Previous record holders are a KBO called Varuna, and an object called 2002 AW197, each approximately 540 miles across (900 kilometers). Unlike dimensions derived from Hubble's direct observations, these diameters are deduced from measuring the objects' temperatures and calculating a size based on assumptions about the KBOs' reflectivity, so the uncertainty in true size is much greater. 

This latest large KBO is too new to have been officially named by the International Astronomical Union. Trujillo and Brown have proposed naming it after a creation god of the Native American Tongva tribe, the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin. According to legend, Quaoar "came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to order, laid out the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the lower animals, and then mankind." 

Quaoar's "icy dwarf" cousin, Pluto, was discovered in 1930 in the course of a 15-year search for trans-Neptunian planets. It wasn't realized until much later that Pluto actually was the largest of the known Kuiper Belt objects. The Kuiper Belt wasn't theorized until 1950, after comet orbits provided telltale evidence of a vast nesting ground for comets just beyond Neptune. The first recognized Kuiper Belt objects were not discovered until the early 1990s. This new object is by far the "biggest fish" astronomers have snagged in KBO surveys. Brown predicts, within a few years, even larger KBOs will be found, and Hubble will be invaluable for follow-up observations to pin down sizes.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov 

His actions have delighted abortion foes and dismayed reproductive rights advocates, who say Bush's decisions are politically motivated by the midterm elections. 

Both sides in the debate know that control of the Senate is critical, since the majority party will determine whether legislation to ban late term abortions will come to the floor, and whether the president's judicial nominations will move swiftly, or at all, through the confirmation process. Bush is likely to pick a Supreme Court nominee in the next two years and thus have a chance to create an antiabortion majority. 

"There is no question in my mind that it is Bush's intention to use the court to roll back Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose," said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "If the Senate remains pro-choice, they are going to have a tougher time doing it." 

The abortion rights group will spend more than $3 million on advertising in nine states with hotly contested Senate races, Michelman said. It is also watching for the administration's response to a petition, filed by antiabortion groups with the Food and Drug Administration, to ban the sale of RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug that the agency approved in 2000. 

Last week, the president shifted $34 million out of the UN Population Fund, which he says coerces abortions in China, and into a USAID program that will distribute it, country by country, for the health of children and mothers. 

Kenneth Conner, president of the Family Research Council, said it was "bold and decisive" to deny the family-planning funds, even as the administration was pressing the United Nations for a resolution to act against Iraq. 

"I think the president has taken some significant steps that affirm his desire to help refashion the culture of life in which every child is welcomed in life and protected in law," said Conner, whose group advocates a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. 

The administration made the UN move days after it had set a policy allowing states to provide health insurance to "unborn children," designating a fetus as eligible for government benefits. Abortion rights groups say this is aimed at undermining the Roe v. Wade decision, which found that women have a qualified right to terminate pregnancies. Administration officials say their goal is to advance prenatal health care. 

Last month, the White House strongly endorsed a bill passed in the House that permits hospitals and insurance companies to refuse to perform or to pay for abortions without losing their Medicare eligibility or other federal funding. 

Opponents said the bill, which has not been considered by the Senate, would deny many women access to abortions. 

"I think Bush really believes abortion should not be available to women," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "But more importantly, whenever he needs something to appease or energize the right wing of his constituency, Bush throws them a bone, and it is usually reproductive rights." 

A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said: "The president believes that we ought to be a culture that welcomes and respects life at all stages, and that is why he makes the decisions that are right for America." 

McClellan said that Bush has no abortion litmus test for federal judges and that he regrets what McClellan called "ugly partisan politics" in the Senate, which he said have denied confirmation of two of his nominees, US District Court Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owens. 

On his first day in office, Bush reinstated a global "gag" rule that prohibits USAID from allocating family-planning funds to international agencies or programs that provide abortion counseling or services. 

Since then, the Bush administration has taken the following steps on abortion issues: 

It has lobbied for a bill, passed by the House in July, that would criminalize abortions performed in the last trimester, called "partial-birth abortions" by their opponents. Senators backing the prohibition are trying to attach it to the legislation setting up the Office of Homeland Security. 

It has weighed in with a legal argument on the partial birth issue. In February, the Justice Department asked a federal appeals court in Cincinnati to uphold an Ohio law that bans the procedure but that provides a limited health exception for the mother. (In 2000, the Supreme Court invalidated state partial-birth laws because they made no provision for the condition of the pregnant woman.) 

It held a ceremony in August for Bush to sign the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which requires that a fetus that survives an abortion procedure must be considered a person under the law. 

