World Vignettes

Crickets to lay pitch for manCAPE CANAVERAL: Crickets, more than 1,500 of them, will orbit the Earth for the first time ever in a research m...

Crickets to lay pitch for man

CAPE CANAVERAL: Crickets, more than 1,500 of them, will orbit the Earth for the first time ever in a research mission that may make it easier for humans to colonize the moon or travel to mars. The pioneering crickets, along with 18 pregnant mice, 135 snails, 152 rats and 223 fish, are scheduled to take off on Thursday aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Scientists say the mission is the most exhaustive study yet of how the nervous system changes in space is essential information to set up a Moon base or send astronauts to Mars or beyond. The crickets have an external gravity sensor and scientists suspect these gravity sensors will not develop normally in weightlessness, especially among the younger crickets. Once Columbia returns, the crickets will be dissected to see how their bodies changed in weightlessness.

Lennon saga continues

NEW YORK: Sean Lennon believes the US government was behind the slaying of his father, John Lennon. quot;He was a counterculturalrevolutionary, and the government takes that kind of stuff really seriously historically,quot; the 22-year-old said in the latest New Yorker. Mark Chapman is in prison after pleading guilty to shooting the ex-Beatle in front of his Manhattan apartment in 1980. Why would the government want his father dead? quot;He was dangerous to the government. If he had said, bomb the White House tomorrow,8217; there would have been 10,000 people who would have done it,quot; Lennon said. quot;Pacifist revolutionaries are historically killed by the government.quot;

Sinatra well and singing

LOS ANGELES: Unrelenting Frank Sinatra death-bed rumours don8217;t bother the reclusive entertainer quot;who is doing very wellquot; and spending his days with his family, his wife said. quot;I guess he8217;s used to it. You just roll with the punches,quot; Barbara Sinatra said. The 82-year-old Sinatra hasn8217;t been seen in public since a January 1997 heart attack, which led to tabloid reports that he was ill and had been given quot;last ritesquot; by the Catholicchurch.

Healthy talk

WASHINGTON: Health maintenance companies are sending their doctors to communications specialists to learn to communicate with patients better, following complaints that some doctors lack bed-side manners. The Wall Street Journal said already 19,000 doctors have taken courses like those offered by the Bayer Institute for Health Care Communication in West Haven, Connecticut. The consequences of miscommunication or lack of it, it is pointed out, can be serious. At best, patients may take their business elsewhere. At worst, they may file malpractice suits.