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BREAKING SURF
Greetings, America - My Name Is Osama bin Laden
Read these riveting ten or so pages, first published in Esquire in 1999, for deeper insight into the prime suspect in the suicide missions that took out the World Trade Center (WTC) and part of the Pentagon. They start with a vivid depiction of Osama bin Laden's gunfire-and-fireworks-laden arrival in a remote encampment for a bizarre interview, then backtrack into a description of the events leading up to the meeting and present the interview itself. The interview took place a few months prior to the orchestrated bombings of American embassies in Africa. Bin Laden denied involvement in them, as he does in the 1993 WTC bombing attempt and last week's hijackings. By the time you near the end of this fascinating read, you will have learned that bin Laden has taken Islam and twisted it into something largely unfathomable to most of us. This material gives some scary insight into the mindset of men literally dying to kill innocent people. bin Laden is wealthy, smart, committed, and apparently highly contagious. Frontline has a broader look at the man in question, along with an annoyingly poor interview tape - bin Laden made the cameraman use a low-grade video camera - and the BBC offers a shot at a profile in RealPlayer.Esquire: http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2001/010913_mfe_binladen_1.html
Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/progs/panorama/latest.ram
Afghanistan, Up Close and Declassified
Afghanistan will probably become a battleground - again - soon, and for some excellent background on that country, visit the Digital National Security Archive (DNSA), a database of declassified documents central to US foreign and military policy. To view the actual documents, you'll need to subscribe, but all can read a section entitled "Afghanistan: The Making of US Policy, 1973-1990" that includes an introduction, an in-depth essay, and photographs that provide recent historical perspective on the unlikely nation that became the staging ground for what has been called "the bloodiest and costliest superpower proxy war of the 1980s." Don't skip the introduction. We also found two more personal accounts of the country, one at Salon written by an Afghani emigre post-attack and another extremely long and fascinating piece written for the Iranian by an Iranian filmmaker in June.DNSA: http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com/afintro.htm
Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/14/afghanistan/index.html
Iranian: http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2001/June/Afghan/index.html
Media Self-Censorship in the Wake of the Attack
Several media corporations are engaging in various forms of self-censorship out of fear of public reaction. Wired mentions a list of songs deemed potentially too insensitive, which is being circulated among Clear Channel Communications radio executives. The list does not seem to have any official endorsement so far, and seems to have arisen out of a grass roots e-mail initiative, growing as it passed from person to person. Besides obviously insensitive songs, the list intriguingly also contains anti-war ditties. In addition, TV news coverage has refrained from showing the grisly human toll of the attacks, except perhaps for dead bodies draped in the flag, arguably side-stepping the horror in favor of sanitized images of sterile heroism. Foreign TV and American print media have not shied away, showing footage of tower victims jumping to their deaths or, in the case of the New York Daily News, a photo of a hand and forearm severed by explosion, forefinger extended obscenely normally. Poynter.org, a "media on media" site, looks at the dilemma of whether or not to use disturbing images in coverage and includes links to some of them.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,46925,00.html
List: http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/songs.html
Poynter.org: http://63.208.24.134/Terrorism/kenny4.htm
ABC, MSNBC, CNN, and the other outlets are running regular Web updates on the disaster, but while all their news is pretty much the same, many personal sites illustrate how the Internet liberates other perspectives. These personal, moving stories make us aware of the human dimensions the corporate news machines, no matter how good their intentions, only barely manage to touch. Wired has more, including a link to an account written by Usman Farman, a Pakistani who was in the World Trade Center's Building Seven when the towers were hit. The tale is thoughtful, harrowing, concerned, and ultimately reassuring. We'd venture to say that these 1,500 earnest words put your average Hollywood screenplay to shame. The LA Times also has a riveting story of escape, and a page of obituaries of Californians who perished.