It has endorsed the Child Custody Protection Act, which has been approved in the House. The bill, if cleared by the Senate, would make it illegal for anyone other than a parent to accompany a minor into another state for an abortion. 

It has worked with the National Right to Life Committee on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would make it a crime to kill or injure an "unborn child" in the womb while committing a crime against a pregnant woman. The House passed the measure last year; it has not been taken up in the Senate. 

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, said the president has been "very consistent" in carrying out his group's agenda, which includes promoting adoption and expanding education on sexual abstinence. And, Johnson said, Bush has "pushed hard" for a total ban on human cloning, which Johnson called the "most important prolife issue."

"Of particular concern is the situation in Vietnam and China. Indeed, with several primates now numbering only in the dozens or low hundreds of individuals, Vietnam is at risk of undergoing a major primate extinction spasm within the next few years if rapid action is not taken. Fully 20 percent of the top 25 primates are located in Vietnam, with another 16 percent from China and 12 percent from Indonesia."

Twenty-three of the 25 primates are found in the world's biodiversity hotspots: 25 regions identified by Conservation International which cover a mere 1.4 percent of Earth's land surface but harbor more than 60 percent of all terrestrial plant and animal diversity.

According to the report, 48 (87 percent) of the 55 critically endangered primates and 124 (89 percent) of the 140 endangered primates are found only in the biodiversity hotspots, for a total of 172 (88 percent) of the current 195. Six of the hotspots are considered the highest priorities for the survival of the world's most endangered primates: Indo-Burma, Madagascar, Sundaland, the Guinean Forests of West Africa, the Atlantic Forests of Brazil, and the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka.

"It's important to point out that the Top 25 list is just the tip of the iceberg and a call for more conservation action," said Bill Konstant of Conservation International and co-author of the report. "Essentially, for each primate on it, any one of several other equally threatened species might have been chosen instead. Changing conditions in any of the represented countries can lead to the rapid decline of any of the 195 species threatened with extinction."

Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, timber extraction and the collection of fuel wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number of primates according to the report. However, hunting has been an insidious and major threat, especially in Africa and Asia. Once done mainly for subsistence purposes, it has now taken on a major commercial dimension. Live capture for the pet trade and export for biomedical research have become lesser concerns in recent decades, but still pose a threat to some species.

As flagship species, primates are important to the health of their surrounding ecosystems. Through the dispersal of fruit seeds and other foods they consume, primates help support a wide range of plant and animal life that make up the earth's forests. Nonhuman primates are our closest living relatives, and their loss is directly linked to the global extinction crisis.

"These 25 are facing a very serious risk of extinction due to the ongoing and rapid loss of their forests and, especially in Asia and Africa, their widespread and devastating exploitation for food and body parts, bizarre decoration, and charms or potions," commented Anthony Rylands of the Species Program at Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. "The key factor is that all of the species listed as 'critically endangered' and 'endangered' are declining dramatically and require urgent measures for their protection."

Although still highly endangered, a number of species have been removed from the list issued in 2000. The golden lion tamarin and the black lion tamarin, for example, have benefited from commendable efforts for their protection by the Brazilian Government. Comprehensive conservation and management programs are in place for each - that for the black lion tamarin run by the NGO IPÊ-Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas in collaboration with the Wildlife Preservation Trust, Philadelphia, and that for the golden lion tamarin by the Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (AMLD) in collaboration with the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution.

Some models hold that if the climate continues to warm, as many scientists expect, low-oxygen zones may become more widespread, affecting fisheries.

In several areas, fisheries already are being devastated by so-called "dead zones" that appear in shallower coastal waters. One of the most noted lies in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas. This summer, the zone covered 8,500 square miles. Studies have traced its origins to nutrients that escape from farms and homes in the drainage basins that feed the Mississippi River and its tributaries. High nutrient levels trigger large algae blooms along the Gulf Coast. When the algae die, they decompose, depleting the water's oxygen content near the bottom. Shrimp, crabs, and other commercially valuable bottom dwellers die before they can escape.

Meanwhile, heavy rains upriver can increase the flow of more-buoyant fresh water into the Gulf. The fresher water acts like a cap, preventing more oxygen-rich water near the surface from mixing with the deeper, oxygen-deprived water.

Recent tropical storms in the Gulf have forced ocean layers to mix, shrinking the dead zone, according to Nancy Rabalais, chief scientist with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

In the deep ocean, low-oxygen zones can form along coastal areas where upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich seawater provides fodder for algae that later die and decay. The process, Levin explains, can lead to long-term oxygen-deprived zones at depths of 600 to 4,000 feet. Here, they can cut across seamounts, such as Volcano 7, or continental margins, such as those along the west coasts of North and South America.

