NASA declared an emergency and feared the worst after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship and its seven astronauts soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing Saturday. As the minutes wore on, there appeared to be no hope for their survival.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 07:20 AM | TrackBack 0

Perhaps it's telling of my Western-based culture that I was so surprised when a friend of mine asked if I would host his Web site after he died. I had simply not given any thought to the problem of what happens to a site after someone passes away or can no longer support it for health reasons.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 05:07 AM | TrackBack 0

Can we reasonably expect the Internet to be used for e-democracy, for example, when all it takes is your stereotypical troubled loner with a toolbox of hacks to assemble a denial-of-service attack on election day from that Internet cafe on Yonge just north of Sheppard in Toronto? And why are you looking at me like that?

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 05:06 AM | TrackBack 0

"There are people in this country who face addiction and hopelessness and despair. Those people need our help," Mr. Rove said. "It seems ... a far more powerful call to sacrifice than to say, 'Don't drive 10 miles a week,' or, 'trade in your SUV for a Honda Civic.' "

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 05:02 AM | TrackBack 0

Dr Blix took issue with what he said were US Secretary of State Colin Powell's claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving illicit materials within and outside of Iraq to prevent their discovery. He said that the inspectors had reported no such incidents.
Similarly, he said, he had not seen convincing evidence that Iraq was sending weapons scientists to other countries to prevent them from being interviewed.
Nor had he any reason to believe, as President George Bush charged in his State of the Union speech, that Iraqi agents were posing as scientists, or that his inspection agency had been penetrated by Iraqi agents and that sensitive information might have been leaked to Baghdad.
Finally, he said, he had seen no persuasive indications of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda. "There are other states where there appear to be stronger links," such as Afghanistan, Dr Blix said. "It's bad enough that Iraq may have weapons of mass destruction."

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 05:00 AM | TrackBack 0

It concludes that the cancer epidemic is a result of pollution from nuclear energy and of exposures to global atmospheric weapons fallout, which peaked in the period 1959-63. The research cites evidence such as the levels of breast cancer in women who were adolescent between 1957 and 1963, when nuclear weapons testing was at its peak.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 04:58 AM | TrackBack 0

It also said priests did not have the right to change baptism registers to take account of a believer's new gender, even if the change was recognised by civil authorities.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 04:56 AM | TrackBack 0

A scientist who denies the "fact" of human evolution, Dini writes, is in effect committing "malpractice regarding the method of science."

I don't see how anybody's freedom is impinged. Whether a professor gives a letter of recommendation is (and must be) purely at his discretion, and he should be permitted to apply any inhibitions he wants.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 04:48 AM | TrackBack 0

...in the paragraphs marked "S" for "secret," the Sept. 14 directive clearly states that nuclear weapons are part of the "overwhelming force" that Washington might use in response to a chemical or biological attack.

Posted by GeeTee at February 01, 2003 04:37 AM | TrackBack 0