- Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 26 Sep 2007 -



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U.S. News
Handcuffed Mexican kids steal U.S. border agent car


Reuters
2007-09-26 16:53:00

Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico.

Police in the Mexican border city of Mexicali said on Tuesday the three boys had been driving a pick-up truck on a remote Californian highway when a Border Patrol agent stopped them.

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Navy to alter swastika-shaped barracks


Associated Press
2007-09-26 16:48:00

The Navy will spend as much as $600,000 to modify a 40-year-old barracks complex that resembles a swastika from the air, a gaffe that went largely unnoticed before satellite images became easily accessible on the Internet.

The Navy said officials noted the buildings' shape after the groundbreaking in 1967 but decided against changing it at the time because it wasn't obvious from the ground. Aerial photos made available on Google Earth in recent years have since revealed the buildings' shape to a wide audience.

©Google Maps


The Navy approved the money to change the walkways, landscaping and rooftop solar panels of the four L-shaped barracks, used by members of the Naval Construction Force at the Navy's amphibious base at Coronado, near San Diego.

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3 charged in PC magazine editor's death


Business Week
2007-09-26 16:48:00

Three men have been charged with murdering a senior editor for PC World magazine in what police said was an attempt to steal marijuana that the victim's son grew in their home for medical use.

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UAW, GM tentative deal ends strike

Katie Merx, Tim Higgins, Sarah A. Wester and Joe Guy Collier
Detroit Free Press
2007-09-26 16:24:00

The UAW and General Motors Corp. this morning reached a tentative agreement on a new, landmark contract for 74,000 autoworkers, ending the union's first nationwide strike against the automaker in 37 years.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger announced the agreement at a 4 a.m. news conference at the union's national headquarters in Detroit. He and Vice President Cal Rapson sent an e-mail announcing the agreement to local union leaders immediately before the news conference.

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The Lies and Truths told at the United Nations General Assembly


Guardian
2007-09-26 16:04:00

UNITED NATIONS - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will address the United Nations General Assembly today as the high-level meeting of world leaders continues. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque is also expected to speak. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had been slotted to speak in the afternoon, but he pulled out at the last minute, leaving his foreign minister to take his place.

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Rather may call Bush as a witness in lawsuit


The Examiner
2007-09-26 16:06:00

Former "Evening News" Dan Rather choked back tears on several occasions today when discussing his decision to file a lawsuit against CBS and he left many audience members with a sense that he may call President George W. Bush as a witness should the lawsuit proceed to trial (and Rather said he hoped it would).

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Boy who flew to Moscow in plane's wheel well faces amputation


RIA Novosti
2007-09-26 16:59:00

A boy who survived a freezing two-hour flight to Moscow in the wheel well of a Boeing-737's wing may lose his hands to amputation, Russian newspaper Tvoi Den reported Wednesday.

The paper said the 15-year-old boy from the Urals, Andrei Shcherbakov, was taken back to Perm after a Moscow clinic refused to continue treating him, despite the severity of his injuries.

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Pictured girl 'is not Madeleine'


BBC News
2007-09-26 17:05:00

©BBC
A child said to resemble Madeleine McCann appears in a holiday picture taken by a Spanish tourist in Morocco three weeks ago


A blonde girl photographed in Morocco is not missing Madeleine McCann, according to journalists who met her.

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Propaganda Alert! Al-qaeda taps Europe for new recruits

Pamela Hess
Associated Press
2007-09-26 04:35:00

Al-Qaida continues to recruit Europeans for explosives training in Pakistan because Europeans can more easily enter the United States without a visa, the nation's top intelligence officer said Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said European al-Qaida recruits in the border region of Pakistan are being trained to use commercially available substances to make explosives, and they may be able to carry out an attack on U.S. territory.



Comment: Oh no! Al-CIAda is at it again. Run for cover!



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Dalai Lama winning one battle against China


AFP
2007-09-26 04:09:00

The Dalai Lama's frequent high-profile foreign tours this year show China's enduring attempts to isolate the Tibetan spiritual leader and ruin his image have had little impact, observers said.

