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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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U.S. intelligence has identified the origins of al-Qaeda funding and discovered that the terrorists are supported by only 12 wealthy sources?all of them from Saudi Arabia. “It is our first big break in understanding al-Qaeda’s financial network,” says an official. “At first, the network was so big that we didn’t think could find major channels of support. Now, we believe we have.” Treasury Undersecretary Jimmy Gurule is working with foreign banks to freeze the assets of these individuals. The countries where they have bank accounts include Denmark, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland.
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An inscription on a burial artifact discovered in Israel is “the first appearance of Jesus in the archaeological record,” says Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. Scholars have no reason to doubt that Jesus actually lived, but no archeological evidence of his life has been found until now.

Andre Lemaire, a specialist in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), says it is “very probable” the find is an authentic reference to Jesus of Nazareth. It appears on an empty ossuary (limestone burial box for bones) and says, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Lemaire dates the object to 63 AD and says the writing style, and the fact that Jews practiced ossuary burials only between 20 BC and 70 AD, means the time is right.
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