Usman Farman: http://www.e46fanatics.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=45274&t=45274
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46862,00.html
Escape: http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091601escape.story
Obits: http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-victimsprofiles.storygallery
The title of this MediaMap page says it all: Attack on America - Journalists' Resources. It has just about everything you might need to know including key telephone numbers, links to survivor check-in Web sites, core articles, background information, updates, radio station call signs, emergency numbers for companies that were housed in the World Trade Center, statements from affected businesses, state and federal agency contact sites, links to relief organization and volunteer sites, and more. It's the place to go for in depth information and research contacts.
http://www.mediamap.com/Sept11.asp
Since the day of the attack, civil rights groups have feared a reflexive legislative backlash that would include new restrictions on civil rights, encryption, and anonymity online and off. Here are some related stories. Wired writes on the US Senate passage of the Combating Terrorism Act of 2001, which legalizes certain warrantless wiretapping, not only in terrorist cases but also in an "attack on the integrity or availability of a protected computer" - in other words, even suspected script-kiddie activity. CNet covers recent developments in the privacy debate, focusing on legal changes requested by the Attorney General. Another Wired article looks at calls for restrictions on cryptography. You can discern direction of the crypto debate from a paper by Frank Wells Sudia, who seeks legal justification for restrictions in ancient Roman law and the Federalist Papers. Finally, at Slashdot a partisan debate features a short note by Richard Stallman ominously titled "Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties?".
Act: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46852,00.html
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-7149229-0.html
Restrictions: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
Frank: http://www.sudialab.com/sov-eppc.htm
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/01/09/17/1758231.shtml
According to CNet, ISPs America Online and EarthLink have handed over e-mail logs of suspected hijackers' accounts to the FBI. AOL has denied installing a Carnivore (DCS1000) e-mail snooping system, however. EarthLink was served with a rarely used Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, which can be authorized only by the directors of the FBI and CIA and the secretaries of state and defense. Authorities hope the messages will reveal important details of the terrorist operations or widen the circle of suspects and accomplices. So far the information gathering appears to be highly focused and there's no indication of generalized snooping.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7141812.html
The attack has stirred up military activity around the world and increased demand for information on terrorism in general. Jane's Information Group is perhaps the premier commercial source of military news and intelligence in the world. It is providing extensive continuing coverage from the military point of view. The Terrorism Research Center (TRC) is a good source of more in-depth supplemental information, featuring numerous references, analysis, and documents related to terrorist activity around the world.
Jane's: http://www.janes.com/
TRC: http://www.terrorism.com/index.html
They want you! In the aftermath of the evil visited upon New York, there's a crying need for IT experts to help emergency workers on the scene deal with recovery efforts, affected businesses get back on their feet, and aid agencies stay in touch. Both technical know-how and computer equipment are in short supply. The amount of work involved is mind-boggling, so if you've got the skills or the hardware, don't hesitate to volunteer. Companies such as Nextel, Microsoft, and Dell are already providing help and equipment but a lot more is needed. A Wired article details some of the specific kinds of assistance required. Computerworld is trying to bring some order to the chaos of needs and offers of help by setting up a corps of tech volunteers. Their Volunteer IT Web site has a form to fill in if you can donate time or equipment. If your offer is accepted, they contact you.
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,46821,00.html
Volunteer: http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO63804,00.html
Online Industry Bigwigs Consolidate Charity Donation Effort
Six major online companies have created a Web site that consolidates the financial donation efforts each has already initiated separately. The Liberty United site was created by Amazon.com, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, eBay, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Visitors can donate to about 30 different charities and relief organizations. At press time, the online cash donation total had exceeded $57 million. The Web site also indicates how you can help in other ways, by donating blood, becoming a tissue donor for burn victims, volunteering, or even advising your legislative representatives. Several media stories discuss the record levels of money raised online for various charities and relief organizations. Wired also talks about several scams that seek to capitalize on the confusion.Liberty United: http://libertyunited.org/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,46876,00.html
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7208068.html
Interactive Relief and Rescue Map
This interactive relief and rescue map of New York City shows the location of restricted zones, relief agencies, missing persons centers, grief counseling, hospitals, and so forth. Although it's more a curio than a seriously useful resource, you can move around the map, zoom in and out, and click on selected areas for close-ups. It also shows the locations of destroyed buildings and those with major damage around the World Trade Center. You need Flash 5 to see it, but that's a quick download if you don't have it yet. One warning: the interactive aspect of the map can be sluggish at times.http://www.urhere.com/nymap/
If you had family or friends in the WTC towers when the carnage hit, the national news isn't telling you much. Web sites and e-lists are springing up all over the place, but Wired has links to some of the tower tenants' web sites, and to tenant lists for both towers. It isn't much, but at least it's a place to start looking. Unlike the news reports, the links at least provide contact information to speed you on your way. We can only hope it helps.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46808,00.html
Too Bad Spidey Sense Couldn't Help
"Spider-Man", the movie, is planned for a release next May. Spidey is of course a New Yorker, and one who spends a fair amount of time hanging out at the local skyscrapers. Rumor has it that a few of the scenes contain action set at the former World Trade Center towers. The trailer at the movie Web site ends with an out-of-focus view of those same towers. The "Spider-Man" honchos are not the only folk who need to scramble to fix things in the wake of last week's disaster, as the LA Times notes. NBC is even deleting scenes from reruns.Spider-Man: http://www.spiderman.sonypictures.com/
LA Times: http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000074347sep15.story
Vigilante hackers have taken it upon themselves to take revenge on Palestinian and Afghani Web sites, to the distress of other hackers. The renowned Chaos Computing Club (CCC) has asked fellow hackers not to attack Islamic Web sites nor to launch denial-of-service attacks. CCC members spent more time watching events unfold on TV than celebrating at its previously planned 20th anniversary party. The FBI has warned computer users to be aware of so-called patriotic hackers and virus makers who might rename their code in the wake of the 11 September tragedy. CNet and Wired have more.
