Slashdot Mirror

A Radio Chip in Every Consumer Product

You mean like these people?

... why don't people remember ... Rosalind Franklin ...

Google Link

50 Years Later, Rosalind Franklin's X-Ray Fuels Debate
By DENISE GRADY
For some, over the years, Dr. Rosalind Franklin has come to symbolize the plight of women in science, as men close ranks against them.

Fifty years ago, a casual gesture at a laboratory in London became a defining moment in the history of science. James D. Watson was visiting King's College late one afternoon near the end of January 1953, when a researcher named Maurice Wilkins showed him an X-ray photograph of a molecule of DNA.

Describing the encounter years later in "The Double Helix," Dr. Watson wrote, "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race."

The image was one of many by various researchers that hinted at a helix, but its singular clarity helped lead Dr. Watson and his colleague Francis Crick to the structure of DNA.

The scientist who took the picture was Dr. Rosalind Franklin, and though they cited other work she had done, Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick did not acknowledge the photograph itself, or additional work by her they had used, in their paper.

But it's definately healthier to suck it up according to this New York Times piece.

So if you're pouting about losing data, you're probably going to be worse off soon :)

I've been a member of Salon for quite a while and did what I could to support them. I would be sorry to see it go. I think it's funny that people think Salon is "left". I mean, if it is left, what is the Boston Phoenix or the Village Voice?

I also would be sorry, and more pertinently to Slashdot, because I think their design for semi-automated publishing was kind of neat, and it is one of the last examples of a house doing their own development work I know of. That is a dwindling group.

While I cannot address the questions of rent for their offices -- which if true, I agree seem excessive -- I think "the end of the dot-com bubble" means more than the crashing of way-out business models, excessive spending, and such. I mean, when MoTown was starting up, they were excessive in parties, liquor, etc

To me, these companies are failing as much because of deflation in the information technology industry as anything else. That deflation is caused:

• partly because of low interest rates in the economy
• partly because the hardware component of the industry is now commodity-based and people have an expectation that prices should drop, for those and telecommunications costs
• partly because programming labor is cheaper and more widely available
• partly because non-IT businesses are fiercely cutting costs, including moving to shrinkwrap solutions for their IT needs, even if they are not a good match
• partly because the Internet marketplace has long had expectations that things there should be free or available at modest charges.

The last effect is a subtle, I think. Since good news coverage and similar entertainment is now available on the Internet and cheaply, any premium or brick-and-mortar company has to deal with not so much with e-business competition but with the expectation that new can be had for much less. Why subscribe to the New York Times paper when most of what's good about it is available online for zip?

I think whatever happens to Salon is part of a trend, because what we earn for doing information technology is diminishing and will continue to diminish.

http://archives.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/business/yo urmoney/23MUSI.html?ets

No registration required!
Warning: This goes to GOATSE.CX, and used java-script to fake the browser...

IP protection does NOT work, abstinence is the solution.

Be cool, Don't do it!

fuddles 'version' of the gnu free wwworld of open/honest communications/commerce. lookout bullow.

a second version for those who need repetition to understand:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8& oe =UTF-8&q=microsoft+%22bill+weisgerber%22&btnG=Goog le+Search

the unabashed version, for those who require real IT:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8& oe =UTF-8&q=microsoft+dirty+deals%22&btnG=Google+Sear ch

see also: va.msn.?NeT? (VAST) surveilance abilitIEs?

we wouldN'T give 10 ceNTs for va lairIE's pateNTdead PostBlock(tm) device. that's around the price of the phonIE payper, no? whois the massturd of the sourceforgerIE? stay tuned...

Hamas blamed it on Israel, issuing a statement saying that the men had been working on a small remote-controlled plane, which they evidently planned to use in an attack, but that Israel had booby-trapped the planes before they got to Gaza.

The more you know... These folks had a story last month about the ordering of the toys "for Palestinian children in hospitals" but finding that the planes never reached the children.

