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Promoting Fidelity - "Friends and Family" phone plan goes awry. [Wired News]
Prosthetic Barbie - Barbie, the plastic doll and cultural icon, is finally doing her part to help medical science. Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that plastic knee joints in Barbies legs make good knuckles in prosthetic fingers. The elasticity in Barbie's bizarrely long legs allow amputee patients to bend joints, making it easier to grasp a pen, pick up a cup or grip the steering wheel. And Barbie thought math was hard. [Wired News]
Pucker Power - An estimated 6,000 Belarussians marked St. Valentine's Day with a simultaneous kiss that organizers said would land them a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The contestants -- mostly students and other young people -- had set out to beat the previous record set by nearly 3,000 American students in Maine. "We're in love," said Oleg after a passionate embrace with fellow student Irina. "The world has not invented anything better yet." [Wired News]
Quake Jolts Turkey - The death toll in Tuesday's devastating earthquake in western Turkey is expected to climb well beyond the 700 fatalities reported so far, authorities said. The epicenter of the quake, which registered a magnitude of 7.8, was located near the town of Izmit, about 55 miles east of Istanbul. Istanbul itself, with a population of 12 million, sustained heavy damage, including more than 20 collapsed buildings. A Turkish naval base on the Sea of Marmara was also badly hit, and the death toll there included several high-ranking officers. It was the second major earthquake in Turkey in just over a year. In June 1998, a 6.3 quake in the southern city of Adana killed 144 people and injured more than 1,500. [Wired News]
Quake Toll Tops 3,500 - The death toll in Tuesday's earthquake in Turkey continues to rise. Turkish officials said the number of confirmed deaths has passed 3,500 and rescuers are continuing to comb through collapsed buildings and other heavily damaged structures in the region around Istanbul, a city of 12 million people, in the search for those who may still be trapped. More than 16,000 people were reported injured in the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.8. One of Turkey's main naval bases, located on the Sea of Mamara at Golcuk, was extensively damaged and a number of high-ranking officers were reported killed. Meanwhile, aid is beginning to stream into Turkey from around the world. [Wired News]
Quiet, but Busy - Now we know (perhaps) what J.D. Salinger has been up to for the past 30-odd years. And when you think about it, is it really a surprise? The reclusive author, squirreled away up there in the Vermont hamlet he calls home, has been writing. According to a friend, Salinger has completed at least 15 unpublished manuscripts since his last published work appeared in 1965. No word on what the author of Catcher in the Rye intends doing with them, but what's the point of writing, if not to be read? Or so Salinger fans can only hope. [Wired News]
Red-Carded - You can take the boys out of Russia, but you can't take Russia out of the boys. Israeli soccer officials were surprised when four Russian match refs, invited to Israel to work a UEFA Cup game, arrived at the Tel Aviv airport drunk. Their surprise turned to horror when the refs began fondling female police officers before breaking into a song-and-dance routine. Their chaperone managed to pour them into a limousine and take them -- ill-advisedly -- to a downtown restaurant, where the boozing continued. More flirting and fondling ensued until the waitresses were replaced with waiters. Then the restaurant cut off the whiskey. With nothing left to amuse them, they wandered outside and began directing traffic. The match will now be officiated by a crew from Romania. [Wired News]
Refugees Bombed - After a night of uncertainty and conflicting reports, NATO confirmed that American warplanes were indeed responsible for bombing a column of ethnic Albanian refugees in southwestern Kosovo on Wednesday. According to NATO officials, the pilots thought they were hitting a Serbian military column and broke off the attack when they realized their error. Serb authorities said that between 64 and 85 people were killed in the attack. NATO said it couldn't confirm any casualties, but front-page pictures in newspapers worldwide confirmed the carnage. [Wired News]
Remember - It was 60 years ago today that World War II began in Europe as German troops hurtled into Poland, igniting the biggest conflagration in human history. The presidents of Germany and Poland met in Gdansk, Poland (formerly the German city of Danzig) to commemorate the anniversary and to honor the reconciliation between the two traditional foes. The war, which ended in 1945, eventually involved 61 countries, claimed 50 million lives, and completely changed the geopolitical landscape. Poland, in the unenviable position of being sandwiched between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, disappeared from the map for the duration of the war. More than 6 million Poles died between 1939 and 1945. [Wired News]
Rudy on Beauty - Rudolph Giuliani may not know much about art, but he knows what he doesn't like. The New York mayor wants to yank public funding from the Brooklyn Museum of Art because an exhibit it's planning to mount contains a statue of the Virgin Mary plastered in elephant dung. Anything he can do himself isn't art, says Giuliani, "If you want to throw dung at something, I could figure out how to do that." The exhibit of young British artists is scheduled to open 2 October. [Wired News]
Runner's Low - An iron-man competition in California's Sierra foothills went awry Monday when most of the runners took a wrong turn and got lost in the wilderness, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Thirty-eight of the 45 competitors in the Race Across California Enviro -- which combines trail running, river kayaking, and mountain biking -- strayed off course early in the race. Most found their way back fairly quickly but eight runners weren't found by rescuers until after nightfall. Aside from a little dehydration, no one was any worse for wear. But the four-day competition, which began near Lake Tahoe and is supposed to end at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, may now be cancelled. [Wired News]