CCC: http://www.ccc.de/CRD/CRD20010913.en.html
FBI: http://www.infragard.net/warnings/01_020.htm
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7166935.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,46868,00.html
E-Tickets No Longer Quite as Convenient
Aircraft are flying across American skies under much-tightened restrictions for boarders - and as of Sept. 17, US Marshalls began boarding the flights, armed and more or less invisible. One of the new restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration involves e-tickets. CNet reports that you'll need a printed e-ticket receipt and photo identification in order to board, and that you'll need to check in at the counter. The initial success of e-ticketing hinged on the fact that you could purchase your e-ticket online, then just whip out your photo-ID at the gate to get a boarding pass. That's not happening now, and this affects not only you, but the airlines and vendors such as Priceline.com. Airlines and vendors hope the loss of convenience won't affect ticket sales, but we don't think this would be near the top of any list of reasons not to fly.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7150285.html
Absorbed as we are in the unfolding human tragedy, it's easy to overlook the fate of numerous pets which have been stranded or injured as a result of the attack. Fortunately, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has moved in to care for those pets, setting up mobile veterinary care centers. They have treated over 150 animals, mostly for shock, dehydration, and respiratory distress. The ASPCA has issued a plea to New York area residents to remember the pets of those who are missing. Contact information for the organization and instructions on donations can be found on the Web site.
http://www.aspca.org/
Not Nostradamus, And a Disaster for Sex
In case you haven't heard, rumors about a seemingly accurate 1654 Nostradamus prediction of the New York terrorist attacks are pure balderdash. Snopes has the complete story of how the hoax evolved, as well as the actual quatrain that inspired it all, four vague lines that Snopes calls "the Mr. Potato Head of Predictions". However, judging by the popularity of search engine phrases the hoax is working. According to SiliconValley.com "Nostradamus" was one of the top search terms last week. The disaster also knocked out "sex" from the top 10 search terms for the first time in the history of the Web.Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/predict.htm
SiliconValley: http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1501336l.htm
A new worm that affects Windows and spreads both by e-mail and through insecure Web servers is causing a significant impact on Internet response time. What makes the worm especially destructive is that the e-mail attachment can infect Outlook and Outlook Express users' computers even if they just read or display the e-mail in the preview pane. This means you can get infected even if you don't download and execute the Readme.exe attachment. CNet MSNBC have (somewhat sensationalist) stories, and the SANS Institute has technical details, advice, and links to Microsoft patches. Check out the Internet Traffic Report (ITR) graphs for Sept. 18 to see the Net slowdown caused by the worm.
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7224139.html
MSNBC: http://msnbc.com/news/630583.asp?cp1=1
SANS: http://www.incidents.org/react/nimda.php
ITR: http://www.internettrafficreport.com/
A new viral e-mail describing a trick to foil mass-mailing worms by adding a bogus "!0000" address to contact lists is at best ineffectual and at worst could constitute a real pain. About.com's Antivirus Software guide has the scoop on this well-meant but fumbling bit of advice that typifies what the Vmyths computer hoax site calls the "false authority syndrome". For more background, follow Vmyth's link to an explanation of the "sulfnbk.exe" fiasco in which gullible users were misled into deleting a standard Windows file from their drives.