Guess what my fellow slashdotters? You can read the article online WITHOUT REGISTERING with the NYT! Click below...

Bypass those thugs!

I always wondered why people could figure out the Anchor tag. is it that hard?

-malakai

Or the Google partner link. Either way, these Slashbot "editors" don't seem to do much.

use the NYT archive

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/17/technology/1 7ECOM.html

Here's a link to the ny times story without the registration: wanted: traffic cops for space

My worst tormentors in High School were the nerds. The arrogant smarmy nerds, not the nice quiet ones. Why? I think it was cause I'm a girl who was at least as smart as them, and who wouldn't give them the time of day (I was into skater/stoner/goth guys, and a good sense of humor is more attractive than intelligence). Incidentally, I never was a victim of the manipulative social practices girls seem to excel at, but the boy-nerds made every AP class miserable for me. I didn't sweat it much at the time, probably cause none of the kids I wanted to be accepted by cared what the nerds thought. You just have to rise above the situation. A good come-back line is invaluable social currency.

Am I the only person that's noticed all you have to do is slap ?partner=GOOGLE on the end of a NewYork Times URL and it won't force you to register? Point in case for this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/science/space/18 TRAF.html?...&partner=GOOGLE

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/science/space/18 TRAF.html?ex=1046149200&en=f39397b7a99dc415&ei=506 2&partner=GOOGLE

For example:

http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.n ytimes.com/2003/02/17/business/media/17FOLK.html

becomes:

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/17/business/med ia/17FOLK.html

Alternatively, click here

I don't need the karma, but people might find this useful, which is why I'm leaving the bonus on.

Smithsonian Folkways Dusts Off Titles With New Technology

Link

I know Linus will definitely be opposed to such an action by Red Hat. Of course, the whole point of GPL is freedom, but not necessarily the freedom to destroy what the GPL stands for.

I'm sure this will lead to another flamewar between the BSD folks and the GPL folks, but still- the fact that RedHat will have a kernel version not able to be released under the GPL is something to take note of.

But then again, what else could we expect from a partnership of RedHat and Intel? At least they dropped the DRM proposal to compete with MS's plan.

It was a "reinvention" of the original anyway. Which is good, because as far as I remember the original was basically a Laserdisc movie where you moved the joystick in a certain direction at the right time and either died or went on to the next screen - hardly the kind of game you'd want to shell out $50-$60 on for your console :) Looked like some very pretty cel shaded graphics from the screenshots - one of those adventure 3D platformer games like Zelda, Mario Sunshine or Starfox Adventures. Also, it was planned for Xbox and NGC as well- what happened to that?

According to a slightly more inclusive NYTimes article I read on this earlier today, one of Iowa's senators - Charles Grassley - co-sponsored the bill. I wrote him a letter this morning thanking him for it. It's the first time ever I've felt like I had a reason to do so.

I appreciated his quote from the article,

"Protecting Americans' civil liberties while at the same time winning the war against terrorism has got to be top priority for the United States. Congressional oversight of this program will be a must as we proceed in the war against terror. The acceptance of this amendment sends a signal that Congress won't sit on its hands as the TIA program moves forward."

While it's true that the RIAA and MPAA has some of Congress in its pockets, some legislators do operate on principles: witness the defection of six key Republican Senators (link is to an abstract; I don't work for the NYTimes. CNN article here ) about drilling in the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

Yes, legislators like to get reelected and so are susceptible to campaign contributions. But many of them still have consciences which lead them to vote in the interests of the public rather than in the interests of business (not that the two are always opposed).

Legislators do somtimes listen to the dictates of public interest, though that all too rarely.

From the article:

Eric Schmidt, the computer scientist who is chief executive of Google,
told a gathering of chip designers at Stanford last month that the computer
world might now be headed in a new direction. In his vision of the future,
small and inexpensive processors will act as Lego-style building blocks
for a new class of vast data centers, which will increasingly displace the
old-style mainframe and server computing of the 1980's and 90's.

