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ARCHIVES 2001
Archives 2000

Thursday, August 16, 2001
Salon.com Directory | Neal Stephenson -- 04:03 California time
Salon.com Technology | Candy from strangers
The gifts came from total strangers and online friends alike, people the girls had gotten to know through their Web sites. Katneko's younger sister, 15-year-old Brandi, was so impressed by all of the goodies arriving at their home from people the girls had never met in person that Brandi set up a personal page on her big sis's site so she could beg for her own loot. Brandi's pages bear this label: "underaged piece of ass." (Her sister quickly points out that this is a joke.) Among Brandi's heart's desires on her wish list: four Sailor Moon dolls. -- 04:00 California time

Wednesday, August 15, 2001
Consumers Continue to Buoy Economy
I guess the Bush tax cut wasn't so stupid. Thanks in part to tax rebates and falling gasoline prices, American consumers continue to boost spending on everything from clothing to electronics, a phenomenon largely responsible so far for keeping the moribund economy out of recession. -- 01:31 California time

Sunday, August 12, 2001
Working On Sperm-less Embryos
WASHINGTON -- As the nation grapples with the use of human embryos in stem cell research, scientists in Los Angeles and Massachusetts are about to bring a new twist to the debate. They are working on ways to coax unfertilized eggs to grow into embryos that produce stem cells--the very cells that have raised so much hope for their potential to cure disease. If successful, these researchers would create a human embryo without sperm, and, therefore, without conception--that landmark often cited as the start of human life. Would this embryo be considered a human being? Would destroying it be immoral? Even groups devoted to protecting human embryos are stumped. -- 14:33 California time
Economic bust tarnishes high tech's box office allure (8/11/2001)
Like a jilted Hollywood starlet, Silicon Valley has lost its allure as the darling du jour of the American media machine. The same book publishers and Hollywood moguls who just a year ago were hyping entrepreneurs and venture capitalists into America's new folk heroes now are putting the kibosh on valley-based books, movies and TV series. Some Hollywood producers are even referring to Silicon Valley the way they would an aging movie star in dire need of liposuction. -- 14:25 California time
In N.Va. Drug Ring, Good Kids Went Bad (washingtonpost.com)
The VIP room at Bohemian Caverns on U Street in Northwest Washington was rocking as men barely in their twenties shared bottles of Dom Perignon, waved fistfuls of hundred-dollar bills at stunning women and retreated to the bathroom for frequent pick-me-ups of cocaine. Justin Michael Wolfe sauntered through the crowd celebrating his 20th birthday, slapping backs and sharing high-fives with high school buddy Owen Merton Barber IV. Less than 24 hours before, Barber had stood outside a new town house in Prince William County's growing Bristow section and emptied the clip from his 9mm semiautomatic pistol into the car of another recent high school graduate. In a scene reminiscent of "Scarface," "New Jack City" and some of the youths' other favorite movies, Barber killed Daniel Robert Petrole Jr. in March at the behest of Wolfe, his Chantilly High School friend and associate in the drug trade, Barber said later in court. Wolfe denies any involvement.
 -- 14:17 California time

Thursday, August 09, 2001
Indian caste killings put rule of law to test - AUG 10, 2001
NEW DELHI - The execution on Tuesday of a boy and girl from different castes, for the crime of having a romantic relationship, in a village only 100 km north of New Delhi has put the rule of law to the test in the state of Uttar Pradesh. -- 16:37 California time
Asia-Pacific region will become largest Internet market by 2003
SINGAPORE, Aug 6 — The Asia Pacific region will overtake the United States as the world’s largest pool of Internet subscribers by 2003, Gartner Dataquest said on Monday. -- 01:31 California time

Monday, August 06, 2001
Satellites put on the tail of killer sharks
Ken Crew, a Perth businessman, died recently when a great white bit off his leg while he was standing in knee-deep water. Last month a skull and bones found in the belly of a 12ft tiger shark were identified as those of Arthur Apelt, a former business executive who disappeared in April off Lord Howe island, some 600 miles off the coast of Sydney.

Relatives of victims blame the increase in attacks on depleted fish stocks, environmental changes and a ban on killing great white sharks. Under a 1997 federal law anybody caught killing one, even during an attack, faces fines of up to £20,000 or two years in jail. -- 15:31 California time


Sunday, August 05, 2001
Torture Is Breaking Falun Gong (washingtonpost.com)
"I am a broken man," said James Ouyang, 35, an electrical engineer who was forced by labor camp guards to stand facing a wall for nine days and then sent to a brainwashing class for 20 more. "I have rejected Falun Gong. . . . Now, whenever I see a policeman and those electric truncheons, I feel sick, ready to throw up." -- 13:52 California time

Saturday, August 04, 2001
NZ in danger of losing 'developed' status - AUG 4, 2001
AUCKLAND - New Zealand, which has one of the slowest economic growth rates in the developed world since 1985, risks becoming the first country in 50 years to lose its 'developed' status unless it changes its economic course, economist Robert Wade told a conference here. 'The option of sinking gently in the world income hierarchy while the population gets on with living full and non-materialistic lives is not an option, especially because of network effects,' the NZPA quoted him saying in a paper. -- 03:08 California time