Details about the official launch of National Preparedness Month and local events will be distributed in late August.

For further information or to join this effort please call Kristin Gossel or Lara Shane at 202-282-8010.

The Ready Campaign is a national public service advertising campaign produced by the Ad Council in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Ready Campaign is designed to educate and empower American citizens to prepare for and respond to potential terrorist attacks and other emergencies.

Citizens interested in receiving a "Get Ready Now" brochure may call 1-800-BE-READY or visit www.Ready.gov for more information.

[If  The Points of Light Foundation sounds familiar, you might remember that it was founded in 1990 by former President George Bush as a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes volunteerism. Or so it says here. Ed.]

U.S. Department of Homeland Security - http://www.dhs.gov

London August 11, 2004 (BBC) - The widely held view that even low levels of radiation damage health has no basis in hard science, a leading expert has said. Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski, former chairman of a United Nations committee on radiation effects, believes low levels may even be beneficial. 

He told the BBC Today program: "Low levels of radiation are probably essential for life itself." 

However, the National Radiological Protection Board rejected the claim. 

The standard measurement of radiation is set in terms of milliSieverts (mSv) per year. In the 1920s, the maximum dose regarded as safe was 700mSv. By 1941, it was reduced to 70. By the 1990s, it became 20 for people exposed to radiation as part of their job, and 1 mSv for the general population. 

Some people believe the maximum dose should be lower still. 

Professor Jaworoski, now based at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw, Poland, said the background level of radiation was around 2.5mSv. However, in some parts of the world background levels were as high as 700-800mSV. He said a study in the Iranian city of Ramsar had shown people routinely exposed to 250mSv came to no harm. 

"There were many generations of people living in these houses, and there was no evidence of any harm. One of the gentlemen living there was more than 100 years old." 

Professor Jaworoski said the view that low levels of radiation were harmful was little more than an "administrative assumption". His view was echoed by Lord Dick Taverne, chairman of the pressure group Sense About Science. 

Writing in Prospect magazine, he said: "Far from safeguarding our health, current safety standards will almost certainly increase the incidence of cancer. A low dose of radiation seems to stimulate DNA repair and the immune system, so providing a measure of protection against cancer." 

Dr Michael Clarke, of the NRPB, said the scientific consensus was that low level radiation probably did pose a small risk to health. 

"The consensus is that every little bit does a little bit of harm, and you extrapolate from what you can see at high doses, down to low doses. A small exposure gives you a very small risk. Maybe over the years more science will show that DNA repair mechanisms are stimulated by low level radiation, but it is not clear at the moment." 

However, Dr Clarke accepted that there was little hard evidence that low radiation levels do damage health, but he said it was difficult to tease out the effect from all the other potentially damaging factors.

Four Killed in Japanese Nuclear Plant

Mihama Japan August 10, 2004 (AP) - A non-radioactive steam leak killed four people and injured seven in the worst accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant ever. Another worker was reportedly in a critical condition. 

No radiation was involved in yesterday's leak and there was no need to evacuate the area around the plant in Mihama, a city 320 kilometers west of Tokyo, officials said. 

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed to launch a thorough investigation into the accident, which follows a string of safety problems and attempted cover-ups at nuclear power plants in Japan. 

Yesterday's accident was caused by a lack of cooling water in the reactor's turbine, said Kimihito Kawabata, a spokesman for plant operator Kansai Electric Power.

The steam was believed to be about 270 degrees. 

Four workers died after suffering severe burns, said Takanori Amimoto, at the nearby Fukui prefecture government office. He did not know how serious were the conditions of those who were injured. 

Japanese media reported that another worker was in critical condition, and had suffered heart and lung failure.

The No. 3 nuclear reactor in Mihama, which started operations in 1976, automatically shut down when steam began spewing from the leak, said Takahiro Seno, another Kansai Electric official. The Mihama plant's two other reactors were operating normally, officials said. 

"There was no leak of radioactivity that could harm the environment," said Nobutake Masaki, a Mihama city official. He added that the steam, which was not radioactive, leaked only inside the building. 

The workers were all employees of Kiuchi Keisoku Co, an Osaka-based subcontractor of Kansai Electric. They were all inside the turbine building to prepare for regular inspections of the plant. 