Russia Bombing - More than 50 people were reported killed Friday in the bombing of a crowded marketplace in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz. Authorities said the blast, which obliterated a large section of an outdoor vegetable market, injured around 100 others. An exact death toll was difficult to establish because many of the victims were blown to pieces, police said. Vladikavkaz, situated about 30 miles from the troublesome Chechnya region, is in area that has been plagued by violence and ethnic tension since Chechnya tried to break from Russia in 1994. President Boris Yeltsin dispatched Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin to the city to head up an investigation. [Wired News]
Russian Roulette - Russia has changed its mind. First, it didn't need any help dealing with the millennium bug, saying that it was content to await events. Now, it appears the Kremlin has had second thoughts. Not only that, but there was an air of panic to Russia's sudden request for American money and technical assistance from NATO on Wednesday. The Russians say they'll need US$3 billion to deal adequately with the Y2K problem, and they're especially concerned about computers controlling their nuclear arsenal. The former Soviet Union may be stripped of territory and teetering on bankruptcy, but it remains the second leading nuclear power on earth. Probably a good idea those computers don't fail. [Wired News]
Russian Roulette - Russia has changed its mind. First, it didn't need any help dealing with the millennium bug, saying that it was content to await events. Now, it appears the Kremlin has had second thoughts. Not only that, but there was an air of panic to Russia's sudden request for American money and technical assistance from NATO on Wednesday. The Russians say they'll need US$3 billion to deal adequately with the Y2K problem, and they're especially concerned about computers controlling their nuclear arsenal. The former Soviet Union may be stripped of territory and teetering on bankruptcy, but it remains the second leading nuclear power on earth. Probably a good idea those computers don't fail. [Wired News]
Sales Are Dead - "Declining death rates pose a challenge for the industry," laments William Heiligbrodt, president of the world's largest "death care" organization, which operates 3,000 funeral homes, 433 cemeteries, and 191 crematoria in North America, Europe, and Asia. That's right. People just aren't dying the way they used to, and the funeral business is in a big-time slump. Think about it: Diseases are being cured, people are exercising, and we're not eating red meat twice a day. Heiligbrodt says that business prospects for the future look pretty grim -- he doesn't expect things to pick up again until the baby boomers start dying off in the 2020s. [Wired News]
Say Hey, Kid! - For years, Joe DiMaggio held the title of baseball's greatest living player. As of 8 March that was no longer possible, so the Denver Post surveyed ex-players, managers, and sportswriters to anoint a successor. Their choice: Willie Mays. While a quick look at the stats is impressive (the Giants outfielder was the ultimate "five-tool" player: He could hit, hit for power, run, field, and throw), many believe what separated Mays from the others was his sheer baseball intelligence. In topping the survey, the Say Hey Kid beat out some pretty fair competition: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, and Sandy Koufax, in that order. [Wired News]
School Slaughter - Witnesses say two teenage gunmen, dressed in black trench coats and ski masks, giggled as they opened fire at their Littleton, Colorado, high school. They targeted minority students and popular athletes and finally turned their guns on themselves. Up to 16 people died Tuesday in one of the bloodiest mass shootings in US history. Fellow students said the killers -- identified Wednesday as Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17 -- belonged to a gothic clique known as the "Trench Coat Mafia" and were generally mocked by their peers. [Wired News]
Scotland, the Cautious - Scots go to the polls Thursday to vote for a regional Parliament -- seen by many as the first step toward complete independence from England -- but they're not exactly whistling the theme from Braveheart up there on the moors. The International Herald Tribune reports that despite a stagnant economy, most Scots are leery about making a complete break from Old Blighty. It's already pretty drafty under those kilts and a lot of folks figure it would only get worse if Scotland -- with its heavily agricultural economy -- tried to go it alone. Sound the retreat, Pipey. [Wired News]
Scuttling SOS - It was used for the first time by the Marconi wireless operator aboard the Titanic after she struck the iceberg, and has been the standard distress call for ships in peril on the sea ever since. But the famous Morse signal -- SOS -- is no more after the last radiotelegraph service shut down earlier this week. Actually, Morse code has been on the way out for years as mariners turned increasingly to Telex, fax, and email for ship-to-shore communication. The newfangled technologies are no doubt more efficient, and there's plenty to be said for that. But the Old Salt must be feeling a mite melancholy today, as he did when diesel replaced sail, and SatNav supplanted the sextant. Nothin' to do but hoist a tot o' rum, matey, and wait for that ebb tide. [Wired News]
Search and Recovery - Searchers were set to resume their work Monday morning in the waters off Martha's Vineyard, but what had been a search and rescue operation for John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife and sister-in-law had now turned strictly into an effort to recover bodies and wreckage. The Coast Guard announced on Sunday night that after 48 hours, there was little chance of finding survivors, and said the victims' families had been thusly informed. Searchers are now focusing on "a couple of targets" spotted by sonar 60 feet to 80 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean surface southwest of the Massachusetts island. Kennedy and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, were on their way to a family wedding at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, Friday night when the Piper Saratoga II HP he was piloting apparently went down. They were to drop off Lauren Bessette, 35, a New York investment banker, on Martha's Vineyard before continuing on to Hyannisport. [Wired News]
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