It turns out, Dr. Schmidt told the audience, that what matters most to the
computer designers at Google is not speed but power -- low power, because data
centers can consume as much electricity as a city.

He gave the Monday keynote at the "Hot Chips" conference at Stanford last August.
There is an abstract of his keynote.

Coincidentally the NY Times ran an article about how tought the animation industry has become, especially for Disney.

All of the Congressmen now carry BlackBerries.

I hope they won't keep ignoring the problem until some Saddam conspires with major (North? :-/ ) Korean spamhouses, e.g. bulk-"un"subscribing the pagers of U.S. government by "opting out" on their behalf as a reprisal for Operation Desert Spam.

... since archived material is considered so old that it doesn't require a registration. ;-)

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/magazine/09S PAM.html

I should think so, especially when the computer is programmed in part by chess experts, and plays more like a chess player than a computer.

From the NY Times:

On the 10th move, Deep Junior flamboyantly sacrificed its dark-squared bishop for a lowly pawn to lure Kasparov's king into the open. "When a machine willingly gives up a piece against you, one thought goes through your head," said Mr. Greengard. "It's a thought you can't print in a family newspaper. Your second thought is, `So, should I just resign?' "

How will the RIAA react to this, seeing as this is legitimizing one of the oldest forms of music pirating?

Why would they react badly? Most likely they're getting the typical 90% cut.

Also, what kind of equipment will have to be used to produce these so fast?

Probably CD-R's.

Will the recording process suffer due to the hurry?

Of course, and they'll have to work out the issues of some CD players not reading CD-R's as well. But I'm sure they'll be priced to correctly go along with other concert memoribilia.

How will the RIAA react to this, seeing as this is legitimizing one of the oldest forms of music pirating?

Why would they react badly? Most likely they're getting the typical 90% cut.

Also, what kind of equipment will have to be used to produce these so fast?

Probably CD-R's.

Will the recording process suffer due to the hurry?

Of course, and they'll have to work out the issues of some CD players not reading CD-R's as well. But I'm sure they'll be priced to correctly go along with other concert memoribilia.

NYTimes story contradicts this
(and who do you trust more: Fox TV News or the Times):

Excerpt:
But NASA officials said there was no possible relationship, for several reasons. The foam was looking less and less like the cause, they said, and they still use it on the shuttle fleet. They said the piece that broke off and hit the wing of the Columbia was probably the old foam, not the new, more trouble-plagued material.

When it had trouble with the replacement foam, NASA applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for an exemption from the CFC ban, saying "no viable alternative has been identified."

It gained the exemption in 2001, and still uses that foam in a few spots on the shuttle fleet.

SBC Negotiating to Buy DirecTV From General Motors ( NYTimes )

It is indeed looking like telecomm is eyeing tele-entertainment, just as other have suggested here already.

Moderation of "Predators improve the breed." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:18 AM
Moderation of "Predators improve the breed." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:19 AM
Moderation of "Amen." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:21 AM
Moderation of "Predators improve the breed." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:21 AM
Moderation of "Predators improve the breed." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:21 AM
Moderation of "Arrogant dick. You're helping them win." Wed Jan 29, '03 10:21 AM

When GWB's "tax cuts" is going to send USA 6 trillion into debt, i think a little internet sales tax is only the start of it, cos you or your children is going to be paying it off for years to come, so much for tax cuts egh, and your worried about hurting online sales heh

oh and btw that trillion dollar debt isnt counting the cost of Iraq's war either, not bad for only 2 years in office

enjoy, cos your kids aint gonna

When GWB's "tax cuts" is going to send USA 6 trillion into debt, i think a little internet sales tax is only the start of it, cos you or your children is going to be paying it off for years to come, so much for tax cuts egh

oh and btw that trillion dollar debt isnt counting the cost of Iraq's war either, not bad for only 2 years in office

enjoy, cos your kids aint gonna

Lets see, who's word should we trust more, a highly respected reporter for a very reputable newspaper or a convicted felon who had to go to jail multiple times before he finally got a clue?

