Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Youngsters infect themselves with head lice. Students in Sofia Bulgaria have begun buying and selling them to one another in matchboxes after learning that they would automatically get three days off from school if found to be infected. ‘A Bulgarian education spokesman told the Daily Trud
newspaper: “This regulation, that was aimed at
stopping head lice spreading, appears to have worked
against us, especially now when there are a lot of
exams.” ‘ Things bite back… Ananova

Sleepwalking in Seattle. A post-operative brain surgery patient wandered out of the hospital. Efforts to find him were fruitless until he was recognized by a group of street people queried by his family. His picture had been all over the media. He has no recollection of how he acquired the black hooded sweatshirt that covered his most prominent identifying details, a shaven head and surgical scar.

As soon as an online music-trading service gets big enough to be useful, it’s doomed: The Gnutella paradox. Online music traders waiting to hear if Napster will be shut down repeat, ‘There’s always Gnutella.’ “Is there, though? …Gnutella is hardly ready for prime

time — and is facing dilemmas almost as worrisome as the

Napster lawsuit. Over the last month, users of the system

have noticed a dramatic slowdown in responsiveness, and a

number of reports have revealed serious instabilities in the

Gnutella network. The open-source software developers

who nabbed the program after America Online forced its

programmers to abandon it are still striving to learn how to

work together. And Gnutella’s legal status is also murky:

The RIAA is already hinting that it may be preparing a

strategy to attack Gnutella.” Wired

Crowd panic simulated: “Mob stampedes have killed thousands of people in recent years, but they are usually explained in terms of psychology. Now, European

scientists say they can predict and prevent crowd panic by computer simulations using the laws of physics.

The new computer model relies on distances, sizes and velocities instead of emotional states but produces results similar to actual panics,

the researchers said in today’s issue of the journal Nature.” Lawrence Journal-World

Human Pheromone Link May Have Been Found: “In animals, researchers have documented the complex

neurological paths pheromones trace to stimulate parts of

the brain that are deeply rooted in instinct. Researchers

have long believed that humans also communicate through

pheromones, but until now had been unable to identify any

of the biological equipment needed to detect these potent

molecules.

Now, in experiments at Rockefeller and Yale Universities,

neurogeneticists have isolated a human gene, called V1RL1,

that they believe encodes for a pheromone receptor in the

mucous lining of the nose.” New York Times

Prions may play crucial role in evolution. “Prions, abnormally folded proteins associated with several bizarre human diseases, may hold the

key to a major mystery in evolution: how survival skills that require multiple genetic changes

arise all at once when each genetic change by itself would be unsuccessful and even harmful.”

Basic Differences in Rival Proposals on Drug Coverage

It is very difficult for the average

Medicare beneficiary to sit down with

the Bush and Gore plans and compare

how much she would pay in premiums

and co-payments and how much she

would receive in benefits. That is

because the approaches of the two

candidates are so different, and there

are so many unknowns about Gov.

George W. Bush’s plan.

Given what is known, many analysts and consumer advocates

consider Vice President Al Gore’s plan to be more generous;

he would devote much more money to it, they note, and he

promises a higher federal subsidy for premiums. Mr. Bush’s

health care advisers counter that his plan offers more

flexibility and more choices for older Americans. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times