‘Iraq unconditionally accepted the return of U.N. weapons inspectors late Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

“I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the Iraqi authorities conveying its decision to allow the return of inspectors without conditions to continue their work.” ‘ NY Times The Bush administration rejected Iraq’s move as a “tactic”. but then, as they have already determined to attack Iraq regardless of justification or the world’s opinion, they would dismiss any Iraqi move, would they not?

[thanks, Simon]

New Jersey become the first state to officially limit allowable G-forces on roller coasters.

“The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a ‘global Pax Americana’ was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld’s deputy), George W Bush’s younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney’s chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).” via disinfo The report is available here as a PDF document, or converted to HTML by Google here.

Badass and ass-backwards find place in the OED: also phat and bogart.

Up next: advertising on your pizza crusts. NCBuy [via Fark]

SLIders and The Streetlight Phenomenon: “Do streetlights suddenly go out when you pass beneath them? Do watches or credit cards stop working in your possession? Perhaps you are a SLIder.” About Network

“Mozilla 1.0 – 1.1 browsers and others based on Mozilla’s technology, such as Netscape 7 and Galeon can be affected by the bug which will report the URL of a site the user is visiting to the last server visited. In order to work around the problem, until a fix is created, everyone is encouraged to turn off Java. Has anyone turned it back on?” Lockergnome

“An enigmatic object spotted in the night sky last week by an amateur astronomer has set experts wondering whether the Earth may have gained a new moon.

Others say the answer could be quite different, but almost as exciting. They believe it to be a piece of space history left over by the Apollo lunar pioneers, and that the Earth has now reclaimed it, saving it from the fiery embrace of the Sun.”

“

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) pose a threat to our global security, and not just from a catastrophic impact. A large meteorite exploding in Earth’s atmosphere could trigger a nuclear war… An NEO warning system could prevent high-strung countries from being jolted into a nuclear conflagration.” astronomy.com

A pediatrician at Brenner Children’s Hospital has developed an efficient way to help educate health care professionals on herbal and dietary supplements via the Internet, according to a study published in the September issue of Academic Medicine.

Kathi Kemper, M.D., a pediatrician at Brenner Children’s Hospital, worked with physicians from the Longwood Herbal Task Force to develop a series of e-mails containing information and questions about various herbal and dietary supplements.

Over 537 healthcare professionals participated in the e-mail series, which took place over 10 weeks. Participants were asked questions twice a week about herbal supplements and were given a link to an Internet site for more information about each topic. The questions focused on the more popular herbal remedies like Saw Palmetto and Gingko Biloba, found in most area supermarkets and drugstores.

Participants were also given a pre and post-test to see if they increased their knowledge base and if they were more confident in their ability to answer their patients’ questions and find the resources they needed. Scores on the post-test showed an improvement in the knowledge scores from 67 percent at baseline to 80 percent following the curriculum. EurekAlert!

“Think you could spot a mobile phone mast near your home or office? Think again.” BBC dot.life

“The cypherpunks are throwing a PGP (pretty good party) this weekend.

The venerable online community is celebrating its 10th anniversary which, in the ephemeral world of the Internet, is remarkable.” Wired

Cronkite Regrets Giving Up Career: More than 20 years after signing off, the 85-year-old Cronkite told a meeting of the American Association of Retired Persons he is still consumed by a longing to return to work, especially when a big story is breaking. AP [What about that famous homily that ‘no one on their deathbed regrets not spending more time at the office’? — FmH]

“Virgin Atlantic Airways is to replace tables in its newest planes because passengers have broken them during illicit trysts, according to the Sun.” Yahoo! News

It is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the culmination of the High Holidays. Given Yom Kippur’s emphasis on atonement, the confessional prayers (“Viduy”) appear numerous times in the liturgy. ‘Liberation theology’ rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine offers this supplementary liturgy to help atone for some modern-day sins not mentioned in the traditional confessional. Beliefnet Considering alternate sins, today is aptly the twentieth anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre

in Lebanon.

Religious and Public Stations Battle for Share of Radio Dial:

‘The Rev. Don Wildmon, founding chairman of a mushrooming network of Christian radio stations, does not like National Public Radio.

“He detests the news that the public gets through NPR and believes it is slanted from a distinctly liberal and secular perspective,” said Patrick Vaughn, general counsel for Mr. Wildmon’s American Family Radio.

Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests.

It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of 95,000 people into the most populous place in the country where “All Things Considered” cannot be heard…

This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town. ‘ NY Times