Was Kevin Mitnick a national menace? No way. Was this a good yarn? I think so. I mean, it was an interesting sort of morality play for the information age we're moving into. Was Kevin Mitnick an information-age terrorist? No. His motivation is still a mystery to me. But I'll tell you one thing: he was an adult. He'd been arrested five times before. He had gone to jail three times before. He was systematically stealing software from dozens if not more computers around the Internet. He was targeting cellular telephone companies and stealing source code that major U.S. companies had spent millions of dollars developing. His motivations are not clear. He was tampering with the telephone network. He was costing Internet service providers tens of thousands of dollars or more just watching him -- and they were helpless to stop him.

I don't think you have to make the leap to say he was some grave terrorist. This guy was a hardened computer criminal. He is a guy who's been given many chances to get his act together. A lot has been made of whether or not he was "cyberspace's most wanted." I made that call when I wrote my first article in July, 1994, based on the fact that the U.S. Marshal service, the FBI, the California Department of Motor Vehicles, several local police departments and several telecommunications companies were all looking for him and couldn't find him. I think that's a good story -- end of case.

I've been sort of pinned with this conspiracy to catch Kevin. I wrote the first story because I was so intrigued with his ability to avoid these people. That first story had a modern Bonnie-and-Clyde aspect to it that I thought was revealing. The fact that people went nuts over the story -- that's something that I didn't expect. I don't fully comprehend the way the media works. But I didn't advertise him as a menace to the world -- just as a very persistent criminal. The words that I used to describe him were "Con man" and "grifter." I think that comes close to approximating what he did.

From a Salon interview with John Markoff

Yeah, they seem sufficiently rad hardened on earth because they are being shielded from most of the cosmic and sun's radiation by the earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. In space, though, it's another matter. The Pentium 4 I'm typing this on would be unreliable at best, and wouldn't work at all at worst

Your ignoring the obvious. If this is such a big problem, then NASA could use some of the billions that they use on the shuttle to overcome it. The fact is that it is no longer a problem

Quoting the article;

"NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said the Pentium will help NASA "plumb the depths of the oceans of [Jupiter moon] Europa, take samples from Mars and explore the outer limits of our own solar system."

Sounds to me that pratical unmanned missions are possible right now. NASA spends all of its money on the shuttle and ISS though.

As for it costing trillions of dollars? I don't think so. But, maybe this time we should just ask NASA, "Ok, how much realistically (i.e. taking into account unforseen problems, test failures, redesigns, etc.) will it cost?" instead of, "Ok, you've got this much to spend. Can you do it?" And then decide if it's too expensive

In the middle of the seventies, NASA was asked how much it would cost to go to mars. There response? $500 billion dollars Knowing that NASA has a history of underestimating everything by a factor of least three (look at the price of all the International Space Station overruns)-- that's 1.5 trillion, and that's 1973 dollars. Today it would cost much more. so yes, it would be trillions of dollars

That wasn't the point of that statement. What I meant was seeing what the earth looks like from space or the moon IN PERSON. I would imagine that no picture in existence could do it justice.

It's only significant for the single astronaut standing there. So we should spend billions of dollars for the view?? So the astronaut can stand there and be awed?? The experience?? The Hubble space telescope takes great pictures of far away places, and an astronaut is not required for this. Unmanned probes have and can accomplish the same thing with the planets.

But the only way we are going to learn how to make space travel safer for humans is by doing it.

That's just it. We aren't learning anything from patching up old shuttle technology and flying it. Nothing is being gained from it. To spend billions on another "safer" vehicle to do exactly what the shuttle is doing makes no sense either

Having a man in space is "neat", but that's all that it is. the cost is not justified

I understand what you are trying to say -- because its the same thing NASA has been trying to say.