Defying harsh warnings from China, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday held a historic meeting with the Dalai Lama in Berlin, during which she gave support to his quest for greater cultural autonomy for his homeland.



Comment: There is little doubt that Western Governments are using the Dalai Lama to unsettle the Chinese, according to the principle: 'Divide and rule'. China has many ethnic minorities, that if encouraged could be a concern for the ruling central government.



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Around the World
Hundreds of fish poisoned at Malaysia's largest aquarium


RIA Novosti
2007-09-26 17:02:00

Hundreds of fish are believed to have been deliberately poisoned at Malaysia's largest aquarium, the country's national news agency Bernama said Wednesday.

Underwater World Langkawi's deputy general manager Mohd Hafizuddin Abdullah said about 600 fish of 50 species, including sharks, stingrays, and barracudas, were found dead late on Monday.

An investigation is underway and the police are trying to discover the type of poison used, believed to be petroleum-based.

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Propaganda Alert! Analysts watch, wince as Mexico's oil supply dwindles

David Adams
St Petersburg Times
2007-09-26 16:31:00

MIAMI - When left-wing guerrillas in Mexico bombed several pipelines in simultaneous attacks this month, it sent a shudder through that country's large oil and gas industry.

The threat of economic sabotage by a shady group known as the Revolutionary Popular Army EPR poses a major new headache for the Mexican government. But Mexico's energy industry problems run far deeper than terrorist attacks on its infrastructure, analysts say, and have major implications for U.S. oil supply.

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Australian Government warns of global food shock


Herald Sun
2007-09-26 16:31:00

Former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader John Anderson has warned of a potential global food shock due to falling production and soaring prices.

Mr Anderson said anyone outraged by the Federal Government's support package for drought-hit farmers had never gone hungry.

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West 'complicit' in Third World corruption

Hugh Williamson
Financial Times
2007-09-26 15:07:00

Western multinationals and financial centres are often "complicit in driving corruption in poor nations", Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog, charged on Wednesday as it published its annual ranking of how corrupt different countries are perceived to be.

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Transcript of Ahmadinejad's U.N. Speech


NPR
2007-09-19 09:48:00

The following is a transcript of remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Madam President, Distinguished Heads of State and Government, Distinguished Heads of Delegation, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I praise the Merciful, All-Knowing and Almighty God for blessing me with another opportunity to address this Assembly on behalf of the great nation of Iran and to bring a number of issues to the attention of the international community.

I also praise the Almighty for the increasing vigilance of peoples across the globe, their courageous presence in different international settings, and the brave expression of their views and aspirations regarding global issues.

Today, humanity passionately craves commitment to the Truth, devotion to God, quest for Justice and respect for the dignity of human beings. Rejection of domination and aggression, defense of the oppressed, and longing for peace constitute the legitimate demand of the peoples of the world, particularly the new generations and the spirited youth, who aspire a world free from decadence, aggression and injustice, and replete with love and compassion. The youth have a right to seek justice and the Truth; and they have a right to build their own future on the foundations of love, compassion and tranquility. And, I praise the Almighty for this immense blessing.

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Vietnam bridge collapse kills 52

Ben Stocking
AP
2007-09-26 08:43:00

A section of a bridge under construction in southern Vietnam collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 52 workers and injuring 97 others, officials said.

The bridge was being built across the Hau River, a branch of the Mekong River, in the southern city of Can Tho. It is part of a heavily used route linking the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.

©AP
Rescue workers try to search for survivors of a collapsed bridge in southern Vinh Long province.


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Big Brother
Orwellian logic: U.S. security czar says surrendering info best way to protect privacy


Canwest
2007-09-26 14:23:00

If Canadians value their privacy, they must be willing to give up some personal information and surrender to electronic body-scans at airports and other technology to help security officials identify potential terrorist threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a speech Wednesday.


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Big Brother is keeping tabs on satnav motorists


Daily Mail
2007-09-25 09:42:00

A secret 'Big Brother' operation is allowing officials to pinpoint the exact location of thousands of vehicles with satellite navigation systems.

The controversial scheme is built into the small print of a contract between the Department for Transport and the satnav company Trafficmaster.

