The study builds on previous examinations of the strange and ubiquitous pits, dubbed "Swiss cheese" upon their discovery in 2000. The following year, another group of researchers suggested that the melting that is causing the pits to grow might indicate profound climate change is underway on Mars. This past December, a study hinted strongly at the south pole's water ice by noting the degree to which surface temperatures change from night to day.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 07:45 PM | TrackBack 0

"Most women don't expect to be enslaved - they think they're going for legitimate work, like nannies or waitresses. In most cases their passports are taken away. "They're threatened. They're told they'll go to prison. They're too afraid to complain."

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 07:28 PM | TrackBack 0

Remarkably, the main components in this advanced machine have been built from parts that cost less than $400, and Hanson believes this cost can be dramatically reduced.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 07:26 PM | TrackBack 0

Scientists are developing a new generation of atomic clocks which will be so accurate they will have lost only about a second by the time the world ends a few billion years from now.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 07:25 PM | TrackBack 0

The Troubadours developed the notion of fin amour - true love. It was a revolution of sentiment in that it was the creation of an Eros towards women. In the ancient world such a thing was practically unknown, at least, no particular stress was put on it; marriage was a strictly practical affair. Romantic love in ancient society was more likely to be directed by men towards other men. With the coming of the Troubadours, for the first time, there was a deliberate idealisation of women, but more importantly, the cultivation of desire for its own sake; the romantic opus. It was intensely poetic and was set about with the most intricate and deliberate inhibitions.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 06:44 PM | TrackBack 0

After grabbing the text from the two transcripts, correcting for where the BBC inserted a whole bunch of whitespace, there it was. A count in Word says that there's 866 words in one version that aren't in the other. At all. And they're, variously, about Iraqi moves towards compliance and partial refutation of the evidence presented by Powell to the UNSC.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 06:03 PM | TrackBack 0

...the judges have managed to keep the trial on track, restraining Mr Milosevic when his outbursts have been most intemperate and working through the voluminous evidence put before them. Unexpectedly, Mr Milosevic has helped them. He no longer seems intent on wrecking the trial, as was originally feared, but on prolonging it as long as possible in order to keep performing for his audience back home in Serbia, where the proceedings are shown on television. Though he still refuses to recognise the tribunal's legitimacy, he abides by the judges' rulings, stands when they enter or leave the room, and addresses everyone else in the courtroom with a modicum of politeness. By taking part so actively, he has inevitably bolstered the tribunal's credibility, even in the eyes of sceptics. Once the trial is over, he and his supporters will find it hard to argue that he did not get a fair hearing.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 04:54 PM | TrackBack 0

My match with Deep Junior is the beginning of a new era in computer chess. Both sides were under strict supervision and every aspect of each game was recorded. As a result, we can see the strengths and shortcomings of the machines, and of ourselves. This marks an important shift in the history of computer chess. We are now moving away from corporate interests--i.e., Man vs. Machine matches as PR for companies like IBM--and toward fair and documented procedures overseen by the World Chess Federation.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 04:49 PM | TrackBack 0

In a similar vein, at present it would probably be impossible to spread a false "oil shortage" story through the Internet, as the American oil companies and mainstream media did in 1972. In fact the Internet would probably demolish such propaganda in days. In 1972, it was not until months later that a merchant marine officer told me how his oil supertanker had been held off the New Jersey coast for six weeks at the height of the "oil shortage."

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 03:33 PM | TrackBack 0

Persuasive evidence in support of this theory has emerged recently in the shape of FOXP2, the first gene proved to affect the ability to learn and process language. Scientists from Oxford University identified the gene in 2001 by studying three generations of the "KE" family who have mutated copies and suffer severe speech and language impediments as a result. They have since shown that the human version differs in two tiny respects from a similar gene found in chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and mice.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 02:27 PM | TrackBack 0

Public school teachers are in much the same position as prison wardens. Wardens' main concern is to keep the prisoners on the premises. They also need to keep them fed, and as far as possible prevent them from killing one another. Beyond that, they want to have as little to do with the prisoners as possible, so they leave them to create whatever social organization they want. From what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at the bottom of it.

This is a lengthy essay, but well worth reading entirely.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 02:19 PM | TrackBack 0

There [will be] a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record. The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 01:39 PM | TrackBack 0

The sensitive and sensible folk at Privacy International have endured enough of this treatment. So until March 15th 2003 we are running an international competition to discover the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 12:44 PM | TrackBack 0

And then, just to complete the glorious cliche, a group of builders appears on the scene and becomes most intent on telling me exactly what they think of my melons. As my particular fruits of the vine are (a) more satsuma-esque than melon-like and (b) the least visible parts of my anatomy currently on display, it does make one wonder about the so-called "thought" processes of men.

Posted by GeeTee at February 17, 2003 12:01 PM | TrackBack 0