About: http://antivirus.about.com/library/weekly/aa082801b.htm
Vmyths: http://vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3
Mafiaboy Gets Slapped - on the Wrist
Remember the teenaged Canadian hacker who called himself "Mafiaboy"? He caused an estimated $1.7 billion or so in damages by targeting a number of major Web sites with some hacking tools. Well, he finally got his comeuppance, in what prosecutors hail as a "strong message against the world's hacking community." The sentence appears to involve eight months of detention, one year of probation, and a fine of approximately $160. Can't get much stronger than that, eh?http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7141694.html
European Parliament: Echelon Exists
In NSD 7.17, we reported that the European Parliament had released a draft of its report investigating the existence of Echelon. This month, it published the final report, which officially concluded that the communications interception system does indeed exist. The Register summarizes the report and supplies its ludicrously long URL so we don't have to, Cyber-Rights has the European Parliament's related resolution, and ZDNet UK has an older story on how to spot Echelon listening stations.Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/21680.html
Cyber-Rights: http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/echelon/European_parliament_resolution.htm
ZDNet: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2087713,00.html
Spammers and Scammers Take Advantage
A sadly predictable flock of new spams and scams have attempted to make grim capital of the disaster, but what shocks is how quickly the vultures began circling. Opportunistic e-mails began appearing within an hour of the first attack and have included fake tragedy relief sites poaching credit card information, calling card companies promising to donate funds, and even porn site redirects. CNet has the whole miserable story and comments on how companies should deal with solicitation e-mail; MSNBC guides individuals in that task. SpamCon offers samples of "disaster" spam, and good advice on what you can do about it once you've got it.CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7150774.html
CNet advice: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-7166322-0.html
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/news/628230.asp
SpamCon: http://www.spamcon.org/
CNet has an interesting story on one industry that's more than prepared to deal with the business-related fallout of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Disaster-recovery companies specialize in putting corporate information infrastructures back together after natural or man-made disasters, offering computing facilities, remote mirroring of computer operations, and even fully equipped offices. Many of these companies are offering free or discounted services to affected companies, as are some hard disk data recovery services. InternetNews examines what sorts of back-ups are required for organizations to survive such an event.
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7141809.html
InternetNews: http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article/0,,7_884811,00.html
Assessing the Net's Structural Integrity
MSNBC is running a series of articles by the editors of Red Herring that provides a readable, non-technical analysis of the current state of Net infrastructure. The stories address the critical issues facing today's Net. There's a column on venture capital investment in infrastructure, a report on the future of Ethernet technology, a piece about the deployment of IPv6 protocol to replace the current TCP/IP, and another piece talking about core routers and how they are evolving under growing traffic demands. It's a decent non-technical overview of several core infrastructure technologies.http://msnbc.com/news/625010.asp?cp1=1
ONLINE CULTURE
From the Mouths of Tech Industry Babes
Watching the peak and plummet of the dotcoms has been a bit gratifying for innocent bystanders unaffected by the stock market nosedive. Eatthesewords.com gives the affected young upstarts a chance to talk about their personal ride on the rollercoaster of financial success. Ironically, a section of the Sponsors page reads: "However, we would like to continue to gather and publish fresh stories each week. In order to do so, we need additional funds." Sounds like this is may grow into a dotcom enterprise that never had the benefit of the boom.http://www.eatthesewords.com/
We think our readers are reasonably intelligent. Similarly, we think that kids these days are more intelligent and informed than adults generally give them credit for. With this in mind, Netsurfer Education editor Judith David has put together a special issue that deals with the attacks of last week. The issue has a diverse selection of items, many of which develop the back story behind the events. We think even our regular NSD readers who don't subscribe to NSE may find this of interest.
NSE 3.09: http://www.netsurf.com/nse/nse.03.09.html
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Among our heroes, we count great teachers - those who can distill their passion into an essence with which they instill us, their students, and engage rather than insult our intelligence. Examples include Carl Sagan on astronomy, Joseph Campbell on mythology, and Sister Wendy Beckett on art. We first encountered Sister Wendy in an interview on "Charlie Rose", and we were immediately entranced by her nun's habit, her aged, wise child's face, her South African-British accent tinged with a slight speech impediment, and, most of all, by her frank and accessible discussion of art. The more we learned - she entered a covent as a teenager in 1946 and starting in 1980 taught herself art criticism while in virtual seclusion - the more fascinated we became. Although she continues to live in solitude, she has written over 15 books, numerous articles, and a handful of TV series. You can't not embrace a nun who says of Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ": "...that's comforting art, you see, because it's so easy to have an opinion and a reaction." Sister Wendy's latest and probably last TV series just finished running on PBS, but try to catch reruns or buy the videos at this site.http://www.pbs.org/sisterwendy/main.html
There's a whole lotta fractal pages out there, but Terry Wright's offers something a little different than the usual run of the fractal mill. We really like his fractal poem rooms, which contain around 200 fractal art and poetry fusions; the fractal images are much more striking than most offerings and, rarer still, so are the poems. Often passionate, occasionally piercing, always interesting, the poems are apt to include zingers such as the intro to "Plutonium 3": "I'm a goin fission/Mama's goin fission/and Baby's goin fission too" and, in "Pushing Trinity's Envelope": "Oppenheimer's got a point. I am become MTV, the destroyer of child safety and good taste." Detect a theme here? Ah, well - that's artists for you.
