in the water. I read the article just to find out what the title meant. It turns out that people are taking hormone therapy drugs in record numbers, not to mention all the people taking male enhancement pills and birth control. One thing you may not be aware of it that all that stuff gets peed back out! And where do you think it goes? It doesn’t just get absorbed by that person’s body. One part of that study showed that some of these hormone therapy drugs are pissed back out at an 85% level!!

Up in Canada, researchers in the great white north put some of these drugs in five parts per trillion of a lake. Male fish nearly quit producing, and it killed one type of fish right off. Some scientists believe that this kind of stuff in the water is making male genetalia smaller and their man boobies bigger! It may also be making less male babies. Now how much water are you going to drink?

WordPress Blogs Hacked?  Yes it’s true.  There have been a lot of WordPress blogs hacked in the last month or so – some of them very recent versions (2.8+).  I do a lot of WordPress work for clients, and lot of it is plugins and themes, and SEO work – but you might be surprised how many new clients I’ve gotten that need WordPress security work.  These are people that have had their self-hosted WordPress web site broken into – and they need it fixed.  Typically it’s an automated spambot hacker that looks for a known exploit, like older versions of WordPress or older non-updated plugins.  I was surprised a few weeks back when I read this post on Lorelle about Old WordPress Versions Under Attack.  I thought at first that the hack she talks about was new, and it’s not – it’s just more rampant.

I did leave a few comments on that page, and I know I’ll get some traffic here from people seeking help.  Let me address that first.

If you have a self-hosted WordPress web site that has been hacked you have two choices:

1. Hire someone to fix it
2. Fix it yourself

It’s pretty easy to fix it yourself, and I don’t keep secrets – I’ll tell you what to do.  But if you’re really non-technical, or your income , business, or brand depends on your WP powered site and you need immediate assistance – Visit my Hire Me page right now.  Now back to the DIY info…

These recent WordPress infections and blog break-ins are pretty serious.  I’ve seen so-called “WordPress viruses” before that changed theme files, added code to your pages – but these recent hacks (and variations of it) get right inside your WordPress database.  The infection actually takes place through a bug in (older versions) of WordPress.  If you’re not currently infected, update to the latest version of WordPress ASAP, update all of your plugins, and then read my WordPress Security Guide to learn how to lock down your blog.

IF YOU’RE WORDPRESS SITE IS HACKED OR INFECTED, FOLLOW THESE STEPS

1. In your WP Dashboard go to “Tools->Export” and export all of your pages, posts, links, and comments
2. Download a copy of your entire web site in FTP
3. In your web hosting account create a new MySQL database with a new username and strong 12 character password
4. Delete your entire web site in FTP (all files, now that you have a local copy)
5. Upload a fresh copy of the latest version of wordpress downloaded from wordpress.org
6. Update your wp-config.php file to connect to the new database
7. Go to www.yoursitename.com and setup and connect to the new WP databse for the first time (be sure to enter alternate WP table names)
8. Login to your new fresh WP dashboard, and create a new account with admin access and logout
9. Log back in  with the new account, and delete the admin account
10. Upload a fresh copy of your theme and freshly downloaded versions of all the plugins you need (don’t use the local versions you just backed up on your local PC)
11. In your dashboard delete the “Hello World” posts and default comment
12. In your WordPresss dashboard go to “Tools->Import” and import all your posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags using the file you exported earlier
13. Activate your theme
14. Check your site in a browser to make sure everything shows up, then activate all your plugins and check again
15. Manually reset your widget, wordpress, and plugin settings and all signs of the virus and infection should be gone!

This process is tedious for sure, but because this hack roots itself so deeply inside your WP database – the best way to get rid of it is just to dump that database and import your content into a fresh one.  Believe it or not, this is also an opportunity to clean your blog of old garbage you don’t need anymore, weed out plugins you no longer use, and it gives you a chance (once the infection is gone) to improve your WordPress Security!

I hope this information has helped someone, and I hope that you read this post before your WordPress blog got hacked.

Seems like I’ve been blogging a lot about WordPress and eBay lately, it’s probably my favorite affiliate program. It’s just so much easier to convert people and make money because everybody already knows what eBay is about and the majority of people already have an eBay account. People surf endlessly for hours looking for things, and if they go there from your blog and end up buying something completely different! My EPC (earn per click) for eBay is typically $10+ each month, and on top of that conversion (for me) is about 1 in three. I’m sorry that’s a better conversion rate than any other affiliate program I’ve ever used!

Things I’ve written about WordPress and eBay in the last week:

Free WordPress eBay Plugins

Action Thumbs WordPress Plugin

BANS Niche Store Success in 2009

Today I’m eating my Super Healthy Salad Recipe! http://ping.fm/AcOoZ

BANS launching new look, form, and themes next week. Are you excited?

How to Perform Keyword Research Day #1: http://ping.fm/VieHY

Building Income One Post At A Time: http://ping.fm/9b9K5

activated my new Palm Centro smartphone this morning…w00t!  I did a cool review of it here.

WordPress Hack – Hacking template files http://ping.fm/iTybO