In fact though, it's more like a religion, not science.

From the other end of the political spectrum, Paul Krugman says pretty much the same thing in yesterday's NYT. I'm surprised he said it so soom after the tragedy, but then Tuesday is his column day and people are actually listening. This is when we can get people thinking.

BTW, both Paul and Gregg can get pretty snitty when they think everyone else is an idiot (usually). But they both have some great insights.

The timing here is eerie for me, becuase I've been hashing out in my own mind whether manned spaceflight is worthwhile, specifically the shuttle. Just a few weeks ago I was figuring the odds of 100 successful shuttle missions in a row with NASA's own predicted failure rate of 1-in-500 (about 70%, not great). Then a week ago the teacher-in-space thing reappeared, which to me is the pinnacle of unnecessary threats to human life. Then I looked at NASA's deficit out of a $14 billion budget.

Now is the time to reform our expectations. Manned space flight has for so long been held out as the way things would be done, but most of the reason for it -- any actual need to have humans in space to manipulate things -- has largely disappeared. The Hubble telescope repair might be one exception, but that's a big exception and we could have just sent up another for the cost of an orbiter (indeed, the next-gen NGST has been in the works for several years and if anything is delayed by Hubble).

Unlike the 70's, when a glacially slow personal computer was exotic stuff, machines can do most of the astronaut tasks now, and that's cause for celebration. The most honest consensus that there is nearly no valid scientific reason to pursue manned spaceflight except the circular desire to pursue manned spaceflight. Much as I like manned spaceflight, I scads of data from unmanned probes is a lot sexier. I have trouble thinking of many accomplishments that are uniquely thanks to the shuttle.

The past leaves an impression on us. The older generation remembers Apollo 11 as a defining moment. I was 2. For me, it was the wildly successful twin Viking landings in 1977. Mind you, I was there in person for the first Columbia landing, and I still think Viking was more memorable -- those pictures! The deep red cover of National Geographic!

Robots are cool (think of the advances in robotics if we emphasized them for spaceflight?) and relatively cheap; they accept one-way missions with alacrity; and if we lose a shuttle full of robots it's not a moral quandary but a pocketbook issue and maybe a spectator sport. We can always come back to manned flight later.

Let's study space for now, conquer it later, if we even feel it needs conquering in person at that time. That we have learned is a just way to honor those whom we have lost.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A213 40-2003Feb3.html
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078104/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A167 19-2003Feb2.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/035/oped/Rebuild ing_the_dream_of_space_exploration+.shtml
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/17 63385
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/68231. htm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-564534 ,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/opinion/03ALDR.h tml
http://www.msnbc.com/news/867640.asp?0cv=KB10
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Artic les/000/000/002/204pkfxj.asp
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030210/sctone. html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A134 74-2003Feb2.html
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/ 5086944.htm
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/bev02 022003.htm

Does that mean people should never again go into space? Of course not. Technology marches on: someday we will have a cost-effective way to get people into orbit and back again. At that point it will be worth rethinking the uses of space. I'm not giving up on the dream of space colonization. But our current approach -- using hugely expensive rockets to launch a handful of people into space, where they have nothing much to do -- is a dead end.

Or just use the Google News partner link. Or the NYT Random login generator? Just thinking out loud...

The no registration required link:
http://archives.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/ 03DALY.html?pagewanted=1

And hey, it is definitely something I do.

The NYT had an excellent and quite humourous review that is worth reading.

It will be interesting to see how 'independent' the investigation ends up being. If its like the 9/11 investigation we will know there is something they need to hide.

My top pick to head the committee would be Ted Postol of MIT. I doubt he is the administrations pick. Although the Democrats in Congress might possibly get a clue and select him as one of their picks.