©Solent News
Motorists using Trafficmaster satnav systems can be pinpointed by the Government.


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Your cell phone movements not protected

Jennifer Granick
Wired
2007-09-25 21:18:00

This morning, you left the house tagged with a tracking device that the government can use to find out where you have been and where you are going.

I'm talking, of course, about your cell phone. Mobile phones communicate continuously with cellular towers in order to receive calls, sending out a signal registering its existence and identity with the provider's nearest towers. The provider stores this cell-site data, which can be triangulated to determine the customer's physical location.

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Axis of Evil
'A Coup Has Occurred'

Daniel Ellsberg
ICH
2007-09-26 17:06:00

Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007



I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.



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Transcript of Private 2003 Bush-Anzar Talk Promising Iraq Invasion


Editor & Publisher
2007-09-26 14:27:00

El Pais, the highest-circulation daily in Spain, today published what it said was the transcript of a private talk between President George W. Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on February 22, 2003, concerning the coming U.S. invasion of Iraq. It took place at the ranch in Crawford, Texas.


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Bush threatened nations that did not back Iraq war: report


AFP
2007-09-26 13:14:00

US President George W. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war, according to a transcript published Wednesday of a conversation he had with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

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Flashback: Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war

Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Peter Beaumont
The Observer
2003-03-02 13:19:00

The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.

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Confessions of an "ex" Peak Oil Believer

F William Engdahl
Geopolitics - Geoeconomics
2007-09-14 09:49:00

The good news is that panic scenarios about the world running out of oil anytime soon are wrong. The bad news is that the price of oil is going to continue to rise. Peak Oil is not our problem. Politics is. Big Oil wants to sustain high oil prices. Dick Cheney and friends are all too willing to assist.

On a personal note, I've researched questions of petroleum, since the first oil shocks of the 1970's. I was intrigued in 2003 with something called Peak Oil theory. It seemed to explain the otherwise inexplicable decision by Washington to risk all in a military move on Iraq.

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Greenspan's Oil Claim in Context

Dilip Hiro and Tom Engelhardt
antiwar.com
2007-09-26 03:37:00

Before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, discussion of Iraqi oil was largely taboo in the American mainstream, while the "No Blood for Oil" signs that dotted antiwar demonstrations were generally derisively dismissed as too simpleminded for serious debate. American officials rarely even mentioned the word "oil" in the same sentence with "Iraq." When President Bush referred to Iraqi oil, he spoke only of preserving that country's "patrimony" for its people, a sentiment he and Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair emphasized in a statement they issued that lacked either the words "oil" or "energy" just as Baghdad fell: "We reaffirm our commitment to protect Iraq's natural resources, as the patrimony of the people of Iraq, which should be used only for their benefit."

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Middle East Madness
U.S. soldier pleads not guilty to killing Iraqis

Katarina Kratovac
AP
2007-09-26 10:19:00

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of killing Iraqis and then trying to cover it up by planting weapons on their bodies.

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Series of bombs kill 21 in north Iraq

Dominic Evans and Aseel Kami
Reuters
2007-09-26 09:07:00

Suspected al Qaeda militants are stepping up attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, as a spate of bombings in the north of the country killed 21 people and wounded dozens.

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Seven people killed in separate Israeli attacks on Gaza

Rami Almeghari
IMEMC
2007-09-26 14:48:00

Seven Palestinians have been killed and at least 20 others have been wounded in two separate fresh Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, medics and witnesses said.


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Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions


Fars News Agency
2007-09-26 13:24:00

Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger's insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.

The following is the full text of the letter.

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Israel: 2 'dangerous' mental patients at large

Ahiya Raved
Ynet
2007-09-26 11:01:00

Man considered a 'danger to himself and the public' escapes Tirat Hacarmel hospital's closed ward; 26-year-old accused of assaulting his father's girlfriend flees Shaar Menashe psychiatric hospital.

A 39-year old resident of Haifa fled the Mental Health Hospital in Tirat Hacarmel Wednesday morning after being sent there to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Police said the man was "a danger to himself and the public".

©Unknown
Man who fled Tirat Hacarmel hospital.


