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TEST TEST

Weeks before the Army's Stryker vehicle is scheduled to make its combat debut in Iraq, the Army has discovered manufacturing problems in some of its armor plating that could make it vulnerable to heavy machine-gun fire, according to Army officials familiar with the program. The extent of the problem is still unknown, but it's serious enough that Army officials have launched a crash program to test the plates at their Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. They are hopeful it won't delay deployment of troops from Fort Lewis, said two Army officials at the Pentagon, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Immigrants 'should pass Britishness test' (Filed: 03/09/2003) Immigrants who want a UK passport should have free English lessons and pass a new "Britishness test". A blueprint for the compulsory new exam said applicants should learn about the history of the UK. An earlier version of the proposals published in January was criticised for concentrating on how to claim benefits and use the NHS, and for insisting that learning about Britain's history "should not be an imposed pre-condition". David Blunkett, Home Secretary, unveiled the proposals, drawn up by the Life in the United Kingdom Advisory Panel, alongside its chairman Sir Bernard...

A $100 test kit may give parents the ability to check if their children are having sex and allow a jealous spouse to see if their partner is cheating. The kits, being sold in Melbourne, detect semen on clothing, using an enzyme applied to the underwear of teenagers suspected of sexual activity or partners suspected of infidelity. The enzyme turns purple if semen is present. The manufacturer's website tells parents: "You have the right and responsibility to do everything you can to prevent your child from becoming a statistic." But health and privacy experts have warned that parents who use...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) was quoted July 27 in the New York Times saying that "the left is trying to enforce an anti-religious litmus test" in which "nominees who openly adhere to Catholic and Baptist doctrines, as a matter of personal faith, are unqualified for the federal bench in the eyes of the liberal Washington interest groups." Hatch’s remarks appear to be part of a sustained strategy by Republicans. The idea is to expose Senate Democrats as religiously intolerant in light of their efforts to block a number of President Bush’s appellate court nominees who are either Catholic...

PAPEETE, Tahiti (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac, making his first visit to Polynesia since ordering a final round of nuclear tests in the South Pacific in 1995, on Saturday defended the decades of testing that some islanders claimed gave them cancer. Chirac, making a five-day visit to the French territory of Tahiti, said the atomic tests that generated international outrage helped establish France as a world power. "Without Polynesia, France would not be the great power that it is, capable of expressing in the concert of nations an autonomous, independent and respected position," he said. Dancers wearing traditional garb...

BOSTON - The widely used PSA blood test, designed to detect early signs of prostate cancer, misses 82% of tumors in men younger than 60, a new study found. In men older than 60, the prostate-specific antigen test missed 65% of cancers, today's New England Journal of Medicine reports. Harvard School of Public Health researchers recommended lowering the level of PSA test results considered to be "healthy." The American Cancer Society says a PSA level above 4 but less than 10 indicates a 25% chance of having prostate cancer. If the level goes above 10, the cancer risk is more...

Science - AP Shuttle Foam Test Yields Hole in Wing59 minutes ago By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer SAN ANTONIO - The team investigating the Columbia disaster fired a chunk of foam insulation at shuttle wing parts Monday and blew open a gaping 2-foot hole, offering dramatic evidence to support the theory of what doomed the spaceship. The crowd of about 100 gasped and cried, "Wow!" when the foam hit. The foam struck roughly the same spot where insulation that broke off Columbia's big external fuel tank during launch smashed into the shuttle's wing. Investigators believe the damage led to...

NORTH Korea has enough plutonium to make six to 10 nuclear weapons and could test such a weapon by the end of the year, a former US negotiator with the Stalinist state said in an interview published today. "To the best of my knowledge, based on very well-informed Washington sources, North Korea's nuclear program is moving ahead very quickly," Kenneth Quinones was quoted as saying by the Daily Yomiuri. "Basically, this means North Korea's reprocessing (of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel) is almost finished, or has finished. This means North Korea now has enough plutonium to make six to 10...

Test? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Test! Who's responsibility is it to assure a child's education...parents or bureaucrats? This gets right to the heart of the limited government debate. At first blush, this seems an easy and non-debatable question. But once the cradle-to-gravers and their bureaucratic henchmen get involved...watch out! Are we really supposed to trust government bureaucrats to teach our kids how to read and write and add and subtract when it often seems the only thing they're any good at teaching is how to 'multiply' (and I ain't talking about nine-times-eight, if you get my drift)? Which brings...

