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June 24, 2002 Peering Over Einstein's Shoulders Seeking still more complete descriptions of the workings of spacetime, scientists are testing the boundaries of the special theory of relativity By JR Minkel After a century, Einstein's special theory of relativity, which describes the motion of particles moving at close to the speed of light, has held up remarkably well. But as scientists probe the edges of the current knowledge of physics with new tests, they may find effects that require modifications on the venerable theory. Several current theories, designed to encompass the behavior of black holes, the big bang and the...

blunt new report by Arab intellectuals commissioned by the United Nations warns that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, the repression of women and an isolation from the world of ideas that stifles creativity. The survey, the Arab Human Development Report 2002, will be released today in Cairo The report notes that while oil income has transformed the landscapes of some Arab countries, the region remains "richer than it is developed." Per capita income growth has shrunk in the last 20 years to a level just above that of sub-Saharan Africa. Productivity is declining. Research...

  Source:  Xinhua News Agency Date:  07/01/2002 03:10 Document ID:  FA20020701790000020 Subject(s):  XIN; Buddhist; Local; Water     Ancient meditation cave discovered in north China Story Filed: Monday, July 01, 2002 3:10 AM EST SHIJIAZHUANG, Jul 1, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A mysterious and previously inaccessible cave in Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, in north China's Hebei Province, s now thought to be an ancient place of meditation for Buddhist monks. The cave is located on Mount Lama, 30 kilometers northwest of the county proper of Fengning. According to historical records, for more than 500 years, local people could see only...

10,000 ancient bamboo Documents ("Slips") unearthed in Hunan Story Filed: Monday, July 01, 2002 2:49 AM EST CHANGSHA, Jul 1, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- More than 10,000 bamboo slips dating from the Warring States period (BC.476-BC.221) have been unearthed from an historic site in central China's Hunan province. Gao Chongwen, director of the archaeological institute of Beijing University, said the find was the largest of its kind and would offer more clues for archaeological research. Chinese archaeologists discovered the slips in a 16-meter deep well in an ancient city which was located at Liye village, Longshan county in Hunan,...

National Press Club Selects 2002 Awards Winners  U.S. Newswire 1 Jul 17:24 National Press Club Selects 2002 Awards WinnersTo: National Desk Contact: Paul Basken, 202-624-1827; or John Aubuchon, 202-662-7517; both of the National Press Club WASHINGTON, July 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Threats to Americans lurking in their food, hospitals and drinking water were among the dangers detailed for their readers and viewers by this year's winners in the 29th annual National Press Club journalism awards competition. Chosen from more than 250 entries in 22 categories from press criticism to consumer journalism, the 34 honorees also helped their audiences in such...

CANBERRA, July 1 (Reuters) - Australian authorities have cracked down education courses being used by foreigners as a front to get into the country with over 5,000 overseas students thrown out in nine months for not attending classes or working illegally. The expulsions come as Australia clamps down on illegal immigration, joining forces with regional neighbours to combat organised gangs of people smugglers profiting from human cargo. The number of visas granted to students offshore has surged in recent years, with 75,594 visas handed out in the year to June 30, 2001, a 16 percent jump on a year earlier,...

(Reuters) - A U.S. plane bombed a village in the central Afghan province of Uruzgan on Monday killing at least 30 members of a wedding party and injuring many more, Afghan officials and residents said. U.S. military officials confirmed there had been civilian casualties and said the incident was being investigated. The bombing happened at 1 a.m. Monday in a village in the mountainous region 105 miles northeast of the southern city of Kandahar, residents said. They told the local Pashtu service of the BBC at least 120 people had been either killed or wounded. An Afghan Defense Ministry official...

The response to the court's decision exposed the fundamentalism that weaves through American public life, where many, a la Chung, confuse the worship of God with patriotism. If only "Hardball" could book Francis Bellamy today. His version of the pledge did not contain a reference to God. Those two words were added in 1954, when Congress, reacting to a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, inserted those two words and turned the pledge into a public prayer of sorts. (The point was to contrast the godly United States of America with the godless Soviet Union.) So the pledge had worked...

My Life As An International Arms Courierfrom mab@research.att.com (Matt Blaze) Fri, 06 Jan 95 as posted to the RISKS digest Under an obscure provision of US law, devices and computer programs that use encryption techniques to hide information from prying eyes and ears are considered ``munitions'' and subject to the same rules that govern the international arms trade. In particular, taking such items out of this country requires the approval of the State Department, which decides whether exporting something might endanger national security. In the past, these restrictions were of little concern to the average citizen; encryption found most of...

The massive chasm among blacks on public education is yet another example of how mainstream black leaders often march to a far different tune than poor and working class blacks. These leaders are mostly liberal, middle-class business and professionals. Their kids are safely nestled in private schools and escape the ravages of bad public schools. Poor and working class blacks have no such luxury.