Although the zones are long-lived, they can change in location and depth, with "huge economic significance" for local economies, she adds.

Levin and colleagues at Scripps have calculated that during El Niño conditions, the oxygen-deprived zone affecting the continental margin off Peru shrinks by as much as 61 percent. More oxygen in the water along the margin during these periods has led to the growth of scallop and hake fisheries during El Niño years, she says.

"We know that in shallow water, an increase in temperature leads to an increased rate" of oxygen loss, "but oceans are more complex," she says, noting that not everyone agrees that warmer temperatures mean less oxygen.

Legal experts said it would be unlikely that Disney and other companies would suffer immediate harm if copyrights expire on their movies and characters. 

Mickey Mouse, for instance, is not only a character but a corporate trademark, which never expire as long as they are in use. 

Only the copyright on the Mickey portrayed in Disney's earliest films, such as 1928's "Steamboat Willie," would expire in the next few years. The more rounded, modern mouse familiar today is a later creation and would remain protected for several more years. 

Plaintiffs' documents: http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/legaldocs.html 

Motion Picture Association of America: http://mpaa.org 

By KENNETH R. WEISS
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Las Palmas October 1, 2002 (LA Times) - The 15 beaked whales that beached themselves last week on the Canary Islands off northwest Africa during a multinational naval exercise suffered ear and brain trauma that may have been caused by high-intensity sonar, according to a preliminary analysis.

Dr. Michel Andre, a veterinarian leading the investigation, noted Monday that "necropsies showed the presence of unspecific lesions, including in the brain and the hearing system, consistent with acoustic impact."

If a final analysis confirms these findings, it would be the second time that scientists have direct evidence linking mass stranding of whales to bursts of powerful active sonar used by U.S. and other warships.

An exhaustive study of a similar stranding of whales in the Bahamas 2 1/2 years ago showed that intense bursts of midfrequency sonar tore apart delicate tissues of whales' inner ears and brains, leading to hemorrhaging, disorientation and death.

In the Canary Island strandings last Tuesday and Wednesday, nine whales washed ashore dead, two were spotted dead and floating in nearby coastal waters, and six beached whales were pushed back to sea in the hope they would survive. The whales washed ashore on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

All were beaked whales, which look like very large dolphins. The three types of beaked whales that washed up ranged from 15 to 24 feet in length.

The mass stranding took place during maneuvers for "Neo-Tapon 2002," a multinational exercise hosted by the Spanish navy, which had invited 11 other NATO member countries to participate, according to the Spanish military.

The U.S. Navy sent the Norfolk, Va.-based destroyer Mahan to join the exercise, which included as many as 58 ships, six submarines and 30 aircraft.

The maneuvers were cut short at the request of the Canary Islands government after the dead whales were discovered.

"Spanish defense officials immediately initiated an investigation," said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum. "It would be inappropriate to speculate on the cause of the stranding."

A spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization declined to comment directly, saying it was a national issue for Spain and the Canary Islands, which are a part of the nation.

As for the Spanish military, so far it has reported no connection between the maneuvers and the dead whales. In addition, neither U.S., NATO nor Spanish military officials have detailed what kind of sonar systems were deployed during the exercise.

The nine whales that washed ashore dead underwent necropsies on the beach. Two of the whales were too badly decomposed for tissues to be preserved for analysis and a third suffered extensively from parasites, said Vidal Martin of the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Archipelago.

The heads of six whales were removed and taken to the veterinary school at Gran Canaria's University of Las Palmas. Preserving the head is a prerequisite for laboratory analysis of the type of injuries that can be caused by sonar, authorities said.

The preliminary analysis showed hemorrhaging around the brain and thin-walled soft tissue in the head, Martin reported Monday. "At the moment, this veterinarian unit is studying the auditory system," he said. The stomachs of seven of the beaked whales contained fresh squid and crustaceans, suggesting that the animals had recently been feeding before they beached themselves.

Martin and other researchers have reported similar mass strandings immediately after naval exercises in 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1991. Another mass die-off was reported in Greece after a 1996 NATO exercise involving active midfrequency and low-frequency sonar. But researchers were unable to retrieve fresh tissues to determine the cause of the deaths.

Active sonar systems, unlike passive listening devices, emit loud bursts of sound that detect the presence of an enemy by the echo that bounces back.

Japanese Turn Out to Rescue Whale

TOKYO October 5, 2002 (Reuters) - For once, it had seemed, here was a whale story from Japan that would have a happy ending. But it was not to be. Residents of a town near one of Japan's last whaling centers turned out on Saturday to try to rescue a whale that became stranded on their local beach, 190 miles north of Tokyo. 