Mr Koizumi said: "We must put all our effort into determining the cause of the accident and to ensuring safety." He added that the Government would respond "resolutely, after confirming the facts". 

Mihama's population is about 11,500. Yesterday's was the second fatal accident at a Japanese nuclear plant. 

The first was in 1999, when a radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, north-east of Tokyo, killed two workers and caused the evacuation of thousands of local residents. That accident was caused by two workers who tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanized tanks. 

Several major power-generation companies have since been hit with alleged safety violations at their reactors, undermining public faith in nuclear energy and leaving Japan's nuclear program in limbo.

Energy-poor Japan relies on nuclear power to supply 30 per cent of its electricity. 

In February, eight workers were exposed to low-level radiation at another power plant when they were accidentally sprayed with contaminated water. The doses were not considered dangerous.

NEWARK August 11, 2004 – Brush, then squash. Remember those three words and that technique the next time you catch a mosquito dining on your arm or leg, and you’ll go a long way to protecting yourself from a potentially lethal parasitic micro-organism that may be in the mosquito, and is especially dangerous to those with weakened immune systems. 

A study by Rutgers-Newark biology professor Ann Cali and others published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July indicates that microsporidia, a group of opportunistic single-celled micro-organisms that can invade and devour virtually any kind of human cell, may have entered and broken down the muscle tissue of a Pennsylvania woman when she crushed a mosquito over the site where it had been drawing blood.

The woman later died as a type of microsporidia called B. algerae, known to reside in the tissues of mosquitoes, systematically consumed muscle fibers in her body, leaving the muscles unable to contract and respond to mental commands. 

Cali, who serves as a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed Army Hospital, theorizes that the B. algerae in the mosquito may have been ground into the wound left by the insect’s hypodermic-like feeding tube.

Mosquitoes secrete an anti-coagulant to keep blood from clotting as they drink, temporarily leaving a clear passage directly into the bloodstream. 

New research by Cali and one of her graduate students will be aimed at identifying how prevalent B. algerae is in mosquitoes in New Jersey through the collection and examination of specimens across the state. 

"Microsporidia kill people because they stay below the radar," Cali observed. 

Studies spearheaded by Cali have identified many of the dozen kinds of microsporidia now known to infect humans. About 1,500 species of microsporidia have been found infecting a wide variety of life forms. Their spores – a dormant stage in the creatures’ life cycle – inhabit virtually every surface water source, becoming active microsporidia once they have been ingested by an animal susceptible to infection by that particular species. 

Until recent research by Cali and her co-authors proved otherwise, the conventional scientific wisdom was that B. algerae, a microsporidium found in some mosquitoes, could only invade cells on the surface of the human body because it couldn’t survive in the higher temperatures of deep tissue. Several types of microsporidia can be lethal in human beings, although a healthy immune system is usually an adequate defense.

Cali notes that AIDS patients, organ-transplant recipients and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy – who have a low white blood-cell count – need to take extra care to avoid ingesting microsporidial parasites. She recommends that they always boil tap water before consuming it or stick to bottled water – as long as the source of the bottled water is deep springs or wells where microsporidia are unlikely to be present due to the absence of food sources. 

"Prevention is so much better than cure," Cali said, adding that although treatment for some types of microsporidia shows promise, "Whenever we start dealing with parasites in our cells, it’s very difficult to kill them without upsetting our body’s other processes." 

With mosquito season underway in earnest, Cali recommends some simple, common-sense approaches to avoid mosquito bites and resultant infections in addition to her brush-then-squash technique, which moves any B. algerae in a mosquito’s body away from the vulnerable wound site. 

If people are concerned about spraying insect repellents containing DEET on their skin, they can wear lightweight, long-sleeved shirts and long pants, and spray the DEET on the fabric instead.

Taking garlic capsules, which cause the release of an odorless vapor through the pores that insects find unappetizing, also can be effective. 

Another approach involves coating exposed skin areas with a bath oil product called Skin So Soft, which has proven so effective that U.S. armed forces operating in swampy, mosquito-rich areas now routinely carry it with their other gear. Avoiding being outside at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active and prevalent, is another effective tactic, she adds.