I got this in an e-mail and my family thought about all the names here on FR, and how we could all use a little cheering up, so here it is, the new weird name test. ================ This only takes a minute and its fun. Please don't be a bore and ruin it. Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day. Here is your dose... Follow the instructions to find your new name. The following in an excerpt from a children's book, "Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -- June 2, 2003 -- The development of commercial diagnostic tests for SARS has progressed more slowly than initially hoped, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Part of the problem arises from certain unusual features of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that make this disease an especially difficult scientific challenge. For many viral diseases, the greatest quantities of the causative agent are excreted during the initial phase of illness, usually in the first few days following the onset of symptoms. This is often the period during which patients pose the greatest risk of infecting others. SARS, however,...

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) -- The Navy’s next generation of Tomahawk Cruise Missile, the Tactical Tomahawk, took flight May 16 at the White Sands Missile Test Range, N.M., in the final phase of a Defense Threat Reduction Agency sponsored advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD). This was the second of two demonstration test flights of the Tactical Tomahawk configured with a live penetration warhead and completes the scheduled ACTD testing effort. Additionally, today marked the sixth successful test flight for Tactical Tomahawk. Similar to its previous penetration test flight in March 2003, the Tactical Tomahawk was launched vertically from a ground...

Acid test for Riyadh war on terror (Filed: 14/05/2003) America is frustrated with Saudi ambivalence, writes Toby Harnden in Washington Welcoming Crown Prince Abdullah to his Texas ranch last year, President Bush praised the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia for his "vision for a peaceful and integrated Middle East" and stance against terrorism. "The Crown Prince has been very strong in condemning the murder of US citizens. He's been very strong about condemning those who committed those murders. And I appreciate that a lot." Privately, however, White House officials often express frustration with what they characterise as Saudi Arabia's...

The New Area 51 The Air Force has abandoned top-secret testing at its once most secret test site. We know why and we know where they moved it to. BY JIM WILSON A cloud of brown dust snakes behind me as I speed down the desolate desert road. A dozen miles ago, I passed the solitary steel mailbox that marks the turnoff for Area 51. For a place that isn't supposed to exist, it's odd that the "secret" air base occupies whole chapters of aviation history. It was here, in 1955, that the U-2 spyplane first took wing. In...

<p>ATLANTA - U.S. health officials said Wednesday they now have a test to determine whether coughing, feverish patients have the mystery illness from Asia.</p> <p>The new antibody test isn't perfected enough to be given to doctors yet, but it is being used to help state health departments sort out whether they have cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.</p>

Millions more women may soon be tested for the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer, after a government ruling Monday that allows testing for the virus to become part of every regular Pap smear for women over age 30. Women will have to choose if they want to add the HPV test, which costs roughly $50, to their Pap. Women whose Pap smear shows no signs of cancer and who are free of the HPV virus can safely wait three years to be rechecked, according to new physician guidance being distributed in wake of the Food and Drug...

1895 8th Grade Exam - How'd You Do? This is the 8th Grade Final Exam of 1895..... Imagine a college student trying to pass this test, even if the few outdated questions were modernized. This gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning! Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895? .........Take a Look: This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th...

An unarmed Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on March 12. 03/12/03 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- An unarmed Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched at 1:29 a.m. March 12. The missile carried eight unarmed re-entry vehicles approximately 4,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean to a predetermined target at the Kwajalien Atoll. This test was a part of the force development evaluation program, which routinely verifies the accuracy and reliability of the Peacekeeper force.

YOMIURI SHIMBUN WEBNEWS (from the original Japanese version/"Freepranslation" by "AmericanInTokyo"). Top story (13 March 2003 Japan Time):--It has been revealed that increasing indications are that the North Koreans are going to lauch a No-Dong missile toward the Sea of Japan, as a test of the rocket's capabilities and in further escalation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.--This information is confirmed through various sources of the Japanese government to Yomiuri News. The information aligns with satellite intelligence by the US, collected recently, which shows apparant North Korean intents, and the information was passed on to the Japanese government.--The Japanese AEGIS...