People of all ages gathered near the town of Iwanuma to try to comfort the 25-foot animal, believed to be a Bryde's whale, and push it back into deeper water. The scratched and bloodied animal weakened as the day wore on and a veterinarian gave it antibiotics and a heart stimulant. 

Finally, a fishing boat managed to drag it into deeper water. The rope snapped, but it looked liked all the effort had paid off as the huge animal gave a flip of its tail and swam off to the delight of those on shore. The joy proved to be short-lived, however, when the animal washed up dead on another beach nearby. 

Iwanuma is not far from Ayukawa, one of Japan's few remaining whaling communities, which is struggling to survive after an international ban on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986. Japan, which says that eating whale is an important part of its cultural heritage, began what it calls "scientific research" whaling in 1987. Much of the meat from these hunts ends up on store shelves and restaurant tables.

NASA is in the midst of a 10-year program to find and assess every asteroid six-tenths of a mile or more in size that could pass close to the Earth and might pose a danger to the planet. 

Such asteroids or comets are called "near earth objects" and if one struck the planet it could wipe out whole countries. An asteroid 1 mile across could snuff out civilizations, while one that is 3 miles across could cause human extinction, experts say. 

Edward Weiler, head of NASA's office of space science, told the House committee that his agency has detected 619 near earth objects and is finding about 100 new ones each year. None poses a danger to the Earth. 

Worden and others said that smaller asteroids also can be destructive. For instance, if an asteroid the size of a cruise ship smashed into the ocean it could cause huge waves, called tsunamis, capable of drowning coastal cities on two continents. Worden called for a system of instruments and telescopes on land and in space that could scan the sky to find asteroids down to the size of 300 feet.

He said telescopes and instruments weighing less than 150 pounds could easily be launched to establish an observing network. 

NASA Near Earth Objects site - http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo.html 

Push and Firefly in TiVo Users' Top 5

LOS ANGELES October 6, 2002 (Zap2it.com) - Before ABC pulls the plug on "Push, Nevada," it may want to consider the latest statistics released by TiVo about the top five new series.

The ratings-impaired drama ranks fourth out of the top five freshman shows given a Season Pass by the digital video recorder users. Selecting a program on Season Pass allows TiVo viewers to record an entire season of episodes with one push of a button. The feature is especially useful when viewers want to catch shows with notoriously bad or highly competitive time slots.

"Push, Nevada" airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m., opposite ratings powerhouse "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS and NBC's "Will & Grace" and "Good Morning Miami." Against its time slot competition, the new ABC drama has been largely ignored by viewers.

CBS' new Monday night drama, "CSI: Miami," is the most popular entry for Season Pass programming, followed by "Firefly" and "John Doe" which air on FOX Friday night. "Without a Trace" is the fifth-ranked show. The CBS freshman drama airs opposite NBC's "ER" on Thursday night at 10 p.m. 

In addition to the new programs, TiVo's 500,000 subscribers are recording television's most popular shows and watching them at a more convenient time. The company says that roughly 80 percent of primetime programming is watched by TiVo users at a later time. 

Looking into the future, TiVo's CEO Mike Ramsay says, "Inevitable change will sweep across the television landscape in the next few years as viewers find the shows that interest them and watch them at the time most convenient for them."

CSM To Land in Smallville? 

Hollywood October 8, 2002 (Sci Fi Wire) - William B. Davis, most familiar to television viewers as the duplicitous Cigarette-Smoking Man on The X-Files, reportedly will guest-star on an upcoming episode of Smallville, according to a rumor on the Web site www.KryptonSite.com.

The Web site noted that Davis will play the corrupt mayor of Smallville and suggested that the actor might return on a recurring basis.

Davis has been busy since reprising his role as CSM in the X-Files series finale in May. He's working on the medical series Body & Soul and plays Father Michael in the SCI FI Pictures original movie Clive Barker Presents Saint Sinner, which premieres Oct. 26.

Smallville airs Tuesdays at 9PM on The WB.

Official Smallville site - http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/smallville/ledger/home.jsp 

K-19 Sinks in Russia

Moscow October 7, 2002 (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures film 'K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson has opened in Russia to a less than enthusiastic response. The movie tells the story of the Soviet Union's first nuclear submarine and a major malfunction it develops at the height of the cold war. 

"Only two things in the film are true: the bottle of champagne did not break when the submarine was launched and yes, there was an accident with the reactor," the craft's navigator, Valentin Shabanov, told Reuters.