Rutgers University - http://www.newark.rutgers.edu

Ants Attack Oz!

Melbourne August 13, 2004 (BBC) - A giant colony of ants stretching 100km (62 miles) has been discovered in the Australian city of Melbourne, threatening local insect species. The ants, which were imported from Argentina, are ranked among the world's 100 worst animal invaders. 

Although they exist in their usual smaller group size in their homeland, the colonies have merged in Australia to create one massive super colony. Experts fear that the invasion poses a threat to biodiversity in the area. 

Elissa Suhr, from Monash University, Melbourne, said the introduced pest's natural aggression kept numbers under control in its native country. But the lack of genetic diversity in the ants found in Australia has allowed them to build a super colony. 

"In Argentina, their native homeland, ant colonies span tens of meters, are genetically diverse and highly aggressive towards one another," Dr Suhr said. "So population numbers never explode and they are no threat to other plants and animals.

"When they arrived in Australia, in 1939, a change in their structure occurred, changing their behavior so that they are not aggressive towards one another. This has resulted in the colonies becoming one super colony." 

Dr Suhr said the Argentine ants have killed native ants, and consumed many other insects, posing a major threat to biodiversity. She said Argentine ants could even displace native species by taking over local habitats and preying on insects commonly eaten by Australian ants. 

Australia is not the only country to be invaded by Argentine ants, according to Dr Suhr. 

"In California, they have displaced native ants, decreased the diversity of other native insects, affected the dispersal of seeds and even decreased lizard numbers," she said. Australian scientists are studying colonies in Perth and Adelaide to see if they share the same genetic structure and behavior as the Melbourne ants. 

If they do, a super colony several thousand miles wide could spread across southern Australia.

"People have seen waves on the surface of the magnetosphere, but they couldn't tell if they were small ripples or crashing, rolling waves," Phan said. "You have to have big vortices to get the solar wind inside."

"These vortices were really huge structures, about six Earth radii across," said Hasegawa. The team's results place the size of the vortices at almost 40,000 kilometers each.

These vortices are products of non-linear Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which occur when two adjacent flows travel past each other at different speeds and the friction between them kicks up eddies and vortices. Examples of such instabilities are the waves whipped up by the wind slipping across the surface of the ocean. When a KHI-wave rolls up into a vortex, it becomes known as a "Kelvin Cat's eye." The data collected by Cluster have shown density variations of the electrified gas at the magnetopause precisely like those expected when traveling through a Kelvin Cat's eye.

Scientists had postulated that, if these structures were to form at the magnetopause, they might be able to pull large quantities of the solar wind inside the magnetosphere as they collapse. Once the solar wind particles are carried into the inner part of the magnetosphere, they can be excited strongly, allowing them to smash into the Earth's atmosphere and give rise to the auroras.

Cluster's discovery strengthens this scenario but does not show the precise mechanism by which the gas is transported into the Earth's magnetic bubble. Thus, scientists still do not know whether this is the only process to fill up the magnetosphere when the magnetic fields are aligned. For those measurements, Hasegawa said, scientists will have to wait for a future generation of magnetospheric satellites.

Phan, in fact, suspects there are other mechanisms that allow entry of solar wind particles when the solar wind and Earth's field's are parallel. Detection last year by UC Berkeley scientists of a proton aurora over the Earth's poles may indicate that magnetic reconnection around the Earth's polar regions, instead of at the bow of the magnetosphere, can allow particles in.

The Cluster satellites, built by ESA with significant participation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, were launched in summer 2000. The Cluster mission investigates three-dimensional structures throughout the Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind. NASA supports U.S.-based researchers associated with the mission.

"These multi-point, high time-resolution observations open a new window into understanding the connection of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere," said William Peterson, NASA's geospace program scientist.

Coauthors, in addition to Hasegawa and Phan, are Masaki Fujimoto, Henri Rème, Andre Balogh, Malcolm W. Dunlop and graduate students C. Hashimoto and R. TanDokoro.

