What Are We Doing in This Handbasket? Philippine Garbage Slide Toll Reaches 144. Perhaps 150 more are buried under the rubble. Typhoon rains had prompted a 2.5-acre collapse at a campsite of around 80,000 people who survive by climbing the mountain of gabage daily to scavenge for items of value.

A couple of important jury decisions today. Big Tobacco Ordered to Pay $145 Billion; how much chance is there that this won’t go without appeal? And Jury Finds U.S. Not to Blame in Waco Case. “Specifically, the jury said that evidence showed the ATF did not

fire indiscriminately during the initial raid, that the FBI did not

cause the fire when its tanks penetrated the compound walls

and did not violate orders by not having firefighters on hand.” Interestingly, however, the issue of whether FBI agents fired on Branch Davidians fleeing the burning compound was severed from the rest of the lawsuit and has not yet been decided, pending the recovery from surgery of the expert witness who had recreated the infamous FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) video some had claimed showed evidence of FBI gunfire.

On November 7, 1940, the first Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge collapsed due to wind-induced vibrations. Someone was fortunate enough to be filming at the time; many of you have probably seen the remarkable footage. Situated on the Tacoma Narrows in Puget Sound, near the city of Tacoma, Washington, the bridge had only been open for traffic a few

months. Well, they’ve almost done it again, this time with a pedestrian structure. London’s wobbly Millenium Bridge was closed on its opening weekend last month (before it frankly collapsed!). It seems that soldiers on the march know that they have to break step before crossing bridges to avoid a version of this problem. New Scientist

Children of the Night: Will Howling at the Moon Help Wolves to Breed?

“A wolf expert is howling at the moon around

a British stately home to encourage a pack of timber wolves to

breed.

As dusk falls at Lord Bath’s Longleat estate, Shaun Ellis creeps up on the eight-strong pack in

the wildlife sanctuary and imitates the noise of a lone wolf. Colleague Jan Williams plays

tapes of wolf pack noises.

The idea is to kid the pack into believing there are larger packs prowling around and make

them more competitive breeders.”