THE PROBLEM WITH APOPHIS: IT MAY RUIN THE EARTH
ALOK JHA, GUARDIAN - In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of
evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world
into eternal darkness. A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a
menace now hurtling towards Earth from outer space. Scientists are
monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last
year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are
imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.
NASA has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside
chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000
times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands
of square kilometers would be directly affected by the blast but the
whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the
atmosphere. And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time
left to decide. At a recent meeting of experts in near-Earth objects in
London, scientists said it could take decades to design, test and build
the required technology to deflect the asteroid. Monica Grady, an expert
in meteorites at the Open University, said: "It's a question of when,
not if, a near Earth object collides with Earth. Many of the smaller
objects break up when they reach the Earth's atmosphere and have no
impact. However, a NEO larger than 1km [wide] will collide with Earth
every few hundred thousand years and a NEO larger than 6km, which could
cause mass extinction, will collide with Earth every hundred million
years. We are overdue for a big one.". . .
Apophis asteroid was placed at four out of 10 on the Torino scale - a
measure of the threat posed by an NEO where 10 is a certain collision
which could cause a global catastrophe. This was the highest of any
asteroid in recorded history and it had a 1 in 37 chance of hitting the
Earth. The threat of a collision in 2029 was eventually ruled out at the
end of last year.
Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen's University Belfast, said:
"When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect
it and change its orbit. There's a small possibility that if it passes
through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole, ... the
Earth's gravity will change things so that when it comes back around
again in 2036, it will collide with us." The chance of Apophis passing
through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on
current information.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1660485,00.html
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AMERICAN NOTES
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MORE USES FOR DUCT TAPE
NEWS STAR, MONROE LA - On Christmas night several years ago while at
"Grandma's House" in Shreveport, the festive mood of the evening was
interrupted by our teenage daughter calling from the back porch,
"Daaaaaddy!" What seemed like the whole extended family charged from the
den only to find my husband's beloved Labrador Retriever, HRCH Phoebe,
bleeding profusely from the end of her obviously shortened tail, and our
daughter blubbering that she had accidentally closed the storm door too
quickly when they came in the house together. After a trip the emergency
vet's that night and surgery the next week in West Monroe, Phoebe was
recovering well. But this mishap happened right smack in the middle of
duck season, the time of year for which she and her master live. When
the vet said that Phoebe's tail, which was now 4 inches shorter, had to
be kept dry at all times, there was only one solution. Tommy covered her
bandage with duct tape (now fondly referred to at our house as Duck
Tape) and off to the blind they went. - Norma Johnson, West Monroe
I know of a waitress in a restaurant of a neighboring town who uses duct
tape to enhance her figure. She takes the excess "rolls" of flab around
her waist, rolls them up and tapes them flat to her belly. I guess you
could say it's a "redneck tummy tuck!" -Jason Ashley
When my son was born in 1983, I had to go back to work when he was only
4 weeks old. My husband and I agreed we would take turns at night
getting up with him. . . At 5:30 a.m. when the alarm went off, I could
not believe he had actually slept for an hour and a half. I got up, got
in and out of the shower, and he still had not cried. I then could not
believe I was going to have to wake him up to get him ready for the day.
I walked into my son's room and looked over into the bassinet. There I
saw him lying on his back, eyes wide as marbles, happy as could be,
sucking his pacifier which was duct taped in his mouth from ear-to-ear.
