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While most of us were innocently surfing away on our computers Monday evening, the entire internet was almost taken down. The FBI has launched an investigation into the attempt to destroy the net by trying to cripple key servers by deluging them with many times more data than they usually receive. But since servers are spread around the world, have fast connections and ordinarily cope with many data requests, the net did not go down. “As best we can tell, no user noticed and the attack was dealt with and life goes on,” says Louis Touton, of Assigned Names and Numbers.

“What we learned yesterday is?it is hard to kill this system,” says Paul Vixie of the Internet Software Consortium. “The Internet is sort of the cockroach of the modern age. It survives.”
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Former White House chief of staff John Podesta is calling on the Pentagon to release classified files about UFOs. He says, “It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon.”

Podesta has announced the formation of a new group called the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI), which will try to gain access to secret government records about UFOs.They are pressing the Air Force for documents involving Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly, clandestine operations reported to have existed decades ago to investigate UFOs and retrieve objects of unknown origin.
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As people are trying to catch glimpses of the DC area sniper, police are concerned about the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Author Elizabeth Loftus says that memory is not “preserved in stone, but a living thing that changes shape, expands, shrinks and expands again.”

By providing the public with details from eyewitness accounts, like the white van, police hope to trigger the memories of people who were near the shooting sites. But Loftus says such information can “contaminate” good eyewitness accounts.
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Ever since its been discovered that contrails increase global warming, researchers have been trying to figure out what to do about it. Jets affect the weather two ways: by emitting CO2 from their engines and also through their contrails. Contrails trap heat in the atmosphere by reflecting the infrared radiation coming from the Earth’s surface. They could be eliminated if aircraft reduced their altitude from about 33,000 feet to between 24,000 feet and 31,000 feet. But lower altitude means denser air and higher air resistance, so planes would have to burn more fuel, giving off more CO2 emissions. This would cancel out the benefits of no contrails.
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