http://www.eclectasy.com/cruelanimal/
Flip Flop Flyin's Small Wonders
There's just oodles and oodles of tiny, pixelly fun at this satisfyingly eccentric site. Hundreds of "minipops" provide a plethora of pixel-petite pop images, from The A-Team to ZZ Top. MiniMoma offers a pixel tour of great art, and Colour In features the pixel-physiqued Flip-Flop-Flyin' Boy in a collection of settings contributed by readers. Pixelized animations include a bite-sized guide to amusing yourself, micro-scenes of everyday folk doing normal stuff, and minimovies offering such small pleasures as "Boy Meets Pixel", starring Meg Ryan, and the "24 Hour Billie Jean" in which you can watch Michael Jackson move at a rate of one frame per 68 minutes. It's itty, it's bitty, and it totally rocks.http://www.flipflopflyin.com/
Pictoplasma is a site exhibition of 2,700 contemporary character designs from more than 300 artists worldwide, spotlighting artwork depicting humans, robots, and living creatures in media such as fonts, toys, and collage. The Flash production is swift and slick, searchable by name, country, style, or character, and offers fun features such as the Picto-orphanage in which you can adopt a small, helpless orphaned character by providing information such as desired features and characteristics, along with the e-mail address to which your adoptee should be sent. Big, bad and growing by the minute, it must be said (by those with no self-control) that Pictoplasma is truly a site with character.
http://www.pictoplasma.de/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Taliban
The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan
The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf
Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central AsiaThe Harrowing Story of the Essex
The Essex was 87 feet long, weighed 238 tons, and had a reputation as a lucky ship, regularly returning to port laden with whale oil after two-year voyages down past the Horn and up into the Pacific whaling grounds. On Aug. 12, 1819, she set sail from Nantucket Harbor, her crew unaware that it would be for the last time. MSNBC tells the tale of that final, harrowing voyage, based on a two-hour NBC television documentary in turn based on Nathaniel Philbrick's "Heart of the Sea". In 1820, in the whaling grounds, an enraged sperm whale sank the Essex, forcing the crew to take refuge in three small whaleboats. Many died. Survivors spent 90 days at sea before rescue and were reduced to cannibalism, even cracking the bones of those who perished for the marrow. The site uses audio and slide shows, excerpts from the book, and links to other whaling sites to get the story across, and is probably best avoided by those without high-speed access. As for the book, by all accounts this deserved winner of the 2000 National Book Award is a whale of a tale, excitingly told.MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/modules/tvnews/whalerevenge/Default.asp?cp1=1
Book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670891576/netsurferdigest
Unearthing an Obscure Geologist
According to the author of "The Map That Changed the World", until 1815 geologists could only scratch the surface of earth; it took groundbreaking work by cartographer William Smith before nations could accurately tap the mineral resources that lay beneath them. The rewards dug up after Smith mapped England's subterranean features were lucrative indeed, but Smith himself reaped only dismissal, plagiarism, and ridicule, says his biographer. Smith was working-class and without sponsorship in an era when science was the jealously guarded realm of the wealthy and influential, and the brilliant geologist paid the price for his lowly origins. The Atlantic has an interview with the book's best-selling author, Simon Winchester, a history writer with a degree in geology from Oxford.http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2001-08-29.htm
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, Not the Dumb
It's probably for the best that there are no awards presented for banal idiocy (so far as we know). If there were, the committee in charge would be hard-pressed to choose from among the contestants presented here at Bonehead of the Day Award. This place is devoted to your plain old, garden-variety idiots. The kind who go in to rob their workplace after disguising themselves by placing Band-Aids across an eye and the nose. They're the kinds of folks who live around you, or maybe supervise you at work.http://bonehead.oddballs.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
NIST Time and Frequency User's Survey
One of the most important and most popular public services provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the broadcast of time standards. It is the keeper of atomic clocks and provides both Internet and radio-based standard time signals. The Institute is seeking feedback on how those standards are being used. If you are a sysadmin, scientist, or engineer who makes use of its signals, go ahead and fill out the survey. Your participation will help improve this free and invaluable public resource. If you're just curious, the site also has links to a great deal of information about time standards. Check out the Exhibits link for some neat material about the history of time measurement. The survey runs through Sept. 30.Survey: http://www.timesurvey.nist.gov/
Exhibits: http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/exhibits.html
"So, you're an alien? Fine. Prove it." Omni, in "Quest for Evidence" suggests that potential abductees can help alien abductors establish their credentials by having them answer questions about scientific unknowns. Abductees possessing an answer to a mystery that we on Earth haven't yet unraveled can be taken a little more seriously than otherwise. The logic is impeccable: if, as claimed, there really are thousands of alien contacts occurring every year, someone who has read this list is bound to be approached, and the magazine suggests that they memorize a couple of unambiguous questions in areas such as astronomy, mathematics and nuclear physics which can be verified by observation or experiment within the next few years. It's a surprisingly level-headed and skeptical approach by a publication that often flies into fancy. Omni provides a list of challenges, including "How can earthquakes be predicted?" and "Develop a rational expression for computing pi", and invites suggestions for expanding the list.
