SCIENTISTS PLAN EARTH 'CAT-SCAN'.(MAIN)

Byline: San Francisco Examiner

Geologists and astrophysicists have joined in a fantastic scheme to create a 3-D image of the Earth's last frontier -- its scalding, vast and impenetrable interior.

The subterranean imagery might help researchers better understand volcanoes and earthquakes, which are powered by the slow, relentless flow of hot magma beneath Earth's surface.

"It's like CAT-scanning the Earth," said University of California-Berkeley geophysicist Barbara Romanowicz, one of numerous scientists connected with the imaginative scheme. The project was announced Monday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

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Japan tragedy seared into the world's imagination

TOKYO (AP) — There are events in history that sear themselves into the world's collective imagination, and enter the realm where myth meets heartbreaking reality.

Japan's tragedy is one of those events. Already, it seems reasonable to surmise it could prove one of the most significant calamities of our time — one that shapes policies, economies, even philosophies for decades to come in an increasingly interconnected world.

There is the sheer, surreal force of the images emerging from afflicted zones: cars perched on rooftops, ships sitting in rice paddies, helicopters in a David-and-Goliath battle against radiation-spewing nuclear reactors.

And the way it haunts us with …

Bones of Hitler deputy exhumed, burned

BERLIN (AP) — The bones of Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, were exhumed under cover of darkness, burned and secretly scattered at sea, a cemetery administrator in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel said Thursday.

Workers crept in before dawn on Wednesday — the 67th anniversary of a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler's life — to remove Hess' remains from his family's grave, cremate and disperse them, Fabel said.

"The grave is now empty," Fabel said. "The bones are gone," he told The Associated Press.

Hess was captured in 1941 when he parachuted into Scotland saying he wanted to negotiate peace between Britain and Germany.

The attempt was denounced by …

Two for the show

I sent my Heisman ballot to the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche the other day, but I still can look at a copy of it and envision changing each of my three votes.

I can even see adding a player to the mix, Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell, though I don't know which of the current three players I'd remove.

At any rate, Harrell has been officially removed by other voters -- or rather, the lack of their votes -- and wasn't even invited to attend the award ceremony tonight in New York.

Man, talk about a tough race.

Harrell only threw for more yards -- 4,747 -- than anyone in the nation this season. His 11-1 Red Raiders beat then-No. 1 Texas a month ago, …

AUTOMAKERS CAN RAISE MONEY WITH NEW STOCK.(Opinion)

Paul Finnegan's Dec. 4 letter. "Big Three should steer toward future," about the meeting between Congress and auto industry leaders stated that "instead of asking the CEOs if they 'jet pooled' to a meeting in Washington, they should have focused on the real issue." He goes on to say that the real issue is that Congress needs to know how the Big Three are going to reorganize and fix their companies before they get the "free" money from Congress.

The first thing that needs to be looked at is the fact that Congress has no right to take taxpayer money and give it to whomever they want. There's an old document that most people have either forgotten about or decided is …

UALBANY WOMEN'S TEAM ROSTER.(SPORTS)

CHRIS GRAY 10 Soph. Guard 5-6

Gray, who started nine games and averaged 20 minutes per game as a freshman, will vie for even more playing time at point guard this season. She averaged 4.1 ppg and 1.5 apg last season. While the speedy Gray will be a key to the Great Danes' fast break, the coaching staff would like her to play under greater control. KATHRYN HEMLOCK 12 Fr. Guard 5-4

Like her teammate Chris Gray, newcomer Hemlock is a point guard who fits into the up-tempo style that Warner would like to play. She averaged 16.4 points and 5.5 assists last season at Langley High School in Great Valls, Va., where she earned all-Metro honorable mention from the …

Paperwork interferes with occupational therapists' patient assessments.

2004 APR 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A survey of occupational therapists finds that preparing reports consumed much of their time that they could have spent assessing breast cancer patients.

According to a study from England, "Occupational therapists (OTs) working with patients with breast cancer provide a variety of therapeutic interventions. A survey was undertaken to record the different assessments and treatments employed by OTs in a specialist cancer centre with the type and length of interventions recorded on a log sheet by each therapist over a period of a month.

"A significant amount of time was spent facilitating educational programs, teaching …