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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (47828)	2/20/2002 6:49:32 PM
From: abstract	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Nostradamus Missed One ! -------------- It won't come around for 111 years, and after that it will never happen again. At 8.02pm, the world will witness a time that is truly, triply palindromic. It will be 20:02/20.02/2002. Read the time, the day, the month and the year forwards or backwards, in numeric form, and the result is the same, discarding punctuation. Moreover, every individual component - time, date and year - is identical, and every one is itself a palindrome. That has happened only three times before - at 10.01 on 10 January 1001, at 11.11 on 11 November 1111, and at 12.21 on 12 December 1221. "And when they happened, nobody had digital watches to notice it," says Professor Peter Cameron, professor of mathematics at Queen Mary College of the University of London. It can only ever happen once more, says Professor Cameron - at 21.12 on 21 December 2112. "It is impossible after that because there are only 12 months in the year." It's a game - just something interesting," he adds. "It's like the fact the next date that looks the same held upside down is 6009. For mathematicians, it is the significance of the numbers that matter, not the form." For once, there is no associated pronouncement of Nostradamus, and even the internet, home to a million woolly-minded ravings, is silent, according to one of the British Museum's experts on calendars, Silke Ackermann. "A couple of people have commented on it, and then there has been a deadly silence," she says. It is, though, a pleasing numerical symmetry-that seems likely to cause a bulge in the marriage statistics. A straw poll of London's registry offices reports extremely brisk business for a weekday in February, with a number fully booked by couples, presumably of a mathematical bent. The experience mirrors that of Germany a couple of weeks ago when registry offices had to open specially, even though it was a Saturday, when they are usually shut, as hundreds of couples decided 2 February 2002 (02/02/02) was an auspicious date for tying the knot. They can all raise a glass to Sotades the Obscene, who invented the palindrome as a literary form in 300BC, and was subsequently thrown into the sea wrapped in lead by King Ptolemy II, for writing rude verse about him. As for scientists of other persuasions, the second minute of the twentieth hour of the twentieth day of the second month of the second year of the third millennium is, to quote John Betts, horologist at the Greenwich Royal Observatory and Maritime Museum - self-styled Home of Time - "really a bit of a non-event." "For horologists like me, I'm afraid mere coincidences of numbers are really not terribly interesting," he says. Those of a more wishful frame of mind could take comfort from Uri Geller who is "sending out a psychic message" at the appointed hour that he says will "make your dreams come true".

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (47828)	2/20/2002 7:31:35 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

A Somber View To a Longer Recession scottburns.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (47828)	2/20/2002 8:49:23 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Andersen floats Enron settlement By James Evans Crain's Chicago Business February 20, 2002 Andersen reportedly is willing to offer a settlement of $260 million to resolve fraud claims included in the class-action lawsuit brought by Enron Corp. shareholders, according to a published news report. Andersen spokesman Patrick Dorton would not confirm or deny the USA Today report, referring instead to a company statement that said, in part: "Reaching out to the groups affected in this case is consistent with our commitment to address the issues raised by Enron's collapse in a straightforward and constructive manner." The statement went on to say, "We think it is in the best interests of all parties to deal expeditiously and responsibly with what has occurred." USA Today Wednesday reported that the settlement figure was suggested during a Feb. 14 conference call between Andersen's attorneys, New York-based Davis Polk & Wardwell and Houston-based Rusty Hardin & Associates, and the plaintiffs' lawyers. During the call, Andersen attorneys expressed concern that the Enron case could put the Big Five firm out of business, sources quoted by USA Today said. According to the news article, Andersen is willing to pay $260 million in corporate insurance, plus an undisclosed amount of company assets. Shareholders could receive another $350 million from liability insurance covering Enron executives and board directors, the report said. Roger Greenberg, a Houston-based plaintiffs' attorney with Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, said the USA Today story was incorrect, but would not comment further.