- Melinda Bonnette, West Monroe
About three years ago, I had a peach limb break while full of peaches
that were not quite ripe. I decided to put the duct tape around it. The
peaches ripened, and for the last three years, they make as though it
was never broken. I have a small peach orchard, approximately 100 trees,
and I'm never out of duct tape. - Fred L. Kennedy, Marion
My daddy . . . cut his hand one time and put WD-40 on it and wrapped it
with duct tape. - Sandra Rowton, Jena
I coordinate the girls ministry at Highland Baptist Church. Our ministry
is called G.R.A.C.E. - Girls Reaching and Changing Eternity. Each month,
we have what we call Grace nights - nights where we girls get together
for food, fellowship and fun. Our November Grace night had a duct tape
theme. We called it Duct Tape Fest. All of the games and activities we
played centered on duct tape. The funniest game was the Duct Tape
Challenge. Our girls got into teams of three and I gave each team three
rolls of duct tape. They had to tape the smallest of their team members
to the wall. The team whose taped member held the longest won. It was
pretty funny watching them slowly come untaped, and it was even funnier
to watch them try to get all of that duct tape off of themselves. We
ended our gathering with a Bible study about how Jesus holds all things
together, even when we may feel like everything's falling apart. -
Stefanie Cox, Monroe
Green duct tape was widely used by our unit in Vietnam in l963-64 to
cover up bullet holes in our airplanes. . . Most of our planes were
speckled with green tape by the end of my tour. - Don Hoyem, Monroe
My husband decided that three Friday night visits for stitches (in three
weeks in a row, nonetheless.) to the St. Francis Emergency Room was a
bit much, so when our 5-year-old son (once again) had a cut on his chin
that needed to be "put back together," off I went to retrieve the "skin
super glue" from the office. (My husband and I are both physicians).
Upon arriving back home, glue in hand, my surgeon-husband announced,
"glue and/or stitches not necessary." Lo and behold, that adorable
5-year-old chin was held together by a piece of duct tape. -Tara Mercer,
Monroe
http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005512060301
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ARTS
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UNCONVENTIONAL JAZZ SCENES
RICHARD WILLIAMS, GUARDIAN - The capital of Norway would seem an
unlikely successor to New Orleans, Chicago and New York. And yet, as
jazz heads into its second century as an international language, it's in
Oslo that its conversation is now at its most animated and productive.
Thirty years ago, when the saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the guitarist
Terje Rypdal became the first Norwegian jazz musicians to make an
international impact, no one could have predicted that their country,
with its population of 4.5 million, would now be enjoying such
pre-eminence. . . "The most characteristic thing about these Norwegian
musicians," [Rune] Kristofferson says, "is their disrespect for genre. .
. The academies in Trondheim and Oslo have been important in that
respect, encouraging musicians to step outside their own fields and
experiment in ways that help them find their own voices."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1659264,00.html
KENNY MATHIESON, SCOTSMAN - Scottish jazz lovers have never had it so
good - that, at least, is the claim of a new Radio Scotland programe,
All that Jazz. Broadcast next week, the show began life when guitarist
Martin Taylor was in Shetland with an Aberdeen-based producer, Claire
White. The pair were making a documentary about the islands' famous
guitarist, Peerie Willie Johnson, when the conversation turned to jazz.
"Martin got talking about the how vibrant the jazz scene in Scotland
was," White explains. "My main interest is in folk music, but I could
see what he was talking about. The more we thought about it, the more
there seemed to be to going on . . .
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=2362572005
SCOTT GOLD, LA TIMES - City officials and artists who call New Orleans
home announced that they would team with Habitat for Humanity to build a
village for musicians chased from their homes by Hurricane Katrina. The
alliance, which includes the Marsalis family and Harry Connick Jr., will
use $1 million in seed money generated by two recent concerts in New
York to launch the development. Plans call for as many as 200 homes
surrounding a cultural center named for Ellis Marsalis - a patriarch of
New Orleans jazz and the father of three accomplished musicians:
saxophonist Branford, trumpeter Wynton and trombonist Delfeayo.
There will be single-family dwellings for younger musicians with
families, and easy-to-care-for condominiums for elderly musicians - many
of whom had lived in poor sections of town before the storm hit. The
cultural center would include a performance hall, rehearsal space and
rooms where the musicians could give lessons to children. The
development is expected to cost about $18 million, said Jim Pate,
executive director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.
Additional money would be raised through efforts such as the sale of
DVDs and CDs - including an upcoming compilation called "Our New
Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/
la-na-village7dec07,1,4551048.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
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CIVIL LIBERTIES
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REP SAYS 18 YEAR OLD SOLDIERS SHOULD HAVE RIGHT TO DRINK
[PS: Laws prohibiting 18 year olds from drinking are unconstitutional]
AMANDA MASKER, DAILY IOWAN - Despite the right to sign a lease, vote for
the president, and lay their lives on the line, one thing 18-year-olds
legally cannot do is have a beer. New Hampshire state Rep. Jim Splaine
wants to change that for a special sector of 18-year-olds in his state.
