i ignore them too, but now that you say you know nothing about them either, my mind questions how they were applied to this board? Were they hacked in-- or whatever the correct terminology would be, someone, somewhere allowed this to be happening....wonder who and why?

if you follow the link mzzz provided to detailed information about the source you will see that they are a widely used cross-marketing tool used all over the internet. they are not the result of hacking or anything like it.