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The first use of the tools on the arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit reveals puzzles about the soil it examined and raises anticipation about what the tool will find during its studies of a martian rock. Today and overnight tonight, Spirit is using its microscope and two up-close spectrometers on a football-sized rock called Adirondack, said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We're really happy with the way the spacecraft continues to work for us," Trosper said. The large amount of data -- nearly 100 megabits -- transmitted from Spirit in a single...

Round in circles Rodney Chester 28sep02 IF THE "croppies" are right, there is a race of aliens who travel across the universe to communicate with the people of Earth, and the way they choose to leave their message is through crop circles that no one understands. And if you are a croppie, like Nancy Talbott, this type of scenario could make perfect sense. What's more, she believes she can prove it. Well, at least she believes she can prove that there is something about these crop circles that is definitely not man-made. Talbott is part of the group who believes...