The Democrat has sponsored a bill to lower the legal drinking age for
military personnel to 18, arguing that the United States is
"disrespecting" the young men and women who are sent into harm's way by
not allowing them a glass of wine before they leave for war. . .
Splaine argues that if 18-year-olds are being taught to use a weapon,
they should be able to consume alcohol responsibly. In fact, he believes
all adults should be able to legally drink but said he can only do one
thing at a time.
Setting the drinking age set at 21 "makes alcohol a forbidden fruit," he
said. "We are creating a generation of criminals," he said, adding that
young people drink regardless of the laws on the books.
http://www.uwire.com/content//topnews120605001.html
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POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
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FCC SAYS INTERNET USE MUST MEET NEEDS OF FBI, NOT FIRST AMENDMENT
DECLAN MCCULLAGH, CNET - The Federal Communications Commission thinks
you have the right to use software on your computer only if the FBI
approves. In an obscure "policy" document released around 9 p.m. ET last
Friday, the FCC announced this remarkable decision. According to the
three-page document, to preserve the openness that characterizes today's
Internet, "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services
of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement." Read the last
seven words again.
The FCC didn't offer much in the way of clarification. But the clearest
reading of the pronouncement is that some unelected bureaucrats at the
commission have decreed that Americans don't have the right to use
software such as Skype or PGPfone if it doesn't support mandatory
backdoors for wiretapping. (That interpretation was confirmed by an FCC
spokesman on Monday, who asked not to be identified by name. Also, the
announcement came at the same time as the FCC posted its wiretapping
rules for Internet telephony.)
Nowhere does the commission say how it jibes this official pronouncement
with, say, the First Amendment's right to speak freely, not to mention
the limited powers granted the federal government by the U.S.
Constitution.
http://news.com.com/2061-10804_3-5884130.html
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OTHER NEWS
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MORE DANGERS FOUND IN 'GOOD NIGHT MOON'
[After Harper Collins censored a book jacket photo of 'Good Night Moon'
illustrator Clement Hurd to remove the cigarette he was holding, Karen
Karbo got to work on other safety problems in the book]
KAREN KARBO, NY TIMES:
A. Huge gilt picture frames have no place in the nursery, especially
those that are not properly secured. . . Suggested change: digitally
replace with piece of lightweight non-toxic fiber art.
B. The reader has no way of knowing whether Bunny's pj's meet current
flammability standards. Suggested change: digitally alter to include
visible "flame resistant" label. . .
E. Balloons cause more choking deaths among 3- to 6-year-olds than any
other toy. Suggested change: Digitally remove. . .
F. Given proximity and brightness of stars and moon, it's apparent that
Bunny's room is in a high rise. Both windows lack either locks or any
type of window guard or restraining device. . .
H. A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change:
Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to
the wall. . .
J. Clearly the bookshelf is unanchored to the wall. If an earthquake
hit, Bunny could get squashed flat. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04karbo.html
[Then a few readers found more]
Bunny's bed has no restraining rails. Bunny could roll out of bed and be
seriously hurt. These should be installed at once. - John Collinge
Bethesda, Md
A close examination of the clock above the fireplace shows that the time
is 7 p.m. at the start of the book. At the end of the book, the time is
8:10 p.m., indicating that it takes Bunny 70 minutes to fall asleep. It
is concerning that the book implies that this length of time is
acceptable. On the contrary, 70 minutes to fall asleep suggests that
Bunny is suffering from undiagnosed and untreated insomnia - Gregory
Zimet & Lynne Sturm Indianapolis
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/opinion/l07moon.html
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MOVIE MAKERS FIND MORE WAYS TO DRIVE AWAY VIEWERS
LAURA PETRECCA AND DAVID LIEBERMAN, USA TODAY - Ad forecasters at Zenith
Optimedia said that spending on in-theater ads, usually shown before the
trailers, rose by 18% this year to $400 million - and likely will go up
by about 15% each year through 2008. . . The forecast was good news for
theater owners depressed by the 6% slide in box office receipts this
year. To attract more ads, they've spent about $150 million in the last
three years to install relatively simple digital projectors just for
ads. That's ahead of the much larger investment just beginning for full
digital conversion to movie-quality projectors. . . "I detest having to
go to a theater and sit through 20 minutes of advertising," says Robert
Bucksbaum, who's president of industry research firm Reel Source - and
owns two theaters that don't show commercials. "But it's definitely the
wave of the future."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-12-06-cinema-ads_x.htm
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WORDS
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Tenured Teachers Rarely Canned - Bloomington Pantograph
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FURTHERMORE. . .