X-Files' Spotnitz Quits CBS 
By Nellie Andreeva 

Hollywood October 4, 2002 (Hollywood Reporter) - Frank Spotnitz is stepping down as an executive producer and showrunner of Michael Mann's gritty freshman cop drama for CBS "Robbery Homicide Division." According to sources familiar with the situation, Spotnitz had a good relationship with Mann but was not creatively satisfied working on the Forward Pass/Universal Network Television show.

Spotnitz will continue to run the series for the time being, and the exact date of his departure is yet to be determined.

"Michael is a great filmmaker and a true visionary, and I'm grateful that this show has given me an opportunity to work with him," Spotnitz said, declining further comment about his exit.

O'Neill Is Joe Friday on 'Dragnet'

LOS ANGELES October 7, 2002 (Zap2it.com) - The manhunt is over, "Dragnet" has found a new Joe Friday.

"Married With Children" actor Ed O'Neill will be playing the deadpan detective on Dick Wolf's series remake for ABC and Universal Television, according to industry sources.

He will replace Danny Huston, who left the show after filming the first episode, which wrapped Sept. 30. Production on the show will resume on Friday, Oct. 11.

"I'm delighted that Ed will be playing Joe Friday on 'Dragnet,'" Wolf said in a statement. "Ed and I have been trying to find something to do together for several years, and I believe this will be a great meld of actor and material." 

O'Neill will be reunited with "Dutch" costar Ethan Embry, who plays Friday's partner Detective Frank Smith. In addition to the John Hughes film, he has starred in such features as "The Bone Collector" and "Lucky Numbers." His last lead television role was in the cop drama "The Big Apple" on CBS.

"Dragnet" is scheduled to premiere in January 2003 on ABC.

No wonder Firefly hasn't flown and Push, Nevada has no pull!

Today I stumbled across the ultimate solution, folks. Well, maybe, maybe not, but here it comes: why even bother trying to woo the mass majority network audience with carefully scripted, beautifully acted, expensively produced, complex genre programs when there is an easier alternative?

Why not produce genre series directly for DVD and VHS? That's right! Bypass the little tube and its quiz show and sitcom Nielsen families, 18-49 demographic driven sponsors, witless network executives, Puritan network censors, and clueless TV Guide critics. Shoot the 13 episodes and put them right up there on the video store racks in a boxed set, man!

Zap! Broadcast/cable TV eliminated from the equation!

Can it be done? Why, sure, Video Ranger! Anyone who rents tapes or DVDs occasionally comes across a "direct to video" feature. Those movies never make it into theaters because they either suck too bad to get a theatrical distribution deal or because they were only a tax shelter in the first place (ala "Springtime for Hitler" in The Producers.)

Very few series are created directly for the DVD and VHS audience. There is kids stuff, sure, and the history of surfing and Anime and other specialty sets, but not quality genre drama. Shows like Trek and Buffy and Sopranos and Farscape only come out on DVD after they run on TV in the USA.

So why wait? I'll bet those box sets sell pretty well, don't they? Not just in the USA, either. I bet they sell in places where they've never even seen Farscape on TV.

"But what about sales?" Big Bad Executive Producer says. "You still have to get the audience!"

Is that really more difficult than getting people to find your show on USA Network or TNT or UPN or Sci Fi? Current ratings for almost all network genre TV shows seem to prove otherwise. Enterprise had lousy numbers for its season premiere. So did Buffy. Angel was lower than expected. Newcomers like Firefly and Push and Twilight Zone have failed to grab the overnights. Haunted is almost on the chopping block.

Only Smallville really pulled its own, but nothing genre is flying high on TV this season - not even Clark Kent. The genre numbers began dropping off last season, and they haven't made a comeback.

Funny, because people sure flocked to Spiderman. Folks are buying Lord of the Rings and renting science fiction and horror movie DVDs every day. It's not like they aren't out there.

You gotta wonder if it's TV that's turning them off.

You gotta wonder what would happen if, say, Warners tried a little experiment and released the next season of Angel, or even Smallville, direct to DVD without ever airing it on the WB? You gotta wonder if The Lone Gunmen would still be around if Fox had done that two years ago. Or Harsh Realm. Or Invisible Man. Or _________________ [fill in your own favorite cancelled show here, any era.]

The time has come for creative producers to take a chance at alternative routes into the genre living room. Broadcast is trashed. Basic cable is trashed. Pay cable - well, it's mostly those same old movies month after month, isn't it? - nearly trashed.

This year's Emmys made Fraser the "most honored program in TV history". With all due respect to those lovable old codgers still limping around the Fraser sets, doesn't that tell you something?

TV is a dead horse, man. Time for a new ride.

Agree? Disagree? Opinions to flatrich@exonews.com 

And for the TV Geek, the answer is here - Men Into Space (1956) - http://us.imdb.com/Details?0052493