The man was arrested in the Krayot area on Tuesday after slapping and threatening to kill a doctor who was treating him. A local judge ordered that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and he was escorted to the hospital by officers from the Prisons Authority's special escort unit Wednesday morning.

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Flashback: Iran bans being gay, but offers sex change operation

Megan K. Stack
Los Angeles Times
2005-01-30 12:00:00

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, gay male sex still carries the death penalty and lesbians are lashed, but hundreds of people are having their gender changed legally, bolstered by the blessings of members of the ruling Shiite clergy.

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The Loan Gunmen
US Treasury says investors must better evaluate derivatives


Reuters
2007-09-26 17:03:00

Investors and their fiduciaries must do a better job of evaluating the risks of increasingly complex securitized derivatives products, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Wednesday.

Anthony Ryan, the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial markets, said complexity may well be a reason not to invest in a security, but it should not be an excuse for a buyer to justify a loss.

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Central banks' actions fail to calm money market

Michael Mackenzie, Stacy-Marie Ishmael, Ralph Atkins and Gillian Tett
Financial Times
2007-09-25 16:21:00

The European Central Bank faced a fresh surge in demand for liquidity on Tuesday when it allocated weekly refinancing funds at an average of 4.29 per cent, the highest spread over the minimum bid rate for almost five years.

The unexpectedly strong appetite suggests the ECB is again facing difficulties bringing interest rates in line with its 4 per cent main rate. Tuesday's auction bids totalled €369bn compared with its estimated "benchmark" requirement of €157bn.

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Fallout from global financial crisis will be long lasting, warns IMF

Stephen Foley
UK Independent
2007-09-25 12:29:00

The global credit crisis is not over, and its effects will be long lasting, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The organisation's twice-yearly Global Financial Stability report warned that many of the lax lending practices of the past few years will have to change, and economic growth will be crimped by the current correction.

Adding to the gloom, Rodrigo Rato, the IMF's managing director, said yesterday the US will bear the brunt of the economic consequences of the crisis, with the bulk of the impact not being felt until next year.

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Survey says consumers cutting back on restaurants


Reuters
2007-09-24 09:55:00

More than half of U.S. consumers plan to eat out less in the next three months due to jitters over declining home values, high gas prices and the overall economy, according to a survey by RBC Capital Markets.

The survey of 1,000 people found that 54 percent of Americans said they would eat at restaurants less often over the next three months. Two of five respondents said they are already dining out less frequently than they were six months ago.

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Subprime Panic Freezes $40 Billion of Canadian Commercial Paper

Rob Delaney
Bloomberg
2007-09-25 21:26:00

On Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle, Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. almost missed its window to ship provisions to workers before winter arrives. The delay came not from the weather, but from a sudden freeze in the market for short-term debt 2,000 miles south in Toronto.

Baffinland ran short of funds to pay for food, fuel and drilling equipment after investing in commercial paper that borrowers couldn't repay. Without the money, the company had to arrange an emergency line of credit before shipping lanes froze over.

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Banks lending tightens in the UK, credit crunch bites

Sean Poulter and Lucy Farndon
Daily Mail
2007-09-25 21:05:00

Banks are turning away business, cutting lending limits and putting up interest rates as the credit crunch takes hold.

Fears over bad debt and the difficulty in borrowing money on the global markets is putting a squeeze on families.

Some firms specialising in mortgages for those with a patchy credit history have pushed up loan rates to an astonishing 11.5 per cent - double the Bank of England base rate.

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The Living Planet
25 Yard, Half Foot Deep Lightning Trench in Florida

Jene' Young
WKRG.com
2007-09-10 16:51:00

For all of us on the Gulf Coast, lightning is nothing new. But many people have never seen a lightning trench as visually compelling as one we heard about at a local family cemetary.

This story first began after the Labor Day Weekend. The strike left behind the mysterious trench that has family members checking for any damage to their families graves.

©Alan Sealls, WKRG-TV
Lightning trench in West Mobile created when lightning struck tree, travelled down to ground and then horizonatally just below ground surface.


