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U.S. officials say that during the past 4 days, they have been talking with senior members of the Iraqi regime about a possible surrender. Washington has relayed their terms for surrender and assured top government officials they’ll be spared if they cooperate. In a good will gesture, we’ve allowed Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri to leave Iraq for Cairo to discuss terms of surrender with Egyptian resident Hosni Mubarak, who has played a major role in these talks.

Some of our conditions are that no nonconventional weapons or medium-range missiles be used in any attack. Another demand is that Iraqi forces end sabotage operations against oil wells and civilian infrastructure, such as bridges. So far, Iraqi leaders appear to be fulfilling most of these demands.
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Want to find out if you could have a new career as a “super taster?” Some people are actually born with more taste buds than others, meaning they can distinguish different tastes better. If you don’t have many taste buds, cheap wine will taste as good as the expensive kind, and you’re not likely to become a famous chef. Now a test has been developed that will rate your taste buds.
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Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology plans to use Aborigine weather knowledge to help understand their climate. Aborigines in different parts of Australia count as little as two or as many as six seasons. They take note of when the bearded dragon lizard sits upright and points its head to the sky, meaning it will rain the next day, or when a flock of currawongs flies overhead, which means it will rain in 4 hours. If the queen wattle blooms heavily, bull ants abandon their tree nests for mounds of dirt, or meat ants cover nests with tiny quartz stones (which reflect heat), then bushfires are coming.read more

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A hacker recently led a disturbingly successful attack against a U.S. military web server, that took security services completely by surprise. Russ Cooper, of TruSecure, says, “We believe the military was being targeted.” The timing of the attack suggests it may be connected to the war in Iraq. Cooper says a cryptic message left on the attacked computer read, “Welcome to the Unicorn beachhead.” Meanwhile, the Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera, which broadcast the heart rending video of the U.S. soldiers captured by Iraqi forces, as well as corpses of U.S. soldiers, says computer hackers have crashed its website, which also carried the images.
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