Around the World
By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 19, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 19, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
A new online information service launching in early 2006 aims to build on the model of free online encyclopedia Wikipedia by inviting acknowledged experts in a range of subjects to review material contributed by the general public.
Called Digital Universe, the project is the brainchild of, among others, USWeb founder Joe Firmage and Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's earliest creators.
Comment: Comment: As Wikipedia stumbles, a new web site is created that will be written by "an elite core of PhD's". Given that the advance of science is currently hampered to a large extent by this same core of PhD's, we aren't exactly optimistic about Wikipedia's new replacement.
Mon Dec 19, 2005
By Fiona Ortiz
Mon Dec 19, 2005
By Fiona Ortiz
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Evo Morales, who challenges U.S. anti-drug policies, was set to become Bolivia's first Indian president and join Latin America's shift to leftist leadership after winning an unexpectedly large majority in Sunday's elections.
Morales' rivals conceded defeat when results tabulated by local media showed him taking slightly more than 50 percent of the vote, much higher than predicted.
Should Morales capture more than half of the votes he would avoid facing a congressional vote between the two top vote-getters as requried by Bolivian law.
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
19 December 2005
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
19 December 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
A swath of space beyond Neptune is getting stranger all the time as astronomers find an ever-more diverse array of objects in various orbits and groupings.
A pair of discoveries this month along with a handful of others in 2005 have begun to reveal what some astronomers long suspected: The outer solar system contains a dizzying array of round worlds on countless odd trajectories around the sun, often with multiple satellite systems.
The problem is, current theories of the solar systems formation and evolution cant account for it all.
CHRIS STEPHEN AND ALLAN HALL
The Scotsman
Tue 20 Dec 2005
CHRIS STEPHEN AND ALLAN HALL
The Scotsman
Tue 20 Dec 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.
Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.
According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."
Comment: Comment: Unlike the Soviets, the Americans were successful in producing a half-man half-ape "superwarrior":
By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff
20 December 2005
By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff
20 December 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Around midnight on January 27, 1700, a mysterious tsunami stole through several villages on the eastern coast of Japan.
The waves reached as high as 12 feet and flooded rice paddies, washed away buildings and damaged fishing shacks and salt kilns. Sleeping villagers awoke startled and wet and had to hastily scramble to high ground. The waters knocked down oil lamps and started a fire in one village and destroyed 20 houses in another.
The waves pounded the villages all through that night and into the late morning of the next day.
They swept through Miho, a village about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of what is now Tokyo, about seven times.
The tsunami struck not only without warning, but without an apparent cause.
By Erik Kirschbaum
Reuters
December 20, 2005
By Erik Kirschbaum
Reuters
December 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
BERLIN - Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand, armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the big man in red a bad name this year.
Reports of "Bad Santas" breaking the law or otherwise wreaking havoc have been circulating around the world.
By BOB MOEN
Associated Press Writer
December 20, 2005
By BOB MOEN
Associated Press Writer
December 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Wyoming is embarking on an $8.8 million, five-year cloud-seeding project that aims to bolster mountain snowpack, and possibly yield proof of whether cloud seeding actually works.
AP
Mon Dec 19,10:17 PM ET
AP
Mon Dec 19,10:17 PM ET
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
MEXICO CITY - Kidnappers in Mexico are far more likely to kill their victims than are their counterparts in Colombia, the country long considered to have the world's worst abduction record, an anti-crime group said Monday.
About one out of every seven people kidnapped in Mexico died at the hands of their captors in 2005, compared to one out of every 26 victims in Colombia, according to a report by the Citizen Council for Public Safety, a private-sector think tank.
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
December 20, 2005
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
December 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
WASHINGTON - Drinking water may have a lot more in it than just H20 and fluoride, according to an environmental group's analysis of records in 42 states.
A survey by the Environmental Working Group released on Tuesday found 141 unregulated chemicals and an additional 119 for which the Environmental Protection Agency has set health-based limits. Most common among the chemicals found were disinfection byproducts, nitrates, chloroform, barium, arsenic and copper.
Comment: Comment: Ah yes, keeping the population sick, docile and subservient, one glass of water at a time.
AP
December 20, 2005
AP
December 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
ROME - A passenger train rammed into another at a station south of Rome on Tuesday, injuring about 20 people, Italy's state railway said.
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