Query: http://www.omnimag.com/archives/open_book/quest/index.html
List: http:// www.omnimag.com/open_book/et_test/index.html www.omnimag.com/open_book/et_test/index.html
You don't have to tell most people twice to avoid mosquitoes, but with the spread of the West Nile Virus (WNV), it's particularly crucial. Here's a phrase from the US Department of the Interior which should reinforce the use of insect repellent and long pants: "There is no specific treatment for WNV infection or vaccine to prevent it." A surveillance program has been initiated in 48 US states, and you can go online to check out the reports of activity in your area. The 2001 maps are divided into bird, human, veterinary, mosquito, and sentinel data categories. Sentinel, for the uninitiated, means a sentinel chicken flock, which conjures up images of poultry in helmets and flak jackets.
http://cindi.usgs.gov/hazard/event/west_nile/west_nile.html
SOFTWARE
Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer Test
Wolfenstein 3-D was arguably the best of the early first-person shooters, predating the nuclear impact of Doom on the PC gaming marketplace. Activision is reviving the title with its upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Nostalgic fans can now download test software for the multiplayer version of the new game. The official Web site also has some fairly spectacular screen shots. Check out 3DAction Planet for a first-look review of the new game.Wolfenstein: http://www.activision.com/games/wolfenstein/
Review: http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/firstlooks/wolfenstein3/
Bookmarklets are free JavaScript applets that extend the surfing and search capabilities of Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers. They can be used to modify the way any Web page is viewed, extract data from a Web page, and add a variety of new search techniques. The site offers over 100 scripts, each identified as to which browsers it works with. Most work with both, many work with Netscape 4.x; fewer work only with recent versions of Internet Explorer. The scripts are platform independent. The site's major drawback is that it hasn't been updated in over two years. Some scripts don't like Netscape 6 and vice versa, but most scripts still work.
http://www.bookmarklets.com/
3-D Web Browser State of the Art
Scientific American (SciAm) is running a brief article which talks about current efforts to perfect Web browsers that operate with three-dimensional information. The article discusses Adobe's Atmosphere 3-D browser and some of the sample communities created by Adobe to showcase it. It also discusses mapping applications, which seem a natural fit for such browsers, including a 3-D map of Switzerland detailed down to 25-metre resolution. A related discussion on Slashdot has some insightful analysis of why the VRML 3-D Web standard was never widely adopted.SciAm: http://www.sciam.com/2001/1001issue/1001technicality.html
Atmosphere: http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/main.html
Switzerland: http://www.geonova.ch/english/index.htm?titel_e.htm
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/articles/01/09/16/2317231.shtml
Mozilla Browser Reaches Version 0.9.4, Bug Milestone
The perennially pre-1.0 version open-source browser has reached release 0.9.4 and has accepted the 100,000th bug report filed against it. Actually, the bug reporting system is also used for feature requests and other communication needs, so it's not quite that the software has been riddled with that many bugs. The big selling point of the new version is that you can configure it to disable pop-up and pop-under windows, thus eliminating those incredibly annoying advertisements. Read the release notes closely before you install.Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.4/
Bug: http://www.beonex.com/xfer/bug100000.html