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Fertilizers linked to frog deformities

Bill Scanlon
Rocky Mountain News
2007-09-25 16:36:00

Fertilizers from farms and lawns are responsible for frog deformities cropping up in ponds and lakes across North America, a new study shows.

The finding not only has implications for worldwide amphibian declines, but could shine light on such diseases as cholera, malaria, West Nile virus and diseases affecting coral reefs, said assistant professor Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado's ecology and evolutionary biology department.

©Pieter Johnson / University Of Colorado


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Flashback: 9-legged frog raises concerns


11Alive.com
2007-07-06 15:53:00

If you are a parent, then you know kids will sometimes bring home a new pet. But when a little boy brought a 9-legged frog home to Kansas, some adults got worried.

©11Alive.com
The 9-legged frog is raising concerns about a former landfill.


Looking from above, the frog may seem normal. But with a closer look, it's clear there is a problem.

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5.6 Magnitude Quake Off Papua New Guinea


AP
2007-09-26 11:27:00

An earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea but there was no threat of a major tsunami, officials said Thursday.

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Health & Wellness
Flashback: The Age of Autism: The Amish Elephant

Dan Olmsted
UPI
2005-10-30 09:51:00

A specter is haunting the medical and journalism establishments of the United States: Where are the unvaccinated people with autism?

That is just about the only way to explain what now appears to be a collective resistance to considering that question. And like all unanswered questions, this raises another one: Why?


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Do vaccinations cause autism? Federal court seeks answers

Dick Dahl
Lawyers USA
2007-09-26 17:11:00

For the first year of his life, Yates Hazelhurst was a normal boy.

But then his parents took him to the doctor's office for a series of routine vaccinations, and shortly thereafter Yates began changing into something else altogether.

First, Angela Hazelhurst noticed that her son was growing oddly detached from her. Soon the boy began acting strangely - uncontrolled and wild. Then his speech regressed; his small vocabulary receding. He began flapping his hands and grew fascinated with spinning wheels.

The symptoms were unmistakable. Yates Hazelhurst was autistic.

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Weight gain between first and second pregnancies associated with increased odds of male second child


Harvard School of Public Health
2007-09-26 17:04:00

A slightly greater number of males than females are born worldwide every year. In recent decades, although there are still more baby boys born than girls, there has been an apparent decline in the ratio of male to female newborns in several industrialized countries, including Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Japan and the United States. That has led researchers to ask: Are there any factors that can influence the probability of giving birth to a baby boy or girl? A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, found that mothers who experienced an increase in weight from the beginning of the first pregnancy to the beginning of the second pregnancy may be slightly more likely to give birth to a baby boy during their second pregnancy. The study appears online September 24, 2007 in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

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Vaccines and autism? Parents contend one causes the other

Matt Hutton
The Register-Mail
2007-09-26 16:40:00

Actress Jenny McCarthy set off a buzz throughout the Internet when she claimed the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine triggered her son's autism.

Following her appearance last week on "Oprah," where she was discussing her new book outlining her son's struggle with autism, many blogs picked up the story and parents began coming forward to back up McCarthy's claim about the MMR vaccine.

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Music training improves verbal skills


UPI
2007-09-25 16:29:00

Music training may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than phonics, a U.S. study found.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., say musicians use all of their senses to practice and perform a musical piece. The brain's alteration from the multi-sensory process of music training enhances the same communication skills needed for speaking and reading, explains researcher Nina Kraus.

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Deaths Associated with HPV Vaccine Start Rolling In, Over 3500 Adverse Affects Reported

John-Henry Westen
Lifesite
2007-09-26 16:18:00

As Canada, in large part due to aggressive behind the scenes lobbying, rolls out the not-comprehensively-tested Merck HPV vaccine for girls as young as nine, a look at developments on the vaccine south of the border should cause Canadians serious concern. In the United States a similar lobby campaign by the same company launched the mass HPV vaccination of girls beginning in June last year.

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Science & Technology
NASA to Embark on Asteroid-Belt Mission

Marcia Duncan
AP
2007-09-26 15:02:00

NASA is about to embark on an unprecedented asteroid-belt mission with a spacecraft aptly named Dawn. The 3 billion-mile, eight-year journey to probe the earliest stages of the solar system will begin with liftoff, planned for just after sunrise Thursday. Rain is forecast, however, and could force a delay.