European Space Agency - http://www.esrin.esa.it

University of California - Berkeley - http://www.berkeley.edu

Considering the whacky world of Star Trek fans, it's safe to assume that most photos will not make the cut. (Pictures of your butt dressed up as your favorite Star Trek captain, your pet turtle in his Porthos costume, the model of the Enterprise you made from a Coke bottle, etc.)

Rodenberry is asking you to think higher than that and send in a picture that expresses the "optimism, hope, inspiration, vision or humanity" Gene may have stirred in you through Star Trek.

The photographs should express "innovation, human kindness, nature, exploration, peace or how the Roddenberry Spirit (manifested in Star Trek) has affected you personally."

Submissions that are "part of the spirit" will be included in a book (presumably a physical one) to be released in the future.

See all the info and get full instructions on the Roddenberry Official site at http://www.roddenberry.com/newsArticle.cfm?articleID=8063

[And remember that 285th Ferengi Rule of Acquisition - "No good deed ever goes unpunished." Ed]

Buffyverse Movies - Joss Is Willing

Hollywood August 12, 2004 (Sci Fi Wire) - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel creator Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he's ready to return to the Buffyverse with television films once he receives a green light from The WB, home of Angel, or another network.

"We haven't really heard anything," Whedon said in an interview. "Obviously, there's been a regime change at The WB. The fans are interested. I'm interested. I don't think either [Buffy star] Sarah [Michelle Gellar] or [Angel star] David [Boreanaz] would want to do it. But I think there's about 10 other characters I could name who would be totally worthy of movies. And I'm just waiting for somebody to say yea or nay."

As for a proposed Buffy animated series, Whedon said, "A presentation is being made. It hasn't been bought anywhere, but it's still in the creating stages, so it's still a possibility."

Beyond Buffy, Whedon said he'd readily return to series television.

"I had some ideas," he said. "I'm sort of trying to look at the marketplace and say, 'What kind of idea will actually go?' Because I'm not really interested in making things that don't.

"So I'm not sure if what I have is what the world wants right now."

But, Whedon added, "I am totally prepared to go back to TV. Not 24-seven, as I did with the first years of Buffy. But now I've learned about surrounding yourself with the right people and delegating so that I can actually run a show without ruining my life.

"And TV is, you know, … a medium that I love in a very different way than I love movies.

"The things that I can't do in [a] movie are things that I mourn: the smaller moments. The … protracted interactions. The things that make TV really fascinating. Watching characters change over the years.

"You know, I've waited my whole life to make movies, but movies don't do that. … You either write novels that are way too long, or you make TV if you want to do that. And … I can't write novels that are long."

Buffy Not Indecent!

LOS ANGELES August 10, 2004 (Zap2it.com) The Federal Communications Commission has rejected indecency complaints against episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Will & Grace."

In both cases, watchdog groups complained to the FCC about sex scenes. The commission ruled Monday (Aug. 9) that neither scene in question, from a 2001 episode of "Buffy" and a "Will & Grace" episode that aired in syndication last year, was "sufficiently explicit or graphic to be indecent."

The Parents Television Council, known for its annual list of the most and least family-friendly shows on TV, filed a complaint in 2003 about the "Buffy" episode "Smashed" -- originally aired Nov. 20, 2001 -- in which Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Spike (James Marsters) have sex. The commission notes the scene contained no nudity and says "there was no evidence the activity depicted ... was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience."

An Arizona-based group called Americans for Decency complained about a "Will & Grace" episode that aired March 31, 2003, on Phoenix station KSAZ, a FOX affiliate that airs the sitcom in syndication. The complaint takes issue with a scene in which "[a] woman photographer passionately kissed [a] woman author and then humped her (what she called a 'dry hump.')" 

The FCC ruling says that since both people in the scene were fully clothed, and, again, there was no intent to "pander, titillate or shock," the scene isn't indecent.

Harsh Realm on DVD!
By FLAtRich

August 15, 2004 (eXoNews) - Stop whining, soldier! At long last, Chris Carter's aborted 1999 Harsh Realm TV series will appear as a complete DVD set in the USA. The 3-disc set will be released on August 24th, 2004 and includes the entire series, all nine episodes in widescreen* format and:

• Commentary by Chris Carter and director Dan Sackheim on the pilot
• Inside the Harsh Realm: making-of featurette
• Creating the logo and title sequence
• English Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround
• Subtitled in English and Spanish, dubbed in English and French
• Encoding: Region 1
• Close Captioned

Most important, it is under $40 and you can get it online directly from the Fox Store ($29.95) or at Amazon.