Based on what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza, these could be the twilight days of the sinking Palestinian regime. Like a drowning man gasping at straws, Arafat and his people are issuing a stream of orders for governmental reforms. It's all being done to satisfy domestic pressures and even more, the external pressure from America. In East Jerusalem, they joked this weekend that the delivery of Bush's speech was delayed because it took time for the White House to find a translator from Hebrew to English. Meanwhile, there's relative quiet in the territories and the number of...

What Not To Write On Your Security Clearance Formas reported in the silent-tristero list and RISKS Date: 01 Apr 88 1620 PSTFrom: Les Earnest <LES@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>Subject: The "previous account" referred to in RISKS-6.51 e-t-a-o-n-r-i Spy and the FBI Reading a book got me into early trouble--I had an FBI record by age twelve. This bizarre incident caused a problem much later when I needed a security clearance. I learned that I could obtain one only by concealing my sordid past. A friend named Bob and I read the book ``Secret and Urgent,'' by Fletcher Pratt [Blue Ribbon Books; Garden City, NY;...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive solar eruption, more than 30 times the length of Earth's diameter, blasted away from the sun on Monday, and a satellite captured graphic images of the event. The eruption occurred at 9:19 a.m. EDT and showed up in a picture taken by one instrument of the SOHO satellite as a fiery-looking "leg" in the lower-left corner of the image, scientists said in a statement. Pictures taken over the following 90 minutes by another SOHO instrument show a loopy-looking eruption taking place and then dispersing. All images are visible at the SOHO Web site, http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov. The...

RECORD REPORT FOR SAN ANTONIO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 830 PM CDT MON JUL 1 2002 ...RECORD JULY RAINFALL AT SAN ANTONIO...AND THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH ISN'T EVEN OVER YET... AS OF 8:30 PM CDT...SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HAD RECEIVED 9.33 INCHES OF RAIN SO FAR TODAY. THIS NOT ONLY IS A NEW RECORD RAINFALL FOR A JULY 1ST...IT IS A NEW RECORD FOR THE MONTH OF JULY. THE PREVIOUS RECORD FOR A JULY 1ST WAS 4.07 INCHES ON JULY 1 1932. THE PREVIOUS RECORD MONTHLY TOTAL FOR JULY WAS 8.29 INCHES IN 1990. AND IT...

Kid Pelted With Jelly As Punishment Sat Jun 29,11:13 AM ET CREIGHTON, Mo. (AP) - When eighth-graders lined up to throw jelly at a classmate, their teacher called it creative peer discipline. The students thought it was fun. But the school board isn't so sure, and has ordered a review of how student discipline is handled at Sherwood Middle School. "I was horrified when I heard about it," board member Blanche Williams said. English teacher Frank Fleming had the classmates toss jelly at eighth-grader Andy Johnson as punishment for refusing to take part in a reading exercise. Johnson had agreed...

Texans Chip in to Rescue Stranded Chicken-Hypnotist Texans Chip in to Rescue Stranded Chicken-HypnotistFri Jun 28, 9:19 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - The plight of an Alaskan chicken-hypnotist whose circus tour was cut short in Edinburgh when a charity shop sold her bicycle by mistake has tweaked heartstrings as far afield as Austin, Texas. Emily Harris left the 1,200-pound ($1,800) bicycle inside the shop this week and found it was missing after she came out of a fitting room. A shop assistant had sold it for 10 pounds. Now a group of Austin engineers, who read about her loss on...

Al Qaeda thriving in Pakistani KashmirSheltered by Pakistani intelligence, officially banned Islamic militants are moving freely near the Indian border.By Philip Smucker | Special to The Christian Science Monitor TARSHING, KASHMIR - Nasir Ali, a wiry jeep driver, says Al Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan have arrived here in large numbers. He should know, he says, because he was the one who gave them a lift in from northern Pakistan after their escape from Afghanistan. "I, myself, drove three Arab fighters into the center of Kashmir," says Ali. "I carried them only part way in and their own jeeps met us...

By Astrid Zweynert LONDON (Reuters) - UK prisoners leaving jail could be asked to sign "going straight" contracts to stop them committing more crimes, according to a government report on Monday. Re-offending accounts for an estimated one million crimes a year in Britain, or 18 percent of recorded crime, at a cost of 11 billion pounds ($16.8 billion), according to figures released in the report by the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU). To tackle chronically high re-offending rates, the SEU proposed prisoners should sign contracts on sentencing, promising future good behavior in return for support and a range of benefits on...

Ottawa — As neighbours go, they can be downright un-Canadian — honking rudely at strangers, huffing about having to share space, thoughtlessly leaving their crap lying around. Good looks only get you so far when you're a goose, and in the United States, the locals have had it with the boorish habits of the white-cheeked species that bears the name of their neighbour to the north. From New York to Seattle, they're debating a lethal eviction of unprecedented proportion; in some cities, the gas chambers have already dispatched unlucky gaggles, sometimes even serving the birds up at soup kitchens. The...

This Fourth of July marks the 225th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This occasion is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called "the declaratory charter of our rights." As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to Great Britain. But its greater meaning--then as well as now--is as a statement of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of government,...