New! Submit a site
whatUseek Directory Site Listings:
Market Watch - US stocks surged in early Monday trading, led by computer and Internet-related stocks, on optimism about the growth of the economy in the new year. The Wired Index rose 12.07 to 579.31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125.39 to 9306.82, and the Nasdaq advanced 31.22 to a record 2223.91. [Wired News]
Market Watch - US stocks surged in early Monday trading, led by computer and Internet-related stocks, on optimism about the growth of the economy in the new year. The Wired Index rose 12.07 to 579.31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125.39 to 9306.82, and the Nasdaq advanced 31.22 to a record 2223.91. [Wired News]
Market Watch - US stocks surged in early Monday trading, led by computer and Internet-related stocks, on optimism about the growth of the economy in the new year. The Wired Index rose 12.07 to 579.31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125.39 to 9306.82, and the Nasdaq advanced 31.22 to a record 2223.91. [Wired News]
Market Watch - US stocks surged in early Monday trading, led by computer and Internet-related stocks, on optimism about the growth of the economy in the new year. The Wired Index rose 12.07 to 579.31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125.39 to 9306.82, and the Nasdaq advanced 31.22 to a record 2223.91. [Wired News]
Math Is Hard - Just when you thought it was safe to do your taxes, a 100-year-old mathematical law has cropped up that'll help the IRS ferret out fraud. Benford's law shows that around 30 percent of numbers will start with a 1, 18 percent with a 2, and 4.6 percent with the number 9. Nature's propensity for certain numbers means that doctored company ledgers will stand out like sore thumbs under mathematical scrutiny. The US Institute of Internal Auditors is about to begin training sessions on how to apply Benford's law to fraud cases. [Wired News]
Mayday! Mayday! - Next time you feel like a little attitude adjustment, may we suggest surviving a plane crash? A study of 15 air-crash survivors indicates that the experience changed their perspective on life, and for the better. According to researchers, the magnitude of the accident made them realize that a lot of other things they use to fret about were really just penny-ante stuff. In terms of anxiety levels and depression, crash survivors actually seem better adjusted than those who had never been involved in an aviation accident. So go ahead. Get your boss a ticket to Paris, and hope for the best. [Wired News]
Mea Culpa - Catholic guilt appears to be catching up with the Church as the millennium comes to a close, and Pope John Paul II wants to begin the next thousand years with a clean slate. So the pontiff, addressing his regular weekly crowd at the Vatican on Wednesday, apologized for past excesses and set aside 8 March 2000 as "Request for Forgiveness" day. Although he didn't specify which sins the Church would like to purge, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of history can probably think of a few: its shoddy treatment of the Jews, its failure to protect human rights in a thousand different places, and the less-than-stellar people skills exhibited by its missionaries during the forced conversions of the heathen. Oh, and then there's the Inquisition. [Wired News]
Metal Symphony - Crossover -- where musicians in one genre "cross over" into another -- is an increasingly popular concept in marketing music these days. Yo-Yo Ma jamming with country fiddlers, Michael Bolton singing opera arias -- you get the idea. But this one takes the cake. The San Francisco Symphony is laying it on the line with Metallica. The ultimate culture clash occurred Thursday, when the orchestra and the heavy metal band got together for a two-hour concert in the Bay Area that, if the San Francisco Chronicle is to be believed, was a rollicking success. The music was all Metallica's, which figures -- and in terms of sheer volume, Metallica won hands down. [Wired News]
Method Actor - It's been a bad week for all things Woodstock. First the riots, and now this: Rydwyn Davies, a 21-year-old actor portraying Sir Henry Greene in an Elizabethan drama called Thomas of Woodstock, got himself skewered during a sword fight when he failed to step out of the way of his opponent's thrust. Although the blade was rounded and dull, it still punched a two-inch hole in Davies, who managed to walk offstage and was driven to a nearby hospital where he was treated and released. Fortunately, Sir Henry Greene, was supposed to die anyway, so the Hampshire Shakespeare Company went on with the show. [Wired News]
Mexican Quake - First Turkey, then Taiwan, and now Mexico. Thursday's earthquake, which hit the southeastern state of Oaxaca at 12:31 EDT, measured 7.5 degrees on the Richter scale, according to the US geological survey. Three people have been reported killed, electricity in the city of Oaxaca was completely cut off, and there has been widespread damage to buildings. The last quake close to this magnitude hit Mexico on 16 June when a temblor measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale killed 18 people, most of them in the city of Puebla just east of Mexico City. [Wired News]
Mexico in Shock - The slaying Monday of Francisco "Paco" Stanley, a popular comedian known as Mexico's Johnny Carson, shocked the nation and had radio and TV commentators calling for the resignation of top law enforcement officials. Stanley, 56, was killed in a hail of gunfire on a Mexico City street in an attack that, according to news accounts, lasted several minutes. A bystander was also killed. The slaying provoked outrage in Mexico City, which is plagued by a high crime rate, and several TV and movie stars publicly criticized the city's mayor, as well as Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. [Wired News]