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MORE AMERICANS TAKING COMPUTERS WITH THEM TO THE JOHN
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - A new survey of Internet use has found that more
and more people are logging on in the bathroom. The snapshot of how the
Internet has changed American life, concluded that home wireless
connections were allowing people to stay connected everywhere - even in
the smallest room in the house. "A significant number of Americans use
the computer connection in the bathroom," said Jeffrey Cole, of the
University of Southern California Annenberg School Center for the
Digital Future. Since people were unlikely to be surfing in the bath, or
while brushing their teeth, Cole said he had concluded that many of them
went off into cyberspace while on the throne. "Over half of those who
used Wi-fi had used it in the bathroom," said Cole.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005\12\07\story_7-12-2005_pg9_1
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ASHBURY PARK PRESS - The two-week musicians' strike at Radio City Music
Hall in November ended in a deal hammered out with the help of a
mediator named by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. . . If you've
followed the news accounts, that much of the story is familiar. But
little has been said about the one thing in this strike that really
matters most: the successful, if temporary, replacement of musicians
with prerecorded music. . . Musicians have become an expensive line item
in the New York entertainment industry. With the rise of technological
alternatives, theater owners have been poised with the red pen for much
of the last decade. It is even affecting the culture of Broadway shows,
as several inventive creators have handed investors neat "solutions" for
the musician problem. For instance, a reportedly very exciting,
stripped-down version of "Sweeney Todd" currently on Broadway features
the actors playing all the music themselves on a handful of instruments.
http://app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/ENT/512040317/1031
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DOUG HENWOOD, LEFT BUSINESS OBSERVER - For those of us who cut our teeth
on the power-structure studies of William Domhoff, which saw the U.S. as
ruled by an old WASP elite operating through institutions like the Ford
Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations, it's been quite a
surprise to watch the Bush administration in action. Though it should
have known better, it started a pointless war that's put U.S. power and
prestige at severe risk, and it's driven the government's accounts deep
into the red, and it's financed both reckless adventures with huge gobs
of money borrowed from abroad. A serious ruling class might have reined
them in long ago, but our elite has been too narcoticized by its tax
cuts-your average millionaire got a $60,000 break, more than the pretax
income of the average household-to complain. It's looking more and more
like that elite shares many of the same characteristics often attributed
to the couch-potato demographic: short-sightedness, political
disengagement, distractability, and ignorance of the larger world. And
since the Dems serve a dual role, as the "popular" party and as the
party of an alternative elite, their dithering reflects a crisis at the
upper levels of our society, as well as the disorganization at the lower
levels.
http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/
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JOHN CARVEL, GUARDIAN - Black people are three times more likely than
the rest of the population to be admitted to mental hospitals in England
and Wales. They are twice as likely to be sent there by the police or
the courts, and 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion, according to
the first ethnic census of inpatients, published today by the health
inspectorate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,1660467,00.html
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AP - The number of Internet users in India will shoot to 100 million in
two years from the current 38.5 million, an industry study said. The
number of Internet users has soared 54 percent from 25 million users in
2004-2005. The catalyst for this growth was the rise in online shopping
for airline and rail tickets, books and home appliances, Preeti Desai,
president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, said
Wednesday.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/07/D8EBEAN80.html
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AP - A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent
design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian
conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a
roadside beating. University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul
Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class
that was to be offered for the first time this spring. Originally called
"Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other
Religious Mythologies," the course was canceled last week at Mirecki's
request. The class was added after the Kansas State Board of Education
decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for
elementary and secondary students. "I didn't know them," Mirecki said of
his assailants, "but I'm sure they knew me."
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/education/13337930.htm
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