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/0 3ONLI.html

Space Agency and Congress Start Individual Investigations

February 2, 2003
By JAMES BARRON

Investigators began working toward an explanation of the fiery breakup of the space shuttle Columbia today, even as officials in a 900-square-mile swath of Texas and Louisiana were still struggling to cordon off and protect pieces of wreckage that had slammed into farmers' fields, parking lots and backyards.

NASA today named Harold W. Gehman Jr., a retired Navy admiral who helped investigate the terrorist attack against the USS Cole three years ago, to lead an independent investigation into Saturday's shuttle disaster. Officials of the space agency said that no theory would be ruled out without being explored.

"We're securing all the debris and assuring that we look at every possible angle of what could have caused this horrible accident," said Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator.

"We're going to find out what led to this, retrace all the events," he said, "and leave absolutely no stone unturned in that process."

In addition to the commission led by Admiral Gerhman, NASA announced that it will conduct its own investigation. And the House Science Committee also plans an investigation. Representative Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican, is the chairman of the committee, which oversees NASA.

Columbia, streaking across a bright blue sky at about 3.5 miles a second on Saturday morning, came apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, barely 15 minutes before it was to have landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Columbia's crew of six Americans and one Israeli -- Col. Ilan Ramon, a former fighter pilot who had become a hero in his homeland in the 16 days that Columbia was in space -- were killed.

It was the second time in 17 years that the nation and the world mourned the loss of a space shuttle.

President Bush, who invoked religious imagery more than once in a brief speech from the Cabinet Room on Saturday, paid tribute to the crew's "courage and daring and idealism."

"The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth," he said, "yet we can pray that all are safely home." Of the five men and two women aboard Columbia, four had never flown in space before.

In addition to Colonel Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, Columbia's crew included Col. Rick D. Husband of the Air Force, its commander; the mission pilot, Cmdr. William C. McCool of the Navy; Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson of the Air Force, the payload commander in charge of the science equipment; Dr. Kalpana Chawla, an aerospace engineer; and two Navy doctors, Capt. David M. Brown and Cmdr. Laurel Salton Clark. They completed more than 80 scientific experiments during their time in orbit.

The astronauts were mourned at church services across the country and around the world today as ministers struggled to help worshipers come to terms with the disaster. Pope John Paul II prayed for the seven victims during a Mass in Rome, saying "the new pain of the tragic explosion" had "provoked strong emotions in all of us." He also urged worshipers to pray for the astronauts' families.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia sent a message of sympathy to President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. Mr. Putin told Mr. Bush that Russia was "all the more sensitive to this tragedy" because of the close cooperation in space exploration between the United States and Russia.

Prime Minister José María Aznar of Spain telephoned Mr. Bush, and President Thomas Kleistl of Austria and Prime Minister Leszek Miller of Poland sent condolence messages.

Officials had no immediate explanation for why Columbia, a stalwart performer on more than two dozen missions over 22 years, disintegrated about 38 miles above Earth as it raced toward the scheduled conclusion of a mission that NASA said had gone well.

One focus for the investigators was possible damage to heat-resistant tiles on the left wing, which NASA officials said had been struck by insulation that broke loose during liftoff on Jan. 16. NASA said the first indication of trouble on Saturday was the loss of temperature sensor readings in that wing. The insulation apparently hit the bottom of the wing, which the astronauts could not see. Nor could they lower a camera there to send images back to Earth -- Columbia carried no robotic arm.

The Columbia was the oldest orbiter in the shuttle fleet, and, as in plane crashes, one question is likely to be whether metal fatigue contributed to the disaster.

In the areas where debris from Columbia rained down, officers used four-wheel-drive vehicles and satellite tracking devices and even horses as they tried to track down every piece of potential evidence. Then they had to find ways to safeguard what they found until it could be collected for the investigators to study. There were reports of looting in Nacogdoches County in Texas, where the debris was thickest. But there were no immediate arrests.

Nor were injuries reported from debris that smashed through a roof and splashed into a reservoir there. But Sue Kennedy, the county's emergency management coordinator, told The Associated Press that 70 people had gone to two hospitals because they had touched items on the ground. NASA has repeatedly warned the public not to do so because the debris may be covered with toxic residue.