Midwest Carnage - At least 45 people are dead and the toll is expected to rise in the wake of Monday's devastating series of tornadoes that cut a swath through Oklahoma and Kansas. Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who described the twisters as "the worst ever," declared his state a disaster area, as did the governor of Kansas. The biggest tornado was enormous -- estimated at a mile wide -- generating winds of more than 200 mph. Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Wichita were all hit hard, as were a number of nearby communities. Officials at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said at least three dozen twisters were generated by the system, which stretched from north Texas into central Kansas. [Wired News]
Milestone Night? - Ordinarily, this would be just another ballgame between a couple of mediocre clubs; maybe a nice place to take the kids on a muggy St. Louis evening. But Thursday's game between the hometown Cardinals and the San Diego Padres could turn out to be an historic occasion for two of the game's most illustrious players. With one more home run, Cards' slugger Mark McGwire will have 500 for his career, while the Padres' Tony Gwynn is only two shy of the magical 3,000-hit plateau. A sellout crowd is expected at Busch Stadium. [Wired News]
Milosevic Critic Ousted - It may be honest and it may be right, but it's not usually very smart to openly criticize your boss. Especially if your overseer is Slobodan Milosevic. But that's exactly what Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister, Vuk Draskovic, did the other day, saying that Milosevic should accept a UN peacekeeping force and quit lying about the military and humanitarian situation in the country. To nobody's great surprise, Draskovic got the ax on Wednesday. "My voice of reason has now been silenced," Draskovic told CNN, adding that he will return to his former post as opposition leader. Unless he goes under the wheels of a tractor first. [Wired News]
Milosevic OKs Accord - Yugoslavia accepted an international peace plan for Kosovo on Thursday, one that might actually meet all of NATO's key demands for ending the alliance's punishing 72-day air campaign. The accord -- brokered by Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, and accepted by President Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbian parliament -- calls for a Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo followed by an international security presence under united command with a "fundamental" role for NATO. NATO had no immediate comment, but British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook insisted the alliance would not stop its bombing campaign until there was a "verifiable withdrawal" of Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo. [Wired News]
Mission Aborted - Following in the footsteps of a tradition at least three generations old, a seventh grader at Desert Sky Middle School in Glendale, Arizona, built a rocket as a science project. Inspired by the movie October Sky, David Silverstein built himself a nifty little one-stage projectile, using an empty potato-chip can for the fuselage. Target: An A in science. Instead, his rocket never made it to the pad. It's a sad commentary on modern times that school officials took one look at young David's project sitting in his locker and suspended him for the rest of the year. For "carrying a firearm," dontcha know. Didn't know you could fit multiple warheads onto a Pringle's can. But it may all end well. The forces of good, including Homer Hickam, the subject of the movie, are rallying to David's cause. Expect school administrators to fold at the knees. [Wired News]
Mission Accomplished - Crystal-clear images of the Liberty Bell 7 show the space capsule sitting upright and intact three miles down in the Atlantic Ocean, where it sank on 21 July, 1961 after carrying astronaut Gus Grissom on a 15-minute, suborbital flight. The successful mission ended disastrously when something -- possibly a blown hatch cover or a mistake by Grissom -- caused Liberty Bell 7 to fill with water and sink before it could be retrieved. Grissom, who nearly drowned, maintained until his death that he had done nothing wrong. The plan now is to retrieve and restore the capsule before putting it on permanent display, a plan steadfastly opposed by Grissom's widow, Betty. [Wired News]
Mom Freezes - The mother of Russell Henderson, one of two men charged in the killing of a gay college student in Wyoming last year, apparently froze to death after leaving a bar in Laramie Saturday night. Cindy Dixon, 40, was reportedly intoxicated when she walked out into the sub-freezing night wearing only a light jacket. Her body was found alongside a road the next morning, 8 miles out of town. Her 21-year-old son is awaiting trial in the kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard. Police say Dixon's death appears to be unrelated. [Wired News]
Money Talks - A top Republican lawmaker says the president ought to get a raise. Representative Paul DeLay of Texas notes that the nation's CEO has been making US$200,000 for the past 30 years, and the job is worth twice that. DeLay is far from a fan of President Clinton, but he's likely also bucking for a raise for Congress, whose members make a paltry $133,000. [Wired News]
Monkey See, Monkey Do - After 150 years of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the science world has determined that cultural variation is no longer the sole province of the human race. It turns out that human characteristics exhibited by chimps vary a great deal, and geography seems to be a determining factor. While East African chimps have fastidious eating habits, their brethren to the west wolf their food like frat boys at a smorgasbord. Courting rituals differ by region, too: You've got your suave chimp, who artfully swishes branches around to attract a mate, and you've got your basic singles-bar lout, who bangs loudly on tree trunks and expects 'em to come running. Unfortunately, like their human counterparts, they frequently do. [Wired News]
|
