Smart Fatigues Hear Enemy Coming: "The core servers that direct e-mail and Web surfers to their desired destinations around the world were attacked Monday in an apparently coordinated attempt to cripple the Internet, experts said Tuesday. The attack, which largely failed, was launched around 5 p.m. EDT/9 p.m. GMT Monday on the 13 root servers that make up Internet's Domain Name System and lasted about an hour, said Paul Vixie, chairman of Redwood City, California-based Internet Software Consortium Inc., which operates one of the root servers."

U of A builds supercomputer in a day: "A serious shortage of world-class computing power in Canada prompted University of Alberta scientists to create the next best thing -- a countrywide, virtual supercomputer. On Nov. 4, thousands of computers from research centres across the country will be strung together by a U of A effort to create the most powerful computer in this country.

Interview: Marissa Mayer, Product Manager, Google

Steve Pilgrim: "Susanna Cornett has a lengthy update, timeline and opinion piece about the D.C. area murderer..." via Joe Jennet from whom I blatantly stole this post. Sorry.

Police Investigate New Shooting in Maryland: " man was shot in the chest at a bus stop early Tuesday, and a police task force was investigating whether the shooting was connected to the serial sniper who has killed nine people this month. Police put a widespread dragnet into place immediately after the shooting, clogging traffic on Connecticut Avenue, one of the main arteries into Washington, D.C., just as the morning commute began."

Police Seek Contact With Sniper: "Police trying to establish contact with the Washington-area sniper said Monday that a phone call had come in but was too muddled for authorities to understand. They pleaded with the person to call back. 'The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand,' Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose said."

Detained men not linked to sniper: "Authorities have found no evidence connecting two men who were taken into custody Monday near Richmond, Virginia to the sniper attacks, law enforcement sources said. They described the men as undocumented workers -- a Mexican and a Guatemalan -- who "may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time," according to CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena."

What the government isn't telling you about mad deer disease: "As British cattle began dying of a mysterious wasting disease in the late 80's, the agriculture minister tried to reassure a nervous public that eating beef was safe. John Gummer posed for cameras with his 4-year-old daughter, Cordelia, each clutching a burger. When the girl refused to eat, Gummer took a bite of hers. "Delicious!" he proclaimed. By the time the European Union banned exports of British beef six years later, the cattle industry was devastated and several people in England had already died from a deadly, brain-wasting disease."

Tips for new winter drivers: "Nevada natives (Hi, there, both of you!) and established transplants tend to forget that a lot of new residents will get their first taste of winter driving in the next few months. That newbie factor explains why questions about snow tires and chains, their legality, selection and use, have topped the Street Beat charts lately."

Shuttles burden NASA: "NASA should turn over most, if not all, shuttle operations to some kind of private enterprise, a task force has advised administrator Sean O'Keefe. The cost to operate, repair and maintain the fleet and its ground equipment has become too great a burden for NASA, the panel said in a report given to O'Keefe in September but not made public until this week. Shuttle Discovery is shown here in the Vehicle Assembly building. A panel of advisers, chosen from inside and outside of NASA, advised administrator Sean O'Keefe that the space agency should turn over the $3.8 billion a year in shuttle operation costs to some kind of private enterprise. Photo Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY. The report, which was prepared by a panel of advisers chosen from inside and outside NASA, offers O'Keefe pros and cons about varying degrees of private operation of the $3.8 billion a year shuttle program."