It was difficult to assess how large a setback the loss of Columbia would pose for the shuttle program. NASA officials said that future shuttle flights -- including the next one, scheduled for March -- would have to wait.

Russia went ahead with the launching of an unmanned supply capsule bound for the International Space Station today. But Russia's space agency indicated that it might cancel some manned missions in the future, or send orbiters without crews. A Spanish astronaut had been scheduled to leave for the space station on April 23.

The accident turned a weekend that had begun in giddy anticipation into one of shock in the United States and in Israel. Relatives and friends of the crew had been standing beside the space center's runway in Central Florida, waiting to welcome the astronauts. Colonel Ramon's father was in a television studio in Israel when cameras caught sight of what appeared to be a normal re-entry.

"Everything from a flight control perspective was perfect" as Columbia began descending from orbit more than 100 miles above the Earth, until shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern time, Mr. Dittemore said.

That was when NASA controllers noticed a problem with temperature sensors in Columbia's left wing, which had been struck by insulating foam shortly after liftoff. In Columbia's final minutes on Saturday, readings from the sensors simply stopped coming in. "It's as if someone just cut the wire," Mr. Dittemore said.

Tire pressure readings for the shuttle's landing gear disappeared next, followed by indications of "excessive structural heating." The chief flight director, Milt Heflin, said that one of eight sensors sent a reading that the astronauts saw on their cockpit displays. The astronauts, apparently following their usual procedure in acknowledging a reading of some concern, Mr. Heflin said.

Then a controller in Houston said, "We did not copy your last."

"Roger," came the reply, followed by a syllable that sounded like "uh." Then there was silence, as if the radio transmission had been cut off in midsentence.

That was the last that NASA heard from the shuttle. The controllers could not tell from their computers and their radar screens, but the truth was evident to anyone looking skyward: Columbia had broken up, and pieces were falling away from the body of the orbiter as it hurtled toward Earth. A 3-foot-by-4-foot piece that landed in a parking lot behind a bank and another chunk that slammed into a cemetery in Nacogdoches. An astronaut's flight patch landed in one field, an astronaut's helmet in another. Chunks of metal poked through the roof of a barn.

Television networks broadcast videotape from Texas stations that showed Columbia's single vapor trail dividing into several white streaks in the sky. But there were indications that Columbia's problems may have begun hundreds of miles away, as Columbia descended over the Pacific Ocean and California.

Gene Blevins, a freelance photographer in Van Nuys, Calif., had driven 250 miles north to what he believed would be the best vantage point. He set up two cameras with wide-angle lenses and watched as Columbia whizzed by, a bright light about 40 miles in the sky.

"Underneath it was something reddish and little pieces, like a meteor breaking up as it comes in -- red molten rock, like what comes out of a volcano," Mr. Blevins said in an interview. "Then I saw this big red flare drop from underneath it. It stayed red for a second, disappeared. I thought, `Oh, that didn't look right.' "

Officials said that it could take months to find the debris, which was spread in an arc from the flatlands near Dallas to the hilly pine woods of Louisiana. Much of it turned up in tiny towns that survive on farming and timber. One piece of tile fell within 75 miles of Mr. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex. Farther east, in Hemphill and in Sabine County, there were reports that bones had been found. And in Louisiana, officials said that a piece the size of a compact car had sunk into a reservoir.

As the search for potential evidence from the accident continued, grieving friends and relatives of Colonel Ramon arrived in Houston, NASA's Mission Control. "We are wrapped up in our grief now," said Hudit Keren, a family friend.

Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to United States, landed there today and planned to meet with NASA officials. He said Israel would find a way to memorialize Colonel Ramon.

Asked if the accident had made him doubt the American space program, he said: "No, not at all. This event has galvanized the two countries together. We have full trust in NASA."