Scientists have been waiting for Dawn to rise since July, when the mission was put off because of the more pressing need to launch NASA's latest Mars lander, the Phoenix. Once Phoenix rocketed away in August, that cleared the way for Dawn.

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Astronomers Spot New 'Halley-Like' Comet

Ker Than
Space.com
2007-09-25 14:53:00

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has spotted an unusual comet that flies around the sun at regular intervals.

©Space.com


Dubbed P/2007 R5 (SOHO), the object belongs to a rare class of comets called periodic comets. Only 190 of the thousands of known comets are periodic. The most famous periodic comet is Halley's Comet, which can be seen from Earth every 76 years and last passed close to the sun in 1986.

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What is going on? Archeologist finds overlooked baskets, jars in Tutankhamun tomb


RIA Novosti
2007-09-26 14:10:00

Eight fruit-filled baskets and 20 sealed jars previously un-noticed by Egyptologists have been found concealed in a chamber adjoining the tomb of King Tutankhamun, a top Egyptian archaeologist said.

The 3,300-year-old find is highly surprising considering the vast number of visitors and researchers that have descended into the boy-pharaoh's tomb since British explorer Howard Carter discovered and broke into the treasure-packed burial place in the early 1920s.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, a world-famous Egyptologist who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said his team of archaeologists had discovered baskets containing "large quantities of well-preserved doum [palm] fruits," and twenty pear-shaped vases bearing Tutankhamun's official seal.

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Satellite Searches Could Spot Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster

Benjamin Radford
LiveScience
2007-09-25 12:23:00

Adventurer Steve Fossett went missing Sept. 3 about 70 miles southeast of Reno, Nevada, in a small plane. He left no flight plan, and searchers have combed tens of thousands of square miles of Nevada and California. After weeks of fruitless searches, and with the survival window closing, Web users were enlisted to help in Fossett's rescue, from the comfort of their own homes.

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Scientists say velociraptor had feathers


Associated Press
2007-09-25 18:16:00

Velociraptor, the terrifying predator made famous in the movie "Jurassic Park," appears to have had feathers in real life.

A close study of a velociraptor forearm found in Mongolia shows the presence of quill knobs, bumps on the bone where the feathers anchor, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

©AP
Enlargement of the lower central portion of the ulna show the presence of quill knobs.


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Our Haunted Planet
Thompson Files: To save humanity

Loren B. Thompson
United Press International
2007-09-25 16:51:00

ARLINGTON, Va. -- I know how the world ends, and it isn't with a whimper. You can see humanity's epitaph etched in advance by simply gazing up at the moon on any evening and observing the vast craters created by ancient asteroids hitting the lunar surface.

Earth has suffered many such impacts over its 4.5 billion year history. An extrapolation of lunar data suggests that there have been up to 22,000 asteroid collisions with the Earth creating craters a dozen miles in diameter or bigger. One such impact created the Chesapeake Bay, and someday another will wipe out humanity, assuming some other cataclysm hasn't claimed us first.

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Speak 'Bush' in one easy lesson


AFP
2007-09-26 16:55:00

US President George W. Bush says "nuke-you-lar" not "nuclear," but on Tuesday visitors to the United Nations Internet site could get a handy, abbreviated presidential pronunciation guide for other challenging words.

A quickly remedied glitch momentarily gave visitors to the UN website a version of Bush's UN General Assembly speech that included phonetic spellings for world leaders, a former Soviet satellite, and at least one capital.

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Coach stops runaway horse by biting ear


Associated Press
2007-09-26 03:21:00

OKLAHOMA CITY - The coach of Oklahoma City's minor-league hockey team helped prevent a possible stampede of Belgian horses at the Oklahoma State Fair by biting one of the animals on its ear.

Doug Sauter, who coaches the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League, was at the fair Saturday attending the Centennial Expo's Draft Horse Show when he saw a Belgian horse break free from its reins. That caused a chain reaction that spooked other horses, he said Monday.


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