For those of you who don't know, Harsh Realm was X-Files creator Carter's first series failure on Fox - the story of a group of rebels fighting a scurrilous dictator in a virtual reality world. Harsh Realm starred Scott Bairstow as Lt. Tom Hobbs, D.B. Sweeney as Mike Pinocchio, Vinnie as Dexter the Dog, and Rachel Hayward as Florence. Supporting and guest roles were filled by a bevy of genre favorites, including Terry O'Quinn (MillenniuM), Sarah-Jane Redmond (Smallville) and Lance Henriksen.

Carter executive produced and also wrote a couple of the nine episodes. Some of the best of his X-Files and MillenniuM crew participated in the experiment, including Carter's long time collaborator Frank Spotnitz and directors Kim Manners and Daniel Sackheim.

Vinnie (the dog) was a real scene stealer.

The best episode was Cincinnati, written by Carter and directed by Larry Shaw. It was never shown on broadcast TV in the USA (the entire series did appear briefly on Fox's FX Network in 2000.) Cincinnati features a largely Native American cast rebelling against the abovementioned scurrilous dictator (played by Terry O'Quinn) and is definitely worth the price of the entire DVD set.

The show was based on a 1993 comic book series, created by James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette. It ran into unexpected legal challenges by the comic authors after the first episodes, who objected to a "Created by Chris Carter" credit on the show. Fox was typically inept at publicizing Harsh Realm (as it was with MillenniuM, The Lone Gunmen, Wonderfalls, etc.) and the series garnered low ratings and was dumped after just three episodes aired.

Production was halted with only the pilot and eight episodes in the can.

International viewers, some still caught up in early seasons of X-Files and MillenniuM, rallied to Harsh Realm as it appeared in syndication around the world. It was a big hit earlier this year in Finland.

[* BTW, Amazon says "Widescreen anamorphic format" and Fox Store says "Full Frame". Obviously, it's just a game to them... I'm gonna eat that dog! Ed.]

Buy Harsh Realm directly from the Fox Store

Visit VRContinuum's Unofficial Harsh Realm fan site - http://richlabonte.net/hr/hr1.htm

DeNiro Shark Defames Italians?

Washington DC August 14, 2004 (Guardian UK) - To millions of filmgoers around the world, Robert DeNiro is the epitome of the Italian man.

But the tough guy image and parts in blockbusters such as The Godfather II have not endeared him to some Americans of Italian descent.

This week it emerged that an influential Italian-American organization had appealed to Silvio Berlusconi, asking the Italian Prime Minister to cancel his country's plan to award DeNiro honorary citizenship.

The Order of the Sons of Italy in America - which is based in Washington, has 600,000 members and describes itself as the oldest and largest association of its kind - is indignant that the actor has "made a career of playing gangsters of Italian descent".

It is particularly annoyed that DeNiro is to star in a Steven Spielberg children's film which is, it says, deeply offensive and will instill in young people the idea that Italians are all mafiosi.

The society has asked Spielberg's company DreamWorks to edit what it considers the most offensive aspects of the film, Shark Tale, before it is shown at next month's Venice film festival in northern Italy and launched in the US in October.

In the film, DeNiro plays the voice of a shark that the society says is a classic godfather figure. 

"[Spielberg] is going to make millions of dollars with a film that is going to introduce unflattering and untrue stereotypes of Italian-Americans as gangsters to millions of children," the society said. 

It faxed Mr Berlusconi on Tuesday to demand the actor not be given the citizenship accolade.

The letter pointed out that for Italy to confer such an honor on DeNiro would be perceived as an insult by millions of Italian-Americans who have long objected to his "distorted and unbalanced portrayal of people of Italian heritage". 

Andy Spahn, a DreamWorks spokesman, rejected the society's criticism. "We are ... perplexed," he said. "It's an animated movie about colorful fish. I can't see how that can offend anyone."

