Time to shift gears - now the news.

This week has been very exciting in editors offices around the world. My homepage is actually my.yahoo.com, where I have the news headlines from Reuters, AP, New York Times, BBC, and Salon. It is often very interesting to see not only what the headlines are, but what is missing.

For example, this morning BBC carried an article about the Japanese hostage taken in Iraq who was killed. Prime Minister Koizumi vowed not to pull the Japanese troops out. Last time this happened, The Japanese public was outraged... that the people ignored Government warnings not to go to Iraq. They were not welcomed home to open arms, but to public jeers. This time the hostage was simply ignored.

However, come to find out, the body found today in an northern Iraqi city was not that of the hostage. No coverage on BBC, or elsewhere.

However, the Japanese public has been overwhelmed with news of the Niigata Earthquake, where 36 people have died, thousands have been injured, and tens of thousands continue to live in shelters a week later. The initinal shock was a 6.8 on the richter scale, with dozens of very powerful quakes in its wake over a week.

At the same time the United States has been overwhelmed by election coverage, and now a release of a tape by Bin Laden. I don't know if it will affect the election, but it will be very interesting to see.

The Colonel