NEAR Space Probe Lands On Asteroid: “The NEAR spacecraft touched down on
the barren, rocky surface of Eros, successfully
completing history’s first landing on an
asteroid.” Click for images of the touchdown.

Three Strikes And Not Out for Suicidal Man. This story appears in Reuters’ “Oddly Enough” section, but to psychiatric professionals it is not odd at all for someone to repeatedly attempt suicide and fail. Many patients make what we call “low-lethality” or “high-rescue-potential” attempts for a variety of reasons including attention-seeking, ambivalence about ending their life, sadistic urges toward caregivers or family, or to manipulate themselves into psychiatric facilities. Others may be so impaired by their mental illness that, fully intending to die, they are hapless in their attempt. Nevertheless, they are a danger to themselves. What amazes me about this news story is that the man was apparently not hospitalized until after his fourth attempt, which might mean — although not knowing more details of the case makes it difficult to know — that he was not taken seriously. This is a dangerous message to give to a suicidal or quasi-suicidal patient who might respond to the perceived doubt or rejection with renewed attempts.

New Book, Lawsuit Allege IBM Hid Nazi-Era Past. Of course, the perpetration of atrocities expands to utilize the efficiencies of the information processing capacity available to it. But to what extent was IBM a willing accomplice to the Nazi regime? Germany was its second-ranked sales territory despite an international ban on trade with the Third Reich.

The attorney pursuing the lawsuit, and the author of the book (which , curiously enough, was substantially based on corporate correspondence IBM made available through academic research libraries) both assert that IBM’s database technology made possible the cross-indexing of names, addreses, genealogical data and bank accounts without which the Holocaust would have been far less efficient. But are we imposing our obsession with the pervasive effects of technology on modern life on an era that does not warrant it? Historians by and large have yet to weigh in on the issues raised by the book, partially because its content was kept secret until publication.

New Insights Into the Novel? Try Reading 300. The author of this essay embarks on a five-month reading marathon in order to be a judge for the National Book Awards, with a sense of indulgence in illicit pleasures and unexpected dividends as well. When she was finished, she felt she had learned so much about bad fiction-writing that she discarded 200 pages of her own unfinished manuscript. New York Times

Court Orders Modified Napster Injunction: “By swapping music files
online, the 61 million
clients of Napster Inc. are
making unfair use of
copyrighted material, a
federal appeals court ruled
today, in a decision that
could allow a judge to shut
down the service.

The court did not order
Napster to shut down
immediately, but the
company warned that the
decision could ultimately
lead to its closure.” The judge, recognizing that this findings might lead to a last-minute user rush on the Napster site, advised that there be rapid action on a preliminary injunction, though. New York Times. Napster is still alive — but
just barely. “A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled for the recording industry on virtually
every point of law at issue. Napster users, said the court, are
infringing on recording industry copyrights, Napster has a
responsiblity to halt that infringement and a preliminary
injunction shutting down Napster is not just “warranted but
required.”

However, the court also ruled that the injunction must be
modified before it is fully upheld by the appellate court.
Specifically, the court is requiring that Napster be notified in
advance that it is in violation of copyright in particular
cases, and if Napster refuses to bar transmission of the songs
across the Napster network, it will then be in violation —
and will be shut down.” Salon Here are reactions from industry pundits. Several mention that this will invigorate the file-sharing endeavor by bringing the issue back into public awareness and spurring developers correcting Napster’s shortcomings. Salon A page here puts you one click away from an opensource Napster server, various Napster clients and — most important in the soon-dawning post-Napster era — other sharing protocols that are alternatives to Napster. There are twenty-five of them listed here from Gnutella and the now-defunct Scour Exchange to some no one’s ever heard of.

Camille Paglia: ‘We’re Getting Clinton Now as He Really Is.’ ‘The media dropped
the ball on the Monica Lewinsky thing in so many ways.
Everyone acted as if it was just a momentary slip with
Monica. Give me a break! There were women going in
and out of that White House. Now I’m enjoying myself
so much with Denise Rich and her 42-inch bust. It’s like
“Temptation Island.” It’s going to be a whole running
series. “Bill Clinton’s Sexual Adventures.” How many
ways can Bill Clinton now embarrass his wife?’ Newsweek

Caste marks survive India’s killer quake: “There’s one
structure that can’t be shaken in India,
even by a killer earthquake — the caste
system.” CNN [via Rebecca’s Pocket]

Peaceful Apes Can’t Escape Congo’s War. The bonobo is one of the world’s rarest apes–a relatively
unknown, chimp-like species whose sole habitat is a patch of dense jungle in the Democratic Republic of Congo through which runs the front line of the Congolese civil war. The existence of this species came to the attention of zoologists only around 70 years ago. They are described as “relaxed, friendly,
female-dominated and far more interested in sex than in fighting
or brute competition.” Experts fear the bonobos — whose numbers were estimated at around 100,000 in 1980 but are believed to be as low as 10,000 now — are being poached
to near extinction for their meat; as a Belgian conservationist explains, “The armies
on all sides don’t get regular rations, so they eat the wildlife,
including bonobos. And now everybody in the forests have
access to automatic rifles, even the refugees.” ‘Bush meat’ is a delicacy too in Kinshasa. Now a makeshift orphanage struggles to save the species against dire odds.

“My friends think this is a crazy, dirty job. I tell them that bonobos
are just like us. They even are better than us. They are
peaceful. They don’t make wars.” Chicago Tribune

Guardian Unlimited moodmatcher: “(W)e’re so smart we can tell what mood you’re
in and what would make you feel better. Simply do our test and
we’ll find you some poetry to soothe your mood.”

Then there’s Robs Amazing Poem Generator, which makes a poem-like thing out of the content of any webpage whose URL you feed it. Here’s what it came up with from FmH. It’s not as great a syntax-parser as it needs to be, though…

Follow Me Here

mailing list,
messages

to ailments before

the brand new.

Scientist

9:document.write ;

Going to buy a

monochromatic

record and what are believed those who

will be allowed to construct

a state of salty

water holes in trenchant opposition to a little,

relief for the web and

copyrights are not treat the vicinity of Ariel:

history

offers a discrepancy

of finer granularity.

Another maven describes a carbon is my guestbook.

Or being a halftruth is

not only a

carbon sink, locking away carbon is

mylettersareonfire@hotmail.