Shark Tale Official - http://www.sharktale.com

War of the Worlds

Hollywood August 12, 2004 (Sci Fi Wire) - A new film based on H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, has been put on a fast track for production, Variety reported.

The project has pushed back both Spielberg's proposed untitled movie about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics and Cruise's upcoming Mission: Impossible 3, which J.J. Abrams (TV's Alias) has been hired to direct, based on his rewrite of Frank Darabont's script. M:I 3 is now pushed back to next summer, the trade paper reported. Abrams, who makes his feature-film directorial debut, replaces Joe Carnahan, who quit over "creative differences."

War of the Worlds, which will feature complex computer-generated visual effects, has been put on a very fast track, with only 10 weeks of preproduction, the trade paper reported. DreamWorks and Paramount are co-financing the movie. Sources told the trade paper that the budget for the film could exceed $100 million.

War of the Worlds, a contemporary adaptation of Wells' classic Mars invasion novel, will have to be rushed to make its November start date and a 2005 release. David Koepp wrote the script; Kathleen Kennedy and Paula Wagner will produce, the trade paper reported.

[Industrial Light & Magic will most likely handle effects for War of the Worlds, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 1953 version of War of the Worlds, directed by Byron Haskin, starring Gene Barry and produced by George Pal with a little uncredited help from Cecil B. DeMille, is fairly definitive. If Spielberg wasn't involved, we'd have to ask "Why bother?" Ed.]

The Avengers a Go on Marvel DVD 
By Marc Graser

Hollywood August 12, 2004 (Variety) - Months after inking a deal with Lions Gate to produce direct-to-DVD titles, Marvel Enterprises has tapped Eric Rollman to oversee the venture. 

Rollman will serve as senior veep of home entertainment and TV production at Marvel Studios and will shepherd the development and production of animated DVD features based on popular characters from the Marvel Universe. Marvel's library includes more than 4,700 comicbook characters. 

The first project, "The Avengers," will include Marvel's Captain America, the Hulk and Iron Man superheroes. DVD will bow sometime in 2006. 

"With our world-renowned character library, there are countless possibilities for creating dynamic, action-packed animated made-for-DVD movies," said David Meisel, prexy and chief operating officer of Marvel Studios, to whom Rollman reports. "Eric's background, combined with his knowledge of Marvel, will be instrumental in taking advantage of this tremendous new opportunity for Marvel." 

Most recently, Rollman formed independent production company Rollman Entertainment to consult on and develop live-action and animated television, film and media projects. 

Before that, he served as prexy of Fox Family and Saban Entertainment, where he oversaw the "Power Rangers" and "Digimon" franchises, as well as turning several Marvel properties into animated TV series, including "X-Men," "Ultimate Spider-Man," "Silver Surfer" and "The Avengers."

[If these DVDs succeed, Marvel's move could lead the way for more direct-to-DVD productions. Kill ugly TV, buy a DVD! :o)> Ed.]

Moore Stands Firm on Headline

BLOOMINGTON IL August 12, 2004 (AP) - Filmmaker Michael Moore makes no apologizes for his Bush-bashing documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," and his lawyer says he'll make no apologies for its use of an Illinois newspaper headline, either.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph says the headline, flashed briefly in the film, came from a letter to the editor about the 2000 presidential election recount but was doctored to look like a news story. Even the date was changed. 

The newspaper fired off a letter to Moore and his production company last month that it says was lighthearted but symbolic, demanding an apology and $1 in compensatory damages. 

But an attorney for Westside Productions replied this week that Moore violated no copyright laws and did nothing misleading. 

"Baloney," said Pantagraph President and Publisher Henry Bird, who directed his lawyers to send a follow-up letter asking Moore to explain why material from the paper was altered without permission. 

Westside Productions lawyer Devereux Chatillon acknowledged that Moore was two weeks off on the date of the headline, which read: "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election." 

But the mistake "did not make a difference to the editorial point ... and was in no way detrimental to (The Pantagraph)," the New York-based attorney wrote in a letter to the paper. 

"Fahrenheit 9/11," which opened in theaters in June, quickly became the first documentary to top $100 million at the domestic box office.